A former National Football League (NFL) player is tackling a much different task, running his own business.

Former Clovis High School football standout and member of the Detroit Lions, Zack Follett never imagined his new career to be one of selling coffee.

One day, at UC Berkeley, as Follet read his Bible with a cup of coffee in one hand, he received a token of evidence about what was to come.

“I was sitting there drinking a cappuccino and said to myself, ‘this is the best cup of coffee I have ever had…this is a cup of joy!’” Follet said.

Follet said he felt a higher power urging him to help people connect through their love of coffee.

Follet returned to Clovis, California and would soon open a place for the community to do just that.

But Follett would have to wait to make good on that fateful message.

The Detroit Lions drafted him shortly in early 2009. He played for two seasons as a professional before his career was cut short by a neck injury.

It was after this, that Follet was able to bring his message and calling to fruition.

Once football was done, Follett said he took a leap of faith by using all of all the money he had saved from being a pro athlete and came home within in a year’s time to open Kuppa Joy in Clovis in December of 2012.

“I’ve never had a job before being a football player, which was my real first job,” Follett said. “So walking into and being an owner of a business, well there was a lot to learn and so the first three years were kind of trial-and-error on how to do things correctly.”

Follet’s success in Clovis followed him all the way into the neighboring city, where he opened up his second coffee shop in Fresno.  The new shop opened its doors during the first week of March.

“We wanted to expand our reach out here by Fresno City College and Fresno High, so we opened our doors and that is where we proudly are now,” Follet said.

Read the full story in the April 6 issue of the The Rampage.