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From Lakeridge High to the NFL to Beat the Coverage: A Full-Circle Moment

Posted on Jul 23, 2026

When I was growing up and attending schools in Lake Oswego, I never imagined that one day I'd return to my hometown newspaper, not as a high school athlete, but as an author sharing the lessons that shaped my life.

The Lake Oswego Review recently featured my journey from Lakeridge High School to a nine-year NFL career and the release of my new book, Beat the Coverage. It's an honor to have my story shared with the community where so much of it began.

Looking back, it's amazing how many important lessons started long before I ever stepped onto an NFL field. At Lakeridge, I learned about discipline, hard work, and perseverance. At the University of Oregon, I learned what it meant to compete at a higher level. In the NFL, I discovered that success wasn't determined by talent alone—it came from preparation, strategy, and execution under pressure.

Those lessons became the foundation for Beat the Coverage.

The book isn't really about football. Football simply provides the backdrop. The real message is about helping people recognize the obstacles standing in their way, develop a plan to overcome them, and execute when the pressure is on.

Whether you're leading a business, building a career, growing a team, or pursuing a personal goal, we all face "coverage." The question isn't whether obstacles will come. The question is whether we're prepared to beat them.

I'm grateful to the Lake Oswego Review and Mile Vance for taking the time to tell my story and highlight the launch of Beat the Coverage. It's a meaningful reminder that sometimes the place where your journey began is also the place that celebrates how far you've come.

If you'd like to read the full feature, you can find it here:  Read the Lake Oswego Review article

Thank you to everyone in the Lake Oswego community who has supported me over the years. I'll always be proud to call Lakeridge my alma mater, and I'm excited to share Beat the Coverage with readers everywhere.