"Pro athletes are used to the limelight, the constant travel, the rigid schedule.

So, when they retire and step away from the spotlight, as Arizona Cardinal Kurt Warner did on Friday, the change can be a shock.

On the plus side, they get to spend more time with their families, picking up their kids from school and cheering for them at baseball and soccer games.

The negatives can be more difficult to handle. They have to find meaningful ways to spend the next several decades of their lives.

Just ask Dan Majerle, a retired Phoenix Suns player and now an assistant coach for the team. He was used to a brutal travel schedule with essentially everything planned for him. When he retired at age 37 in 2002, the player known as Thunder Dan had enormous amounts of time on his hands.

"It's always an adjustment when you do something practically your whole life. It's hard to fill the gap. . . . You have to find a way to channel your energy and your competitive spirit," Majerle said after a Suns practice on Friday at US Airways Center.

He coped by going right to work as an announcer, first for TNT and then ESPN. He spent time at his namesake restaurant, Majerle's Sports Grill in downtown Phoenix, which has since added two more locations. He also started a real-estate company.

To satisfy his competitive spirit, he joined baseball and basketball leagues and played a lot of golf. He spent four years as a Suns broadcaster before being named assistant coach in 2008.

Still, nothing quite compares with being an NBA player.

"I tell people, 'If you get to this level, you're obviously one of the best at what you do in the world, and you'll probably never find anything like that (again).' You try and find something that is going to fill the void."

For some players, the road into retirement can be rocky.

Former Arizona Diamondbacks player Luis Gonzalez knows that all too well."