In July 2015, cornerback Bernard “Bam” Blake was about to head to Green Bay Packers training camp as a rookie out of Colorado State when he began to feel ill.

“For a couple of days, I had a real bad migraine,’’ he said.

It turned out to be a lot worse than he imagined.

After some prodding from his mother, Blake went to a doctor to be checked out. Scans were done of Blake’s head.

“When they came back, they said I had a brain aneurysm and that I needed to go to this location as soon as possible,” Blake said.

Blake had a procedure in which a hole was put in an artery on the right side of his brain and a camera inserted to get a picture of the artery. He was told he might need surgery at some point but that his health was not in immediate danger.

Playing football was another matter. Blake reported to Packers training camp, but with information known about his condition he failed his physical and was waived.

The Oakland Raiders, Miami Dolphins and Detroit Lions then considered picking Blake up, but it was the same deal. No team would clear him to play.

“That’s when I called it a career,’’ Blake said. “It was a bitter pill to swallow at first. It was frustrating, but I needed to look out for my health. And I was able to find peace after that.”

After his football career ended, Blake started BAM Performance in Austin, Texas, where he trains high school and college athletes, including some who have starred at the University of Texas. He has been the personal trainer for Broncos rookie cornerback Jahdae Barron since Barron was entering his junior year at John B. Connally High School in Austin in 2018.

“He changed my life,” Barron said about the work he has done over the years with Blake that continues when he is in Austin. “I hope he never posts the clips from the beginning when I was starting to play defensive back because it was bad. But just the way he’s helped me since then, he changed my life.”

Blake’s work with Barron helped him earn a scholarship to Texas, where he played from 2020-24. Barron was taken by the Broncos with the No. 20 pick in last April’s draft and has been an immediate contributor.

For his brain aneurysm, Blake, 33, gets checked every three months. Surgery remains an option but likely not in the near future.

“Right now, it’s more risk than reward in terms of having the surgery just because of the location,’’ Blake said. “It’s one of those things where you can damage something else pretty badly. I don’t think it’s as life altering as everybody else does. … Unless I have symptoms like a migraine or things of that nature, we don’t have to do any head scans (during check ups).’’

Blake was a Colorado State standout from 2011-14, having the “Bam” nickname because of his hard-hitting style. After playing in the East-West Shrine Game following his senior season, he was considered a draftable prospect until suffering a quad injury in February 2025 while working out just before the NFL scouting combine. With his inability to take part in workouts hampering him, he wasn’t selected two months later in the draft.

Blake got a call from the Packers immediately after the draft and signed as a priority free agent. He was optimistic about making the roster before his football career came to an abrupt end.

“I feel like God needed me in my community more than he needed me in the NFL,’’ said the deeply religious Blake, who starred at Bastrop High School, 30 miles from Austin, before going to Colorado State. “So I think it is a blessing in my life what I am doing now.”

Barron, also a man of Christian faith, concurred with what Blake said.

“He’s changed a lot of kids’ lives in Austin, Texas,’’ Barron said. “There was a bigger plan for him.”

Other defensive backs Blake has worked with include Andrew Mukuba, playing a key role as a Philadelphia Eagles rookie after being a second-round pick out of Texas; Michael Taafe, currently at Texas; Latrell McCutchin, currently at Houston; and former college players Devin Lemear of Baylor, Sean Fresch of Rice and Ty Dylan of West Texas A&M.

Blake doesn’t deny Barron was quite raw when he began working with him. He first saw him playing in a 7-on-7 league in Austin called Juice.

“Chadwick Sapenter was the original owner of Juice and he contacted me and Shaun Rutherford to come in and be a part of the staff,’’ said Blake, referring to Sapenter, a motivational speaker and businessman in Texas who is close to Barron and to Rutherford, a quarterback trainer who once starred at the position for Texas State. “And that’s when we met Jahdae and the rest became history.”

Blake and Rutherford eventually became the co-owners of Juice. And Blake continued to work with Barron.

“We’ve done anything and everything around the defensive back position from understanding the game from an IQ standpoint to developing the footwork, the quick twitch, the change of direction, lateral movement,’’ Blake said.

Barron said Blake has worked with him on “literally the whole nine” of playing defensive back. He said Blake has been “like a big brother” to him.

“He’s helped me in football and outside of football,’’ Barron said. “He helped with my growth with details about the defensive back position. He was always talking to me about me hitting new goals and new aspirations that I wanted to achieve. One of his main focuses was that anything in life that you wanted to have, you had to do more.”

There was one goal, though, Barron wanted to achieve that Blake admits he didn’t think was realistic. When Barron signed with Texas, he talked about winning the Jim Thorpe Award for being the nation’s top defensive back.

“I thought that was kind of crazy since he did not look like a Thorpe winner at the time in terms of development,’’ Blake said. “But he proved me wrong.”

Barron won the Thorpe Award last year for the Longhorns, saying the instruction he got over the years from Blake was a big help. Then last spring Blake looked on with pride at Barron’s draft party in Austin when the Broncos selected him in the first round.

“Seeing Jahdae get that phone call impacted me more than when I got the phone call that I was going the Green Bay Packers,’’ Blake said. “And also seeing Andrew Mukuba at (Barron’s) draft party (the day before being selected by the Eagles). It’s just a completely different feeling seeing these two kids being able to change the dynamics of their family.”

Blake had to stop playing a decade ago due to his brain aneurysm, but he no doubt has found his calling in football.