The original photo on the left was faded and washed out.

The color and saturation was increased to bring out the color making the scene a bit more vivid.

In order to take an ordinary football player pose and turn it into something a little more unique, a football helmet has been "ghosted" over the top of the player.  

The transparency of the football helmet is just enough to see the helmet, but not enough to take away from the main subject.