Doug Baldwin Jr. Catches passes for the Seahawks. Now he helps free people from prison

During a video call following the most recent Clemency and Pardons Board hearings, Baldwin spoke about his own journey from “Angry Doug Baldwin” in the NFL to helping people get out of prison. The conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

You were known for your intensity on the field, and you’ve spoken in other interviews about having difficulty transitioning into your post-playing career. How exactly did you struggle?

It had to do with identity. I’ve been playing football since I was six, and I’ve been praised for my achievements on that field since I was seven. So it became kind of a lifeline for me. And when I didn’t have that, I felt out of place. I felt lost in the world. I didn’t know where I stood because no one gave me the confirmation of, “Oh yeah, you’re doing good now.”

So now that I don’t have that, on top of the birth of my first daughter, now that I’ve been married for two and a half years… there’s so much non-instant gratification or instant validation when it comes to getting married and having children, that I I think that also contributed to the challenge. But I also think it was an advantage for me because I had something else to pour into. There was something else – I don’t want to say it distracted my mind from the negativity, but it pulled my mind in a different direction.

What advice have you received about how to manage your pension?

Most people I talked to said, “Just know it’s going to be hard.” They didn’t really have anything more than that. I had a former teammate sitting in the locker room before one of our games, and my mind was already thinking, man, this time will come someday. So I just asked him, “Hey, was it hard for you to retire?” And he shook his head no. That shocked me too, like, Dang, okay, so everyone else is telling me it’s hard. He says it’s not difficult.

What I learned from that is that he had other things planned and ready for his retirement. He could throw himself into other things and find fulfillment and validation, while I was like, ‘Okay, football is over. I don’t know what’s next.” It was just my nature that I couldn’t devote any energy to anything other than football at the time, so I wasn’t as versatile as I would have liked to leave.

When did you start feeling better?

I would say probably a year and a half, two years ago. It could be even less, to be quite honest – not necessarily physically, but to some extent emotionally, mentally and even spiritually. I probably only discovered this higher level of balance less than a year ago.

In 2022, Washington Governor Jay Inslee appointed you to the state’s Clemency and Pardons Board. The other members of the board are a court reporter, a dean of students, a former director of the Division of Licensing and a public defender. How did you get involved in this?

I was doing some work on some other initiatives in Washington state, and one of the contacts I worked with was the liaison between the governor’s office and myself. He said, ‘Hey, what do you think about this? Are you interested in this?” And honestly, when I looked into it, I felt called to do so. I really felt strongly compelled to participate.

During your playing career you have been vocal on issues of police reform, but also, as you mentioned during the hearings, your father was a law enforcement officer. Your journey in thinking about criminal justice: has it been linear, or have there been a lot of twists and turns in the way you’ve thought about our legal system?

It’s a great question, and I don’t know if I have a good answer to it, but here’s how I’ll try to answer it: My faith has been a very strong part of how I’ve navigated the world and how I’ve felt healthy in many ways, and this is no different. So when it comes down to it – it’s hard for me to even talk about criminal justice or justice, because it’s an inherently flawed system, and sometimes justice doesn’t prevail, even in the system. I think I see that in some of these cases. But what I would say is that I look at the people who come before our board, and they are just like me. They’re just flawed people… They come from very challenging backgrounds, and they may or may not have had the support in a way that would bring about positive change in their lives, to be able to balance or counter the challenges to be able to go. what they are confronted with. So I look at it with a lot of grace.