Life after football is a haven of endorsement deals, cushy media gigs and autograph signings for many retired NFL players - or at least that's what the most prevalent stories would have you believe.
For other players, like former Philadelphia Eagles, Arizona Cardinals and Buffalo Bills quarterback Kevin Kolb, whose post-playing career involves no media gigs or endorsement deals, life after football has been the antithesis of cushy or easy.
For the 30-year-old Kolb, who played in the league from 2007-2013, daily life now involves finding ways to deal with issues related to a number of concussions he sustained throughout his playing career, which Kolb himself outlines in this article appearing on Sports Illustrated's The Monday Morning Quarterback.
On a day-to-day basis, I have to respect the concussion symptoms. That means getting a good night's sleep every night. If I don't get a good night's rest, I feel the impact the next day. These are challenges, but they're ones I can always handle if my head and my heart are in the right place.
Kolb suffered his first diagnosed NFL concussion on a hit by Green Bay Packers linebacker Clay Matthews early in the 2010 season opener. It was Kolb's first season as the expected starter in Philadelphia.
My first concussion came right after I took over as the Eagles' starter, on opening day in 2010, on a Clay Matthews sack. I suffered two more concussions and a very serious rib injury when I was with Arizona in 2012.
Kolb writes that each day is a battle and he sometimes finds it difficult to discern what is a post-concussion symptom and what isn't.
With concussions, sometimes you don't know what is a symptom and what is not. But some symptoms are impossible to ignore. The ringing is like someone shooting a shotgun right next to my ear, every second of every day. It doesn't go away.
The sensitivity to light also has a profound impact. I'll be in a business meeting indoors and have to politely ask to put on my sunglasses before the headaches and double vision start.
The repeated brain trauma Kolb has suffered is one thing, but he maintains that a large part of his daily difficulties stem from the fact that he still misses playing - misses the life of a football player.
I miss playing, but at first the hardest part was not having the routine. It was such a central part of how I've lived my life. But all that was shattered when I suffered my last concussion on my 29th birthday, in a preseason game for the Bills on Aug. 24, 2013.
Kolb's last concussion - his most innocuous - also highlights the scariest aspects of brain injuries and the increased susceptibility that comes from having sustained multiple concussions.
The thing about the last concussion, with Buffalo ... I didn't think it could possibly be serious. The Redskins defender just ran by me at the end of a routine scramble and caught my helmet with his knee. I went numb from my neck down for about three seconds, but I stayed in the game. I didn't know what it was or how serious it would turn out to be. It couldn't be happening again.
But it was and it did. And now Kolb, like many players forced to return to the real world after years in the limelight playing a children's game for a living, does his best to fill his days with family, faith and work in an effort to keep himself together and keep his now battered mind occupied.
