A little more than six months ago, Sean Considine was playing football with the Baltimore Ravens. They won the Super Bowl and he has a ring to show for it. But now, retired from the NFL, Considine has a new role—running a mobile meat market.
He teamed up with Headon’s Fine Meats and Catering from Creston, Illinois and created Headon and Considine’s Market. Using a custom built trailer, he sells fresh chicken, beef, steak, pork chops and different salads.
"I think people were kind of laughing at me, everyone’s calling me a carnie in Byron, selling meat out of a trailer. That's been kind of the laughing joke... until they saw the lines to buy the stuff,” said Considine.
The trailer sets up in Farley’s Appliance parking lot in Dixon, Illinois on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 12 to 6 p.m. They are in Byron on Fridays and Saturdays next to Snyder's Pharmacy.
Considine is very hands-on and is all business. He even gives orders to his help, which happens to be his mom.
"If you have expectations of running a business and having everybody else do your work for you and so I don't see how that can be a successful game plan,” he said.
He’ll need a good game plan. In 2009, Sports Illustrated reported that 78% of NFL players that had been retired just two years were bankrupt or under financial stress.
"I could be in that statistic too if this thing doesn’t pan out, but it's a lot of people have expectations, often their NFL careers are over that they're never going to work again or it will carry them ‘til they die. But I love to work, I've been looking forward to getting in the business world,” said Considine.
But if his success from walk-on at Iowa to NFL veteran is any indication of how his mobile meat market will turn out,
“I'm walking on at Iowa all over again, starting fresh. I have no idea if I'm going to succeed. I'm just going to go to work and try my best. This is a challenge I've looked forward to for a long time and here we go,” he said.
To visit the Facebook page for Headon and Considine’s Market, click here.