A Vols football player made a little bit of noise today for doing something other than getting arrested (sorry, low blow.) Offensive tackle Michael Munoz announced that after not being drafted over the weekend, he's quitting football and not going to try to be signed as a free agent. From the reaction of most of the sports press, you would've thought he was throwing away a winning lottery ticket.
Not me. I applaud his decision.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not attacking professional football as a career. If you've got the skills, what's a better way to sock at least a couple hundred-thou a year in the bank? You get at least a couple of months off a year, you get to travel a lot, meet lots of celebrities and hot babes, and all the free food you can eat. But when you get down to it, is that really a life? In a way, it's like extended college, but better financed and with a lot scarier downside.
Munoz said today that he never found his identity playing football. To me, that's an amazingly mature statement to make at age early-20ish. Most guys I know of that age find their identity at the bottom of a beer keg or in other activities that cannot be described in this family-friendly blog. Then it becomes your career. Some of us get stuck one one of the first two categories, by choice or otherwise. But this guy already has it figured out. He wants to finish college, maybe get his MBA, marry his fiancee', who's graduating nursing school, and have a family. He's choosing life over a football career. And instead of doing "whatever it takes" to pursue a dream that might be fleeting, he's building a foundation for something real.
By some weird coincidence, tonight I happened to have the final episode of "Coach" TiVoed (if you haven't figured it out yet, I have a thing for cheesy sitcoms.) In the episode, Hayden Fox has to decide whether to accept a $17 million, 10-year contract with his current NFL team or a deal with two other hot teams. In the end, he ditches football altogether to move back to Minnesota to live in his lakeside cabin with his wife and his newly-adopted son. Which is about the stupidest ending of all endings in the world if you've ever watched the whole show, because Coach Fox was about as likely to just abruptly quit football as Coach Fisher would be (God forbid!) But somehow, watching that episode with Coach and his baby Tim sitting next to the lake as he decided that he now knew what the real priorities in his life were, I actually got it. And while real life is rarely like a sitcom, I hope that Michael Munoz at least gets his version of a fairytale ending. Heck, I hope all of us looking for our identities do.
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