02/18/2026
“The average NFL career lasts 3.3 years.
I played 12.
Nobody gave me that. I took it.
Every single year I was in that league, someone was telling me my time was up. Too old. Too slow. Too risky. The NFL doesn’t wait for you. It replaces you before your locker is cold.
I watched guys I respected get told their careers were over in the same breath it took to hand them a playbook.
Some of them let it end there.
Not because they couldn’t play. Because they let the narrative win.
I refused.
Not because I was more talented. Because every single day I chose to show up when it would have been easier to walk away. I chose to keep working when nobody was watching. I chose to bet on myself when the people writing the checks stopped.
That’s not just an athlete’s lesson. That’s a life lesson.
The same mentality that kept me on an NFL roster for 12 years is the same thing that built BrainTree Nutrition. The same thing that made me invest in founders nobody else was betting on.
Relentless refusal to quit.
55% of former NFL players report cognitive decline. 78% go broke within 3 years of retiring. The system is built to chew you up and spit you out before you’re 30.
I refused to let that be my story.
Whatever your version of that looks like, the only thing that actually matters is whether you’re still showing up.
I am.
Are you?”
sendejo
