Hi, I am Cynthia Zordich. I am a writer for NFL Player Engagement. A photographer. The co-author of When The Clock Runs Out – a book about transition after football. Founder of NFL THREAD.
Clock was a survival project that I embarked on the season before my husband was “thrown out of the league.” We’re not aloud to say retired because, “retirement is a choice.”
My husband Michael was an NFL safety for 12 years. He is now a defensive backs coach at the University of Michigan. My oldest son, Michael played fullback at Penn State and for the Carolina Panthers. My younger son, Alex was a D-1 QB at the University at Buffalo. I also have a sidekick– my daughter, Aidan. She is an assistant at Funny or Die. For her college essay, Aidan wrote this about our family and I thought it was so funny …
“Typically, I am asked about my family first. My father was an All-American at Penn State who played in the NFL for 12 years and now coaches. My brothers are both D-1 athletes. Michael is a LB/FB and Alex is a QB. There is a lot of football talk to get through before anyone gets to me. When they do, when they ask how I am, what I do, I tell them I’m a cheerleader– just like my mother. It’s a nice little package. Sometimes, as a family, we laugh at the implication. I am sure that any outsider would imagine that we sit around the dinner table discussing strategy, perfecting acceleration, eating raw meat, doing herkies after dessert.”
Through all my time around the game I have been passionate about the players and families “behind the cage.” That is the name of my company – Behind the Cage – an expression my husband’s teammate Ron Wolfley used to say before games– “Time to get behind the cage, Z.”
If you know me, you know that I am also passionate about uplifting women.
After years of being frustrated to find that there were so many talented NFL women doing amazing things, so many NFL women organizations, NFL resources and initiatives going on in every NFL city– with no easy way to search, connect and categorize them all – I created NFLTHREAD.NET. THREAD is a private, secure platform for NFL women.
If I could say one thing about the platform – it is that, like me, it does not compete. THREAD is merely the connection, the recruiting tool, the phone book, the resource guide, the LinkedIn– for us.
THREAD is not designed to replace existing (outstanding) organizations like Off The Field Players Wives Association, for instance. But it will let you know what great things OTF is doing. And it will recruit new members to OTF.
It cannot replace Facebook where many private and public groups exist for connection and sincere communication. The Facebook groups are like coming home and sitting around the kitchen table with your sisters. THREAD is like google maps – it finds the fastest route to get you there.
I want to be at a place where my platform leads every NFL woman to the groups or friends or initiatives that fit them best. To make them better- stronger. To grow their businesses, to network their talents.
All it takes is signing up – for free – to get into the database. From there members can promote their businesses, non-profits, sell their products, link their blogs, add their events to the calendar.
There is nothing to lose – nothing to abandon. THREAD is simply a tool to help NFL women GROW!!
Right now we are building the THREAD mobile app powered by Touch by Alyssa Milano. Getting NFL news, info and connections right at the fingertips of all NFL women is so exciting!! I can’t wait.
THREAD also recruits for the NFL/Touch Super Bowl Flag Football Game. This is an event that is definitely going to grow! The girls are serious and seriously good. To register- they just have to sign up for nflthread.net/join the Touch Flag Football group for updated news.
To learn more about NFL THREAD, check out the video below. To sign up, click here! Vetting takes about 24 hours.
