Former NFL player tackling Seven Summits in turnaround from lowest point of his life

Mark Pattison's seven summits climb includes Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa.

A former NFL player used one of the lowest points of his life to propel him forward into doing something no other football player has ever done – climb the Seven Summits.

Mark Pattison, 56, played three seasons in the NFL with the Los Angeles Raiders, Los Angeles Rams and New Orleans Saints, but football didn’t appear to be in his DNA. According to HeartThreads, Pattison went on to found a gaming company, a digital media company and a retail company.

It wasn’t until 2011 when things started to get tough for Pattison.

In that year, he and his wife of 24 years split up. Soon after, his father passed away from a stroke. Pattison said it was years before he was able to turn it around and turned to nature to help him.

“My mind was always like, ‘How did I get here?” Pattison said. “Finally after a couple of years, I was just like … I’m stuck. And you can’t move forward to do anything unless you get unstuck.”

Pattison then embarked on a journey to become the first player to climb the Seven Ssummits. They include Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa; Mount Elbus in Europe; Mount Kosciusko in Australia; Aconcagua in South America; Denali (formerly Mount McKinley) in North America; Mount Vinson in Antartica; and Mount Everest in Asia.

“It’s not about the summit, it’s about the journey,” Pattison said.

Since 2013, he’s completed five of the seven summits. He plans on completing the final summit, Everest, in 2020, according to the outlet.