How Football Changed My Life

I was a goofball growing up, but once I matured, I was destined to do great things. My life has been filled with ups and downs, but, somehow, I was able to get through them. I always did things differently from everyone else. Also, I had to work harder to be successful. I was always considered different compared to the other kids; I had to work really hard to achieve my goals of being on the football team in high school, to get a scholarship to ASU, and to be drafted into the NFL. When I was little, I was always the odd ball out; I always wanted to be myself. I wanted to be a leader, not a follower. I never played with the other kids because I knew who I truly was, and that was different. I always did things that were out of the ordinary.
I never had anything given to me, so I had to earn it and push myself like never before. While I was a freshman, I was cut from the baseball team and wanted to join football. I went to the football coach and told him that I was going to make varsity. He told me that I was undersized for every position in football. After he told me that, I went to the weight room the next day and worked my butt off to become a proper, football player. A year later, when I was a sophomore, I had completed one of my dreams and was officially on the varsity football team. During my time on varsity, I accomplished a 623 yards rushing, 55 yard punt return for a touchdown, I had 64 pass receptions, 78 yards on 5 carries, and 2 rushing touchdowns. I was at the top of my game, and I was getting recognized by lots of colleges. The only college I wanted to go to was Stanford. Stanford was my dream school, and I really wanted to go there. They turned me down because of my grades, so I went to ASU (Arizona State University) on one of their last, football scholarships. I was really blessed to get this last scholarship to ASU, because they weren’t really thinking of me until we met. I think that I really accomplished a lot during my years in high school but there was still more to come in the later years of my
I got drafted to the Arizona Cardinals. I was not their first round pick, but I was eventually drafted. I went into the NFL as an undersized on field assassin, who was a tough rookie looking to make a big impression. In the beginning of my first season I mostly sat out on the bench the whole time. In the middle of the season the Cardinals were 6-5, and we were predicted to win at least 3 of our last 5 games. We ended the season at 16-13. After playing for a couple years, I was getting noticed by other teams. I turned the other teams down, because I wanted to stay with the Cardinals. I decided to stay with them, because they saw something in me from the start. I am so glad that I made the decision to stay with my team, because I set a club record with 224 total tackles (1.5 sacks, 12 pass deflections, 4 hurries, 5 tackles for losses, 1 interception, 2 forced fumbles, 2 fumble recoveries, and 200 plus tackle by a defensive back.) I only ended up playing in the NFL for a couple years, because I left to go to the army after the tragic event of 9/11, but I was shortly killed by a friendly fire. I might not have made a big impact on what I wanted to do in the army, but I at least got the chance to