'CBS Mornings' ' New Co-Host Nate Burleson on How LeBron James Inspired Him

Nate Burleson spent 11 years in the NFL, but he always aspired to a career beyond sports. Now, the former football player has joined the newly renamed CBS Mornings (formerly CBS This Morning) as a co-host alongside Gayle King and Tony Dokoupil.

"I started creating an exit strategy early," Burleson, 40, tells PEOPLE in this week's issue. "When I first got [into football], I was told that the average career was two and a half, three years. So right around year two, I started thinking about the next chapter."

During his time playing for the Seattle Seahawks, Minnesota Vikings and Detroit Lions, Burleson launched clothing lines, opened a restaurant, and even joined forces with his financial advisor and started a firm to help athletes invest their money wisely.

"In the words of LeBron [James], 'I want to be more than an athlete,'" says Burleson, a father of three.

After his retirement from football in 2014, Burleson landed a broadcasting job with the NFL Network, and later served as a co-host on Extra.

"I was always kind of spreading myself thin because I have a wide variety of interests," he says. "I love football — don't get me wrong, even when I played ' but it's such a small part of who I am. So when I was playing, I didn't feel like putting all of these things on the shelf."

"And it was great because being involved in a wide variety of things really helped me in this space that I'm in now. So, falling in love with art and poetry and still writing to this day, writing scripts and just allowing my creativity to flourish outside of the game, it helps me as a media personality."

And with this latest gig, he says, "I feel like I joined a championship team on their way to a Super Bowl."

CBS Mornings airs weekdays from 7-9 a.m. on CBS.