First and foremost, I want to preface this post by saying this is NOT meant to be a complaint. Joe and I have so many blessings in our lives that I could not list them all here even if I tried really, really, REALLY hard. I am well aware and grateful for how good we have it, so please do not misinterpret the following post as me complaining. Really, the following post is meant to simply inform those of a world that so many people are curious about, and show that things are not usually as perfect as they seem.
The life of an NFL athlete may seem glamorous and enviable (and in some ways it is), but there is a lot of difficult baggage that comes along with the good stuff that people rarely think about. In order to avoid sounding too negative, here are some of the great things about being employed by the NFL:
-Your job is to play a sport and be in shape
-You get paid well (in a lot of cases extremely well)
-You get a lot of downtime in the off-season
-You meet a lot of cool people (and by "cool" I don't mean famous, I simply mean really nice and interesting people from all over the country)
-Other misc. "perks" just for being you (getting free/reduced priced stuff, getting invited to events, etc.)
Sound about right? These are probably the things most people think of when they imagine being an NFL player. Being rich, famous, having really nice things and really hot wives and having many things in life handed to you just because of your name, or more importantly, your jersey #.
But things are rarely as glamorous as they seem. Daily life is a grind for these big guys, with many of them taking pain meds like you and I take daily vitamins, or more. They are constantly bashing their heads and bodies against some of the biggest, fastest, and strongest athletes in our entire nation. Perhaps even greater than the physical stress they endure is the mental stress. There is no job security and no loyalty in the NFL. You could play for a team for 10 years, and if someone better or cheaper comes along they will cut you in an instant. It happens all of the time. You are not viewed by management as a human being, but as a commodity to make $. Once your production wavers, you are let go. No contracts are guaranteed. You get paid by the week, and if you have a bad game and get cut you can kiss your paycheck goodbye. The best thing you can do at that point is hope that another team picks you up on the wire, and then it is off to a new city/state/team to start all over again...
I haven't even mentioned training camp yet. For the month of August, these men are forced from their homes, wives, and children to live in a hotel and work grueling, exhausting 14+ hour days. I know what you are thinking, "Well they sure get paid a hell of a lot for it". Well I got some news for ya: they don't. Last year they got paid $130/day during camp. That is less than $10/hour. Are you kidding me?! In addition, approximately 1/3 of the players who go through training camp get cut right before the season starts. Kind of a "thank you for surviving hell and getting paid crap for it, good luck with finding a new job". Awesome.
The life of an NFL wife is also greatly misunderstood. Newsflash: we are not all hot, tan, fake blonde, big boobed women who are ditzy and shop all day. I have yet to meet Jessica Simpson at any Seahawk affiliated event. Most of the NFL wives I know are beautiful, yes, but they are also strong, supportive, selfless, and (gasp) smart, too. We put our own career goals on hold so our husbands can pursue a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. We give head-scratches and massages to husbands who come home beat up and bleeding (literally) from work. We take care of the household/kids/pets when our husbands travel or are in training camp and we are alone, far away from our family and friends. Above all, we love our husbands for who they are, not for their production on the football field like so many other people do. These men are our husbands who play football, not football players who are our husbands.
I realize this post has turned into somewhat of a rant, and for that I apologize. Again, my intent here is not to complain but to simply inform. The NFL has provided Joe and I with so many blessings in our first two years of marriage, and I am genuinely grateful for those things. We have met some awesome people, had some amazing experiences, and have really enjoyed living up here in Washington. (It ALMOST competes with Oregon;) It has also put us in a better financial position to do things like travel around the world, start a retirement fund, and shed us from our previous ghetto cars. As a young forester and teacher, we probably would not have been able to go to Italy and would still be driving around a '94 Ford Aerostar (that "ding"ed whenever the headlights were on) and a '94 Ford Escort (w/ no door handle, AC, or power steering).
So where does this leave us now? Grateful for where we are, but also in anticipation of the end of training camp. I want to be able to get a permanent teaching/coaching job (instead of subbing, yet again) and look for a house. Joe simply wants to be done w/ training camp, and know if he has a future in football or needs to find a new job. Both of us simply want to know where we are living and working next month, is that too much to ask for?
I guess only time will tell... so we wait. While Joe keeps working hard and grinding each day out at camp, I am at home taking care of our household responsibilities and our beloved dog Jack. I am trying to enjoy my time off, as this is the first summer I haven't worked since I was 16. I am really looking forward to seeing family and friends when I go home to Portland tomorrow, but in the back of my mind it is hard to completely let go and relax. Despite all of the weddings and fun events planned for the month of August, a small part of me just wants the month to hurry up and be over already, so we can know what the heck is happening with our lives. But for now, I will try and enjoy each day and not think about the future and what lies ahead for us. After all, it is completely out of my control.
Still envious?
