Professional athletes are renowned for the lengths they will go to maintain their focus on their chosen sport. But former New York Giant Jeremy Shockey took it to another level.
In a recent interview with former NFL tight end Shannon Sharpe on his Club Shay Shay podcast, Shockey revealed that he was so determined to focus on his career as a young player in the league that he got a vasectomy at the age of 21 to make it impossible for him to have children.
“I got a vasectomy at a young age,” he told Sharpe. “Like 21 years old, when I got drafted. I had no kids. I didn’t want kids.
Shockey continued, “I need to be like a horse with blinders. When I played in the NFL, I didn’t want any kids,” the former Super Bowl champ explained.
“When I get home from work, I want to recover. I would sit in my hyperbaric chamber, get acupuncture, go to sleep, wake up, and do it again.”
After remarking about the hectic state of his teammates and other players who struggled to balance the demands of work and family, Shockey determined that wasn’t for him.
“I could never do that,” Shockey told Sharpe. “I’m a very one-lane guy.”
As for how his mother handled news of his vasectomy, Shockey said she was all for it.
“I signed a contract with this team, but they could trade me next year. I don’t need any of this.”
He added, “There’s only so many weeks; I had to have a schedule.”
Shockey went on to explain that he reversed the procedure later on, when he was ready to devote the necessary time to raising a family.