Ivy league schools are more interested in academic achievement and GPA than GMAT in general, so your stats will be a challenge at those schools. Any particular reason you are so focused on Ivy? Having said that, your football career is certainly a good explanation for the lower grades--it's very difficult to pull of such a strong leadership position in sports and maintain leadership in the classroom. Your GPA was likely stronger than many other student athletes I would imagine. This is where you have an edge. At the end of the day, you will be competing against other applicants who have a similar background. You offer something unique, so will automatically be in a smaller pool, and within that pool, you may stand out more than you realize. The key will be in how you pitch the takeaways from your experience and parlay them into your future vision. Perhaps you have already applied by now and heard back, so this advice may be moot. I think the blog would be interested to see how things have progressed with your story.