Another election day in the books and another sports star has found his way into politics.

After the glory days of the playing fields are long gone and the fan mail has stopped pouring in, some ex-professional athletes just don’t know what to do with themselves. Some get into broadcasting, some coaching, others become bricklayers (aka William “the Refrigerator” Perry).

But now it seems more and more athletes choose politics as their route back into the limelight.

It could be the huge amount of personal wealth, or all the free time that retiring as a 35 year old allows. Or the vast network of friends and connections, but ex-sports stars are winning elections and they have the chance to be something unique in American politics.

Two former athletes were on the ballot Tuesday.

Former Pittsburgh Steeler, 1991 NFL Hall of Fame Inductee and current board member of Heinz and Hershey’s, Lynn Swan ran as a Republican for the Pennsylvania governorship.

Health Shuler, the ex-University of Tennessee star quarterback, Heisman Trophy runner-up in 1993 and first round draft pick of the Washington Redskins, ran for North Carolina’s 11th precinct congressional seat.

Swan lost to Democratic incumbent Ed Rendell but Shuler defeated Republican incumbent Charles Taylor in his first political campaign.

Athletes taking part in government is not a new phenomenon but it is becoming more popular.

Former New York Knick and Princeton graduate Bill Bradley was the most successful athlete turned politician in the modern times. Bradley became a senator from New Jersey in 1978 and held the seat until 1996. After a failed presidential run in 2000 in which he lost the Democratic nomination to Al Gore, Bradley has stayed away from politics.

Shuler hopes to replicate Bradley’s success, when he was elected as a North Carolina congressmen on a liberal but anti-abortion platform.

Shuler seems to be legitimately interested in politics, claiming that helping some western residents of North Carolina recover after a hurricane in 2002 turned him and inspired him to run.

But some other athletes look to politics to fill their desires for public attention lost after retirement.

Charles Barkley comes to mind first as an athlete just looking for attention.

Barkley’s blunt approach politics is refreshing but everything from his platform to the party he will run under is still unknown.

“The Republicans are full of it,” Barkley said in September to ESPN. “The Democrats are a little less full of it.”

Regardless that Barkley’s interest in politics might be to stroke his own ego, he is just what the country needs.

He is not a career politician, like so many of our current congressmen, senators and governors.

Many politicians are sucked into the political machine because they want to keep their seats and positions, but maybe Barkley will stand up for something that he actually believes in, something that Alabama actually needs.

I doubt Barkley cares if he goes against an unpopular stance in the party, if he even needs a party as his household name does not need a major party association to gain notoriety.

The two-party system in this country is slowly becoming a one-party system, as both Republicans and Democrats move closer and closer to the middle to get the all-important Independent vote.

Athletes, if done correctly, have a chance to use their fame and fortune to bring a different perspective to American government.