Stanford football player reflects on how his Mormon mission helped rather than hurt his career

Upon returning from two years of missionary service in Chile for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Stanford football player Dallas Lloyd began to wonder if his mission was a setback for his football career. A quarterback, Lloyd watched from the sidelines during the 2012 season and struggled in limited playing time during his sophomore season.

“It was really frustrating,” Lloyd, a Pleasant Grove native, said in an article published by The Stanford Daily. “I was upset at myself and I let these thoughts of doubt come into my mind, like, ‘If I (hadn’t) gone on a mission, then I would have been able to come straight to Stanford.’ … I realized they were all just excuses. They were justifying the fact that I wasn’t getting it done.

“It’s really sad that those two years, the best two years of my life, became an excuse for why I was so frustrated. Looking back, it had nothing to do with those two years. I was a better person and football player because of those two years.”

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