Caffeine Free

A few weeks ago, Glen Coffee decided to end his football career. After only playing one season of professional football, enough was enough for last year's third-round draft pick.

The #74 overall pick in the 2009 NFL Draft looked like he would be a keeper from day one. In the 2009 preseason, Coffee was tied for the NFL league in rushing yards with 249, on 42 carries. He averaged almost 6 yards a carry and was the subject of a few posts on this blog. He also sparked talk about the 49ers having a two-back system, with him getting almost similar carries to Frank Gore.

However, things panned out differently in the regular season. Glen Coffee ran for only 226 yards, on 83 carries, only scoring 1 touchdown. Despite nearly double the rushing attempts in the regular season, Coffee ran for less yards than he did in the preseason. Coffee even started two games (week 3 and 4) when Frank Gore was injured, but never quite lived up to the expectations he set in the preseason. Of course when playing against second-team defenses, stats are going to be better in the preseason, but they should never be to the extent of what Coffee's statistical differences were. In fact, Coffee only averaged 3 yards per carry in a single regular season game two times during his rookie season.

Some reports indicate that Glen Coffee was getting destroyed on the practice field by Anthony Dixon before he decided to hang up his cleats. I am skeptical to believe these reports, but even if this was true, Coffee was still basically ensured a spot on the San Francisco 49ers' roster, because of the lack of depth at running back.

Upon further research, I read this quote from Glen Coffee explaining why he left the game,
"It was a struggle for a long time. Actually when I look back I feel I never should have entered the draft in the first place. Football was no longer my dream. I found Christ in college. It changed my views on everything. But I still was a football player because it was expected of me, it was something I did all my life. I was basically wasting the (49ers') time."

I watched Glen Coffee interviewed on ESPN's Firstake, where he expressed interest in becoming a full time minister. A very similar situation happened to the Oakland A's earlier this year when Grant Desme, one of the A's top prospects, left baseball to enter priesthood. Coffee left tons of money on the table, as now the 49ers will be able to recover $621,000 in signing bonus on the four-year deal Coffee signed as a rookie.

For the interview on ESPN here is a link: http://search.espn.go.com/espn-firstake-glen-coffee/videos/6