From NFL to ESL
Former Player Fulfills a Brother’s Dream
Written By Bradley Weiss
Photos Courtesy of Kerry Meier and atlantafalcons.com
The paths that lead to English teaching jobs in Korea are almost as varied as the individuals who choose to pursue them. However, there are likely very few personal journeys among English teachers here that include the experience of playing America’s most popular sport professionally or with motivations as inspiring as that of Kerry Meier.
Raised in the small town of Pittsburg, Kansas, Meier was the youngest of four athletically gifted brothers. He would follow in his brothers’ footsteps to play football for one of the home state universities, ending up at the University of Kansas, rival to Kansas State University, where his brother Dylan was playing. Dylan would ultimately serve as Kerry’s inspiration to teach English in Korea, albeit resulting from tragedy.
Following an outstanding collegiate career, in which he set several school records and appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine, Kerry Meier was set to begin his professional career in the NFL. After three years of playing football professionally overseas, his brother Dylan was also ready for the next stage in his life.
“Dylan was under contract with a hagwon in Seoul. He was set to come,” Meier explained. “It was the week before he was supposed to depart and come to Korea that he left us in a different way.” Five days before the Atlanta Falcons selected Kerry in the 2010 NFL Draft, Dylan slipped and fell to his death during a family hiking trip in Arkansas.
After committing himself to fulfilling the dream his brother never got to live, Meier pressed on with his NFL career. However, after three injury-hampered seasons, he was ready to walk away from the game and find the next stage.
Along with girlfriend Alexandria Martinez, he spent 10 days in China over the 2014 New Year holiday. This experience opened them to the possibility of living in East Asia. “Part of what warmed us to coming to Korea was that we had such a good time in China,” said Meier. He started to think about fulfilling another dream of Dylan’s, teaching in Korea.
After going through the job-seeking process, Meier and Martinez ended up signing a contract running from August 2014 through July 2015 with the International Language School in Jeonju, a hagwon where they taught kindergartners in the mornings and elementary school students in the afternoons. It proved to be a dramatic change in work environment for Meier: “My previous profession was trying to impose my will upon a physical being opposite of me. It was so taxing physically, so aggressive. Going from my work environment being 75,000 people, fresh grass, to a small, confined area with colorful pictures on the wall, singing and dancing little jingles every morning, it was so different.”
However, Meier was able to apply the discipline he had learned on the field in the classroom. “Football includes committing yourself to something and working hard. I found myself wanting to do that with these students. But I was working hard in a different way to give these kids the best chance to flourish and grow.”
The couple attempted to mentally prepare themselves for the larger adjustment to life in a foreign country. “We came here with the mindset of [being] completely open,” Meier stated. “Whatever Korea has to offer, bring it on.”
Still, they both admit that the first few months were not easy, particularly with adapting to Korean cuisine. Martinez explained, “With the food we had a rough start. But now, we find there are [Korean foods] we crave.”
The food was not the only aspect of Korean culture they came to appreciate. In addition was the security Korea offers, “There is nowhere in this world where you’ll find seven- or eight-year-old kids running around at night by his or herself,” Meier added, “The other thing I love is the fact that the kids we teach are so driven from an educational standpoint, it’s refreshing.”
The new-found anonymity has also been welcome for Meier. “They know me as the Kerry Meier they met the first day. They’ve come to understand that I played football, seen pictures, but they don’t know anything about American football. But it’s good, because they know me for me. They appreciate and understand that I’m there for them, to take care of them, not for them to take pictures or whatever. That’s awesome.”
A laughing Martinez put it further into perspective: “They appreciate the apples and the peanut butter you give them. They don’t care what you did last year.”
Fulfilling his brother’s plan to teach English in Korea is not the only way Meier is honoring his brother’s memory. He helped to organize the “Get Busy Livin’ Foundation,” a non-profit organization that provides scholarship support to individuals and groups that embody values Dylan pursued. “Dylan was a big proponent of helping others,” Meier explained, “We want to be able to touch the greatest amount of people in this world.”
Meier and Martinez returned to America at the end of July, where she is pursuing a graduate degree in international studies at NYU. He is preparing for his own graduate studies in nutrition, with an eye on eventually becoming a registered dietician. Meier’s long-range goal is a return to collegiate athletics as an athletics program nutritionist.
As the couple’s time in Korea drew to a close, a journey that had its origins in honoring and fulfilling the dreams of the beloved life cut tragically short, Meier reflected on what they gained from the experience. “It puts you in a humbled state very, very quickly and it makes you feel how small you are in the world, in the big realm of everything. That was really neat and we loved it.”
Feature photo: Kerry Meier playing for the Atlanta Falcons in the NFL in 2011. Photo courtesy of atlantafalcons.com