I was wondering what your motivation was for playing football overseas? Are you getting paid, when are you leaving?” –Jake Smyth
Its a good question. Many Layers. Like an Onion. Layers.
My motivation for playing overseas was this: I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to the game just yet. Getting hurt in my final season at UConn and not being able to start my last game at the ‘Rent and in the Bowl was not the way I wanted to go out.
I figured that this would be a way to see Europe, and maybe “give back” a little of what I have taken.
Give Back you say? What do you mean?….
Well, part of going to play in Austria means that I will be also involved in spreading the game to local kids and teaching them the finer points of football (read: the finer points of being fat and white). I can’t wait.Earlier this year I said that I was the last person that would play anywhere but the NFL. Direct quote: “I’d play in the NFL but I won’t bang around the CFL or Arena just to come up short.” Well, now look at me. The truthful answer is this, until the final whistle blows on your last game, in the twilight of your career, you can’t make that call. You won’t understand the emotion that accompanies it being over. Really over. My final whistle came, and I wasn’t ready to say goodbye. Unfortunately my on field
performance didn’t warrant a direct ticket to the NFL. So this was a great opportunity for me. (that answer is way more than you wanted, isn’t it?)
Yes. I am getting paid. In Euros. It’s not a lot, but its enough for me to be playing 5,000 miles from home, in a country I’ve never been, with a language I don’t speak.
I leave March 1st. I’ll be chronicling the entire experience. Perhaps I’ll change this blog to “Lunn in Lederhosen
.”
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