Justin Hardee always felt he was more than a football player, but as a young adult leaving Cleveland, Ohio, for the University of Illinois in Champaign, football was his number one priority. And for a while, it felt like his only option.

Hardee wanted to get to the NFL, like a lot of the teammates he played with at Illinois between 2012 and 2016. He didn't want to just go pro for himself; he wanted to make it for his family, one that is big and tight-knit, and for the area he grew up in where "people rarely make it out."

But Hardee's odds were just as slim. Only 1.6% of college football players go on to play professionally. And Hardee's college career didn't exactly go the way he envisioned it as he didn't see a winning season at Illinois. While winning might've drawn more NFL attention to Hardee in college, it wouldn't have taught him what it meant to really grind from the bottom to the top. And it certainly wouldn't have pushed him to where he is today.

"I feel like we had to work that much harder and we had to do a little bit more," Hardee said. "And I feel like it didn't pay off for everybody, but the stuff that we had to go through in those workouts and how (Tim) Beckman had everything set up and not even just Beckman, the program in general. Because I didn't even have a winning season, so I felt like we were always grinding to from the bottom. I just took that same grind mode, that same grind mentality from where I'm from.. Everything is fuel to the fire, everything. My mom, my dad, my family. Everything. Everything motivated me. I let everything motivate me."

Five years of hard work at Illinois paid off on May 12, 2017, when Hardee was signed by the Houston Texans as an undrafted free agent. Making it to the NFL had been a longtime dream of Hardee's and that accomplishment can never be understated; however, it was less than a year later that Hardee understood why he's always wanted to be more than an athlete.

When Hardee was picked up by the Texans, his signing bonus was just $2,000. In the 2017 NFL Draft class, draftees were getting up to $20 million dollars in signing bonuses. But for a lot of guys, including Hardee, those couple thousand dollars were still a lot.

Hardee learned quickly how fast that money goes and how hard it is to keep bringing in revenue as an UDFA.

"In the first year and the second year, even though you're undrafted, you see way more than the average person your age, especially if you play a certain amount of games," Hardee said. "You still feel like you got it, but it's not really as much as you think. But it's way more than you've ever seen. It's so easy to lose it or spend it, especially when you don't really put your money to use, you don't put it in stocks, you don't put it in things like that. Now it's just like this cash out, so it can be so much of a negative to you and I feel like that's what happens to a lot of guys because the average span in the league is 2.3 years. I've watched so many guys come and go out of the locker room. It's so easy to go enjoy yourself and think that you're gonna play forever, but in reality I feel like you have to go through some stuff just to realize 'I need to put some money into something before I lose it all.'"

Once he started his rookie offseason in 2018, Hardee was struggling with bringing in money. He remembers begging his agent for endorsements from anybody that would represent him. He felt like he was a player worthy of those endorsements. But, no one was willing to take the chance on him.

So, he had to do it himself.

Hardee always knew football wasn't forever so he spent a lot of time on academics while he was at Illinois, earning three degrees from one of the top universities in the nation. He got his undergraduate degree in communications in just three years before getting master's degrees in recreation, sport and tourism then education. In his senior season at Illinois, Hardee was named to the Academic All-Big Ten team while pursuing his master's degree.

"I definitely appreciate everything, every lesson that I was given at Illinois," Hardee said, "From Miss Carla Suber to Miss Annie White, Miss Katie Christensen — these are the academic people that helped me, pushed me and gave me those tough schedules and also stayed late hours, made sure I had tutors and everything that  it took for me to get to where I needed to go. I felt like everything that I was able to accept there, I felt like it was all worth it and it all paid off."

Gaining that academic background at Illinois helped Hardee make one of the biggest decisions of his life. In December 2018, Hardee hosted a Christmas giveaway event for his foundation, Hardee Cares, where Papa John's was catering. While talking to one of the delivery drivers, he learned of an opportunity that could give him that steady stream of revenue outside of football he was looking for.

After talking with his manager and his business partner, Hardee applied to become a franchisee of Papa John's. While the process was long, taking about a year, Hardee was approved and began working on his first franchise in 2019.

At the same time, Hardee was still playing in the NFL and was gradually working his way into a prominent role. Hardee was on the Texans for just a couple months before being waived on Sept. 2, 2017, but just five days later, he was picked up by the New Orleans Saints. It took just a couple weeks for Hardee to get activated from the practice squad to the active roster and on Sept. 24, Hardee appeared in his first NFL game.

Six weeks later, Hardee set the tone for his career in the NFL as a top special teams player. In a Saints' win against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Hardee blocked a punt that led to New Orleans' first touchdown of the game, earning him the NFC Special Teams Player of the Week award.

That was just the beginning of Hardee's four-year career in New Orleans, a place that became his home away from home. The city became even more special on June 18, 2020, when Hardee officially became a CEO, opening his first Papa John's store. Earlier this year, Hardee became the owner of a second Papa John's located in Waveland, Mississippi.

When Hardee thinks about his current life, he can't help but feel blessed. He's at the top of his game in the NFL, a team captain, a successful businessman and now a father to his three-year-old son, Justin Hardee Jr.

But he's also an Illini, something that reaches far beyond being a football player at Illinois. The relationships he built in Champaign have lasted through several years as Hardee calls Illini like Juice Williams and Mike Bellamy his brothers for life. Williams has played a pivotal role in helping Hardee through fatherhood and being an overall mentor.

"I'm glad I'm able to represent Illinois because they took a chance on me," Hardee said. "I'm glad I'm able to represent being an Illini. I feel like I'm exactly what the exemplification of what an Illini should do. I just tried to take advantage of every opportunity given to us while also staying humble staying level-headed and not ever getting too high, not ever getting too low and working hard. — never losing sight of that because that's number one. If you don't work hard, it can be taken away from you very easily."

All of that hard work has manifested into a multi-year deal with the New York Jets which Hardee signed back in 2021. Within six months of signing the deal, Hardee was named a team captain for the 2021 season. Hardee played in all but one game this season and continued his reputation as one of the best special teams players in the league.

Hardee is one of 14 former Illini who finished out the season on active rosters in the NFL, but he thinks that number will be larger. One thing Hardee hopes to see during the rest of his pro career is more Illini getting the opportunity he did. He understands how tough it is to get a break in the pros; he lived it back in 2017. But he also understands what is taught and emphasized within the Illinois football program and how those lessons can be enough to achieve those dreams. 

"I don't want to do anything but continue to carry the great legacy of Fighting Illini," Hardee said. "I'm praying that there's many more that get to come represent the University of Illinois Fighting Illini in the National Football League, because I swear, we deserve so many more Illini in this league. Illini deserve to be in this league more. But you have to earn it. That's the difference. It's never going to be given to you. Of course, I can say we deserve more, but if guys aren't willing to go get it, then it won't happen. So to all of the younger guys, man, there's no substitution for hard work and I'm praying for success for each and every one of you all. I'm praying you all get a taste of this, man, it's a great life."