Through hard work and dedication, Kendal Vickers got the chance to live out a dream shared by countless kids, through a seven-year career playing in the NFL.
The 6-foot-3 defensive tackle carved out a pro career in one of the toughest roles in sports, suiting up for the Las Vegas Raiders from 2020 to 2022 and later taking the field for the Buffalo Bills and the New Orleans Saints.
Now, in his first year as a real estate agent working in Florida and Tennessee, Vickers is starting over, once again chasing success in a game where the competition is fierce and victory is never guaranteed. It’s a challenge he welcomes.
“I just decided I was going to take the same work ethic and the same mentality that I had in football,” Vickers says. “I know I’m going to end up reaping the benefits of my work. I just have to control what I can control, and that’s myself.”
Vickers’ introduction to real estate didn’t come from luxury listings or celebrity pals, but rather from time spent swinging a hammer at a dusty jobsite under the hot Tennessee sun.
As a college player at the University of Tennessee, he would spend his summers working for his uncle, a longtime general contractor and developer who runs the Wright Group in the Knoxville area.
“Every offseason, when I wasn’t doing anything football-related, I’d go work for him,” Vickers recalls. “He had me getting on roofs, working on old windows, doing flips—just a bunch of stuff that, at the time, I didn’t really know what I was doing. I was just working an extra dollar.”
What started as a summer job slowly turned into an education. His uncle walked him through how the business actually works: how projects are financed, what makes a deal profitable, where the risks are. His aunt, who ran the books, helped explain the financial side.
“It was a real family dynamic,” he says. “I thought that was pretty cool, but I didn’t know I wanted to sell real estate until about a year before I retired.”
Planning for life after football
Like many players who get the rare opportunity to go pro, Vickers grew up singularly focused on reaching the NFL.
“I always wanted to go to the NFL, since I was 4 or 5 years old,” he says. “It’s a 1% thing, and you hear that your whole life, that it’s not a real job, or that you’ve got to pick something more realistic … but I just wanted what I wanted, and because of my size and physical attributes, was able to mature into that.”
That single-mindedness carried him through college and into the NFL. But as his career progressed, he started thinking more intentionally about what would come next. Before his final 2024 season with the Saints, Vickers quietly began laying the groundwork for a second act.
“I was just like, ‘Hey, I think I want to get into real estate. I think I want to become an agent,’” he says. “I decided I was going to take a class and see where it got me.”
That decision turned 2024 into one of the busiest years of his life. Mornings were devoted to training and conditioning to stay ready for the season. Afternoons and evenings were spent grinding through real estate coursework.
On top of all that, Vickers and his wife were expecting their first child.
“I’d get up in the morning, train, do everything: lift, get my cardio in. Then when I got home, I’d sit at my computer desk for the next six hours,” he says. “Luckily, I have a great support system who helped me keep everything organized.”
He finished about 60% of his coursework before the 2024 season kicked off, then completed the remainder after the year ended. He earned his Florida real estate license in June 2025, followed by his Tennessee license a few months later.
A new career in a tough market
Vickers launched his real estate career at a tough point in the market, particularly in Florida, where sales have slowed and prices have softened in the past few years.
“People tell me, ‘You picked a hell of a time to get into real estate,’” Vickers says with a laugh.
He shrugs off the concern. “Is there ever really a perfect time? My mindset was, I’m not going to worry about the market. I’m just going to outwork it.”
Vickers signed up with Compass, a brokerage he first connected with through the agent who helped him purchase a home in Tampa while he was playing for the Raiders.
He says the transition has been a smooth one, with plenty of support from the team at Compass.
“They’re very agent-centric as far as the things we need, and they listen to us,” says Vickers. “I’ve heard from a lot of people that there’s not a better one you could pick as your first brokerage.”
Vickers’ first two deals came almost simultaneously: one on the buyer side and one on the seller side.
The buyer-side referral came from a contact in Las Vegas, who connected him with a young couple seeking to buy their first home in Florida.
“To see the look on their face when they bought their home, when they came in for the walkthrough, seeing their son running in the backyard, the smile on the wife’s face,” he recalls. “That was the moment where I was like, ‘Okay, I see why people do this now.’”
The other deal was representing a listing in Tennessee, one of his uncle’s properties that had languished on the market for nearly 300 days. Vickers stepped in, tweaked the strategy, and got it under contract in a matter of weeks.
Vickers’ NFL background has also helped him make new connections in real estate. At one industry event in Tampa, mortgage broker Marcus Duane Anderson, a diehard Raiders fan, recognized him and approached him.
Anderson, the founder of MDA Financing, is now Vickers’ preferred lender.
“He just has a certain level of character that stands out,” says Anderson. “Being in the mortgage business as long as I have, I know a lot of real estate agents, and not all of them have such a good vision, a good heart.”
Early in his real estate career, Vickers says he’s made it a point to handle as much of the process himself as possible to shorten the learning curve.
“I did all the paperwork by myself, because I wanted to learn how to do everything, so I’m taking care of my clients as much as I’m able to,” he says.
Today, his work with his uncle’s firm has expanded beyond one-off listings. The family company is building two subdivisions totaling roughly 200 lots in the Knoxville area, with another subdivision coming soon near Nashville. The homes, all single-family, generally range from about $600,000 to $1.5 million, and Vickers now serves as head of sales on the projects.
Setting the foundation for success
Vickers traces back his approach to work to his upbringing in a military household, with his father serving in the Marines for 21 years.
“I had a certain level of discipline in my home,” he says. “Anybody that grew up in a military family knows what that looks like.”
As a Marine’s son and later as an NFL player, he moved often, an experience that has given him special empathy for clients who are going through a relocation.
“You’ll be on one team one week and gone the next,” he says. “If there’s anybody that knows how to go from one place to another as seamlessly as possible, it’s definitely me. I know how stressful moving can be, and I just try to help alleviate that pressure.”
For younger people considering a career in real estate, Vickers says the field is rewarding but doesn’t sugarcoat the work involved.
“The first year sets the foundation for the rest of your career,” he says. “You’re going to make mistakes. The difference is whether you learn from them.”
He points to the top agents he’s watched at Compass and in his family’s business: “The successful people I know don’t make the same mistake twice. They listen to other agents, to their clients, and they’re always willing to learn. It’s not for the weak. You’re going to have slow months. But persistence and consistency are what set you over the top.”
That perseverance took a kid with a 1% chance of going pro all the way to the NFL. Now it’s driving his success in the real estate game as he launches his second act.
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