When Shea McClellin first got a taste of what would turn out to be his new obsession, he looked around and saw a lot of people with whom he had an important thing in common, even if it was only one thing.

They were retirees, just like him. But they all were at least 30 years older.

Yearning for direction and eager to shake some of the worst, darkest feelings imaginable, the former first-round NFL Draft pick and Boise State great has turned his attention to a new sport: pickleball.

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“People think I’m joking, but I’m serious,” McClellin said. “I want to be a pro pickleball player.”

Pickleball? Yes, pickleball.

Turns out it’s not just a game for the elderly or for middle school P.E. classes. When he started playing last summer, McClellin was dubious.

Pickleball courts are smaller than tennis courts (44 feet by 20 feet), but the flow of action is similar to tennis, only played with paddles and a plastic ball. Power isn’t as important as placement or spin. According to the USA Pickleball Association, the game is played by 3.3 million people nationwide, and the group’s membership has doubled since 2017.

Thanks to its accessibility, the sport has expanded far beyond predictable hot spots like Boca Raton or Sun City. There is a robust pro circuit that attracts many former tennis players — not NFL veterans — and McClellin is aiming to move up the ranks, zeroing in on another athletic passion.

“If it didn’t have such a dumb name, it would probably grow even faster,” said Daniel Roditi, a pro pickleballer who coaches McClellin. “A good tennis player could probably focus on it and be pro in three to four months. For Shea, who never played racket sports, it’s more of a learning curve, but he has that incredible drive which got him to where he was, and that certainly helps.”

McClellin’s wife, Sam, laughs at the realization that she unwittingly sparked her husband’s new athletic fascination. Sam and Shea have been together since they attended Marsing High, about 35 miles west of Boise. From his career at Boise State to four seasons with the Chicago Bears, two with the New England Patriots and a move last year to Southern California, Sam has been by his side every step of the way.

After his football career ended, McClellin found himself feeling listless. He did some coaching, but his whole life had been about competing.

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“There were a few times where I was in a really dark place, had suicidal thoughts,” McClellin said. “I didn’t know what to do with my life.”

For his 30th birthday last August, Sam thought it would be fun to take him to play pickleball, something they did in high school gym class. It was a more appealing option than, say, chess, which they had also played in their younger years; Sam routinely won, often resulting in Shea sending the board across the room.

So she went out and bought a set of paddles and a ball — she realized later it was the cheapest version of the equipment, nothing like what the pros used — and they played near their home in Laguna Niguel, Calif.

“We were by far the youngest people there,” Sam said. “But you could see it in his eyes that he was really enjoying it, and now, it’s something he’s been working on almost every day.”

McClellin has played in four tournaments so far, one in Hawaii and three in California, winning a trio of gold medals and a silver in singles. He has also dropped 25 pounds, from 275 to 250, since he started playing last August. In the USAPA ranking system, McClellin has moved up from a 2.0, the lowest ranking, to a 3.5. Pros are rated as 5.5 or higher.

“To be honest, when I first started playing, I was getting beat by 80-year-old women,” McClellin said. “It was kind of demoralizing. I’m like, ‘Dammit, I’m a professional athlete, I want to be good now.’ ”

Even as the COVID-19 pandemic has brought all athletic events to a standstill, McClellin has found ways to improve. His trainer, with whom he worked during his NFL career, has given him tennis-centric workouts. McClellin recently bought a net and plans to use his kids’ chalk to make a court in the cul-de-sac where he and Sam live with their three sons, Declan (5), Jorah (3) and Merric (10 months).

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“He used to be gone all the time, so now, (with) all that’s going on, he’s around more, and pickleball lets him still compete,” Sam said. “The workouts, moving up in the ratings, playing in tournaments … it’s given him a purpose outside of family.”

Like so many former football players, that was a conundrum that McClellin faced two years ago.

Initially, he pondered giving another seemingly random sport a shot. McClellin started working toward becoming a bobsledder, but in April 2018, on his last rep of a 450-pound squat during one of his first training workouts, he felt a searing pain in his back. After two days lying on the floor, he was diagnosed with a bulged disc. Three epidurals were needed to alleviate the pain.

“That was probably a good sign I should do something else,” McClellin said. “But I didn’t know what. I got into a pretty bad cycle, had some demons I needed to work out.”

McClellin’s NFL career ended when he was only 28. As a multi-sport star in high school, one of the best defensive players in Boise State history and the No. 19 pick in the 2012 NFL Draft, his whole identity was based on what he accomplished in sports. Then it was gone.

He knows he carries the “bust” label, but McClellin isn’t offended. He knows Chicago, and how it used him, wasn’t a good fit. After he starred as a defensive end/outside linebacker at Boise State, the Bears tried to make him a defensive end, then an inside linebacker, when by NFL standards his frame and skill set left him better suited at outside linebacker, where he was eventually used by the Patriots. Before the draft, the Bears weren’t even on his radar as a potential landing spot.

But he admits there was also some internal pressure on himself to live up to his draft position.

“Why are people so mad at me? They chose me,” he wondered.

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At the end of his first year in New England, he started in the Super Bowl LI win over the Falcons. McClellin was flagged in the game for leaping over the long snapper to block an extra point. He had blocked a Justin Tucker field goal earlier that season doing the same thing but was incorrectly ruled to have lined up directly over the center.

That March, the NFL banned all leaping attempts over linemen. The story about the rule change on the NFL’s official site contains a picture of McClellin in flight against the Falcons.

In 2017, McClellin was placed on injured reserve just before the season and did not play all year as the Patriots reached Super Bowl LII, falling to the Eagles. Concussions had taken their toll, and even though he felt he had a good four or five seasons left physically, he knew that was likely the end of his career.

McClellin acknowledges the idea that the head injuries may have played a role in his difficulties adjusting to life after football, but he said it’s not something he can diagnose at this point.

“It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever had to deal with,” McClellin said. “It could’ve been related to an injury, I know that, but I still had to deal with it. …

“At first, it’s almost embarrassing, you don’t want people to know you’re dealing with it, you want people to see you’re perfect and happy. With those (suicidal) thoughts, they don’t just go away. Eventually you’re going to reach a boiling point if you don’t try to address it.”

McClellin spoke to his doctor, who recommended he speak to a therapist. A year ago, he finally let it out: He was depressed, and the years of stress he felt trying to live up to a standard set for him had culminated in severe anxiety.

“He was able to mask it by being busy all the time — he had the locker room, the workouts, the routine,” Sam said. “He started having panic attacks multiple times a day. It took over his life.”

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Therapy helped. “Nobody likes to talk about that stuff, but you can’t get through it alone,” McClellin said. He found good therapists in Idaho and in California after his move. Medication, a route he was at first apprehensive about taking, has made a difference, too.

“He’s humbled himself, he’s able to be more confident with who he is and accepted that help,” Sam said. “He’s the strongest and most confident he’s been.”

With his mind right and a new sport earning his focus, McClellin feels he can make the rare transition from first-round NFL Draft pick to pro pickleballer. He recently picked up a sponsorship from Idaho-based Selkirk, one of the top pickleball equipment manufacturers.

Going pro is now McClellin’s primary goal. He coached linebackers at Corona del Mar High last fall, helping the Sea Kings to a 16-0 record, a CIF I-A title and a No. 16 finish in MaxPreps’ national rankings.

McClellin likely will coach again, but as of now, this fall is set to be his first without football. It’s all about his family and pickleball.

“You see him and you know, it’s clear he didn’t come from a badminton background, he doesn’t look like most of us out there,” Roditi said. “It’s been very exciting for me to coach him. He’s got such a cool personality, he wants to win, but he also clearly wants to have fun. There’s people that you teach that you know have a low ceiling, but Shea obviously is in the high ceiling category.”

Even if his football career didn’t go exactly as planned, McClellin hopes to take the lessons he learned into his new sport. Perhaps the biggest came from his time with the Patriots. All the wins surely helped, but he had a fresh start there with far less pressure.

“You can’t be good if you’re not having fun,” McClellin said. “I’m having a lot of fun right now.”

(Top photo courtesy of Shea McClellin)