NFL veteran D'Brickashaw Ferguson starting nursing school this fall

Former long-time New York Jets offensive tackle D’Brickashaw Ferguson shared this week that he is planning the second act of his career, this time, in nursing.

Sitting down with fellow NFL retirees Cedric Tillman and Roman Harper, Ferguson explained how he overcame doubts about his ability and enrolled in classes to begin the journey of getting a nursing degree.

“I just needed that sense of, ‘I think I can do this,’ right,” Ferguson said on NFL Players Second Acts. “I hadn’t done science since, I don’t know, high school. So my confidence in that space was like, ‘I don’t know if I can do this.’ UVA was hard for me.”

First, Ferguson started slow, taking prerequisites at a local community college, one class at a time. Now, he has acceptance letters from multiple nursing schools. He plans to start nursing school in the fall. Then, he’ll begin to hone in on the decision of what exactly he wants to do in the field of nursing.

“I wanted something that I could offer. Like, yes I play football, but I have this,” Ferguson said. “I’m qualified to do this work and I play football. So if both of them help or encourage one another, great. But even without football I can still do my job with excellence, that’s something we learned as athletes.”

Ferguson starts second career in nursing

Ferguson wrapped up his NFL career in 2015 after 10 years with the Jets. He became a three-time Pro Bowler after going No. 4 overall to the Jets in the 2006 NFL Draft.

The future nurse certainly knows a thing or two about staying healthy. He played in 160 games over his career and started in each one. Not only did he start every game, but he played 10,707 snaps out of the 10,708 snaps in those games.

A New York City native, Ferguson played football at the University of Virginia. Over the course of his NFL career, he earned roughly $72 million. His final deal, signed with the Jets in 2010, was for six years, 60 million.

Ferguson, now 39 years old, is considering whether to become a nurse practitioner or perhaps getting his degree to be able to work at an urgent care facility. Whatever he chooses to do with his degree, his journey to his second career after the NFL is an inspiration to the hundreds of former players who aspire to do more after retirement.