Influencer Allison Kuch has thoughts about husband Isaac Rochell‘s NFL future as his free agency continues.
“Football season is here. I definitely thought Isaac would’ve been on a team by now, I’m not gonna lie, and he would’ve said the same thing,” Kuch, a 29-year-old TikTok personality, said on the Sunday, October 20, episode of her “Sunday Sports Club” podcast. “He got calls in [the] offseason, and he even got calls during training camp.”
According to Kuch, Rochell, 29, was contacted in order to “gauge his interest” and get a sense of his health status. His absence from training camp, however, could make signing to a team during the season less likely.
“Injuries happen — it’s honestly just based [on] what a team needs, what players get hurt, what players are not performing, all of that,” she continued. “So, some people would be like, ‘Oh, Isaac should just retire then. If he’s not on a team, why don’t you just retire?’”
Kuch insisted that “there’s really no benefit to retiring right now,” explaining, “My husband loves the game of football and he loves pursuing football. That’s reason enough.”
The content creator emphasized again that there’s “no point” in Rochell giving up on his dreams yet. “If he plays three games this year, that restarts insurance, that’s another year of pension, that’s another $1,000 every month once he starts receiving his pension,” she continued. “There’s no reason for him to formally retire if there’s still a chance he can go to a team and he still loves football.”
Rochell was drafted by the Los Angeles Chargers in 2017 and has since played defensive end on the Indianapolis Colts, Cleveland Browns and Las Vegas Raiders. He was released by the Raiders last November, one month before he and Kuch welcomed their daughter, Scottie.
While his future in the league remains up in the air, Kuch confessed that it’s been “weird” not watching her husband play this NFL season. “I didn’t think it would affect me this much,” she said on Sunday. “And I feel weird saying that because I’m just his wife. … Obviously, I know I’m way more than that, but at the end of the day, that’s what it looks like. So why would a player’s wife be affected by her husband not playing?”
Kuch explained that the football season “has set the cadence” for her and Rochell’s routine for years. “Holidays, friendships, community. … Football has given both of our lives a sense of purpose, a sense of community,” she added. “When he’s not playing, right now, I feel like me and him are just like, ‘Wait, what are our bigger goals? What’s after football?’”
Fans have come to know Kuch as an open book, but she previously told her TikTok followers in May that when it comes to Rochell’s career, there are a lot of moving parts “behind the scenes” that don’t get discussed online. “[There are] workouts, conversations, phone calls that we don’t publicize. Mostly because I don’t want to be responsible for my husband not getting a job,” she teased, noting that Rochell wasn’t “ready to be done” with his NFL career just yet.
Adjusting to their new normal has been a challenge, but Rochell is making the most of his time off the field. He joked via TikTok in May that he was a “straight-up stay-at-home husband [and] I look good doing it.” Earlier this month, he shared a glimpse of how he’s been making memories with Kuch and their daughter.
“Navigating not being signed/waiting to be signed is super difficult,” he wrote via Instagram after attending a Seattle Seahawks game on October 12. “Do I go to games? Do I avoid football altogether? Maybe I just embrace being jobless and having more time? Well, I was just going to refuse to go to games all year if I wasn’t signed, but life happens, lol.”
