A Second Career for Brownrigg

Former Hereford United player Andy Brownrigg is helping young footballers to prepare for life after their time in the game.

Brownrigg was sold by Hereford United to Norwich City at the age of 18, but as he admits the move to stardom came too soon for him. Ten years later his career had collapsed and he became addicted to drink and gambling. Now he is warning youngsters to take care.

"I think football became my first drug because I was a bit excessive about training," said Brownrigg as reported by the Sheffield Star.

"When I went out for a drink I would hit it for 48 hours. I went gambling until my money had finished.

"I can be obsessive about things and it’s taken me 30-odd years to address it."

Recently Brownrigg has been at the University of Huddersfield looking at the problems some professional footballers can have.

"My piece of research is on professional footballers who leave the game and it’s something I am very passionate about.

"For every player like Liverpool skipper Steven Gerrard who will never have to work again, there are 169 people like me who will have to get a job.

"There’s not been much research done into the experiences of players who exit the game at a young age.

"I am not sure whether it has ever been carried out by an ex-professional but, hopefully, it will help players who have the sort of problems I experienced."

Originally with Rotherham, Brownrigg moved to Hereford and made just eight starts for the Bulls before being sold to Norwich for £100,000 in March 1995.

But it didn't work out for him and he moved to Rotherham. Then he was struck in the face with a hammer which left him out of the game for a spell after which he moved to Kidderminster.

Nothing much went right for Brownrigg and in 2008 he was admitted to the Sporting Chance Clinic run by former Arsenal star Tony Adams who himself once had serious problems.

"It was so hard to make that first call. I rang Sporting Chance and my life got better from there.

"I went in there as a broken man and, after four weeks in there, I came out with a lot of optimism and hope.

"Tony came in and spoke to us and he was an inspiration. I have now turned my life around. I can do the simple things in life and I appreciate them."

Andrew Brownrigg played just eight games for Hereford. But's that was all he needed to secure a big money move to Norwich City! A trainee at Edgar Street, Brownrigg played his eight matches in 1994/95 and, as a competent defender, he earned a £100,000 move to Norwich City. However, within two years he had failed to make the first team and had moved on. In 2001, after spells at Stocksbridge Park Steels, Tamworth, Kidderminster Harriers and Greenock Morton, among others, Andrew joined Northwich Victoria and Hednesford. He later played for Gainsborough Trinity and Wakefield & Emley.

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