D’Brickashaw Ferguson beginning nursing school this fall
NEW YORK (BVM) – D’Brickashaw Ferguson is entering a new part of his post–NFL life and will be going to nursing school this fall. The three-time Pro Bowler with the New York Jets talked about his retirement journey on the “NFL Players: Second Acts” podcast hosted by Roman Harper and Charles “Peanut” Tillman.
“I wanted something that I could offer like, ‘Yes I play football but I have this. I’m qualified to do this work and I play football,’” Ferguson said.
Ferguson retired in 2015 after 10 seasons in the NFL and was searching for something that he could do following his football career. He had looked into financial endeavors, such as being an angel investor, but wasn’t sure if that was what he really wanted to do.
“I think I didn’t find what I was looking for from a sense of purpose,” Ferguson said.
At the time, the former left tackle was having conversations with his mom about it and she talked about her own career path as a nurse.
“She’s a nurse and the one thing that she liked about nursing is the opportunity to learn a new space, but you can also learn a lot of different spaces,” Ferguson said.
Nursing would give Ferguson the opportunity to learn and also have options on what he would like to focus on based on his interests. On the podcast, he talked about possibly becoming a nurse practitioner or working in an ER but before all that, he had to get into nursing school.
“I just needed that sense of, ‘I can do this,’” Ferguson said. “I hadn’t done sciences since, I don’t know, high school, so my confidence in that space was, ‘I don’t know if I can do this.’ UVA was hard so I’m like, ‘I don’t know about this.’”
The former Virginia Cavalier began taking prerequisites at community college, just taking it one class at a time. That eventually led to him applying to nursing school and getting accepted at several schools.
“I’m excited for this opportunity,” Ferguson said.
Ferguson also talked about the open heart surgery he had as a child, making his decision to enter the medical field seem like a perfect full circle moment. As a child, he had shortness of breath and it was discovered he had a slight heart defect that needed to be fixed. The open heart surgery was a success but at the time, there was no guarantee he could play sports following the surgery.
“I guess it was a miracle, it is a miracle, that I had the opportunity to go on and play sports and it didn’t hold me back,” Ferguson said.
The 6-foot-6 former left tackle was inducted into the New York Jets Ring of Honor last summer and in 2016, he had his No. 66 jersey retired at Virginia. During his NFL career, he only missed one snap and now he will begin his new career as a nurse.
