The NFL wasn't the end destination for Antone Exum Jr. Since retiring in 2019, he has become EXUM, the musical artist. He spoke with InstantRHIplay about recreating himself, and being more flexible in music than in the regimented world of the gridiron.
Football could only keep Antone Exum Jr. fixated to a certain point. This wasn’t a destination the six-year NFL veteran arrived at following his playing career, either.
But there were questions he started asking himself about why this mattered so much. Why be so intense? And in having those self-talks, Exum put less value in how football made him feel and started evaluating other pathways he wanted to get into. The pure love. I played football since I was like 5 years old. There’s a big family backing and history there. My mom was an athlete in high school. She ran track and played basketball. My dad, he’s a basketball coach in , and a well-known one. He coached me in several different sports growing up. But … pretty much a typical story, typical form or path of interest there and grew a love for the sport. Then, it became, I guess, an obsession of some sort, whether that’s healthy or not.
When I started to move away from football, it just seemed like it was the right time and the right thing to do. I was so moved by the arts; I was so moved by music and writing and recording and other artistic outlets. I was like, I really wanna put more time into this. I wish that I had more bandwidth. I want to do what I’m interested in, what’s moving me the most right now. And it happened so organically and divinely.
There were times in my life — even when I was older, which some would say is embarrassing, I don’t care — where I knew that I needed to cry, or I knew that there was something there that I wanted to release. But sometimes, it just wasn’t all the way coming out for whatever reason, and I could turn on a track and it would come. I could turn on a song and just make myself weep for a long period, and it felt so refreshing to do that.
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