"Football is a very short-term career. Football really prepares you for almost nothing. The only thing I got out of football was the ability to work hard." says Gales Sayers. So what do you do after your glory days on the field are over? Here's what one of the top players, Gales Sayers did after _ . Gales Sayers: #40, Chicago Bears, Running Back. Gales Sayers became famous in 1965. After recovering from a serious knee injury in 1968, Sayers returned to the Bears in 1969 and was awarded the George Halas Award as "the most courageous player in professional football." At the award ceremony, he owed his prize to his friend and teammate Brian Piccolo, who was dying of cancer. Sayers couldn't get away from the injuries, though, and another blow to his knee put an end to his football career in 1971. His personal life was unfortunate as well, as he and his wife, Linda, split up that year. Shortly after that, Sayers started a new life and career as an assistant athletic director in the University of Kansas. By 1976 he was moving up the ladder at Southern Illinois University, becoming the first African-American athletic director at a major university. Sayers started a computer supplies company in 1984 with his second wife, Ardie, whom he married in 1973. The couple was looking for a field with a future, and computers seemed to have it all. Seventeen years later, the company that bears his name is a national provider of technology solutions, with 10 locations and over 350 employees across the country. Just like in the old days the honors started rolling in. Sayers was listed into the Chicago Area Entrepreneurship  Hall of Fame in 1999. Sayers started his new career mainly because of   _   .
the first knee injury in l 968 his unfortunate personal life another more serious knee injury a friend's being deadly ill