UT’s Green Beret might not be done with football yet

[Robocop]

-probably heard about this story already but he was on the Rich Eisen Show the other day. what a badass. this guy was in and out of firefights during his offseasons at Texas after getting on the team at age 29. oh and he's currently finishing his master's degree. someone make this guy a pro.

http://www.expressnews.com/sports/c...ht-not-be-done-with-6156523.php#photo-3436694

UT’s Green Beret might not be done with football yet
By Mike Finger

March 24, 2015 Updated: March 25, 2015 11:42am

AUSTIN — An NFL scout told Nate Boyer he looked out of place Tuesday. He should have seen him last summer.

Sure, a 34-year-old man running through drills with a bunch of college seniors at Texas’ pro day might be a bit of a curiosity. Now picture that same guy in the middle of an Afghan desert, hunched over a dusty, scuffed American football, then firing it backwards between his legs, over and over again, until he attracted a crowd of confounded villagers.

“They’d come out and watch,” Boyer, a former Green Beret, said of his down time during one of several deployments with the U.S. Army Special Forces. “Just part of my trip.”

Boyer has a way of shrugging his shoulders and making everything he describes sound normal, even though almost none of it is. A decade ago, he decided to join the military not out of patriotism, but because he wanted to do more after serving as a relief worker in the Sudan.

After five years in the Middle East with the Special Forces, he enrolled in college at UT with the intent of playing football — even though he hadn’t even been on his high-school team. Eventually, he figured out his best chance to play was learning how to be a deep-snapper, so he did it.

Boyer wound up starting 38 consecutive games on the Longhorns’ special teams, even though he left the program every summer to fulfill his National Guard service and join a task force in Afghanistan. Last month, he received his honorable discharge.


Tuesday on the Longhorns’ practice fields, he was snapping footballs for NFL talent evaluators, in hopes that one might think enough of his ability to give him a shot.

“I’m not expecting anything,” Boyer said. “I’d be grateful for an opportunity. I’m not entitled. Nobody owes me anything.”

To prepare himself for pro day, Boyer said, he forced himself to gain more than 20 pounds in two months. Spending every college offseason in the desert meant that he never had the chance to build his muscular frame much bigger than 190 pounds. Tuesday, he weighed in at 216.

He also boasted a larger entourage, with a film crew following his every move for a documentary about his pro day experience. Having graduated with a master’s degree in advertising, Boyer has been spending time in Los Angeles, where he’s met other filmmakers in hopes of raising awareness about alarming suicide rates among veterans, and about what his fellow military members are doing in the Middle East.

“I’ve never been a political person,” Boyer said. “Most of the guys over there fighting aren’t, either. … They’re trying to help people in a place that doesn’t have what we have. It’s a good thing they’re doing. Don’t forget about the guys that are still there.”

Boyer said he’d like to address some of those issues in a film of his own someday, and he’s already found work as a military consultant on another movie. So he has options beyond football.

But even if he admitted Tuesday might have been his “last hurrah” on the gridiron, he thought he might have made enough of an impression to get an invitation to an NFL training camp.

“They always talk about intangibles,” Boyer said. “I think I’ve got a few.”

 

[Memento]

I hope someone gives him a shot. He fully deserves it.

 

[Prime Time]

http://mmqb.si.com/2015/04/06/nate-boyer-long-snapper-green-beret-nfl-draft/

The NFL needs this 34-year-old long snapper.

Nate Boyer (Michael Thomas/AP)

The phone rang in Nate Boyer’s shoebox of a studio apartment in L.A. on Sept. 11, 2001, waking up the 20-year-old man without a life compass. Boyer looked at his clock … 6 a.m.

“Nate,” his mother said, “turn on the TV.”

“What channel?” Boyer said.

“Doesn’t matter,” his mother said.

Boyer had a 19-inch TV with a rabbit-ears antenna, and he turned it on. The World Trade Center was on fire. In an hour, one of the twin towers collapsed; a half-hour after that, the second one fell.

This is the day Boyer’s life changed—as so many lives did in so many different ways. It’s crazy to say that it’s the seminal event in a life that led Boyer to a refugee camp in Darfur three years later, then to enlist in the Army, then to multiple tours of duty as a Green Beret, then to enroll as a 29-year-old freshman at the University of Texas, then to a walk-on tryout for the Longhorns football team, then—on his last tour in Afghanistan, after his sophomore year—having a bullet miss his face by three inches in a firefight, then to playing in 38 straight games as the Texas long-snapper, then to have the wild idea that he’d like to play in the National Football League, and then to train with NFL players Kyle Long, Lane Johnson, Odell Beckham Jr., Dashon Goldson, Calais Campbell and others in a gym in Los Angeles, on the odd chance that some team mightinvite him to training camp.

As a 34-year-old long-snapper.

That isn’t even the craziest thing about the Nate Boyer story. This is: When he walked on at Texas, he had never played a snap of football in the first 29 years of his life. Mack Brown, the coach at the time, didn’t know until the end of Boyer’s second year at Texas that he’d never played football. Boyer’s story was so good—from Army special forces to number 37 for the Longhorns, sprinting onto the field before every home game carrying the American flag—that Brown and Texas found a spot for him. And when the two incumbent long-snappers left after that second year, Boyer figured, I’m going to learn to snap. And this job will be mine.

Boyer made it happen. The man who never played the game mostly taught himself how to long-snap on his final special-forces tour, coming back to fall practice at Texas determined to win the job. He practiced and drilled himself into playing 38 Big 12 Conference games, which is why there’s a glimmer of hope that this incredible football life has a chance to continue this summer at an NFL training camp near you.

“I need teams to look past the fact I’m 34 years old, obviously,” Boyer said from Los Angeles on Friday. “I’m not your average 34-year-old.”

This is what Boyer is up against, as he attempts to become one of 1,696 active players in the most popular sports league in America:

• There’s not much turnover. Of the 32 long-snappers in the NFL in 2014, five were in their first year with their teams. (A sixth, Baltimore’s, turned over because of injury during the season.) Once a team finds a reliable snapper—they’re not highly paid—the guy can stay for a decade or longer.

• His age. Ever hear of a 34-year-old NFL rookie? NFL teams frown on 25-year-old rookies. Add nine years, and most are going to say, “Incredible story. Good luck, Nate.”

• His size. Boyer is 5-11 and 220 pounds. The average size of the current 32 long-snappers: 6-2 ½, 246. One snapper is shorter than 6-0 (Houston’s Jonathan Weeks, at 5-10). Two snappers are lighter than 230 (Falcon Josh Harris, at 224; Denver’s Aaron Brewer, at 225).

This is what Boyer has going for him:

• Accuracy. Of more than 500 long-snaps at Texas, he had zero inaccurate ones.

• Speed. NFL punt snaps are supposed to take from .7 to .75 seconds to get from the snapper to the punter. PAT or field-goal snaps should take approximately three-tenths of a second. Boyer’s been timed in range on both.

• An endorsement. Indianapolis long-snapper Matt Overton, impressed by Boyer’s story, reached out to him last fall, offered to help in any way he could, and Boyer took him up on the offer. Overton found a training facility for him—FOX Sports analyst Jay Glazer’s Unbreakable Performance Center in Los Angeles, where many NFL players and MMA fighters go to train—and last week joined him for some concentrated long-snapping coaching.

“His velocity is definitely there, and his accuracy is definitely there,” Overton said over the weekend. “This was my chance to see if this was just a good story or if he has a legitimate shot to make it. And there is no question in my mind he can do it. None. He can legit long-snap at the NFL level.”

Boyer only needs one team to say yes. No team will use a pick on the now draft-eligible Boyer, but NFL teams will bring 90 players to camp in late July. Every team signs 20 to 25 undrafted college free agents for training camp. Theoretically, then, Boyer is competing to be one of 650 or so undrafted players invited to one of the 32 NFL camps.

Based on where he’s been in the past 14 years, and what he’s done, I wouldn’t count him out. In fact, I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t get a chance. Signing as a free agent with an NFL team is an uphill task, but Boyer’s had a few of those.

“You may not look at me and think, ‘This guy is capable of anything,’ but nothing is going to stop me,” Boyer said. “I might die trying, but I will work till the last beat of my heart to accomplish the mission—and to keep the guy next to me alive and fighting. Coaches understand the parallels. The way you prepare, the mindset that you have, football and the military have so much in common. The stakes are not the same, of course. But you have to have the mindset that you will not be broken. No one will take the will away from you. That is the way I live.”

Start on that day in 2001, when Boyer, struggling to find some purpose in life, saw the towers fall. “I didn’t grow up a huge patriotic person,” he said. He graduated from high school in Dublin, Calif., in 1999, with no plan. “Things were always so easy for me. I didn’t have adversity as a child. But that happened, and I started reading the news, following the world. A couple years later, I saw a Time magazine article and photos by James Nachtwey. The images blew me away. I couldn’t believe what was happening in that part of the world. I was drawn to it. I had to go. That really was sort of my first Special Forces mission.”

Boyer had no college degree, no discernible skill, and so no relief or medical agency would retain him to work in the relief camps for Darfur refugees. So he flew to Chad. When he landed, he lied about being an American doctor and about being robbed in Paris on his way to the refugee camp, and he talked himself onto a United Nations plane heading to Abéché, home to the largest refugee camp. When he got there, a Doctors Without Borders officials raged at him for the lie, thinking he was a spy or a journalist.

Boyer showed him his worldly possessions—a change of underwear, a toothbrush, malaria pills. “I just want to be helpful,” he said. For two months he volunteered, doing anything in the camp that needed to be done. “That,” Boyer said, “is where I gained my patriotism. All these people from our country, there just to help. I gained so much pride for my country. Despite mistakes we’ve made as a country, we stand for equality and the opposite of oppression. We are trying to fix things. And the people there loved what we stand for.”

When he came back from Chad (his 60-day visa could not be extended), he decided to try to earn a spot in the U.S. Army Special Forces. At Fort Benning, Ga., 145 candidates started Special Forces training. Eleven, including Boyer, made it through. “I was all in,” he said. “In my free time, I did a mile of lunges without stopping.”

Whaaaaaaat?

“Yeah, I know. That’s how I was. I would train till I was peeing blood. At my best, I could run two miles in less than 11 minutes. I could do 145 pushups in two minutes.”

In the Special Forces, Boyer was dispatched all over the world on missions he can talk very little about—to Okinawa, Korea, Bulgaria, Greece, Israel, Germany, Spain and others. Dispatched to Iraq in 2008, he helped train Iraqi SWAT and Special Forces troops. Stationed in the Iraqi city of Najaf, south of Baghdad, the U.S. and Iraqi Special Forces were given a list of high-level enemy leaders to capture, and they captured the second and third targets in the first week. In Iraq, he also saw many friends and acquaintances wounded or killed. On a mission one day, the Humvee in front of Boyer’s struck an IED, and three of the men inside the vehicle were badly burned, one to death. “The smell was like you’re at a barbeque, but I realized, ‘Wow, that’s the burning torso of the guy in the Humvee.’ ”

Twice in Afghanistan, Boyer felt he came close to death—including just before he returned from his last deployment in 2014. Understand that this final tour was the Special Forces’ version of a summer job. Before his last season at Texas, he deployed to Tajab, near the Afghan-Pakistan border, searching for Taliban. One day, in a firefight with some Taliban forces, the captain of the Afghan forces, fighting next to Boyer, was shot in the throat and died. That battle is when the bullet came three inches from Boyer’s face. He actually had the presence of mind to tell me it was better him in such danger than a peer with a family. “I’m not married, and I don’t have any children,” he said. “Better to have me there.”

“How many people did you kill?” I asked.

“I am not going to answer that,” Boyer said, after a pause. “I honestly don’t know. I can tell you I am no Chris Kyle. But you don’t really know because—well, you are in these battles, and you come back, and, last year, we had one firefight with 30 enemy KIA [killed in action], and you never know for sure who got who.”

Now onto the football. At the end of his Iraq deployment in 2009, at 28, Boyer thought he wanted to go to college. The GI Bill would pay for much of it. But he also thought the fact that he’d never played football was a regret too, as was not going to college. “I didn’t want to regret anything about my life,” he said. So he applied at Texas, was admitted, looked up football workouts on the internet, and started doing them before he left Iraq. He enrolled at Texas for the fall term of 2010.

To try out during walk-on practice, students are supposed to have a coach referral and some tape of their play. Boyer had neither. He broke the news to strength coach Jeff Madden, running the tryout, telling him what he’d been doing. He aced the physical and running portions of the tryout, and word got to Mack Brown: We got a Green Beret trying out. Brown loved the military. He’d been on a USO trip to see the troops in the Middle East. So he took a liking to Boyer, and Boyer got a uniform and the flag to lead the team out of the tunnel.

That would have been a fine way to be on the team. But Boyer, who’d never played, actually wanted to. He had to. After his second year he told Brown he intended to come back for fall practice to compete for the long-snapping job. “Well,” said Brown, “you got this far. You can try out for it. But try to put a little weight on.” The rest is Texas history. In the second game of his redshirt sophomore season, Boyer got the job and kept it for three seasons. “Never had a bad snap,” Brown said.


Matt Overton, left, and Boyer at Unbreakable Performance in L.A. (@MattOverton_LS/Twitter)

After three months training with Glazer and his crew of NFL players and MMA fighters, Boyer added 25 pounds (to 220) and now can bench 225 pounds 19 times—a very good number for a snapper.

Recently, Eagles coach Chip Kelly and his sports science coordinator—former U.S. Naval Special Warfare personal coach Shaun Huls—visited Glazer’s gym. Boyer met Kelly. “How much do you weigh?” Kelly asked. That’s what every coach will want to know, at least those who are thinking of giving the longest of shots a chance.

“Two-twenty,” Boyer told him.

Will it be enough? Or will his story, and his determination, be enough to get him the one shot he’s itching to get?

“Nothing is too extreme for Nate,” said Glazer. “It doesn’t matter how exhausted he is—he will not stop. What he’s pushed himself through in the military is probably more than anyone who’s played in the NFL. You watch him and listen to him, and you realize his value is so much more than just as a long-snapper. The NFL’s a game of discipline. If you’re not disciplined, you can’t make it. And isn’t every coach in the NFL trying to produce warriors? What better way to produce warriors than to bring an actual warrior onto your team?”

Said Boyer: “Give me an opportunity. Let me show you. Don’t be afraid of me because I’m atypical. I’m going to to bring something important to the team. I’m not a typical player, and I believe that’s a good thing.”

One more thing: Boyer has another mission.

“The veteran suicide rate is 22 a day,” he said. “Twenty-two a day! Unacceptable. Totally unacceptable. People out there are trying to fix that, and I am one of those people. I want to prove to those leaving the military that if you believe in yourself and work and sacrifice, the same way you did in the military, you can achieve what you want in society. I want to make a difference for veterans, and what they can do in the world.”

That starts with a job offer in May, after the NFL draft.

“I’ve heard ‘no’ a lot in my life,” Boyer said. “So I’ll take a whole lot of no’s. All I need is one yes.”

 

[Prime Time]

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/05/02/seahawks-sign-34-year-old-green-beret-nate-boyer/

Seahawks sign 34-year-old Green Beret Nate Boyer
Posted by Michael David Smith on May 2, 2015

AP

Moments after the NFL draft ended, the Seahawks signed an undrafted free agent whose story will be an inspiration to many.

Nate Boyer, a long snapper from Texas, is the newest member of the Seahawks. But Boyer is much more than that: He’s a 34-year-old who served with the Green Berets in Iraq and Afghanistan and had never played organized football at any level until he decided in his late 20s that he’d like to go to college and try playing football, and it occurred to him that learning to long snap could be a way to do that.

Boyer is a long shot to make an NFL regular-season roster, but he says he’s committed to putting in all the work it will take.

“I’m just thrilled to get an opportunity,” Boyer said on NFL Network. “This is the best athletes in the world, and just to get an opportunity and be able to compete, play for a great team in a great city, I couldn’t be more thrilled, just for the chance.”

It’s a chance Boyer has earned by following a long and winding path to the NFL.

 

[ChrisW]

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/05/02/seahawks-sign-34-year-old-green-beret-nate-boyer/

Seahawks sign 34-year-old Green Beret Nate Boyer
Posted by Michael David Smith on May 2, 2015

AP

Moments after the NFL draft ended, the Seahawks signed an undrafted free agent whose story will be an inspiration to many.

Nate Boyer, a long snapper from Texas, is the newest member of the Seahawks. But Boyer is much more than that: He’s a 34-year-old who served with the Green Berets in Iraq and Afghanistan and had never played organized football at any level until he decided in his late 20s that he’d like to go to college and try playing football, and it occurred to him that learning to long snap could be a way to do that.

Boyer is a long shot to make an NFL regular-season roster, but he says he’s committed to putting in all the work it will take.

“I’m just thrilled to get an opportunity,” Boyer said on NFL Network. “This is the best athletes in the world, and just to get an opportunity and be able to compete, play for a great team in a great city, I couldn’t be more thrilled, just for the chance.”

It’s a chance Boyer has earned by following a long and winding path to the NFL.

Well if he starts it's an easier target for Bates to hurdle.

 

[Dodgersrf]

Very cool story. I saw it on NFLN this weekend.
I hope he sticks with Seattle.

 

[Prime Time]

http://mmqb.si.com/2015/06/29/nate-boyer-seahawks-shia-lebeouf-american-dream-nfl/

Mon Jun. 29, 2015
The American Dream
Motivated by Shia LaBeouf's recent viral video, Nate Boyer explains what moved him to leave his comfort zone in the U.S. and how that propelled him to serve in the Army, walk on at Texas and try to make an NFL team as a 34-year-old rookie

Undrafted free agent Nate Boyer, 34, is trying to make the Seahawks as a long-snapper. (Ted S. Warren/AP)

By Nate Boyer
Seattle Seahawks

When Peter King asked me to guest-write the MMQB column during July 4 week, I was honored. That was immediately followed by worry, then panic. What was I going to say? My story has already been told by many accomplished sportswriters. What could I possibly add?

And then I thought about Shia LaBeouf.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuHfVn_cfHU


“DO IT! Just DO IT! Don’t let your dreams be dreams. Yesterday you said tomorrow, so JUST DO IT! MAKE, YOUR DREAMS, COME TRUE! Just DO IT! Some people dream success while you’re going to wake up and work HARD at it! NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE! You should get to the point where anyone else would quit, and you’re not gonna stop there. No. What are you waiting for? DO IT! JUST, DO IT! Yes you can! Just do it! If you’re tired of starting over? Stop, giving, up.”

Over the past month many have poked fun at the actor’s words. He’s been called crazy for saying them. But in my mind, Shia LaBeouf’s monologue (part of a collaboration project with fine art students in London) includes some of the sanest advice I’ve ever heard. Those who ridicule LaBeouf will go on living their safe, relatively riskless lives. They will enjoy freedom that very few of them fought for. They will just exist—surviving, but not thriving.

This is what hurts me about America.

This Independence Day I pose one simple question: What is your American dream? If you aren’t pursuing what you love, then you are crazy, not Shia LaBeouf. Crazy is ignoring what you’re passionate about because it seems too hard, or out of reach. Crazy is being afraid of failure. Crazy is working a job you hate because you think you don’t have a choice. In this country, no matter who you are or where you came from, we all have a choice. If you choose to make excuses, then so be it. If not, America needs you to start living the life you dream about. America might be the greatest country in the world, but Americans can be the most frustrating people in the world at times.

Most of you were probably born in America, or somewhere else in the free world. It’s a privilege—one that comes with responsibility. It is your duty to follow your heart. Doubt will creep in, and people will say you can’t do something because they can’t do it, or they’re jealous, unhappy or whatever. Don’t listen to them. Listen to Shia LaBeouf.

The biggest obstacle that stops us from achieving our dreams is placing additional limits on ourselves. Why would we do that? Why make things harder than they already are? I didn’t always look at things like this. I had to run away from what was familiar and comfortable. I had to take a long, hard look in the mirror and make the decision to change the way I attacked life. For me, it took a journey to a place I knew nothing about. It took a trip to the Darfur.

* * *

I am a 34-year-old rookie long-snapper currently with the Seattle Seahawks. I signed as an undrafted free agent directly following the 2015 draft. In 2004, I enlisted in the United States Army and earned a green beret in 2006. Following a deployment to Iraq in 2008-09, I decided to follow my dream of playing college football—despite never playing a snap of football in my entire life. In 2010 I enrolled at the University of Texas and walked onto the football team.

I would remain in the Special Forces through the Texas National Guard and went back overseas every summer between spring football and training camp. In 2013 and 2014, I deployed to Afghanistan and returned the day before training camp to trade in my Kevlar and body armor for a football helmet and pads. The first time I ever long-snapped a football was at the age of 31, and I was fortunate enough to start for the Longhorns over the subsequent three seasons. Peter King already has writtenabout my story, and what follows is my account of how it all began.

* * *

Che Guevara was 23 years old when he set off on a journey across South America. The Motorcycle Diaries chronicles Che’s travels and how the world changed him as a man. Although I don’t necessarily agree with his politics (or anyone’s for that matter), what inspired me was his commitment and passion for what he believed was the right thing to do, and the right way to live. Even though he grew up in affluence, attended medical school and was set to become a doctor, being alone on the road humbled Che. He found something he believed was truly worth fighting for.

In 2004, I was also 23. Although I worked with kids diagnosed with autism, I felt empty and unfulfilled. I was just floating through life with no direction, no greater purpose, and no idea what the hell I really wanted. Money and material possessions never meant anything to me, and I had no dream to pursue. I had nothing to fight for.

Then Time published the article, “The Tragedy of Sudan.” It electrocuted my soul. I was captivated by the pain and atrocity of the genocide. James Nachtwey’s photographs made me ache inside like I never had before.

I called every Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) in the Darfur. I told them I would pay for my flight and all my expenses. I offered to build refugee camps, dig ditches or wells. I would do anything to help. One by one, I was turned away because I didn’t have a college education. “No,” I was told, again and again. “I’m sorry, but it’s just not possible.” Maybe these were just the words I needed to hear. Something stronger than my body was tugging at my soul, and when you get a feeling like that, you just can’t ignore it.

I went to the public library and did research. I made dozens of phone calls. I applied for a travel Visa from the Consulate of Chad (which neighbors Sudan to the West) and it arrived in the mail a few days later. I booked a ticket to the capital, N’Djamena.

Maybe the hardest part of this whole process was telling my mother. She was already worried about me, and this would be difficult on her. I remember sitting with her and my father at dinner and prefacing what I was about to tell her with “there’s something I need to tell you guys, but first I need to use the restroom.” This was the ingenious plan I devised to lower the shock value. It did not have the intended effect. She calmly digested the information and then asked if I had a death wish. She would pray about me constantly just as she always had and always will, and I’m pretty sure it works every time.

I didn’t pack much: just a change of underwear and socks, my toothbrush, malaria pills, and a copy of The Motorcycle Diaries. I wore a plain white T-shirt, old khakis, black “ninja” slippers, and a red wine-stained seersucker coat.

The moment I touched down in N’Djamena I was overwhelmed. Nearly everyone was dressed in traditional Muslim attire, the single-gate “airport” was loud and chaotic. It smelled like hot garbage, and almost no one spoke English. I landed in the middle of the night and spent the wee hours finding out when the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) flight left for the refugee camps in the eastern part of Chad bordering the Darfur region. I had no idea how in the world I would get on the plane.

At 5:30 a.m., a Chadian man with a clipboard and the flight’s manifest arrived at the terminal. I approached him with confidence and a cover story I was absolutely committed to. I knew it was wrong to lie, but my intentions were genuine.

I said I worked for the NGO Doctors Without Borders, but had been robbed in Paris of identification and documentation, and my contact was waiting for me in Abéché (a village across the country and the headquarters from where the NGOs deployed their volunteers). I guess he believed me because the next thing I knew, I was flying over the Sahara in a twin prop plane. Looking out the window, I was overwhelmed by how vast, empty, and beautiful the landscape was: endless sand dunes and the deepest horizon you could imagine. Once in a while, I would see a villager leading a herd of camels, or an old Russian tank left rusting in the midst of desolation.

After arriving in Abéché I was directed toward the Doctors Without Borders compound, and headed that way on foot. After using much “pointy-talky” communication, I arrived and was led by armed soldiers to a tent. A few minutes later, a large French-Canadian man stormed into the tent in a rage. He rifled through my bag and shouted. How did you get here? Who do you work for? He thought I was CIA or some sort of mercenary. I calmly explained why I was there and after an hour of barking, he became empathetic. He connected me with the Catholic Relief Services and Child Fund, and I would work with them for the next two months.

The Darfur transformed me. It broke me from my extended boyhood, and rebuilt me into a man on a mission. Those people shook me to life. Their generosity, love and care for a total stranger from a far-off land left me in awe. I spent most of my days with orphaned children. Many had witnessed their father’s murder, their mother’s rape, their villages burning to the ground. At times, I felt guilty for being American. I grew up with privilege and didn’t earn any of it.

How could these kids, many with missing limbs or maimed faces, be so happy all the time? Simply kicking a soccer ball around or watching a red-bearded American guy try his hand at Double Dutch made them laugh uncontrollably. Those smiles, much like the traumatic photos from that Time article, will never be erased from my memory.

What I took away from the Darfur (along with a weeklong bout with Malaria) was a newfound patriotism. It wasn’t because I thought America was so much better than this place; it was because of how those people viewed America, and more importantly, Americans. Refugees and local villagers wanted to hear stories of America, and in turn I got to hear how they loved what we stood for as a nation. Politics and imperfections aside, for the first time I was truly proud to be an American.

There were even young men that told me if they could join they American military they would. They understood that we are sometimes the only country that will intervene when a poorer nation faces oppression of some kind. One night, one of the village elders slaughtered a goat in my honor, and we had a feast as I got to hear about each of these people’s version of the American dream.

At 5-10 and 225 pounds, Boyer is undersized as a long-snapper and is considered a long shot to make the Seahawks roster. (Elaine Thompson/AP)

I live differently now. Whatever motivates or moves me, I explore and seek out. I may not always like it in the end, but I wasn’t going to live my life with regret, because regret is just about the only thing I truly fear.

I remember laying under the stars in the Darfur and listening to the BBC on a transistor radio. Getting a play-by-play of what was going on in Fallujah stirred something else inside me, a desire to fight for those who can’t fight for themselves. That journey to Africa set in motion a course of events that led me to Iraq and Afghanistan, to walk on at the University of Texas while continuing to serve my country, and now to an incredible opportunity with the Seattle Seahawks. But this is only the beginning to my American dream, and I’ll probably never stop pursuing it. It’s what makes me happy.

So, thank you Shia LaBeouf. You literally screamed out loud the way I feel about Americans and the American dream. I’d like to join my new hero and ask that you to seek out your American dream if you’re not already doing so. You don’t have to go to Africa or even across the county line. Just do it. Make your dreams come true.

I think everyone has the capacity for greatness. It’s just a matter of whether you’re willing to make the necessary sacrifices to achieve great things. There is literally nothing special about me. I’m a good athlete, not a great one. I’m smart, but I’m no genius. I can figure things out, but I’m not a fast learner. All I do is make the choice to outwork everyone around me. That doesn’t take a special person; it just takes ambition, effort and commitment.

I think everyone has the ability to make a huge difference in other people’s lives. There is something substantial that you could do right now to help another person. It probably doesn’t cost anything except maybe a little bit of your time and giving a damn. Just showing up is usually half the battle.

I think you should never wait until tomorrow to do what you’re fired up about today. Don’t let the flame have a chance to burn out with a good night’s rest. “Let me sleep on it” is code for “let me find a way to make excuses for why I shouldn’t do it.”

I think football and war have more in common than I originally thought they would. Obviously the stakes are higher on the battlefield, but a successful team in both venues fights for the man on their left and right. There are strong brotherhoods that are born out of both. The differences stem from when people try to compare combat to the gridiron; those should never be in the same discussion.

 

[Prime Time]

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/08/18/seahawks-needing-a-roster-spot-release-nate-boyer/

Seahawks, needing a roster spot, release Nate Boyer
Posted by Darin Gantt on August 18, 2015

AP

The Seahawks needed a roster spot, and one of the best camp stories in the NFL fell victim to the crunch.

According to Jay Glazer of FOX Sports, the Seahawks cut veteran long snapper Nate Boyer to help create some room for reinforcements elsewhere.

Boyer’s not a veteran in terms of NFL experience, as he’s never played in the league.

But the 34-year-old former Green Beret was still more than just a one-liner in the transaction agate.

He returned to football after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the Seahawks certainly benefitted from having a man of his experience in camp, whether he was going to make the 53-man roster or not.