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NFL player retires after 8 years and moves into his van

By Ross Kelly May 11, 2018 at 3:10pm

NFL offensive linemen have inconspicuous jobs, and most do their best to avoid the spotlight.

Usually, the only time you notice a lineman is when he gets a holding penalty and the referee calls out his number.

Thus, it comes as no surprise that only one offensive lineman, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Alejandro Villanueva, placed in the top 50 of the NFL’s Player Sales List for 2018.

Joe Hawley was one of those obscure offensive linemen, even though he played eight NFL seasons with the Falcons and Buccaneers.

Now, Hawley is getting attention, but it has nothing to do with football. After retiring earlier this year, Hawley moved out of his apartment in Tampa, Florida, sold his Mercedes-Benz C300 coupe, and decided to live out of a van while driving around the country and blogging about it.

Hawley is documenting his journey on social media and has a YouTube channel called ManVanDogBlog. He describes the channel as “Just a man in a van with his dog trying to figure out what life’s all about.”

“(You try) to be great at something and put your mind to something. It just goes away,” Hawley told USA Today from the couch in his van. “So you have to figure out: What else can I be great at?”

Hawley said both the physical and mental grind of the NFL weighed on him in his final seasons. He doesn’t have any cartilage in either knee, but he does have has bone spurs in both ankles and torn labrums in both shoulders.

Stress and anxiety also weighed on him last season, and his sister said he was so emotionally wrapped up in football that sometimes she had trouble communicating with him.

Could you ever see yourself living in a van?

“I think this pressure of the NFL, it was ruining him,” Hawley’s sister, Ashleigh Stone, said.

While Hawley may now live in a van, it’s not your typical soccer mom van. He bought a used 2007 Ford E-350 cargo van for $55,000 and spent another $15,000 on upgrades. The van now has a 16-gallon fresh water tank, a pop-top roof, solar panels and retractable awning, among other amenities.

At around this time of year in the past, Hawley would be prepping for another season of football. But now, he could care less about what’s going on in the NFL.

“I could give two (expletives) about (the NFL draft),” said Hawley, who enjoys streaming baseball games and following his fantasy baseball team.

He doesn’t have a planned route or final destination, but there are a few stops he has in mind. He wants to see Redwood National Park in California, Glacier National Park in Montana and Niagara Falls.

Hawley also wants to visit lots of baseball stadiums and plans on stopping at children’s hospitals along the way to hand out toys to kids.

Living out of a van is certainly unconventional, but it’s what Hawley wants to do, and his family says he’s in his comfort zone.

“I think there’s the common misconception of people that are in the NFL — that they’re all ballers, they all want to live extravagant lifestyles,” his sister, Ashleigh, said. “(With Hawley), it wasn’t a big jump, if that makes sense.”

“He always kind of lived a really conservative lifestyle,” she added.

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