Eric Mac Lain on Clemson Football, NIL, and His Journey from Player to Analyst

The sports world is obsessed with talent, but what do you do when the NFL dream ends, and the phone doesn't ring on draft day? Former Clemson star and national championship contender Eric McLean faced that exact moment, forcing a massive career pivot from the gridiron to the broadcast booth and successful entrepreneurship. This is the inspiring unfiltered story of how his grid, not just his talent, became the playbook for a thriving second career as a football analyst for ACC Network and ESPN and podcast co-hosts, and why it's the ultimate lesson for your business journey. We went into the game as heavy underdogs, and I remember reading and hearing all the talk about how our offensive line was going to get destroyed. And of course, being an offensive line, you take that very personal.

We dominated. I just knew that going into the game, if I make one mistake, even if I stepped the wrong way, I'm going to get abused by this guy. I'm going to get absolutely ruined. It just made you play so much better. I think that was my best game by far too. This is right about now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network production.

When I got the message to come on this show, I knew I'd made it. First take ESPN, college game day, throw all that to the side. This is where I wanted to be brother. Jacked up to be with you today. Appreciate you having me and excited to jump into a bunch of different things.

But you know, professionally, I just always felt like that was my thing. I was going to do that and thought it'd be the NBA. In high school, I stopped growing this way and started going out and started getting muscle and these type of things. So I was like, yeah, basketball. This might be the end of the road. Varsity basketball might be the top for me. So it was funny. That decision kind of made and then you really hone in. You're on your sport and obviously you know, that's the future. So you give it so much attention and love and dedication. And for me, that was football. So you know, really my junior year of high school is when we started cranking that way up. But I do have to go back a couple of years because I grew up a Tennessee fan, volunteers and evolves listening. That's where I always wanted to go.

Received a scholarship and committed as a ninth grader in high school to Tennessee to play football. It just so happens. Talk about relationships and communicating all these different things in business world that are so applicable. I got a crash course of that as a 15 year old kid because one of the coaches that was on staff to Tennessee that known for a long time got hired by Clemson. His name is Dan Brooks was one of the best defensive line coaches ever. And so after I decommitted, he hits me up and he says, hey, you know, big Mac, it's Dan, it's coach Brooks and I'm at Clemson now. Coach, what's up? This is all I hadn't heard from him. He was very respectful. Did not hit me up until after I decommitted.

And he's like, oh, I'm at Clemson. I'm like Clemson. I legitimately Ryan had no clue what or where Clemson was. He's telling me that he's like, oh, come, come check it out. You know, all these different things. He's like, well, we're in South Carolina. We're in the ACC. And I said, whoa, no, heck no. Like I'm not doing that fast forward a year. He hits me up again. He says, just come by and visit, you know, what you see. So now I'm going into my junior year. We go and see it and we're coming off the highway 85 on 19 B right there. We're seeing the paw prints, the sun settings. You know, it's purple and orange. I'm like, where the heck are we? This is crazy.

This is perfect. This is dream situation. All the other schools that I had been to are in these big cities. Clemson is farmed down. We're passing like this sunflower patch right on perimeter. And we're looking at the Tom Tom, the GPS, whatever. And you know, it says you're a minute away. I'm like, there is nothing. Where is a stadium about to come out of here? And I'm getting goosebumps just talking about it right now. But when you make that turn on perimeter and then death Valley just rips out of those trees, man. Whoa, this is cool. This is nuts. And it's obviously a big stadium. And then I meet Coach Swini when I met a man in the passion, the enthusiasm, the genuine love for his players in the game of football.

This is different from anything I had ever seen before. And it was so infectious, man, that literally in a two day span, I was like, I'll do anything for that guy. I want to play for him right now. It's so comical to me that we think that we have our plan and God kind of has his plan. And I never even knew where this place was, man. And in an instant, I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life there. And it was so powerful just to have that kind of conviction and to know that guy. And the rest is kind of history with that. But it's a wild story. I even got it start at Clemson University because a moment a game or something that when you get asked this question now, it pops to the top.

Obviously that national championship game, losing Alabama just because we've got there. We got to the mountain top. And it was something that I think every little kid dreams about as they're running around playing in their backyard of playing in a national championship, winning it hopefully. And for us just to do what we did at Clemson and to get to that mountain and to change the culture and what we had done the previous years to get there was just special. Something that we always thought was possible. That's why my 2011 class came there and really was building block a lot of those guys. What we were able to do on top of who Alabama was and what they were doing. You're talking about peak dominance. These guys had just been wrecking people, winning all these national championships. And we went into the game as heavy underdogs.

And I remember reading and hearing all the talk about how our offensive line was going to get just destroyed. And of course being an offensive line. You take that very personal. We dominated. I just knew that going into the game, if I make one mistake, even if I step the wrong way, I'm going to get abused by this guy. Like I'm going to get absolutely ruined. It just made you play so much better. I think that was my best game by far too. Just kind of all that on the line there. Just being there in the last one ever was truly amazing. On a more positive note, my other favorite is that Notre Dame game. Pretty personal game for me. That's where my father is from there. He grew up a Golden Domer love Notre Dame. A lot of our family members either love him or hate him that are up there because it's kind of 50-50.

Once I knew they were on the schedule, and it was my senior year, I was like, this is going to be a party. So that one was a lot of fun. And just the way it ended, I mean, a goal line stand. And I've got this really cool picture of just me and my brother. My brother played on the team as well. Walk on wide receiver. Of us just embracing on the field. Just a lot of great memories from that one. Where did we go from there and what got you all the way to today? Have a natty ring. I was on that team just in a different capacity. I did that for about nine months. And then a new venture was coming to Clemson and JMI sports.

I'm not sure if you ever ran across with those guys, but so I sold for them for really like two and a half years or so maybe it was funny at the time. Dan Radikovic called me in his office and just was like, hey, this is happening. We think it would be a really good kind of foundational piece for you. I see knew I wanted to go into college athletics from the administrative route. We think you should take it. It's a sales role, blah, blah, blah. You kind of see a different vantage point that a lot of people don't with these multi media rights. At the time I was maybe and he's like, no, I really think you should do it. So I go and do it kind of hesitantly. And man, that has been one of the biggest blessings of my life because the foundational.

It was basically another grad school, a real life degree where I'm learning how to sell. I'm learning marketing. I'm learning law and contracts and how to just sit and have a meeting. How to set up a meeting with somebody and how to cold call like all these attributes that we teach and coach when you're in school, but have this real life learning for two years and some change has been an unbelievable foundation for me that I still use to this day. I never would have ever thought about taking that route if it wasn't placed in my way there. So I'm forever grateful for that time. I get a call from a guy and an answer say, hey, how you doing? This is so and so from from ESPN. And all I'm thinking is he wants an interview. He wants to talk about the game. Maybe in a former captain playing in a national championship. And I've done a lot of that with various outlets leading up. So I'm like, hey, you know what's up?

And they're like, hey, we're out in California. Are you here? We'd love to meet up talk about the game. And I was like, oh, man, we're in San Francisco. You may be talk to you later. Kind of blow him off next day. Text me, hey, are you at the hotel, which it was our hotel, but I wasn't there. It's like, hey, can you come to the lobby? We'd love to talk again. No, I'm in Carmel. Sorry. See you later. I'm blowing this person off thinking that it's a brighter or thinking it's a TV person, whatever. So then fast forward to Monday, the game, he goes, hey, I know you're going to the game. Can we meet up at the game somewhere? And so now I'm kind of like, this is weird. Why does this person keep texting me? It's so strange. I'm kind of testing them, right? Hey, can you get on the field? Let's meet on the field, seeing if they're really ESPN or not. And they're like, oh, that's perfect. I'm like, okay, maybe this is legit. I text them. They're saying, hey, we're wrapping up TV. I'll come over there in a second. So I'm like, okay, I've Googled this person's name. It's nowhere. Who the heck is this? I called them when they say they're walking over because I don't see anybody who I think I'm looking for. And I see a person answer their phone. He's in like khaki pants, an untucked polo of vest on. They're

like, there is no way this person was just on TV. What is happening? This is so weird. They come over, shake my hand, act like we're best friends, all this stuff. Very personable. And starts asking me all these questions about the game. Like, what do I think is going to happen? And they're not writing anything down. Because again, now I'm thinking they're a writer. They're not on TV. They're a writer, not writing anything down, not recording anything. And I'm getting kind of mad. I want to go tailgate with my family. Then this guy hits me with a very transitional matter of fact, there's going to be some new opportunity coming with ESPN. We would like you to fly you up to Bristol next week and see if you want to be a part

of the team. And bro, I blacked out. I didn't know. I was like, what did you just ask me? Yeah. Like, what are you talking about? And totally, I don't even know what I said. I guess I said yes, because I was on the plane. It was so crazy. Because I was so happy. You know, we're in green, but we're doing our thing and all this stuff, not looking for anything. You know, God just put something in your path, the relationships that I've created, the brothers that I work with. I literally have to pinch myself at time to hope that I'm not about to wake up. It's incredible to be able to do this. What's been maybe the biggest transition? Or surprise in what it takes to be a pro in this arena? What do you feel the most eye opening or something that people realize? How much film you have to watch? When I was a player, I watched one team every week. And that's it. You know, I focused on South Carolina. And I'm going to know everything that they do in this role, especially it's a little bit easier for me because I'm a conference affiliated network. I have to watch all 14 schools each and every week and know what they're doing while they're doing it. And then here's the kicker. If they're playing out of conference, then I have to watch 28 schools.

There's a lot of time, man. If I want to tell you what these teams are doing and what they're going to do or what I think they're going to do, that takes some real effort, but I'll tell you the biggest kind of growing piece for me, time management. I don't have to cram all of this right now at this time for two reasons. Number one, you're going to burn out and you're just going to be exhausted. Number two, things change so much with transfer portal with all these different things to where, hey, if I crammed for the year in July, come September. These guys that I just studied might not even be on the team. So it's all this wasted work. You've got to segment it out and you have to understand the ebbs and flows of the season and the changes that can be had and that balance really started to come into my life and being able to find that going into the third season there.

This is what happens now. If you're an x player, you come to me, whether you're a recruit or a transfer, you come to me as the head coach and say, I need 50 grand to come here. Go find it. That's the principle. The principle to me is I have the right to sell my name. I have the right to go fund when I can chase it, I can sign with an agent, I can get it done. Not, here's my hand, fill it up with money. That's not the thing to me. Now, if you want to go out and sell and have conversations and hold camps and use your social media, that's amazing. But that's not the case, man. And it's baffling to me. I've heard horror stories on both sides from the player that's done all this stuff with their social media and hasn't gotten paid and also from the companies that have paid these players up front.

And when it comes time for content, or it comes times to activation, players know where to be found. It's a tough spot right now. Obviously, the haves and have knots are just even furthering away from each other. I hope that we can get some type of federal help here just to play everybody to play by the same rules. That's all I want. That's all I think that's fair for everybody. Well said, it's complicated, but I don't think it has to be the wall, draw rest and complicated as it is. I think it could be simplified. Hopefully we get there.