- April 15, 2024
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Former Jaguar is now going to school in Ormond Beach.
Bradley Meester, center for the Jacksonville Jaguars for 14 years, said he and his wife Jamie never planned on a big family. But now there are six daughters, ages 1 to 12.
“We kept having babies and we’ve enjoyed every minute of it,” he said in a recent interview. “I love it.”
This Father’s Day will a big event as usual, with the daughters making cards for their dad and preparing breakfast.
But Meester said every day with the family has been a big event. After a hard day on the gridiron, he always got a big welcome at home.
“They come running and give me a big hug. There’s nothing better,” he said.
After retiring from football in December, Meester decided to open a motorcycle shop back home in Iowa, so he is currently studying motorcycle technology at WyoTech, located at Destination Daytona in Ormond Beach.
Meester doesn’t expect life to change much as he transitions from a football career.
‘We’ve always kept it simple,” he said. “We had a humble kind of lifestyle.”
He never played up the fact that he was a key blocker when Maurice Jones-Drew rushed for 1,606 yards in 2011, or that he played in four Pro Bowls.
In fact, one daughter thought he worked at a hotel, because every Saturday before a home game they would drop him off at the team hotel, so he could “go to work.”
His daughters enjoy sports, such as basketball and soccer, and he takes them shooting and bow hunting.
“I think it’s important to get out and do things together,” he said.
Family life is different for a professional football player. When he had road games, he was gone all weekend, and was also gone for a few weeks each summer for training camp. But after the season ended, he was home for three months.
As he looks back on his career, he said he will miss hanging out with the guys, joking and talking about the game.
“You go through a lot of battles together … especially the offensive line” he said. “Nobody knows what it’s like.”
He said a lot of players don’t know what they are going to do after retirement, but he’s using it as an opportunity to do something he enjoys, working on motorcycles.
“I like to take something that is broken and fix it,” he said.
He plans on having a small shop by his house where he’ll service motorcycles, as well as restore and maybe build them.
He has always enjoyed motorcycles and has two Harley-Davidsons. He visited Daytona Beach during Bike Week last year.
He knew about WyoTech because he would drive by it on the way to Orlando with his family. After researching the school and taking a tour, he decided to enroll. He drives one-hour each way from his home in Jacksonville.
“It’s a well-known school,” he said. “I wanted to go to a good school and learn how to do things the right way.”
