Isaiah J. Kacyvenski is a former American football linebacker of the National Football League. He was drafted by the Seattle Seahawks in the fourth round of the 2000 NFL Draft. He played college football at Harvard and earned an MBA from Harvard Business School after he retired. Kacyvenski also spent time with the St. Louis Rams and Oakland Raiders. After spending the 2007 season out of football, Kacyvenski officially announced his retirement in 2008.

He received a phone call at the end of his high school senior year from Harvard Crimson football coach Tim Murphy offering him an academic scholarship. While Kacyvenski was reluctant to go to for fear of not fitting in, his coach convinced him that he would never regret going to Harvard.

For four years, Kacyvenski started every game at Harvard University. As a freshman, he won the Ivy League Rookie of the Year award, and for three years, won All-Ivy League first team honors. As a senior, he had a school single-season record 135 tackles, and for his college career, finished with a school career-record 395 tackles, 4.5 sacks, 11 interceptions, and 8 fumble recoveries. He received the Nils V. "Swede" Nelson Award given to "best, most academically talented" football player in New England, and also the Harvard University Male Athlete of the Year following his senior season. Isaiah was a finalist for the Buck Buchanan Award that is given to the top 1-AA defensive player in the country, as well as a 1st Team Associated Press All-American.

In 2000, Kacyvenski was selected in the 4th round of the NFL draft by the Seattle Seahawks and became the highest draft pick in Harvard history. He graduated cum laude with a pre-med degree.

In September 2008, it was reported that Kacyvenski had decided to retire. A knee injury kept him out of the 2007 season and it was recommended by doctors that he not continue playing.

Also in September, Kacyvenski, the first of five other former NFL players that soon followed, agreed to donate his brain upon his death to the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy, a joint program between the Boston University School of Medicine and Sports Legacy Institute in order to have research into the effects of concussions on the human brain performed. Kacyvenski, like many NFL players, suffered a number of concussions over the course of his playing career. At the end of 2008, Isaiah was awarded the PETA Compassionate Action Award after being the first professional athlete to donate his brain to science.

He was elected to the Board of Directors of Sports Legacy Institute in 2008, and has used this as a platform for awareness surrounding head trauma and making contact sports safer to play. Kacyvenski earned his MBA from Harvard Business School in 2011.

Isaiah is now a tech entrepreneur at MC10 Inc.nAfter graduating from Harvard Business School, Kacyvenski joined a very early stage MC10, a cutting-edge conformal electronics company based in Cambridge, MA, and has remained there as the Global Head of Business Development as well as Chairman of the MC10 Sports-Medicine Advisory Board.

Kacyvenski is also an investor in, and advisor to, several companies in technology, sports, biotech, media and sports medicine.

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