Former Carolina Panthers running back Tim Biakabutuka finds home in business world
MATTHEWS, N.C. (BVM) — For many football players, finding a way into the NFL is filled with challenges. Further still, finding success after football presents a whole new set of obstacles.
For Tim Biakabutuka, the journey to the NFL was harder than most. The African-born running back moved to Montreal when he was 6 years old. The move to Canada was when Biakabutuka had his first introduction to football.
His P.E. teacher had decided to create a football team and asked Biakabutuka to be a part of it. Initially, he thought his teacher was asking him to play soccer. However, when he learned it was American football, he was uninterested.
“You mean that sport where everyone runs into each other? I don’t think I want to do that,” Biakabutuka said.
After some convincing however, Biakabutuka’s football journey began. It started with Biakabutuka playing safety and his aggression led to his early success with the sport.
Later in his high school football career, he switched to playing running back which eventually led him to college football. In Canada, students are required to go to junior college first. This was the point where Biakabutuka began thinking about furthering his football career.
“At first, I didn’t think about the NFL, but in junior college I asked my coach if I could play in the states,” Biakabutuka said.
As his junior college team began going to different camps that American colleges would hold, he began to garner some attention. With his performance at the University of Michigan’s camp, Biakabutuka earned a scholarship to the Big Ten school.
After his time at Michigan, Biakabutuka was drafted with the No. 8 overall pick to the Carolina Panthers in 1996 where he would spend the entirety of his career until 2001. In his career, Biakabutuka became the first running back to record two touchdown runs of 60-plus yards in a single game.
Making it to the NFL by way of Africa and Canada is almost implausible. After accomplishing something like that, one would think that challenges were a thing of the past. Unfortunately for Biakabutuka that was not the case.
An injury in 2001 forced Biakabutuka’s football journey to end abruptly, but not his success. Injuries are unfair but inescapable, especially in a game where, as Tim puts it, everyone is running into each other.
For many, facing injuries can derail careers, football or otherwise. Biakabutuka took on the obstacles his injury presented the same way all other obstacles he had already faced. Biakabutuka now had to transition out of the NFL.
When asked about his transition from the NFL to the business world he said, “Every athlete thinks he can be a businessman.”
While every athlete thinks they can have success in the business world, Biakabutuka proved that he had the acumen to succeed as a business owner. He began with real estate and from there moved on to owning a jewelry store.
“Owning a jewelry store became quite challenging, so I started looking for other options,” the former athlete admitted.
Biakabutuka said that he reached out to former Carolina Panthers Owner Jerry Richardson and asked about the possibility joining a staple of North Carolina: Bojangles restaurants. Biakabutuka shared that Richardson encouraged the idea and thought that he would be successful in this new endeavor.
So, the former running back bought his first Bojangles franchise in 2008 and over the last 12 years has expanded to owning eight Bojangles franchises. From the No. 8 overall pick, to owing eight Bojangles franchises, the number bookends Biakabutuka’s career.
Biakabutuka remained consistent throughout his career, both in the NFL and in the business world. Whether it was moving to different countries to finding success after an abrupt end to his football career, Biakabutuka found a way to overcome.
