Patrick Crayton’s New Insurance Playbook

When Patrick Crayton decided to enter the insurance business, buying an established book of business was not a realistic option.

Crayton, an eight-year National Football League veteran, owns a startup Farmers Insurance agency in Carrollton, Texas. Farmers allows new agents to buy an existing book of business only from another agent in the same district.

In other words, a book must be available from a limited supply.

“I look back and think that it may have helped” to buy an existing book, Crayton said. “But I already had some revenue coming in out of the game. So, this is totally mine. I built all this, with the help of my teammates and my employees and everything.”

The Crayton Agency opened in late 2024 and offers the full gamut of insurance options, from life insurance to condominium and motorcycle coverage. It has been a whirlwind filled with nonstop hustle to get the agency off the ground.

“It is a day-to-day grind,” Crayton said. “When we first opened the office, I was going from 8 in the morning and I might not turn my laptop off until 8, 8:30 at night. You just get going and you look up and dang, it’s already 7 p.m.”

A comfortable underdog

Crayton, 47, knows what it means to face long odds as an underdog. It became his identity in a football career that began at DeSoto High School, a suburban Dallas school that has sent dozens of players to the NFL.

After starring as a wide receiver, quarterback and running back at DeSoto, Crayton accepted a football scholarship from the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics program at Northwestern Oklahoma State University. Crayton played wide receiver his first three seasons at NOSU but switched to quarterback as a senior.

During that season, Crayton passed for 1,837 yards and a school-record 19 touchdowns. He also rushed for a school single-season record of 1,476 yards with 13 touchdowns on 173 carries while adding 15 receptions for 331 yards and four scores.

He became the first player in NAIA history to score a touchdown passing, receiving, rushing, and on kickoff and punt returns in a single season.

Still, his chances of making professional football a career seemed slim.

Before Crayton’s time, only four players in the history of the NOSU football program had heard their names called in an NFL draft. And three of them were drafted in later rounds that didn’t exist after the NFL shortened the draft to seven rounds in 1994.

But Crayton’s exploits attracted the attention of the Dallas Cowboys, which picked him in the seventh round.

On a 2024 podcast, Crayton talked about being angry that he wasn’t selected earlier and how he used it as motivation.

“I wrote down every name drafted in front of me, and I put a star beside every wide receiver,” Crayton said. “It was just my motivation.”

Long professional career

Crayton played for the Cowboys for six years, earning a four-year, $14 million contract extension in 2007. Traded to the San Diego Chargers in September 2010, Crayton played two years before eventually retiring from the game.

According to Spotrac, which tracks NFL salaries, Crayton made slightly more than $15 million as an NFL player.

One of his first business ventures outside the game saw Patrick and his wife, Najiyyah Crayton, open a Primrose preschool franchise in South Plano, Texas. They still own it.

“I let her have that,” Crayton said of his wife. “She’s the nurturer. She can handle the kids and everything. So, I had to find my own lane.”

Crayton found that lane literally after acquiring several FedEx routes in 2019 and starting a logistics business. Then COVID-19 hit and before long, Crayton got the itch to expand his business portfolio.

Insurance had long been on his mind, Crayton explained. A cousin has been in the insurance business for several years. A few friends are as well.

“We own a family cemetery up in Oklahoma City, on my wife’s side, and we got so tired of hearing these people would have to go do GoFundMe to bury a loved one or ask to borrow money,” Crayton said, “instead of just simply spending $20 or $25 a month for a burial policy or life insurance policy.”

Crayton admits that the image of the traditional insurance man in a business suit and tie was hard to shake. Once he took the leap with Farmers, he quickly found out that the insurance business in 2026 does not look like any one picture.

“It’s so crazy how much it’s changed,” he said. “I don’t wear suits to the office. If I put on a polo shirt, that’s about as dressed up as I’m going to get in the office.”

A licensed agent

Unlike some pro athletes, Crayton did not simply invest in an agency and slap his name on the door while leaving others to manage it. He earned his Texas licenses in 2024 to sell life, health and property/casualty insurance.

Since then, Crayton has quickly become an insurance evangelist. During an interview, he was quick to cite the story of Walt Disney, who famously owned a life insurance policy with significant cash value, which he decided to borrow against to fund the initial development of Disneyland.

“I want to really make sure people are educated on what they actually have and what they can get,” Crayton said. “So many people are caught up on price that they don’t even know what kind of coverage they  have until they have to use it.

“I tell my team, ‘We’re not selling anything.’ I say, ‘We’re offering and giving people an option to get a product that they need.’”

Crayton is working hard to educate Texans on the value of the right amount of insurance, even as Texas homeowners pay some of the highest home insurance costs in the country.

According to LendingTree’s 2026 State of Home Insurance Report, home insurance premiums in Texas have risen 55.9% since 2020. Texas now ranks fifth in the nation for the highest average home insurance premiums.

“My biggest thing when I talk to people, I say, ‘What’s your biggest concern? Are you more concerned with price, or are you more concerned with the product?’” Crayton said. “And seven out of 10 times, you will hear price; that’s going to be the biggest thing.”

Busy family life

The Craytons are an active family, with their three children living out their own athletic dreams.

Patrick Crayton Jr. is a sophomore at Rice University and a rising quarterback for the Owls. Daughter Kennedy finished high school early, Crayton said proudly, and attends Temple University in Philadelphia where she plays volleyball.

The Craytons’ younger son, Preston, is a senior and football star in high school.

Although he is still a young man, Crayton has an eye on the future. He hopes to one day pass Patrick Crayton Agency to one of his children.

“My end goal is to build the business up, get the agency going and maybe one of the kids will want to step in and go into the insurance world,” Crayton said, “and at least learn the business side of it based on whatever degree they end up getting.”

InsuranceNewsNet Senior Editor John Hilton has covered business and other beats in more than 20 years of daily journalism. John may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @INNJohnH.