Jake Locker retired from the NFL on Tuesday at age 26 with no real plan other than to spend time with his family in Ferndale and finish remodeling his house.
Thats his focus right now
to be the best dad he can be, said his father, Scott, in a phone interview Wednesday. And hes a dang good one, so Im proud of him.
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A lot of people wonder and were surprised by his decision, Scott said of Jake, who had spent the past four seasons with the Tennessee Titans and was due to become a free agent Tuesday when he could have signed to play with another team for 2015. But in dealing with Jake, it always come back to he goes where his heart leads him. And for whatever reason, this seemed like the time to dedicate his time to his kids and his family and his life like that. And at this time it didnt include being a football player.
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For now, what he wants to do is finishing remodeling his house. After completing his career at UW and being drafted with the eighth pick of the 2011 NFL draft by the Titans, he bought his grandparents house the same one in which Scott grew up.
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I think after the way last year ended for him and being hurt, it was something that he started wondering if the football thing was the right fit for him any more, if that was the end-all for him, Scott Locker said. And I think he just thought about it a lot and prayed about it a lot and came to the conclusion that there might be other things out there for him and other things he can do to spend his time that he can do to help people and impact some lives.
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For most of us, it would be a thing where you would probably continue to go down the path he was on, Scott said. But thats the difference between Jake and most people. Hes got a way about him thats different. There will be a lot of people that will not agree with the decision that hes made. But youve got to be pretty proud of a guy that can stand up and say hes not feeling it anymore and be able to walk away from it. It would have been easier to just come back and sign on with a team and play rather than make the tough call to say, Im going to walk away and find myself something that makes me happier than this is, right now, anyway.
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For now its just kind of take a deep breath, re-establish the home fire there and see what might come next, Scott Locker said.
