Careers in the NFL are notoriously short. For running backs, they are even shorter.
Whereas most positions can last a solid 5-10 years, running backs quickly rack up miles and can limit their playing time to just a handful of years. If they are lucky. This is why it's probably wise for most running backs to have post-career plans (even if they do retire as millionaires).
Kansas City Chiefs running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire seems to know this and has his post-playing plans in place. And he doesn't just want any run-of-the-mill job. He wants to help people. He wants to become a nurse.
Kansas City Chief Clyde Edwards-Helaire is going back to school to accomplish his dream.
The former first-round draft pick has had an up-and-down career since being drafted by the Chiefs. Now in the final year of his rookie contract, CEH is a backup to Isiah Pacheco. But he hasn't let that stop him on the field, or off of it.
On the field, Edwards-Helaire has displayed real improvement in this play this year. Even though he probably won't be a Chief next year, he should have no problem earning a second contract for another team. Heck, the Chiefs might even offer him a one or two-year deal to keep playing second fiddle.
Off the field, Edwards-Helaire is going back to school at LSU to become a nurse, something he's been passionate about for a long time because of his mother and sister.
More from #Chiefs Clyde Edwards-Helaire, who revealed he's been attending nursing school
— Aaron Ladd (@aaronladdtv) January 17, 2024
"It's close to my heart. My mom is a nurse and my little sister was born muscular dystrophy..." @KSHB41 pic.twitter.com/FObrqdzjAL
Honestly, I think this is so cool and wise at the same time. Football won't last forever, a fact that too many players don't realize until it's too late. Edwards-Helaire is preparing himself for the future, and that future happens to also want to be helping people. That takes a lot of heart.
I also have a lot of respect for someone who can go to school while also playing professional football. Going to school and having a full-time job is hard no matter what your career. But this has to be on another level. He did joke he had "nothing else going on."
Correction, Clyde. You have to go win another Super Bowl.