When Kenechi Udeze was forced to retire from football after battling leukemia and receiving a bone marrow transplant, he told himself that he wanted to return to school to earn his degree.

Udeze accomplished that goal recently when he graduated from Southern California with a degree in sociology. According to this story on the school's website, Udeze was the featured speaker at a student-athlete graduation ceremony.

"Life very seldom goes where you want it to go," Udeze told the USC graduates, according to the story. "But what are you going to do? Are you going to stand there and strike out when you have balls thrown at you? Or are you going to hit the ball and keep going?"

Udeze is currently the assistant strength and conditioning coach at the University of Washington.

OTAs begin: The Vikings will hold the first of 14 Organized Team Activities today. We don't have media access until Wednesday but we will bring you any news or updates that we hear.