October 22, 2025
An rising variety of NFL alums are taking an sudden profession route after their taking part in days by coming into the nursing career.
D’Brickashaw Ferguson, former New York Jets offensive sort out, and Patrick Hill, former Tennessee Titans fullback and working again, are amongst an rising variety of retired NFL gamers who have pursued careers in nursing after leaving skilled soccer.
Whereas many NFL retirees typically transition into sports activities broadcasting, teaching, monetary literacy, educating, actual property, or legislation enforcement, nursing is rising as a rising choice. Though actual numbers aren’t accessible, at the very least 5 present and former gamers have publicly shared their option to pursue nursing throughout or after their NFL careers.
“Nursing is a more recent space,” Tracy Perlman, senior vp of participant operations on the NFL, instructed The New York Instances.
This previous spring, Ferguson, 41, earned his nursing diploma from Thomas Jefferson College in Philadelphia and now works at RWJBarnabas Well being in New Jersey, persevering with the household legacy of his mom and grandmother, each nurses. Hill serves as an inpatient psychiatric nurse at UCLA Medical Heart and has expertise in numerous intensive care items.
Hill, 37, credit the “psychological toughness and resiliency” developed in soccer for serving to him thrive in nursing, a discipline that mirrors the teamwork and full engagement he skilled on the sphere.
“Two minutes of CPR is the longest two minutes you’ll in all probability ever do,” he mentioned, evaluating it to the “intense, hyper-focused” mindset gamers get throughout the two-minute warning, the automated timeout on the finish of the second and fourth quarters in each NFL sport.
Clyde Edwards-Helaire, 26, a working again on the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs’ follow squad, additionally comes from a nursing household. Watching his mom take care of his youthful sister Maddee, who has congenital muscular dystrophy, impressed his curiosity within the discipline. He’s now balancing soccer with college and is on observe to earn his bachelor’s diploma in nursing subsequent summer season.
Chandler Brayboy, 24, a large receiver for the Jacksonville Jaguars, earned his nursing diploma final yr whereas taking part in within the NFL. His curiosity in healthcare started in highschool after a well being science class taught him about Parkinson’s illness, prompting him to acknowledge the “pill-rolling” tremor in his grandfather and assist him get identified. Brayboy plans to pursue a profession as a crucial care nurse after retiring from soccer.
Brayboy’s deal with crucial care displays a pattern highlighted in a 2024 NurseJournal report, which discovered male nurses usually tend to pursue fast-paced specialties like emergency and significant care that demand adaptability, bodily stamina, and fast problem-solving. The variety of males in nursing has slowly risen, rising by 8% over the previous decade, serving to to problem long-standing stigmas which have saved males at roughly 13% of registered nurses.
“That is superior for boys to see,” mentioned Dr. Jason Mott, a professor on the College of Wisconsin Oshkosh School of Nursing and president of the American Affiliation for Males in Nursing.
Nathaniel Hughes, 40, performed extensive receiver for 4 NFL groups, together with the Jacksonville Jaguars and Detroit Lions. Frequent hospital visits from soccer accidents sparked his curiosity in well being care. He earned a bachelor’s diploma in nursing in 2008, earlier than being drafted, and accomplished his grasp’s in nursing in 2015 whereas nonetheless taking part in.
After seven years as a nurse, Dr. Hughes attended medical college and is now an anesthesiologist. Even along with his medical profession, he generally struggles to go away his former professional footballer way of life behind.
“You understand a whole lot of little nuances {that a} regular one that simply watches soccer wouldn’t,” Hughes mentioned. “Folks can choose up actual fast in your soccer I.Q. simply by your lingo. So they begin you want, ‘Yo, you play ball?’”
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