Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even.

- Muhammad Ali

Carolina Panthers running back Brandon Wegher is all business. That'd probably be the case for most NFLers readying to take part in the biggest spectacle their sport, maybe the entire sporting world, has to offer, but for Wegher it is an approach born out of necessity. Really, when you're an undrafted free agent rookie who spent time with four collegiate programs and dealt with a bevy of questions regarding your off-the-field focus before landing, ultimately and unexpectedly, with a Super Bowl squad, you don't have much choice but to be no-nonsense.

It's succeed or fade away. Win or kiss that NFL paycheck, those roaring fans, that shaking, shuddering stadium, goodbye.

For Wegher, his business is football. It's blocking, running, receiving. It's special teams. And it's helping the Panthers come out on top in Super Bowl 50, even if his contributions to that winning cause won't come on the field against the Denver Broncos at Levi's Stadium on Feb. 7.

"Man, to be part of a Super Bowl team my first season as a rookie and being undrafted, a guy that many people didn't expect to make it - it's just a blessing," Wegher told Headlines & Global News as he prepped for his flight to California late last week.

"There's no other word to describe it - a blessing. An electric feeling."

***

Ronnie Hillman or C.J. Anderson. David Johnson or Andre Ellington. Marshawn Lynch. Wegher doesn't mind. He'll do, he'll be, whomever the Panthers need him to be.

"When I'm on scout team I'll just take whatever running back the other team has and I'll try to give the defense a good look," Wegher said. "And when I'm on offense I'll just make sure I got our playbook down and give our offense the best chance."

Special media obligations, living life out of a suitcase - in a lot of ways, Super Bowl week is an odd one. But otherwise it's a very similar schedule from a practice standpoint for Wegher and the rest of his Panther teammates.

For Wegher, that means watching tape on the Broncos offense - and Hillman and Anderson in particular - and doing his best to mimic their styles so that the Panthers "D," led by linebackers Luke Kuechly and Thomas Davis Sr. and defensive tackle Kawann Short, can prep for the Broncos' diminutive but sturdy between-the-tackles backs.

"I keep my eye on style," Wegher said. "But our coaching staff does a great job of putting a game plan together so I just go out and simulate the plays the Broncos' offense will run."

And the Panthers defense will need those looks because first-year Denver head coach Gary Kubiak wants to run the ball, wants to establish the ground game and protect aging signal-caller Peyton Manning, the cowboy looking to ride off into the sunset. After some early-season struggles to get the run game untracked - there was a time when Denver averaged just 86 yards per game and 3.8 yards per carry - over the last seven games of the regular season, the Broncos averaged 134.8 yards per game and 4.8 yards per carry. Anderson especially did work during Denver's playoff victories over the Steelers and Patriots, clocking in at 4.6 yards a tote.

But before there was Anderson and Manning, before there were the Broncos and Super Bowl 50, before there was even Carolina and an NFL paycheck, there was Brandon Wegher, NAIA running back and construction crew estimator.

***

"I knew I had the abilities and my talents could take me to whatever, wherever I wanted to go."

To some, that may sound like a boast, but Wegher states it matter-of-factly, as if his football playing future were never in doubt.

For a time though, it very much was.

Wegher attended the University of Iowa on scholarship in 2009, seeing action in 12 games and notching two starts. In that year's Orange Bowl against Georgia Tech, Wegher rolled up 113 yards and a touchdown on the ground. His burst through the hole and long speed had many pegging Wegher as a star for the Hawkeyes and surefire future NFL player.

But little did Wegher know that that year would be his only collegiate season to offer some semblance of normalcy at a big-time NCAA football program.

"Everything," Wegher said, when asked what exactly went wrong after his freshman season at Iowa. "From academics, to getting in trouble with the law, to just not being a very good person. I made a lot of mistakes."

Wegher left the Hawkeyes after that extremely promising initial season - he set a new school record for rushing touchdowns by a freshman, but then suddenly and unexpectedly left the team two games into camp the following year and requested a release from his scholarship, which was granted after he sat out all of 2010 - and transferred to Oklahoma. Due to NCAA transfer rules, he again had to sit out, and when he did finally join the Sooners program in the spring, there was still a bit too much of the old Brandon.

"I kind of knew it wasn't going to work out," he said. But not because of anything wrong with the Sooners program or the coaching staff. "I knew I wasn't ready to take responsibility for my actions."

There were arrests for public intoxication and evading police and even a domestic abuse assault charge involving his brother Cole. If this was a boxing match, Wegher would have been laid out on the canvas, looking up at the swirling lights, studying the geometric shapes of the rafters, and probing the farthest corners of himself to see if there was anything left in the tank.

He spent the next year away from football and collegiate athletics altogether, working for a mining equipment manufacturing company and his dad, reconsidering his future - a future that had once seemed so clear.

But football remained. Through it all, football remained. And it wasn't long before Wegher found himself looking into what it would take to join a D-I team, eventually working his way down the line to D-III. And finally coming to grips with the fact that his NCAA eligibility clock had pretty much run out, seeking hope and refuge in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, which has no such restrictions.

And so, in the fall of 2013, after three seasons away from the game he loved, had come to hate and learned anew to appreciate, Wegher, a one-time top recruit at one of the nation's elite college football programs, suddenly found himself a 23-year-old sophomore at tiny Morningside College.

***

Morningside was a welcome respite in many ways for Wegher. Some guys have to get away from the bad influences of home - Wegher needed the structure that came with attending school in Sioux City, a deep bend in the Missouri River away from Dakota Dunes, S.D., where he was born.

But that doesn't mean it was easy.

"I was at the bottom," Wegher said, breathing it out slowly. "I was at the bottom of my football career."

Wegher knew it was going to be a slow slog. But the goal was the NFL, always the NFL. And Wegher was going to get there, come hell or high water. He was just looking for an opportunity.

Two seasons as a Mustang later, Wegher now holds Morningside career records with 3,815 rushing yards, 52 total touchdowns and 48 rushing touchdowns. He set NAIA single-season records with 2,610 rushing yards on 327 attempts, 43 total touchdowns, 39 rushing touchdowns and 8.0 yards per rushing attempt (minimum of 250 carries).

During his final season, Wegher led all of NAIA with an average of 233.8 all-purpose yards per game.

"I wouldn't say it was a rocky road, but maybe a road less traveled," he said. "I did bounce around a few places, did get in trouble here and there, I did do some dumb things but at the end of the day I overcame a lot and I persevered. And that says a lot to who I am."

So what to do when you're a talented football player, forgotten by most in the industry due to your off-the-field issues but bursting with the desire and, you hope, the talent to make your way into the league?

You put together a highlight tape of your Morningside exploits and send it off to agents.

Through a contact at IMG Academy, Wegher was connected with NFL agent Kyle Leunissen and the Enter-Sports Management team. Wegher put together a tape, sent it off and, as Leunissen told HNGN last week, Wegher immediately jumped off the screen.

Fast forward through the training and showcases arranged for Wegher by Leunissen, the anxious hours of the 2015 NFL Draft, the mad scramble shortly thereafter, and Wegher is touching down in Charlotte, uncertain of his place on the team but more certain than ever of his future in the NFL.

***

Three touchdowns. Two fourth-quarter comebacks. A 42-yard touchdown catch.

Wegher's rise to preseason darling for the Panthers this year was truly unexpected. An undrafted free agent running back addition to a team that already boasts the likes of Jonathan Stewart and Mike Tolbert - both Pro Bowlers - as well as unheralded but tough between-the-tackles guys like Fozzy Whittaker and Cameron Artis-Payne, not to mention at the time, veteran Jordan Todman, simply doesn't have much of a chance at creating space for himself on a 53-man roster.

Wegher, though, finally showing signs of being ready for that responsibility, of having honed that business-first attitude, wasn't surprised to make the team. In fact, Wegher expected to be drafted.

"I definitely felt like I had the ability above some of the other running backs drafted," he said.

Again, it may sound like a boast, but Wegher's tone is even, serious. He's not bragging - he's stating a fact.

"Day One I came in here with a lot of confidence, came in just to prove that I could play in the NFL."

Wegher walked into the Panthers' facility at 800 South Mint St. that first day with two goals - to make the team and to earn the trust and the respect of the Carolina coaching staff and the veterans. So when he showed out during the preseason it may have been a surprise to many, but it wasn't a surprise to Wegher.

He just needed that opportunity.

***

Wegher will watch from the sidelines on Sunday night as his brothers in white, silver, black and blue take the field against Manning and the Broncos. He'll watch as many of the guys he owes much of his success to - "in our running back room it's just a bunch of guys with a lot of talent and a lot of big aspirations to win, just great, great people to be around," he said - do their best to bring home a Lombardi trophy.

But Wegher won't be content to watch for long.

He wants to be the one leading the charge onto the field, wants to be banging with the big bodies in the trenches, dragging defenders and breaking ankles.

Wegher's no-nonsense attitude didn't just develop overnight, wasn't just the product of his inherent nature - not entirely at least. No, Wegher's long and winding football road came as a result of issues, both legal and academic, that ultimately ended his time at Iowa and landed him, first at Oklahoma, then Iowa Western Community College and finally at Morningside.

But it was the NFL. All along, for Wegher, even as he fought for NCAA eligibility, went to work for his dad, broke NAIA records and made quiet promises of better days to his young son, it was the NFL.

And now, it's Super Bowl 50.

Next year? Well, it'll come. And so will the season after that. And when it does, Wegher will be ready.

For now though, it's just beating the Broncos, just business as usual.