When the word football is spoken in most parts of the world, what comes to mind is the football we are used to that involves running around and kicking a ball. To the residents of the United States of America though, that word means something much different. I got fascinated with the game when I got an opportunity to play flag football with some colleagues of mine and realized that the game was actually quite interesting contrary to my initial conclusion on seeing the game for the first time.

After asking a bazillion questions, I got a basic understanding of how the game was played and some of the rules involved. I decided to watch a few BYU (Brigham Young University) football games since that was the alma-mater for quite a few of my colleagues and I liked the school's ethos. After watching a few football games, the ever-seeing eyes of Google had started suggesting American-football related videos for me to watch. One of them was a series by NFL films called "A football life" in which they would detail a retired (and sometimes current) NFL football players life; from childhood to the NFL and even afterwards, they show their triumphs and their lowest points.

I watched quite a number of the documentaries as the stories of people fascinate me most especially successful people at whatever craft. As I kept watching, I began to notice patterns, patterns that almost guaranteed that a player would do well on and off the field and would do well after playing the game and patterns that almost guaranteed that the player would not have ideal latter years. I have codified these patterns and would detail them below. The purpose of this write up is to see how these lessons can help in our not-very-sporty lives.

• Completing their college degree programme: If a player knows that even though they love football and it could be a professional career for them, it cannot last for very long ( as the human body can only take so much) and having a college degree puts them in good stead after their playing days are over.

• A set desire entering into the NFL: An old saying goes thus "If you fail to plan, you have planned to fail". Most successful players had a desire and a plan for what they wanted to accomplish and the heights they wanted to reach personally, in and with their team and in their leagues.

• A dedication to self-improvement: "talent alone never made anyone successful". if a player was to be successful, they could not have rested on their talent alone. They put in extra work, out-thought their opponents and out-prepared their opponents.

• Show character while playing: A perfect example of showing character and class while playing was a former Detroit Lions running back extraordinaire. He exemplified humility in his playing days. He was a team layer on the field as well as off it. The players that did well worked hard but were respectful of their fellow players, their coaches, all the support staff around them and the media. It cost them nothing but it paid dividends in spades.

• Stay true to their religion/values: It is easy to stay with God when things are not going right but when there is money, success, fame, it is infinitely more difficult. those that stay true to their God and the values they grew up being thought and believing are those who make something of their football lives.

• Marry right and do right by your family: To have a successful football life, you must not do the celebrity marriage or the trophy marriage. You marry the person whom you have known, who shares your spiritual and other values and who knew and watched you before the stardom. Do not let fame cause you to cheat or neglect your family. Take time to be with them as a father and husband, I have seen that gives longer-term satisfaction for players than the playing time in the long run.

• Be fiscally responsible: When the big bucks start rolling in, do not think it would last forever. Live well below your means, save and get a trusted financial planner (not a family member or friend) to invest your resources. No flashy cars or lavish homes. Those can come later when your investments are paying dividends to cover luxuries.

• Retire on your own terms: Be the determiner of your path or as William Ernest Henly would put it, be the master of your fate and the captain of your soul. Do not wait to be pushed out of the team, and don't outstay your usefulness to the team. Know when it is time to leave, leave and don't look back. Something that helps is having a good idea what you want to do after the football career ends and this is the perfect segway to my next point.

• Do something productive: Those who do well are those who had a plan for their lives outside of football. Those who built careers, businesses or complete livelihoods after football. This is where having a college degree comes in handy. Go into a business or career where you are knowledgeable and comfortable so as not to lose your resources.

• Have a can't-be-put-down attitude: As a public figure, any and every mistake you make would be a news item and you have to expect that. Those who made it big did not let negative press get them down. They made mistakes, dusted themselves off, learnt from that mistake and moved on. With time those people, could share their stores and help others not to make the mistake or to get out of the mistake if they have made it already.

I thought about all of these and wriote them doiwn because I feel that as a non-celebrity I have an opportunity to look at those with public lives, see what made them successful (for those that became popular as a result of success), and learn lessons I can apply to my life. I hope this helps someone out there as well.