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This one still stings in a way I wish it didn’t.
I spent a long time blaming everyone but myself when my NFL career ended. It took years of real processing to finally accept the truth: my rookie year was my fault. Not entirely, there were other factors, performance benchmarks, organizational decisions I can get into another time.
But at the root of it, I wasn’t ready. And I had to watch myself fall from the top of the ladder back to the bottom, right after the high of getting drafted.
The hardest part wasn’t losing the career. It was accepting that I played a role in losing it.
Being the oldest sibling, the first in my family to do most things, I’d always figured it out on my own. The NFL didn’t care about that. It chewed me up anyway.
What I didn’t have was a mentor. Someone who had been there, who could see what I couldn’t see about myself. I genuinely believe that changes everything.
Find mentors in your profession. People who will tell you the truth before the game tells it for you.