Dominic Raiola

I was born and raised in Hawaii, and I learned loyalty growing up there. Continuity was a strong part of my upbringing. I always worked out at the same gym in high school, at Nebraska I played for a coach who had been there for 20 years. I’m not a big fan of change.

With the Lions organization, when I first got drafted, there was no direction, and they went through an overhaul. After the first six years there was another overhaul. I told myself at that time, ‘If you wanted to you could get up and leave and go win somewhere else.’ But then I thought to myself, ‘why don’t you make the team that took the chance on you, and drafted you, better?’

I think it was just after our playoff game {in 2014}, I knew my time was getting close. Ultimately my time was up. I was blessed to play fourteen years in the league – For us that is an eternity.

But, at the time the player in you still thinks they can play. My contract was up, they brought me in and said they weren’t going to bring me back. I continued to train and got a couple of calls from a few teams. However, nothing really worked out before the season, and then nothing worked out during the season.

I said to myself, ‘It’s been an honor and a blessing to play for one team and be as healthy as I had been.’ I didn’t want to pack up and play half a season somewhere else, at this point I was thirty-six years old. I decided it was time to hang them up.

My wife has been a huge help for me. My family. They have always treated me as myself and not just a football player. My wife has always supported everything I have done.

I would say it’s changed a lot, especially with my kids. I get to go to all of their games, I get to pick up that lost time with them – I get to be home every day. I’m visible I’m there to help out.

Being there for my wife, being another support system in our family. Being there for her is really important to me.

My kids all play sports, so I can share the mental aspect of it with them. My daughter plays highly competitive volleyball and she’s starting to get recruited, so I can share experiences of what I have been through of how to work or how to compare since I’ve been in her position getting recruited by colleges.

First, I started a CryoSpa business in Detroit. You see all of these high-profile athletes jumping in on these cryo saunas. I believe in recovery wholeheartedly. To play as many years as I did, I had to take care of my body. That was a part of my recovery, so I started the company called CryoSpa Detroit in Michigan.

I have also been involved in music. Music has meant so much to me, whether it was after a bad day, or getting hype for a game, or dancing around the house with the kids – Music has been a large part of my life.

I know the NFL family and the PA is strong. For a former player you go through a transition stage where you go from feeling on top of the world to feeling like you have nothing. I think anything you have, any endeavors you want to tackle, {The Trust} is there to listen to you and help you with whatever ideas you have. It isn’t just one thing, {The Trust} is there for you in all aspects of life. So why wouldn’t you take their help?

When you’re in, it’s all good. It is a privilege to play. Some players nowadays think it’s a right. But, it’s a privilege and when you’re out you appreciate it that much more.

When you are in the league playing, give it the respect it deserves. When you are out, I see a lot of guys so desperate to get back in, but they didn’t give it the respect it deserved when they were in it. Playing is a privilege not a right.

Taking an 0-16 team and then being on a team that went to the playoffs in 2011. That’s a tough turnaround. We didn’t win the game, but being on the field that day, was a proud moment. It was a tough transition, but for an on-the-field moment, that was my proudest moment.

I can be at all of my kid’s games and all of their activities. I get to drop them off at school in the morning. It may not seem like a lot, but that’s important to me.