Brandon Siler

An Orlando native, Siler attended the University of Florida for college and quickly flourished as a team leader. He was named the SEC Player of the Year his freshman year and was a captain of the 2006 National Championship-winning team. Today, many of his former UF teammates still attribute their iconic success to Siler’s leadership; he knew how to relate to people and how to pull the best out of them, both on and off the field.

After his third year in college, he was drafted in the seventh round by the San Diego Chargers. After getting drafted lower than expected, Siler spent his four years in San Diego constantly having to prove his worth on the field. The 2011 NFL Lockout rerouted Siler’s time in the League, and he ended up playing for the Kansas City Chiefs.

His final year in the League was marked by tragedy and tremendous loss when his closest friend on the team passed away from suicide. The extreme heartbreak Siler experienced from the loss of his friend made him reevaluate what he wanted to do with his life. “I was done,” he said, “I just walked away after that year, knowing that I needed to do something else— I lost my love for the game.”

Immediately, he “spiraled into a deep depression,” where he couldn’t watch football and lost interest in all the activities he once loved. “I had a high level of anxiety and trust issues and kind of just was in a rut there for a while,” he said.

After time spent healing and reflecting, Siler decided to first go back to school and complete his education. He had learned about The Trust Scholarship and found a renewed sense of possibility for what his future could hold. “To me, that just opened a whole other door because I knew that my mental capacity was really high,” he said, “it gave me the motivation to start doing something again.”

With The Trust’s support, Siler went back to the University of Florida to finish his bachelor’s degree in criminology and then went on to earn his Master of Business Administration. Additionally, he holds business, leadership, and decision-making certificates from Harvard Business School, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Yale University. Today, he is working towards his Ph. D. in Business Management and is set to graduate at the end of this year.

Siler continues to utilize his degrees to create and run businesses that assist athletes with their mental health. He wants athletes of all ages to feel informed and comfortable when addressing struggles and obstacles they face. This summer, Siler's first book The Definition of a Leader will be released and he will be featured in an upcoming Netflix documentary about the University of Florida football team and his contributions to it.