Many sports personalities choose to take on new roles within their preferred sport after they retire. Typical roles may include coaching, management, commentating and analizing.
However, some sports personalities choose to head off on a completely different career path, completely unrelated to their original sport. This article will look at some of the more well-known sports personalities who chose a new and unique career path.
George Foreman, Photo Credit: el grito
Born on January 10th 1949, George Foreman was well known on the boxing scene and had a very successful career which saw him world heavy weight boxing champion two times. He was also the oldest heavy weight champion ever, at forty five years, and an Olympic gold medallist.
His outstanding record came to an end in 1977 when he became ill, suffering from heat stroke and exhaustion. He claimed he had a “near death experience”. After suffering from this experience he felt God had reached out to him and told him to take a different path in life. It was this point where Foreman stopped fighting and became a born-again Christian, dedicating the next decade of his life to God and becoming the minister of a church inTexas.
Ten years later, in 1987, he made a surprising comeback to the ring, winning many more fights and titles, eventually retiring at the age of 48 in 1999. Foreman went on to explore many business ventures; the most notable one was the epicly-titled George Foreman Lean Mean Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine. The deal with the makers of the grill, Salton, paid Foreman $127.5 million to use his name for the product and gave him a 40% cut of sales, netting him around $200 million.
Vinnie Jones, Photo Credit: John Cassidy
Vinnie’s career as a professional footballer began in 1984 when he began playing, part-time, for Wealdstone whilst still working as a hod carrier (carrying bricks and mortar on construction sites). In 1986 he moved toWimbledonfor £10k and was part of the winning team in the 1988 FA Cup Final against Liverpool. He went on to play for Leeds United, Sheffield United, Chelsea, player / coach for QPR, and even played internationally forNorth Wales. In 1992 Jones was responsible for a serious leg injury on Tottenham defender Gary Stevens, which he never recovered from, eventually resulting in his retirement.
Vinnie Jones went on to become a familiar face on the big screen when he made his 1998 feature film debut in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. He went on to play roles in many more movies (all of which he dons a typical hard man image) such as Snatch, Gone in 60 Seconds, X-Men: The Last Stand, Hungarian film, The Magic Boys, Highlander, Kill the Irishman and Midnight Meat Train. Jones also celebrated his 45th birthday in the Celebrity Big Brother House in 2010 and finished in third place overall. Slightly more bizarre developments in his career include releasing a blues album called Respect and performing “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” on Top of the Pops 2.
Magic Johnson, Photo Credit: Imaginashaun
Beginning his career as a professional basketball player with the LA Lakers in 1979, Earvin “Magic” Johnson helped the team to reach, and win, the NBA finals in 1980. He went on to have a very successful career in Basketball and retired in 1991 when he discovered he had the deadly disease, HIV. He did, however, go on to play for the USA in the 1992 Summer Olympics, which they won. He also used the opportunity to raise awareness for the HIV disease.
After leaving the Basketball spotlight for the last time he went on to create the ‘Magic Johnson Development Corp’, which focuses on building and developing retail, dining and entertainment businesses in poor communities. He has worked with big guns such as Starbucks and T.G.I Friday’s Inc to help renew the economy in depressed and run down areas across 65 different cities. His efforts went further to help set up thirty one Burger King franchises, a chain of travel agents and his very own sports club chain.
This article was produced on behalf of air hockey, football and pool table suppliers, Home Leisure Direct – specialists in home entertainment, leisure and table sports throughout the UK.
