You may remember Coffee, who was drafted out of Alabama by the 49ers in the third round of the 2009 NFL Draft, retired from the NFL at the age of 23 and later join the United States Army. His contract automatically defaulted back to his rookie 49ers contract, which means that he was briefly on the team's roster. Following his retirement, Coffee admitted that his heart was never in the game of football even after leaving Alabama as a junior.
"I got to high school, and I played because my friends played, and then when I realized that I was good enough for college, at that point it was to get school paid for," Coffee said via the Washington Post. "And I still had a year left to play at 'Bama, but I didn't come back because I didn't want to play football anymore. So I figured if I got paid to play football, I would tolerate it. So I got to the NFL and I got the money, and it was mo' money, mo' problems, pretty much. And I found out it wasn't for me."
Coffee was a specialist in the Army infantry after enlisting in 2013 and eventually became a paratrooper assigned to Army Ranger School after his plans to join the Special Forces didn't work out. He shockingly quit football in April of 2010 after playing just one season with the 49ers.
"I just felt like the league and that path wasn't for me," Coffee said. "I just knew that I didn't want to waste, for me, my younger years doing something that I didn't want to do. That was kind of my viewpoint on the situation."
In his one season with the 49ers, he carried the football 83 times for 226 yards and a touchdown.
"As far as the NFL goes, I have a hard time putting it like this because it sounds kind of harsh, but I feel like it ruins a lot of lives more than anything else," Coffee told the Sacramento Bee following his retirement. "And that goes for people who have short careers in the NFL and long careers in the NFL. Because what happens is they see that as success."