This was not my goal in life. I thought I had this “destiny-thing” all worked out. I figured that I would play professional football 6 to 10 years, make a couple of pro-bowl’s, then retire to a beach somewhere making ten percent off my business investments, and shoe contracts. At least that was the plan. But it seems that life is without a touch of irony.

For years I was able to “get-by” on natural talent on and off the playing field. I never had to push myself or give my best in anything. I always figured if it was too hard then it was not for me. That was my approach in life. On the football field I could do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted. From chasing down running backs that boasted 4.5 speed in the forty yard dash to running over and around three hundred pound behemoths whose sole purpose was to stop me from crushing their quarterbacks and getting myself on a high light reel.

Off the field I was a confused young man that thought the world was mine for the taking. School was a joke when you know that you are destined for better things such as the NFL. I lagged in class getting a .76 GPA my first semester which was pretty easy to do since I went to class about five times that semester. Soon I began to notice that my attitude towards other people changed for the worse. Also the things that should have mattered to me the most were washed about in a world of self-price and arrogance.

Now if someone had asked me early on how does it feel to go from being a potential NFL product one second, and in the next being told that you will be handicapped for the rest of your life- I would have laughed in their face and swore up and down how that would never have happened to me. But this is precisely what happened to me in November of 1992. With two major ligaments torn in my right knee and a nerve for good measure my pursuit of a NFL career was over and real life began to sink in.

I remember telling my father that the doctor said that I could get disability and a handicapped sticker. To me the disability part was not the best but I wanted that sticker! The ability to part wherever I wanted was pretty cool. However he told me not to take either one. He explained that to take them would incapacitate me in my mind. You see he did not want me to think that I was handicapped and now I see that this was some of the best advice he has ever given me.

As I began rehabbing my injury I started noticing that the people that I thought loved me did not. Among a team of over one hundred football players and twenty coaches I remember receiving two telephone calls. Of all the people that I had sweated with, ran thousands of sprints with, and went to battle with every Saturday all my efforts resulted in two phone calls. But my downward spiral was not over. I soon learned that because of my injury my scholarship was rescinded because I could not play football anymore.

For the next three years I worked for Texas Department of Criminal Justice in Huntsville Texas. This was just a job for me. I felt as if I was trolling through life the way a fisherman trolls through deep water looking for that elusive big mouth bass. Most fishermen will tell you that they come close to catching it but the “big one” always get away. Now I think that is the good that the “big one” gets away from us for if some of us ever catch it then we will stop moving in life and that is not was God wants from us.