Drew Bledsoe was announced as one of the three finalists for the Patriots Hall of Fame this week, along with Bill Parcells and Houston Antwine.
Fans can vote for who should be inducted at Patriots.com. With all due respect to Antwine and the Big Tuna, we can’t imagine this will be that close. Bledsoe helped re-energize an entire franchise, led the team to one Super Bowl, and played a key role in the organization winning its first title.
Bledsoe spoke with reporters Friday and took a trip down memory lane, and then talked about his life after football in the wine business. His story is one that could be helpful for a lot of pros: start planning for your future before you retire.
“You’ve got to find things to fill those voids. The advantage that I had is that I recognized probably eight or nine years into my career that it wasn’t going to last forever. So we started planning for it. I bought some vineyard lands and started that project.”
He says the transition to a life without football can be difficult, but its less so if you stay busy.
“I honestly haven’t had a day since I retired where I’ve gotten out of bed trying to figure out what I was going to do that day,” Bledsoe said. “I’ve just been engaged the entire time. So from that standpoint, I think Brett [Favre] just needs a hobby. He needs to find something else he wants to do.”
If nothing else, the current work stoppage should be a good opportunity for current players to start thinking and planning for what they will someday do to fill the void.