Buccaneers receiver Bernard Reedy hasn’t made much money in the NFL. He’s never played in a regular-season game, and his two weeks on the 53-man roster at the end of last season were his only two weeks even being on an NFL roster. But that’s OK, because he has another job.
Reedy also has an $11 an hour job driving a van for a company that gives rides to people in wheelchairs. He told ESPN that he finds that job rewarding enough that he plans to keep doing it in the offseasons even if he one day lands himself a big-time NFL contract.
“All my other teammates that I know that I personally talk to, they all caked up -- they all got money, a whole lot of money,” Reedy said. “When I get to that tax bracket with them, I’m going to continue to work here during the offseason. . . . You always want to be grateful.”
Reedy played his college football at Toledo, signed as an undrafted rookie with the Falcons in 2015, got cut at the end of the preseason and then moved back in with his parents. That’s when he took the driving job, which he liked at first because the hours were conducive to his workout schedule as he continued to try to get back in the NFL. He now says the job is rewarding enough that he’ll do it even when, he hopes, his NFL career has reached the point where he doesn’t need another job.
“A lot of people . . . you may think you’re sacrificing a lot until you hear somebody else’s story,” Reedy said. “And when you pick up the same people every week, you get attached to them.”