Hillenmeyer tackling new project — OverDog

Hunter Hillenmeyer spent eight seasons butting heads with some of the NFL’s best players.

Now, the former Montgomery Bell and Vanderbilt star wants to give fans an opportunity to do the same – through video games.

Hillenmeyer, who retired from the Chicago Bears after the 2010 season, co-founded a company called OverDog, a mobile app that will launch in April and give fans a chance to connect with athletes head-to-head in video games using systems like Xbox and PS3.

“A lot of athletes and fans are huge gamers. You see athletes jumping on their Twitter handle or Facebook fan page and challenging fans already,’’ Hillenmeyer said. “All we’re doing is building a better, more efficient, more fun way to connect athletes and fans through video games.

“The idea is Chris Johnson can play a fan in Madden or Call of Duty or whatever game he might play. And the athletes are embracing it. There’s something fun about interacting with fans in a real way where you still have that arm’s length privacy.”

Hillenmeyer, who co-founded Overdog, said more than 100 athletes are on board, including a number of Titans. Defensive tackle Sen’Derrick Marks, and linebackers Gerald McRath, Tim Shaw and Will Witherspoon are among them.

It’s not just Madden where players and fans can square off. Games will also include Call of Duty, FIFA, NBA2K, and HALO, Hillenmeyer said.

OverDog just started a kickstarter campaign, which runs for 30 days. The official launch is expected to take place in April. Hillenmeyer said the company also plans to working with the players’ unions in the major sports leagues. Former Vanderbilt and current Tampa Bay pitcher David Price is on the advisory board.

He has an even bigger vision for the company, which has a website, theoverdog.com, in the future.

“Next year when the Titans play the Colts, we would like to build an experience where we would grab a Titan player and have the play against Andrew Luck in a game of Madden the Tuesday or Friday before the game. And we would live stream that online so fans could watch,’’ Hillenmeyer said.

“And then right off that we would have that lead into a tournament on Madden between Titans fans and Colts fans. There is something cool about bringing fans’ allegiances into video games.”

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Posted In: League News, Team News

Source: Titans Insider