Being a pro-athlete comes with a ton of perks, but with an average career span of just 5-10 years, most retired pros find themselves looking for a second act. Luckily, these eight athletes found something else to do besides bingo and crosswords. Derek Jeter, take note!
Who would’ve thought this two-time World Heavyweight Boxing champ would end up selling a glorified hot plate? In one of the biggest athlete endorsements in history, George was paid $127.5 million (roughly 63,500,000 lbs worth of turkey burgers) to put his name on the Lean Mean Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine. Over 100 million units’ve been sold since the 1995 launch.
You know him as the Terminator (and today as the Governator), but back in the 1970s Arnold made a name for himself in the pro bodybuilding world, and took home the Mr Olympia title a whopping seven times. Arnold is technically on his fourth career (as a politician); his lesser-known third career, as a restauranteur played out in 2003, when he founded Planet Hollywood with Demi Moore, Bruce Willis, and Sylvester Stallone.
You probably weren’t even a twinkle in your father’s eye back when Franco Harris was helping the Pittsburgh Steelers earn four Super Bowl championships. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1990 (you might’ve been old enough to watch Rugrats by then). Harris went on to invent Super Bakery, a healthy doughnut shop that supplies guilt-free doughnuts to all 50 states — because the only thing more American than playing football just might be eating doughnuts.
What do you do when you retire from being one of the highest paid baseball players of your time? Three-time All-Star Mo Vaughn of the Boston Red Sox, Anaheim Angels, and New York Mets turned his concerns to low-income housing, and was probably one of the only people in real estate to actually make money during the recession. Vaughn founded his real estate firm, Omni New York, in 2004; it buys properties using government incentives, fixes them up, and manages them. He added 1,000 units to his firm alone in 2007-2008, and has over 8,000 units today (that’s 40 times more offices than Starbucks in NYC).
A decent number of athletes go on to host sports shows, but not many also build their own creative agencies and start fashion movements. After 11 years as an NFL linebacker, Dhani Jones hosted his own sports-centric shows, built the brand innovation agency VMG Creative, and founded The BowTie Cause — an organization that serves underprivileged youth, inspired by Jones’ late friend Kunta Littlejohn, who once told him, “If you wanna be somebody, you’ve gotta rock a bow-tie.”
While Shaq was making basketball history throughout the 90’s and 2000’s, he moonlit at every on-camera opportunity (literally — he even appeared in Aaron Carter’s music video). He threw down some pretty catchy beats on his platinum album, “Shaq Diesel” in 1993, and even became a reserve officer for Los Angeles County (… can you imagine getting arrested by the genie from Kazaam?).
With an NFL career as unspectacular as Heath Shuler’s, you need to come up with a noteworthy second act. Shuler graduated with one of the highest passing records at the end of his college football career, but after being drafted by the Washington Redskins, he played just four seasons — with 15 touchdowns to 33 interceptions. He then went on to become a US congressman. Turns out he was much better at passing bills than he was at passing footballs.
What’s a guy to do after his third time retiring from the NBA? Buy a team, of course. In 2010, Jordan gained majority ownership of the Charlotte Bobcats — making him the first former NBA player to ever go owner. But Jordan is no one (or two) trick pony — he’s a published author and a former minor league baseball player — not to mention that time he saved the universe from aliens in Space Jam.
