For Elena Schwegman '25, the path to a career in the National Football League didn’t begin on the field — but it has always been about the game.
A graduate student in the Master of Accounting program at Rice Business, Schwegman is combining her academic training, athletic experience, and professional internships to pursue a future in NFL football administration, with a focus on player contracts and salary cap management.
“I always wanted to play football growing up,” Schwegman said. “When I realized that wasn’t going to be my path, I started looking for other ways to be part of the game.”
Originally from the Detroit area, Schwegman came to Rice as an undergraduate to study sport management and finance. From her first year on campus, she began building experience across the football landscape, working with Rice Football and gaining additional opportunities with the University of Houston, the Houston Texans, the Detroit Lions, and the NFL league office.
Her time at the NFL helped clarify her career goals.
“That’s where I discovered salary cap management,” Schwegman said. “It’s like a puzzle — you’re working within a set of rules, trying to structure contracts and build a team in the most strategic way possible.”
To strengthen that skill set, Schwegman chose to remain at Rice for a fifth year to pursue her master’s degree. While many students in the program go on to careers in public accounting or investment banking, she saw a direct connection between accounting and football operations.
“The language of accounting is everywhere in player contracts,” she said. “Understanding how money is structured, how it’s spread out over time — those are the same concepts teams use when building a roster.”
Her decision to stay was shaped not only by academics, but also by athletics.
After stepping away from competitive sports following high school, Schwegman walked on to the Rice track and field team as a javelin thrower during her junior year — despite never having competed in the event before. What began as a new challenge quickly became a defining part of her Rice experience.
“I wasn’t ready for that to be over,” she said. “Being part of a team again and pushing myself in a completely new way meant a lot to me.”
Now competing at a higher level in her final season, Schwegman credits the additional year at Rice with giving her time to grow both on and off the field. It also opened the door to new professional opportunities, including participation in the NFL Women’s Forum, where she connected with league executives and team leadership.
“That experience expanded my network in a way I wouldn’t have had otherwise,” she said.
Schwegman said Rice’s interdisciplinary environment made it possible to pursue both her academic and career goals while continuing to compete as a student-athlete.
“At Rice, I’ve been able to take everything I’m interested in — sports, business, strategy — and bring it together,” she said.
Looking ahead, Schwegman hopes to work in football administration for an NFL team, with long-term aspirations of leadership roles within an organization.
“There’s never been a female general manager in the NFL,” she said. “That’s something I think about. Why not?”
As she prepares to graduate this spring, Schwegman reflects on a journey shaped by opportunity, persistence and a willingness to take an unconventional path.
“I didn’t know exactly what this would look like when I started,” she said. “But Rice gave me the chance to figure it out — and to build something that’s uniquely my own.”