Although I love to hunt deer, and I do get to hunt turkeys in the spring, one day when my football career is over, I hope I’ll have time to hunt elk, moose, bears, mule deer and antelope. When my days of football are over, I want to explore the world of hunting in as many places and as many states as I can go to, and I want to hunt a wide variety of animals I've never seen before. My hunting world is very small. I've only hunted in Iowa, and this past year I’ve been able to hunt in Virginia. When I met Tim Anderson, who is in charge of the Mossy Oak Pro Staff, he said, “As a part of the Mossy Oak Pro Staff team, we’ll help you find places to hunt and people to hunt with, because you have the same values that we have, and you're a Mossy Oak kind of guy.”
When I first got into football I always said to myself, “I want to be like the football players I see on TV,” and that was my big dream. When I watch hunting and fishing shows on television, I say to myself, “I want to be like those guys. I want to go hunting and fishing all over this country and take many of the animals they take.” I feel like I’ve been really-fortunate to be able to live my dream of playing in the NFL. Now as the member of the Mossy Oak Pro Staff, I hope to be able to fulfill my dream of hunting with some great hunters in great places for animals I've never seen before.
I had a great season in football this past year, because I was able to start in all 17 games that my team, the Washington Redskins, played. I'm often asked, “What’s a football season like in the NFL for a lineman like you?” It’s really kind of brutal. In many ways, it’s much like hunting. I have to prepare myself mentally and physically for the challenge I’ll face during the season. The football players who stay in the NFL for an extended amount of time have to take very good care of their bodies, which are the tools of their trade of playing football. We have to keep our bodies in really-good physical condition to stay strong and prevent injury. Once our bodies stop working, our business shuts down. We usually get in a hot tub to get our muscles warmed-up and ready to play, and we get in a cold tub after the game and after practice to cool down our muscles and prevent any type of injury from becoming serious. We have our muscles stretched, and we get massages to keep the tools that we work with at our job in the best shape in which they possibly can be. We have to eat right, and we have to be extremely disciplined.
When I'm hunting, I have to make sure that I understand the guns and bows I hunt with, and I have to keep them in peak performance if I'm going to become successful. I also know that I have to keep my body in shape to be able to walk long distances, climb mountains and get in and out of tree stands safely. I think that the last year that the Washington Redskins made the playoffs was in 2012. In a regular season, if we don’t make the playoffs, we play 16 games. Since we made the playoffs this past year, we played 17 games – that’s a really-long season.
I've been asked, “What’s the toughest part of your job?” I'm quick to answer, “I don’t have a difficult aspect to my job.” I think being able to play football to earn my living is unique and special, and I really love going to work every day. All my life I've dreamed of being a starter on an NFL football team, and now I have the advantage of living that dream. So for me, football is fun, and I get to earn a living for me and my family, having fun and living my dream.
Another question I'm often asked is, “Do you have a family? If so, who is in that family?” I got married in March to my wife Jenni De Ruyter, and I have two German shorthaired puppies. I have an older brother and an older sister who are both married, and I have a younger sister.
Another question I'm asked is, “What does Jenni think about living the football life?” She loves it. Jennie says, “In the fall, we take a little mini vacation each year out to Virginia. Then we get to go back to home to Iowa and spend about 4 months with our family. Football is fun, and being with family is fun.”
To keep up with Brandon Scherff during football season and hunting season, you can go to his Twitter account at www.twitter.com/bscherff68.
NFL's Brandon Scherff Tells Why He Likes to Hunt
Brandon Scherff Says He’s Looking Forward to Football and Hunting in 2016
