Team Talk
Life After Sport
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Chris Lewis is currently a few months into a 13 year prison sentence for drug smuggling. It's a tragic ‘fall from grace' for the former England cricket all-rounder who was once described as ‘the greatest all round athlete to play for England'. Lewis was caught smuggling more than 7lb of Cocaine into England inside tins of fruit juice.
Reading about this sad incident in ‘The Wisden Cricketer' magazine it pointed to Lewis' struggle with finding a place for himself in life after cricket as one of the precipitating factors leading up to his arrest. Alan Butcher (the former England cricketer and coach of Surrey) reflected on a conversation he had with Lewis about coming to play for Surrey; "Chris never quite fulfilled what he wanted to do as a cricketer and he has never found something to replace it... That is the crux of his problems... Before I went to meet him, my impression was that he was someone who hadn't really found a niche for himself out of the game".
Many involved in professional sport experience similar difficulties as they face the stark reality of ‘life after a career in sport'. Cricket is unusual in that a good player may be able to continue into late 30s but most professional players are fortunate if they can continue much beyond 30. For many it's been their way of life for at least 10 years, they have limited other skills to offer, and there are very few jobs available in sports media. Think of how hard it is to move from being regarded as important in an area that society as a whole elevates, only to face the prospect of having to start a new career at the bottom of the ladder with people who are ten years your junior. Wouldn't it be in some ways like having to repeat a year at school?
However I don't want to go into the logistics of preparing for a career after sport (re-skilling, developing a network of contacts etc.), instead my focus is on coping with this transition spiritually, because I think this is the real issue behind the surface level problems. The real problem lies in the way that players find their identity in their career. If this is the case then when your career in sport is finished and people stop treating you as ‘special' your identity starts to crumble. Changing a career is difficult, no doubt, but why is it that so many players on finishing sport feel like they don't any longer know who they are? Their identity is starting to break apart.
The problem doesn't so much lie in the career transition itself, but in the years preceding that when things were going well. During those years quietly and secretly the seeds of the problem were being sown as a player unknowingly tied their identity to their performance on the pitch. When things were going well they never thought to question the way their hearts grew overly bound to their sport, they never considered that it would cause them such problems in the future.
You see if my identity is fixed in something else that is secure and immovable then when my sport's career finishes I know that I'm not finished because sport isn't my life. It's a good thing, a thing that I love doing but it doesn't define me. But if my identity is tied to my sport then if I lose that I lose everything.
But what could be secure and immovable enough to take the weight of expectations of my heart? What could give me the security and self-worth that I need? The Bible describes God as ‘the same yesterday, today and forever' and tells us that his ‘steadfast love is from everlasting to everlasting'. Just think of that claim - steadfast love; that means immovable, rock solid love that you can count on that is from everlasting to everlasting. No wonder the Psalmist rejoices that though ‘the heavens will wear out like a garment... you are the same (O God) and your years have no end' (Psalm 102:26).
So if you want to invest in your future and prepare for life after a professional career in sport, then isn't the wise investment to look to God and be rich towards Him?
Pete
Download Life After Sport (5.37 MB MP3 file)
