Gridiron G-Funk: How a Hip-Hop Icon Turned Touchdowns into a Side Hustle
In the sprawling tapestry of multi-hyphenate careers, Snoop Dogg’s resume contains—among rapper, actor, entrepreneur, and cannabis connoisseur—the entirely serious and legally documented role of youth football coach. In 2005, Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr., known internationally as Snoop Dogg, founded the Snoop Youth Football League. The program was intended to keep young people off the streets and on the field, although it is unclear whether any of them fully understood that their coach had once performed in a music video inside a giant doghouse-shaped lowrider.
Snoop did not treat this as a vanity project. In fact, he took and passed the necessary coaching certifications. Photographic evidence exists of Snoop in a headset, clipboard in hand, fully immersed in the logistics of zone coverage. The man who once released an album titled “Doggystyle” could be found on Saturday mornings yelling about missed blocks and questionable special teams execution.
Perhaps even more remarkable than his involvement was his level of success. Several alumni of the Snoop Youth Football League have gone on to play NCAA Division I football and even reach the NFL. Notably, the league boasts alumni such as John Ross, the former Washington wide receiver who once held the NFL Combine 40-yard dash record. This suggests that, in some odd causal ripple, Snoop Dogg may have briefly altered the landscape of professional football.
In a 2018 episode of his own reality sports documentary, “Coach Snoop,” viewers were treated to the sight of Snoop in coach-mode: serious, committed, and capable of running a two-minute drill. The series revealed that his coaching tone was far less laid-back than his musical persona. No player was exempt from critique, and it became increasingly difficult to remember this was the same man who once narrated scenes involving anthropomorphic animals in “Hood of Horror.”
It is uncertain how many of the league’s players made the connection between their coach’s plays and his hit single “Drop It Like It’s Hot.” What is certain, however, is that Snoop Dogg’s involvement in American football was not a publicity stunt, but a sustained, sincere, wholly improbable venture that added another layer to his ever-expanding brand. He taught kids how to run drills, how to be disciplined, and possibly how to integrate rap metaphors into post-game interviews. Like all things Snoop, it was both entirely unexpected and somehow perfectly logical.