Former Cardinals running back Rashard Mendenhall working as writer for HBO

Rashard Mendenhall's decision to retire at 26 years old came as a shock to some, but the former Arizona Cardinals running back has been keeping himself busy since stepping away from the NFL.

In his latest blog post for the Huffington Post, Mendenhall reveals that he recently moved to Santa Monica and became a member of the Writers Guild of America, West. He is also on the writing team of a new HBO show set to air next summer.

"I wasn't supposed to walk away from the NFL, but I did. I wasn't supposed to be writing television, but I am. I'm supposed to be lost after football. I'm not," Mendenhall writes. "I've reinvented myself. This is my first transformation. I'm supposed to be broke right now, or maybe the statistics say five years from now. Either way, I'm not even close. I'm not supposed to be anything but a football player. But really, I'm just a guy who used to play football. There's a reason I'm doing this."