NFL Retiree Takes Up Firefighting

Plenty of little boys want to be football players when they grow up, and many dream of becoming firefighters. Joe Maese has gotten to do both. "Even when I played in the NFL, I eventually couldn't see myself doing anything different than I do now," the former Raven tells the Baltimore Sun. "I always knew I wanted to help somebody. It wasn't about money, but doing something constructive with my time."

Maese ("my-eh-say"), 31, played five NFL seasons and a year in an indoor league, but he never forgot his boyhood dream. He's the son of a Phoenix firefighter, and "it kind of gets in your blood and runs in the family," he says. A year ago, he joined the roster of the Baltimore Fire Department. "There are a lot of similarities in football and firefighting," he says. "Both can be extremely emotional, but in both sometimes you have to keep the emotion under control."
(More Joe Maese stories.)