Juggling a college football career and law school is all in a day’s work for Villanova’s Chandon Pierre

Chandon Pierre’s daily routine seems never-ending. Then the Villanova defensive end reminds you this is just in the offseason — the fall is tougher.

What does fall look like exactly? How about a schedule kicked off by a 5 a.m. alarm, followed by team breakfast. A team meeting is next, followed by one for just the defense, then followed by one for only defensive linemen, and then film. Practice starts after that, and 15 minutes before it ends, Pierre is whisked away by an assistant coach in a golf cart.

That’s just football. Here’s where the hard part begins.

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Pierre, a graduate student with another season of eligibility remaining, appeared in all 13 of Villanova’s games and finished third among Wildcats defensive linemen with 22 total tackles, including two sacks. He also recently completed his second year of law school, focusing on sports law.

It takes a special person to play Division I football. To balance it with pursuing a law degree? That takes brilliance.

“A lot of people tell me I should be proud of myself, [and] I am proud of myself for doing it,” Pierre said. “But I’ve had just an enormous amount of help from everybody around me. It’s definitely not something I could have done on my own, by any means.”

He’s one of few law students playing college sports, and even fewer who play football. August Pitre, a wide receiver at Southern, just finished his first year of law school. They may be the only two.

Daily grind

After practices in the fall, Pierre would take three 1½- to 2-hour classes, stopping for lunch or an occasional afternoon lift. He’d go home around 8 p.m., then he’d finish mountains of course reading and case files for the next day’s classes.

“Sometimes it’s good to put the books down and go relax,” Pierre said.

For some, that would be video games or a walk. For Pierre, it’s time in the weight room.

The cycle would repeat daily, the only difference being if Villanova played at home or away. A home game allowed him more time to get ahead on reading. If the Wildcats were away, Pierre would study on the bus or plane.

Both law school and football essentially are full-time jobs, but he found ways to balance the two. Apart from those final 15 minutes of practice that conflicted with class, he did not have to sacrifice one to pursue the other.

“I see him dressed up in a suit sometimes because there’s something they have going on over at the law school,” Villanova coach Mark Ferrante said. “I’m sure it’s not an easy task for anyone, just to go through law school without having to balance a varsity sport. … We are super impressed with his commitment, work ethic, time management skills, and everything else that would be required to be able to do what he’s doing.”

Pierre is quick to thank others, including Ferrante, for making it possible. A law school schedule is difficult enough to balance without football, and Pierre consistently credits the village that made it possible. For example, when Villanova advanced to the FCS quarterfinals, its matchup with South Dakota State conflicted with Pierre’s finals. The law school staff let Pierre stay for the practice ahead of the game, and when it finished, Pierre started the exam just slightly late.

Pierre, a native of Reno, Nev., was motivated to play college football because he loves the sport and wanted to get his education paid for. His parents, a Haitian father and a Czech mother, worked multiple jobs to support Pierre and his sister. His father worked as a casino dealer but recently received his real estate license. His mother performed in off-Broadway theatrical shows and added bartending shifts, and now is a chef at the University of Nevada-Reno. They taught their son the importance of hard work and, more importantly, to be willing to give difficult things — like simultaneously playing football and going to law school — a try.

The lineman started thinking about law in high school. He grew interested in “everything that happens behind the curtains” in sports, like contracts, compliance issues, commissioner responsibilities, and more, and realized that law school was the way to pursue it. Still, he mainly saw it as a backup plan to his professional football aspirations.

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He played his first three years of college football at North Dakota, where he was part of the university’s “3+3″ program. Students earn an undergraduate and law degree in six years, taking classes that count for both the final year of undergrad and the first year of law school in their fourth year. Pierre focused on academics that year and redshirted, graduated with honors, and then entered the transfer portal looking for somewhere he could major in sports law.

He had two seasons of eligibility remaining. Any thoughts of quitting football to focus on law faded away.

Schedules mesh

A couple of Google searches showed that Villanova was one of few programs that had football and a sports law program. However, no one at Villanova had done both. Pierre met with Villanova’s coaches and administrators from the law school and found that it could work: The team practiced in the morning, while most of his classes would be in the afternoon. Soon, Pierre found it was a perfect fit.

Andrew Brandt, the head of Villanova’s sports law program, added to that fit. Before leading Villanova’s sports law program, he had extensive football experience, including nine years as a vice president with the Green Bay Packers. Pierre has taken both of Brandt’s classes this year, and, when it comes to Pierre, the professor says, “We just speak the same language.”

“He’s really not only been a good student, but has contributed and shared in ways that really enrich the class,” said Brandt, who referenced concussions, steroids, and athlete psychology as examples. “I’ve really admired and appreciated his candor, as have other students.”

The two will work closely next year. Brandt recently selected Pierre from a pool of interviewees to be one of his fellows, a group of seven students who will work with him to produce The Brandt Report, an in-depth paper on a subject from a sports law perspective. Topics recently have included sports betting, NIL, athlete activism, and COVID-19′s impact on sports.

Pierre isn’t fully sure what he wants to do after law school and the bar exam. He’ll be completing two externships, a Villanova law requirement, over the next year to help him decide. However, one thought is possibly becoming a college sports commissioner. If that happens, he has the full support of his coach.

“I think he’d probably do pretty good at whatever he decides, to be honest,” Ferrante said. “… Whatever he does become would not shock me.”