The Oakland Raiders may have potentially gotten a gem in the form of linebacker Sio Moore last year. The defense had its ups and down during the 2013 NFL season, but Moore was definitely a bright spot with a promising future ahead.
With Moore’s rookie season in the books, the second-year reflects on his time in Oakland during his first year on the NFL level in the following blog post on SportsBlog.com:
The biggest thing I learned during my rookie year had nothing to do with football and everything to do with the decisions I made about my life…how much you invest in being a great man. Discipline, focus, preparation, how you spend your time. The more you can do to become a great man, well, then, the football part is easy.
In the NFL, everybody is talented. But what sets you apart? It’s how you prepare, how you focus, how you invest in separating yourself and being different.
That’s what I took away from it, and that’s what I’d like to pass on to the young guys coming in to the League this year.
Obviously, Moore was impacted mostly by the life off the field during his rookie season. Few players in the NFL at 24 come away with this kind of learning experience after their first year on the next level. Moore is the exception and will likely continue to improve his life on and off the field in the years to come with this mentality moving forward.