From football to the footlights: Ex-NFL star Eddie George is on Broadway

NEW YORK — The reinvention of Eddie George is no act.

The Heisman Trophy winner and 1996 NFL offensive rookie of the year, George is now playing Billy Flynn in the Broadway production of Chicago, one of the many roles he’s taken on in his transformation from running back to Renaissance man. Actor, financial adviser, small-business owner, college teacher. Just like in his playing days, George can’t be — won’t be — pinned down.

“There’s more to life than just sports,” he said during a recent interview with USA TODAY Sports. “You can accomplish certain things with the proper mindset and the right disciplines. … That, to me, means more than anything else.

“It’s not just about playing football and that’s it,” George added. “You can be a musician, you can be an engineer — all in this lifetime. You don’t have to confine yourself to one thing. You’re all things.”

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Retirement can be hard on professional athletes. Where life was once dictated by a strict schedule, now there is endless free time. Instead of being part of a small and celebrated fraternity, they are one of the masses. And unless there was plenty of foresight and planning, those fat bank accounts shrink quickly.

“There is a period of time when you leave the game where there’s a void that needs to be filled and doubt creeps in,” George said. “What do you want to do next? Who are you? How are you going to survive the next 60 years? What is your legacy going to be? What skill sets do you have? What can you do? What do you love to do?

“All of those questions definitely come up and occupy your mind.”

George had started a business in landscape architecture (his major at Ohio State) before he retired following the 2004 season. He did some broadcasting. He went back to Northwestern, got an MBA, and opened a financial services firm catering to athletes.

He tried acting, too, but soon decided he wanted to do more than play athletes or former athletes. That wasn’t acting. That was art imitating life, a life he’d already lived.

He began taking acting lessons, two and three times a week. He would read children’s books aloud, trying out different voices and deliveries, learning not just about the different elements of storytelling, but how to bring a story to life. He took improv classes and attended as many plays and Broadway shows as he could.

Finally, after two or three years of preparing, he began doing community theater in Nashville, where he and his wife still live.

His first try didn’t go so well — George can smile now when he tells of getting stage fright and forgetting his lines — but he had found his next passion.

“That filled that void for me,” he said. “I really enjoy getting on stage, moving myself and telling a story through a character’s eyes and to deliver that in an honest way. A lot of the stuff I was going through in terms of anxiety and fear and depression and doubt (after football), I channeled all that in to the arts.”

George had done several plays locally — Othello, The Whipping Man, Topdog/Underdog, to name a few — when the touring production of Chicago came through Nashville. He mentioned that he’d love to play Billy Flynn someday, and word soon reached Barry Weissler, the show’s longtime producer.

“I didn’t know if he’d be good for the role, to be honest with you,” Weissler said. “I did not hold high hopes.”

But Chicago has a history of using guest stars — Rumer Willis played Roxie Hart after winning Dancing With the Stars — and Weissler figured it couldn’t hurt to let George audition.

“He was,” Weissler said, “dynamite.”

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In the year between his audition and his seven-week run on Broadway, George continued to work with his drama coach. He also worked with dance and voice coaches, and got help from his wife, Taj, a member of the R&B group SWV.

By the time he began rehearsals, he was like any other actor joining the cast. Not Eddie George, the former NFL player dropping in for a cameo.

“This is not, for me, just a check off the bucket list,” George said. “This is something that I want to do and build a career in.”

While it’s impossible not to see George as the former NFL player when he first comes on stage, he quickly makes you forget that, oozing all of the swagger and smarminess of Billy Flynn. By the middle of the first act, it’s no different than watching Daniel Radcliffe, Denzel Washington or someone else famous play a role: The face is theirs, but the character is someone else entirely.

Weak in his opening number, George’s singing voice got stronger as the show went on, and he actually showed some range in his final number, Razzle Dazzle. He didn’t have to dance much but, when he did, he moved easily and comfortably.

“He has so much love and respect for this,” said Bianca Marroquin, who plays Roxie Hart. “He’s really, really, really committed. Sometimes you see other people that come from other territories and come to this and, yes, they do it with a lot of respect but it probably is not their field.

“I think Eddie has found a second field.”

With eight shows a week, including two each on Saturday and Sunday, the Broadway schedule is a grind, physically and mentally. But George is relishing every moment of an experience he describes as, simply, “magical.”

The rush he gets before he takes the stage is similar to what he used to feel when he was in the tunnel, waiting to take the field. The process it takes to get to that point requires the same kind of dedication and focus as when he was playing.

But what George loves most is the challenge and exhilaration that comes with re-creating himself. The stage is different, but he is pushing himself every bit as hard as he did in his playing days.

“I never wanted to be defined just as a football player. I never thought I was just going to be a football player and die,” he said. “I’m doing everything in my power to have a very successful second career, or second half of my life.”

As for what else that second half entails, George isn’t sure. The 42-year-old still has his financial service and landscape businesses. He also teaches part-time at Ohio State.

He will do more acting, whether it’s on Broadway, the big screen or somewhere in between. Maybe he’ll get into writing or producing.

Heck, even politics isn’t off the table.

“Guys have to understand that you’ve built a platform through professional sports, but that’s not where you’re supposed to live,” George said. “You’re supposed to continue, to keep going and building on that.

“It is scary because you don’t know what’s on the other side, you don’t know what’s around the corner,” he added. “But you’ve got to keep waking up, you’ve got to keep trying.”

Football has played a big part in Eddie George’s life. But as his run on Broadway proves, it doesn’t have to be the only one.