After going to high school in the Northern California town of Dixon, David Ball traveled downstate to UCLA, where he was a three-year starter at defensive end, collected 30.5 sacks, and was a first-team All-American as a senior in 2003.
Ball kept moving down the Pacific Coast Highway the following year after being chosen in the fifth round of the NFL Draft by San Diego.
Playing in six games as a rookie, he broke a bone in his foot against Atlanta in Week 6 and had to have season-ending surgery in October. He then had back surgery in December and shoulder surgery the following month.
Not what anyone would want to go through, he seemingly spent more time during the start of his professional career in the operating room than the locker room.
"It was probably the first time I'd ever kind of touched feeling depressed. So yeah, it was a really hard experience," Ball said. "I was miserable for a lot of the time. I mean, I've always been super motivated, but I was running off desperation just to try to get back to where I was. And for me, desperation was a really big motivator in my whole career. So it wasn't really positive."
Playing in the first two games in 2005, the Chargers then placed him on the inactive list for the next six games before being put on their practice squad.
That's when the Jets came calling.
"It was a hard day because I was conflicted. The Chargers wanted to sign me back (to the active roster) and the Jets were a team where I could have a new opportunity with Herman Edwards and a 4-3 scheme. But that is a new team and is all the way across the country," Ball said.
"So basically, it was like the span of 10 minutes having to make a decision. 'Okay, what are you going to do?' And for me, it was just like, 'Man, I've got to go with what I know and what I'm good at, and that's playing in the 4-3 scheme.'
"(Not really told what was expected of me), it was kind of like drinking from a fire hose, just because there were three games left in the season. And when you're picked up a practice squad, you play the next three games. So I was going to be in the rotation and it was, 'Hey, learn all this stuff and practice.' And so there weren't really any expectations other than learn the stuff, and let's go.
"But it was great. I got to play, and I loved the guys on the team. Shaun Ellis, Dewayne Robertson, Matt McChesney, these were just wild guys, but beautiful guys who were kind, great teammates. It was a lot of fun."
After spending two seasons with the Jets, Ball signed with Carolina as a free agent in 2007 but didn't play for the Panthers. He then signed with Tennessee, where he'd stay through the 2011 season.
Nine years in the league, he had 128 tackles, 15.5 sacks, and a 15-yard interception return for a touchdown during the 2008 Thanksgiving Day game in Detroit while playing for the Titans.
And as difficult of an experience as it was for Ball to begin his NFL career, leaving the game was the same.
"As a kid, you idolize that you think being at the top of the game is the mountain top. It was my purpose and my identity to be a great football player, and my mind was laser-focused on that," Ball said.
"And so if that's all you think about from like age 18, 19, to when I was done and I was 31, it's scary to think about who am I as a person? What skills do I have that can translate into the real world? What is my purpose now? How will I provide for my family now? How will I make friends if I'm not on a team?
"All of these things you have to face when you're done, and it's overwhelming. Plus, you're dealing with the loss of your dream, your social network, all at once. You are not really prepared for it at all.
"It's just like you're in the environment and the family for so long, and then you're on the outside and you can never go back. And that is daunting. That is scary. It is super hard."
Deciding to go back to school, Ball earned an MBA from George Washington University and founded a sports analytics company that would help coaches better understand their players' mental health challenges.
"I loved it. Part of it was being with people, being with players and coaches, in that psychological realm," Ball said. "I had tons of anxiety during football from college and in the pros and had to go get help. So I sought help from a lot of professionals and that was very fruitful for me.
"And after I got done, I went into my own journey because it was really super hard, a lot of anxiety, a lot of being lost. Having to face that, having to go to therapy, having to help myself work on myself, that translated into a love for knowing myself, a love for psychology, helping people. That field of work was very special to me, and so I started taking classes about mental health counseling."
Earning a master's in clinical mental health from Lipscomb University, Ball became a mental health therapist and opened David Ball Counseling in Brentwood, Tennessee, in 2017.
"I do individual therapy, group therapy, couples therapy. Whoever wants to show up," he said. "I work with some athletes. I work with just regular men and women. And some teenage boys, as well.
"It is so fulfilling to be with a person and they can be courageous enough and real enough to share very vulnerable parts of their mind and body and where they have been wounded severely, and they can express that in a real way. It is a spiritual experience to have that kind of courage and realness.
"And then to be able to have a person help themselves when they used to be battling against themselves or hating themselves for their own vulnerability or pain is such a cool thing. It's such a great thing. I love it."
And when Ball sees he's making a difference in someone's life…
"It is exciting," he said. "There's pride in it. To have the ability to have a voice in somebody's body, in somebody's mind, and to have that voice be a voice of support and compassion is really cool.
"People say, 'Man, I had my inner David voice going off.' And they say that in a very… where they were being compassionate to themselves. It is a sacred experience. It's really a great experience."
Making their home in suburban Nashville, Ball and his wife, Carrie, have three teenage sons: Mason, Cade, and Grady.
"I'm so lucky, so fortunate to have my three sons and my wife, who are so loving towards me, so forgiving towards me, just really kind people towards me," Ball said. "And so that safety net of having that is just beyond a generous experience for me."
