NEW YORK - Duquesne all-conference selections Brendan Thompson (Germantown, Md. / Northwest / Millersville) and Gabe Spurlock (Mars, Pa. / Mars) represented the Dukes at the National Football League + Northeast Conference Student-Athlete Experienceship hosted at the NFL headquarters on Thursday in Manhattan. 

The event provided an opportunity for selected NEC student-athletes to visit the NFL offices to participate in the professional development experience, learning about the multi-faceted business that is the NFL first-hand from league executives. 

Following an introduction by event organizer Roman Oben, Vice President of Football Operations for the NFL, the student-athletes engaged in presentations regarding numerous topics including: 

• Management Council (NFL salary cap & Collective Bargaining Agreement)
• Sponsorship (NFL's oversight and manage of partnerships with multiple brands, clients, and agencies)
• Consumer Products (Retail marketing and business development strategies for various NFL licensees)
• Media Sales (NFL Corporate partners, advertising agencies, and marketer's facilitation of successful TV and digital media campaigns)

The day then concluded with a roundtable discussion with various football operations staff members with backgrounds in game operations, stategy and business development in addition to player engagement. 

A second team All-NEC honoree at linebacker, Thompson paced the Dukes with 75 tackles with a team-high 46 solo stops in 2019, matching a team high with 9.0 tackles for loss. He ranked second in the NEC with a trio of forced fumbles on the season. 

Spurlock also earned second team All-NEC accolades in 2019 and served as a captain during his senior campaign. The Mars, Pa. native started the last 30 games of his career at center for Duquesne, helping pave the way for 13 individual 100-yard rushing performances over the last two seasons.