Former Alabama running back Glen Coffee had a brief NFL career, strangely retiring after only a single season with the San Francisco 49ers.
As it turns out, Coffee said afterwards, he wanted more from life than the fame and fortune afforded to NFL players.
"I don't want to sound mean or attack the NFL, but I'm not an entertainer," Coffee told the Sacramento Bee after his abrupt retirement. "I see football as being the same as being a singer, being a dancer or something along those lines. When we fill out our W2s, we're in that category of entertainers, man. That's not me. I want to be doing something to better myself, to better someone else. Glen Coffee's not an entertainer."
On Friday, Coffee will graduate from Airborne School at Fort Benning (Ga.) with his eyes set on becoming a member of the U.S. Army Special Forces.
“I know my motivation and I know my focus,” Coffee said. “I just felt like being in an elite unit would pretty much weed out anybody who didn't have the drive and focus that I believe I have. I feel like if I make it in [Special Forces], that guy to my left and my right is somebody I could depend on with my life and vice versa.”
Coffee said he has no regrets about leaving Alabama early or retiring from football. And after drifting somewhat aimlessly for the last few years, it appears the 26-year-old has found his calling.
“I've always considered myself a warrior, somebody who would fight for what he believed in,” Coffee said. “It hit me like, ‘What do you think the military does, and what do you think the military is full of?' Warriors. All of a sudden, I had this respect for the military, and I just realized that there is no America without the men and women who serve this country.
“I figured that if I'm able, the Lord's blessed me with an able body while I'm young, to get out there and get dirty.”
Last week, Patriots owner Robert Kraft said Vladimir Putin had pocketed his $25,000 Super Bowl XXXIX ring. A Putin spokesman came out a few days later and said the ring had actually been a gift.
Either way, Putin now wants to make amends, though he claims he doesn't actually remember Kraft.
“You know, I do not remember either Mr. Kraft or the ring," Putin said. “They handed out some sorts of souvenirs. But if it is such a valuable thing to Mr. Kraft and his team, I have a proposal.
"We will ask our enterprises to craft a really good, noticeable thing -- so it is clear that it is expensive, made of a good metal, with a rock -- so that this jewel is passed on from generation to generation in the team whose interests Mr. Kraft represents.
"I think that this would be the most intelligent ... solution to such a difficult international problem.”
The AFP reports Putin said that “with a hint of a smile” so it's unclear if Putin is just trolling Kraft or if he thinks the storyline is somewhat silly (either way, here's proof that Putin did have possession of the ring at one point -- though here's one theory: maybe the bust looking over Putin's shoulder is the person who actually took Kraft's ring).
But Kraft apparently was displeased enough by the original incident that he saw fit to mention it eight years later.
"I took out the ring and showed it to [Putin], and he put it on and he goes, 'I can kill someone with this ring,'" Kraft said. "I put my hand out, and he put it in his pocket, and three KGB guys got around him and walked out."
Kraft then said the Bush White House told him to downplay the issue in the interest of international relations. And so, Kraft called the ring a gift to Putin.
Which Putin says he doesn't remember (with a hint of a smile!!).
At this point, though, will Kraft even want a new ring? Does he need it? Even if it's made of good metal with a rock? After all, even without a ring that can be passed on from generation to generation, the company that Kraft has been keeping lately has been pretty lavish, anyway.
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