This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.

NORTH CAROLINA-  Jason Brown was once one of the best centers in the NFL.

At one point he had a five-year, $37 million contract with the St. Louis Rams, but then in mid contract and career, he decided it was all meaningless. Brown walked away from football and all the money to become a farmer, even though he’d never farmed a day a in his life.

Brown says, “My agent told me, ‘You’re making the biggest mistake of your life.’ and I looked right back at him and I said, ‘No I’m not. No I’m not.'”

Thanks to YouTube and some good advice from other farmers in North Carolina, Jason recently finished harvesting his first, five-acre, 100,000 pound 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 says he’s never felt more successful.

Now, his plan for his farm, which he calls “First Fruit’s Farm,” is to donate the first fruits of every harvest to food pantries.