The year 2021 changed the Buccaneers forever. Tom Brady landed in Tampa Bay in 2020. While the Bucs hadn’t qualified for the playoffs since 2007, the GOAT found support from his teammates. Together, they set out on a heroic season, ending with Super Bowl LV. For most teammates, they had finally achieved their dream. They wanted more trophies, but one of their core players had a change of heart. At just 28 years old, he retired from the game in 2022.

Ali Marpet wasn’t just Tom Brady’s protector. He was a Pro Bowl lineman, a Super Bowl champion, and a core piece of the Bucs’ golden era. He started 101 games over seven seasons, quietly dominating in the trenches while Tampa Bay rose from irrelevance to a parade down Bayshore Boulevard.

Three years later, Marpet is finally opening up about the real reason he left. And it wasn’t just about health or happiness, it was about honor. “There’s kind of this disconnect between how I wanted to live my life and how I was required to live my life to be the best player I could be,” said Marpet, now 32. “There are some people that can balance a little bit of both. But I’m so all-in, if I’m, like, 90% in on the NFL, it felt unfair to my teammates.”

For a man who built his identity on being dependable, anything less than 100% wasn’t just uncomfortable, it felt like a betrayal. He walked away from football, and he stepped away because staying felt dishonest.

When news of his sudden retirement broke in February 2022, teammates were blindsided. But their responses were telling. Not a trace of anger. Only respect. Tom Brady kept it simple, but powerful: “Congratulations @alimarpet, you are a warrior. It was an honor!!” GM Jason Licht, who drafted Marpet from tiny Hobart College, added, “As the highest Division III player ever drafted, Ali always seemed destined for greatness on the NFL level and we simply could not have attained the success of the past two seasons without him. ”

Since leaving, Marpet hasn’t tried to stay relevant in football circles. He’s taken a different path, one built around helping people heal.

Tom Brady’s guard takes a 180 after football

Most players retire when their bodies give out. Marpet left when his soul needed a reset. While still suiting up for the Bucs, Marpet had already started volunteering at the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay. Few knew. But that decision planted the seed for everything that came next.

After retirement in 2022, Tom Brady’s protector kept showing up. Sitting in on calls, listening, learning, and understanding trauma. Not from a textbook, but from people living it in real time. Today, Marpet is enrolled in a Doctor of Psychology (Psy.D.) program at National Louis University. He’s already working as a pre-doctoral intern, logging clinical hours and handling real cases.

“I had to figure out how to heal myself before I could think about healing others,” he told colleagues. And it’s clear, he’s not just playing a new position. He’s answering a calling. Physically, Marpet transformed. The 300-pound guard shed serious mass and now looks more yoga instructor than mauler in the trenches. But this wasn’t a crash diet. It was a letting go of pressure in the game that nearly swallowed him. He told the Tampa Bay Times that he’s in a wonderful place mentally and physically.

Plenty of players try to reinvent themselves after football. Very few actually do. But that’s the Ali Marpet story now. Not the one where he pancaked Chiefs defenders in the Super Bowl. He still lives in St. Petersburg. But his days now revolve around casework and crisis care, not blitz pickups.