Former soldiers and football players can develop a sense of disconnection when their chosen careers end. One non-profit seeks to help their transition
Relief washed over Jay Glazer when he saw two fighter jets whiz by overhead on 11 September 2001. The future Fox Sports reporter was out in the New York City streets and, like most people that morning, his eyes were fixed upward to the two burning towers ripped open by hijacked passenger planes. The country was under attack, but the presence of those jets gave many, including Glazer, a sense of security. In that moment, Glazer became an active supporter of the US military.
Fourteen years later, Glazer and Nate Boyer, a former member of the special forces who briefly played for the Seattle Seahawks, launched Merging Vets and Players (MVP), a non-profit that brings military veterans and retiring professional athletes together in the gym. MVP is an amalgamation of Glazer’s journey through sports, but not the public one that took off when he became the Fox’s NFL Insider in 2004 and was suddenly thrusted into millions of homes every Sunday.
