That's when Levar Fisher, a former standout at North Carolina State University, who spent five years in the NFL, remembers a girl in Detroit.

“The young girl brought me a bullet,” he said before a second speaking session at Northwest Halifax High School today, remembering she told him, “'Because of you I'm not going to use this on myself.'”

It was during a time Fisher was just ready to go home. “I broke down crying and said I'm never going to half-ass anything again. I'm always going to be a man of my word.”

Fisher's appearance today was made possible through the work of the recently formed Northwest Halifax High School Alumni Association.

For Fisher, being at Northwest today was much like being back in Carteret County, where he was called too fat and too slow by a bully to realize his goal of playing in the NFL.

Fisher speaks to the students.

After an injury-shortened five seasons that involved six knee surgeries, he relied on his skills as a speaker to look beyond the NFL. “I had hoped to play for 10 to 12 years,” he said, saying earlier in the interview, “Football is not going to last forever.”

During the session with Northwest juniors and seniors, he told them of the early years in Beaufort, and how he would always run up to his mother and tell her he was going to play in the NFL.

His mother encouraged him, he told the class, but others scoffed. “Even some of my homeboys laughed at me. The higher in life you go, it's mandatory to have haters.”

Fisher explained in life there are dream makers and dream breakers. “One day you'll get to prove them wrong if you dream big enough. If you dream big enough, the facts in your life don't matter.”

He talks about having goals, a game plan, goods and guts. He uses a concept where you freeze and think about consequences. “There are no winners in this room, but there are no losers. Each and everyone of you have a choice. You're going to prove a lot of people right and you're going to prove a lot of people wrong.”

While he made the NFL, his first game, played on ESPN, he was knocked out.

Fisher told the juniors and seniors they are nearing a crossroads. “It's show time right now. You've got to put up or shut up. It's time to go right now. You've got to make successful game plan.”

Fisher's bully, who ended up serving his food at a Carteret County Burger King on a return trip home, told him in school, “You're fat, you're slow, you're weak.”

Fisher's father motivated him, telling his son, “There will be a time in your life when you want to give up. That time is not now.

“There is greatness in this room. Don't ever let anyone ever bully you that you can't,” he told the students.

Fisher said it comes down to choices and consequences. “Freeze and just think about the consequences. Learn from the people who are with you, not against you. The number one person that can stop you is yourself.”

He talked about one bad decision he made while still in Carteret County, a decision to participate in a burglary in which one of the three people he was with was shot and killed by the returning homeowner. “Both boys got shot and one got killed. I wish I could go back in time.”

He got labeled as a bad kid and was moved to a different school because of his bad decision. “The decisions we make are going to dictate our future. You're about to go to different places in your life. It's up to you to freeze when you go out the doors. It's time to make your choice. There are no winners or no losers.”