Post-Athletic Life Quotes

After I quit the U.S. Ski Team, there was a fair amount of, you know, grief that follows that, and I just wanted to take a year off. And I had a friend that lived in Los Angeles, said I could crash on his couch. And so I just kind of did the first really spontaneous thing I'd done in my young adult life.

I'll be a fan of the XFL, and if they want me to do something, then I'd love to... not to play. I'm not gonna play. I'm done with that, but everything else is fair game.

I never looked at hockey as work. Now that I'd finished playing, I had to go to work.

It eventually ends, and that's what I think a lot of athletes forget. It's 10 years after the Olympics, and you won the Olympics, and that's great, but no one cares.

While I'm an athlete and while I'm fighting actively, I don't intend to pursue a career in politics. What happens after that, we'll see. But I don't have an intention to do both at the same time.

I wanted to do two things when I was growing up, about your age. I wanted to play in the NBA, and I wanted to be a businessman after my basketball career was over, and that is what I am doing now.

I am thinking more and more about what I want to and can do after my days as an active athlete. Thoughts like family and marriage also cross my mind more and more often.

I had always looked after myself after I stopped playing.

People ask me all the time would I like to still be playing? No. I'm glad I played when I played.

I was lucky. I held on to some of my money. I didn't really know what I wanted to do after boxing. But I found what I wanted to do.

In sports... you play from the time you're eight years old, and then you're done forever.

Make sure you're building your brand early and make sure it's a good brand so in life after basketball, you have an option and you have resources to help you with that.

I was in the doldrums for a while after my athletics career ended in 1992. I spent six to eight hours a day training, for 18 years, and it took a long time to get over the regret that I wasn't competing in major championships any more. All I ever wanted to be was the best. But I find new projects and I keep things in perspective.

No matter how good of a ball player you were, you can't keep going forever. You're not going to be able to hit .300 when you're 60. You still look around and you think, 'This is weird. Have I missed something?' Well, yeah, you have.

Retirement is purgatory for the former sports star. The world outside organized sports is unforgiving.

I think every athlete is afraid for their career to be over.

I can't play football forever, I am not a greedy person.

Your name or what you've done on the rugby pitch is not going to carry you through for the rest of your life. I realise I'm going to have to eventually do something else, and that does frighten me a little bit.

You always see people coming back to the sport, and I've always thought, 'Gosh, when you're done playing, wouldn't you just want to stay at home?'

I love track and field, but I also know the day will come when I will have to do something else.

After giving up softball, I didn't know what I was going to do. I thought I would try bobsled, but I wasn't really sure what would happen. I thought my athletic career was over.

I've seen a lot of guys who can't get beyond their playing days.

I was playing college football, and I hurt my knee very badly my senior year, and I didn't want to get a real job.

The lifespan of most professional athletes is relatively short, and most have no preparation for doing anything after their career ends, which it could in an instant.

I've got my head fixed on the next part of life. I know there will be an adjusting period of just not being a rugby player for a while, and over that period I'll get my head around what the next challenge involves.