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\n\t\tOpinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.\t<\/p>\n
Jason Brown was living the dream: a 10,000-square-foot mansion, a Pro Bowl within reach and a five-year, $37.5 million contract that made him the NFL\u2019s highest-paid center. Today, he runs a 1,000-acre sweet potato farm in Louisburg, North Carolina. The former center chronicled this decision in The Athletic<\/a>.<\/p>\n The career shift goes back to his older brother, Lunsford Bernard Brown II, who was killed in Iraq in 2003 while Brown was in college. \u201cIt rocked me to my core,\u201d Brown wrote. Years later, turning 27, the same age his brother was when he died, Brown found himself comparing a life of \u201centertainment\u201d to his brother\u2019s life of \u201cservice and sacrifice.\u201d<\/p>\n In March 2012, the Rams released him. He turned down offers from three teams he\u2019d always dreamed of playing for, including the Baltimore Ravens, the team that drafted him, choosing instead to buy an old dairy farm and teach himself agriculture from YouTube videos.<\/p>\n \u201cWas I going to continue playing football and be self-serving? Or was I going to step out on faith and live a life of purpose?\u201d Brown wrote. \u201cIt was one of the toughest decisions I\u2019ve ever had to make in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n His farm, First Fruits Farm, has since donated more than two million pounds of food, grown mostly with help from Brown\u2019s eight children, whom he still organizes with the same \u201chuddle\u201d call he used as a center. He\u2019s also converted an old dairy barn into a wedding venue. He says, \u201cThat life of fame and fortune I used to live was pretty cool. But so is this new one.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Jason Brown was living the dream: a 10,000-square-foot mansion, a Pro Bowl within reach and a five-year, $37.5 million contract that made him the NFL\u2019s highest-paid center. Today, he runs a 1,000-acre sweet potato farm in Louisburg, North Carolina. The former center chronicled this decision in The Athletic<\/a>.<\/p>\n The career shift goes back to his older brother, Lunsford Bernard Brown II, who was killed in Iraq in 2003 while Brown was in college. \u201cIt rocked me to my core,\u201d Brown wrote. Years later, turning 27, the same age his brother was when he died, Brown found himself comparing a life of \u201centertainment\u201d to his brother\u2019s life of \u201cservice and sacrifice.\u201d<\/p>\n In March 2012, the Rams released him. He turned down offers from three teams he\u2019d always dreamed of playing for, including the Baltimore Ravens, the team that drafted him, choosing instead to buy an old dairy farm and teach himself agriculture from YouTube videos.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n