Seahawk Farmer
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson. He’s played on championship football teams at the high school, college, and professional levels and gives credit to being a fifth-generation farmer for part of that success.
Grey Zabel is a Pierre (PEER), South Dakota native, second year Seattle Seahawks offensive guard, and 2026 Super Bowl champion who says, over the years, he’s learned the best return on investment in agriculture is yourself …
ZABEL … “I’m 24 years young, but as I’m having to kind of grow up at a rapid rate here, I’m starting to realize like, the greatest thing about agriculture is you get to be your own boss, you get to look at something, and you get to view it in two ways. You get to pick your attitude, your work ethic. There’s days I wake up and I’m like, no shot I’m going to the farm today, like that stuff can wait until tomorrow. A few hours goes by and your like, it needs to be done today. And that mentality of being the best that you can possibly be.”
Zabel says your attitude makes a difference, especially in challenging times …
ZABEL … “Everyone has them, wherever you come from, the old boys in the coffee shop that are saying how dry it is, there’s not enough rain, we aren’t going to grow a good crop. But I think there needs to be a new light to be shed on of things of saying, well, you know what, we got what we got, let’s do what we can with it and grow the best crop possible and have the outlook of, it’s not, we’re one day closer to a drought, we’re one day closer to a good rain that allows us to go and be the best human being we possibly could be.”
Zabel gave the keynote address during the first day of the South Dakota Governor Larry Rhoden’s Agricultural Summit.
As the starting left guard in the Seahawks’ Super Bowl win over the New England Patriots last season, Zabel says he plans to continue working on his family’s farm in the years ahead.
Zabel compared the line of scrimmage in football to a fence line …
ZABEL … “And on one side, you’ve got yourself and you know who you are, how you got there, what you did to get there, what made you successful, how hard you worked, everything you’ve done in preparation to go out and win that line of scrimmage or win that play. But you look across the other line of scrimmage and you see a guy, okay. You have no idea where he’s from, you don’t know how he got there, you don’t know what it took for him to get there, you don’t know the sacrifices he made or what he does in his free time, or what is kind of his driver, his why. And then you look in agriculture and it’s the same way, the fenceline is dividing two fields. On one side you don’t know what that farmers going through, what the cash rent he’s paying, how much he’s putting down in fertilizer, the debt payments he has to make, what he’s leasing or owning. All you got is just your side.”
He was the starting left guard in the Seahawks’ 29-13 win over the New England Patriots last season.
