One of the most interesting media pivots belongs to Andrew “Hawk” Hawkins. Following a college career at Toledo, an appearance on Michael Irvin’s 4th and Long reality show, two CFL seasons with the Montreal Alouettes, and then five-plus seasons in the NFL with the St. Louis Rams, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, and New England Patriots, Hawkins moved into the media world.
But while Hawkins continues to find great success there (including current work for ESPN and Roku and previous work for NFL Network, Uninterrupted, Learfield, and more ESPN), he’s also the co-founder and chief business officer of StatusPRO Ventures. That company (which he co-founded with CEO Troy Jones, who played QB in college for Maryland and Western Kentucky) announced $20 million in Series A funding earlier this year.
That was in a round led by Google Ventures, with further contributions from notable existing investors including LeBron James, Drake, and Maverick Carter. Naomi Osaka, Lamar Jackson, Myles Garrett, and Cameron Jordan are also among the people who have invested with them. And they have several significant virtual reality projects out there, including their Pre Game Prep tool for NFL teams. Most notably for the current moment, they’re behind the NFL PRO ERA VR game that announced a major shift Wednesday.
NFL PRO ERA launched in September 2022 on Meta Quest VR and Playstation VR platforms. It was the first NFL and NFLPA-licensed VR game, featuring Jackson as the cover athlete and with the focus on the experience of playing quarterback in the NFL. A second version came out last year, allowing for head-to-head multiplayer. However, that came with both players as quarterbacks of their respective teams, as Hawkins’ ESPN colleagues Mina Kimes and Adam Schefter demonstrated last year:
NFL experts @minakimes & @AdamSchefter go Head 2 Head in NFL PRO ERA II to settle who knows the QB position best.
Settle it all at https://t.co/mv0Cx3BK45 pic.twitter.com/I6d1WixdA1
— NFL PRO ERA (@nflproera) December 11, 2023
Now, the franchise’s third installment (NFL PRO ERA 2025, available on Meta Quest VR during the 2024 NFL season) will add in the opportunity to play on defense as a linebacker, including in single-player mode (at the launch) and against live opponents (in an update coming this winter). Along with that, they’ll have two cover athletes: Houston Texans’ QB C.J. Stroud and Dallas Cowboys’ LB Micah Parsons (seen above). Here’s more from a release:
Fans can continue to lead their teams as a quarterback and new for this year, can now play linebacker where they can rush the quarterback, record sacks, make tackles and nab interceptions. The 2023 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year with the Houston Texans, quarterback C.J. Stroud will be the featured cover athlete of NFL PRO ERA along with two-time First-Team All-Pro and Dallas Cowboys star, linebacker Micah Parsons.
“It’s an honor to be one of the featured athletes of an incredible game that mirrors playing quarterback in real life,” said Stroud. “I love what the team is doing at StatusPRO and once we started conversing I knew I wanted to be involved with NFL PRO ERA and the vision they have to be the best VR game.”
“I am a huge gamer, especially VR games and football, so being a cover athlete and playing a key role in NFL PRO ERA is an awesome experience,” said Parsons. “Once I talked with the StatusPRO team and they wanted to add defense to the new version of the game, I knew I wanted to work with them and was thrilled when they wanted me as a feature athlete.”
…“We want to provide our loyal fans and gamers with something new and revolutionary in our next version of NFL PRO ERA. By adding defense to the game, we aim to bring something unique to the VR gaming world,” said Victor Lugo, StatusPRO’s new chief product officer. “It was important for users to feel like real leaders of their team on both sides of the ball. Being one of the first VR games to have a realistic defensive experience, we made sure that fans have the true feeling of being the defensive anchor when they are on the field.”
Beyond the addition of a playable defense role, NFL PRO ERA is also shifting their business model to a live service (downloadable content) model. The new version of the game will be available at launch for $19.99 for current players and $39.99 for new players, and that will include full access to free play modes, minigames, updated rosters, and more. But there will be additional content packs released down the road for $4.99 each.
We’ll see how the latest version of NFL PRO ERA and that business model shift works out for StatusPRO. But their game has received a lot of attention and players to date with just a QB experience, and the opportunity to also play a licensed NFL game as a linebacker (and, eventually, to do so against an opponent as QB) certainly sounds compelling. And the success this game and this company has hit to date is remarkable, and it’s particularly remarkable to see a company Hawkins is so involved in finding multi-million dollar funding success while he’s also very busy with his media work for ESPN and Roku. (The man did regularly work in Los Angeles, Bristol, CT, and New York City during the same week in 2019, though, so if anyone can juggle this, he can.)
