Brandon Chubb leads retired NFL and basketball players to tennis

Talks about starting playing tennis

“I started it on a whim because I had a group-chat of people I played tennis with. A lot of them are former players like myself, and I realized, ‘I'm playing all these guys, but they're not playing each other. How can I get us all to play each other?’”

After retiring from football in 2020, Chubb didn’t enjoy golf and had never paid much attention to tennis until he started playing it while in business school in Chicago. He was hooked to the point it became a passion he pursued when he returned to Atlanta.

Among the players who competed on Sunday were former Georgia and Rams standout Alec Ogletree, former Stanford players and Atlanta natives Leigh Torrence, who played for the Falcons, and Greg Taboada and USTA Southern Manager, Integrated Marketing Jonathyn Young.

Athletic talent on show

Their athletic backgrounds were obvious on Sunday. Ogletree sprinted back to hit a lob hit by Chubb. Chubb later raced forward to get his racquet on a drop shot.

The moves felt natural, they said, because they were like football moves they would hone and angles they would pursue.

“Kind of see the footwork before you actually need to take the steps,” Taboada. “Kind of once you see that ball come off of the opponent's racquet, running all the calculations, I feel like, similar to football, when a quarterback would throw, you start adjusting.”

Their experiences getting into tennis were as varied as their shots on a beautiful Sunday on the four courts in the middle of Atlanta.

Ogletree, who retired from the NFL after nine seasons in 2021, started playing tennis during COVID. He and his wife are in several tennis leagues.

“I enjoyed the cardio, the physicalness of it, and just a mental piece to it, and you start meeting people and realize that there's a big community of tennis people around,” he said. “Feel like we can't live without it.”

Taboada started with tennis

Taboada, whose brother Ignacio played tennis at Georgia, grew up playing before gravitating toward basketball and football.

“It's nice to get back out here and just feel it again,” he said.

Torrence, who played in the NFL from 2005-11, got into the sport as a kid, when he played at McGhee Tennis Center for coach William Fulton.

This year, the event evolved into including science, technology, engineering and math activations hosted by Black Kids Predict because Chubb felt that tennis and STEM have the potential to attract new markets. Tennis, like many sports, has plunged into data with the USTA starting USTA Connect.

Chubb picked Central Park for the event because it’s down the street from Ponce City Market, where his business, Do Not Disturb, is located. Do Not Disturb is dedicated to restorative wellness. The park is where he plays tennis when a work break is needed.

Corey Matney and Ellen Li of Premier Racquet Sports helped Chubb host the City Tennis Open for the second consecutive year. They became friends when Chubb found their store last year and approached them with his idea for the first event.

“I'm hoping that it grows two or three times as large next year, to where we actually have more opportunities for people to come out and get free drills, free junior clinics, watch more exhibitions, get entertained by tennis, the former pro athletes,” Matney said.

Part of the philanthropic goals is that proceeds from the event’s silent auction will go toward the Chubb Foundation, an Atlanta-based nonprofit with a mission to help youth in the community reach their potential through STEM and mentorship opportunities.

The friendship goal will be fulfilled, Chubb said, if those who competed against each other for the first time in the event will continue to play each other and bring more new friends to next year’s event.

Chubb’s new friend was Ogletree. They’ve known each other since both were on the Rams, but they had never played tennis against each other until Sunday. Chubb won.

“He was the linebacker in the room that took me under his wing,” Chubb said. “And so now to see us come full circle and both be addicted to this game, it's been a great feeling.”