Eddie George traded in cheering football fans for standing ovations

After spending nine seasons in the NFL, Eddie George is taking the lessons he learned in football and applying it on stage.

When Pro Bowl running back Eddie George was taking singing lessons with his acting coach he never thought he’d actually ever apply them, but years later as a regular cast member of the broadway musical Chicago George has fully embraced the second act of his life, post football career.

“I wasn’t born to just play football and die,” George told FanSided’s Mark Carman. “It was meant to be used as a platform and to build on that foundation. Through the avenue of entertainment, arts, entrepreneurship and education I was able to impact and help others.”

Although nothing will replace the feeling of walking through the tunnel on Sundays with thousands of fans cheering you on, or a whole city embracing you as on of their own, George has found a new family on stage, every night when he steps in front of a new audience to perform with his cast mates, his new teammates.

But finding that path and filling that huge void football left behind wasn’t easy for George.

“It was just like, what the hell am I going to do now,” George said. “It had nothing to do with money, I had the money in the bank, I had a business that I started but it wasn’t fulfilling. I went from playing the game of football that I loved and would die for to now being on the outside of that looking in and never having the opportunity to put the pads on again or go into training camp.”

As George puts it, he was in a stage of mourning, and for anyone who has experienced that feeling of loss, it’s difficult to move past regardless of how big or small that loss may be.

It might sound like there is no correlation between acting and football, but for George, someone who is diligent in any task he takes on, there are similar rules that apply on stage that are familiar to his football roots.

“The nerves are the same, but it’s different in the sense that your focus is different,” George said. “In football it’s you against the opponent, you’re really not focused on the environment you’re focused on the opponent because you could get hurt if you’re not careful or focused a lot. Whereas on stage it’s a little bit different. The audience is that third or fourth character. They participate in the play, they push the story along.”

Sometimes those audience members just so happen to include a former nemesis George faced throughout his entire playing career, Ray Lewis. In that case, just as the intensity was turned up a notch when those two faced each other on the field, Lewis’ attendance gave George an extra boost to put on the best performance of his life.

“I had to really lock in and focus on my role, and in fact it helped me because I was really intense and had a lot of energy that came out of me in that moment,” George said.

George may not have to worry about Lewis’ whereabouts on the field anymore, but having him in the audience right in his vantage point caused a different sense of nerves for George. It was less about acting in front of him, but more about being vulnerable in front of a guy who only ever wanted to pummel him on the field.

“You have to really divorce yourself from that thought process or you’ll be out of the moment,” George said. “If you feel the emotions to cry or to be angry you have to allow that to come up. You have to be open to tell the truth whatever that is and that’s what makes acting compelling for me.”

There are still moments where George misses the game, like when he has constant dreams of throwing on that Buckeyes uniform to play against Michigan, or playing in the Super Bowl. That will never change for George, and as challenging as it was to accept that the game was over for him, he’s been able to apply the lessons and challenges he learned during his NFL career to other avenues.