Howie Long, father of Kyle Long said that football is such a short episode of your like. A person needs to have long-term goals for when that time of your life ends. Far too many players don’t take this sound advice to heart and end up floundering when their career ends. Don’t expect new Chicago Bears offensive lineman Earl Watford to be among them.
Even as he prepares to compete in a strong room of blockers, he already has one eye drifting towards his new passion when football concludes. He revealed as much when he retweeted a SportsCenter video highlight of a major bout from UFC.
RT @JordansJordans3: RT @SportsCenter: The tables turned mid-air 👀 pic.twitter.com/4yElAzZn17 pic.twitter.com/6ptoA9NWpY
— Earl Watford (@EWatts78) June 2, 2018
As it turns out MMA appears to be a huge passion for Watford. Teammate Jordan Morgan proclaimed the kind of mild insanity it takes to step into the ring but Watford didn’t seem the least bit deterred. If anything his commitment to success in fighting seems every bit as amped up as it is in football.
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as soon as this league tosses me aside. I'm dropping all the wait and training for a year.
— Earl Watford (@EWatts78) June 2, 2018
Either way, Watford would not be the first athlete from a different sport to take up the challenge of mixed martial arts.
Earl Watford would join a growing NFL exodus to MMA
Already in the past few years, there have been a number of former NFL players who took up the mission of making a go in ultimate fighting. Greg Hardy, the former Panthers and Cowboys defensive end is among the most prominent. However, it’s ex-Pro Bowl running back Herschel Walker who seems to be having the most success. Keep in mind the man is in his 50s.
It’s not just football players though. Several different sports have opened pipelines. Former All-Star slugger Jose Conseco made a brief go of it back in the 2000s. Current WWE Universal champion Brock Lesnar had a successful run at it as well. Fellow former wrestler CM Punk is preparing for his second fight this month in Chicago.
Several athletes have felt they could make the jump. A large number of them found out that saying they’ll do it and pulling it off are two vastly different things. It’s admirable that Watford wants to give it a go and is willing to put in the work. Given the lukewarm success of his NFL career though? He might find the going pretty tough.
