--- title: "What Retired NFL Players Get Wrong About Their… | Metaintro" canonical: "https://www.metaintro.com/blog/retired-athletes-second-career-transition-2026" language: "en" author: "drashtigarach" published: "2026-09-01T13:19:53.000Z" modified: "2026-09-28T18:21:49.569Z" --- [Back to Blog](/blog) [Career](/blog/tag/career)[Career Tips](/blog/tag/career-tips)[Advice](/blog/tag/advice)[Guide](/blog/tag/guide)[Self Help](/blog/tag/self-help) # What Retired NFL Players Get Wrong About Their Second Career Elite skill does not transfer, and taking a break is how people get stuck. What one former NFL center did differently, and how it applies to any career with an end date. [![Drashti Garach](https://cdn.metaintro.com/rs:fill:40:40/q:72/plain/images/5719d740-e510-42bc-8017-e040d145f35f_1766029465094.png)Drashti Garach @DrashtiGarach](/blog/author/drashtigarach) [September 1, 2026](/blog/archive/2026/09)14 min read ![What Retired NFL Players Get Wrong About Their Second Career](https://cdn.metaintro.com/rs:fill:1200:675/q:78/plain/images/10109-hero.jpg) [https://x.com/intent/tweet?text=What%20Retired%20NFL%20Players%20Get%20Wrong%20About%20Their%20Second%20Career&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.metaintro.com%2Fblog%2Fretired-athletes-second-career-transition-2026](https://x.com/intent/tweet?text=What%20Retired%20NFL%20Players%20Get%20Wrong%20About%20Their%20Second%20Career&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.metaintro.com%2Fblog%2Fretired-athletes-second-career-transition-2026)[http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.metaintro.com%2Fblog%2Fretired-athletes-second-career-transition-2026](http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.metaintro.com%2Fblog%2Fretired-athletes-second-career-transition-2026)[https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.metaintro.com%2Fblog%2Fretired-athletes-second-career-transition-2026&title=What%20Retired%20NFL%20Players%20Get%20Wrong%20About%20Their%20Second%20Career](https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.metaintro.com%2Fblog%2Fretired-athletes-second-career-transition-2026&title=What%20Retired%20NFL%20Players%20Get%20Wrong%20About%20Their%20Second%20Career)[mailto:?subject=What%20Retired%20NFL%20Players%20Get%20Wrong%20About%20Their%20Second%20Career&body=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.metaintro.com%2Fblog%2Fretired-athletes-second-career-transition-2026](mailto:?subject=What%20Retired%20NFL%20Players%20Get%20Wrong%20About%20Their%20Second%20Career&body=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.metaintro.com%2Fblog%2Fretired-athletes-second-career-transition-2026) If your career has a hard expiry date, the most useful thing you can read is an account from someone who watched dozens of people reach theirs. Speaking to [Inc.](https://www.inc.com/daniel-robbins/ryan-kalil-saw-retired-athletes-get-stuck-heres-how-he-started-building-his-next-career/91397962), former NFL center Ryan Kalil described having had a front row seat both to how players transitioned out of sport and to how not to. His diagnosis is blunt and generalises well beyond athletes. Elite skill does not automatically convert, and the pause most people take afterwards is where the damage happens. At [Metaintro](/), we cover transitions like this because the pattern applies to anyone whose current role has a shelf life, which is a far larger group than professional sport. ## Why does elite skill fail to transfer? Because what made you exceptional was specific rather than general. As Kalil put it, in terms of the knowledge you build from learning how to block somebody, throw a pass or dunk a basketball, it does not really translate. That is worth sitting with, because it contradicts the story usually told about high performers. The comforting version says that discipline, competitiveness and work ethic are transferable, so a great athlete will be great at whatever comes next. The observed version is that the deep expertise, the part that actually made someone elite, was built for one context and does not port. What remains is the generic material, which is real but is not a differentiator, because everyone competing for the next job also works hard. This is why the transition is harder for the most accomplished people rather than easier. Someone who was merely good at their first career carries less specialised capital and feels the loss less. Someone who was exceptional has spent years compounding an advantage that stops counting on a specific date. The version of this that arrives without a scoreboard is [what happens when a good job stops being good enough](/blog/when-good-job-stops-being-good-enough-career-change-guide-2026), and the harder half of it is [letting go of a past career identity](/blog/letting-go-past-career-identity-reinvention-playbook-2026) covers the psychological half of that problem, which is usually underestimated. ## What is the actual failure mode? The break. Kalil described the pattern precisely, saying that a lot of players get out, take a break, and then find themselves stuck in limbo because they do not really know what to do. Notice what that is not. It is not choosing the wrong second career, and it is not failing at one. It is the gap itself becoming the problem. A break is entirely reasonable after an intense career, and it is also the moment when structure, routine, colleagues and identity all disappear at once. The longer it runs, the harder it becomes to re enter anything, because the question shifts from what will I do next to who am I now. The practical lesson is that the decision needs to be made before the exit, not after it. That is uncomfortable advice, because the period before an ending is usually the period when you are most consumed by the thing that is ending. It is nonetheless the window where you still have the network, the relevance and the energy that make the next move easier. The same dynamic shows up in [career reinvention later in life](/blog/career-reinvention-after-60) and in [how laid off tech workers approach reinvention](/blog/laid-off-tech-workers-career-reinvention-2026). ## What did he actually do instead? He built the second thing while the first was still running, and then used what did transfer. Kalil and former NBA All Star Blake Griffin are partners in the production company [Mortal Media](https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/blake-griffin-ryan-kalil-were-are-osos-youtube-docuseries-1236834402/), which has produced scripted series including Apple TV's Hello Tomorrow and the Hulu reboot of White Men Can't Jump. In January 2025 they went further, acquiring a controlling stake in an American football team based in Monterrey, Mexico, competing in the LFA, and rebranding it as the Osos. The ownership group is unusual in itself, including Christian McCaffrey, George Kittle, Sam Darnold, Greg Olsen, Luke Kuechly, Julius Peppers, Jonathan Stewart and Ron Rivera, alongside two figures from a sports podcast. Kalil described the venture as explicitly not a passive investment, framing it as a chance to help grow the game internationally alongside lifelong friends who bring experience from playing at the highest level. Then they filmed it. The docuseries We Are Osos began on YouTube on 3 August, with Kalil and Griffin as co stars and executive producers, and it marked the production company's first move into self distribution. Kalil said that having finished their respective sports careers, they have been able to sit down, build more structure and map out the future of the company. ## Why does the Mexico market matter to the story? Because it is the part where his old career genuinely counted. The investment reflected confidence in Mexico's American football fanbase, which includes 30 million NFL enthusiasts, making it one of the league's most significant international markets. That is the whole strategic point. Kalil did not enter a market where being a former NFL center was a nice anecdote. He entered one where the sport itself was the product, where the ownership group's playing experience was directly relevant to player development, and where the network of former teammates became the capital base. His specific knowledge about blocking still does not translate to running a business. His credibility inside American football, his relationships, and his understanding of what players need absolutely do. The generalisable move is to look for the adjacent market rather than the clean break. Most people leaving a career reach for something unrelated, on the reasonable theory that they are finished with the old thing. The stronger play is usually to find the place where your existing standing is an asset that a newcomer cannot buy. Identifying that adjacency deliberately is the whole of a good [career change strategy](/blog/career-change-strategy), and [the best jobs for a career change](/blog/best-jobs-for-a-career-change) is a useful starting map if nothing obvious presents itself. ## What role did mentors play? A decisive one, and it is the cheapest part of this to copy. Kalil said he had a lot of really great mentors while playing, and that these were older players who had retired before him. That gave him the front row seat to both good and bad transitions. The structural insight there is that he learned the transition from people one stage ahead, not from people at the top of his own field. Those are different relationships. A mentor in your current career helps you do your current job better, which is valuable and also keeps you facing the wrong direction. Someone who left five years ago can tell you what actually happens next, what they underestimated, and which doors were still open at the point they stopped calling. Anyone in a career with a foreseeable end should be building that second kind of relationship now, while it costs nothing and carries no urgency. Those connections are easier to build when nobody needs anything yet, which is why [informal mentorships beat formal programmes](/blog/informal-mentorships-beat-formal-programs-career-growth-2026) and why [mentoring matters more in the AI era](/blog/why-mentoring-matters-more-ai-era) than it did a decade ago. ## How short is a professional sports career, really? Short enough that the second career is the longer one. The [Bureau of Labor Statistics](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/entertainment-and-sports/athletes-and-sports-competitors.htm) puts the median annual wage for athletes and sports competitors at 66,710 dollars in May 2025, with employment projected to grow 6 percent from 2025 to 2035. That median is worth sitting with, because it describes the occupation rather than the handful of contracts that make the news. Most people employed as professional athletes are not earning enough to stop working afterwards, which is exactly why the transition question is a career question rather than a wealth management one. The institutional support exists but has to be sought out. The [NFL Players Association](https://nflpa.com/) runs former player services and professional development programming, and the [NFL](https://www.nfl.com/) itself operates transition programmes for players leaving the game. College sport runs the same problem one stage earlier, which is why the [NCAA](https://www.ncaa.org/) publishes its own figures on how few athletes compete professionally at all, and why the [US Olympic and Paralympic Committee](https://www.usopc.org/) runs an athlete career and education programme for the same reason. The two people in this story did not wait for either. They started building the next thing while they were still inside the first one, which is the part that generalises. ## Who else does this apply to? Far more people than professional athletes, and that is the reason to read it. Any career with a structural ceiling on its length has the same shape. Military service, professional dance and performance, commercial aviation, [physically demanding trades](/blog/electrician-career-guide-skills-earnings-job-outlook), and roles ending through restructuring rather than age all share the core features, which are a hard stop, deep specialised skill, and an identity heavily bound up in the work. The AI reshaping of white collar work is quietly adding a much larger group. When a role's routine content is automated, the specialist knowledge built inside it can stop counting on a timeline nobody chose, which produces the same transferability problem without the benefit of a known end date. How quickly that arrives is visible in [the surge in AI role searches as people plan pivots](/blog/ai-role-searches-grown-11x-career-pivot-2026), and in [workers facing constant reinvention as the price of job security](/blog/workers-constant-reinvention-job-security-2026-ets-report) and on [when a good job stops being good enough](/blog/when-good-job-stops-being-good-enough-career-change-guide-2026) covers that wider population. The athlete case is simply the clearest version, because the end date is visible and the contrast is stark. Griffin, for instance, played professional basketball for 14 years and now holds several roles at once, including on air analyst work alongside the production company and the team. That portfolio shape is increasingly what a second act looks like rather than a single replacement job, and it is the same pattern behind [how Olympic athletes build side income](/blog/olympic-athletes-side-gigs) and in [fractional and part time executive careers](/blog/fractional-leadership-guide-part-time-executive-careers-2026). ## What makes a second act actually work? Three conditions show up in this case, and all three are copyable without a sports career behind you. The first is that the new venture is operational rather than passive. Kalil was explicit that the team would not be a passive investment, and the pair are co owners, co stars and executive producers of the series about it. That distinction matters because the most common second act available to a successful person is advisory or investment work, which pays and yet rarely rebuilds the structure and purpose that the first career supplied. Doing the work is what replaces the work. The second is that the venture used an existing partnership rather than starting alone. Mortal Media already existed and had produced scripted series for major streamers before the team acquisition happened. The football venture was added to a functioning business with an established partner, not built from nothing during a period of upheaval. Where you have a collaborator from your first career, that relationship is often the most valuable thing you carry out of it, which is also the argument in [why informal mentorships beat formal programmes](/blog/informal-mentorships-beat-formal-programs-career-growth-2026). The third is that they took a route others had overlooked. Self distributing the series on YouTube was a first for the company, and Kalil described it as having been a beast while adding that they expect it to be the future going forward. Entering through an underused channel is often how someone without incumbent advantages gets traction, and it applies well beyond media. The same instinct is behind [Gen Z turning to entrepreneurship out of necessity](/blog/gen-z-entrepreneurial-generation-necessity) and behind [the opening months of a consulting business](/blog/first-90-days-consulting-business-career-change-2026) covers the same principle for people building without a public profile. There is a fourth condition worth naming honestly, which is capital. An ownership group of this kind is not available to most people leaving a career. What is available is the underlying logic, which is to combine relationships, credibility and a market where both count, then to do the work rather than fund it. The scale differs. The structure does not, and the smallest viable version of it is [side income built around a full time job](/blog/after-9pm-side-hustles-2026-earnings-setup-time). ## What does this mean for your career? Six moves, in the order they are useful. Start before you finish. The failure described is the break, not the choice. Whatever your end date looks like, the preparation belongs on the near side of it. Separate what transfers from what does not, honestly. The deep technical content of your current role probably does not travel. Your judgement, your relationships and your understanding of the industry usually do. Build the next move on the second category, the way [customer service transferable skills](/blog/customer-service-transferable-skills) get repackaged from a very different starting point. Look for the adjacent market. The Mexico venture worked because it sat inside a sport where his standing was real capital and the audience was already 30 million strong. Ask where your existing credibility is worth something rather than where it is merely interesting. Use your network as a founding asset. The ownership group is a list of former colleagues. Most people treat their professional network as a source of referrals. It can also be a source of co founders, investors and partners, which is a materially different use. Expect a portfolio rather than a replacement. Kalil and Griffin run a production company, own a team and produce a series, and Griffin holds a broadcast role on top. For people without a sports profile, that looks like [building a company without a traditional job](/blog/building-company-without-traditional-job-career-changers-2026). Finally, find someone one stage ahead of you. The mentors who mattered here were people who had already retired. That conversation is available to almost anyone and is rarely asked for. The mindset half is worth borrowing too, from [the athlete mindsets that sharpen career performance](/blog/athlete-mindsets-career-performance-2026) to [the psychological principles elite athletes use](/blog/psychological-principles-elite-athletes-sharpen-career-2026), alongside the plainer question of [how to pick a career that actually fits](/blog/how-to-pick-career) if you are starting from a blank page. ## Related Articles - [Laid Off? Skip the Mass Post and Call These People First](/blog/laid-off-lean-on-relationships-not-network) - [What Heineken's Coffee Executive Hire Says About Career Pivots](/blog/heineken-coffee-executive-ceo-career-pivots-2026) - [How to Start a Freelance Business Before You Need One](/blog/how-to-start-freelance-business-before-you-need-one) - [Why a Career Passport Could Replace the Resume](/blog/career-passport-replace-resume-2026-graduates) - [Why Many in Gen Z Are Choosing Founder Over Full Time](/blog/gen-z-entrepreneurship-ai-job-market-2026) - [The Jobs Report Sector Map and Where America Is Actually Hiring](/blog/april-2026-bls-sector-map-career-pivot) - [Jobs With a Twenty Year Retirement and How That Pension Works](/blog/jobs-with-20-year-retirement) - [Why Gen Z Workers Are Taking Mini Retirements Instead of Waiting](/blog/gen-z-workers-taking-mini-retirements) - [How to Change Careers Into Physical Therapy](/blog/career-change-to-physical-therapy-guide-2025) - [The Freelancer Survival Guide as AI Reshapes the Platform Economy](/blog/freelancer-survival-guide-gig-workers-thrive-ai-platform-economy-2026) - [The Boomer Retirement Wave and What It Means for Employers](/blog/boomer-retirement-wave) - [How Multiple Remote Jobs Are Paving the Way to Early Retirement](/blog/multiple-remote-jobs-early-retirement) ## People Also Asked ### Q: Why do so many professional athletes struggle after retiring? A: Because the expertise does not transfer and the gap afterwards is dangerous. As one former NFL center described it, the knowledge built from learning to block, throw a pass or dunk a basketball does not really translate outside the game. He added that many players get out, take a break, and then find themselves stuck in limbo because they do not know what to do next. ### Q: What should you do before a career with an end date finishes? A: Build the next thing while the current one is still running, and learn from people who have already made the exit. The mentors who shaped this particular transition were older players who had retired first, which gave a front row seat to how to transition and how not to. The alternative, pausing first and deciding later, is the described failure mode. ### Q: Is a second career usually one new job or several? A: Increasingly several. The example here involves running a production company, co owning a football team in Mexico's LFA, and executive producing a series about it, with one of the pair also working as an on air basketball analyst after 14 years as a player. That portfolio pattern is becoming a more realistic model than finding a single replacement role. Ready to level up? [Metaintro](/) tracks how people actually move between careers, which skills carry across and which do not, so you can plan the next step before you need it. 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