When Glen Coffee retired from the NFL in 2010, many thought he was going to become a pastor. While he never became a pastor, Coffee was involved in ministry. Now, Coffee wants to return to the NFL. “People would look at my age (30) and say why I waited so long, but I really feel like I am 23, and really believe I can play another five, six years if I wanted to,” Coffee told Paul Gant.
Coffee, who played for the 49ers in 2009, recalled the moment when he realized that he wanted to play the game of football again. “I was watching Monday Night Football, and the 49ers were playing. And Carlos Hyde was running the ball, and he was having a great game. And I just had a thought in my head, like man, I was really blessed with great athleticism, and God was really giving me the opportunity to express that through football. And I kind of felt, I don’t want to say guilty, but it was kind of like, man, I really wanted to experience this before it’s too late.”
In 2013, three years after he retired, Coffee decided to enter the military. He explained why: “I just came to the realization to have a country, and say we have borders you have to have a military to contain those borders, to keep those borders. I don’t want to make it seem like I’m being patriotic, but I just felt like if I were abled body to do it, then I should do it.”
Coffee did acknowledge that one reason for his return to football is financial. However, he plans on doing some interesting things with his NFL paycheck. “I want to be what you would call a permaculturalist. It just stands for permanent agriculture, and I want to farm man. I want to kind of be off the grid.”
Eventually, Coffee would like to learn how to grow and gather his own food.
“I want to know how to grow things. I want to know how to butcher animals, and I want to be able to fix things,” Coffee said.
Coffee believes that his hard work as well as his faith in God will get him back to the NFL. “First and foremost, I just believe that God has got me. I just feel like I wouldn’t be given this opportunity, and I feel like it wouldn’t be out there on social media, and SportsCenter, and yadda, yadda. Unless, it was really meant to be, it’s really on faith man. I just can’t sit here and say I deserve to be, or I will be, because of this or this. It’s really on faith.”
Coffee feels he has heard enough around the league to believe that he will get another chance in the NFL.
“I believe with hard work you can get anything. I just think they’re will be enough interest out there for me to get an invite to camp, and if I touch down on camp, its on from there.”
We’ll see what the future holds for Glen Coffee.
Listen to the complete interview below:
