Ex-NFL Star Jeremy Shockey Reveals He Had a Vasectomy at 21, Says He Now Wants Kids

Jeremy Shockey spent his NFL career determined not to let fatherhood interfere with football. More than two decades later, the former New York Giants tight end has had a major change of heart.

Shockey, 45, revealed on the Sunday, August 2 episode of the Club Shay Shay podcast that he underwent a vasectomy at just 21 years old, shortly after entering the NFL.

He has since had the procedure reversed and told host and fellow ex-NFL tight end Shannon Sharpe, 58, that he wants to have children of his own.

That desire is a far cry from where Shockey’s head was at when the Giants drafted him 14th overall in 2002. He opted to get the procedure early in his NFL career, explaining that fatherhood simply didn’t fit the life he was building. “I had no kids, I didn’t want any kids,” he said on the podcast, adding that he only had “so much space” in his head for anything beyond football.

Shockey said he remained single throughout his six seasons with the Giants, from 2002 to 2007, though he did have a brief fling with model and actress Vida Guerra, 52. The pair met during a Sports Illustrated shoot and dated for about a month.

On the podcast, Shockey shared that he weighed his decision against teammates who were balancing families with their careers. “This person plays the same position as me. He’s got more catches than me. How is he married and he’s got three kids? How’s he juggling everything? I can’t do that. I’m a very one-lane guy,” he said.

He also detailed his rigid off-field routine at the time. “When we get home from work, what do you want to do? I want to sit in a hyperbaric chamber, I want to do acupuncture and I want to go to sleep. There’s only so many weeks. I had to have a schedule,” Shockey said.

The professional athlete said he sought his mother Lucinda‘s advice before going through with the procedure. “I told her, ‘Mom, I signed a contract with this team, but I don’t know. They could trade me next year. So if I’m dating a girl here, I don’t need any of this, you know? I just need to be a horse with blinders,'” he revealed.

According to Shockey, Lucinda called it “a great decision” and assured him he could “save it in the sperm bank and you’ll be fine.” At the time, he added, he felt even less pressure to have children because his brother already had kids, so he “wasn’t yearning for that.”

After his time with the Giants came to an end, Shockey spent three seasons with the New Orleans Saints before finishing his NFL career with the Carolina Panthers in 2011.

The following year, he married Daniela Cortazar, 36, but the union was short-lived. Shockey filed for divorce just eight months after their wedding, citing an “irretrievably broken” relationship.