Following a 17-year career where he started at quarterback for an NFL-record nine teams, Ryan Fitzpatrick hung up his cleats after the 2021 season.
Fitzpatrick, who officially retired on June 2, 2022, wasn’t unemployed for long. He signed a deal with Amazon on June 21, 2022, to become a pre and postgame analyst on Amazon’s Thursday Night Football.
In an interview with The New York Post Wednesday, Fitzpatrick discussed his transition from player to media member, which had a bit of a rough start.
“I think back to last year, the first interview that I had to do,” Fitzpatrick said. “Our first Thursday Night Football game was Kansas City and the Chargers. I flew out to L.A.; I was going to talk to Justin Herbert for a little bit. I talked to him for 15 minutes and got a two-minute piece. I just remember sitting outside the Chargers facility, hoping to be let in the doors. And I was like, ‘Okay, I’m officially not a player anymore. I’m officially an outsider. That was my welcome to TV and media. And then Justin Herbert wasn’t very talkative either, so it wasn’t a very successful interview,” he added.
Fitzpatrick has used the interview as a learning experience, though.
“But, you know, since then, I’ve got to sit down with some of my good buddies, like Josh Allen, and those have gone much better,” he said.
The Harvard graduate has also appreciated being able to spend more time with his kids and having memorable experiences with them.
“Last year, we had a couple of weeks off of school, so my kids got to come with me to Chicago (the Bears played the Commanders in October), and we spent the week in the city. They got to be a part of my world, and when I played, I tried to do that as much as I could, but there was always the stress of the job and the task and the meetings and the things that I had to do.”
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