This week, Touchdown Wire’s Ed Easton Jr. spoke to Super Bowl XLI champion Ben Utecht.
In his interview with Easton Jr., Utecht discussed his work as a mentor at the University of Minnesota, his development of the Shower Sockᵀᴹ, and the lessons he learned from former Indianapolis Colts head coach Tony Dungy.
“When you enter, especially now in college, with what NIL has done and how it’s changed the financial support system for college athletes, now more than ever, your business,” said Utecht. “Your body is your business. The physical wellness of your body is monumental to your sustainability as an athlete in college and a profession, and it’s our job to do whatever we can to care for those athletes and to put them in the best position to be healthy.”
In 2019, Utecht created a Shower Sock prototype alongside University of Minnesota engineering students, leading Medical School clinicians, and the Bakken Medical Device Center industry experts.
“We know, according to multiple platforms, that 20 to 25% of the world’s population at any given time is suffering from bacterial or fungal infection. The National Institute of Health says that 15% of the world’s population suffers from athletes’ foot,” Utecht explained. “The American Academy of Pediatrics says 10 to 15% of college athletes miss performance time due to bacterial or fungal infections. These infections cannot only impact performance because of pain but also can remove you from the game itself, which has a huge impact on the team, the university, or the professional sports organization you’re playing for. So the ultimate goal for sports is to do whatever we can to care for the physical wellness of our players.”
The Colts starter played under Dungy for several years, including the Super XLI season. During this time, he learned about leadership culture and continues to use the teachings in his life after football.
“Tony Dungy was the first to win a Super Bowl, built on servant leadership. He believed that if you build better men, you get better football players,” said Utecht. “The first team meeting we had, he entered the room, quoted his head coach from the Pittsburgh Steelers, and said, ‘Man, if you’re sitting in this room and your entire identity is wrapped up in a sport, you’ve completely missed the purpose of your life.’ Whoa, that’s a different way to start a team meeting in the NFL.”
The Colts finished with a 12–4 regular-season record and earned their first Super Bowl appearance since 1970. Utecht had his best season as a pro, finishing with 37 catches for 377 yards.
“Tony taught me that culture does not have to be subjective; it can be objective. It can be the strategy that guides every decision an organization makes, and it’s all built on the practice of a shared belief system that drives organizational values,” said Utecht. “Do your behaviors reflect what you value based on what you believe? That was a radical experience for me, and I decided to build a career around that. My degree was in public speaking, and the question was, what’s my story? And I said, Gosh, this is my story. I have to tell the world what I experienced on that Super Bowl championship team, so it’s been really exciting.”