Brandon Copeland grew up watching his grandfather's health deteriorate after playing in the NFL for 11 years. Then he went on to play in the NFL himself. On the latest episode of Financial Freestyle with Ross Mac, former NFL player, professor, author, and entrepreneur Copeland shares how his grandfather's story informed his financial decisions while in the league.

"You have your hero who you can see after the game has left him, and he has three knee replacements, he can't lift his arm," Copeland says about his grandfather, adding, "to the world, he was still super human."

It made him put his career into perspective. As much as he loved football, he realized, "I [gotta] get more from this than it gets from me." He saw his paychecks from the NFL as start-up capital, knowing that he wanted to use them to make more money.

He had also interned with UBS during college, where he'd been exposed to people trading millions of dollars daily. That inspired him to start day trading during his first year in the league. "It was all about how do I take this opportunity to make some money? And how do I flip it?"

Listen to the full episode here, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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This post was written by Meredith Lawrence.