Where’s That Tiger: 4 Fathers & Their Lives After Football

Collegiate athletes live for the rush of adrenaline. To make it to the college game, they’ve defied long odds to become the most accomplished athletes in their high school, maybe the most famous in their city. They come to campus with lifelong aspirations to make The League and secure a future for themselves and their families; and here they face the challenges of academic performance, the daily physical and emotional demands of practice, and ultimately relinquish their sense of self for the betterment of the TEAM.

This builds the character, grit, and resilience that will drive them to their next phase.

But what happens if the journey ends there? When the hype is done, the final season is over, and the prospects of a career in professional sports don’t pan out, what’s left?

It’s common for athletes in all sports to experience the emptiness of “the end.” And if they haven’t had authentic conversations with teammates, friends, or a mental health counselor to prepare them, the end can become a very lonely place.

When the cheers are finally silent and life’s many responsibilities loom, it’s time to find a new team.

Four former LSU football players found their team by turning to each other. Lamin Barrow, Ego Ferguson, Jahkari Gore, and Ronald Martin recreated their own locker room experience behind a microphone with their “Cut The Label” (CTL) Podcast on Rumble.com. They invited in vulnerability, began to share their loss of identity and their current life status, compared their “wounds,” shared their joys, and just began to be “in the moment.” And of course, like every good locker room, this podcast has its smack talk, the occasion F-bomb, and just being real.

Addressing one’s mental health can take on many shapes, and CTL’s Mental Health Wednesdays may not be everyone’s cup of tea. I don’t have any control over its content or direction, but I’m recommending it to you as a great lesson in working through the process of healing, and creating a safe space where you can come back together and build the “team of a lifetime.”