Transitioning from NFL to retirement often more trying than game itself

The days got darker when training camps opened. Andra Davis, 36, a former Broncos linebacker who played 10 seasons in the NFL, retired in 2012, leaving him with a life he expected to be easy and free of the cutthroat world he had inhabited so long. But the honeymoon period was short-lived.

As football started up without him, just 5 miles from his home in Centennial, he found himself alone in his basement, the lights off and his mind racing, thinking about all the things he didn't accomplish in the NFL and the life he no longer had.

He wasn't broke. He wasn't alone. He had a loving family — his wife and three daughters were never far from his side. But depression does not discern family or…