Playing in the NFL is cool, but …

Leland Melvin is a man of many helmets.

As a National Football League wide receiver, he’s worn one while playing for the Detroit Lions. As a NASA astronaut, he donned a helmet and travelled to the International Space Station, twice, orbiting Earth 374 times.

Melvin, 53, also happens to have one of the few official government portraits to go viral — of him, in his astronaut gear, being licked by his two adopted Rhodesian ridgeback mixes. (To take the photo Melvin smuggled his dogs, Scout and Jake, onto the NASA campus in a van.) That picture graces the cover of Leland’s new autobiography, “Chasing Space: An Astronaut’s Story of Grit, Grace, and Second Chances,” published in May.

The book describes his path from high school football star to NFL draft pick to fibre optics engineer to astronaut. Melvin spoke to The Washington Post on Friday about the need for second chances — a missed football catch almost ended his athletic career before it began — and how to encourage kids to pursue science.

Of his time in orbit, one of the most powerful moments came during dinner. “We’re breaking bread at 17,500 m.p.h., floating food into each other’s mouths,” Melvin said, “and then I look out the window and I see I’m over Lynchburg, Virginia. And my family’s probably breaking bread down there, eating.”

That orbital perspective gave Melvin an unflappability in the face of bad traffic and greater appreciation for our planet. His recommendation? Send journalists, Congress, everyone, including the president, to space.