Micah Hyde’s Playbook: Building a Functional Beverage Brand After the NFL

About this episode

Micah Hyde discusses his transition from the NFL to launching a functional beverage brand focused on recovery and community values.

After nearly a decade in the NFL, Micah Hyde didn’t plan on entering the beverage industry. But a real estate investment in his Ohio hometown turned into something unexpected, a pivot from dispensary dreams to launching Hyde’s Hail Mary, a new functional beverage designed for recovery, presence, and better nights. On this episode of The Free Spirits Podcast , Micah joins hosts Lars Miller and David Gonzalez to unpack the accidental beginnings of his beverage business and how his football career shaped everything from team-building to formulation strategy. This drink is a low-dose cannabinoid-powered sparkling sipper engineered to help people unwind without sacrificing performance or clarity. Micah shares the thinking behind the 5/5/5 blend of THC, CBD, and CBG, how they landed on a flavor profile inspired by lemon shandy beer, and why his brand intentionally avoids the loud, stoner aesthetic. Instead, Hyde’s Hail Mary signals something more grounded, Midwest values, sports culture, and community-first branding. As someone who still runs a youth-focused nonprofit, Micah speaks candidly about navigating the stigma of cannabis while building something he believes in. We get into…

People in this episode

Hosts: Lars Miller, David Gonzalez

Guest: Micah Hyde

Topics covered

• functional beverages
• cannabis
• entrepreneurship
• sports culture
• recovery
• branding

Keywords

• functional beverage
• cannabis
• recovery
• sports culture
• entrepreneurship
• branding
• Midwest values

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Hyde’s Hail Mary

Places: Ohio, Midwest

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