Vick Ballard talks going from JUCO to the NFL to an aeronautical engineer at Lockheed Martin

NFL: Good Morning Football

iHeartPodcasts and NFL

Sports, Football

4.4 • 634 Ratings

🗓️ 4 June 2025

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On the latest NFL Players: Second Acts podcast, former Colts running back Vick Ballard joins Peanut and Roman to share his remarkable journey. Vick opens up about starting his football career at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College before making it to Mississippi State and eventually being drafted by the Indianapolis Colts in 2012. He reflects on his breakout rookie season and the devastating injuries that derailed his promising NFL career. Vick talks candidly about the emotional toll of early retirement and how he channeled his drive into academics and a new profession. He walks us through his impressive post-football path—earning a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from UCF, then a master's degree from the University of Florida, and now working as an aeronautical engineer for Lockheed Martin. But Vick's goals in life aren't close to complete. His next challenge? Real estate development. His story is a powerful testament to resilience, reinvention, and never settling for less than your full potential.

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Transcript

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0:46.2	Join me, Greg Rosenthal, and an all-star cast of media personalities,
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0:56.2	best since the turn of the century. Listen to NFL Daily's top 25 players of the last 25 years,
1:02.6	starting on June 30th on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.
1:09.9	They're not expect to be sitting here with y'all, but
1:11.9	it's crazy. I've been having so many thoughts since I got the email to come speak to you all because
1:17.6	you know, looking at y'all guest list, you know, it's like I saw you had Michael Vic, you had,
1:22.9	you know, a lot of notable guys who had these long careers on the field. And correct. And I was like, man, that was not me.
1:30.0	And it's like, I'm being, you know, asked to talk about something I did after football.
1:35.0	And that was huge for me because whenever you go off into a new direction, you don't know
1:39.6	if you're doing the right thing or not.
1:41.0	Yeah.
1:42.0	But like, you know, that I'm sitting down here with y we are. They let me know that I made the right decision.
1:51.5	What's up, everybody?
1:52.7	I'm Pina Tillman, and this is the NFL players second acts podcast.
	...

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