C.J. Conrad was ‘ready to move on’ after stint in NFL. The next step was apparent.
C.J. Conrad is finished with professional football.
The COVID-19 pandemic was the latest in a series of obstacles that helped make Conrad’s stint in the NFL short-lived, but the consolation prize he ended up with is enviable: he’s now a graduate assistant at the University of Kentucky, where he starred as a tight end from 2015-2018.
“I’m very excited to get back to a program where I feel like I made an impact on, and I want to continue to do that from the coaching side,” Conrad said in a Zoom teleconference with reporters Wednesday.
Conrad in January signed a futures contract with the New York Giants, with whom he signed a training-camp deal prior to last NFL season after not getting selected in the 2019 draft. He was waived by the Giants in April — in the thick of the coronavirus pandemic — and was unable to work out for any of the league’s other 31 teams. Most of those teams — “about 80 percent,” he said — still held a heart problem identified at last year’s draft combine against him, despite him later being cleared to play.
Between that and the chain of uncertainties sparked by the pandemic, Conrad, 24, felt like it was time to turn in his cleats.
“It’s kind of tough for a guy like me to be a free agent and not have any workouts,” Conrad said. “It just got to a point, for me, where I didn’t want to sit around and wait anymore. I’m very content and happy with my career as a college football player and my short time in the NFL, especially with my body, going through four surgeries in college, I think I was a little checked out and ready to move on with my life.”
Conrad first reached out to UK head coach Mark Stoops about a possible GA role toward the end of last NFL season, prior to signing the futures contract with New York. He almost still took the GA position in the spring semester over the contract.
When he was cut in April — the Giants were above their allowed roster limit following the 2020 draft and Conrad was a casualty — Conrad called Stoops again.
“I really wanted to be a part of something special again and that’s why I’m here,” he said.
Courtney Love, another former Wildcat-turned GA who’s in his second year as the team’s director of player development, and Vince Marrow, Conrad’s position coach at UK and the Wildcats’ recruiting coordinator, are his biggest role models in coaching.
He’s actually rooming right now with Love, whom he got to observe make the transition from player to grad assistant.
“We agree on a lot of things when it comes to football,” Conrad said. “Our philosophies on things, our leadership, our culture and stuff like that. I watched him take that GA position, and him being able to connect with the players right away, that really intrigued me.”
Conrad hopes he can become as big a recruiting ace as Marrow.
“He’s very good at interacting with people from different backgrounds, anywhere and anyhow” Conrad said. “He can get you in Ohio, he can get you in Florida, he can get you in California, he can get you in Kentucky. It doesn’t matter. He does such a good job with connecting with these guys and their families, selling a vision, and he’s an aggressive guy. If he wants you, he’s gonna really, really show it, and a lot of guys take interest in that. People want to be wanted.”
Of course, the possibility of there not being a college football season at all hangs over the staff, Conrad included. They’re all going about their jobs as if the season will kick off as scheduled on Sept. 3, because doing otherwise could be detrimental.
“I don’t even want to think about not having a season,” Conrad said.
