FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — For eight years, Joe Hawley's life followed an inescapable rhythm — the monotony of practice, film study and offseason workouts, all of it on a seemingly endless loop. The NFL dictated where he had to be and what he had to do. It wrecked his body. It consumed his life.
"It’s very structured. My whole life has been like that," Hawley says. "I felt like I just kind of wanted to experience life, be free."
So when Hawley's career came to an end at 29 — a finish line he saw coming long before the Tampa Bay Buccaneers declined to renew his contract this spring — the former offensive lineman decided to adjust course.
Hawley moved out of his Tampa apartment and donated most of his belongings to charity. He sold his Mercedes-Benz C300 coupe and purchased a 2007 Ford E-350 cargo van. He shed almost 50 pounds on an unusual diet that has him putting slices of butter in his coffee. He adopted a 2-year-old boxer mix from a shelter and aptly named her "Freedom." And now, he plans to spend the next however-many months driving around the country and living out of his van — meeting new people, exploring different regions and blogging about the whole thing.
To say that Hawley is at a crossroads in his life is probably a bit dramatic. He prefers to describe all of this as an adventure or, more broadly, the first step in a “huge transition” away from football — the pursuit of "my next dream."
One of his former teammates, however, had a different word for it.
"I thought he was crazy," Alan Cross said with a laugh.
At its core, Hawley’s trip is really just an attempt to re-prioritize his life — to dedicate his time and energy to the things that matter, all while attempting to fill the void that 16 years of football left behind.
"(You try) to be great at something and put your mind to something. It just goes away," Hawley told USA TODAY Sports from the couch in his van, roughly two months after he effectively retired from the NFL. "So you have to figure out: What else can I be great at?"
Former Bucs center putting NFL in past by hitting road for epic 48-state journey
TAMPA, Fla. -- Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers center Joe Hawley, who recently decided to call it a career after eight seasons in the NFL, is about to embark on a very unusual journey. Starting this week, he'll travel to 48 states over a period of six months, all while living out of a van and adopting a minimalist lifestyle. He wants to free himself from the excess, to live in the moment and to figure out who he is away from football, which is all he has known for most of his life.
He sold his Mercedes-Benz C300 coupe and has given away most of his possessions to charity. His furniture -- including a $4,000 suede sectional couch and a $10,000 stained hardwood dining room table -- has gone to a Tampa-based charity called Metropolitan Ministries, with approximately 80 percent of its residents experiencing domestic violence and trying to get back on their feet. He gave away 70 percent of his closet to the Salvation Army. He has gone from eight pairs of jeans to two and from 50 shirts to 10.
"If it doesn't fit in my van, I'm giving it away," said Hawley, 29, who spent three seasons with the Bucs and five with the Atlanta Falcons. "I thought about putting it in storage when I'm on the road, but I kind of want to start over when I'm done with the trip and have a fresh start, so I decided to give it all away. ... I don't need a lot of things to be happy.
seems like a modern era free spirit throwback from the 60's ... but his van is much better equipped than the ones from those days
