As more than 250 former college football players creep toward draft day and even more prepare to sign as undrafted free agents, it’s important for all of them to remember that it won’t be the end. It’ll be the beginning.

Dion Jordan, the third pick in the 2013 draft by the Dolphins, learned that lesson the hard way. Twelve years later, he accepts full responsibility for the failure of his NFL career.

“I didn’t have my life in order,” Jordan told O.J. McDuffie and Seth Levit on The Fish Tank podcast, via Hal Habib of the Palm Beach Post.

Jordan said his existence away from the game “wasn’t in balance,” and that he struggled to understand the Dolphins’ NFL plays and playbook.

“When I left the facility, it didn’t help because I’m out partying,” Jordan said. “I’m enjoying the money that I have and I’m just putting myself behind the eight-ball. I’m hurt, you know. Sometimes I’m missing my rehabs, so that’s not helping.”

Jordan was suspended multiple times by the NFL. He missed six games in 2014 and all of 2015. He also didn’t play at all in 2016.

He ultimately played in 63 regular-season games through 2020, with five career starts. He finished with 13.5 sacks.

Jordan is now the assistant head coach at Eureka College in Illinois, on the staff of former NFL defensive tackle Randy Starks.

Jordan tutors his players by letting them know about his own mistakes.

“Ain’t nobody else’s fault,” Jordan said. “And look, I watch these kids now and I realize what I was messing up.”

Players everywhere can learn from Jordan’s experience. No matter how hard or easy it was at the college level, it will be much harder in the NFL. And it will take the kind of discipline, commitment, and effort that the player has never before devoted to the game.