Former $37M NFL Player Gives It Up To Farm

There are more than a few stories of someone growing up on the farm, and eventually moving on to become an NFL star.

There aren't too many stories of a player going the other way on that path.

Jason Brown has one of the best, more unusual stories you'll find.

Brown played for the Baltimore Ravens and St. Louis Rams from 2005-11. In 2009, his five-year deal with the Rams for $37.5 million made him, at that time, the highest-paid center ever. He made more than $25 million from that contract and despite not even being 30 and having interest from other NFL teams after the Rams cut him, he gave up football.

He wanted to get into farming.

He had never done it before. He learned by watching YouTube videos and asking other farmers for tips. Really.

CBS News shared Brown's unique story.

"My agent told me, 'You're making the biggest mistake of your life," Brown, who lives in Louisburg, N.C., told CBS. "I looked right back at him and said, 'No i am not. No I am not.'"

CBS said Brown just harvested his five-acre plot of sweet potatoes.

"When you see them pop up out of the ground, man, it's the most beautiful thing you could ever see," Brown said to CBS.

He talked in the interview about serving God, and how he was doing that through farming. He said he plans to donate the first fruits of every harvest to good pantries. This year it was 100,000 pounds of sweet potatoes, the CBS story said.

It's a pretty remarkable story, one that probably won't be recreated by many NFL multi-millionaires down the road. He certainly seems very happy with his new career.