Bryce Huff abruptly retired from the NFL in March at the age of 27. He instantly transitioned to the thing Hall of Fame head coach Chuck Noll called a football player’s “life’s work.”
As explained recently by Vic Tafur of The Athletic, Huff and his older brother have started a company that hopes to address the fire risk of lithium-ion batteries.
“I feel like we’re going to save a lot of lives and protect a lot of companies,” Huff told Tafur.
Bryce Huff has funded the company, which currently has six employees as it ramps up, with some of his $40.6 million in career earnings.
“Everything is slowly but surely containing batteries, from cars to our tools to bikes, you name it,” Huff told Tafur. “The biggest risk with batteries is the way they ignite if they were to take on some type of damage or malfunction or short circuit. One cell in the battery combusts . . . and then it’s just like a chain reaction throughout the battery.”
The goal is to find a way to quickly extinguish such fires, without toxic chemicals being released.
“There’s not really much on the market that works like our product does, being environmentally friendly and safe to use for firefighters and people around the world,” engineer Nik Tacker told Tafur of the company’s efforts to date.
Bryce Huff studied mechanical engineering while playing college football at Memphis.
“Going into the NFL, I couldn’t really put my love for engineering to good use,” Huff told Tafur. “But now I feel like since we’re working with engineers on a day-to-day basis, it’s just as good as actually being an engineer myself.”
Even though, from the outside, it appears that Huff retired early after six years with the Jets, Eagles, and 49ers, he knew the end was coming one way or the other.
“Everybody knows football is a short-term game,” Huff said. “You can only play until your 30s anyway.”
Huff said his teammates were shocked. His mother was also upset.
“I’ve played football my entire life, and she definitely wanted to see me continue to play,” Huff said.
She now may see him start a successful company from scratch. And the product could indeed help protect many, given that lithium-ion batteries are pretty much everywhere at this point.
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