LSU star LB Kendell Beckwith is secretly a cowboy

You hear of athletes having dream jobs for what they want to do if their professional career doesn’t pan out. Some want to go back and coach, some want to end up on television discussing the sport they played and some want to pursue something in their degree field, like going to medical school.

LSU star linebacker Kendell Beckwith is one of the top defensive players in the SEC and is currently slated as a late first-round to early second-round pick in the 2016 NFL Draft. According to The Advocate, he knows exactly what he wants to do if his career doesn’t pan out like he would hope. He wants to be a cowboy.

No, not a Dallas Cowboy, an actual rodeo cowboy.

It all started when Beckwith was just six years old. His parents had bought him a Welsh Pony, a cross between a horse and a pony, for Christmas and that was when he fell in love with the animal. His father, Wendell, was a horse racer when Kendell was younger, so the linebacker has passion for the animal in his bloodline.

Kendell spent his life with horses, so it’s not surprising that even now he considers his horses children.

“I ain’t nothing but an old cowboy,” Kendell claims. “They’re my children. They’re my kids.”

Kendell now breeds, raises, trains and even rides horses on a regular basis. His horses live on the family farm just fifty minutes north of Baton Rogue. He knows what it takes to be a leader and a parent for his “children.”

Knowing Beckwith’s passion for horses, it’s no surprise that he has grown into the star linebacker that he is. He leads the team on Saturday and leads his horses in his free time.

At least Beckwith is able to say that he has a passion for something, even if that passion has nothing to do with football.

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*Featured Photo (above) credit to USA TODAY Sports

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