Former Penn State, NFL RB hired to help with NIL efforts. Here’s what you should know

Penn State has added a former player to lead the athletic department’s new Brand Academy.

Omar Easy was announced as the assistant athletics director for the Brand Academy on Thursday morning, joining the university after previously working for it as the director of football player development in 2012.

The Brand Academy is a recently launched project by Invent Penn State that is “designed to support student-athletes and others to manage and leverage their personal brand, Name, Image and Likeness (NIL), and support their entrepreneurial interests more successfully.”

Easy is a familiar face for Penn State fans whose path after football brought him into the education field, though his most recent role has not been without controversy.

Here’s what you should know about Easy.

Penn State running back career

Easy played for the Nittany Lions under former head coach Joe Paterno from 1998-2001 and had a role during all four seasons. He began his college career by playing in nine games, running the ball 39 times times for 141 yards and two touchdowns. Easy continued to play over the following three years, totaling 41 games played in his time as a Nittany Lion. He consistently had a role in that time and produced similar numbers each season, following his freshman campaign up with 146, 176 and 196 yards in the ensuing three seasons.

He finished his Penn State career with 659 rushing yards and five rushing touchdowns on 155 carries.

Easy’s NFL career

Following his four seasons as a Nittany Lion, Easy was taken in the fourth round of the 2002 NFL Draft. He was selected as a fullback by the Kansas City Chiefs with the No. 107 overall pick and played in 37 games for the organization from 2002 to 2004. He scored his lone NFL touchdown during his rookie season, catching a 6-yard pass from then-Kansas City quarterback Trent Green to score in a 24-22 win over the San Diego Chargers. He also played in one playoff game for the Chiefs — the team’s 38-31 loss to the Indianapolis Colts and Peyton Manning on Jan. 11, 2004.

Easy finished his Kansas City career with six receptions for 42 yards and that touchdown, while adding 1 yard on four rushing attempts over his three seasons with the team. He then joined the Oakland Raiders for one season before retiring from the NFL.

Working in education

Easy boasts three degrees from Penn State: a Ph.D. in educational leadership, a master’s in education administration and a bachelor’s in broadcast journalism. He also has an MBA from the University of Phoenix.

His most recent job in education, however, led to racism allegations in a Massachusetts town.

Easy served as the first-ever Black superintendent at Wayland Public Schools in Massachusetts for about 18 months — until he was placed on indefinite leave in February 2023 with no public explanation.

According to reporting from Patch.com, Easy faced criticism after an October 2022 meeting where several people accused him of “berating,” “shaming” and “bullying” staff. A month after that, the school committee considered suspending him — but did not — while the October meeting was investigated.

Another month after that, the N-word — and Easy’s first name — appeared scrawled on a building not far from the high school entrance, which triggered anti-racist demonstrations.

Wayland is 80% white and less than 1% Black, based on 2023 government estimates.

Since that time, Easy has filed a discrimination complaint against the district, school committee, town and individuals for “explicitly racist behavior.” A school committee member has resigned over “contradicting ... core values.” And another school official has sued both the school committee and Easy over defamation and a breach of contract.

The Boston Globe summed up the issue thusly, calling Wayland “divided” in a headline: “Easy’s supporters say the town ultimately couldn’t handle his zero-tolerance approach to dealing with racism. His detractors say the problem was Easy’s top-down, abrasive leadership style.”

Before Wayland, Easy mostly worked for his high school alma mater in Everett (Washington state). He was vice principal from 2012-2017, worked for the city for two years and then became executive director of the Academies of Everett for a year.

Centre Daily Times reporter Josh Moyer contributed.