This Is My Purpose: Richard Yeargin publishes book on his journey back from car wreck

A car wreck derailed Richard Yeargin's NFL plans and now he has even more impressive titles. Father. Husband. Clemson professor. PhD student. Lecturer. Survivor.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Mon May 08 07:00:20 GMT-04:00 2023

Richard Yeargin once dreamed of being an NFL player and having that title follow him around the rest of his life. Instead, a car wreck derailed his NFL plans and now he has even more impressive titles. Father. Husband. Clemson professor. PhD student. Lecturer. Survivor.

Yeargin, a former defensive end at Clemson, graduated with a degree in sports communications in December 2017 and added a master’s in athletic leadership in May 2019 from Clemson, where he was a four-year member of the football team.

However, he missed 2017 and 2018 due to injuries suffered in an automobile accident (he suffered the same neck injury as former Clemson wide receiver Mike Williams) and spent the 2019 season at Boston College. He now lives in the Clemson area and teaches classes at the university, but he felt like he needed to get his message out about how to recover from tough times and the brokenness.

With that in mind, he wrote a book: "In our modern society, there is something we are told to elevate above all else: our brand. No matter where you're at in your career, your 'brand' can either make you or break you. Or at least, that's what some people say and believe," the description of Yeargin's work, The Man is Greater Than the Brand, says. "Richard Yeargin dives into why who you are as a man or woman is more important than how the world might view you, and how you can pursue the character-building traits to flourish alongside that reality.

"With some help from mentors and trusted voices, allow this book to be your first step in becoming the king or queen you were born to be. The result is bigger and better than any brand out there."

I sat down with Yeargin last week at Walk-On’s in Clemson to discuss that, and he said the idea for writing came to him the day after the accident.

"June 4th, 2017, the day after the accident. I mean, the thought process of laying for 24 hours, looking up at the ceiling and wondering what life was going to be next haunted me, and all I could do was when I had the opportunity to sit up, write and start writing about it,” Yeargin said. “I started typing on my phone different notes from that day, and promised that no matter how inconsistent I was from that day moving forward, I would track my thought process and one day have a book. It was like miniature journals, miniature notes that I took in order to create it over time."

Yeargin said writing was a catharsis for himself, but he wants others to take something from it.

“Everyone is on the pursuit to their own purpose and their own destiny, what's holding you back, versus the amount of days that you have remaining in front of you, which are less than the things that are holding you back,” he said. “We're looking at our lives two ways. We're born to live and we're going to die. Why? Understanding your why and developing your gifts is what I want you to get from this book.”

Yeargin said he estimates he spent around 10,000 hours working on the book – sometimes five minutes at a time – and learned something about himself along the way.

“I realized I possessed a pen. My story is still being written. I'm the author,” he said. “That's crazy. When I sat there and I realized I'm finished with a book now, what's the next thing? It's like this excitement towards, I did this, now let me go do this, this and you feel like you've conquered something when you give a piece of yourself away that you've been storing and writing about, and now it's out there.”

I asked him why he came back to Clemson to live even though he is originally from Florida.

“I came back to Clemson for two things, to continue on my legacy, and because when I came back here, I knew my education wasn't just going to be for me, but it was going to be to educate other people,” Yeargin said. “And so now as a professor, as a lecturer, as a PhD student, as an author, just having so much influence and impact to inspire generations. My kids' kids are going to be wanting to come to Clemson. That thought in my mind is why I came back.”

He doesn’t have the title of NFL player, but the titles he has? Far more important, including earning his doctorate in the near future.

“I know I'm a living walking testimony that I didn't do this alone. I did it with God,” Yeargin said. “I’ve already been through all this stuff with football and with real life, so now I'm just being recognized for it, and I have to go through another process in order to get to it and earn the credentials. But I'm already internally accepting the fact that this is my calling. This is my purpose.”

The book can be purchased at most major retailers, or you can order a copy at www.richardyeargin.com.