Phil Costa is a former starting center for the Dallas Cowboys. After retiring from football, he worked as a medical device salesman, assisting heart surgeons during more than 500 operations. And in 2018, Phil graduated with an MBA from Columbia Business School. All of this makes it sound like he transitioned smoothly out of sport without struggle, but as you’ll learn in this interview, that was not the case.

Phil faced challenges in his retirement process that he wasn’t expecting and wasn’t prepared for. After navigating the transition, he realized that there was a void in the market for resources to support athletes as they face this transition out of sport. It was then that he decided to write a book. Phil co-authored the book The Transition Playbook for ATHLETES, How Elite Athletes WIN After Sports in which he interviews 100+ athletes about their transition process and shares their best strategies & tips.