"Once he got to NIAC, it was put into his head he had a chance to go D-I in two years, then a chance to play pro football," Katie said. "The work ethic was there the whole time. He was developing into a man at NIAC."
His uncle, Doug Ralston, said Marshal was an agile basketball player who didn't work hard in high school.
"But when he made up his mind to do it, he was like a changed man," Ralston said.
An avid outdoorsman, Yanda is ill at ease living near big cities. He longs for the outdoors and room to breathe. Someday, when his NFL career is over, he'll return to the Iowa farmland he grew up on.
"I definitely want my kids to grow up on the farm," said Yanda, who is unmarried but has a girlfriend in Epworth, Iowa. "It's something I definitely want to get back to, sooner or later, when I'm done playing."
His mother isn't surprised.
"That's where the good times were," she said. "We worked hard, did a lot of stuff, but also had a lot of good times."
That was the work ethic on an Iowa farm.
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RAVENS@VIKINGS
Sunday, 1 p.m.
TV: Ch. 13
Radio: 97.9 FM, 1090 AM
Line: Vikings by 2 1/2
