Marian Central graduate Bryan Bulaga looks at life outside of NFL

Bryan Bulaga often plays golf three times a week, enjoys watching his two children playing youth sports and actually has taken up running, now that he no longer is an NFL lineman.

For Bulaga, life is good.

The 2007 Marian Central graduate, who grew up in Crystal Lake, played for nine seasons with the Green Bay Packers and two with the Los Angeles Chargers before injuries took their toll on his body.

Bulaga, the 23rd pick in the 2010 NFL Draft, is the highest-drafted area player ever and has a Super Bowl ring with the Packers, who beat Pittsburgh in Super Bowl XLV his rookie season.

Bulaga was a fixture at right tackle for some of the Packers’ best offensive teams in their history, helping protect future Hall of Fame quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

During his pro career, Bulaga played at 6-foot-5, 315 pounds. He got up to 330 after his last season with the Chargers but since has dropped 70 pounds from that and usually weighs between 255 and 260.

Bulaga and his wife, Abbie, who he met at the University of Iowa, have a son, Declan (8); a daughter, Cameron (6); and a Bullmastiff named Leroy. They live near a golf course in Sarasota, Florida.

This fall, Bulaga was selected as Iowa’s 2023 America Needs Farmers Wall of Honor recipient, the 11th Hawkeye to receive that honor.

In November, Bulaga, 34, signed a contract with Green Bay so he could officially retire as a Packer. He spoke to the team and thanked the organization of which he had been such an integral part for most of a decade.

Bulage recently spoke with Northwest Herald sports writer Joe Stevenson about his career and life after football.

How are you feeling?

Bulaga: I feel pretty good. I have some things I deal with, my shoulders and back, my core muscle is still painful at times that I had surgery on a few years back. Overall, I feel like I’m going all right. I’ve lost 70 pounds. I feel really good overall with that. It took a lot of stress off my knees. There’s days that are better than others, but for the most part I can’t complain too much.”

Stevenson: How many surgeries did you end up having?

Bulaga: It ended up being eight. A decent amount. I tore my left and right ACLs. I would say the ACLs were the most serious. Those are long, hard rehabs, and you never really know how your knee’s going to bounce back from it. After I had them done, they ended up being fine. I never had another issue with either of them.

Stevenson: It seems to be the way of linemen after they leave football, they often drop a lot of weight. Was it hard losing weight?

Bulaga: When you carry that weight around so long, you’re just sick of having it on you, I’ll put it that way. You just want to get that weight off of you.

In 2022, after my last season with the Chargers, I had shoulder surgery that offseason, and I had a good idea I was going to be getting cut. I was rehabbing the shoulder. I stepped on a scale the day before surgery and I was 330, and I was like, ‘Man, I have to change this. This isn’t good.’

I had a good feeling I was going to get cut, and I knew at that point, with my shoulder and my core muscle, there would be almost no way I’d be ready to play football by the time camp rolled around. I tried to get to 290 or under and see how I feel.

After surgery I got back to light lifting weights, and I started to ramp up my cardio and things like that. I got to around 290 and my knees felt good, so I started running on the treadmill. I’d go for about a mile, then once my wind got up I went for a mile-and-a-half. Then I lost a little more weight. I decided I was sick and tired of running on the treadmill and I went outside and started running around 2 1/2, 3 miles a day and got down around 275ish. I hit a little plateau.

I did the 75 Hard Program. It’s mental training, but physical that goes with it. It’s by Andy Frisella, who owns 1st Phorm, a supplement company. It’s 75 days, work out twice a day, stick to a diet, no alcohol, reading, and I did that and got to around 255, and that’s kind of where I’m around now, 255 or 260.

You lifted weights for so much of your life, do you still lift?

Bulaga: I still lift weights, do a lot of running and cardio. My weight lifting looks a lot different these days, I’ll put it that way. I do a lot more lighter weights, high repetitions, strengthening core and lower back and certain leg exercises. I haven’t been underneath a squat bar since I can’t tell you. No deadlifting, no things that stress out the lower back. A lot of lower weight, high reps, functionality and things like that. I can’t imagine getting underneath a squat bar again. I think I would crumble.

How often do you golf?

Bulaga: My son is in competitive soccer and flag football. My daughter does soccer. And their homework. I feel like they do way more homework than I ever did, maybe that’s because I didn’t do much. I don’t know. It could be that or selective memory.

I try to get out three times a week. I take the kids to school and get out to the course and play. Or play on a Sunday morning. Three times a week is a good week.

Do you have any job now?

Bulaga: This is my second year not playing, and I didn’t have any urge to do anything the first year. I was recovering from surgeries and all that. The second year I wanted to get back into football a little bit.

I am on ESPN Milwaukee and Madison and do a show two to three times a week. It’s been fun. Especially when we’re talking Green Bay Packers and football, I like to look at it from black and white X’s and O’s. I like to watch tape for games, and I give honest assessments. In Wisconsin, people only care about the Packers, which is great because I love watching them and really love the team. I break down the game every week from the All 22 film. I feel like I can provide pretty good insight on that because I am familiar with Matt LaFleur’s system. I played in it for a year.

What did it mean to come back and officially retire as a Packer?

Bulaga: It meant a lot to me and my family. Abbie and the kids got to experience it. It was a full-circle moment. It started there and it only felt right for me to end it there, and they allowed that to happen.

It feels good to be wanted somewhere, especially when you’re not even playing and they want you to be part of that family. It means a lot to me because I love the organization and the people that are there.

A lot of the players are new. The coaches I had in 2019 are there. For me, seeing people around the building, people from security to nutrition to equipment room to medical, people you would see every single day and say hi to. To come back a few years later and it was like you never left. You see them and talk again. It was really nice to share that moment with the family.”

What was it like to be honored by Iowa on its America Needs Farmers Wall?

Bulaga: It’s a great honor. They have a big section of the stadium cornered off for that. It’s pretty cool that I’ll be in Kinnick Stadium for a very long time, kind of entrenched in the wall. That’s pretty awesome.

How would you assess your career?

Bulaga: The first thing about my entire ride is I wouldn’t trade my experience for anyone else’s. I had trials, I had tribulations. I had ups and downs throughout my career with injuries and things like that, but I feel like that was meant to be. That was the journey I was meant to take in the NFL. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

I had so many great experiences, won a lot of games, played in a lot of important games. Besides the Super Bowl, tons of playoff games and NFC championships, winning NFC North Division titles, that’s the goal every year. To win those big games and be part of some of the greatest teams in Green Bay Packers’ history is something I’m super proud of.

I just always, when I look back on it and talk to people, I just want to be remembered as a good teammate, as a guy people could count on, rely on, know that every week I’d go into the building and would be the same guy and give the same type of performance and be consistent and people could count on me.

We won a lot of games. We put a lot of smiles on people’s faces in Wisconsin and made a lot of great memories for not just us players, but the people of the state as well.”