Pro Bowl linebacker Shaq Leonard was back in Indianapolis earlier this month, but he did not suit up for the Colts.
Rather, the team’s second-round draft choice in 2018 officially announced his retirement in a game-day press conference.
Leonard last played in the league in 2023 but injuries took their toll.
“My body was just wearing down,” Leonard told the Indianapolis Star. “Mentally and emotionally it’s tough…tough to walk away from the game but physically it was time.”
Leonard mentioned at his retirement that there had not been a season since he was drafted that he did not have surgery on one part of his body or another. Despite the injuries, he found it difficult to face the end of his career without knowing what his post-NFL future looked like. Sound familiar?
“I’m just grateful for having had the opportunity to play,” Leonard says. “I come from a small town and a small school in South Carolina. I was drafted out of South Carolina State. Some of my critics wrote me off a long time ago but, just to be where my career ended, I feel beyond blessed.”
Leonard says it was difficult to watch football on television after he stopped playing. However, his love for the game was renewed when he began coaching at his Lake View High School alma mater in his small hometown of Nichols in the Palmetto State.
“I quietly fell in love with coaching at Lake View,” Leonard explains. “I fell in love with the process of making someone else better, making these kids better and giving them a role model they can look up to. The kids have dreams just like I had dreams. I love to pour out every inch of knowledge that I have into them. There’s no better feeling.”
Leonard also wants to instill in his players the same sense of pride in the high school that he had when he played there a dozen years ago.
“I try to represent Lake View absolutely everywhere I go because my high school is the epitome of me,” says the father of three young kids. “We’re a small team, but one thing we will do, we’re going to give you absolutely everything we got.”
We at NFL Alumni admire Shaq Leonard for turning to high school coaching. He gave everything he had as a player and we are certain he is doing the same in his current role on the sidelines.
