FINDING YOUR WHY

FINDING YOUR WHY
'Beyond the End Zone'
Exclusive Interview with Bryan Scott
Conducted by Allié McGuire

​Bryan Scott is the highest drafted Division 3 Quarterback in professional football history. In this exclusive interview, Bryan shares pivotal moments from his journey, revealing the challenges faced during high school and college that shaped his resilience in pursuing his football passion. Join us as we delve into Bryan's story, exploring the influence of his grandfather, Major General James H. Patterson, his leadership experiences, the dynamics of balancing life between Los Angeles and Toronto, and his vision for inspiring and mentoring others to achieve the impossible.

ALLIÉ: Bryan, your journey to becoming the highest drafted Division 3 Quarterback in the history of professional football is truly remarkable. Can you take us through some key moments or challenges that stand out in your mind, particularly during high school and college, where you had to overcome adversity to pursue your passion for football?

BRYAN: Absolutely. I mean, even you just saying those words about ‘the highest drafted’ and everything, it's crazy. It's very humbling. To take you through my journey and how it all started in high school, it was just being that guy that was a little bit smaller, maybe not ‘the chosen one’, as you would call it who was supposed to be the quarterback or supposed to accomplish the things that you just mentioned. For me, I think it was the adversity as a freshman being 5’2” and having to earn everything. I think it's just something that I've been able to look back on now with where I'm at. I'm extremely thankful for that time because it's built me into who I am now.

Going into my senior year of high school, I was always the short little kid that just had a dream and a vision. All I wanted was to be the starting quarterback for my high school. And I was able to work really hard to accomplish that. I had to overcome a lot of adversity when I was younger, but it didn't stop there. 

We loose our first three games my senior season. So, I'm bummed, and I'm like, “Oh, maybe this isn't what I wanted.” But after that game, I kind of flipped a switch, and we won 13 games straight to win our first state championship in 50 years. Being able to accomplish that was definitely something that I still hold dear to my heart. So yeah, I loved having to go through all those things. It's shaped me into the man that I am today.

ALLIÉ: There are some who work hard and win in the end. You, Bryan, have worked hard and found wins at every level. What has been instrumental in being able to be a champion at every level you have played at?

BRYAN: Something that I'm able to look back on and be grateful for, even though it was hard, was just going into my freshman year of college being 17-years-old, right? I was just young… I was coming off this crazy year where all I wanted was to be a starting high school quarterback. We end up winning. All of a sudden I snap my fingers, and I'm playing college football. How did all this happen, right? And then when I go to college, I'm starting as a freshman because a guy gets injured. I'm 17-years-old, and now I have to lead 22-year-old men. I had to flip that switch and say, “All right, Brian, you don't have time to learn. You're getting thrown right into the fire.” But I think having to go through what I did in high school made me ready for that situation… as ready as I could be. Every single year, I learned things I could get better at from a leadership standpoint, how to win, and how to become a better quarterback. But I think God, throughout my life, has given me opportunities to lead and to do it the right way. I think how I've been able to be successful and win at every level, Allié, is just creating that family atmosphere. It was creating that culture with the guys. It was saying, “I'm just one of you guys.” I might be the quarterback, but I come from such a humble beginning just wanting to be that. I'm not gonna sit here and say that I was born to do this. No. It's just something that I feel in my heart. I just want to be a good teammate. I want to be a good leader. I want to give my guys as much as I can of myself so that we are successful. So, building that family, building that culture… We used to call it the foxhole mentality, where it's like, “Hey, we're in this together. It might be 12 of us against a hundred, and we're gonna get this done because I believe in you and you believe in me.” Creating that true belief in one another, I think, is why I've been able to be successful.

ALLIÉ: The path you took to professional sports was different. It was not the traditional way forward. In finding your way, you used ‘invisible superpowers’ to find pride in your alternative path. Please tell us about these superpowers that can’t be seen only known.

BRYAN: Well, yeah. Thank you for calling them that. I'm wearing the D3 hat today. I found pride later in life about where I went to school (Division 3). And I think for me it's just the mental strength and going through the challenges. It was having the trust and belief, obviously in God's plan, but the trust and belief in my ‘why’ too. When you initially reached out to me wanting to talk and tell my story, the biggest thing that I wanted to share is not my entire story of ​football and my career. I wanna make an impact on other people's lives. And if people can see me and say, “Oh, well Byian can do it? Byian's a Division 3 football player. How is he playing professionally? If Bryan was a short little kid in high school, then I'm able to accomplish that too.” I'm not here to just tell this great football story about being a good quarterback. I feel like my story is bigger than that. My story is that I was able to find my ‘why’. I was able to find my purpose and my passion. I don't wake up or at any point in my day saying, “I'm not living my dream.” This is what I wanted for my life. I had this vision and this true belief that this is what I wanted. So, I just feel extremely blessed and extremely grateful that I found my ‘why’. 

Talking to younger kids or adults in the everyday workforce who are challenged, I ask what do you want to do for the rest of your life? And why do you want to do it? In college, why are you studying until one in the morning in the library? Well, I wanna have a great job, or I wanna be a doctor. Well then, at least you know you want to be a doctor. It's not, “Why am I in here? Or why am I doing this?” It's “I wanna be a doctor, or I want to be a lawyer, or I wanna get straight A's in high school because I wanna go to Harvard.” Some will say that you can't go to Harvard. You're not smart enough, or you don't speak well enough. But if you find your ‘why’ and you are willing to do whatever it takes and have that true belief in yourself that you can get it done. I'm a true example of that. 

ALLIÉ: I love how you talk about the ‘why’, and that it’s not asking why… it’s knowing why.

BRYAN: Oh yeah. I was talking to these little kids the other day. I was like, “All right guys, how many of you wanna go to the NFL?” They all raise their hand, right? And it's like, “Okay, you wanna go to the NFL. Why do you wanna go to the NFL?” Nobody gave me an answer. So I said, “Okay, if you were to run 150 laps and you're about to throw up and you're like, ‘God, I don't want to do this anymore.’ Well, that’s a thing that creeps into your head. Okay, now you gotta do two more reps. Then there’s that thing that switches in your head… ‘I'm gonna do two more reps because I wanna buy my mom the house… I wanna do two more reps because I want these guys to believe in me and see me as a leader… I wanna do two more reps because this person told me they didn't believe in me.’ That is your ‘why’.” When you're about to quit and you need to find that extra switch, I think the sooner you can find that in your life, the better off you'll be.

ALLIÉ: Your grandfather, Major General James H. Patterson, is a notable figure in the Aviation Hall of Fame. How has his influence shaped your mindset and approach to life, both on and off the field? 

BRYAN: That's my hero. Just plain and simple, he and my dad are my heroes. But the parallels between myself and my grandfather is that the quarterback and the general are one in the same, but one’s a lot more brave and badass. I'm nowhere near his level of heroism. For a general, when everything's going wrong, when people are fighting and when everyone's nervous and panicking, you're in these crazy situations. And who do the people next to you look at? On the battlefield, they were looking at my grandfather. What are you gonna do? Are you panicked? Are you worried? How are you gonna act in this moment? He was always very calm and he rose to the moment. 

Something my mom always used to say to me, whether it's in sports or life, she said, “Bryan, you need to rise up. Rise up, and be there. Be in the moment. Take over the moment.” That's something that I'm extremely thankful for, from him and my mom as well, just finding that peace and that calm in the most hectic moments. I've been able to do that with football where there's 30,000 people cheering against me to lose the game. But I'm there, and I'm just calm. I'm gonna rise to the moment for the people next to me. I always found that in my career I was able to do that, because I know my ‘why’. 

I wanted to get it done, and I wanted to get it done for the four people in the stands cheering for me to score the touchdown (which is my family) or for the 11 guys in the huddle with me who are looking at me. How am I gonna react? “Hey guys, I'm with you. I'm here for you. We're gonna go get this done. No matter how many people think we're not, we're gonna go get this done because I believe, and you guys believe in me.” So the parallel between my ​grandfather and me, I would say, is just our ability to rise up in the moment and be there for the people that need us the most. 

Another thing with this is both on and off the field. When off the battlefield, my grandfather, James H. Patterson was always ‘General Patterson’. He didn't just stop being a general when he wasn't at work. He was just the general every day of life. And I feel that way about myself. I'm a quarterback, you know. Being a quarterback isn't just what you do on the field, it's off the field. It’s the burden that you have as well. That's something that I take pride in and want for my life. I want to be the general off the field, just as he was.

ALLIÉ: You are recognized for your leadership skills and ability to connect with people to create success. Can you talk about your leadership style and an instance where your leadership played a crucial role in your team's success? 

BRYAN: It’s just being able to connect with everybody. I'm just myself, and I would encourage anybody out there to just be yourself. I think people will always gravitate to the person that is genuinely and truly confident in themselves, no matter what it is. You could put me anywhere on any field or any classroom, or any church. It doesn't matter. I'm just gonna be myself. I would encourage everyone out there to just go out there and be yourself. Be who you are, or be the person you want to be, but always stay true to your character, your morals, and the things that you see fit for your life. 

After my freshman year of college, I was selected to play for my country, Team USA. We just talked about my grandfather too, which obviously made this an extreme honor for me. They picked the best athletes under 19 in the nation, and I happened to be one of them. So we go all the way to Kuwait, which is in the Middle East, and it's 120 degrees. We're playing at midnight in a different country during Ramadan. It was just insane with things happening all around us.

A way that I was able to find success was to just not worry about the other stuff. Like we just talked about, just being there for your teammates… being there for our troops. I think one of the really cool things that we did as a team is we went to the army base in Kuwait where we were able to actually meet and talk to some of the troops that were fighting the battle so that we could play this great game.

So going into the gold medal game, it was us versus Canada. And it was kind of like, okay, we're kind of supposed to win. We're the USA playing American football, right? I don't play the first half. We're losing 14 to 7, and the guys are panicking thinking that we just spent six weeks of our lives for nothing. We're gonna come home with a silver medal. That's not really okay. And so coach opted to put me in the game, and I just say, “Hey guys, we got this. We're gonna be alright. We're gonna do this.” And I was able to score five straight touchdowns coming out of the third quarter.

The craziest thing about all that is I felt like it was gonna happen… The night before, I felt like this situation was just gonna happen, and it ended up happening. So it was kind of, in a way, God getting me ready for that moment. And still, me being 27 now, just looking back, that's probably one of the greatest achievements I've ever had. It was winning a gold medal in front of our army troops, and in a foreign country. To win the gold medal for all those guys on my team, it was an unbelievable feeling for me. We still all stay in touch. It was nearly 10 years ago. So that just tells you the importance of it, you know? It was definitely one of the most special moments of my life for many reasons.
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​ALLIÉ: Your goal, Bryan, is to help the everyday person achieve the impossible, not just in sports but in various aspects of life. How do you envision using your story to inspire and mentor others?

BRYAN: Ultimately, that's why I want to be sitting down and talking with you today. My story is well documented, but I really just wanted to share my experiences, the things that I went through, and the different journey that I took to get where I'm at now. And for the younger people out there in all aspects of life, it's okay to take the different path. If someone tells you ‘no’, if someone says that this isn't the way your life is supposed to go, if they say you can't or shouldn’t do this… Yes, you can. And knowing your purpose and knowing your ‘why’, as we talked about earlier… find that. Find why you're doing what you're doing, and if it's true to your heart and that's what you want to do, then go get it. Do whatever it takes to go get it.

I wake up and I look forward to beating myself yesterday, to being the best version of myself every day because I know my ‘why’. You know? And I think it's okay to change that sometimes too. I think if you were to ask me six years ago, “Bryan, why are you doing what you're doing?” I want to prove everybody wrong. I wanna prove wrong the people that said I wouldn't be a pro football player and that I wouldn't go to the NFL. But now, for me, it's proving the five to six people that told me I could… When I don't wanna do anymore, I think about them. I think about those people that wanted me to be successful and that thought I would be here. 

Finding that ‘why’, truly believing in it, and having that true belief in yourself, your work ethic, your dream, and your vision for your life, I feel like you'll be a much happier person. And it’s just being able to be truly yourself and to be able to connect with other people from all aspects of life. So everybody, I just want you to go chase your dream, chase your vision, find that ‘why’, and attack it every day. ∎

Hear more of Bryan's story as an AwareNow Official Ambassador: 
www.awarenowmedia.com/bryan-scott
Find & follow Bryan on Instagram:
@bryanscott18