This year at age 30, I got one last opportunity from the XFL’s Arlington Renegades to go out and play the game I have loved since I knew how to walk, only a few exits from where I first hit the field almost 25 years ago in Irving, Texas.
I’m thankful to the many people who helped along my journey, including my family, trainers, doctors, team staff, and others. To my teammates turned brothers and coaches turned mentors, the brotherhood we’re a part of transcends generations, and I’m forever grateful for every last one of you.
Monday, I had surgery to reconstruct my knee after tearing my ACL and meniscus in San Antonio in Week 4, and I decided to retire from football.
On Wednesday, XFL players rejected the opportunity to organize with the United Steelworkers (USW).
Some might be under the impression that the NFL Players Association would step in to provide representation. But I can tell you from experience, it’s the Steelworkers who’ve had our backs.
After fighting with AAF and the old XFL, after too many broken promises to count, we realized if we ever wanted to play again, we had to form some kind of union.
We had to have protections so we could be sure we wouldn’t get kicked out of hotels because the league was using fraudulent funding, or have to pay back medical bills or pay for surgeries, or cover our own travel back home or have our pay cut at the last minute.
After the AAF in 2019 and XFL in 2020 both folded and left players high and dry, we formed the UFPA and reached out to the NFLPA for help organizing and representing players in the USFL for the 2022 season.
We were former NFL players, and we thought that since the NFL was grabbing guys from these leagues and guys were having success, their union would embrace us as former players and potential future players.
To this date, they have not responded, but the United Steelworkers did.
It was the Steelworkers who embraced us with zero hesitations. Thanks to the Steelworkers, we organized and have a voice in the USFL similar to the CFLPA players up in Canada. It allowed us to finally be seen and recognized as a collective group of people trying to accomplish something.
The USW is a founding member of the AFL-CIO Sports Council, a group of unions that work together, that includes the NFLPA. They recognized our hard work and our success and they stood behind our organizing campaign.
The amazing thing I’ve taken from football is accountability and transparency is the only way you grow. We have filed objections with the National Labor Relations Board about the election because not everyone was able to get a chance to vote.
We need to get that right.
This game taught me to lay it all on the line no matter who’s watching and fight until you have nothing left in you. You never know when your last play is, so every time you strap it up, don’t hold anything back.
This game has served as a safe space for me for a long time in my life. I want that for every player across every league.