Meet The Pro Football Player Who Forfeited $37 Million to Become A Local Farmer

Dropping a $37 million contract and a lifestyle in professional sports, a major NFL center has now chosen to feed his community with sustainable farming over the pursuit of millions through passes and fumbles. And he says he is much happier with the decision.

In a move that shows the origin of fulfillment does not always come from money, St. Louis Rams center Jason Brown went against the wishes and warnings of his agent and forfeited his professional football career in order to launch a mission of feeding North Carolina locals with real food — something that is highly needed around the world. Acquiring the tools to feed the struggling individuals in his state on a major yet sustainable scale, Brown secured 1,000 acres of farm land to prepare his new harvesting operation centered around crops like sweet potatoes and cucumbers.

Speaking to CBS News, Brown’s statements inspire us to remember that pursuing what we really love is always essential in life:

“My agent told me, ‘You’re making the biggest mistake of your life,’” he said. “And I looked right back at him and I said, ‘No I’m not. No I’m not.’”

Checkout the video below, in which Brown goes into detail over his decision to pursue farming to help his community — something that an increasing number of grassroots movements and individuals alike are working towards on a global scale each day:

Having just finished his first harvest, yielding 100,000 pounds of food from a five acre area of sweet potatoes, Brown is set to donate the mass produce. The admirable actions remind me of an organization that I have written about and supported in the past, called Crazy Faith. Hit with fines by county bureaucrats for feeding the homeless who were actually in dire need of food on the streets of Washington, the organization continues to target hunger within the local ‘street family’ thanks to a driven goal of helping others.

Like Jason Brown, Crazy Faith, and many others, there’s always great actions being taken on a daily basis that we can be inspired by.

“When you see them pop up out of the ground, man, it’s the most beautiful thing you could ever see,” Brown says.