Ex-Broncos star Trevor Pryce thriving in second career with “Kulipari” books, video games and upcoming movie

BALTIMORE — On a summer day in 2008, defensive lineman Trevor Pryce was relaxing at his home in Denver and not exactly thinking about life after football.

Pryce, who had played for the Broncos from 1997-2005 and made four Pro Bowls, was preparing to report to training camp for his third season with the Baltimore Ravens. Then 32, he had continued to live in Denver with his family and had just moved into a home in the Lowry area.

“The cable wasn’t hooked up at my new house, so I’m watching these DVDs,’’ Pryce said. “I’m watching (the documentary miniseries) ‘Planet Earth.’ And so I’m sitting there watching this and there’s these high-speed camera shots and one of them was of a tree frog. They shot it from beneath and it looked like Superman, it looked like a person when you stretch the frog out. It had arms and legs. And I was like, ‘Oh, my God. Who’s done this?’’’

Pryce’s mind started racing.

“This all happened in like 10 minutes,’’ he said. “So I had to figure out what culture Disney had not raided yet. They hadn’t raided Aboriginal culture (in Australia).”

Pryce began researching poisonous frogs that live in Australia and have scorpions as natural enemies. He began thinking of creating a story in which the two sides would battle.

At one point, Pryce needed a name for his story to be set in Australia. So he contacted an Aboriginal professor at the University of Toronto and asked for a word in that language that meant poison. He got back about 20 options and chose “kulipari” because it was the only one he could pronounce.

That was the genesis for a second notable career for Pryce, who would go on to play for the Ravens in 2008 and 2009 and then conclude his NFL tenure with the Ravens and New York Jets in 2010. He has been the brainpower behind three Kulipari comic novels for middle-school kids that were later turned into an animated series on Netflix and Hulu. On the docket to come out around Christmas is a Kulipari video game and next year an animated movie, “Kulipari: An Army of Frogs.”

Animation work for Pryce’s ongoing projects is being done at Outlook Enterprises in Baltimore, a studio he opened in 2019 and was moved to its current location in the east side of the city in 2021. In a massive floor space at the Hoen Lithograph building, which was built around 1900 and has been refurbished, Pryce has 23 employees working for him.

Pryce, who now makes his home in the Baltimore area and once earned more than $7 million in a season for the Broncos, has financed much of the work himself although he has some investors. But he has turned down companies wanting to buy his intellectual property for many millions. He is the director for the movie expected to open in theaters around September 2026.

“I have spent everything on this, but, and this is a very big but, I will make next year, probably (in the) fall, I will have made a hundred times the amount of money when the movie comes out (than as a player),’’ he said.

The 6-foot-5, 290-pound Price was known for his smarts when he played in the NFL, which included having seasons for the Broncos of 13 sacks in 1999 and 12 in 2000 and for the Ravens of 13 sacks in 2006. That has carried into his second career.

“I think being a football player boxes you in a lot,’’ Pryce, 49, said about breaking away from stereotypes. “In most rooms I walk in, I’m the smartest person in the room. … The thing that makes me what I am is I have a very good memory, a steel-cage type of memory, and I process information really quickly.”

After the 2008 revelation he had while watching “Planet Earth,” Pryce gradually put his Kulipari idea into action. He reached out to an entertainment agent and it was recommended he write a treatment. He crafted a 25-page document and it was sent to a book agent in New York.

Abrams Books agreed to take on the project, and Pryce was hooked up with Joel Naftali, who became his co-writer. Then he was set up with illustrator Sanford Greene, notable for work he has done for Marvel Comics.

“The first designs of the characters he sent back to me, it was incredible how great it looked,’’ Pryce said.

The first novel from the trio, “An Army of Frogs” came out in 2013. The 288-page book tells the story of frogs from the Amphibilands named the Kulipari battling the scorpions, including the leader Lord Marmoo. A young frog named Darel has the chance to become an honored warrior in the battle.

“An Army of Frogs” was followed by the novels “The Rainbow Serpent” in 2014 and “Amphibians’ End” in 2015.

“The books are for middle-school grades and when you talk to these kids, you realize they watch so much TV and movies that they know what’s going to happen before it happens (in stories),’’ Pryce said. “So I realized very quickly that if you want to keep their attention and do something they don’t see coming, you have to pull the rug out from under them; you have to make them cry. You have to do something that makes them turn the page… I pride myself on being able to do that.”

The novels got the attention of Netflix and rights were purchased from Pryce for them to be turned into the animated series “Kulipari: An Army of Frogs,” which began in 2016 and had 13 episodes. There was a second season “Kulipari: Dream Walker,’’ which began in 2018 and had 10 episodes.

The first two series remain available on Netflix but Hulu bought the rights to also show them starting in 2024. The third season of the series “Kulipari: A King Rises” began in 2024 with the three episodes exclusively on Hulu.

Among those providing voices for the characters is actor Mark Hamill of Luke Skywalker fame in “Star Wars.” Hamill, who does his work from a studio in his home in the Los Angeles area, has provided voices for elderly frog warrior Old Jir, yellow frog Ponto and elderly scorpion Caz in the series and will provide the voice of Old Jir for the movie.

Animation for the first two series was done in Canada, and Pryce footed the bill. But he has done the animation for the third series at his studio in Baltimore, where work is ongoing for a fourth, fifth and sixth season for Hulu as well as for the video game and movie.

“It’s pretty amazing seeing the work we’ve done here,’’ said studio production manager Nicole Jansen. “It’s pretty crazy the amount of talented people we have worked with. The things that we are making here are absolutely fantastic. … It’s pretty impressive what (Pryce) is building. … Trevor is pretty hands on when it comes to the movie stuff because he’s directing it. So there is a lot of teamwork when working with Trevor.”

On a recent afternoon, Jansen was hard at work at a computer screen as Pryce looked on and offered some thoughts on the animation.

In its large space with no walls, Pryce’s Outlook Enterprises is stocked with all sorts of high-tech computers and equipment for creating animation. But Pryce, who encourages his staff to work in a casual environment, also has on hand Skee-Ball, pingpong, foosball and shuffleboard machines as well as a popcorn machine.

On this particular day, however, employees were busy and nobody was playing the games.

“Because we’re too busy making our own game,’’ cracked Walt Carter, vice president and director of the studio. “We do have a lot of fun with things, but we’re really serious about what we’re trying to do here. … (Pryce) is a big, big visionary. He’s really good at pushing his ideas.”

Carter, a Baltimore native who has done game and animation-type work for more than 20 years, is a longtime Ravens fan. So he was thrilled when six years ago Pryce lured him away from a good job he had at the time.

“It was kind of dope,’’ Carter said. “It wasn’t on my bingo card. … He was one of my favorite players after he got (signed by) the Ravens. He was a problem on the edge. He was a constant disrupter.”

Indeed Pryce was. After signing a five-year, $27.5 million contract as a free agent with the Ravens in March 2006, he responded with his second 13-sack season and received a vote for NFL Defensive Player of the Year.

Pryce, a New York native who grew up in the Orlando, Fla., area, began his NFL career with the Broncos after being selected with the No. 28 pick in the first round of the 1997 draft out of Clemson. He didn’t play much as a rookie, starting three of the eight games in which he appeared, but the Broncos won Super Bowl XXXII 31-24 over Green Bay. He played a bigger role in 1998, starting 15 of the 16 games he played and having 8.5 sacks as the Broncos went on to defeat Atlanta 34-19 in Super Bowl XXXIII.

“First (ring) I didn’t earn,’’ Pryce said. “I played 12 snaps in that game. But I played great against Atlanta.”

Pryce said winning two championships was a “great thing,” but that he strives to “turn the page very quickly” in life. He never wears his Super Bowl rings because they’re too “gaudy.” But since he does have three children with his wife Sonya (daughters Khary, 25, and Kamryn, 22, and son Trevor III, 19, who will attend Grambling State this fall to play baseball), he wishes he would have won three rings, one for each.

After the Super Bowl-winning seasons, Pryce really broke loose for the Broncos. He made four straight Pro Bowls from 1999-2002 while also being first-team All-Pro in 1999 and to the second team in 2001.

“We knew he was going to go on to do great things when he came into the league,’’ said defensive tackle Keith Traylor, who played for Denver from 1991-92 and 1997-2000. “Trevor played the game hard, and he played it smart. He was a heck of a player.”

Alfred Williams, a Broncos defensive end from 1996-99 and later a longtime Denver radio host, said Pryce played “lights-out football” for the Broncos and his “name should be in the Ring of Fame.” Nick Ferguson, a Broncos defensive back from 2003-06, also said Pryce should receive such an honor.

“Great,’’ Pryce said when asked how he looks back at his Denver tenure. “There were some seasons that went sideways but when it was good, it was great. It was great living there.”

Pryce’s production declined in his final three Broncos seasons. He had 8.5 sacks in 2003, when his Pro Bowl streak ended. He played in just two games in 2004 due to having back surgery. He returned to start all 16 games in 2005 but had just four sacks on a team that lost the AFC championship game 34-17 to Pittsburgh at home.

“I was playing in a defense that asked me to do things I wasn’t natural at,’’ Pryce, who had the late Larry Coyer as defensive coordinator his final three Broncos seasons, said of that period. “You just need a change of scenery. … I was ready to turn the page. I didn’t like the defense.”

When Pryce became a free agent in 2006, he said his first choice was to sign with Seattle but that didn’t work out. He then settled on Baltimore, saying the Broncos didn’t come close to offering a similar deal.

Pryce returned to Denver in Week 5 in 2006, saying “cameras were following me around” before, during and after the Broncos’ 13-3 win. By the end of the season, though, the Ravens had gone 13-3 and made the playoffs while the Broncos went 9-7 and stayed home.

After the regular season, then-CBS analyst Shannon Sharpe, a Hall of Fame tight end who had played for both Denver and Baltimore, sought to elicit some smack talk from Pryce about his impressive comeback season. But the defensive end remained modest.

“He said, ‘The Broncos didn’t want you, did they? Now look at you,’’’ Pryce said. “I said, ‘I like it here (in Baltimore).’ It was more like, ‘Thanks for this happening.’’’

Pryce continued to live in Denver in the offseason during much of his Ravens tenure but eventually relocated on a full-time basis to the Baltimore area because he didn’t want to pull his children out of a private school they attended. After Pryce had finished the 2010 season with the Jets, who lost 24-19 at Pittsburgh in the AFC championship game, he said he received interest from New England and Oakland before deciding to step away from the game for good.

After all, he already had an idea of something to do in the next phase of his life.

“I had started directing all my attention to that when I was still playing,’’ Pryce said of the Kulipari project. “I learned when you have a good idea, just use it.”

After his first book came out, Pryce traveled around the nation to promote it. That included a visit to a Tattered Cover bookstore in Denver.

About 10 years ago, Pryce was in Los Angeles and met Hamill in person for the only time.

“He showed up and I was like, ‘Wow, that’s Mark Hamill,’’ said Pryce, who is a “huge fan” of “Star Wars” creator George Lucas.

With Hamill not one who likes to leave his house much, Pryce’s only dealings with him since then have been by email or on Zoom. So is Hamill a football fan?

“No,’’ Pryce said with a laugh. “I don’t think he knows I played football.”

Pryce, though, said Hamill “loves Kulipari.” As the franchise has grown, Pryce has made licensing deals for Under Armour to produce apparel and with Mattel for toys. But he has rebuffed offers to sell his company.

“I said, ‘Come back when it’s nine figures, not eight,’’ said Pryce, referring to a figure of at least $100 million.

As Pryce has built up his second career, former Broncos teammates have been impressed.

“It’s great that this is happening,’’ said Ferguson, who continues to keep in touch with Pryce. “I just knew that he was destined for much bigger things because of the way he thought about the game of football. He was a thinking man. He had bigger dreams than just saying, ‘I just want to be an NFL football player.’’’

Williams is on a text chain with Pryce that has on it about 20 former Broncos players. Among the others are wide receiver Rod Smith, linebacker Keith Burns, defensive tackle Mike Lodish and running back Vaughn Hebron.

“We’re all on this text thread, and I talk to him maybe two or three times a year just catching up,’’ Williams said. “Trevor’s always been an incredibly talented and inquisitive person. He just moved into this love affair with stories and with animation. I’ve got five grandchildren and I guarantee you we will be at the movie theater when all the frogs come out.”

Pryce returned to Denver for 25-year Super Bowl reunions in 2022 and 2023, calling them “sensational.” And if Stan Kroenke ever decides to sell a piece of the Colorado Rapids, he might be back in Denver.

Pryce, an avid fan of the sport, said a goal has been to buy into Major League Soccer. He said he once told Kroenke that, “I’ll give you a check today” for a piece of the Rapids. He had a similar experience with Flavio Augusto da Silva before he sold the Orlando City SC franchise to Zygi and Mark Wilf, owners of the Minnesota Vikings, for a deal in 2021 worth between $400 million and $450 million.

“I went down (to Orlando) and sat with them and met the owner and I said, ‘I’ll cut you a check today’ (for an ownership share),’’ said Pryce, whose father Trevor Pryce is an amateur soccer coach in Florida and whose sister Nandi Pryce played soccer at UCLA and for the U.S. women’s national team. “But I never heard from him again.”

If Pryce indeed does make off his movie a hundred times more money than he did as an NFL player, perhaps he will have more clout in a future quest to buy a soccer team.