“I want to be a sports agent like Jerry Maguire,” a teenage Brittany Gilman declared in her high school magazine interview. Then forgot about it entirely. Like a Super Bowl-winning play called in the huddle but buried under decades of grind, that dream resurfaced years later. Picture a young athlete from Colorado, carving slopes like Joe Montana carving defenses. Only to pivot into a world where grit meets glitz. Now, in an Exclusive EssentiallySports interview—your front-row ticket to the untold grind behind jersey numbers and billion-dollar deals—Andrew Whitelaw uncovers Brittany Gilman‘s journey as an NFL agent.

“One of the first female strength and conditioning coaches in the NFL—that’s a hell of a milestone—and what was that like for you? And that must have served you pretty well in what you’re doing and building connections and understanding the athletes, right?” We asked Brittany. She candidly pulled back the curtain on how her time under Pete Carroll at USC became the crucible for her rise as a powerhouse NFL agent…

“They did not treat me very well. Probably the way that I was treated, present day, [it] would not be okay. But I wouldn’t trade it for the world,” Gilman said while recalling her 2005–06 stint as a strength coach for Pete Carroll’s USC Trojans.

Back then, USC football was LA’s closest thing to the NFL, and Brittany was one of two women in a testosterone-fueled weight room. “At the time, USC was the equivalent of a professional team because there were no professional teams, NFL teams in LA… So that was my initiation year working in American football,” she told us. It was probably like running gauntlets on third-and-long every day. However, that baptism by fire taught her the unspoken rules of football’s trenches…

Lessons She’d later deploy negotiating contracts for stars like Ezekiel Elliott and Kamaru Usman. Carroll’s Trojans were chasing a three-peat national title, and Gilman’s role was no sideline gig. She trained future NFL legends like Reggie Bush and Clay Matthews, mastering the art of pushing athletes beyond their limits.

“I learned a lot of lessons, and it definitely shaped me and molded me and got me prepared for the competitiveness. And the toughness you need to have being in football in a still very male-dominated industry. Even though there’s a lot more women that work in the industry these days, It’s still male-dominated, and you don’t see it as much. But it’s really still interesting being a female,” Gilman told us on the Exclusive EssentiallySports interview. That fluency became her secret weapon in an industry where trust is harder to earn than a fourth-down conversion.

Before USC, Gilman was a sponsored snowboarder competing in halfpipe events—a rebel trading ski poles for aerial tricks. But a boot-related injury forced her off the mountain and into the weight room. She pivoted like a QB avoiding a sack. That athletic adaptability? It’s why BG Sports Enterprises, her agency, now bridges NFL talent with global brands. Athletes respect someone who’s lived the grind. And Gilman seems to have eaten enough peanut M&M’s mid-slope to push through mental blocks. Besides, the same focus applies in boardrooms.

“I was a collegiate strength conditioning coach, but in college my goal was to be the first female strength conditioning coach in the NFL. So I worked at USC football under Coach Pete Caroll, who is now the head coach of the Raiders,“ she told Andrew. Pete Carroll’s “Always Compete” mantra stuck.

When a sports marketing internship fell flat, Gilman channeled Carroll’s relentless energy to launch BG Sports in 2007. Besides, USC taught her to own the chaos. Her playbook? Blend athlete empathy with boardroom savvy. Clients like Olivier Giroud and DK Metcalf aren’t just contracts—they’re partnerships forged in the same fire she faced at USC.

The Brittany Gilman blueprint: grit, gridiron, and global success

1. Embrace the grind

Gilman’s USC days were less Remember the Titans and more Survivor. She got hazed, but it thickened her skin. That resilience now fuels her advocacy for women in sports. “The way my life has progressed and manifested everything, it kind of came full circle,” she told us.

2. Trust the process

Her snowboarding days taught her to visualize the trick before dropping in. Now, that pushes her to anticipate every clause, every negotiation curveball. Because preparation isn’t optional—it’s the game.

3. Know your worth

“Probably about 5 years ago I was going through old newspaper articles… and I came across an interview in our high school magazine that was interviewing me as an athlete. And it said, ‘Oh, what do you want to be when you grow up?'” Gilman told us in the EssentiallySports Exclusive interview. “I literally said, ‘I want to be a sports agent like Jerry Maguire.'” Gilman knew her worth…

Fear breeds ego. It’s important to stay humble, but one should perhaps never undersell. It’s a lesson Gilman hammered home, securing Ezekiel Elliott’s early endorsements, proving small agencies can swing like heavyweights. From NFL combine drills to Zoom negotiations, Gilman’s agility mirrors Pete Carroll’s defensive schemes. As they say, “Change is the only constant. Evolve or get left in the turf.” But Brittany Gilman’s story isn’t just about breaking barriers.

It’s about rewriting the playbook. Her agency, now a global force, stands as proof that grit outlasts glamour. In the words of The Natural’s Roy Hobbs, “Pick me out a winner, Bobby.” Gilman already did—and she’s just getting started.