Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Tyler Linderbaum, and Catarina Macario have all set new salary records at their respective positions.

These deals will be remembered as salary milestones, though, beyond income, they increase visibility, leverage, and the types of opportunities these athletes can access off the field.

Becoming the highest-paid player at a position brings visibility, and visibility drives brand value. That recognition opens doors for better investment opportunities and more ownership conversations. The contract becomes more than compensation and serves as the platform and the capital that funds everything that comes next.

With that platform, athletes can take equity instead of cash, invest in private deals, join ownership groups, build businesses while still playing, and make existing impacts on their leagues. Trinity Rodman is a recent example: after becoming the highest-paid player in women’s soccer earlier this year, she helped push forward the NWSL’s “High-Impact Player Rule,” which was applied for Macario’s contract.

Athletes are also reaching these financial milestones earlier in their careers, which gives them more time to invest, build businesses, and participate in the sports ecosystem while still playing. The contract is still important, but what athletes do with the credibility that follows is the harder and more interesting question to answer.

By Birju Kadakia, Co-Founder and CEO of Rec Technologies, an AI-driven software platform for community recreation.

When my co-founder and I started Rec a few years ago, we weren’t thinking about cap tables. We were thinking about the first time you step onto a field and feel like you belong. The pickup games in neighborhood parks that build lifelong friendships. And the coaches who saw something in us before we saw it in ourselves. Sports and recreation have a way of shaping identity, discipline and confidence long before anyone talks about equity or exits.

But as we’ve built Rec, we’ve realized that the investors you have around the table shapes the company just as much as your product roadmap. There has to be alignment from the start, and a shared belief in the vision.

The best athlete investors show up the same way they show up to compete. They prepare, study, and ask hard questions. They know greatness is built through repetition and rigor, not just speed and hype.

When they invest, they don’t just write a check. They bring perspective and real-life experience from operating under pressure and scrutiny, along with a commitment to long-term growth. They make introductions, open doors, and lean in when it matters.

We’ve been fortunate to partner with phenomenal athletes who are personally invested in our mission – Larry Fitzgerald, Kelvin Beachum, Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman’s 35V, and Joe Montana’s Liquid 2 Ventures. They grew up on public courts and neighborhood fields, and are each deeply invested in making it easier for more kids and communities to access play.

On the other hand, the wrong investor – athlete or otherwise – treats startups like trading cards. They just want the headline, logo, or photo on the website, but don’t get to know the founders or the product. They don’t ask about the end users. They don’t care about the messy middle of building a company and a culture that lasts.

For me, alignment starts with one question: Do you feel personally aligned to our mission? Is this something you would care about, even if no one knew you invested?

Rec now powers access to sports and recreation for hundreds of thousands of families across more than 25 states. Athletes on our cap table have helped in tangible ways, opening doors and lending credibility.

When someone who competed at the highest level says access to sports changed their life, it reinforces that this isn’t just software – it means someone gets to step onto the field for the first time.

You can tell when someone cares because they go deeper than valuation. They ask to see the product demo and seek to understand how a first-time user discovers a league or instructor. They ask how we support the kid priced out of private leagues. And they want to know how we reduce friction, not just accelerate growth.

The right athletes and investors don’t sit on the sidelines. As a founder, my responsibility is to build a company at scale, and the right partners help make it happen.

Did we deserve a timeout?

What’s up everyone, Noah here. We know agents and lawyers create most of the contracts for athletes. I don’t expect that to change too much even with advances in AI, even though the legal industry is getting re-invented with AI.

However, athletes have been asking more about what goes into an equity/advisory agreement. It’s our responsibility to do a better job of educating.

So we put together a comprehensive breakdown in our equity agreement page. Would love to hear your feedback and hopefully this is a helpful tool that creates ownership and generational wealth.

We used a real example and made annotations on it 👀 will share more soon!

Rec Technologies is an AI-powered software platform that helps cities and communities manage and grow local sports and recreation programs.

Why should athletes care?

Rec Technologies builds the software that helps cities and organizations run sports leagues and recreation programs.

For athletes interested in community initiatives or investing in the future of sports, Rec represents the infrastructure layer that supports how the next generation of athletes gets started.

Athlete investors in Rec include Larry Fitzgerald, Kelvin Beachum, Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman’s 35V, and Joe Montana’s Liquid 2 Ventures, who participated in the company’s $11 million Series A round.