<\/p>\n
Jasmatia Schaefering gave her whole life to football when she was married to an NFL player, from whom she later filed for divorce over a decade after he retired<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
Looking back, Jasmatia tells PEOPLE that she wishes she placed more of a priority on her dreams and invested more energy into her own future<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
She filed for divorce in June 2024 and has since launched her own career, though she still supports and helps her ex as he manages his brain injuries and CTE precursors<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Jasmatia Schaefering spent several years on the sidelines of the NFL before her then-husband retired from the league. While he was still playing, she put all of her energy toward his success.<\/p>\n
“I was a stay-at-home mom with three kids by the time he got drafted and it was all about him,” the mom of now-four children tells PEOPLE. “I took care of him. I supported him … It was all about him. It was like football, God, football, family. It soaked up everything in my life.”<\/p>\n
At the end of his career, when football no longer held the top spot on her list of priorities, Jasmatia says she had somewhat of an “identity crisis.” He got to hold on to the glory of his on-field accomplishments, but his wife left herself behind.<\/p>\n Jasmatia Schaefering<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n “My title was ‘NFL wife,'” Jasmatia, 40, reflects. “After the veil is removed … it’s like, ‘Well, what have you done for yourself? Who are you now?'”<\/p>\n She then devoted herself to her husband after he was diagnosed with brain damage and precursors for chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which Mayo Clinic<\/a> defines as a “brain disease likely caused by repeated head injuries.”<\/p>\n She researched the best treatments and educated their whole family as they navigated his health journey. She’s continued to support him where his well-being is concerned, even since filing for divorce in June 2024, but Jasmatia has also started writing the chapters of her own story. She currently works at a large communications company, but she’s going back to school to eventually become a product manager.<\/p>\n If she can impart any piece of advice on the current partners of NFL players \u2014 or “WAGs,” as they’re colloquially called, an acronym for “wives and girlfriends” \u2014\u00a0Jasmatia hopes those women don’t wait to build and pursue their own projects. “If I could go back in time, that is probably the biggest thing that I would redo,” she shares.<\/p>\n “This is his<\/em> dream. This is his<\/em> goal. This is his<\/em> job. It has nothing to do with you. You’re just a part of the experience,” Jasmatia continues. “Go to school, build a career. Do not forget yourself at all.”<\/p>\n And being on the sidelines of the professional sports world does come with “its perks,” Jasmatia explains, especially since the environment tends to welcome massively famous and successful people. Jasmatia personally made it a goal to talk to new people as much as possible when she found herself in those types of settings.<\/p>\n