Text by Kelly J. Hayes
Images by Jesse Dawson and Spencer Miller
Kenny Stills is in a good place. “Last year was my first winter in Aspen,” says the former wide receiver, who spent the winter couch surfing with friends and eventually renting a place in Aspen for the ski months instead of suiting up for the 2023 NFL season. “It was expensive, but I can honestly say it’s the best money I ever spent. It provided me with so much joy and really helped me in a time when I thought I might struggle and be at my worst.”
Many athletes find it difficult transitioning to a new chapter at the end of their professional careers. “We peak at such a young age, and the question is always, ‘What’s next?’” Stills says. “But I was always very conscious of the end. I planned my whole career around it. I made sure that I handled things for myself and didn’t delegate responsibilities to other people. I was always on top of everything because I wanted to make sure I was ready for the day it was over.”
Though he admits he felt some trepidation in the lead-up to his final game with the New Orleans Saints in January 2022, Stills says, “I have no desire to run around and be somebody’s entertainment anymore.”
It helped that he already had plans for his life post-NFL. “Dad (former NFL player Ken Stills) was a skier, and we had gone a handful of times to the mountains,” Stills says. “Then three years ago, friends in Aspen brought me here and set me up with a snowboard lesson. From that moment on, I was hooked. I was still playing in the league, but I knew that as soon as my career was over, I was headed for the mountains.”
Stills got almost 90 days on the slopes his first winter here, spending most of his time in the powder on Aspen Highlands. “It really helped having a substitute for ball,” he says. “It was an adrenaline rush, being in the flow state, having to learn, sucking at something, and the competitive fire to get better.”
That mindset and dedication earned Stills a reputation for grace and speed on the field—he caught 38 touchdown passes in his nine-year career—but he’s made an even bigger name for himself as an athlete with a social conscience. On September 11, 2016, when he was with the Miami Dolphins, Stills took a knee during the national anthem to protest police brutality, following the lead of San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who adopted the practice during the 2016 NFL preseason.
Then, in July 2020, he was among a group of 87 protesters who were arrested for gathering outside the home of Kentucky’s attorney general to demand justice for the police shooting of Breonna Taylor. “It was a moment that changed my life,” Stills says. “The thing that I am most proud of is being able to stand in my truth.”
With all his activism around issues of race, Stills is well aware of the ski industry’s overwhelming lack of diversity. (According to surveys by the National Ski Areas Association, Black skiers and snowboarders make up just 1.5 percent of guests at its 300 alpine resorts nationwide.) It’s a longstanding reality that’s given rise to initiatives such as the National Brotherhood of Skiers, which held its inaugural Black Summit in Aspen in 1973, and Culture Shifters, an annual gathering that Stills has been a part of since 2022. “Getting more Black and brown people on the mountain is important,” Stills says. “It just makes those spaces even more incredible than they already are.”
Led by pro snowboarder Zeb Powell and sports commentator Selema Masekela in partnership with Burton Snowboards, Culture Shifters brings people of color to Aspen to “ride, break bread, conversate, and learn about the work each of us do,” as Stills describes it. The event has grown from 50 riders in 2021 to more than 300 in 2023.
Beyond his involvement in efforts to diversify the mountain, Stills is also taking a moment to enjoy his newfound freedom. “I’m not married, and I don’t have kids, so I get to bounce around a lot,” he says. This year he spent three weeks exploring India and recently returned from an NFL-sponsored trip to South Africa, where he introduced football to local youths. And he is growing the nonprofit Kenny Stills Foundation he established, whose mission is to provide young people with resources and enriching experiences surrounding mental health and wellness.
The cause hits close to home for Stills, who confronted periods of darkness before finding refuge in the mountains and a passion for snowboarding that’s been filling his cup in ways he never knew at the peak of his NFL career. It’s why Stills is also working to build a program to bring retiring athletes to Aspen to help them transition out of the sport and connect to the outdoors. “I don’t think you understand the feeling of freedom that comes with being on the mountain until you experience it,” Stills says. “Aspen is incredible—the terrain, the snow—and I have an amazing crew of people I get to ride with. I’ve never been better, and Aspen has been a big part of that.”
