Second Careers of Famous American Football Players
There are only a tiny minority of people who are lucky enough to play a single minute on a professional football pitch, but these players not only had successful careers in the NFL, they also went on to do great things afterwards.
Whether you’re a retiring NFL player looking for a next step or, more likely, a huge NFL fan that wants to know where some of the great players are now, we’ve gathered together a set of players who are making waves in other waters.
Herschel Walker
Herschel Walker is known for being something of a Jack of all Trades. He had a pretty successful football career, playing for both the Dallas Cowboys and the Minnesota Vikings, before finding his home on Donald Trump’s New Jersey Generals USFL team.
Since then, he’s been making waves in the poker scene – largely in charity events, but he has sometimes been spotted in NJ Poker Rooms too.
Going from a competitive sport into the world of poker isn’t such an unusual career path. Many players from the NFL and NBA have gone on to try out as poker professionals after their retirement. With the extra cash that comes from being a sports star, perhaps the worry of having a bad run of games isn’t so much of a problem as it might be for the rest of us.
John Wolford
The Rams have had a very exciting season so far, what with a few high-class additions to the team, but one player who has had a bit of a rollercoaster is quarterback John Wolford.
Most NFL careers start right out of college and begin to slow down between two and three years later. Wolford has been an exception to the rule, failing to make the pick out of college but somehow making it, later on, to play professionally for the LA Rams.
Not being one to rest on his laurels, Woodford made the difficult decision to focus on a career in finance after failing to make the pick the first time around. He got a great internship under his belt, as well as high grades from college. His LinkedIn was looking good, but now Wolford jokes it might be time to delete it.
It’s highly unusual for an NFL player to have a career before their sporting one, but Wolford seems to make it look easy.
Myron Rolle
When it comes to over-achievers, there aren’t many who could compete with Myron Rolle. He was a brilliant football player in college for Florida State University, providing the team with incredible defensive abilities for three years. Instead of going for the draft straight away, he took a year out to study at Oxford University for his MSc in Medical Anthropology.
Rolle was determined to be a doctor, but it looked as though the NFL had other plans for him. In 2010 he was picked by the Tennessee Titans and played a brilliant two seasons for them.
Despite his success, however, Rolle had firmly decided that a doctor was what he wanted to be. So, after this short time, he said goodbye to the world of professional football and traded it in to become a resident neurosurgeon at Harvard.
