At the age of 29, with successful years pending of a NFL career, Jason Brown has forfeited his football dreams to pursue farming. After the St. Louis Rams cut the football star, who was the highest paid center ever with a $37.5 million, five year contract, Brown refused offers from other teams, including the Baltimore Ravens, to help feed the hungry.
Louisburg, North Carolina houses Brown’s 1,000 acre farm, where he donates the first fruits of every harvest to food pantries. This year, it was 46,000 pounds of sweet potatoes and 100,000 pounds of cucumbers. In an interview with CBS, Brown described farming as a way of serving God.
“My agent, he told me, ‘You’re making the biggest mistake of your life,'” Brown told CBS. “And I looked right back at him and I said, ‘No I am not.'”
Brown played for the Baltimore Ravens and St. Louis Rams from 2005-2011. He attended the University of North Carolina. He had no idea how to farm back in 2012, but learned from YouTube.