It’s been nearly two years since the offensive guard retired after just three seasons with the Baltimore Ravens. The 6-foot-3 Sheldrick Redwine Jersey , 300-pound Canadian left millions of dollars on the table to pursue his two loves — mathematics and time with his 16-month-old daughter, Joanna.“My mindset really changed over my time in the NFL,” Urschel told The Canadian Press by phone recently. “I’d become more passionate about math and started my Ph.D at MIT and every semester I had to leave it got tougher and tougher.“I’d also become a father and having a little one sort of changes your perspective. The most important things in my life are doing math at a really high level and raising my daughter being able to do both for a really long time.”That wasn’t always the case. Urschel said that in high school and at Penn State, football was a top priority, although a pro career necessarily wasn’t.The NFL was “a very late thing,” he said. “Very early on, what I dreamed of was being an offensive lineman in the Big Ten.“Let me tell you, playing at Penn State, starting at Penn State and getting all Big Ten honors my last two years there, that was like a dream come true for me. My years at Penn State where my happiest playing football in my life and really shaped me as a person.”The NFL came calling in 2014 when Baltimore selected Urschel in the fifth round, No. 175 overall. Urschel appeared in 40 games with the Ravens, starting 13.He suffered a concussion during practice in 2015 shortly after being accepted at MIT. He resumed playing but said leaving the game healthy was a big reason why he retired early.“You play in the league for a long time and you can’t walk when you’re 50,” he said. “I’m looking at some of these mathematicians, these 60-, 70-year-old guys walking around, they’re sharp, they’re teaching math.“I don’t want to be some guy when I’m 50 who can’t walk around a classroom or my shoulder is so bad I can’t do a lecture and write something on the chalkboard. Yes http://www.brownsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-austin-seibert-jersey , everyone focuses on the head, but for me it’s really about the whole body.”Two years later, Urschel couldn’t be happier.“I’m loving my life right now,” he told the CP. “I’m finishing my Ph.D in math at MIT, I’ve got one more year left and my daughter is running around and talking a lot.“I’m trying to teach her how to count but she’s a little resistant. She knows all the names of the pieces on a chess board, 20 different animals but for some reason counting she’s not feeling it yet. So, yeah, everything is good over here. I’m very happy I retired exactly where I did.”Urschel grew up in Buffalo, New York, with his mother, a lawyer. Urschel’s parents separated when he was 3. His father is a thoracic surgeon who also played linebacker at the University of Alberta.Since retiring Urschel also co-authored his memoir, “Mind and Matter,” with his wife, Louisa Thomas, a journalist.“I wanted to write a book detailing my journey and experiences with mathematics,” he said. “I wanted to share my love of math and also perhaps train certain peoples’ thinking about math and show them some of the beauty, elegance and importance of mathematics.“Penguin Books loved the idea but really convinced me that just doing a memoir about mathematics would really be doing myself and the audience a disservice. So that’s how the book in its final form came to be Trysten Hill Jersey , sort of a true memoir of my life from childhood until I retired from the NFL. I must say, they were absolutely right.”Urschel called the process of putting pen to paper, “amazing.”“Louisa was really the driving force who really helped with the narrative and talking about the finer points of my life and football,” he said. “But for me, detailing mathematics, my experiences with mathematics and trying to explain that to a broad audience, that’s my bread and butter.”Once he has his doctorate, Urschel has a definite career path.“Academia,” he said. “I love research, I love going into the office and trying to solve really hard, open problems, I love learning new things.“I’ve also found I really love teaching and inspiring young people with mathematics. I’m really looking forward to being a professor. When you can help someone learn and understand something, that’s such an amazing feeling.”Urschel doesn’t really miss football but that’s not necessarily a slight on the game.“I’m not really the type of person to miss something, it’s not in my nature,” he said. “I’m a very forward-looking person.“I’m just so happy with all the things I’m doing right now that I don’t really look back and say, ‘Man, I miss this http://www.cowboysauthorizedshops.com/authentic-connor-mcgovern-jersey , I miss that.’ If I had it all over to do again, I don’t think I’d change a thing. … I’m very pleased with the major decisions in my life.” NEW YORK (AP) — Mike Maccagnan helped lead the Jets‘ coaching search this offseason, spent big money in free agency and oversaw the team’s draft.Now, stunningly, he’s out as New York’s general manager.Team chairman and CEO Christopher Johnson announced the decision to fire Maccagnan in a statement posted Wednesday on the team’s Twitter account.“It was a decision that evolved,” Johnson said during a conference call a few hours after the announcement. “And it took a while and maybe I was slow with that decision, but I finally came to it in the last few days.”Coach Adam Gase will serve as the acting general manager while the Jets search for a replacement. He wasted no time in his new role, trading linebacker Darron Lee to Kansas City for a sixth-round draft pick, pending a physical, according to two people with direct knowledge of the deal. The people spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because neither team had announced the move late Wednesday night.ESPN reported that Brian Heimerdinger, the Jets’ vice president of player personnel, also was fired.Maccagnan had long been on the hot seat, so the move itself isn’t necessarily a shocker. The timing, however, is particularly surprising because Maccagnan ran the Jets’ draft less than three weeks ago, including taking defensive tackle Quinnen Williams with the No. 3 overall pick.“There’s never a good time to make a decision like this, honestly Tony Pollard Jersey ,” Johnson said. “But it’s a process.”That included Johnson deciding to “get deeply embedded” in the organization’s football operations by taking what he called a “deeper dive” this offseason.“I was part of a lot of discussions about the free agents and sat in on dozens of interviews with the guys at the combine and sat in on scouting meetings and watched this process,” Johnson said. “I understood more fully Mike’s role in this building and what I’m hoping for in our future GM.”Johnson emphasized he wants “a strategic thinker” and added that “it’s more than a talent evaluation guy.” He also said he wants “a great manager, a communicator — someone who can collaborate well with the building.”There were reports during the last several weeks that there was tension between Maccagnan and Gase — which both denied.“This had nothing to do with Adam,” Johnson insisted. “I mean, I want good give-and-take between our GM and the coach. This was not one person or another winning a power struggle. This was completely my decision.”Maccagnan, who was hired as GM in 2015, had two years remaining on his contract after getting an extension at the end of the 2017 season. He was not relieved of his duties this past offseason when coach Todd Bowles was fired — leading many to assume that Maccagnan’s job was not in immediate jeopardy.“The more I looked, the more I realized that I wanted to move on,” Johnson said while refusing to go into specifics.Maccagnan was fully involved in the coaching search and hiring of Gase. He also was active in free agency, spending more than $125 million to land the likes of running back Le’Veon Bell , linebacker C.J. Mosley and wide receiver Jamison Crowder. He also acquired left guard Kelechi Osemele from Oakland in a trade.The Jets also have what they believe is a franchise quarterback in Sam Darnold, who was the third overall pick in last year’s draft after Maccagnan engineered a deal with Indianapolis to move up from the No. 6 spot. Safety Jamal Adams and defensive lineman Leonard Williams are also recent draft picks by Maccagnan who have become building blocks for the defense. Starting wide receiver Robby Anderson was also a terrific find as an undrafted free agent in 2016.But Maccagnan’s draft history since coming to New York after 15 years in various scouting positions with the Houston Texans is otherwise shaky, at best.Only 11 of the 22 players selected in his first three years are still on New York’s roster. The first-rounders have been starters — Adams (2017), Lee (2016) and Williams (2015) — but Lee became expendable with the Jets having Mosley and Avery Williamson at the inside linebacker spots.Several other early round picks have been busts. Second-rounders Devin Smith (2015) and Christian Hackenberg (2016), and third-rounders Lorenzo Mauldin (2015) and ArDarius Stewart (2017) are all out of the league.And now, the Jets will move forward with someone else making the personnel decisions. Johnson said Gase will “assist” in the search.Eagles vice president of player personnel Joe Douglas is believed to be a primary candidate to replace Maccagnan. Douglas and Gase have a previous working relationship: Douglas was Chicago’s director of college scouting in 2015, when Gase was the Bears’ offensive coordinator.In the meantime Noah Fant Jersey , Gase will oversee all roster moves as the Jets enter the next phase of the offseason with organized team activities set to begin next week. During his three seasons as coach of the Dolphins, Gase had final say on personnel decisions. He’ll now have the same authority with the Jets — at least until they hire a general manager.When he was introduced as New York’s coach in January, Gase downplayed his power, saying it was “just kind of how it worked out in Miami” and that he “didn’t even ask” for a similar setup when the Jets hired him.In New York, the coach and general manager report directly to Johnson, a unique structure in the NFL. Most teams have the coach report directly to the GM, who then reports to the owner. Johnson, however, has insisted that that’s the structure he believes works best and will remain in place when the Jets hire Maccagnan’s replacement.Under Maccagnan, the Jets were 24-40 with no playoff appearances in four seasons. The team’s only winning season in that span came in the first year for Maccagnan and Bowles in 2015, when New York was 10-6 but fell a win short of making the postseason.“I think that by diving deep in the organization, I had a better idea of what was wrong and where I wanted to head with this,” Johnson said. “This is a long-term plan. We’re trying to win football games. And, I just felt we had to have a new GM to help us do that.”