Positive Perspective 1: I Wasn't Hurt or Burned Out

For one, I was less banged up and injured than the other guys. I played with many guys in college—and obviously, a lot of them were four‐year starters on the varsity football team. I was only a one‐year starter, but the more years you play high‐level football, the more you're going to get banged up. That's just football.

I had never been hurt at all playing football up to that point in my life. And a lot of it was because I only played one season. When you haven't been hurt yet, there's fresh energy and optimism to your game, a certain kind of fearlessness. There's also zero burnout. Many people have been playing the same position their whole life, and they get a little burned out on football by the time they get to college. Not me. I poured all that into my newfound enthusiasm for the game, which translated into disciplined practice.

Positive Perspective 2: I Was Grateful and Coachable

Because I hadn't played offensive line for more than a year, I didn't have any preconceived ideas about “the right way” to play the game. I was too busy learning the basics and putting in everything I had into training to keep up with people more experienced than I was. Ego wasn't a factor—I hadn't played enough even to develop an ego about how I needed to play.

Plus, I was so grateful and appreciative of just being on the field! I had worked hard to get there, sacrificing basketball my junior year and training on a crazy level to put on 55 pounds. I would do everything and anything to not only stay but be considered one of the most valuable assets out there.

I also didn't have any bad habits. I didn't have time to develop any yet! So when I started playing center, I hadn't brought any bad habits to college with me. I purposely kept an open mind and wanted to learn the most effective ways to do my job on the team.

I was a sponge. I was incredibly coachable and listened to all the training and feedback my coach, trainers, and peers were giving me. With this frame of mind, I was able to create and reinforce positive habits.

My new positive habits paid off. I went from being a one‐year starter in high school with one scholarship offer to being a Freshman All‐American in college.

Positive Perspective 1: I Became Much Closer with My Girlfriend and Future Wife

Back then, Leslie and I had been dating about a year. She dropped out of school to move in with me and take care of me when I returned to Buffalo from Jacksonville. I can't even tell you how lucky I was to have her in my life. I got to experience her as a caregiver, and she was terrific at it. I'm not sure words can express how grateful I was for all the work she put into helping rehabilitate me. It was instrumental to my recovery.

When you're younger, you might start a relationship with a girl because she's pretty, and you keep dating her because she's fun and you get along with her. But when you marry a girl, you don't know what type of mom and wife she will be once kids come around.

I got to see Leslie's nurturing side, and she truly took care of me when I could do nothing for myself—including using the restroom. It was not ideal to have the girl you're dating to have to empty a urine jug every time you have to pee. It was inconvenient and maybe even embarrassing, but she had an “I got this” attitude.

I saw her in a new light early on in our relationship, which gave me a lot of assurance about who she was as a person. I proposed not long after because I knew I needed to marry this girl. She stuck by me at my worse and sacrificed everything to help me. It was one of the best and easiest decisions of my life.

Positive Perspective 2: I Proved to Myself That I Could Fight Back from Catastrophic Injury

The Theismann injury took me out of the rest of that first season. I put hard‐disciplined work into my rehabilitation because it was my goal to get back out on the football field for that second year. It was the injury that ended Joe Theismann's career—I didn't want it to finish mine.

It was a time in my life when I had to shore up my strongest gifts and put them to use. I would need to call on my competitive spirit and self‐discipline to give it my all in rehab. It's a strange feeling, putting so much effort and pain into doing something you have taken for granted nearly all your life: walking. You never realize how many things in your body have to be working in perfect order simply to get up and walk across the room.

I knew that the training room was where I would win the next few years of football battles. I wouldn't be able to do it unless I built the proper foundation now. I needed to give it all here in rehab and leave nothing on the table.

It was a long road back to recovery and battling through a rehab process for such a serious injury. For the first time in my life, I was able to prove to myself at that moment how much football meant to me by pushing through all the pain and long days in the training room.

When you go through something like that and come out the other side healed, it changes you. I had confidence that I could come back from significant injury, great adversity, and be stronger than ever. I proved to myself I could do it, and that's a fantastic thing that came out of that injury.

Positive Perspective 3: I Appreciated Being Pain‐Free and Felt the Joy of Playing at Such a High Level Again

I did finally make it back. It wasn't pretty at first. It's one thing to walk and run after recovering from the Theismann break. It's quite another to be playing football with other top athletes out there, running and blocking at peak capacity. There were many times when I was hobbling around the field, not really at my best. I played pretty crappy that year, honestly, worse than I ever envisioned myself playing in an NFL game.

Once I got back to moving and playing pain‐free, I truly appreciated being out there and running around and playing at a high level again. Without that injury, I may have taken for granted what an incredible blessing it is to play professional sports with some of the best in the world. I don't think I would have treasured it the same way had I never gotten hurt and gone through those really tough times of rehabbing my way back to the field.

Positive Perspective 1: By Taking Responsibility for the Conditions That Led to My Injury, I Could Empower Myself to Change It

Sometimes you have to divorce yourself from the emotions you're feeling from a setback and look at the valuable learning you can gain from it. Perhaps you've done something a certain way all your life, and now all of a sudden, it stops working. If you're getting uncomfortable feedback in the form of multiple setbacks, it's a good idea to look back at the basics. What can I switch up to improve the situation? What no longer works and why?

That was the “a‐ha” moment I got out of this injury—I had to take responsibility for it. There's a double‐edged sword to taking responsibility for what happens to you. But the wonderful part of it is that once you take responsibility for something, you have the power to change it.

So, I knew I had to change something. I just felt like something was off. So I switched up how I was training during the season. The NFL season is so long, and many people just try to maintain strength throughout the year. I think in trying just to maintain my strength, I was probably getting weaker, which led me to play weaker toward the end of the season.

After I completely changed my training strategy, I went on to start 52 straight games—the most consecutive games started for any active center in the NFL at the time.

Positive Perspective 2: I Had a Golden Opportunity to Demonstrate My Commitment to My Coaches and Teammates by Fighting Back

After I tore my MCL, there were only four games left in the regular season. I was heading into the final year of my rookie contract after this season, which was likely going to be my biggest payday as an NFL player.

At this point, we were eliminated from the playoffs, but that didn't matter to me. If I had gone on injured reserved (IR) and ended the season right there, everyone would have understood. I knew I was taking a risk by going out to play—I could potentially risk an even worse injury. We were not making the playoffs, so that wasn't at stake. Many people would have completely understood if I had just shut it down for the rest of the year.

I just didn't want to do it. I had been on IR for two out of three years of the start of my career. I wanted to fight back. But I also wanted to prove to the organization what I was all about. I wanted to show them that I was the kind of player willing to play through some pain, and if I was medically able to go out there and play, I wanted to prove to the Buffalo Bills' organization that I would do it whole‐heartedly.

That's precisely what I did. I felt like that was the right way to close out that season, and I think I earned a lot of respect from coaches and teammates going out there. I proved to them playing in those final two games that I was willing to go all out and put it all on the line. I proved it to myself, too.

Before the next season, the Bills ended up rewarding me with a contract that would create generational wealth for my family and me. It was an incredible reward and fantastic recognition for all the work. I was so profoundly grateful. I think part of the reason for the terms of that contract was me battling back from all of those injuries, but especially going out and playing those two meaningless games of the last season.

Is there an area in your life that you can push through some discomfort to show commitment to your work or your relationships? Going above and beyond for a period of time in your life can dramatically change the course of your life—even if your circumstances seem bleak at the time.

Positive Perspective 1: I Ended My Football Career on a Career‐High Note

So many things went right that last season. We had finally broken the playoff drought, and I could leave on a high note. We came together with tremendous teamwork, leadership, and commitment from the whole organization. I could not have been happier with those results.

Positive Perspective 2: Our Family Was Financially Set

I signed a contract extension before the start of the season, which was very good for my family and me financially. We had just built our dream house in Louisville, which checked all the boxes for where we wanted to live and raise our kids. It's beautiful here—I love our home so much.

Positive Perspective 3: I Was Able to Spend More Time with My Family

Garrett was just born. I had this healthy son, and now I was able to spend a lot of time with him, my daughter, and my wife in an incredible environment. I always like to say, “God's timing is perfect,” and Garrett arriving when he did was a perfect example of that.

Not everyone has the blessing of spending so much time with their family. We are all growing in amazing ways together. I am grateful that I can be close to my wife and kids for this incredible next chapter in our lives.

Positive Perspective 4: I Can Take Care of My Body for the Long Term

I love football so much. I would have probably played until the wheels fell off, to the point where I was extremely broken. Maybe it was God's way of getting me out of the game yet still allowing me to be active. I can still play golf with my friends and do a little bit of wake surfing and some low‐impact activities, so I can still be physical without risking my neck at all.

My health journey is never finished. I'll talk further about my efforts to lose weight, my experiments with running, and my long‐term efforts to reverse the potential long‐term damage I have done through all my seasons in football in Chapter 6. The short version of the story is that I'm grateful to be on the right track and improve demonstrably in almost every way.

You're never too old to reverse course and start living in a more healthy, mindful way to increase your quality of life and longevity.

Positive Perspective 5: It Gave Me a Podcasting Platform and Story to Help Other People Transition

Possibly the reason so many people listen to my podcast is that I had this huge, life‐changing event—the career‐ending injury—right when I thought everything was going so perfectly. That season gave me a platform that has changed my life and allowed me to have an impact on others.

I always come back to, “How am I using my gifts to serve others?” If I can inform the listeners, if I can uplift them, if I can provide them some entertainment within their day, I can bring them a little bit more joy in their life. I know I'm serving them through this podcast and my broadcasts.

I've talked about how your biggest test becomes your testimony at that point in your life. Your testimony is your story of conversion that can inspire others. That was my biggest test. I just thought, “Well, here we go. God gave me this platform amidst all this adversity. Let's do something extremely powerful with it.”

The Power of Gratitude

Another thing that helped me tremendously during that time, especially after the birth of my son, is that I took stock of my life and was grateful for everything I had.

It didn't mean I wasn't devastated that I couldn't play football anymore. It meant that I had a profound sense of gratitude for the things that I did have—my family, my faith, my incredible network of support, and the success I had accrued so far.

Author Jon Gordon said in “The Power of Thank You,” “It's actually physiologically impossible to be stressed and thankful at the same time. When you are grateful, you flood your body and brain with emotions and endorphins that uplift and energize you rather than the stress hormones that drain you. Gratitude and appreciation are also essential for a healthy work environment.”

Gratitude is a practice you can work at every day. And you'll find the more you practice gratitude, the more you'll find yourself having things to be grateful for. Take stock of everything that's working, the fantastic people in your life, and all the things headed in the right direction.

Moving for Perspective

When you're still having a hard time seeing a different vantage point, I recommend shifting your attitude by moving your body or shifting your breathing.

There's a lot to be said about just changing your state through movement. Whether it's a run and a workout, hitting some golf balls, or doing anything physical. Maybe you can practice breathing exercises. There are many different techniques, but there's a lot of science behind using breathing to change your mental and emotional state.

Another great thing you can do is to literally go somewhere else and physically see a different perspective. If you are stuck in the same place all the time, it's challenging to think outside the four walls in which you have been spending all your time. Get out and literally change your perspective—see much more of the landscape. For some people, that means going to a lake, river, or ocean. Maybe you can take a drive and see a view from a higher place, like a hill or mountain. Perhaps it's just simply heading out into nature and listening to the silence or the noises in your natural environment.

Reach Out and Get Help from Others

You are not alone! Your elders, your family, your mentors, your colleagues, and friends—they have all fought and won battles you know nothing about. Talking to someone else is a great way to shift your perspective and start seeing alternatives you may have never considered before.

When you're in a tough spot in life, you'll be surprised at how much compassion those who are farther along on their journey can give you and what great wisdom they have to offer. They might have some tough advice to give you along the way. It's amazing, in those times when you're the most vulnerable about your struggles (whether it's how much pain you're in or a financial situation or a struggling relationship), how compassionate people can be.

You may also want to consider professional therapy, which, thankfully over the years, has become more socially acceptable in the mainstream. It's a great way of dealing with issues that you may feel are too big to handle yourself.

Consider That All the Trials You Face Make You Stronger and More Complete

One of my favorite Bible verses on this subject comes from James 1:2–4: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

If you take the perspective that everything you face strengthens and prepares you for the future, it can lessen the sting of the situation you are dealing with in the present.