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Sam Shields' NFL career spanned nearly a decade. But when he reflected on his football life, he said it is filled with regret.
Shields had what many may view a successful professional career that saw him named to a Pro Bowl team and win a Super Bowl ring with the Green Bay Packers in 2010. But he said his success on the field came at a great personal cost.
Shields said he felt "blessed" to have made it to the league but noted there was a lack of support for him. He said his head was left "all mushed together with the concussions."
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Los Angeles Rams cornerback Sam Shields during warmups before the first half of a game against the Detroit Lions in Detroit, Mich., Dec. 2, 2018. (Amy Lemus/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Shields made the comments during an interview on Dan Le Batard's "South Beach Sessions" podcast.
"I'd be going to school, trying to work for home improvement. I'd be trying to learn how to build a house," Shields said of other careers he would have considered had he not played football.
Shields suffered at least five documented concussions over the course of his eight-year NFL career. Concussion-related symptoms prevented the cornerback from playing for almost 14 months between 2016 and 2017.
He was released by the Packers in 2017.
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Shields decided to continue his career, signing with the Rams in 2018 and playing in the 2019 Super Bowl with Los Angeles.
During an interview in February 2019, he said he was "feeling like myself again."
Sam Shields (37) of the Green Bay Packers celebrates after making an interception against the Dallas Cowboys in the first quarter at Lambeau Field Dec. 13, 2015, in Green Bay, Wis. (Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
He doesn't seem to be in that place anymore. The Le Batard interview was not the first time Shields opened up about his struggles with concussions.
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"The Tylenol wasn't doing s---," he wrote. "It was three o'clock in the morning on some night in January 2017. I forget which one. I'd had a lot of bad nights around that time, but this one was the worst. I couldn't sleep. It felt like my brain was cramping, or like it was trying to break out of my skull or something. I was rolling around in my bed, whipping my body back and forth, trying to escape the pounding inside my head. Next thing I know, I'm curled up in the fetal position, shaking and crying," Shields wrote in the Players' Tribune in 2018.
Sam Shields of the Los Angeles Rams reacts against the New England Patriots in the first quarter during Super Bowl LIII at Mercedes-Benz Stadium Feb 3, 2019, in Atlanta. (Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
Shields also told Le Batard he struggled to end his NFL career because he did not want to be forgotten.
"When you're done with football, everybody forgets about you. Family, friends. I got one friend. In football, I had 10," Shields said. Now I got one where I know that that's my friend. That I could really say, 'You're my friend.' I don't even talk to most of my family members. Once football was over, everybody was over with me."
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Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was transported to a hospital Sept. 29 after his head slammed into the ground during a game against the Cincinnati Bengals. It was the second blow to his head in a span of four days.
The NFL and the NFLPA implemented new concussion protocols after Tagovailoa's head injury.