Trying to prepare for a life in football
Posted On February 27, 2024
Every football player’s dream is to play in the NFL one day. But what does it take to get there? Timaje Porter and Chancellor Moody hope to find out.
Porter and Moody, our guests in a recent episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston,” are at different points in their football careers. Moody is just starting his collegiate journey as a walk-on at the University of South Alabama. Porter, meanwhile, has finished up at Delta State University and is preparing for a shot at the pros.
After several years of playing defensive line on the college level, he’s already got an idea of what it takes to be successful.
“First of all, I just have to speak to being a student of the game, watching film countless hours, just knowing what your opponent’s going to do,” Porter said. “Then, outside the mental aspect of it, you’ve just got to be a dog. You’ve got to have the mentality that I’m going to take his will away from him. It’s mano y mano. Either he’s going to beat you or you’re going to beat him.”
Aggression is an integral part of the game, particularly on the defensive line, where Porter plays, and at outside linebacker, the position Moody plans to play at South Alabama. While Porter says people see him as a “teddy bear” off the field, he uses his life experiences to get him in the right frame of mind to play the game.
“That’s a switch you’ve got to be able to flip,” he said. “Probably 30 to 40 minutes before the game starts, I’m usually listening to sad music just to bring those thoughts to the forefront – the environment I grew up in, some of the things I’ve seen, some of the things I’ve experienced.
“You want to play angry and upset at my position. I usually flip that switch probably 10 minutes before the game. I’ll say my prayer and after that, I see red for the next three hours.”
Porter said that he doesn’t just “flip that switch” before and after a game, but even between plays, joking with teammates in the huddle before getting focused for the next snap. That’s something Moody says he hopes to learn. “I wish I had what he has,” he said of Porter. “I play mad the whole game.”
Porter and Moody shared what their workouts are like, while Porter also told us how a Pro Day works and how he found his agent. Moody discussed the challenge he faces in changing positions, as he moves from playing receiver and safety in high school to outside linebacker on the college level.
Both these young men are in an exciting time of their lives. But both know they have a lot of work to do, and are ready for the challenge.