By Lauryn Luderman

Malcolm Jenkins.

Super Bowl Champion, two-time pro-bowler and one of the best safeties the NFL has ever seen with a 13-year career split between the Philadelphia Eagles and New Orleans Saints.

But that’s not even close to all he is.

On March 20, 2022, Jenkins announced his retirement from professional football. He is now just as well known as a racial injustice advocate, entrepreneur, investor, art collector and author, among other ventures.

"What Winners Won’t Tell You: Lessons from a Legendary Defender," Jenkins’ memoir and the first book he’s ever authored, was released Oct. 3. The story flips back and forth in time detailing his adolescent life through his NFL career, and everything in between — the people, the places, the adventure.

“I’ve just always been frustrated with ways that I wanted to tell my story,” Jenkins said. “So I had to write a book.”

As part of the Columbus Metropolitan Library’s Sesquicentennial Author Series and in partnership with the Sports & Society Initiative, Jenkins spoke Monday evening at the main library in a Q&A session discussing topics from his book. The event took place just three days after he was inducted into the Ohio State Athletics Hall of Fame for his college stint at safety for the Buckeyes from 2005-08.

Even though football played a huge role in Jenkins life from a young age, he knew once it was over he couldn’t be one of the many former players that wind up broke and directionless.

“There’s the identity crisis where OK, we all say we’re more than athletes, but you take the pads off and you can’t be an athlete anymore,” Jenkins said. “You have to really stand on it and say, 'OK, well what are you now'.”

Jenkins said he found that his story goes a lot farther than any football statistic.

Once he recognized that his NFL career was nearing its end, Jenkins started focusing on what he wanted his narrative to be, coming to the conclusion that he wanted to be the one to create it.

“If it’s one thing that being an athlete has taught me it’s that things being difficult is no excuse to not attempt it,” Jenkins said. “I’ve beat odds before. The chances of me making it to the NFL was less than 1 percent. That didn’t stop me from attempting it. And here we are, two years after I started writing this book — and I wrote it myself.”

In ‘What Winners Won’t Tell You,’ Jenkins discussed his zig-zag journey to the Buckeyes with former head coach Jim Tressel, getting cut from the Saints after being drafted 14th overall, winning a Super Bowl with the Eagles, his divorce, family, and his financial and daily routine struggles post-NFL.

Jenkins said for every decision he’s made, there’s a “why” for all of it.

He said he used this writing journey as a form of therapy. Jenkins detailed not only his successes, but his failures — something he said is much more compelling than a story about someone who constantly wins.

“You want to go on the emotional rollercoaster,” Jenkins said. “You want to see the doubt, the fear, the failure, the resilience and then eventually, it can be a happy ending.”

Jenkins said his memoir was a phenomenal story to tell, but he treats it as a “prequel.” He said it’s helped him to close the lid on his former career and “jump head first into something new.”

Now in his second year of retirement, Jenkins said having a lack of structure has been the biggest struggle. As a professional athlete, he said your life is fully regimented from morning to night.

Jenkins said he is thankful he began planning his life after football while still in the league through all he’s done with Malcolm Inc. — his business portfolio. 

“They [other retired players] don’t like the idea of having to start over, being the best in the world, and being considered the best at something, and then stepping out into the world when nobody respects your mind,” Jenkins said.

It’s a mind game. Jenkins said he’s had to self-encourage himself and he can either believe the “dumb-jock theory,” or remember all of the adversity he’s gone through as a football player and expand on it.

At age 35, Jenkins recognizes he has a lot of life and opportunity ahead of him.

He said he will continue to fight for racial inequality, use his platform to spread his beliefs, be a great father, collect cool art and maybe even write another book.