During a video call after the latest Board of Clemency and Pardons hearings, Baldwin talked 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 court and mentioned in other interviews that you struggled with the transition to your post-playing career. How exactly did you fight?

It was about identity. I had been playing football since I was six and had been celebrated for my performance on that field since I was seven. So it became a kind of salvation 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 was because no one was giving me an affirmation like, “Oh yeah, you’re doing a good job now.”

So to not have that, on top of my first daughter being born, being married for two and a half years… there’s so much non-instant gratification or instant affirmation when it comes to being married and she had kids so I think that added to the challenge. But I also think it was a benefit for me, because I still had something to pour. Something else that was—I don’t want to say it was taking my mind off the negativity, but it was pulling my mind in a different direction.

What advice have you received on how to manage retirement?

Most people I talked to said, “You know it’s going to be hard.” More than that they didn’t have. I had a former teammate who was in the locker room before one of our games, and my mind was already like, Man, this date is coming at some point. So I just asked him, “Hey, was retirement hard for you?” And he shook his head no. It rocked me too, like, Dang, okay, so everyone else is telling me it’s hard. He says it’s not hard.

What I learned from this was that he had other things planned and prepared for retirement. He was able to pour himself into other things and find fulfillment and affirmation, while I was like, ‘Okay, football is over. I don’t know what’s next.” Just by the nature of the way I was, I couldn’t expend any energy on anything other than football at the time, so I wasn’t as complete as I would have liked to have left the game.

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 completely honest – not necessarily physically, but emotionally and mentally and even spiritually to an extent. I haven’t found this higher level of balance than probably less than a year ago.

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

I was working on other initiatives in the state of Washington, and one of the contacts I was working with, he was the liaison between the governor’s office and me. He said, “Hey, what do you think about this? Are you interested in this?” And honestly, when I looked at it, I felt called to do it. I felt very strongly compelled to join.

During your playing career, you spoke out on issues related to police reform, but also, as you mentioned in the hearings, your father was a law enforcement officer. Your journey in thinking about criminal justice—was it linear, or were there many twists and turns in how you thought about our justice system?

That’s a great question, and one that I don’t know if I have a good answer to, but I’ll try to answer it this way: My faith has been a very strong component 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 to — it’s hard for me to even say criminal justice or justice because it’s an inherently flawed system and sometimes justice doesn’t prevail, even within the system. I think I see that in some of these cases. But what I would say is I look at the people who come before our board and they are just like me. They’re just human beings who are flawed… They come from really challenging backgrounds, and they may or may not have had the support in ways that would make a positive change in their lives to be able to balance or counter the challenges. faced with. So I look at them with a ton of grace.