The old woman NFL traveler Luis Leonard is giving fans a glimpse into what life is really like for some former players.
“My husband survived the NFL, but now he’s surviving everything he left behind.” Lacey Leonard said through a Instagram reel on Saturday January 17.
“People see the glory, the lights, the crowds, but they don’t see this: the aftermath, the pain, the stiffness, the tremors, the battle his body fights every day,” she continued as the video showed her husband making his way through a hospital in a wheelchair.
“Don’t romanticize this life,” he added. “The real work happens after the game is long over.”
Getty Images/Courtesy of Allison Kuch/Instagram Not every NFL athlete signs a multimillion dollar contract to play professional football, leaving their families to supplement their income elsewhere. “I’ll just make it clear: We have multiple sources of income that we’ve built up over the last seven years,” Allison Kuch, married to free agent Isaac (…)
Lacey wrote of the Reel, “The NFL didn’t prepare us for this part.”
Louis, 41, was a defensive tackle in the NFL from 2007 to 2010, playing for six teams and tallying 33 career tackles. He and Lacey met as freshmen at Fresno State University and share two children. After divorcing in 2012, the couple remarried in 2018.
“This is our reality,” he continued. “Physical therapy at the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center, a warrior learning to move again, one step at a time, one stroke at a time.”
Still, he said, Louis “doesn’t complain.”
Courtesy of Bryce Watts Hansen/Instagram While the top players in the NFL are often millionaires, it’s not so easy for the rest of the league. The NFL minimum salary for rookies was $795,000 in 2024, representing the smallest payday of any of the league’s nearly 1,700 active players who remain signed all year. (…)
“Show up, fight, follow through,” Lacey said. “That’s strength, that’s guts, that’s life after the NFL. It’s not all glitz and glam, and it comes at a price.”
“If you’re also a wife, partner or caregiver navigating this AFTER NFL life, you’re not alone,” she wrote in the caption. “You can connect with me here for support, resources and real conversations.”
Other former NFL players supported Lacey and Louis in the comments.
“People don’t know!!!!” hall of fame Terrell Owens he wrote
Former linebacker and current actor Terry Crews added: “Amen🙏🏾❤️🔥🔥🔥🔥.”
Faris Khana former Duke University tennis player who now works as a personal trainer added in a comment with more than 700 likes: “I coached a retired NFL lineman. He’s not even 50 yet and in his own words he said the pain his body is in now wasn’t worth the millions he made 😌.”
Lacey revealed in October 2025 that Louis was battling Parkinson’s disease and stage 4 kidney disease. In another Instagram reelshowed a montage of photos from Louis’ playing days before switching to a clip of him trying to walk on crutches.
“NFL only offers 5 years of health coverage, then a cliff,” he wrote in the caption. “Hyperbaric therapy: Denied as ‘experimental’, even with doctor’s note”.
He continued, “This is life after the league. The suits and the noise fade; the paperwork and the pain don’t. I share our story and the knowledge I have in the hopes that it might help someone else.”
Lacey has done more than share her message on social media. She is also a member of the Off the Field Player’s Wives Association, made up of active and retired players Wives of NFL players. The association’s mission is to “undertake and support philanthropic initiatives that improve the quality of life for people in the community,” according to Lacey’s staff. web site.