George Koonce at his doctoral graduation ceremony at Marquette University.
If you know George Koonce, it’s almost certainly for one of two things.
There were his eight years as a linebacker for the Green Bay Packers, and particularly the 1996 season, when he helped win a Super Bowl.
And there was his one-year tenure as the athletic director at UW-Milwaukee, which ended in 2010 and was mainly remarkable for its initial PR splash, then for its brevity.
He’s been in the news for other reasons these days, reasons far less flashy, but perhaps far more important. Because if Koonce has his way down the road, you might come to know him for helping save lives.
Academically, he’s Dr. George Koonce now, having recently earned the honor at Marquette University. He’s been a fundraiser there, and a raiser of awareness elsewhere.
Koonce did his doctoral dissertation on the challenges NFL players face when transitioning to life after football. It’s rather dry title: “Role Transition of National Football League Retired Athletes: A Grounded Theory Approach.” And the 200-pages may very well have gone unnoticed by the public if not for two poignant facts.
1) He delivered it on the same day that Junior Seau killed himself.
2) He once tried – and thankfully failed – Seau’s final play.
Local AP sportswriter Chris Jenkins wrote a fine feature on Koonce earlier this week. And Koonce himself has penned a guest column for ESPN.com explaining his story.
Both are well worth your time, and both made me wonder. Why haven’t players taken better care of their own?
The need is plainly apparent, and brought into sharper relief by Koonce’s research. There are stories aplenty about men who’ve lost their way after the bright lights went dark. Poverty, isolation, depression, debilitating health issues. Most stories don’t rise to the tragic level or notoriety of Seau’s, but are played out in obscurity. Because when players leave the game, we stop paying attention. It’s the nature of things.
Clearly, there are some helpful programs in place. And just as clearly, they are not enough. “Can we do more? Yes,” NFL vice president of player engagement Troy Vincent recently told the Associated Press. So what is stopping them from doing more for themselves?
Money should never be a problem. The 2012 NFL salary cap is projected to be about $120 million. If every team spends its allotted payroll, that’s $3.84 billion. And if every player set aside one-fourth of 1 percent of that salary, it would generate an annual return of nearly $10 million. If that’s not enough, give more. It’s the easiest check they should ever write.
Because this isn’t charity, it’s self-help. Every NFL player will become a former player. Some will need no help transitioning. Many will. There but for the grace of God go them.
And no, you can’t make somebody accept help. You can, however, exhaust every possible means to make them see its benefits. And it appears that’s not yet happening.
So it’s up to the players to do it, because in the end, no one is better prepared to do so. They are the ones with the experience, and they are the ones with the means to do something about it, man to strong man when sufficient, enabling outside assistance when necessary.
Much is made of the brotherhood that exists in the locker room.
It shouldn’t end when somebody leaves.
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