NFL's Jason David Speaks To Student Athletes

Former NFL player Jason David spoke to student-athletes of color at the Business of Sports Summit (BOSS) in Los Angeles on Wednesday, February 16, 2011 at the Club Nokia at LA Live. The event was staged by Entertainment & Sports Plus in an effort to share with more than 200 local high school student athletes the many non-playing career opportunities in and around sports.

With a view towards encouraging/motivating students to do better academically and develop viable alternatives to a long shot professional playing career, David was honored to speak at the event.

“While playing in the NFL I faced a lot of challenges but with hard work, talent, and persistence I was able to thrive is the professional sports world,” stated Jason David. “I am honored to have been asked to mentor at this event and will hopefully provide guidance by encouraging youth to see the importance in education and by inspiring the youth to want work hard, be persistent, and get in the habit of setting goals.”

David was a starter for the Super Bowl XLI Champion with the Indianapolis Colts and played five seasons in the NFL before a career-ending shoulder injury in 2008. But that didn’t stop the NFL star from helping others.

Former teammate and NFL player, Mike Doss recently appeared on 710 ESPN radio along with James Denton (Desperate Housewives), where both spoke about David’s dedication to helping others through his Jason David's Corner Foundation.

“Jason came in as a rookie and we hit it off,” said Doss, “We just talked on different ideas and we all decided at one point we were all going to give back to our communities and I’m glad to see that Jason has moved forward with that and he’s been doing his camp every year and working hard in his community to give back.”

Mentoring youth has always been one of David’s passions, and it was during his NFL career when he founded Jason David’s Corner Foundation. One of his foundation’s annual events is hosting a free youth football skills camp that gives local youth athletes the opportunity to learn from some of the best in professional sports during a half-day of drills and exercises with NFL players and veterans.

But the Foundation’s main purpose is to host events in effort to support youth and raise awareness for Leukemia and kidney disease.

“I met Jason by chance at a charity golf tournament for wounded veterans,” James Denton told ESPN, “I was happy to help out in any way I could. I did a little bit of research on the foundation and all the work he’s trying to do for kids and I think kidney disease too is something that touches everyone, I’ve got a friend who just donated a kidney to a guy he works with and I think a lot of it is just education about how if you do get struck with kidney disease, the things people can do and ways to donate…so I know Jason’s doing a lot of work. I know he had a close personal encounter with kidney disease.”

Today, David is venturing out into the business side of professional sports by embarking on a new journey as the Chief Executive Officer of Sports Training and Rehabilitation Services, Inc. (S.T.A.R.S.), a company that combines the services of a professional athletic training facility, with a world class sports medicine center by providing athletes of all skills and age ranges with the finest comprehensive training, therapy, and sports medicine available.