American Football

Notes: What has Zach Zenner been up to?

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Minnesota Vikings v Detroit Lions
Photo by Jorge Lemus/NurPhoto via Getty Images

The former Lions running back is engaged in new careers as an agent and sports nutrition expert.

After a nice career as an undrafted free agent (four seasons with the Lions and then a handful of games with the Cardinals, Dolphins, and Saints in 2019), fan favorite Zach Zenner left the game in 2019 but returned in a different way off the field. Last time we saw him, Zenner was released right before the final preseason game of 2019 near the end of the Matt Patricia-Bob Quinn era. Coming back from a back injury in 2018, his special teams value just wasn’t enough for him to edge out the other reserve running backs.

Matt Zimmer from Sioux Falls Live posted a Q&A column with the former South Dakota State star running back this past Wednesday. While much of the discussion was about South Dakota State University football, there were some nice bits about Zenner’s current pursuits as a professional agent. While Zenner was on the Lions, he’d done a lot of side work in science and health fields as a logical continuation of his Biology studies at SDSU. Instead of pursuing a full medical post-graduate practice, he pivoted to sports nutrition. According to an interview he gave in 2023 to OSDB, his family was a big factor:

“So, about four months after taking the MCAT, I realized that I didn’t want to go to medical school anymore,” Zenner chuckled. “My son was about one and a half at the time, and my wife and I were expecting a second son shortly. I expected to play at least a few more years in the league and then medical school is seven years minimum. I didn’t want to miss the opportunity of watching my children grow up.”

Today, he has a sports nutrition consulting company called Zion Performance which allows Zenner to integrate his background in psychology (a minor at SDSU), medicine, and nutrition (a degree from George Washington University in 2023) for athletes in Minnesota. At the same time, Zenner has been a certified agent with the NFLPA since October 2021. He is a partner at the One West Sports Group with Chris Gittings, who was Zenner’s own agent during his playing days.

From Zimmer’s piece, Zenner said he didn’t like that the fans booed Stafford in Detroit for the playoff game against the Rams, but that he was happy for the Lions’ players and fans.

“Coach (Jim) Caldwell always told us, if you give this city a consistent winner they’re gonna give you the keys. I think you saw that this year. It was a team you could believe in and cheer on, and Ford Field was like a jet engine.”

It’s good to see Zenner doing well in this new chapter of his life in football and we certainly wish him the best.

Now, on to the rest of your weekend notes:

  • In his latest video examining the offseason decisions facing the Lions’ front office, our own Meko Scott considered whether or not the team should bring back Jonah Jackson and Graham Glasgow. Subscribe to Pride of Detroit’s YouTube channel to make sure you never miss out on any of Meko’s great work:

  • All last week, the Lions media folks posted “Top 10 plays” videos to the team’s official YouTube channel for each of the major units: Offense, Defense, and Special Teams. On Friday night, they changed gears a bit and posted a video of the best Trick Plays of the season. These plays were so awesome that even our own flea-flicker curmudgeon deemed the reverse flea-flicker “acceptable,” so take a look.

  • Also posted to the Lions’ official YouTube channel is a nice recap of the teams’ Detroit Black Business Bus Tour. From the intro comments by Detroit Lions Foundation Program Officer Terrance Thomas in the video: “Today we took a group of high school students around the city of Detroit to meet with Black business owners, Black educators to really give them an insight as to what it’s like to become an entrepreneur; to become an executive. As the Detroit Lions, we just want to provide these opportunities for students to access and really see folks in the industry that look like them. So today was all about inspiring.”

  • Aidan Hutchinson and Brian Branch were on The Athletic Football Show with Robert Mays, and you can find the seven-minute video of the interview on YouTube. Lots of fun stuff, but Mays really asked a burning question I really did want to know the answer to:

  • Speaking of Aidan Hutchinson, this compilation of Hutch tormenting PJ Clark from the Lions digital media team on the same pre-game shot throughout the season is hilarious.

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