Daryn Colledge could have taken his millions, his Super Bowl ring and his memories of playing in Lambeau Field and retired to a life of leisure.

Many retired football players coach, go into broadcasting or start second careers in business. But Colledge’s post-NFL career has taken him down a decidedly different path.

He still pulls on a uniform and he’s still part of a team, though now when he hears his name called, it’s not from a stadium announcer but from his fellow soldiers as he sprints to a Blackhawk helicopter.

After nine seasons in the NFL, Colledge enlisted in 2016 in the Idaho National Guard for an eight-year hitch. He’s a crew chief in a medevac unit and returned home in February from an 11-month deployment to Afghanistan.

Wearing a suit, bow tie and his Super Bowl ring, Colledge spoke Saturday night at a USO Wisconsin gala in Milwaukee. Monday night he was introduced at Lambeau Field before the Packers game.

At 37, he’s older than most Army specialists and at 6-foot-4 and 250 pounds — down from his playing weight of 308 — he’s one of the biggest in his unit. He’s used to the “Huh?” reactions when people find out what he used to do for a living or when football fans learn he’s now a soldier.

For Colledge, the decision to join the Idaho National Guard was partly motivated from traveling on USO tours with other NFL players and meeting military members serving far from home. In three trips to meet troops, he visited Guantanamo Bay and bases in the U.S. and the Middle East, including a trip overseas right after winning the Super Bowl in 2011 with the Packers.

“I met a group of people who were willing to give everything for people they never met. I wanted to stand shoulder to shoulder with them and put my ass on the line,” Colledge said in a phone interview. “It changed my life.”

Growing up in the tiny, remote community of North Pole, Alaska, near two military bases, Colledge considered joining the military as a way to serve and get an education. His brother is a captain in the Army and other family members have served in uniform during both war and peacetime.

But Boise State offered him a scholarship to play football and he was thrilled to get a free college education. Then he was surprised and ecstatic to get drafted by the Packers in the second round in 2006.

“I left college with no expectations. The NFL was a long shot. I expected to last in the NFL for 15 minutes,” said Colledge, who lives in Boise, Idaho. “When Green Bay gave me the opportunity, I was over the moon. It was one of those things where you fulfill this fantasy that a lot of kids never get to accomplish.”

He started 15 games for the green and gold in 2006, 13 games the next year and then started every game from 2008 through the Packers’ Super Bowl victory in 2011 before a trade to the Cardinals. Colledge played three years in Arizona and one year for the Miami Dolphins before retiring after the 2014 season.

Colledge was drafted by the Packers with Tony Moll and Jason Spitz, who remain his close friends. The three own a wine label, Three Fat Guys Wines, together. Spitz remembers meeting him for dinner in Atlanta shortly after Colledge, who by then was playing for the Cardinals, attended his brother Kyle's military training graduation.

"He made a comment about how he was wasting his time playing football when he could be doing something better like serving his country. We all looked at him like he was crazy. But he was serious as a heart attack," said Spitz, who played five seasons in Green Bay.

So a few years later when Spitz learned his friend actually did enlist, he was not surprised.

"That fits his personality — very patriotic, very structured person. I could see it would be a good fit," said Spitz, who lives in Kentucky.

There are similarities between the NFL and the military: teamwork, a common goal, strong bonds that come through adversity. Colledge noted that, aside from the physical strength required for both jobs, his position on the offensive line prepared him for his current gig.

"Your job is to enforce and take care of the guys on the field, whether it’s the quarterback, receivers, running backs. My job (in the military) is to protect these kids and bring them back to their families," said Colledge. "I guess looking at it that way, it’s the most obvious (military) job for an offensive lineman."

Colledge settled in Idaho after the NFL to raise his daughters, 6 and 8, with his wife, Megan, who grew up as an Air Force brat moving from base to base. She supported her husband's career change.

Colledge chose a medevac unit because of his passion for aviation, because he's a gear head who loves "bending wrenches" and because he's so focused on giving back.

"I saw the chance to fly on helicopters as a crew chief and serve the people of Idaho. It was a huge opportunity and it kind of scratches a lot of itches," Colledge said. "Boise supported me — they came to my games and they paid for my education."

Colledge had grown up riding in bush planes in Alaska on hunting trips with his father. During the NFL lockout following the Packers' Super Bowl victory, Colledge earned his private pilot's license in Arizona. He's an EAA member and attending AirVenture has been on his bucket list for years, though he has yet to come to Oshkosh during the huge aviation convention because he was either at training camp or in military training.

Colledge turned down the chance to become a medevac pilot because it would have meant moving his family to Alabama and he wanted to put down roots in Idaho. So after boot camp and Blackhawk mechanic training, he began gaining experience in the unit, working up to crew chief, a job that's known as a "15 Tango."

Crew chiefs perform many tasks ranging from daily helicopter maintenance, helping guide pilots through tight landing zones, identifying threats, firing door guns and operating hoists to retrieve wounded soldiers from mountainous terrain, said 1st Lt. Morgan Hill, Company G, 1-168 General Support Aviation Battalion detachment commander.

On medevac missions "they do more than standard crew chief duties," Hill said. "They also assist flight paramedics with any lifesaving duties, going out and picking up a patient, dealing with amputees, helping medics push through IVs, running breathing tubes and pumping devices. In addition to being a crew chief, they double as a combat lifesaver."

Colledge volunteered for the deployment and spent much of his time in Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan attached to special operations units, working 48-hour shifts. As with many war zones, there were long periods when nothing happened, punctuated by days when it was super busy.

Medevac crews are the first responders, so Colledge and his fellow soldiers were the ones to stop the bleeding and get people breathing, shuttling them to hospitals as quickly as possible.

"Most of my missions were successful. I was lucky enough I didn't have to cover anybody up or we handed them off when they were still alive. Some of my fellow soldiers were not that lucky," said Colledge.

When he wasn't working on a helicopter or traveling on medevac missions, Colledge stayed in shape by lifting weights and playing basketball. He did not play football. He didn't pack a football in his duffel bag. And when soldiers asked him to play football, he demurred.

"I told them I was an offensive lineman. They didn't let me touch the ball and all I want to do is hit you. So I'm the wrong guy to pick," Colledge joked.

Pretty much everyone in his unit knows he played pro football but it's not often mentioned in conversation, said Colledge, because football is not what defines him anymore.

Colledge frequently ran into people who outranked him by many stripes and stars who "get on my aircraft and see my name tag. They want to talk to me like we're peers and want to talk about the Super Bowl or the upcoming season. It's always a little surreal."

He is continually amazed at how many Green Bay Packers fans are spread throughout the world, even in Afghanistan. He was hanging out in a medevac shelter waiting for calls on a remote base when an American civilian contractor walked up to him and said, "Hey, you're Daryn Colledge."

"Next thing I know, he shows up with my jersey. I'm like, I don't even know where you got this jersey. I thought my mom bought all of them. I signed it for his kid," Colledge said. "Green Bay fans are so awesome, so generous. You play one year or 20 years and you're a Packer for life."