Friday, many in the sports world were stunned when 49ers running back Glen Coffee announced he was hanging up his cleats and quitting football.

Now he’s explaining why, to reporter Matt Barrows:

I called Glen Coffee at his Los Gatos apartment at 8:30 this morning. When I told him who I was, he said he was told not to talk to the media. But he said he would because, “I feel like it needs to be known why I did what I did.” Coffee seemed very confidant of his decision and was happy and thoughtful throughout the conversation. There is an ongoing push – from teammates, family members, etc. – to get him to return to the team, but it’s very hard to see them winning Coffee over. If you ask me, his decision is final. Here’s the exclusive interview:

The first question I asked him was why, why step away from such a lucrative profession?
Coffee: “It was a struggle for a long time. Actually when I look back I feel I never should have entered the draft in the first place. Football was no longer my dream. I found Christ in college. It changed my views on everything. But I still was a football player because it was expected of me, it was something I did all my life. I was basically wasting the (49ers’) time.”

Why do you think you couldn’t reconcile football and your faith?

Coffee: “His will, I felt, wasn’t football. I felt like I forced football because everyone expected me to play football. He told me a long time ago to walk away from the game.”

What will you do now?

Coffee: “It’s simple. I’m going back to school.” Coffee, who left the University of Alabama after his junior year, said he needed only six hours to get an undergraduate degree in consumer affairs. However, he plans to get a master’s as well.

I noted that Alabama associates him with football more than anywhere else.

Will it be hard to return to a school that knows you as a tailback?

Coffee: “It’s going to be both. There’s going to be people that understand and there’s going to be people that don’t understand and don’t care to understand. They’re going to feed off that negativity. That’s life.”

There’s more at the link. This is an impressive young man.

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