- I just hear, "Hey, hey!"
And I'm thinking, "Oh my God,
"you're gonna get robbed, Brian."
"You're gonna get robbed."
And I look over and see this giant spartan dude
running over at me.
- [Voiceover] Brian looked rough.
I just felt like I needed to stop.
And so I slammed on my brakes and I whipped it next to him
and I jumped out of the car.
- Yeah, he was just like, "Hey, I'm David Vobora,
"retired NFL player.
"What happened?"
It was April 18, 2011.
I'm walking in the boot prints of the men in front of me.
Pushing off with my right foot,
my left foot's off the ground, and kaboom.
Everything goes black from all the smoke
and dirt flying in the air.
I've had over 30 surgeries.
I can't even describe how much that stuff hurt,
and you go and you tell 'em, "Hey, this still hurts."
And they're like, "Well,
"I think you're abusing your meds."
And I'm like, "Okay, well I'm gonna go buy heroin."
- The time when I stopped in that parking lot
he was severely addicted to heroin,
had just gotten out of a second detox,
and he was going to bed every single night
with a pistol next to his body.
He felt like he couldn't be the Marine that he was
when he left our country to go serve.
He was broken, completely broken,
a place that I was familiar with.
I told him I had a gym downtown
and I'd love it if he joined there.
For the next three months he came every day.
We just hit it off.
I watched the life come back to his eyes.
- After going there regularly,
getting stronger, getting healthier,
my body pain decreased tremendously.
My confidence levels changed.
It all became a lot more feasible.
It was like, man, yeah this,
this is, I can do this.
This isn't, this isn't impossible.
- Pick number 252, last pick in the 2008 draft,
making me Mr. Irrelevant.
It was the St. Louis Rams selected me that last pick
and started my rookie year.
In 2011 I suffered a traumatic shoulder injury,
and it led to a
very aggressive pain medication addiction.
Started with prescriptions
and it quickly manifested itself,
and it was anything but dealing with pain.
It was the first time in my life I had to look
myself in the mirror and ask,
"Who's David without football?"
It just took a year to rehabilitate my mind and my body.
So I said, "Well, what if we started a gym in Texas?"
And so we moved here and I launched
the Performance Vault, training for elite athletes.
I was having success, man:
NFL athletes, Olympic athletes,
making good money, finding the groove,
and then it all changed.
Staff Sergeant Travis Mills is one of five living
veteran quadruple amputees.
He was blown up serving our great country
in Afghanistan, stepped on an IED and lost all four limbs.
I was way across the room,
and I just I saw him walk in and I was just drawn to him.
And I looked at him and I said,
"When was the last time you worked out?"
He looked at me and looked down at his prosthetics
and said, "I'm sorry, I don't wanna make you
"feel like an idiot, but I don't have arms and legs."
I said, "Travis, I wanna train you."
And he said, "Well, do you have any experience?"
And the first day we trained, I asked him
I said, "What are you most afraid of?"
He said, "Well, remember no arms, no legs,
"gravity wins, so falling."
Then I realized, wait a second,
if Travis is in this position that he can't really
go to a typical gym, I said, "Wow,
"all of these people, veterans, civilians,
"those people with physical disabilities,
"they've sort of been sidelined."
They've fallen to the rehabilitation process,
but eventually insurance ran out, cash ran out,
and where do they go, right?
Where do they go to be a part of a collective group
that has this community and this ability to push each other?
(energizing rock music)
You know as they graduate this nine week course
and they continue to train as alumni,
they recognize that they have this ability to train
new people like them.
- [Voiceover] They instill some insane confidence
and self-worth back into you.
Not just that, they're giving you something to do,
a place to be, a little sense of community with everybody.
- This is a strong dude!
This is a strong dude!
Come on! Come on!