by Kerry Taylor
Is the journey over yet? Finally being able to shake off the disappointment of being released from the New England Patriots, I got back to work. Performing my own two-a-days, if you will. Early morning running sessions, followed up a little later in the day with some hard work in the weight room. All in the hopes of another call coming in to say, "Kerry, we would like to bring you in."
In the meantime, I set my sights on something I told myself I would always do, give back to my high school, more specifically, the football team. I approached coach Michael Redding who started me on my football journey to see if I could join his staff. I became an assistant coach for the freshman football team. That year was an amazingly fun-filled year for me. I was able to take all I've learned and start to give it back to a very special group of kids. The main goal was to get them to understand, if I can do it, so can you. To this day, that year and that group of kids hold and will always have a special place in my heart. Jump to these guys senior year and they end up graduating as one of the best teams to ever play at Mansfield High School.
Our season came to a close, no word from my agent that things were looking up, so I started to try and figure out and answer the question, "now what?", that so many of us get faced with. I looked into starting a career in multiple areas:
High School Teacher
Liquor Sales Representative
Beverage Sales Representative
Financial Advisor
College Football Coach
Insurance Salesman
College Strength and Conditioning Coach
I went on many interviews and researched more areas that I thought would work for me. One day, I came home from an interview at Fidelity. There was a message on my note pad left for me that said, "Call back the number, they didn't want to leave a message. But expressed that it was important." I called back, figuring it was one of the companies that I interviewed with, but low and behold, I was not done yet! There was a little life breathed back into my pro football career. The message was from one of the coaches that was a part of the newly started "XFL," the Xtreme Football League. This league was going to be run by the WWF and Vince McMahon. Yes! The opportunity I was looking for, another chance to showcase my skills and hopefully get back into the NFL. So I went for it, and signed a contract to play for the L.A. Extreme. This league was going to be different than the 11 on 11 game you and I know to be, but it is football regardless. So the dial of training was turned up to another level to prepare for what was to come.
Would this lead me back to the NFL? Or would I just become a guy who plays in the XFL for a few years? Tune in next time to find out.
Continue to live a life 1 degree above the rest!
