We’ve all spent time at the gym and seen someone crushing it in their workout. Maybe they’re lifting twice what we are or racking up miles on the treadmill. We’ve probably noticed how dedicated they are to their workout, putting in early morning hours or two-a-day workouts. They may even make their living from intense physical pursuits. But what we may not see is the struggle that elite athletes face when their days of professional fitness and physical performance are over. What happens next?
Merging Vets and Players (MVP) is a non-profit organization that brings these two groups of motivated athletes together to get support, community, and a killer workout. MVP focuses on the physical performance foundation that these groups have, as well as the heart and mind behind the athlete. “We work on what is between the ears and behind the rib cage,” says MVP.
Participants meet for weekly workouts and support groups in three main locations; Chicago, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas. Each meeting location is at a local gym that caters to elite athletes looking for an intense workout. MVP plans to expand to more locations as resources become available and they are able to grow.
Founder Jay Glazer hopes MVP will be able to provide transition support to veterans and professional football players. In 2015, he saw that people leaving these two groups struggled to transition to life outside of their highly specialized fields. The skills that they had honed through years of military service or in the world of professional sports, along with the sense of identity that came from that work, sometimes made it hard to transition to another field. So, MVP was born.
“By merging veterans with players, these warriors can benefit from each other’s strengths, experience, and abilities to unlock their full potential,” says MVP’s website. “Merging Vets and Players ensures these men and women know that the challenges they are facing are far more about who they are—Warriors—than what they did in the military or on the field.”
Pushing Dirt
MVP recently created a pushup challenge, designed to raise money by challenging fellow members of Unbreakable Performance Center, Jay Glazer’s gym and one of the locations of MVP, to complete 25 pushups. Former New York Giant Michael Strahan pledged to donate a new piece of equipment for every 25 pushups that those challenged completed. So, people starting pushing dirt and raising money.
Actor Chris Pratt recently challenged John Krasinski to do 25 pushups. Both Pratt and Krasinski completed the challenge—more equipment for MVP! Others are completing it daily and posting on social media with the tag #UNBREAKABLExMSX.
Sylvester Stallone himself completed the challenge, although he captioned his Instagram pushup video with the disclaimer of “I’m not sure that 25 but I’ve been hit in the head a lot so my math is terrible…believe me I can do it.”
This is incredible. Appreciate you @prattprattpratt for supporting the #UNBREAKABLExMSX pushup challenge to support @VetsandPlayers. Keep these coming!! We at MSX by @MbyMstrahan are looking forward to continuing to help our Vets. pic.twitter.com/MGqDjnVxeh
— Michael Strahan (@michaelstrahan) August 15, 2018
The leadership at MVP knows exactly what professional athletes and combat veterans face when they transition to a new career because they had to do exactly that. Co-founder Nate Boyer played professional football as a Seattle Seahawk and Texas Longhorn after his career as a Green Beret. Others on the Board of Directors include UFC fighters, paralympians, sports broadcasters, and veterans. All of the location program directors and managers are veterans and bring their experience to create what athletes and veterans need.
Lasting Change for These Warriors
The success stories that come out of the MVP locker room are nothing short of life-changing. Veterans and athletes come together to create a new sense of purpose and community.
After serving in the Army for eight years, including a tour in Iraq, veteran Jonathan Neves encountered a lot of transitional challenges when adjusting to civilian life. He went back to school, earning a degree in video game programming, but struggled to find work in the field. He eventually started his own development company, but when he left to work at a more established company, he ended up homeless.
MVP, along with Veterans Affairs, helped Jonathan find a new sense of purpose and support. What began as a good workout evolved into a place to network, find job advice, and referrals to services that helped him progress.
“He realized that MVP was more than a place for veterans and former professional athletes to work out and share similar experiences, it was also a means to help him in his career by providing expert guidance, a safe place to talk about professional headaches, and referral services,” said Jonathan’s testimonial. MVP even provided Jonathan with his first suit to help with job interviews.
MVP also recognizes that professional athletes go through a similar transition when they retire from professional sports and enter another career. Just like the military, their identity is often closely tied to their professional accomplishments. When that path changes for athletes, it can be hard to maintain the same levels of confidence.
“So much of your identity in life was wrapped up in what you did, not who you were underneath the superhero cape,” said former Baltimore Raven Gerome Sapp of his time in the NFL.
Former New York Giant Jarrod Bunch found his new normal with the help of MVP. “Being part of ‘MVP’ gives retired athletes and retired veterans the ability to interact and share experiences and stories of what it’s like to be removed from such an influential part of his or her life, and be expected to live like any other, ‘normal’ person,” he said. “Whatever ‘normal’ is for us, we figure it out together.”
Success stories like Jonathan, Gerome, and Jarrod’s echo through the MVP gym. The work that Jay Glazer and his team are doing to bring new challenges to the most elite athletes in the world has brought so much more than just physical fitness. The support that they are able to both give and receive creates a community for these athletes, at a time when they need it most.
The MVP mission statement says it all: “MVP’s mission is to match up combat veterans and former professional athletes together—after the uniform comes off—to give them a new team to tackle the transition together. MVP shows them they are NOT alone.”
