Being the son of Chuck Foreman, a legendary running back for the Minnesota Vikings, Jay Foreman had a lot to live up to in his football career. After competing through high school Jay took his talents to the Nebraska Cornhuskers to play college football. Jay had an amazing story of perseverance while at Nebraska, being moved to the position of linebacker and spending his years fighting his way up the depth chart through continued excellence in his training and development of his football knowledge. Foreman would take this mindset of hard work and unmatched drive with him to the NFL after being drafted in the 5th round by the Buffalo Bills. Using his football skills and his refined work ethic Jay Foreman, LB, had a very successful NFL career, accruing 527 tackles in 9 seasons. He talks with Pro Mindset Podcast host Craig Domann about his experience and the keys that led to his success.
“In order to get to the top, you have to be extremely good, but you also have to put a lot of effort into it, and the guys that last generally put more effort into it.”
From a young age Jay’s father instilled the mentality in him that in order to have success he always needed to put in maximum effort no matter what. Jay took this to heart and used this mentality to fuel his success during his college football and NFL career. During his time at Nebraska Jay was not their star player and he knew that in order to be successful he had to work as hard or harder than the best players on the team. Jay would watch tape before, during, and after practice as well as on his off days. He also worked out one or two extra days a week during his entire first year at Nebraska to maximize his improvement. His hard work paid off as he became an integral part of Nebraska’s defensive line over the next four years. It would have been easy for Jay to take the normal route and only do the bare minimum to be a good player, but that wasn’t enough for him. He wanted to be great. He used his passion for the game of football and of self-improvement to propel himself to success. This is the difference between a regular athlete and an athlete like Jay who puts the building blocks of the Pro Mindset to perfect use. This passion and love for the game of football combined with his countless hours training, studying film, and bettering himself resulted in a successful football career.
“As long as you are winning your day, that’s the only thing that you can control.”
Being a 5th round NFL Draft pick, there was a lot of doubt about whether Jay Foreman would make it past the average shelf life for players of 2.7 years in the NFL. This made Jay even more eager to prove himself and his abilities to his coaches, teammates, and new powerful rivals in the league. After his arrival to the Buffalo Bills, Jay made it a point that he would not be backing down from the challenge of going up against bigger and stronger opponents than he had ever faced. He did not back down from anyone and made sure from the outset of his arrival at his new team to prove to everyone that he deserved to be there. It was with this passion that Foreman was able, as he puts it, “knock the crap out of everyone” when he first got there. Jay was successful and, against the predictions of some of his coaches, retained a spot on the Buffalo Bills roster. It would have been impossible for Jay to accomplish this in his first few months in the NFL without immense belief in himself and passion for the game. After being drafted in the 5th round, later than he expected, he could have allowed the doubt to creep in and ruin his confidence as well as his game. However, Jay once again showed that he truly did have the belief in himself and was able to use that belief to propel him to a successful NFL career. Jay is a great example of the Pro Mindset in action. Any aspiring athlete could use his example of self-belief and perseverance as a great outline for a successful career.
To hear more of Jay Foreman’s interview, the story of his immensely successful career as an NFL linebacker, and how to build a Pro Mindset, listen to this Pro Mindset Podcast episode here,or search your favorite podcast platform, including Apple & Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and many more.
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