🏆 Cowboys, Raiders, Rams: Building NFL Partnerships at Every Stop

Tyler Potts is the Senior Director of Partnerships for the Los Angeles Rams, where he helps lead the new business sales efforts for the Rams and across Hollywood Park / SoFi Stadium. A Pepperdine grad, he cut his teeth with internships at Fox Sports West, the NCAA Tournament host committee, and the Dallas Cowboys before joining the Cowboys full time. He rose from activation into sales, then as a part of the Legends partnership team helped launch the naming rights and founding partners with the Raiders and Allegiant Stadium. Now in his sixth season with the Rams, he has led the sales efforts for marquee programs like the Zillow Draft House the Rams local media partnerships as well as unique partnerships with brands like Porsche, Sleep Number, Rocket Mortgage, and Hawaii Tourism.

From Malibu to the NFL: Finding the Lane

Growing up in Southern California, Tyler headed to Pepperdine determined to work in sports. He treated internships as his classroom, gaining experience across Fox, the NCAA Tournament, and Cowboys training camp. Back at Pepperdine, he joined USC Sports Properties’ first-year Multi Media Rightholder team as an intern, where hands-on work in prospecting and activations confirmed his passion for partnerships.

Cowboys, Legends, & the Rams

After graduation, Tyler  stepped into the partnerships department at the Dallas Cowboys. He started in activation, and earned the chance to work on renewals with top-tier partners like Nike , Albertsons, Optum, Draftkings, and  American Airlines. Exposure to the sales team and mentors like Jennifer Surgalski and Eric Sudol made clear that pitching, closing, and seeing ideas come to life was where his passion sat.

That passion carried him to Legends, where he joined a small team tasked with standing up the Raiders partnership business in Las Vegas. That team, with the help of many others, built the operation from scratch into a top 5 partnerships revenue department in the NFL anchored by founding-level partnerships, pouring rights, and naming rights deals. “It was truly eye-opening to see the ins and outs of multi-million dollar conversations so early in my career,” he recalls.

When the project wrapped and Allegiant Stadium opened, Tyler jumped at an opportunity to join the Rams, first as a seller and then as a leader. Today, he helps lead the Rams sales team and oversees business across a portfolio that stretches beyond the team to the broader venue.

Key Highlights: Projects That Defined His Path

• The Cowboys Star in Frisco: Tyler was there from the early sketches to the opening day, seeing  the Cowboys’ new headquarters and practice facility come to life. He points to Nike’s activation in the high school locker rooms as a signature example of how the project connected community, brand, and team identity.

• Allegiant Stadium with Legends and the Raiders: Joining a small team in Las Vegas, Tyler and the Legends team helped build the Raiders partnership business from the ground up, growing it into a top tier  operation by opening day. A design build, one example is Microsoft's end zone suites which were born mid-construction after the team sold the concept during the build phase. 

• Unique Partnerships in LA: In Los Angeles, Tyler was a part of the reinvention of how the Rams approach the NFL Draft. From the Rocket Mortgage Draft House to this year’s  Zillow collaboration with LAFD that staged the draft inside an airplane hangar, the organization  has pushed partners to lean in creatively and deliver activations that match the boldness of the Rams brand.

Full-Stack Partnerships: Activation to Sales

The leap from activation to sales is where his approach sharpened. “By getting to see boots on the ground how things work, what assets partners valued,” he says, he learned which pitches actually deliver. He also learned that even on the service side “it’s all a little bit all sales.” You are still persuading, setting expectations, and steering to better solutions. There were stumbles, and he is quick to own them, but that foundation made him a more strategic seller and leader.

Grit, Rapport, and a Competitive Edge

For Tyler, thriving in partnerships comes down to grit, rapport, and competition. Thick skin is vital when most pitches end in no. Building rapport is about creating spaces where ideas and relationships grow. And competing daily matters as much as the wins themselves. A paraphrase of Bill Walsh sits on his desk: “Winners act like winners before they actually win.”

It is the same mindset he applies to his own leadership. Tyler keeps a living deck he calls his playbook, a framework that captures the flywheel of habits he wants his team to embody, and the standard of excellence he believes drives success. “How am I the best version of myself,” he asks, “and how do I make myself and my team better?”