Due to his wife, a significant Los Angeles Lakers player has formally announced his retirement.
The Sooners’ sixth-year defensive tackle, who’s been helping as a teacher, spoke Friday after being forced to step away from football; ‘It definitely hurt’
“At first, I didn’t want to believe it, honestly,” Lacey said. “It’s like, no way. I’m 23 now. There’s no possible way something like that can happen twice.”
Lacey, Oklahoma’s senior defensive tackle who joined the Sooners last year after transferring from Notre Dame, spoke to the media on Friday after practice, his first public comments since head coach Brent Venables revealed in March that Lacey has been forced to retire because of a recurrence of life-threatening blood clots.
WATCH: Jacob Lacey Interview
“At first the doctor kind of told me and I was like, ‘Nah, you’re lying,’ “ Lacey said. “And then it kind of was an obvious hit. When I got the message, I was mentally kind of like, ‘You’re done.’ I was holding onto it a little bit. Doc said I have to stay on drugs the rest of my life. So if that’s the case, I can’t play. Once he told me that, I kind of knew.”
Lacey missed parts of the 2023 offseason and preseason, but was able to get his problem under control with medication. He returned early last year and was one of the Sooners’ most effective playmakers on the defensive interior.
“Honestly, I just took it for what it was,” Lacey said. “Doctors doing their job, too, being as truthful as he can. So when I heard the news, it definitely hurt.
“Took it on right on the chin and just knew I had to get better from it. I didn’t want it to hold me down. I didn’t want to become something I knew I wasn’t supposed to be. “I just wanted to keep going forward.”
Lacey, a sixth-year senior and graduate student from Bowling Green, KY, recalled the scary event with startling clarity.
“Think it was around Tuesday that week; I was having some blood in my spit, coughing up,” he said. “Kept working out; I figured I had some throat problems. I kept going because my heart and oxygen levels were fine throughout the whole week; I was just coughing up blood. Then, right around that Friday, started getting pain in my shoulder and my left lung area. Saturday woke up, couldn’t stand up, and couldn’t breathe.
“Drove myself to the hospital. Nobody was home so I just had that feeling, like, ‘Just go.’ Thankfully, that new hospital opened up there on exit 112 (off Interstate 35), by Tecumseh Road. I went up there; luckily, nobody was in there. They got me in. I was praying it was just shoulder pain. But within 24 hours, went from the weight room to the hospital bed. It’s pretty crazy.”
Retirement, such as it is, isn’t really for Lacey. Not yet. He’s obviously still adjusting to being a “former football player.” That title was always due, of course, but it came a lot sooner than he planned.
“It’s different, for sure,” Lacey said. “It was definitely a huge blow, mentally, at first.”
Lacey immediately decided to stay in Norman and remain enrolled as a graduate student in pursuit of his MBA. He’s also taken on a student assistant coaching job with the team and is with his peers every day.
“What I focused on was the little things,” he said. “We had guys coming in who could be great. I wanted to help them as much as I could. I focused on that. I focused on waking up, knowing I could make those guys better. Unfortunately, there’s nothing I can change in my job. So I’m going to make other people better while I can. It’s been going well. Coaching is different, for sure. But it’s the next best thing besides being out there.
“I know being down, sulky, and sad doesn’t really help anybody. I had my moment there in the hospital. But I can have an effect on these young guys. Even the guys around me, like DT (Da’Jon Terry), have a great friendship. I didn’t want to lose that. Coach (Todd) Bates, Coach V (Brent Venables), they’ve been nothing but great. The place around you, you always want to make it better, and that’s what I want to do.”
Armed with a degree from Notre Dame in industrial design (he also minored in business economics) and only a few weeks from getting his Master of Business Administration, Lacey is glad to help the team and his coworkers where he can, but he’s got more than just an eye on the future.
“Honestly, I’m not sure about the coaching,” he said. “I love what it does for me, and I love what it does for the people around me. But I did get an education and want to be able to use that in the work world or otherwise. Right now, I’m kind of interviewing at different parts of my life while keeping this choice open as well.”
Lacey can tell from an up-close perspective that he’s been impressed so far with the Sooners’ young defensive tackles.
“They’re going to surprise a lot of people,” he said. “They are younger. Unfortunately, I’m not there to help. But you have a great boss like DT. Davon Sears has been in the game for six years. G-Baby (Gracen Halton) has been around the plan for a while, even though it’s a little different from Coach (Zach) Alley, but with the same ideas. So the young guys are getting on quick. I think they’re going to surprise a lot of people.”
