Transitioning out of one industry and into another can be challenging, especially after multiple years on the job. For many professional athletes, by the time they retire or are forced from the game by injury or obsolescence, they have been in their sport for 20 or 30 years. For too many of them, they find it difficult financially and emotionally to adjust to life after sports.
"Athletes — particularly in the revenue-generating sports and even moreso, we shine a light on football —they are discouraged from thinking critically," notes former pro football player Robert Turner.
Turner has devoted his life since leaving the sport to figuring out why that’s the case. Turner earned a Ph.D. in sociology and now teaches in the School of Medicine and Health Sciences at George Washington University. He’s also the author of a new book called Not For Long: The Life and Career of the NFL Athlete. The book is based on some of the work he did for his doctoral dissertation, which included a stint at Marquette University.
Tuner was on Lake Effect nine years ago as that work was coming together, and last week, when he was here to speak at Boswell Book Company:
