Exclusive: Jabari Greer talks about starting over

For the past three years, Jabari Greer has pondered retirement before ultimately returning to training camp and going through the grind that is the National Football League season with the New Orleans Saints.

But a decade playing in the NFL, a desire to spend more time with his wife and five children and a torn ACL during the 2013 season all added up to Greer's decision to hang up his football cleats.

"I had to decide if I wanted to go through rehab with the mindset of preparing for the NFL again or to be able to play basketball with my kids in the driveway," Greer said. "I want to be there for my kids, so that's what I chose."

The former South Side football and track star who went on to excel in both sports at the University of Tennessee announced his decision while dabbling in the next career he has already begun pursuing.

His wink and smile over a coffee cup came at the end of a segment last Thursday on ESPN's "First Take," the show that typically pits network personalities Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith in daily debates over the big sports topics of the day while bringing in various guests. Greer has been a frequent guest in recent weeks.

"It's almost like I'm a rookie free agent again," Greer said about his experiences so far at ESPN. "Preparing for network television appearances with those guys for me right now is like when I was preparing for my first training camp trying to make the team in Buffalo."

Greer said he's not sure about his chances of making himself into a big television sports personality, but he's proud of how he continually overcame odds playing football.

Greer is used to defying odds and making the most of opportunities, whether it was playing catch in his backyard growing up in Denmark with his older brother DeAndre; trying to consistently make it into the starting rotation at the University of Tennessee on the tail end of the Vols' latest golden era after the 1998 national championship; or making the 53-man roster for the Buffalo Bills.

"I remember my first day in Buffalo. We were in a 12-passenger van with the secondary coach and filled with young DBs hoping to make the team," Greer said. "Looking back on it now, it never occurred to me on that ride that not all of us would still be there when the season began. It took me a few years before I figured out how slim my chances were back then."

Ignorance was bliss for Greer as he worked his way up from third-string right cornerback to AFC Defensive Player of the Week because of two injuries to players ahead of him on the depth chart early during a game against the New York Jets.

"I didn't realize then the risk I was taking by simply thinking when I got my opportunity to shine that I would turn it on, but that was my mindset," Greer said. "But I got my opportunity and a last-second interception to win the game, and I was in the mix after that point.

"But not a lot of people remember that came during my fourth year in the league. It took work to just make the squad every year, much less start and get playing time. But I just had to keep working and working for that shot."

And that's the mentality Greer is bringing to the television studio. In addition to working with ESPN, he's working on Sunday afternoons with New Orleans TV station WDSU with his "Sunday Takeaways" analysis segment.

"That's the work I've got to do right now to get better at what I want to do," Greer said. "It's eye-opening to see how much work goes into doing a TV show like that.

"Where I end up, I don't know. But right now, I feel like I'm back in that van with a bunch of young DBs."

Brandon Shields, 425-9751

Jabari Greer's file

• High school: Was an all-state selection in football and track and won seven individual track championships for the Hawks.

• College: Was a three-year starter at cornerback for the University of Tennessee from 2002-04.

• Buffalo Bills: Signed with the Bills as an undrafted free agent in April 2004 and worked his way up the secondary depth chart to starter.

• New Orleans Saints: Signed with the Saints in 2009, the year the Saints won Super Bowl XLIV, in which he recorded an interception. A month later, Greer was honored in Jackson and at South Side with a key to the city and "Jabari Greer Day."

• Jabari Greer Foundation: Greer still has a heart for helping men become better fathers and plans to continue doing that while moving the JGF home base to New Orleans, where he can be more active in the day-to-day operations of the foundation. He said he plans to continue trying to do as much good as possible in his current home of New Orleans and his hometown of Jackson.

• Family: Greer and his wife, Katrina, have four children and are expecting their fifth later this year.