Winning a football game depends on team dynamics, mutual respect, and positive communication. This same collaboration on the turf can also be transferred to the team settings of restaurant franchising.
Cam Jordan has played defensive end for the NFL’s New Orleans Saints since 2011. He’s an eight-time Pro Bowler and is the team’s all-time sack leader. Even still, Jordan has found time to explore other career paths.
While he appeared in a commercial for Little Caesars more than a year ago, Jordan took the leap to franchising for the brand in August. “Being able to partner with a guy like [Little Caesars franchisee] Andrew Feghali and being able to have a connection with Little Caesars doesn’t feel like a restaurant business,” Jordan says.
Rather, Little Caesars holds a place in his heart as one of his go-to eateries when he was younger.
After getting out of high school, Jordan recounts, “I literally would walk towards Little Caesars across the street from Chandler High … get a couple slices, a drink, some Crazy Bread for like 4 or 5 bucks. And in high school, that’s clutch!”
Jordan operates eight locations in the Indianapolis metropolitan area. However, with the 2024 NFL season still underway, Feghali (who has over 75 Little Caesars franchises himself) has helped Jordan’s entry into the restaurant business. “Every rookie needs a vet! Someone to show you the ropes,” Jordan says.
As a current player, Jordan attests that he is very hands-off with his franchises during the NFL season. True franchise success, he believes, is through developing trust with Feghali and his team.
His favorite Little Caesars offering is the new Crazy Puffs. “They get addicting! I have to save them for the offseason,” Jordan says. Arguably the only ones more excited than him about this partnership are his four kids, who he says are often treated with Little Caesars for dinner (with a side of steamed broccoli, he adds).
Although he is now retired from the NFL, Vernon Davis spent 14 years playing football in San Francisco, Denver, and his native Washington D.C. He retired from the league in 2020, but he began operating Jamba franchises in 2013.
“For me, it was all about doing the things right now that you can see yourself doing in the future,” Davis says. “When you have access to capital, then I think it is very important to learn how to utilize those assets and do something with them.”
His three Jamba locations are in the Bay Area, where he played from 2006 to 2015. Upon his trade to the Denver Broncos, Davis kept his units, but his ownership team was instrumental in helping him operate the locations: “When you have people in your space that are as smart or smarter than you, you become a genius, and that’s the way,” he says. “I have different people in place who are pretty much experts in that space, and they’re able to help me grow, and I reach my goals.”
While he was in the NFL, Davis was the franchise owner of up to seven Jamba locations at once. Upon retiring, he downsized his footprint and spread his wisdom to other restaurants.
COVID hit only a month after Davis announced his retirement from the NFL, but he continued to build his restaurant portfolio. Big Tony’s, The Cove, and RASA are all based around the DMV. He has also invested in Gaia, a D.C. restaurant slated to open in January.
Besides taking out time for NFL- and food-related press, Davis is also developing his acting career, having recently starred alongside Giancarlo Esposito and Morgan Freeman in his most recent roles. On a day-to-day basis, Davis has a packed schedule. But he stays up to date on each franchise or restaurant through weekly remote Zoom calls.
Davis sees himself as the “head coach” of his ownership team, noting that his leadership style stems from his football career. “A lot of the leadership that I learned while playing football, I also learned that I was able to carry that over into the world of business, acting, whatever it is because it’s simple. It’s all on how you deal with people and how you treat people.”
Anthony Cioffi is also a former professional football player, having spent time in America’s United Football League as well as the Canadian Football League. While at Rutgers University in southern New Jersey, Cioffi was a standout cornerback. His uncle Joey says Anthony was “one of the best defensive backs that came out of there.”
Having worked in his own father’s deli since age 12, Joey opened Salad House in 2011 after his wife and young family yearned for a chain that offered healthier food even picky eaters would enjoy. At present, Salad House operates 19 locations across New Jersey.
Anthony “identified Salad House in New Brunswick as being an opportunity as the brand was growing,” Joey says. The location opened in April and is already a community hit for clean eats on a college student budget.
“Just being able to have different people in your corner to help you do things is very beneficial in the business world,” Anthony says. “I’m learning a lot in that aspect, basically leaning on people that have helped us in the past.”
Anthony says the time management and organizational skills he learned while working as a full-time student and full-time football player for Rutgers are extremely important as he delves deeper into the family restaurant business.
For the past 13 years, Salad House has been a full family effort. Anthony likens the business to football, saying teamwork and organization keep everyone on the same page. Anthony says his daily roles at Salad House “[are] not really work because it’s family. We take care of each other, and that’s the best part about it.”
