
Geoff Robins/CFL.ca

CFL.ca presents In My Words, a space for CFL players, coaches and staff to share their stories.

I want you to know that you are so much more than just an athlete.
– James Butler to his younger self
Dear JB,
I know this must be weird hearing from yourself, but just an older version. Let’s first get to what you are dying to know and the answer is yes, you achieved the goals you set out to do and you reached the highest level of the sport.
Now, it may not have gone exactly as we planned but we did it. You tasted it, you were in those meeting rooms, in those locker rooms, crossed paths with future Hall of Famers, appeared on Hard Knocks, made friendships that will last forever, had great games, had a few bad ones, and most of all you stayed true to yourself, no matter what setback got in the way.
This letter to you isn’t about all the accomplishments and wins. You will get to experience that joy for yourself and I don’t want to take that away from you. Don’t forget to be present in those moments and feel those feelings, the good and the bad. Being present is so simple, yet so hard at the same time, because I know you want to know how this career will all play out. Trust me, you would rather experience all the high and lows as you go.
I have one simple yet very complicated concept that I want you to try to understand. You are MORE than an athlete.
So to the wide-eyed fifth grader who is trying out for the football team for the first time, be excited. I know you had to go through some loopholes to get mama to sign you up.

Speaking of loopholes, I have a little story time to share.
When I was younger, my mom swore up and down that we could not afford the payment to sign up for little league football. It got to a point where I would go to football practices with my friends and would tell them to tell their coach that I am good and that I can play. As any adult would tell a kid, they responded with, “tell his parents to sign him up.” Knowing my mama, I had already tried that a number of times.
I truly didn’t even know if I would be good at football. I just knew I was one of the fastest kids in school, nobody wanted to tackle me in backyard football, and I would make every move possible to not be ‘it’ in the game of tag. Little did I know all of these things would come back to help me in my playing career.
Anyways, back to the story. One day, my friends and I were all playing backyard football and it just so happened that the dad of the friend who’s yard we were playing in was starting a youth football league. All my friend Q and I had to do was get our moms to pay the fee and sign the permission slip. Q and I both knew our moms were not going to pay that fee. We both asked and both were told no by our moms, so we just brushed it off.
A couple of days later my friend’s dad asked if we got the forms signed and had the fee and we both said, “our parents can’t afford it, sorry.” To our surprise, he said, “don’t worry about the fee, just have your moms sign the permission slips.”
That was the day my mom had no more excuses for me and that is what started my football career. Story time over.
Now that all the paperwork is signed and mom can no longer hold you back, there is one thing that I know you will feel for certain and that is nerves. I know nerves can feel like a bad thing, but a mentor that you will meet when you get to college will tell you that nerves are a good thing and that nerves make you hyper aware of your surroundings.

One thing I can tell you about the future is that those nerves will never go away and what that means is you have love for this game that will one day give you so much and take you places you never would have thought possible.
So go out and just enjoy those tryouts. Go try to make that gold team because I know how much that means to you. Be first in line, give it your all, and remember that you are new but also know you’ve been a backyard football All-Star since you touched a ball, so use those skills.
If guys are talking in the back of the line, let them. You go snag you an extra rep. This is not social hour. With every rep and every chance you get out there, go out and do it to the best of your ability. You will be just fine, trust me.
Now fast forward, there will be so many highs and lows of this football journey. It will start with your first real injury, to transferring high schools, to your entire coaching staff that recruited you in college getting fired, to only getting two rookie mini camp tryout invites, to get cut for the first time, that will end up being over five times, to becoming that older vet and you can see the end nearing.
All of these situations will be probably the hardest things to deal with at the moment but they all will hold such valuable lessons.
The most important lesson is that you are more than what you can do between those white lines.
What you do is amazing and one of the best jobs in the world, but it is not all that you bring to the world. Earlier on in your career you will believe that this is all you can do and that your sole purpose on Earth is based on what you can do with a football.
You won’t realize until you grow a little older in your career that there is so much more to life. I’m here to tell you now to focus on the important things in life.
For example, focus on those relationships that will be affected because you were a young kid trying to chase a dream or the phone calls you missed from family members that you won’t get the chance to call back because the only thing that mattered was getting better or just the depressive state of mind you were in while playing at the highest level.

The game of football will always be a part of your life and you’ve given so much to it. Treat the game with respect, treat your teammates with respect, treat your coaches with respect and most all, leave that locker in a better place than you found it.
This game will not always be fair, but that is the business of professional sports. That’s also just life but life is also about how you can overcome its challenges.
So while you have the game, my most important advice to you is have the most fun out there, play the game with a smile, you are playing a child’s game at the end of the day. The tough days will come and in those moments lean on God and those who will have you back if you never strapped up a pair of shoulder pads again.
I am going to spoil your future for you a little bit more with this last piece, but I don’t truly know what we will be doing when it’s time to hang the cleats up. One thing I do know for sure is we will attack our next profession with the same passion and drive that drove us to get to the highest level of the sport of football.
No one can take away the memories, the relationships, the stats, and the passion we have given the game.
I want you to know that you are so much more than just an athlete.
Now, go compete!
