Life in the National Football League can be rough.

There’s the physical toll and the mental toll. There’s the separation from home, family and friends.

And then there is the ultimate decision that is most often a very difficult one to make: when to walk away.

Jon Kolb, who played for the Pittsburgh Steelers from 1969 to 1981, knew it was time to walk away when he could no longer do the things he was accustomed to doing on the football field.

It wasn’t because his skills were eroding, but because his body was breaking down from the 12-plus years of pounding it took as an offensive tackle.

“If games were once a month instead of once a week,” Kolb said, “I’d suit up and play tomorrow.”

Kolb, 55, has no regrets about leaving his playing days behind, though.

For him, the decision was an easy one.

“It wasn’t until my 10th year in Pittsburgh before I missed a practice because of an injury,” the Grove City resident said. “I thought I could play until I was 40 or 50. But what happens is the injuries start to come and you can’t play on Sunday. I’d come back a week later and feel great, but I’d get all beat up again. Your body can’t recover anymore.

“But I enjoyed every minute that I played.”

It helped that Kolb had a plan for when football was no longer an ever-consuming part of his life.

Having an idea of what to do in the time after football is the key to happiness long after the crowd stops cheering an athlete’s name.When Kolb was a freshman at Oklahoma State University, the field of physical therapy caught his eye.“My first day as a freshman at OSU, I saw a sign that said, ‘If muscles were everything, bulls could catch a rabbit,’” Kolb said. “That fascinated me. Since then, I’ve been consumed by finding out why a bull can’t catch a rabbit.”Kolb is exploring that now as a physical therapist at Specialty Orthopedics in Hermitage.Another local former NFL player, Freeport High School graduate Eric Ravotti, always had an eye toward business. His thoughts never strayed far from what he would do once his football days were over, even while he was suiting up for the Steelers as a linebacker from 1994 to 1996.Ravotti owns his own insurance agency in Wexford and is heavily involved in real estate development.And Jeff Christy, a Freeport graduate who was a perennial Pro Bowl selection as a center for the Minnesota Vikings and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, built his own home in the Freeport area and is enjoying his free time and family.Between them, they have five Super Bowl rings, six appearances in the big game, and enough memories to make any Monday morning quarterback envious.And they were the lucky ones to make the transition from gridiron glory to everyday Joe relatively smoothly.Having an idea of what to do in the time after football is the key to happiness long after the crowd stops cheering an athlete’s name.When Kolb was a freshman at Oklahoma State University, the field of physical therapy caught his eye.“My first day as a freshman at OSU, I saw a sign that said, ‘If muscles were everything, bulls could catch a rabbit,’” Kolb said. “That fascinated me. Since then, I’ve been consumed by finding out why a bull can’t catch a rabbit.”Kolb is exploring that now as a physical therapist at Specialty Orthopedics in Hermitage.Another local former NFL player, Freeport High School graduate Eric Ravotti, always had an eye toward business. His thoughts never strayed far from what he would do once his football days were over, even while he was suiting up for the Steelers as a linebacker from 1994 to 1996.Ravotti owns his own insurance agency in Wexford and is heavily involved in real estate development.And Jeff Christy, a Freeport graduate who was a perennial Pro Bowl selection as a center for the Minnesota Vikings and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, built his own home in the Freeport area and is enjoying his free time and family.Between them, they have five Super Bowl rings, six appearances in the big game, and enough memories to make any Monday morning quarterback envious.And they were the lucky ones to make the transition from gridiron glory to everyday Joe relatively smoothly.

Ravotti was like most NFL players: on the bubble.He wasn’t a star. He wasn’t assured a roster spot from day to day, let alone year to year. Every practice was a struggle to get to the next one as an NFL player.That made having a plan after his football days were over even more paramount.“People don’t realize what a stressful profession it is,” Ravotti said. “Once you quit and retire, you can’t imagine what life used to be like. Most people work eight or 10 hours a day and punch a clock and at no point do they have to outperform themselves the next day or lose their job.“You literally have to be as good or better than the day before. It’s a grind. It takes a lot out of you.”Ravotti was surrounded by players in the Steelers locker room who had no plan whatsoever for the future.“I’d say probably 25 (percent) to 30 percent of the guys in the league don’t care about the future,” Ravotti said. “They don’t worry about a knee injury ending their career.“But there are about 50 percent of them who want to have some sort of life after football. They are the blue-collar guys who stay in the league two to five years. Most of those guys have some idea of what they are going to do once it is all over.”Ravotti was one of them. He didn’t have the gut wrenching decision that most professional athletes have to make.He didn’t agonize over whether to keep playing or retire. Bill Cowher made that decision for him when he released Ravotti during the preseason in 1996.

Ravotti had a chance to join several other clubs, but wasn’t sure if he would make those teams, either. So he quit.“As Chuck Noll used to say, I got on with my life’s work.” Ravotti said.That life’s work is business. It’s what he studied at Penn State University and it’s what drives him now in his day-to-day life.Ravotti has his hands in several development projects around the area, as well as his insurance business.Insurance was something Ravotti never thought he would do.“I had a misunderstanding about what it was all about,” Ravotti said. “It was the best decision I ever made.”Ravotti equates the business world with the NFL on many levels. Both require diligence and attention to detail.And both demand a certain degree of risk.“At the end of the day, you are accountable for all your actions,” Ravotti said. “You can’t be afraid. I never look back with any regrets. Football helped me with that.”

While shuffling through some old documents, Christy made a startling discovery: a hunting license dated 1991.It was the last opportunity he had to hunt. Falls in the NFL leave no time to hunt deer, except for Bears of the Chicago variety.“You miss out on a lot of stuff,” Christy said.The 36-year-old is now catching up on lost time after retiring from football following the 2002 season.Christy was one of the lucky few who got the chance to leave the game on top.The last time he was on the football field, it was in San Diego, celebrating a Super Bowl victory as a member of the Buccaneers.Christy had several members of his family with him on the field, including his daughter Nicolette, who is now 8, and his son Mac, who is now 6. His third daughter, Kennedy, is 3.Winning the Super Bowl made his decision to retire very easy.“It was sort of a no-brainer,” Christy said. “If I had made the Pro Bowl, it would have been five years in a row, then maybe it would have been harder.”It was also made easier when Tampa Bay released Christy in the off-season in a salary-cutting move. He had opportunities to sign with several other teams, but said no.Even 2½ seasons later, teams are still expressing some interest in luring Christy out of retirement.At age 36, he’s still relatively young in lineman terms — and he was healthy for the most part throughout his career.But Christy is content to stay retired and in the obscurity he encased himself in after his playing days were over.He never officially announced his retirement.“(Former Steelers center) Dermontti Dawson never officially retired,” Christy said.“I’m not going back. I’m done. I have plenty of other things to do. I have three small children at home. I like taking them to the bus in the morning.”Ravotti also has a young family at home.He has two sons — 4-year-old Reis and a 10-month-old Carter — he is raising with his wife, Neva-Lee.

Kolb still has one son at home, 15-year-old Caleb, who is a freshman at Grove City High School.Two of his three sons, Eric, 33, and Tanner, 25, have left home.“My biggest fulfillment has been my sons,” Kolb said. “My oldest son is a clown, an artsy kid, totally not me. He bought a theater in Germany and remodeled it. Tanner is in grad school at Oklahoma State studying to do what I am doing.”Caleb played football and is wrestling for the Eagles this winter. Kolb helped coach the junior varsity football team this fall.It was a far cry from the time he spent as a coach with the Steelers and his later gig as the defensive coordinator at Grove City College — a job he left three years ago.“Coaching at this level is so different,” Kolb said. “I realized my job duties were fixing helmets, finding chin straps, repairing knee pads and finding towels. Coaching at this level — you’re a dad. You are helping these guys grow up.”At his job as a physical therapist, Kolb helps people get their lives back on track.He works with a wide range of people, all with physical problems that Kolb tries to elevate — at least a little bit.“In the mornings, I mostly see older people,” Kolb said. “In the afternoons when school lets out, I see some athletes. No day is the same.“These people just want to lead a normal life for awhile. All I wanted to do was make a difference in my life. If you can help them do that, that’s making a difference.”Some former NFL players want to make a difference while keeping their ties to the game strong.Butler High School graduate Scott Milanovich’s career after football is still football.He was a standout quarterback at the University of Maryland before moving on to the Buccaneers and Cleveland Browns.Milanovich also played in the XFL, the Arena Football League and in NFL Europe.“Football has given me a lot,” said Milanovich in an interview last summer. He is now back in NFL Europe as a quarterbacks coach for the Rhein Fire. “It’s given me the life I always dreamed about.”Milanovich was an offensive coordinator at Mansfield before leaving that post with two games left in the season to take the job with the Fire.“I always want to be involved in the game in some manner,” he said. “It’s in my blood.”