Elite mindset

MARION, Iowa — Mindset was critical for one rookie who was drafted to the team whose defense was the best in the NFL the year before and featured two NFL Hall of Famers and a defensive tackle who defined a generation of interior linemen.

This man was third-round pick Marshal Yanda, who went to the Baltimore Ravens in 2007. The Iowa farm kid saw examples of hard work and a strong will every day on his family’s dairy farm near Anamosa and used those skills to launch a decorated NFL career.

“I tell my dad, to this day, he was strong,” Yanda said. “I watched him build fences, milk cows, bale hay, sweat through his overalls, and I took that to football. I might have had my doubts early in my career, but it’s that farming strength, that mindset that kept me going.”

Yanda, an offensive lineman, had experience playing both guard and tackle and eventually carved out a career worthy of consideration for the NFL Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.

Yanda played in the NFL for 13 years. He was an eight-time selection to the league’s Pro Bowl, twice named first team all-pro, a five-time second team all-pro, unanimously selected to the NFL 2010s all-decade team, and helped the Ravens earn a Super Bowl Championship in 2013. He was also inducted into the Ravens Ring of Honor in 2022.

The success for Yanda was not instantaneous. He worked for it on the practice field against one of the most vaunted defenses of the decade.

“I had some long days, especially my first year,” Yanda said. “Training camp was rough. I got put on my back by Terrell Suggs, and I hadn’t been put on my back since high school. It was a moment where I thought maybe this was it.”

Taking on Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, Terrell Suggs and Haloti Ngata every day in practice took a mental and physical toll, but Yanda’s farming background helped him continue to get better.

“I had enough strong will to keep coming back every single day,” Yanda said. “No matter how bad a day I had, I thought I’ll dust myself off and I’ll feel bad for myself tonight, but tomorrow morning, I’m resetting and I’m going back to work.”

Growing up on the farm, Yanda played basketball before trying out for football in seventh grade.

“I grew to love basketball when I was younger,” Yanda said. “My mom coached us, and you could play it before seventh grade. Once I got to go out for football, it became my passion. I was always a bigger kid and loved being physical.”

While that physicality might have gotten him into trouble playing with his friends off the field, it was also what made sports fun.

“I had fun playing sports, and I remind my kids all the time of that,” Yanda said. “I had a great time with teammates and doing something hard together. I wasn’t thinking about playing in college or playing in the NFL.
I was thinking about having fun in the moment, enjoying that time and playing the sport.”

Without concentrating on the future, Yanda’s career nearly came undone before it found its foundation. After a football camp at Iowa State University,
10 of the camp’s 500 campers were pulled into a separate meeting to discuss the future of their football careers.

“It was before my senior year of high school, and I did really well at the camp,” Yanda said. “Afterward, they brought 10 of us to a separate meeting and started looking at transcripts. I’ll never forget the look on the coach’s face when he said, ‘These are your actual grades?’ He laughed at my transcripts; my grades were that bad.”

After that conversation, Yanda made a choice. He knew he had the potential to play at the next level, but to accomplish that goal, it was going to take effort in the classroom.

“Everybody learns from their mistakes, and you have a choice every single day,” Yanda said. “I made a choice at that moment that I’m going to class. I’m going to get good grades and make it a priority to make school as high a priority as playing football. If I had an opportunity to play football at the next level, grades and paying attention in class aren’t going to be what hold me back.”

Yanda attended Northern Iowa Area Community College, where he played football for two seasons. He was named to the National Junior College Athletic Association Hall of Fame for his performance as a member of the Trojan football team. His production in junior college led him to an opportunity to meet with head coach Kirk Ferentz and the University of Iowa Hawkeyes.

“My parents are big Iowa basketball and football fans,” Yanda said. “We didn’t really follow professional sports. We were only 45 minutes from campus, so when I realized I had the chance to play for the Hawkeyes, that was my dream place to play in college.”

In 2021, Yanda became the ninth former player to be inducted into the Iowa Farm Bureau “America Needs Farmers” Wall of Honor. The award recognizes former Hawkeyes who embody the tenacity, work ethic and character of an Iowa farmer.

Yanda and his family stay true to their farming roots. The family milked 90 cows before selling the dairy herd in 2000, when Yanda was 16. Yanda’s father, uncle and cousin work the land and raise hogs north of Anamosa.

Yanda’s wife, Shannon, is also familiar with the dairy industry, growing up on Dennis and Sally Hunt’s dairy farm near Epworth. The couple has three children, Graham, Logan and Libby.

“She’s hard working, and I’m very thankful for her,” Yanda said. “My goal was to marry a farm girl, and it’s special to find a girl who milked Holstein cows. Her parents are hardworking, salt-of-the-earth people. I’m very grateful.”

Farming roots helped Yanda grow into a stalwart with an NFL organization. Despite moving nearly 1,000 miles to the East Coast, it was the life lessons and skills of farm life that helped him become one of the most successful offensive linemen in the 2010s.

“I have a lot of pride from how I was raised and where we grew up,” Yanda said. “Farmers are some hardworking, strong-willed people. I was the fifth generation on our family farm, and hard work was just a way of life.”