Ryan Sutter is looking back at his football career decades after he hung up his jersey.

“All I ever wanted to be was a professional football player. The odds were not good. But I loved football,” Sutter, 50, wrote via Instagram on Friday, March 7. “I played from a pee wee through college and, yes, I made it to the NFL. Drafted by the Baltimore Ravens but ending up on the Carolina Panthers practice squad my goal was finally achieved on November 29th, 1998 when I was activated to play against the New York Jets.”

He continued, “I lined up for the opening kick off. The whistle blew. I ran down the field. By the time the next whistle blew, my career was over. 5 seconds had run off the clock. In an attempt to make the tackle, I blew up my shoulder. I never made it back.”

Sutter said his dream was “both realized and shattered” within five seconds. “20 years of effort culminated on that day, in that moment,” he said. “Then it was over. The game went on obviously. We lost. Life went on. I had to go on. But I didn’t know any other way.”

Sutter explained that he has “tried insatiably to live up to what should have been — to be the dream I dreamed I’d be” in the 26 years since that day. He has since become a firefighter, an Ironman, a Leadman and a Ninja Warrior.

“My life has been blessed. I have an unbelievable wife and family. I continue to work with talented, ambitious and inspiring people,” he continued. “Yet I still feel as though I’ve failed my potential — that I could have been more. That single failure has made every subsequent one more impactful.”

Now, Sutter said he’s “up at night replaying difficult calls at work in my mind, trying to find ways I could have done better.” Sutter, who shared a black-and-white image of himself seemingly at an at-home gym, shared he’s at “this gym religiously in an attempt to keep my aging and aching body capable of the demands I continue to put on it.”

“I don’t know any other way…” he wrote. “But I’m going to have to learn. As disappointing as it is, I’m going to have to accept that my fizzled out football career rocketed me into a meaningful life. My broken dream lead to me accomplishing things I never dreamt of.”

Many Bachelor Nation couples struggle to stick together after the show, but the original Bachelorette, Trista Sutter, seems to have found her happily ever after with husband Ryan Sutter. “I decided going in that I needed to give myself wholeheartedly to the experience in order for it to work,” Trista recalled to Us Weekly exclusively […]

He continued, “I am the person I am not in spite of my failures but because of them. I will never play football again. But I will continue to harness and apply the motivation and drive I gained in its pursuit to challenge myself. I will seek out and strive for opportunities to get better. I will fall and I will get back up. Because I don’t know any other way…”

Bachelor Nation met Ryan on season 1 of The Bachelorette, where he vied for the affections of his now-wife Trista Sutter. The pair tied the knot in December 2003 as part of a three-part special on ABC. Ryan and Trista, 52, welcomed son Maxwell and daughter Blakesley in July 2007 and April 2009, respectively.

While celebrating their 21st wedding anniversary in December 2024, Ryan gushed over his connection with Trista.

“I struggle to find new words to describe how much I love you or new ways to express how much you mean to me,” Ryan wrote via Instagram, alongside a black-and-white selfie of the couple. “It’s difficult to explain but so easy to feel. You make it so easy to feel so good, so happy, so much joy and gratitude and peace within. Not much about life is easy anymore, not much except loving you…. And I do and I have and I will – for every second since I said I do…. #happyyanniversary mama. HIF. #love.”