For this blog post I would like to reference a story written
by a close friend of mine. His name is Andrew Hawkins and he is currently a
Wide Receiver for the Cleveland Browns. Andrew became a friend of mine over the
past several years through having mutual friends. We share a close mutual
friend in Lance Moore who is currently a Wide Receiver for the Detroit Lions
and former teammates with Andrew at the university of Toledo. Andrew is
currently a contributing writer to the Players’ Tribune, which is a platform
form athletes to discuss their reflections, thoughts and experiences.
In Andrew’s two part article deservingly titled “Coming up Short” and “Whatever it takes”, he discusses trials
and tribulations of his journey to play in one professional NFL game. There
were things about him that I never even knew that caught my attention. He went
through some of the most difficult obstacles to reach his goals and never gave
up hope on himself. Some of the stories he discussed were people constantly
counting him out. Some of those people were some he trusted and very close to
him including his college coaches as an example. They did not think he would
make it in the NFL, and now as the previous Cleveland Browns leading receiver
boy did he prove them wrong!
The reason these two articles catch my attention are not
because he is a friend of mine but merely it motivated me in a way that I had
never been motivated before. The courage to write these stories for the world
to see was very brave to me. It also reminded me of some of my stories and
things from my football past that I also struggled with. It has been tough for
me the past 10 years to fully accept my decision in deciding to no longer play
the game of football anymore. I have now accepted that it was not meant to be
and stories like Andrew’s show me that it is ok to voice your shortcomings.
Well all have them but that never means “give up” on yourself. Because of that,
I am pursuing a career in athlete management in which I can assist current
Football athletes in developing their careers and life after it’s over. This
gives me a chance to get as close to my football dream as possible and realize
that maybe it was not meant for me to make an impact to the game directly on
the field but rather yet indirectly off the field.
