{{Short description|American sports executive (born c. 1992–1993)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}} {{Infobox NFL biography | name = Brandon Sosna | image = Brandon Sosna 2.jpg | alt = | caption = Sosna with the Washington Commanders in 2025 | current_team = Washington Commanders | position = Senior vice president of football operations | birth_date = {{birth based on age as of date|31|2024|May|19}} | birth_place = Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S. | high_school = Sycamore (Cincinnati) | college = Penn (2011–2015) | pastexecutive = * Cincinnati Bearcats (2015–2016) ** Director of strategic relations ** Associate director of marketing * Cincinnati Bearcats (2016–2017) ** Chief of staff * Cleveland Browns ({{NFL Year|2017}}) ** Football administration assistant * Cleveland Browns ({{NFL Year|2018}}) ** Salary cap and contract analyst * Cincinnati Bearcats (2019) ** Chief revenue officer ** Senior associate athletic director * USC Trojans (2020–2022) ** Chief of staff ** Executive senior associate athletic director * Detroit Lions ({{NFL Year|2022|2023}}) ** Senior director of football administration * Washington Commanders ({{NFL Year|2024|present}}) ** Senior vice president of football operations }} '''Brandon Sosna''' (born {{circa|1992–1993}}) is an American sports administrator and executive who is the senior vice president of football operations for the Washington Commanders of the National Football League (NFL). Sosna leads contract negotiations for the team and oversees the analytics and health departments. He has also worked as a chief of staff and assistant athletic director for the NCAA's Cincinnati Bearcats and USC Trojans and as an administrator for the NFL's Cleveland Browns and Detroit Lions.
==Early life== Sosna was born {{circa|1992–1993}} in Cincinnati, Ohio. He attended Sycamore High School, where he coached students in a school-wide basketball league formed by himself.<ref name="Athletic">{{cite web |last1=Morales |first1=Antonio |title=The breakneck rise of Brandon Sosna, USC's 27-year-old chief of staff |url=https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/1813612/2020/05/14/brandon-sosna-usc-chief-of-staff-mike-bohn/ |website=The Athletic |access-date=June 24, 2024 |date=May 14, 2020|url-access=subscription}}</ref> During his summer vacations, Sosna worked as volunteer coach at Cincinnati Bearcats basketball camps.<ref name="Athletic"/> He enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania School of Arts and Sciences in 2011 and graduated with a bachelor's degree in political science in 2015.<ref name="Athletic"/>
==Career== Shortly after graduation, Sosna was hired in the marketing department of the Cincinnati Bearcats athletic program.<ref name="Athletic"/> He was promoted to chief of staff in 2016 at the age of 23.<ref name="Athletic"/> The following year, he joined the NFL's Cleveland Browns as an assistant in football administration after being interested working with Browns executives Sashi Brown and Paul DePodesta.<ref name="Athletic"/> There, Sosna assisted in managing the salary cap, negotiating contracts, and developing free agent evaluations.<ref name="Athletic"/> He was rehired by the Bearcats as chief revenue officer and senior associate athletic director in February 2019, overseeing ticket sales, media relations, and marketing under athletic director Mike Bohn.<ref name="CROBearcats">{{cite web |title=Brandon Sosna Named Chief Revenue Officer |url=https://gobearcats.com/news/2019/2/5/general-brandon-sosna-named-chief-revenue-officer |website=gobearcats.com |access-date=June 24, 2024 |date=February 5, 2019}}</ref><ref name="Forbes30">{{cite web |last1=Mitchell |first1=Madeline |title=Former UC chief revenue officer named to Forbes 30 under 30 list for sports |url=https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2019/12/21/former-uc-chief-revenue-officer-named-forbes-30-under-30-list-sports/2721105001/ |website=The Cincinnati Enquirer |access-date=July 16, 2024 |date=December 21, 2019}}</ref>
Sosna followed Bohn to the USC Trojans in December 2019 and worked as their chief of staff and executive senior associate athletic director focusing on their football program,<ref name="Athletic"/> where he was considered key in the hiring of head coach Lincoln Riley in 2021.<ref name="USC">{{cite web |last1=Kartje |first1=Ryan |title=Brandon Sosna, instrumental in Lincoln Riley hiring, leaving USC for Detroit Lions |url=https://www.latimes.com/sports/usc/story/2022-06-09/brandon-sosna-usc-detroit-lions-lincoln-riley |website=Los Angeles Times |access-date=July 16, 2024 |date=June 9, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Zemek |first1=Matt |title=Brandon Sosna's legacy at USC can be summed up in two words: Lincoln Riley |url=https://trojanswire.usatoday.com/2022/06/09/brandon-sosnas-legacy-at-usc-can-be-summed-up-in-two-words-lincoln-riley/ |website=Trojans Wire |publisher=USA Today |access-date=July 17, 2024 |date=June 9, 2022}}</ref> Sosna was hired by the NFL's Detroit Lions in July 2022 as the senior director of football administration, serving as their primary contract negotiator.<ref name="USC"/><ref>{{cite web |last1=Rogers |first1=Justin |title=Meet Lions exec Brandon Sosna, Brad Holmes' contract negotiating wizard |url=https://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/nfl/lions/2024/03/27/meet-detroit-lions-exec-brandon-sosna-brad-holmes-contract-negotiating-wizard/73109742007/ |website=The Detroit News |access-date=July 28, 2024 |date=March 27, 2024}}</ref> He left in May 2024 to join the NFL's Washington Commanders as the senior vice president of football operations, handling contracts in addition to leading their analytics and football administration departments.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Bergman |first1=Jeremy |title=Commanders to hire Lions executive Brandon Sosna as senior VP of football operations |url=https://www.nfl.com/news/commanders-to-hire-lions-executive-brandon-sosna-for-high-ranking-front-office-role |website=NFL.com |access-date=July 3, 2024 |date=May 19, 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Fortier |first1=Sam |title=A new head of analytics takes over as Commanders shake up front office |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2024/06/25/brandon-sosna-eugene-shen-commanders-front-office-analytics/ |website=The Washington Post |access-date=July 3, 2024 |date=June 25, 2024}}</ref>
==Personal life== Sosna is the youngest of six siblings.<ref name="Athletic"/> His father Harold Sosna was a former president of a Cincinnati-based nursing home management company who plead guilty to bank fraud in October 2021 by way of a $59 million check kiting scheme and was sentenced to 42 months in prison.<ref name="HaroldSupport">{{cite web |title=Supplement to Sentencing Memorandum |url=https://ia802308.us.archive.org/10/items/gov.uscourts.pawd.271957/gov.uscourts.pawd.271957.49.0.pdf |website=pawd.uscourts.gov |publisher=United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania |access-date=2 June 2025 |pages=5-6 |format=PDF}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Grasha |first1=Kevin |title=Ex-president of Blue Ash company that ran nursing homes sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison |url=https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2021/10/07/harold-sosna-sentence-federal-judge-imposes-3-1-2-year-sentence/6038657001/ |website=The Cincinnati Enquirer |access-date=June 3, 2025 |date=October 7, 2021}}</ref> Sosna is Jewish; his paternal and maternal grandparents were Holocaust survivors and he participated in the 2010 March of the Living trip to the Auschwitz concentration camp.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Brandon Sosna's commencement speech for Sycamore High filled with Jewish values |journal=The American Israelite |date=June 9, 2011 |volume=157 |issue=46 |page=1 |url=https://issuu.com/clermontsunpublishing/docs/israelite_1110 |access-date=July 16, 2024}}</ref><ref name="Jewish">{{cite journal |title=Student Leaders at the University of Pennsylvania Support a Strong U.S.-Israel Relationship |journal=The Daily Pennsylvanian |date=January 17, 2014 |page=3 |url=https://issuu.com/dailypenn/docs/0117_dp/3 |access-date=July 16, 2024}}</ref> He served as president of Penn's Zeta Beta Tau fraternity chapter.<ref name="Jewish"/> He was listed on the 2020 ''Forbes'' 30 Under 30 list for his work as the chief revenue officer for the Bearcats.<ref name="Forbes30"/>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{Commonscat}} * [https://www.commanders.com/team/front-office-roster/brandon-sosna Washington Commanders profile]
{{Portal bar|American football|Biography|United States|border=n}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sosna, Brandon}} Category:1990s births Category:21st-century American Jews Category:American marketing businesspeople Category:American sports executives and administrators Category:Cleveland Browns personnel Category:Detroit Lions executives Category:Jewish American sports executives and administrators Category:Jews from Ohio Category:Living people Category:Sportspeople from Cincinnati Category:University of Pennsylvania School of Arts and Sciences alumni Category:Washington Commanders executives