Sporting Heroes: After the Final Whistle

CHEERING

And joy for every England player on the field.

In top-level sport, you live for the big moment.

Your career is defined as much by the highs...

Tony Adams, oh, what a finish!

What a way to clinch the championship.

..as it is by the lows.

You cannot be serious.

That ball was on the line.

You ride the wave they create

until suddenly, one day, it's all over.

And as they say, you're a long time retired.

When the day came for me to announce my retirement as England

cricket captain, I was shocked at how emotional I felt.

I thought I'd prepared myself, I thought I could handle it easily.

How wrong was I!

And I know how proud my mum and dad have been.

'My reaction to this life-changing moment surprised me,

'and ever since, I've wondered if others had felt the same way.'

Over the past few months, I've been meeting a few sports stars

to see how they cope with retirement.

I've done pretty much everything I've said that I would not do.

What are they doing now?

How have they come to terms with their new lives?

Being in intensive care, not even being able to speak,

is a pretty tough pill to swallow.

There's a numbness, in the sense, what do I do, what can I do, who am I?

I still have moments where I just go, "I have a baby, oh my God,

"what am I doing?"

I also talked to others on the verge of retirement

to see if they realise what's in store.

I could be stacking shelves in Morrisons if I don't pull my finger out.

I just can't leave it alone. It's like a drug to me, I'm obsessed.

That fix, how do you get that elsewhere?

Do you get it from alcohol, from drugs,

from pulling girls?

I haven't retired, I don't even think the word.

I don't accept anything. Maybe because I don't feel unfulfilled.

"Thinking too much about what will happen in the future.

"What will I do after cricket? Do I still want all this?"

This is what I wrote a year before I resigned the England captaincy.

I didn't think

I was that close to retirement. But these things happen so fast.

Retirement is a tough decision for anyone,

but whereas most people do it in their 60s,

in professional sport you do it at half that age.

I think I've made the transition quite well,

but because I planned for it, it was easier to let go.

I wanted to find out if other sports people could actually live without their sport.

I'm 11 years down the road from retirement.

I was ready at the end, very similar to yourself.

I'd done everything that I wanted to do. And it didn't make me sad.

Tony Adams! Oh, what a finish!

What a way to clinch the championship.

Tony Adams, Arsenal and England hero, overcame alcoholism

while he was still playing.

That fight and battle put him in good stead

for when he finished his playing days.

I had six years, I think, from when I sobered up to when I retired

to get to know a little bit about me.

I lived on my own, I got divorced in that period.

I had six years living on my own in Putney, southwest London,

getting to know Tony, warts and all.

Sometimes it was a bit scary.

But I kind of was ready, learnt a few tools,

and then the retirement happened.

What tools did you learn in that six-year period?

You know, how to deal with normal stuff, feelings, you know.

The best thing about my recovery is that I've got my feelings back.

But the worst thing about my recovery is that I've got my feelings back.

There's anger, there's lust, there's millions of stuff that's in there.

I was an emotional cripple, you know.

Emotional intelligence is something that I've learnt

over the last...learnt over the last 15 years.

Tony set up the Sporting Chance Clinic to help other sportsmen and women

struggling with addiction.

When a sports person, amateur of professional, comes in here

and wants residential treatment, usually they do it 28 days.

They'll stay in these cottages, in the offices as well.

I love today. I'm an upright, breathing... Life is fantastic.

-I can do anything that I want to do today.

-Would you do it again?

Oh, like a shot.

Like a shot. I wouldn't change one bit.

So you'd go back, centre half, head the ball again.

Of course. Who wouldn't?

Do you wish your body was good enough still to play in the Premier league?

I reckon I can do it!

I know you can't, but do you wish you could?

-Have you seen me lately?

-You're looking trim, but you can't.

His search for the better life has taken him

from the pitch into the dugout.

Is coaching and managing the nearest thing to playing?

Just because you did it don't mean you can pass it on.

I spoke to Mourinho about this and he said,

"You've got to forget what you've been doing for the past 20 years, playing,

"cos that's completely different.

"Your reactions as a player is probably not needed now.

"It's new things you're going to have to learn."

In 2010, he accepted an invitation to build a new club - FC Gabala,

2,500 miles away in Azerbaijan.

Tony Adams!

I went, "This seems different, something new. I might fancy this."

And another big reason was the anonymity.

I could just be free to go and make mistakes, learn my trade

and build a football club.

Tony has moved out of the dugout now,

but he's still an adviser at Gabala.

I can't help feeling he'll be involved with the game

for the rest of his life.

-You've described football as a drug.

-Absolutely.

-Could you live without it?

-No.

It's what I do, it's what I've done since the age of six,

in one capacity or another.

I think about it stupidly, obsessively.

Tony's addictive personality is something the experts

recognise all too often.

Kitrina Douglas was a top golfer.

She now studies retirement issues.

It seems that how we play dictates how we cope.

When we analyse the types of life stories that athletes tell,

and this is across sports, there are three different types of story.

There's the performance narrative,

and that's the Bill Shankly type of quote, where sport isn't

a matter of life and death, it's much more important than that.

The discovery narrative is, winning is important

but it's not the only thing.

I want to do lots of other things with my life, have a family,

play the guitar.

Then there's the relational narrative, where it's not so much

about winning, but it's about who I'm playing with, the camaraderie,

the relationships you make while you're doing sport.

And that type of journey and all those types of story,

make a difference when it comes to retirement

to the type of stories that you tell about your retirement.

I know it can be tricky to forge a new career.

As well as developing business and charity interests,

I've been commentating on cricket for a couple of years.

He should have defended that and now he's gone and gifted a wicket.

The perfect start for Sri Lanka.

'I ventured into other sports as well.

'But when I worked on live TV at this year's Masters in Augusta,

'I found out how hard it can be.'

You've won this tournament three times. Who do you fancy now?

Erm, four times, actually! But...

'But when it comes to commentators,

'I reckon one former sportsman

'is head and shoulders above all the rest.

'I went to the Albert Hall to meet the legendary John McEnroe.'

And that's it. McEnroe wins. Three sets to love.

You can't be serious. You cannot be serious! That ball was on the line.

Chalk flew up.

Can I take you back 20 years to when you made that decision? When was that moment?

I didn't actually make the decision to retire,

so in a way, I never actually formally retired.

I didn't want to cry in front of the cameras the way you did.

In 1992, his marriage to Tatum O'Neal came to an end.

We separated and subsequently divorced,

so there really was no sort of decision to be made.

It was sort of...

I was a bit overwhelmed by this personal issue

and trying to take care of myself and my kids.

I have three kids with Tatum.

And so, I just sort of stepped aside and took a step back

and just never went back on the tour.

In the '90s, you went into music. How was that?

The greatest perk that I ever got as a tennis player was the fact

that I got to have people like Carlos Santana trying to teach me

how to play guitar, or Eddie Van Halen.

These incredible guitar players.

Ironically, when John remarried, it was to a musician.

Patti Smith soon put an end to his musical ambitions.

There was a time when our baby was about to be born

and basically it was like,

"If any of us is going to play music, it's me, not you.

"Let's be clear about that."

So that sort of ended that.

But what it has done, funnily enough,

it's actually made me appreciate my tennis more.

Because the more I play guitar, I go, "Thank God I can play tennis"!

You've said, "I'll never be a commentator, never play again."

But never say never.

I've done pretty much everything I said I absolutely wouldn't do.

-HE LAUGHS

-Why?

Hopefully it's not just because it's the easiest thing.

Left-handers are normally taught to throw the toss to their left.

Too close to the net.

Then, when I got into doing some commentary work, for example,

I think people were a bit taken aback, but hopefully

pleasantly surprised that this guy knew what he was talking about

and perhaps had a sense of humour.

A lot of sports,

they don't have a seniors' or champions' tour to go back to.

The funny part is that I actually get rewarded for the behaviour

that I was fined for.

'Now they want to see that.'

Call the score, right? See if you can get that right.

You start with that, right? The rest of it, stay out of!

'Maybe it's pathetic in a way, or sad, but it's also'

sort of funny, ironic, that the very things that they were lambasting

me for, going after me, are now the things that they want to see.

It seemed more appealing to get back out there and see some friends,

even some rivals, but in a different way.

Is that what you love, the competitive edge now?

-Or is it meeting friends and meeting...?

-It's a combination.

I've said this 100 times,

but it beats the hell out of working for a living.

-What about your art?

-Art is a more, I'd say, serious thing.

I'm sort of in between a collector and a dealer.

I'll buy and sell a few things,

maybe hopefully show that I know what I'm talking about.

And do you?

I'd like to think so, but it's very subjective obviously,

it's not like sports where you go out and there's a winner and a loser.

This is... You can win and seemingly lose at the same time.

Welcoming back to Centre Court, John McEnroe.

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

I have a tennis academy, I spend a lot of time there.

I want to get kids excited about the sport,

get better athletes into the sport.

That's my immediate goal. I'm also open to suggestion.

THEY LAUGH

The majority of batting is all in here.

Batting is an attitude,

and that's what we must take to the crease every time we go out there.

'In cricket, we now help teenagers to prepare for retirement.

'Even employing psychologists to help them

'cope with the tough issues they will face when they stop playing.'

Nice.

We're working with under-17s here,

and a key part of this programme is improving their self-awareness.

So, even at this age, it seems a long way off,

but it's keeping them grounded and they understand they have an identity

outside their sport, so when it does arrive it's a process of transition

rather than a one-off event, when you get this grieving process.

Remember, batting is in the brain, not in the body.

It's all about what you think.

History is littered with plenty of examples of sportsmen who get stuck

in that process and try and replace the buzz by either turning to alcohol

or drugs, we've even seen extreme cases where people turn to suicide.

It's largely because they don't understand that it is a stage

and there's light at the end of the tunnel, and there's no-one there to counsel them through it.

When I was a lad growing up in Sheffield,

Herol 'Bomber' Graham was the one boxer we all wanted to see.

He was probably the best British boxer never to win a world title.

And he's hurt and is down for the first time.

But retirement wasn't kind to Bomber.

Herol Graham has turned on the most astonishing display

of boxing tricks that you will ever see.

When you were boxing, did you ever think what you would do

when you retired?

No. Boxers don't think that way, I don't think. You're in a bubble.

You're just enclosed in this little bubble, and trapped in the bubble,

and you didn't know what was going off outside.

I thought boxing was my life.

I thought I was going to die in boxing, literally.

So when you finished, you had no plans, no goals,

nothing to go in to?

-No, nothing.

-And what about financially?

I had plenty of money.

But it's like saying, I had plenty of friends to go with the money.

So it's a case of lending money.

-And that money never came back?

-No, no, no.

Did retirement scare you?

I was terrified.

There's a numbness, in the sense that, "What do I do, who am I?"

It's like trying to find out who am I now, now I've finished boxing,

what can this person do for himself?

It's as if I couldn't do anything.

And I just felt isolated in the home. You know, have a little tears.

"What am I going to do now? I don't know what to do."

And I didn't know what to do, at all. Really.

I read in your book that you sat in your house, cried,

turned to drink, brandy, and then you got a knife out.

I just wanted to give in. I'd come to the finale.

That's it, finished. I didn't want to go anywhere, then I cut my wrists.

I thought it was deep, I just went right down into my wrist,

my veins. I saw the blood spurt out

and said, "Ah, I've done it, I've done it.

"I can die, I can die." I was just crying and saying,

"I'm sorry" to everybody. I was saying sorry to everybody.

-Were you relieved at that moment that you did it?

-Yes. Really.

People say you're mad, but I was relieved in the sense that the pressure...

It's as if I'd relieved a kettle, a pressure cooker,

and all the steam was flowing out.

And that's the way I felt, just relieved.

Luckily for Bomber, his long-time girlfriend Karen

called the police, effectively saving his life.

If it wasn't for her, I think I would have killed myself a long time ago.

She's taken me through this, hand-in-hand sort of thing.

I mean, I've had to put something in, but it was mainly her.

She backs off a bit now and says,

"Come on, you are strong enough to do some of it on your own now.

"You do some of the e-mails."

"I can't do it, I can't do it!" "Do them."

I want to do something for the future,

for myself, for my children and for my fiancee,

I've got to do something for them and make it good as well.

Bomber has been to the bottom,

but he's on his way back and he's learnt a lot about his sport.

It's a lonely place.

You go out on your own in the morning, early morning running,

you're out on your own. You go to your fight,

loads of people there applauding you, chanting,

"Bomber! Bomber!"

And once it's gone, you're on your own again.

I felt horrible, shocking, to be on my own and I still do sometimes

Bomber, Bomber, Bomber...!

A lot of sports people have what we call an athletic identity.

Their whole sense of self has been developed over

a number of years of being a particular sportsperson,

and being a winner, not just any sportsperson.

It's a struggle, especially as an athlete.

You've been accustomed to being on top, earning all the money you can,

and all of a sudden,

those opportunities and sports get away from you.

It's a struggle to find out, what am I going to do with my life?

You find it quite hard to put your hand up and go, "Do you know what?

"In my life, I don't feel as though I'm winning any more.

"I feel I'm drifting sideways, I feel a bit lost."

And, you know, I think everyone goes through that.

You can still have those feelings about, "What if I'd have done this,

"what if I'd done that? Maybe I could have done a bit more."

They're the worst feelings to have as a retired sportsperson.

Matthew Hoggard is one guy I know

who could benefit from a bit of friendly retirement advice.

My old Ashes team-mate is nearing the end of a successful career,

but he's notorious for living in the moment.

I'm going to get you!

Hoggy dotes on his little lad, Ernie, and wife Sarah.

I don't think at the moment he can see beyond playing,

because that's all he's ever known.

And I don't think he likes to think of it coming to an end

and I don't think he particularly wants it

to come to an end in the near future.

So I think he is hiding away from it a little bit.

HE LAUGHS

Do you feel it's down to you to keep pushing him

to make a decision, to plan for the future, to go on a course?

Yes, and I have done for the last... goodness knows how many years.

I think about that, he doesn't.

At the end of the day, he's qualified to do nothing.

I mean, none of you guys are really. I wish he'd have been a vet.

That's what he wanted to do!

When we were fighting for the Ashes back in 2005,

I was so glad he chose cricket.

And that's it. Those are the winning runs for England.

Hoggard and Giles,

the last of the heroes for England in one of the more tense situations.

You do understand that it will come to an end eventually?

Eventually, yeah.

And it's about time I started planning.

Because I haven't done much so far.

You say you haven't done much. Have you done anything?

I've done a course. I've got a coach's certificate, Level II.

Obviously there's another two levels of coaching to do

to put that string in my bow.

-But that's about it. It's getting closer to D-Day.

-Does it worry you?

Yeah. Course it does.

To what extent? What is the worry about your next life?

I stop working. Everybody needs to work, Michael.

Money makes the world go round.

You got to put food on the table, you've got to earn a crust.

I'm just hoping somebody's going to wave a magic wand

-and it's going to get sorted.

-But it's not.

-You're right.

Maybe this chat here, Mike, maybe you coming down and talking to me

is going to actually put the fear of God up me

and get me to pull my finger out and do something.

See, that is the word that I hear a lot, the fear.

It's a fear of the unknown.

I mean, you fall on your feet after cricket.

You've gone into radio, you've got fingers in lots of pies

and know exactly what you're doing and you're excited about doing it.

For me, there's a big, blank space, there's a void,

and I ain't got a clue what I'm going to be doing.

I could be stacking shelves at Morrison's if I don't

pull my finger out and get some plans and some foundations laid down.

When you have a spare moment, you don't think, "What am I going to be doing in 10 years?"

I'm more likely to be thinking, "What would I do if I won the lottery?"

-But you're not going to do that.

-Or what I'm going to have for tea.

-You're pretty simple, aren't you?

-Yes. I'm very simple.

Monkey see, monkey do, Michael.

It's, erm... Needs must and sometime I'm going to have to grow up.

'Knowing Matthew, he will turn it around

'and he's a lot smarter than he gives himself credit for.

'He'll do something.'

Test cricketers can be away from home for months on end,

so retirement at least enables you to spend more time with the family.

Got any tricks?

For women, the situation's a bit more complicated.

Some do combine children and sport successfully,

but for many, it becomes a choice between the two.

Gail Emms helped put badminton on the sporting map in this country,

but she won't be competing at London 2012.

With partner Nathan Robertson, she won silver at the Olympics in 2004.

COMMENTATOR: Incredible shot from Gail Emms.

She's got different priorities now, two-year-old Harry and partner Ed.

Training for the Olympics is easier than being a mum.

It's very, very hard, but it is absolutely brilliant.

It's so cool, you know?

It's hard in a different way. I can't control...

I used to control everything with training and whatever I did,

and now I've got this little person to look after.

Sorry, have I got to go back to you? Is the attention on you, now?

Don't know where he gets that from!

It's all about him.

-Oh, that's amazing.

-What about you?

What change have you noticed in Gail

since she's stopped playing badminton?

The first year was something of a nightmare.

I noticed a change where she was just really worried about

what she was going to do next, but I think as soon as Harry came along,

and he's taken up both of our time, that's gone away completely.

One of us will be at home with Harry while the other one's at work

and then we do swap over.

It's a safety bubble, sport. You know it's not real,

and you know you should go and do other things that normal people do...

-I'm so sorry! There we go. What's that?

-Ba-na!

-Banana, that's it.

You know it's a normal life and you've got to get out there.

And then you've gone from being the best to nothing. You're not anyone.

You were a name in a sport, you were someone,

and now you're not, and you've got to start again,

and I think that was just really scary.

-Two butterflies. One...

-Two.

-And one gorilla. There it is.

Gail's last competitive match was at the Beijing Olympics

when she and Nathan narrowly missed out on a medal.

COMMENTATOR: It's wide. The dream of Olympic gold is over.

Gail, you said before this was going to be your last Games,

your last international. Doesn't change your decision?

Sorry!

There were tears in Beijing when you finally said, "That's it."

As soon as you come off court and you've just lost,

and you realise it was the last time you were going to compete

for Great Britain, they stick a camera in your face and a microphone.

It was Matt Pinsent and he just went, "How are you feeling right now,

"cos that's it, it's all over." You just get asked that. We just lost.

NATHAN ROBERTSON: She is amazing.

You see on court, how aggressive, feisty, attacking she is,

and it's been an amazing partnership.

He's got his new partner Jenny with him.

Younger model, I know. It's really hard.

Nathan and I spent so many years together and everything.

It was really strange the first time I watched them play together.

It was like watching an ex-boyfriend with his new girlfriend.

Is there any bitterness or any anger

that you are watching your ex-partner in action?

I just felt really emotional about it.

I welled up a little bit cos I was like,

"He doesn't need me any more. He's got someone else.

"He's moved on."

Do you ever get that feeling that you actually don't want them

to be as good as you two were?

Yes! Yeah, I'm totally open with it.

I said to Nathan, if he goes to Olympics he's allowed to get silver

but he's not allowed to get gold.

-A woman has a decision to make that you have to stop to have kids.

-Yeah.

It's impossible to do both.

I was trying to think of a woman badminton player

around when I was playing who'd had children

and still being able to compete... None.

I've always wanted children, but when do you have it?

Cos you really want to focus on your sporting career,

cos you've only got a short shelf life really, so for me,

I'm thinking, I'll be 31 after Beijing,

if I carry on for London I'll be 35,

and that's assuming you can get pregnant straight away.

You just don't know. So you're gambling with life.

-Did you make the right decision?

-Yes, I did.

I thought Brett Lee was fast!

You can tell you've still got the competitive edge.

You're trying to hit me.

Yes, I got one back.

Damn it!

There you go. Didn't get that one.

Still got it.

Olympic medals don't pay the bills.

Gail now juggles motherhood with a blossoming media career,

but there was a time when even our top footballers had to find

a job once they hung up their boots.

Southampton striker Mick Channon changed sports

and started training race horses, with great success.

England World Cup winner Ray Wilson became an undertaker.

Coventry's Micky Ginn got a job as a postman.

Ian Callaghan played more games for Liverpool than anyone,

ended up running a pub.

And I used to drink in a local run by Billy Whitehurst,

the ex-Hull City and Sheffield United striker.

But we now live in an era

where many sports people are well looked after financially

and don't have to look for other alternatives.

Despite this,

I found somebody who wanted to do something different

and get away from the sport he loved playing.

Every morning at 6am, an England World Cup winner heads to work

in London's new financial quarter.

COMMENTATOR: England have an overlap and they must score!

Josh Lewsey with a try.

The trading floor is the closest thing to professional sport

in the business world.

Are you just tapping out at 20% volume?

As a sportsman, you get most satisfaction

when you've had a good game and that's probably the same here.

I just couldn't get my head round it.

Josh Lewsey, equity sales trader.

Have you always been into this kind of stuff when you were playing?

I traded for five, six years while I was playing.

Right before a game you don't want to be on your feet so what do you do?

You can twiddle around your thumbs and bits and pieces

and some of the lads played PlayStation. I couldn't stand that.

We've backed a better year for equities next year

and as our stocks target...

If these guys aren't doing their job, it makes an idiot of you

and vice versa, so there's that natural competition, dynamism,

but actually, we are all part of the same team.

I always knew rugby was going to come to an end.

Sport is the best job in the world when things are going well,

but it's a pretty self-indulgent world,

and I think it's really healthy, as much as anything else,

to have some interests outside what you do.

For me, I didn't want to be, in 20 years' time,

still talking about what I'd done as a player.

Life moves on and rightly so.

As a sportsman, if you've done something good,

you get huge praise for that.

Everyone knows about it. It's in the papers. Your family knows about it.

Tens of thousands of people watch you do it.

You do something good here, nobody cares.

The guys who deal with you on a day-to-day basis

just judge you as just "Josh",

not Josh Lewsey, the ex-England rugby player,

ex-minor sports celebrity, as some might like to call it!

CHEERING

When you've been quite spoiled by that adulation,

and that fame, that sort of attention,

to then step away entirely is quite alien,

quite difficult.

Do you ever get the buzz of what you had as a player,

that feeling of winning a match?

You can earn all the money in the world,

but you can never replicate winning something for your country,

or walking out on the pitch for England.

But then again, it is a bit of a false world.

If you need that drug, where else do you get it?

Do you get it from alcohol, drugs or pulling girls?

That fix - the adrenalin fix, really -

how do you get that elsewhere?

I think that's why that transition period is very, very hard.

Keep it at 20% of the volume. Thanks. Bye.

'Not everyone can make a clean break like Josh has done.

'Sport is full of comeback stories.

'This year, we were all amazed

'when Paul Scholes returned to Manchester United,

'just months after retiring.

'But there's one revival story that tops the lot.

'I flew to Houston, Texas, to meet the king of the comeback.

'George Foreman has always been someone that's intrigued me.

'He won his title back 20 years after he first lost it.

'At the age of 19, he was an Olympic gold medallist.

'He went on to become the heavyweight champion of the world.

'He then lost to Muhammad Ali in the Rumble in the Jungle.

'He only lost one more fight, to Jimmy Young,

'but something happened in that dressing room

'that caused him to retire.'

-How you doing?

-You all right?

-I'm going to live the good life now?

HE LAUGHS

-You've lived it already, haven't you?

-Trying to.

-Have a seat.

-OK.

What happened that night you lost to Jimmy Young, in the dressing room?

You say that God arrived?

I had a lot of hate in my heart.

I was going to be the number one contender again,

and get my title back.

That was my whole focus.

Then when I lost to Jimmy Young,

to meet up with religion like that, it just blew me away.

I didn't know what to think.

I had to go on the street corners and preach,

and I'd cut all my hair off. My beloved moustache was gone.

And I'd gained all this weight.

People would actually pass me down the street,

they'd hear me preaching, wouldn't stop.

I stopped and said, "You know what? I'm George Foreman.

"Yes, I fought Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier.

"But I'm here preaching for Jesus Christ". And they'd stop.

So you went away from boxing for ten years, and then you came back?

I'd put all of my effort into the George Foreman Youth Centre.

I'd started helping kids go to college.

I'd run out of money. I just couldn't let this place close.

I had to find a way to keep the George Foreman Centre going,

and I had to go to work.

And I had one profession. It was boxing.

How much harder was it second time around?

The second time around, in boxing, is rougher,

because you have to work harder.

I was 315 lbs, so not only did I have to work out

to get in shape,

I had to lose all of this weight.

No-one took me serious. Everyone said, "He's out for the big bucks."

These young guys would come out and challenge me.

One knockout after another. It was pretty easy.

Next thing you know, I was back in the contention-ship,

and fighting for the title.

What a shot! Oh, my goodness!

COMMENTATOR: George!

Oh...

my!

Boxing seems to be the one sport where boxers retire

and then come back.

Bruno, Bugner, yourself.

Why is that? Don't you get enough of it when you're in your...?

I think the easiest thing about boxing is getting into the sport.

The hardest part is to walk away, leave it alone.

We all have to be crazy to box in the first place.

The sad thing about it - that craziness lingers on.

We don't know when to quit.

You just have to have someone in your life

to tell you enough is enough.

Most boxers can't find that person.

There's always that one purse, and that one punch

you think you can land. Always.

I think I'll be sitting there at 70 years old,

thinking, "I got one more fight!"

HE LAUGHS

Who was the one person that said to you, "Come on.

"Step aside now."

My wife told me. I told you, I argued with my wife.

I was going to get one good fight.

I knew I could do it.

I would even pay the number one contender to beat him.

I said, "I can still do it. Don't you believe in me?"

She said, "Isn't that the way you want to leave the sport?

"Believing that you can still do it?"

I said, "Yep." She said, "Leave it."

-And I left it.

-What about the George Foreman Grill?

For the first time in my life, I learned to sell.

I heard a lady say once, "If you learn to sell, you'll never starve."

I would sell religion on the street corners.

Finally a friend said to me,

"Why don't you get your own product?"

-Potato wedges?

-Uh-huh.

-Steak?

-Sure.

-Paninis?

-Easy.

I learned then that boxing was not about hit and run,

it was about selling,

so I boxed. Boom! It sure did hurt.

And then I'd get a chance.

"Yes! Try the George Foreman Grill," or whatever.

So I spent the latter part of my boxing career

in the ring, selling things.

Boxing was least of it.

What does retirement mean to George Foreman?

There's no such thing as retirement with George Foreman.

I think that's the worst thing that could happen

to any professional man, especially an athlete,

because you retire - the next thing is die.

And I'm afraid of that, so I haven't retired.

I don't even think the word.

'George keeps busy.

'He's got five sons, all called George,

'and one of them's a promising heavyweight.

'And at his own church, just along the road,

'he continues to preach, three times a week.'

ALL: One, two, three, squeeze.

One, two, three, squeeze.

One, two, three, squeeze.

'Matt Hampson didn't choose retirement, it chose him.'

One, two, three, squeeze.

'While training for England's Under-21 rugby team,

'he suffered a horrific accident.

'A collapsed scrum left him paralysed from the neck down.'

My darkest times was probably in hospital.

There was a lot of emotion going through my mind.

A lot of things...

"What do I do with my life now?

"What can I do?"

From one minute being a professional sportsman,

and being fit and healthy,

and being able to do what I want to do,

to lying in intensive care,

not being able to even speak,

is a pretty tough pill to swallow, really.

You know, "Why me?"

The scenario of, "Why me? Why me?"

And coming out of that, and seeing other people in the same situation,

and, actually, "Why not me?"

-This is my bedroom.

-I see you've cleaned it up for us.

That's it, yeah. I had a bit of a tidy-up.

How long does it take you to get up and running in the morning?

It's approximately four hours.

If you notice the rail through there,

that's my bed hoist.

I like to have a shower every morning.

I just think it makes you feel human, you know.

-Is that a telly?

-Yeah.

A TV in every room. That's it.

-It's like Cribbs, isn't it?

-That's it.

Let's talk about your book.

The front cover's there on the wall.

How hard was it to do that book?

It was really tough.

It was a real emotional drain on me.

But I actually think it was a real cathartic process

that I went through whilst doing it.

It was actually really good for me.

-It was almost like a form of counselling.

-Really?

-Yes.

CHEERING

'After his injury, a charitable foundation was set up to help him.

'Now Matt's using it to help others.'

It's kind of taken the emphasis off myself,

and moved on to other people.

I get an immense sense

of wellbeing

by helping other people in the same situation.

ALL: Set! MATT: Touch. Pause.

Engage!

ALL: One, two, three, squeeze!

One, two, three, squeeze!

MATT: Whoa!

It fascinates me that you coach the scrum.

How do you do that?

It's strange, but it's still my favourite part of the game.

It is a strange old thing,

that confrontation that I love about the scrum,

and, for me, it's the most important part of the game,

still now.

What I wanted you to do there on the front row

is to get on your toes, and fire in snappy, straightaway,

rather than rock back, and then going in.

'I love doing it,

'and I think it's the next-best thing to playing the sport.'

You guys are talented lads,

and I hope it goes well the rest of the season.

I was very proud of Matt before.

Obviously, a father would be. His son playing for England.

But I'm more proud of him now.

He's so inspirational.

He never moans about anything.

He's never down. His spirits are always high.

An inspirational character for other people.

So, hopefully, they'll surprise a few people.

-When is it - on Saturday?

-Yeah, Saturday.

How, over the years, have you found this incredibly positive mentality?

How have you been able to do that?

You come to realise that there's a lot more to life

than just being a professional sportsman,

or a rugby player.

I'm in a wheelchair,

I'm on a ventilator.

I've got a pipe hanging from my neck,

but I'm living a good and very fulfilled life.

There is a life after a catastrophic injury,

like mine.

'Sometimes, it's sport itself which gives you a second chance.

'One moment of brilliance allows you to play on,

'further than you probably thought you could have done.

'Darren Clarke's a man born again.

'Last summer, he won the Open Championship,

'when even he didn't rate his chances.'

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

'At 42, it was his first major.

'He'd been a top golfer, with 22 tournament wins,

'but he'll be the first to admit that, until that amazing week,

'he felt his playing days were coming to an end.'

It was my pinnacle.

It's the biggest, best and oldest tournament in the world.

Fortunate enough to win it, to get my name on the trophy.

What's left for me? I don't know.

'Now, as Open champion,

'he no longer has to qualify for the majors, for years to come.

'Any thoughts of retirement have been shelved.'

There you go. If I don't hit the blue...

Sit. Sit. Sit!

The speed's a bit wrong.

Ever the perfectionist.

The public have this perception of you being a very laid-back,

Guinness-drinking...

-Second part's right!

-HE LAUGHS

They do, and I do enjoy it,

when it's my switch-off time.

But I work way, way too hard.

I go down to Portrush, when I'm at home.

I'll spend nine/ten hours down there.

I just can't leave it alone.

It's like a drug to me, and I'm obsessed.

And I can't leave it alone, just yet.

ANNOUNCER: On the tee, from Northern Ireland, Darren Clarke!

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

If you'd have missed the cut at the Open, what would happen to you?

I'd have been on ESPN.

-Commentating on the Saturday and Sunday?

-Yeah.

I kept apologising to them, "Sorry, I've played too well,

"so I won't be able to do the commentary!"

-HE LAUGHS

-Is that right?

-Yeah.

Darren, over this way. Here we go.

I just think, "You've been a decent player for quite some time.

"This is the tournament that you want more than anything.

"You've been through a bit of thick and thin. You can have this one."

'Darren tragically lost his wife, Heather, to breast cancer in 2006,

'and it had a massive impact on his game.'

In terms of my career, I had five years where I wasn't competitive.

You know, the game has given me five years back again,

by winning the Open.

It would probably be very foolish of me

if I didn't try and make the most of it.

Have you ever got to that stage

where you've been in your hotel room, or at home,

and gone, "Right, that's it"?

-Oh, yeah!

-How many times?

Obviously, when Heather, my wife, passed away.

That was one of them, trying to keep everything together.

Just a few other occasions, when the game had just really got to me,

where I'd been trying and trying and trying,

and nothing was happening.

Anything that was, was all going the wrong way.

Would you reckon you could

have just given up golf, and not played?

No, I couldn't. Not yet.

-Is it getting close?

-No.

No, no.

Not now!

HE LAUGHS

You'll play forever now. Four good days in a sport, and there you are.

-Play forever.

-I know.

It's a good game, golf, isn't it?

It is! It is.

It's very easy to forget

how lucky we are to be doing what we do.

That's the whole thing. You get down on yourself,

but travelling round the world,

playing on some of the best golf courses in the world...

Watch this, watch this.

Such a good cueing action.

-Look at that! Do you see that!

-Nice shot.

I just didn't get enough top right on it to get onto that.

Unbelievable!

Can you understand sports people who really struggle

-and go through depression or...?

-Yeah. Definitely.

Definitely. Without a doubt!

Because that thrill and the high that you get

when you do it

and you do it well, is irreplaceable. I think you miss it.

-Potted a few in.

-We have.

'In terms of retirement, I think he's miles off.'

Oh, yes!

'A major win allows a golfer to play for so much longer

'and it opens so many doors,

'new opportunities and some quite large cheques.

'And who'd want to give that up?'

Miss out the green. Thank you, boy!

-Very nicely played.

-Always a pleasure.

-One thing's for sure.

-Neither of us could play snooker.

-Pool.

-You stick to golf.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Would you say athletes struggle because you can

never really get that kind of emotion again,

away from the sporting days?

It's interesting the language you use to define that.

So if I were sort of analysing our talk, you said, "You can never."

When we talk like that over a number of years,

then we won't.

But if we value other things along that journey

and this is part of it,

then other things have always been there all along.

So, for example, one participant in my research said,

"Yes, I've won lots of tournaments but they don't compare

"to giving birth to my daughter."

A big complicating factor in this is

the man from the outside that's never been involved

in high-level sport and looks at these people and thinks,

"How can I feel sorry for this person who's basically had

"15 years playing sport at the top of what they love doing

"and earning money for doing it?"

But it's like anything else.

You lose something you have that was incredibly important to you,

doesn't make it any less painful.

I've really enjoyed meeting the different sports people

and listening to all their stories.

They've gone through the strains, the stresses, the mourning,

but the majority of them have come through the other side.

Sit back, sit back.

It's helped me appreciate that no two stories are the same.

We all cope differently and I think anyone facing retirement

can relate to what they have to say.

You've got to go through that grieving process,

get it out of your system and then relish the challenge.

It's probably not a bad idea to focus on the family,

but also realise you need to keep busy.

I think the earlier you start investing in your future,

the better.

If you want something you have to get it.

Don't let other people get it for you.

Get to know yourself, what you like doing, what you don't.

One door closes, another one opens.

Don't just let your sport use you, use the sport.

You have a famous name, exploit that name.

Learn to sell, learn to sell

and you'll always have a bright future, but learn to sell.

You've got another, what...

30, 40, even 50 years of your life to live.

Try and find a niche

and try and find something else that you can do away from sport.

As much as retirement is a tough decision,

all sports people have to realise we've been in a fortunate position.

We can't feel sorry for ourselves.

We have to look for a new career.

We have to get excited about doing something new.

Most of us get to make that choice.

People like Matthew Hampson don't.

Retirement chooses them.

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