Endure

In 2012, Tommie Harris was an eight-year NFL defensive tackle, two-time consensus All American, and three-time Pro Bowler who had just married his wife, Ashley, on New Years Day. Excitement mounted as they began dreaming and building their new life together, but all of that came to a crashing stop when Ashley suffered an unforeseen brain aneurysm just forty-two days after they were married. As a defensive tackle, Tommie knew how to take a hit better than anyone: clamp your jaw shut and walk it off. It’s what the fans wanted and it’s how you kept the opposing line in check. But what Tommie wasn’t prepared for was when life starts throwing its hardest hits. How do you respond not only to pain, but to injuries in your soul that continue to worsen the longer you ignore them? How do you recover when the hit doesn’t come in the form of a 300-lb. lineman’s shoulder on a football field, but in the form of losing your newlywed wife? In his new book Endure: Playing Through Life’s Hardest Hits, Tommie teaches that when someone is bleeding and gasping for air on the ground, they don’t need someone to stand over them and give advice, but instead to match their posture and hold them close. That’s what Tommie’s new book is all about. Tommie uses his own story of loss to get down on his knees with you, share your pain, and to take your hand. He lends his own story through life’s trials and the lessons he’s learned along the way to help you discover hope again in the midst of your darkest moments, whatever they may be.