Back when he was a student at Cahokia High School, Terron Armstead always wanted to play for the NFL. Years later, he'd eventually spend 10 years with the New Orleans Saints -- then, he signed a deal worth $74.4 million with the Miami Dolphins.
Armstead sat down with Carol Daniel to talk about his time at Cahokia and his journey to the Dolphins.
"We just played all sports, you know, real active at a very young age. We all had dreams, aspirations of going to the NFL," Armstead said. "It took a long time for that to become a possibility or reality. I didn't really know that it was happening until it started happening."
Armstead said though it was a dream, he wasn't certain an NFL career was a real possibility for him.
"I went to a really small school, Arkansas Pine Bluff, so it was an HBCU. So just coming out of my school we just didn't have there wasn't a pipeline of guys going into the NFL," he said. "So I'm the highest drafted player ever from from there. So my situation was unique."
Armstead also told Daniel that the behind-the-scenes of being an NFL player is different from what people see on game days. He mentioned a coach who compared it to pregnancy and childbirth.
"Everyone wants to see the baby. No one nobody cares about the pregnancy, right?" he said. "So that product that you see on Sunday, you see the game, you see finances, you see jewelry, cars, whatever."
But the background is much more complex, he said.
"The sacrifice, so much time away from family, the dedication, not being able to do some of the things you would like to do for leisure," Armstead said. "And people that pick at you because they feel like they can." That's all alongside the physical toll of being a professional athlete.
Nonetheless, he said he considers the opportunity a blessing. And, he's been able to with some of his family to create the Terron Armstead foundation, which holds things like food and toy drives and provides resources like summer camps to youth.
"When I started mine, my second year in NFL, I just wanted to do something. I had no idea what I just wanted to do," he said. "Something like just try to give back. You know, I felt like this is the right thing to do."
He's been mindful of the struggles facing people in the Black community, and aims to help people with his foundation and community center.
"My way of helping is to attack the problem at its root. And I think that is lack of knowledge. I think education is the missing piece," he said. "Knowing that resources, access and opportunities are out there, you just got to find different ways to obtain [them]."
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Armstead is 30 now, and his goal is to be able to hit the 12 year mark in the NFL. But, he says, it depends on how he's playing.
"I have to be playing at a specific level. I'm an extremely competitive person," he said. "So if I come to a point, at any time where I'm not able to do my job at a high level, I have to walk away from the game, because I'm not going out there getting my butt whipped."