SEATTLE — Once upon a time, Rashaad Penny was a football player.

Not just that. He was the pride of Norwalk High School, near Los Angeles, where he notched 3,416 total yards and 51 touchdowns in his senior season. He was a first-team All-American at San Diego State, where he rushed for 2,248 yards and 23 touchdowns in 2017 and tied the NCAA record for career kick-return touchdowns (seven). He was a first-round draft pick of the Seahawks in 2018 who averaged 5.7 yards per carry, an enormous number, in five seasons and 42 games in Seattle.

Unfortunately, “was” is the operative word. The 5-foot-11, 220-pound running back retired in 2024, at age 28, after six injury-riddled NFL seasons.

“It just got to a point where I really wanted to choose myself and choose the opportunity to have a family,” Penny told The Times on Thursday during a phone interview. “One day I want to be able to play with my kids. I don’t know how many surgeries I can get on the left side of my body until one day my leg might just give out.

“It was hard, though. It was really hard, because I love football. The opportunities were still there for me.”

The opportunities are still there, nearly two years later.

Only now, he’s trading helmets for headsets.

This week, Penny was introduced as the new football coach at Jordan High School in Long Beach, Calif., a mere 10 miles from Norwalk. The 30-year-old Penny will attempt to revive a Panthers program that went a combined 5-15 across its past two campaigns.

“It’s going to be a challenge. But for me, I’m so excited to embrace this challenge,” he said. “Because there’s great kids there. There’s great talent there. They just need the right coaching and the techniques and details, which were so spot-on in Seattle and Philadelphia (where Penny played in 2023). That’s what made me be like, ‘You know what, I want to do this.’ Because I know how important the little things are.”

He also understands the importance of a positive culture, something Penny credits to former Seahawks coach Pete Carroll.

“I used to take kickoff returns at practice, and this guy used to run down the field with me. At the time he was probably 67 or 70, whatever age he was,” Penny said of Carroll, now 74. “That was truly impressive, every kickoff-return day, to see that. The energy was contagious. Everybody was just always in a good mood.

“To try to recreate that environment in a high school is super cool, to let them know that football is supposed to be fun. It’s not a miserable sport. You can’t be miserable playing football. If you are, that’s a program problem or coach’s problem.”

Granted, Penny’s Seattle’s experience could have been sunnier. After amassing 425 carries in his final two seasons at San Diego State, Penny’s body began to betray him. He sustained a torn ACL in 2019 and a broken fibula and tibia injury in 2022, logging 18 total games in his final three Seattle seasons.

“I love Seattle. I talk about Seattle every day; I love it so much,” Penny said. “It just really made me sad, because that city deserved more of me, in the aspect of playing. I felt like I kind of let them down, because I wasn’t available.”

When he was available, Penny produced, while splitting carries with fellow running back Chris Carson. He led the league with 671 rushing yards in the final five games in 2021, arriving momentarily at the mountaintop. Though he started just six games that season, Penny’s 6.3 yards per carry led the NFL, and his 11 carries of 20 yards or more landed third.

The highs and lows both provided lessons.

“Just being hurt all the time, it’s a very uncomfortable position,” he said. “But I’ve gotten to meet new people who have different perspectives on life, and I’m thankful that I was blessed to play at the highest level and do the coolest things.

“Because these kids (at Jordan) get to pull up my highlights and see that I played and how good I was once upon a time. Those have been the coolest moments. I’m just teaching them about always staying the course and believing in yourself when a lot of people don’t.”

He’s doing so alongside family and friends. At Jordan, Elijhaa Penny — Rashaad’s older brother and an NFL running back for five seasons — will serve as the Panthers’ offensive coordinator. Another older brother, Robert Penny, will oversee Jordan’s strength and conditioning. And former NFL offensive lineman Ryan Pope, who Penny ran behind at San Diego State, is set to join the staff as well.

Considering all of the above, Penny said he’s “definitely been at peace” with his curtailed playing career. He added, “I was so happy to see the Seahawks win (the Super Bowl) last year. Man, it brought tears to my eyes to see (running back Kenneth Walker III) get what he deserved, because he’s such a great kid. We talk to this day. I talk to Chris (Carson). I talk to everybody from Seattle.”

Once upon a time, Penny was a football player.

And though his NFL career was no fairy tale, it may have prepared him to succeed on the sideline.

“In the part of my life where I’m at, I’m really happy,” Penny said. “I’m just really in a great place. (Pursuing the Jordan job) was really a no-brainer for me.”

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