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Sports were Detroit Lions backup quarterback Josh Dobbs’ first love. He started playing baseball at 4 years old, then football a year later. Those passions stuck with him as he got older, but another interest began to take shape.
“When we would travel as a family, I enjoyed going on trips that required us to fly somewhere because I liked going to the airport and seeing airplanes take off and land,” Dobbs shares. “I was fascinated by how these massive tubes of metal are flying across the country.”
Now a 10-year NFL veteran, Dobbs is exploring a future in the other field he’s passionate about: aviation and aerospace.
“I want to build an aviation infrastructure that significantly improves the way athletes travel,” Dobbs tells Entrepreneur. And based on what he’s done so far, the quarterback known as “The Passtronaut” is already well on his way.
Dobbs attended the University of Tennessee, where he threw for more than 7,000 yards, rushed for over 2,000, and accounted for 85 total touchdowns. But unlike some athletes who view college primarily as a stepping stone to the pros, Dobbs wanted to pursue a field he was genuinely passionate about while giving himself options beyond football in case his playing career didn’t work out.
That’s where aerospace engineering came in. “It was the perfect mix of aviation, but also problem-solving, math, and science, which are things I was good at in school,” Dobbs says.
He also ties it back to football, citing the work ethic and processing skills required to succeed in each field (no pun intended).
“In engineering class, they’re giving you a problem, they’re giving you equations, you’ve got to solve them, go through that thought process, apply it, and repeat the process,” Dobbs explains.
“In football, it’s the same thing. A defense will give you various coverages that you have to attack for the game. Throughout the week, you’re generating solutions to the issues that they’re giving you, and you have to go out and execute a game plan.”
He believes the methodical approach to problem-solving required of a quarterback helped prepare him for a career in engineering, and vice versa.
Offseason opportunities
Dobbs’ collegiate performance earned him a spot in the NFL, where the Pittsburgh Steelers selected him in the fourth round. While he was laser-focused on establishing himself as a successful quarterback, making it to the pros didn’t mean putting his passion for aviation and aerospace on the back burner.
“You get to the NFL, and you realize outside of the season how much truly free time you have,” Dobbs shares. “My goal is always to maximize my time and opportunity.”
He didn’t have to look far for an opportunity. During Dobbs’ rookie year, he was introduced to the NFLPA Externship Program, a career-development initiative run by the NFL Players Association’s Player Affairs department. The program connects active and transitioning players with real-world work experience, networking, and mentorship outside of football. One opportunity involved Fanatics, where players traveled to different company sites across the country to get a behind-the-scenes look at the sports merchandising business.
Dobbs was impressed by the experience but wanted to apply the same concept to an industry closer to his own interests.
“I kind of wanted to take that same thought process and get a behind-the-scenes look at how one of the top engineering companies, per se, in the world works,” he says. “And so I had some contacts at NASA and was able to put together an opportunity to do a similar deal with NASA at the Kennedy Space Center.”
Dobbs spent a month at the center, shadowing engineers across different NASA departments to better understand the aerospace industry. At the time, the agency was preparing the Artemis I rocket, an uncrewed test flight designed to lay the groundwork for humanity’s return to the Moon. Dobbs joined the instrumentation group responsible for the rocket’s mobile launcher, getting a hands-on look at how engineers developed and installed the equipment used to monitor the rocket.
His second assignment brought him even closer to the action. Dobbs worked with a team developing a lunar rover designed to mine regolith, or moon dirt. Although the rover has yet to launch, he researched potential commercial rockets that could carry it to the Moon.
“That was pretty unique because I really got to see a mission, a goal, an objective, and how I could fit in and create a solution for them,” Dobbs says.
Small step For Dobbs, giant step for athletes
Beyond the engineering work, he also got an inside look at the business of space exploration, learning how commercial space contracts worked and about companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin. It was Dobbs’ first real exposure to the aerospace industry, and the experience only deepened his interest in the field.
“There’s a lot of emerging opportunities in commercial space,” Dobbs explains, citing tourism, scientific research, and resource storage as a few. “But I would say that experience really drew my interest back to aviation.”
In college, he had interned with Pratt & Whitney, a major aerospace manufacturer specializing in aircraft engines and other propulsion systems. Later, while playing for the San Francisco 49ers, he earned his pilot’s license, choosing the Bay Area as his classroom.
“When I was talking with other people who had gone along the path of getting their pilot license, they said the best place to fly is the Bay Area, San Francisco. It’s beautiful, a lot of air traffic, a lot of nuance. It’s very hectic, but it’s a beautiful place to fly and a great place to learn,” Dobbs says.
After his experience at NASA, Dobbs was more motivated than ever to make his mark on the aviation industry.
“My goal is to create a charter option that improves team travel,” Dobbs shares. “I think the way that sports teams travel is very unique because it’s a logistical challenge. You’re transporting anywhere from 45 to 150 large human beings across the country so they can compete at the highest level. And right now, a lot of those solutions are based on the same commercial solutions that aren’t always adequate for the customers traveling, to say the least.”
Dobbs is uniquely positioned to speak from experience, having played 10 seasons in the NFL, during which he’s flown more than the average person does in their lifetime. He believes there’s a disconnect between how much professional teams invest in player health and how little attention they pay to travel conditions.
“When you’re spending millions of dollars on your athletes, not only from a salary standpoint, but also through investments in food, nutrition, training facilities and technologies that help them rest and recover, and then you’re putting them on a plane with inadequate seating arrangements and seats that don’t fit them, asking them to travel across the country hours before a game, it’s very counterintuitive,” Dobbs explains. “They’re investing a lot in their athletes, but the solution, which really comes down to the aircraft and equipment available to teams, is what’s missing. That’s where I think there’s a great opportunity.”
Dobbs says he’s since gone on a “deep dive” into NFL and collegiate team travel schedules, drawing on his own experience with the 49ers.
“We travel a lot. There aren’t many West Coast games,” he shares of those seasons. “You’re spending a lot of time on planes, and you get off feeling tight before having to compete at the highest level. Then you get back on the plane, prepare for practice and do it all over again the next week.”
He believes investing in better travel technology and accommodations would help athletes arrive rested and ready to compete, ultimately improving the product fans see on the field and court.
“I think we all love the product of sport that we’re seeing, and we want to see it more. But the key is for the athletes to be rested, recovered, and ready to go wherever they are playing,” Dobbs says. “Creating an adequate solution for the collegiate and professional levels would ultimately improve the product that we’re seeing on every field and every court. The key is to make it sustainable.”
Building a legacy beyond the gridiron
As Dobbs develops his own plans for the aviation industry, he’s also focused on getting more young athletes involved in STEM through the Extraordinary Dobbs Foundation. “I’ve been fortunate to have great connections and opportunities to get into the industry, and so my goal is to give back to the next generation of aerospace engineers and student-athletes who also want to pursue STEM careers,” he says.
Last year, the foundation brought seven aerospace engineering students from the University of Tennessee to Kennedy Space Center to witness the Artemis II launch. As the foundation grows, Dobbs hopes to organize more experiences like this with NASA, as well as Cirrus, an American aircraft manufacturer whose planes he used during flight training.
“I’ve crossed paths with a lot of people who have similar interests but don’t know where to start. It’s about giving them that introduction to the industry so they can build long and promising careers in STEM,” he says.
Dobbs hopes to play many more years in the NFL, but when the time comes to hang up his cleats, the veteran quarterback already has a game plan for what comes next.
“I think through the work I’ll do when I finish playing, I’ll create a successful solution that can become a catalyst for growing sports, especially football, around the world,” Dobbs says. “Because if you want to play games in Tokyo and Dubai, you’ve got to be able to get there.”
This story originally appeared on Entrepreneur
