Junior Seau's death significantly raised the concern for the ability of retired NFL players to find new, fulfilling careers. But there are programs in place in all 31 NFL cities, and guys like Greg Lewis are taking full advantage. 

Not everyone has a plan in place, and many just don't know what to expect. Few are as lucky as former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Jon Kitna, who became a high school math teacher the moment he hung up the pads. 

The league and the NFLPA clearly have to work on making the post-football transition easier on players. One solution from the peanut gallery: Keep them in football.

You can take the man out of the football, but you can't take the football out of the man—or something like that. So let's focus on grooming more former players to be coaches. 

Efforts are being made, and two former NFC East players are leading the charge. From Mike Jones of The Washington Post:

[Troy] Vincent and [James] Thrash are heading up the NFL Player Engagement program's second annual NFL-NCAA Coaches Academy, which [ran this week] in Dallas..

The program provides 30 current and former NFL players with classes and networking opportunities that will help them break into the coaching ranks or further advance their careers as coaches.

Now, most NFL franchises seem to be making an effort to turn former players into coaches, but I've noticed a particular trend in Philadelphia, where former Eagles seem to join the coaching staff via the Minority Coaching Fellowship program each year.

Duce Staley took an internship—alongside another former Eagle, Shawn Barber—in 2010, and Staley is now a full-time Eagles staffer a the special teams quality control coach. Former Philly players Mike Caldwell, Mike Zordich and Doug Pederson have also launched their coaching careers under Andy Reid.

Next up: Lewis, who is spending the summer as a coaching intern with the team after walking away from the game as a player last year. 

Bleacher Report caught up with Lewis this week to discuss his new career path and his goals.

Bleacher Report: Explain to me what you're doing with the team and what you hope to get out of it. 

Greg Lewis: Coach Reid gave me the opportunity to come in and do the coaching internship and I'm looking forward to learning from him and the other coaches from a different perspective and trying to enhance my knowledge of the game. And hopefully turn it into a coaching career in the future.

B/R: So have you been working closely with DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin and other top receivers now that OTAs are underway, or is it less hands-on early on?

GL: I jumped right in and did as much as I possibly could as far as the insight that I've learned over the years and some of the stuff that I've learned from Coach Reid. So I've been hands-on with them. I mean, obviously DeSean and Jeremy are great receivers in their own right already, and I'm just trying to give them some of the little nuances that can enhance it and get them to a level where they want to be and hopefully bring a championship here to Philadelphia.

B/R: What do you hope this will lead to for you? Do you have specific goals in mind or are you playing it by ear?

GL: I have goals. I want to eventually be a head coach in the NFL. I don't see that happening in [the near future], but I'm just looking forward to the opportunity to get as much knowledge as I can and hopefully latch on somewhere as a quality control coach or receivers coach, whether it be in college or professional, and hopefully build my résumé from there. 

B/R: What else have you been doing since your NFL career ended?

GL: I've been spending a lot of time with my wife and my two kids, watching them grow up a little bit. They're four and two [years old] and we've been doing a lot of little family vacations. I didn't get a lot of time with them, especially late in my career when I was trying to practice and do things. So it's been a blessing for me to get a opportunity to be with them. 

And I did a little thing with Temple University, going up there at the college level and learning something from Coach [Steve] Addazio and Coach [Kevin] Rogers up there.

And I trained a guy for the combine with Power Train Sports—Brittan Golden—and he ended up being an undrafted free agent with the Bears. So I've been doing a lot, but mostly spending time with the family and enjoying retirement a little bit.

B/R: The Eagles appear to have a strong commitment to helping you guys find careers and more to do with your lives after your football careers come to an end on the field.

GL: Coach Reid and [owner Jeffrey Lurie] do a great job of welcoming players back to the organization if they want to try to pursue a career, whether it be on the scouting side or the coaching side or the PR side or whatever. They have a lot of power in the area and they can get you opportunities, and that's a big thing. I mean, you've gotta be grateful to a guy like that, that welcomes you back and tries to help you get further in your career.

B/R: Considering all we've been hearing about players struggling to transition into the next phase of their lives, this is pretty helpful.

GL: It's a great thing. It's sad to see, but in all honesty, it is a big adjustment going from being a professional athlete to being in society and trying to figure things out. You've been doing something for so long, this is what you know. And it's kinda hard to go from here back to getting a job in corporate America.

Because you haven't done it, you have no résumé for that. So getting a résumé filled with the Eagles is just awesome.