Byron Westbrook

The first two or three months you’re in a fog, in a sense. You don’t know what direction you are going in. You go from having a structured lifestyle, both in college and at the professional level when you had scheduled practices, meetings, the weight room and film sessions. Now you're out in the real world and you don’t have a plan, and you are sitting there wondering what is going on. For me, I saved up my money pretty well, and I wasn’t spending a lot of it, I just wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. At the same time, I had an idea but didn’t know how to devise that plan. It took me a year-and-a-half to start implementing that plan.

I knew I wanted to be in the IT world, and my degree was in Information Systems. I understood that it would’ve been easier for me to get a job after college rather than being 5 or 6 years after school, but playing in the NFL was a special circumstance. I did my research went on Google, found out what to do and changed my resume, and the rest was history. I think The Trust helps with all of that now, but when I joined the league, it was just setting up. It is great that this is available. You don’t have to wait two years to decide what you want to do.

It probably varies for different people. Some people may not have the funds to be able to sit out a few years. I always told myself I wanted to get into IT. I didn’t want to do some job just to get money. I wanted to find a job that I enjoyed and wanted to go to everyday. I took my time, but after one year, I played all the video games and watched all the Maury episodes. It varies for different people, but you have to have a plan and it needs to be on a timeline.

I have been into computers since I was young. I always told my kids that I coach now not to wait until the last minute to decide what you want to do. A lot of guys I knew only went to college to play football, so their degrees are in subjects they don’t care about. Because it helped them pass classes until they were drafted. My brother made it to the league when I was graduating from high school, and I didn’t necessarily think that I was going to the league, so it wasn’t really on my mind when I started college. When NFL scouts started coming to my practices sophomore year, that’s when it started sinking in. But my mom always pushed getting that degree.

You can’t want someone to want to do IT, they have to want to do it. It’s not the easiest job, but it has always been a passion of mine since I was a young kid. That passion starts in college – you have to go to school for what you want to do and for something that might benefit you in the future. You have to realize when you go to the NFL, if you aren’t in the top 5-10 highest paid players per position, you are probably going to need a job later in life.

At some point you are going to have to work – you need to start thinking about that time going into college and not when you are coming out of the NFL.

I think it was beneficial for me, because you use some of the stuff you learn on the field in the office, like time management and structure. Working through project timelines is like trying to prevent an offense from scoring ( just twisted and turned a little).

I knew I wanted to go into the IT world, so I knew I couldn’t half-ass it. I knew I had to apply everything I had learned from my computer classes to my work. I wanted to be in this field, so I fully embraced it. If someone tells you that you have to do something, you may not embrace it as fully as if you wanted to do it.

In the team meeting rooms I learned about taking notes and being attentive. Sometimes you need to go above and beyond the normal scope of work. I enjoy going to work every day and now I also enjoy coaching everyday as well. It creates a time structure to my day.

My old high school, DeMatha, really instilled time management skills in me even more so than in college. So you have to take those aspects from football and bring them to the work world. I explain to my high school kids, do your work early and often, because you never know what is going to happen.

I was finishing up this contract down in Virginia and I had some more free time in the afternoon. I got a Facebook message from an old college teammate asking if I was interested in coaching. I considered it because it was a head coaching job, and being a head coach is more managerial and getting your assistants to follow your leadership and vision. A month later I interviewed, and two months later I got the job.

Coming from this area, Bladensburg has been a lower-tier 4A school for years. Everyone saw me and that I had come from DeMatha, and thought that since I was still close friends with the coach there that I would end up there. But I wanted to do something totally different. It is a very low-income area, with a lot of young parents. I wanted to embrace that and take the underdog role. I was an underdog in college and in the pros, so I thought why not for be one for coaching as well.

I would consider that my greatest accomplishment if I could turn that program around. For me to be able to turn those kids around, and for their mindset to be, “A guy from this area has made it, we look the same, we listen to the same music, etc.” I’m hoping that they can see that and hold onto it.

The kids. Kids in low income areas, especially without fathers, are very timid when it comes to forming relationships with grown men. My first year I had 19 kids on the team and at halftime of the first game I only had 13 kids left. On the staff we had two other former NFL players, and the kids still did not buy into it until Week 7. I had gotten the job in January and they didn’t buy in until October.

I think it took them realizing I wasn’t going to leave them. Once they started realizing that, they had bigger smiles on their faces. They started to listen to me and the messages I had been preaching. It trickled down to my younger guys. My seniors instilled my values in the younger guys and from there it will carry on between seasons.

That was how it was at DeMatha. When you were there, if you played in your 11th grade year, you were special, because the seniors were the ones who played. I tried to instill that at Bladensburg — the seniors have to be an example and so when the freshman get there they will also be an example to the younger guys. That is how a culture changes.

Seeing the kids’ smiles makes my day. I always say it’s bigger than football. The kids come and workout, and for two hours every day they can get away from all the stresses at home and at school.

In 2017 my knee started throbbing again in May and I ran into one of my old Redskins teammates, Josh Wilson, who coaches at DeMatha now. He had a bad shoulder injury when he played in the league, and I asked who he was seeing about it. He explained that The Trust was paying for him to go down to North Carolina to get it looked at.

I called (The Trust) on a Monday and a month later I was at UNC. The information is more out there now, but for me it was word of mouth through my teammates. I made good money from the league so I wasn’t hurting financially, but my knee was.

One thing I can say about that is that it was a blessing. That assessment didn’t help me as much as it could help someone else because I’m healthy. But it will be so helpful for other former players. There are probably so many guys that don’t know about their health or don’t want to know about it. They’re scared of what they may find out.

When you are dealing with your brain, if a guy hears he might have CTE, he may live his life very differently than before. I really liked getting my baseline down there and getting them to check on my knee. I had knee surgery in 2009, and it flared back up in May of 2017. When I went down there and I explained my problem, they were very warm to assisting me.

I remember that during the assessment I had to complete puzzles and it brought out my competitive side. I can’t say enough positive things about the assessment. It is offered at lots of locations across the country so that can’t be an excuse. And they are doing this to benefit you. Imagine if there was something wrong with your mind or with your brain and you never knew about it. A lot of players may be scared because they don’t want to know, but you can help yourself once you know.

I think the knowledge is invaluable. You have nothing to lose. It’s two days and then you are done. They feed you and put you in a nice hotel. You are down there for the purpose of your life. I never had to wait for anything — it was VIP service. Just do it!

When I went down to UNC, I was 20 pounds over my playing weight. I saw a picture of myself and decided I was ready to lose the weight. When you are a football player training in the offseason, you have to be very disciplined. When I get home, if I haven’t meal-prepped, cooking isn’t going to get done. There is a McDonald’s on every corner and it’s easy. Before you know it you’re 50 pounds heavier.

I got a gym membership in December and in the middle of January I started working out. On Jan. 21 I had my last drink, I work out three to four days a week and I started doing 30 minutes of cardio several days a week as well. People at work asked if I had gotten liposuction!

In that first month I cut out fried food, red meat, fast food and alcohol. Now I have ice cream sometimes, or pizza. But if your mind is ready to change something, it will change it. And all the results that came with it were a change in mindset.

With coaching and working, my days are really long. I’m going from 5:30am-7:30pm. I was talking to my Program Manager, LaShea Davis-Williams, about getting my MBA and seeing if I can fit that in with my schedule. The college offers online courses, but I would rather do it in person. When you get home from sitting in front of a computer all day at work you don’t want to be in front of another computer.

I want to be ready to get my MBA, I don’t want to waste my time and half-ass it and fail. I’m happy that (the scholarship) is available, because when I’m ready I will go full steam ahead.