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Levar Fisher is Affiliated with:
Athletes Against Drugs
Bill Glass Champions For Life
Champions For Today
Dwyane Wade Foundation
Fellowship Of Christian Athletes
Kids Are Heroes
Athletes Against Drugs
Bill Glass Champions For Life
Champions For Today
Dwyane Wade Foundation
Fellowship Of Christian Athletes
Kids Are Heroes
Lil MGD's
NFL Players Association
National Association of Black Sports Professionals
North Carolina State University
National Association of Black Sports Professionals
North Carolina State University
Operation Kid Equip
Ray Of Hope On Earth
Retired Professional Football Players Of Chicago
Sports World
Ray Of Hope On Earth
Retired Professional Football Players Of Chicago
Sports World
What I’ve learned on the field is to never allow anyone to claim my attention…except the one that I’ve already tackled in my mind. I’ve learned that real power doesn’t come from the heart or even from lifting weights – it comes from placing belief in yourself and trusting your maker. And, I’ve learned never to be ashamed of an honest mistake – because honest mistakes are useful teachers. I personally have had plenty of those “useful teachers”—enough to motivate a room full of corporate leaders, enough to inspire an army of volunteers, and enough to captivate an auditorium loaded with restless teens. I’m not on the field anymore, but I’m passionately using everything I have to help my team win, and my team now…is simply everyone within earshot.I cannot begin to tell you what it felt like waking up in a hospital bed wondering if my football career had just ended – the career I had worked for since I was in the third grade. The same career that made my parents, teachers, and entire community so proud, and the same one that made it possible for me to even attend college. This is the career that brought me into a national spotlight and eventually into the arms of the love of my life. It brought me often to my knees in gratitude, and just as often in pain. And, I loved it – ate it up. After all, it was my dream.
In the winter of 2006, after a terrible knee injury, I found out what life was going to be like without my dream career. I’m not going to sugar coat it and tell you that the next step for me was a no-brainer – that I had a “Plan B” all figured out. I was clueless. There were not just moments – but long days of mind-numbing panic and endless questions without answers. Let’s just say that in my lowest of lows, I discovered that there was a lot about me I didn’t like.
I spent most of the next year recovering from the knee injury and from my own self-doubt. I had a family – a wife, a daughter, and another one on the way. There was no “ifs” or “maybes” – I had to make a decision immediately; formulate a plan. Clarity came as I began to remember what I’d heard from teachers and coaches from my early years. They said, “take what you are good at and make a career out of it.” One thing I knew for sure…I was really good at running my mouth.
Stepping in front of a microphone has become my field of play. Believe it or not, I actually love telling stories of my less admirable episodes in life. I like hearing a pin drop when I’m painting a picture of a scared kid running for his life when he hears the click of an angry homeowner’s gun behind him. I appreciate seeing the solemn nods when I talk about how a friend’s bad decision ended his life one night. And, I just get chills when I’m in a room full of people who finally get it that the power to do better, want better, and be better is already in them – in their history of wins and losses, and in their ability to learn from it all. In my eyes, that’s exactly what makes someone more than a “pro.”
I’m so juiced by this opportunity that I can actually say that the NFL – the dream I worked so hard for – lived for – was simply the path that led me to this career. What the competitor in me really likes about all of this is that what I do now impacts just like a hard-hitting tackle…but feels a whole lot better!