Rashad Jennings and his partner Emma Slater took home the Mirrorball Trophy on May 23, 2017 when they became "Dancing with the Stars" Season 24 champions. Dancing is not the only skill Jennings has. The NFL star promised himself that every off season he would master a new skill. Dancing just so happened to have been the skill he learned this season.
When he entered the NFL in 2009, the champion said he would add a new craft during every off season, and he is keeping that promise. He is a very disciplined person. Even though he is a free agent, he still gets up early every morning and trains.
Then he would go to the studio to hearse with his dance partner. It was reported that Jennings spent more hours rehearsing than any other dancer. His dance partner said he spent 362 hours rehearsing for the Mirrorball trophy that they received.
Jennings' talents
The 32-year-old dance champion had earmarked the last season to either learn a foreign language or to learn a dance. He succeeded in learning many more than one dance. He learned the jive, rumba, samba, quickstep, tango, Argentine Tango, Paso Doble and Viennese Waltz then he performed those dances before millions of viewers for 10 weeks. Jennings is the fourth NFL player to win the championship. The others include Donald Driver, Hines Ward, and Emmitt Smith.
The Forest, Virginia native shared a list of other skills he has learned during the off seasons. Besides dancing, his list includes writing poetry, archery, and fencing. He said he can cross those things off his bucket list. He added that he loves to learn, and that is his method of continuing to learn by picking a craft and sticking with it until he has perfected it.
Recently the former New York Giants running back learned to play the guitar because he was inspired by John Mayer, the Grammy-winning musician.
Giving back
It is reported that Rashad's net worth is $6 million not including the money he just earned for being on "Dancing With The Stars" the entire time. He believes in giving back.
Therefore, he created his own charity to help youth. His Rashad Jennings Foundation is to inspire and to encourage youth to be all they can be. Jennings works with members of 32 teams to donate to his foundation to help the youth who are involved.
The former football star grew up being a chubby kid with a very low GPA. He said the odds were stacked against him. Now that he has succeeded, he wants to give back in a big way by help kids because he knows what it is like to be in a bad situation while growing up.
