What do you do after football? Here's my story.
Episode 012:
Episode 012:
April 28, 2009
I hung up the pads today. Football has been good to me. It has been that extra factor that has gotten me to where I am. But you can’t rely on it forever. Life isn’t football, and football isn’t life. A lot of people lose perspective on that and end up not knowing what they want to do when the journey suddenly ends. There are a lot of things that I want to do with and in my life, and today I will start pursuing those things. For when I read this in the future: remember that statement. If you haven’t yet, do those things. Hike Hadrian’s Wall with Garrett. Paddle Maine’s islands. Ride across the U.S. Write. Learn. Listen. Continue to challenge yourself; get out of the comfort zone.
Football. What can you say about it? It’s a game best enjoyed from the stands with a cold beer and friends. But truly, football is like a rose. It’s a beautiful game that will teach you about life, and it is totally glorified and fun to look at. But the thorns will also get you, and they will leave you with blood running down your skin. Deal with it.
Whenever I stepped on that field, I always thought of Ivory Christian. I hated the game. I wanted it to leave me alone. Yet, I kept doing it. And, when I strapped up for gameday, the Devil emerged. The mean streak was on; rage in my heart.
Today, I leave with nothing but a bag of memories and lessons to carry with me in life (and a couple of stolen t-shirts). And I couldn’t imagine a grander ending. I walked into the bright sunshine and blooming flowers on this beautiful spring morning and I cried with a smile on my face for the memories and the guys who put their hand down in the dirt next to mine. And then it was gone.
Even now, only an hour or two later, I can’t cry for it anymore. I am running into the next phase of my life, with a beautiful future ahead. May I have strength and endurance in my journeys.
When a lot of guys end their playing careers, its a very emotional moment. There can be lots of crying and thinking about how they will never feel that rush again, that knotted stomach before a game as they go over plays in their head, that moment when the stomach unknots and all that fear turns to anger that swells, making them want to injure anyone in a different colored jersey by any means possible, as long as they don't get caught. And finally, that temporary high after a game, before the swelling and the headaches set in, that moment after a win when they just feel so alive.
I took a different path. When I hung up the pads and walked away from the fresh cut grass and dried dirt soaked in my own sweat, blood, and vomit, I had a smile on my face. It was time to be done, and I had and still have things to do before I (get old? Lose function in my knees?). Lots of them. First on the list was get out of the comfort zone and go to new places in the world to learn from new people about different sides of life. I bought a bike to do it.
I took a job working in a new place over the summer, Woods Hole, Cape Cod, and I got a lot of traveling by bike in. All over Massachussetts. I fell in love with my steel frame Surly touring bike. The next summer I cut the frame in half and put steel couplers in it so that I could fit it in a suitcase and travel with it without any detriment to the function of the frame, and I took it to Alaska with me and rode across the state. But that’s not what I am here to tell you about. I am here to tell you about athletics. And during the school year I can’t travel with my bike. So I decided to race it.
My bike is a steel frame touring bike - probably the last choice of bike for any cyclist to complete a criterium with. For that matter, probably the last choice for a time trial, too, and a hilly road race! The frame is too heavy, the wheelbase is too long, the bottom bracket too low, the tan finish and leather seat are certainly too ugly.
When I clipped in for my first race on a slick New York city street in the middle of monsoon-like conditions that foreboded the disasters ahead for an offensive lineman trying to race bikes, my pedals rang like a church bell on Sunday morning. The stiff frame responded to my lightest motion and the unsightly tan frame shone gold.
With the shot of a gun we were off… cautiously. Drops of water sprayed in everyone’s eyes, and I tried to settle into a good position about three riders back. At that point in time, I didn’t know about picking and catching breaks, prime laps, or even what a peloton was; I just knew I wanted to ride my bike fast, but that if I stayed behind a few folks I would conserve energy by letting them break the wind for me. For a half hour we went around the track. Near the end of the race the bell rang – I thought it was the last lap. So, after rounding the last soaked sharp corner, I took off. Behind me I heard a Darthmouth rider tell one of his teammates “don’t go for him – it’s not worth it,” which of course seemed strange to me with the race on the line, but I sprinted on and crossed the finish line first. Well, that was my introduction to the prime lap – a lap in which the winner gets prizes or points that, in comparison to winning the race, add up to a fairly insignificant amount.
Well, needless to say, the race wasn’t over. As I began slowing down after the finish line, other racers zoomed past me. Surprised, I worked to catch back onto the lead group. Coming around the last corner of the true last lap, I was exhausted! I took fifth.
Over the years, I kept racing, getting more and more interested in the techniques and challenge of the sport. I moved up categories; learned about the Peloton, breaks, and more than I wanted to know about external bottom brackets and the physics of radially-spoked wheels; split my face open in a crit crash and had it sewed back together; tried and fell in love with cyclocross racing; had my good races; my bad races; and – eventually – my wins.
I made great friends with my cycling teammates, and we went to races any way we could, and stayed on just about any floor that would let us crash for the night. When we went to race in Philly we stayed with my brother at UPenn. We had driven a great old blue van with window shades, and as Garrett walked past trying to locate us to let us into his place, we stuck our heads out one of the windows and said “hey kid, you want some candy?”
And through it all, the most refreshing part was that I cycled for fun. I often say that the most fun I had racing was at cyclocross race in which I crashed six times and came in second-to-last. It was a blast! Quite the opposite end of the spectrum from football: people don’t know you are on the cycling team – people don’t know there is a cycling team! For me, there is nothing more refreshing.
I guess the old adage is true: you get another hand soon after you fold. Make the best of it, and enjoy it.
I hung up the pads today. Football has been good to me. It has been that extra factor that has gotten me to where I am. But you can’t rely on it forever. Life isn’t football, and football isn’t life. A lot of people lose perspective on that and end up not knowing what they want to do when the journey suddenly ends. There are a lot of things that I want to do with and in my life, and today I will start pursuing those things. For when I read this in the future: remember that statement. If you haven’t yet, do those things. Hike Hadrian’s Wall with Garrett. Paddle Maine’s islands. Ride across the U.S. Write. Learn. Listen. Continue to challenge yourself; get out of the comfort zone.
Football. What can you say about it? It’s a game best enjoyed from the stands with a cold beer and friends. But truly, football is like a rose. It’s a beautiful game that will teach you about life, and it is totally glorified and fun to look at. But the thorns will also get you, and they will leave you with blood running down your skin. Deal with it.
Whenever I stepped on that field, I always thought of Ivory Christian. I hated the game. I wanted it to leave me alone. Yet, I kept doing it. And, when I strapped up for gameday, the Devil emerged. The mean streak was on; rage in my heart.
Today, I leave with nothing but a bag of memories and lessons to carry with me in life (and a couple of stolen t-shirts). And I couldn’t imagine a grander ending. I walked into the bright sunshine and blooming flowers on this beautiful spring morning and I cried with a smile on my face for the memories and the guys who put their hand down in the dirt next to mine. And then it was gone.
Even now, only an hour or two later, I can’t cry for it anymore. I am running into the next phase of my life, with a beautiful future ahead. May I have strength and endurance in my journeys.
When a lot of guys end their playing careers, its a very emotional moment. There can be lots of crying and thinking about how they will never feel that rush again, that knotted stomach before a game as they go over plays in their head, that moment when the stomach unknots and all that fear turns to anger that swells, making them want to injure anyone in a different colored jersey by any means possible, as long as they don't get caught. And finally, that temporary high after a game, before the swelling and the headaches set in, that moment after a win when they just feel so alive.
I took a different path. When I hung up the pads and walked away from the fresh cut grass and dried dirt soaked in my own sweat, blood, and vomit, I had a smile on my face. It was time to be done, and I had and still have things to do before I (get old? Lose function in my knees?). Lots of them. First on the list was get out of the comfort zone and go to new places in the world to learn from new people about different sides of life. I bought a bike to do it.
I took a job working in a new place over the summer, Woods Hole, Cape Cod, and I got a lot of traveling by bike in. All over Massachussetts. I fell in love with my steel frame Surly touring bike. The next summer I cut the frame in half and put steel couplers in it so that I could fit it in a suitcase and travel with it without any detriment to the function of the frame, and I took it to Alaska with me and rode across the state. But that’s not what I am here to tell you about. I am here to tell you about athletics. And during the school year I can’t travel with my bike. So I decided to race it.
My bike is a steel frame touring bike - probably the last choice of bike for any cyclist to complete a criterium with. For that matter, probably the last choice for a time trial, too, and a hilly road race! The frame is too heavy, the wheelbase is too long, the bottom bracket too low, the tan finish and leather seat are certainly too ugly.
When I clipped in for my first race on a slick New York city street in the middle of monsoon-like conditions that foreboded the disasters ahead for an offensive lineman trying to race bikes, my pedals rang like a church bell on Sunday morning. The stiff frame responded to my lightest motion and the unsightly tan frame shone gold.
With the shot of a gun we were off… cautiously. Drops of water sprayed in everyone’s eyes, and I tried to settle into a good position about three riders back. At that point in time, I didn’t know about picking and catching breaks, prime laps, or even what a peloton was; I just knew I wanted to ride my bike fast, but that if I stayed behind a few folks I would conserve energy by letting them break the wind for me. For a half hour we went around the track. Near the end of the race the bell rang – I thought it was the last lap. So, after rounding the last soaked sharp corner, I took off. Behind me I heard a Darthmouth rider tell one of his teammates “don’t go for him – it’s not worth it,” which of course seemed strange to me with the race on the line, but I sprinted on and crossed the finish line first. Well, that was my introduction to the prime lap – a lap in which the winner gets prizes or points that, in comparison to winning the race, add up to a fairly insignificant amount.
Well, needless to say, the race wasn’t over. As I began slowing down after the finish line, other racers zoomed past me. Surprised, I worked to catch back onto the lead group. Coming around the last corner of the true last lap, I was exhausted! I took fifth.
Over the years, I kept racing, getting more and more interested in the techniques and challenge of the sport. I moved up categories; learned about the Peloton, breaks, and more than I wanted to know about external bottom brackets and the physics of radially-spoked wheels; split my face open in a crit crash and had it sewed back together; tried and fell in love with cyclocross racing; had my good races; my bad races; and – eventually – my wins.
I made great friends with my cycling teammates, and we went to races any way we could, and stayed on just about any floor that would let us crash for the night. When we went to race in Philly we stayed with my brother at UPenn. We had driven a great old blue van with window shades, and as Garrett walked past trying to locate us to let us into his place, we stuck our heads out one of the windows and said “hey kid, you want some candy?”
And through it all, the most refreshing part was that I cycled for fun. I often say that the most fun I had racing was at cyclocross race in which I crashed six times and came in second-to-last. It was a blast! Quite the opposite end of the spectrum from football: people don’t know you are on the cycling team – people don’t know there is a cycling team! For me, there is nothing more refreshing.
I guess the old adage is true: you get another hand soon after you fold. Make the best of it, and enjoy it.
