Every year, the NFL drafts a handful of extraordinary athletes to play professional football and pursue their dreams. Many of them, if they’re lucky, go on to exciting NFL careers and help their teams win Super Bowl championships on the filed. However, its the rare athlete who makes serious, life-long commitments off the filed to give back to their community. James “JT” Thomas is one of those rare individuals. Although he’s been retired from football for some time, he still brings the same winning energy and passion to his community service.

We sent James Robertson, our Pittsburgh-based GCP Fellow, to produce a micro-doc about Thomas’ contributions on and off the football field. He discovered that, in addition to helping the Pittsburgh Steelers win a historic four Super Bowl championships and being hailed as an All Pro Athlete, Thomas’ most enduring accomplishments are his work with his church and mentoring young African American Men in his community.

Thomas shares his winning “game changing philosophy” in this video. Check it!

To learn more about the Game Changers Project, please visit: gamechangersproject.org