Speaker 1: Welcome to the Good Stuff.
Speaker 2: I'm Jacob Schick and I'm joined by my co host
Speaker 2: and wife.
Speaker 1: Ashley Shick.
Speaker 3: Jake is a third generation combat Marine and I'm a
Speaker 3: gold Star granddaughter. And we work together to serve military veterans,
Speaker 3: first responders, frontline healthcare workers, and their families with mental
Speaker 3: and emotional wellness through traditional and non traditional therapy.
Speaker 4: At One Tribe Foundation.
Speaker 2: We believe everyone has a story to tell, not only
Speaker 2: about the peaks, but also about the valleys they've been
Speaker 2: through to get them to where they are today.
Speaker 3: Each week, we invite a guests to tell us their story,
Speaker 3: to share with us the lessons they've learned that shaped
Speaker 3: who they are and what they're doing to pay it
Speaker 3: forward and give back.
Speaker 2: Our mission with this show is to dig deep into
Speaker 2: our guest's journeys so that we can celebrate the hope
Speaker 2: and inspiration their story has to offer.
Speaker 4: We're thrilled you're joining us again.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Good Stuff. I am so fired up
Speaker 2: about our guests today. Three time Super Bowl Champion, five
Speaker 2: time Pro Bowler.
Speaker 3: Four time first Team All Pro, Dallas Cowboys, all time
Speaker 3: leading tackler, and Cowboys' Ring of Honor honoree. He's a father,
Speaker 3: a husband, a businessman, a mentor, and he's a leader.
Speaker 1: Our guest today is Darren Woodson.
Speaker 2: Our good friend is here to tell us the story
Speaker 2: of growing up in the projects in West side Phoenix, Arizona,
Speaker 2: and how he became a champion at life.
Speaker 4: The great Darren Woodson.
Speaker 3: Oh, welcome to the good stuff, Ashley.
Speaker 5: I appreciate you having me. I don't know so much
Speaker 5: about this dude over here sitting to my left, that
Speaker 5: guy guy, and that guy got a little upset because
Speaker 5: I'll sit at the head of the table.
Speaker 1: I know I can tell listen.
Speaker 5: Set his bottles down, he sat his drinks down right
Speaker 5: here front. I knowingly sat here all the guest.
Speaker 4: Yeah, games have already started and started.
Speaker 1: That's right. Here we go. Let's go.
Speaker 4: Ready.
Speaker 2: Yes, I got more mind games than Milton Bradley compliments
Speaker 2: of states.
Speaker 5: And I've dealt one of the So you finally got
Speaker 5: to win.
Speaker 1: I finally get one win.
Speaker 4: Exactly what I'm going to let you have it?
Speaker 3: So relation Darren Woodson father, husband, Dallas cowboy, Alum, you
Speaker 3: played your entire career the boys.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I was blessed to just to play with the Cowboys,
Speaker 5: and actually I was one of the time. I retired
Speaker 5: as one of four or players that had never experienced
Speaker 5: free agency.
Speaker 1: Wow, never saw it, so no sign.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you were there during the Golden years ninety
Speaker 3: two to two thousand and four.
Speaker 5: Yes, ninety two, yes, well, the beginning of those years
Speaker 5: ninety two through ninety five were really strong years, and
Speaker 5: then we fell off a cliff right at zero leadership
Speaker 5: from top to bottom, and we were five eleven five.
Speaker 1: Were averages average could ever be. It's who we were
Speaker 1: for the longest time.
Speaker 5: Until Parcels came in later and that one snapped back
Speaker 5: to life.
Speaker 3: It's ironic you say that, because average is not at
Speaker 3: all what describes you and your work ethic and your
Speaker 3: story and where you came from. We'll talk about all
Speaker 3: your accolades in a little bit, but for now, why
Speaker 3: don't we dive into that.
Speaker 1: Let's do it.
Speaker 4: Tell us about Phoenix, Arizona.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, So I grew up in Phoenix. I was
Speaker 5: the youngest of four kids. My mom was a single mom.
Speaker 5: We were project kids, and we grew up in Hintson
Speaker 5: projects early on, and then eventually moved to what we
Speaker 5: call the West Side Maryvale area, which wasn't much of
Speaker 5: an upgrade. It was just the curtains are a little different.
Speaker 1: Yeah, But I know who I am based on the
Speaker 1: work ethic of my mother.
Speaker 5: She got up every day five twenty five am, every
Speaker 5: single day, went to her first job, which she worked
Speaker 5: for thirty eight years as a clerk at Akopa County,
Speaker 5: got done about four or five in the evening, went
Speaker 5: to her second job, and usually got home about ten
Speaker 5: thirty eleven o'clock. I think the one thing that I've
Speaker 5: always appreciated about my mom, which I didn't realize until
Speaker 5: later on, is that she set up a process for
Speaker 5: her kids. Like the way she kept us off the streets,
Speaker 5: the way she kept us away from drugs and the
Speaker 5: gangs and all was her process. Was My sister Monica
Speaker 5: pretty much ran the show, and she basically said, Hey,
Speaker 5: you're going to do this with these boys. It was myself,
Speaker 5: my brother Rany, and my brother Todd, who again all
Speaker 5: older than I am.
Speaker 1: But Monica ran lead.
Speaker 5: Made sure we got up in the morning, made sure
Speaker 5: we got on the bus, made sure we got to school.
Speaker 5: After school, we had all had to get back on
Speaker 5: the bus. My sister, seven years senior, would be on
Speaker 5: one of the buses, and when she went to junior
Speaker 5: High and all that, she would meet us at the
Speaker 5: bus stop. We would get off the bus, we'd walk
Speaker 5: into the church and after school programmed, my mom said,
Speaker 5: you better not miss miss Sanders. After school program is
Speaker 5: finished up, we go over to the YMCA. And that's
Speaker 5: the reason why I'm here right now because of Imcas
Speaker 5: taught me how to be an athlete because he had
Speaker 5: to scrapped.
Speaker 1: Yeah, king pong game. Things got a little sideway. Sometimes
Speaker 1: it didn't matter, it didn't matter, Like that's.
Speaker 5: How I learned how to play football right and know
Speaker 5: how to play at a high level.
Speaker 1: But I cut my teeth there.
Speaker 5: But my mom had this process that she instilled in
Speaker 5: all of us just to make sure we stayed busy
Speaker 5: enough to not do Imagine that idle hands or the
Speaker 5: devils were and I've heard that a million times when
Speaker 5: I was a kid. Never knew what it meant. But
Speaker 5: idle hands of the devil's works, you do not if
Speaker 5: you if you're still, you're gonna get into some whatever
Speaker 5: it is, right, you're gonna step into it. So it
Speaker 5: kept us busy and it allowed us. I was the
Speaker 5: one that graduated. My brother Todd went to went into
Speaker 5: the army, which you'll love. My brother Randy, who was older,
Speaker 5: started working when he got out of high school. He
Speaker 5: instantly went into the workforce. To Monica as well, right
Speaker 5: into the workforce. And then I went to college. I
Speaker 5: was the first one to go actually go to college.
Speaker 5: Monica followed me after, but both of us have our
Speaker 5: college degree. That was the happiest day of my life,
Speaker 5: wasn't that I got drafted by the Cowboys. Happiest day
Speaker 5: of my mom's life, as it pertained to me, was
Speaker 5: when I got that patient.
Speaker 4: Well absolutely.
Speaker 3: How old was Monica when she was given all of
Speaker 3: this responsibility?
Speaker 5: She was seven years old. She was that's crazy, man.
Speaker 5: I used to catch the bus. Oh yeah, I'm serious.
Speaker 5: My sister was catching the bus like no, not the
Speaker 5: school bus, the city bus, the city bus. I remember
Speaker 5: being seven eight years old catching the city bus from
Speaker 5: my house across town sometimes to get to school because
Speaker 5: the school bus didn't show up where I lived, so
Speaker 5: the city.
Speaker 1: Bus was it.
Speaker 4: At seven years old and a.
Speaker 5: Transfer, getting the transfer to get on another bus, I
Speaker 5: couldn't even imagine. I got a six year old who's
Speaker 5: about to turn seven and a few days there was
Speaker 5: no way and heck that I could see my son. Nope,
Speaker 5: get in on a bus and getting a transfer at that.
Speaker 3: So what was it like growing up in that house?
Speaker 3: I can't imagine your mom working a job or how
Speaker 3: many jobs?
Speaker 4: Two jobs, two jobs to feed five miles.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and keeping the lights on, keeping the lights on,
Speaker 3: and no father figure.
Speaker 5: And again, look, I had no idea that I was poor, Like,
Speaker 5: I just thought that this was life.
Speaker 1: And we lived in such a bubble.
Speaker 5: And the fact of I didn't go to certain areas,
Speaker 5: Like I had no idea what Scottsdale.
Speaker 1: Arizona was until I went to Arizona.
Speaker 5: State and I was, yeah, it's right down the street,
Speaker 5: And why does everybody go and those oh, those are
Speaker 5: some big houses where and we're in the same city.
Speaker 5: I'm twenty five minute drive from Scottsdale.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 5: We just lived in this bubble, and I just felt
Speaker 5: like everyone was kind of similar. Look, I come from
Speaker 5: a background where most of the houses that were down
Speaker 5: the street and all my buddies, they're all single family houses.
Speaker 5: Fathers weren't involved, or fathers were they weren't living in
Speaker 5: the same house. My father just didn't happen to be
Speaker 5: a part of my life.
Speaker 1: I knew he was.
Speaker 5: We saw him every once in a while, but he
Speaker 5: just wasn't making decisions and raising me as a man.
Speaker 1: He definitely didn't play an active role. He didn't play
Speaker 1: an active role. No shame for I forgiven all moved on.
Speaker 5: But you know, and he had his own issues he
Speaker 5: was trying to deal with and overcome at the same time.
Speaker 5: But my mother was he played that big of a role.
Speaker 5: So I just live life the way it was and
Speaker 5: the way it fell out. Man, And I'm telling you,
Speaker 5: I had the happiest childhood. We played basketball, played every
Speaker 5: sport you can name. On the street, you know, lights
Speaker 5: go down, then you go back in the house, and
Speaker 5: that's the way life was. Yeah, it was simple.
Speaker 3: When the street lights come on, yeah you better be
Speaker 3: home to be home. So when did you realize, like, hey,
Speaker 3: I want to get out of this situation.
Speaker 5: No, here's the one I this is the time I
Speaker 5: did realize that I was poor. So again, my sister Monica,
Speaker 5: so she's probably in her teens at this point, and
Speaker 5: I was seven years old. My mom used to play
Speaker 5: these She had these games where she used to flip
Speaker 5: a coin figure out which bill she needed to pay. Right,
Speaker 5: So sometimes electric bill. Sometimes well I can't make that
Speaker 5: electric bill, I'll pay the water bill.
Speaker 1: Whatnot. Well, this time the electric bill won. She paid
Speaker 1: the electric bill.
Speaker 5: Water bill was off, so we couldn't shower back then
Speaker 5: it was a bathtub. Later, so my sister, just me
Speaker 5: and her. She takes me across the street. It is
Speaker 5: a supermarket, and the supermarket had the holes on the backside,
Speaker 5: you know, the garbage cans, and then there's a supermarket, right,
Speaker 5: And she had this powder soap and took me across
Speaker 5: the street, sprayed me down with the hose, threw powdered
Speaker 5: soap on me, and I had all over my favorite
Speaker 5: um butt naked in the back of a supermarket. She
Speaker 5: spraying me down, blah blah blah, and then we were
Speaker 5: running across the street. And it was the first time
Speaker 5: I thought, Wow, this is weird. Why the heck are
Speaker 5: we doing this? And the next day this is how
Speaker 5: I knew I was poor. I'm walking to the bus
Speaker 5: stop and she sprayed me down, but she didn't get
Speaker 5: all the soap off of me, right, And my buddy says,
Speaker 5: what is that on your head. You know, we are
Speaker 5: back in the day. The kids are just ruthless, right right.
Speaker 5: I was like, we're talking about now, I ain't looking
Speaker 5: the mirror, not this, I'm like and he said, he
Speaker 5: got all this step on this side of your face
Speaker 5: and looked down.
Speaker 1: It's like, I said, this looks like soap is why
Speaker 1: are you powdered soap all over you? Man? You poll?
Speaker 5: And I was a kid, and we all were kids
Speaker 5: and hold unch tickets seven seven yeah, yeah, but we
Speaker 5: all had lunch tickets. We're all the same, everybody, right,
Speaker 5: And that's when I was kind of like, man, this
Speaker 5: is that's different. That's different. And then when I was
Speaker 5: in high school, I really you know, you started get
Speaker 5: a little older, you started figuring. I was working when
Speaker 5: I was twelve years old, and I was working with
Speaker 5: my two uncles and again two MILLI two Marines that
Speaker 5: grew up Vietnam guys came.
Speaker 1: Back whatever you want to do. Goodness.
Speaker 5: They were laying carpet in these buildings and I would
Speaker 5: be the one at the bottom. So they would lay
Speaker 5: carpet and they would cut carpet sheets off and they
Speaker 5: would throw them out the building. It's like new buildings right,
Speaker 5: no windows, and then they throw it out and it's hot, dude,
Speaker 5: it's a phoenix, right.
Speaker 1: Hot.
Speaker 5: And I'd go up in the building and they would
Speaker 5: cut those sheets and I would have to grab a
Speaker 5: little leftover pieces and put them in a bag or whatnot.
Speaker 5: But the big sheets, they would just throw them out
Speaker 5: the window and I would have to go downstairs and
Speaker 5: throw those sheets, those big leftover pieces of carpet in
Speaker 5: the back of the truck.
Speaker 1: Right. And they taught me how to drive a big
Speaker 1: I was a big old Chevy truck man. We still
Speaker 1: had to stick on.
Speaker 5: Taught me how to drive when I was twelve years old.
Speaker 5: To back them up, I sat on carpet, like stacks
Speaker 5: of carpet set on so I can pull this thing
Speaker 5: back to the building and then throw the sheets as
Speaker 5: close as I could to the truck. We were so
Speaker 5: dysfunctional because my uncles were drunk ninety percent of the
Speaker 5: time or on something, right, and they would talk to
Speaker 5: me like a sailor wow, like every word that came
Speaker 5: out of their mouth was a cuss word. Right, I
Speaker 5: didn't know any better. I really didn't know any better. Right.
Speaker 5: I learned how to drive though when I was well, yeah.
Speaker 1: But that was my life.
Speaker 5: That was that was my reality, and I didn't know
Speaker 5: any better than that. But it was in those buildings
Speaker 5: when I would sit there and go, man, these are
Speaker 5: nice buildings.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like these are really nice buildings. Like what do
Speaker 1: these people do?
Speaker 5: Yeah? There was a time when I got into high
Speaker 5: school and then that light bulb started going off that
Speaker 5: I was like, I'm going to do something.
Speaker 1: I know I'm going to do something. Was that a
Speaker 1: feeling you had in your gut, in your soul.
Speaker 5: I knew I was going to do something, Jake. I
Speaker 5: knew that I was going to do something. And I
Speaker 5: can tell you this, everyone in my family and all
Speaker 5: my closest friends always knew, dude, you're going to do something.
Speaker 1: Wow, You're going to do something because I burned.
Speaker 5: Differently, and I know I was different. You woke up
Speaker 5: early in the morning that I was always inquisitive. People
Speaker 5: always say, man, shut stop asking me questions.
Speaker 2: I'm oh, yeah, there isn't it. Yep, there isn't it.
Speaker 2: You know what you played in the league. You played
Speaker 2: around guys that had it right, and guys in the
Speaker 2: business world that have It has nothing to do with sports.
Speaker 1: It's this spark right, And it's hard to describe it,
Speaker 1: really hard to put into words, but.
Speaker 2: You have this unbelievable self conviction already that I think
Speaker 2: is God given that you were born with. And then
Speaker 2: because the way you were raised, it was just giving
Speaker 2: you tools and building blocks internally to say.
Speaker 1: I don't know what limits are. Those are man made.
Speaker 1: That's right, man, that's so strong. That's strong. But that's
Speaker 1: the reality.
Speaker 5: God's going to give you some of that skill set
Speaker 5: right whatever that skill is, right, but it's how you
Speaker 5: pursue it. There is something about how I want to
Speaker 5: attack life. And there's a lot of people that I
Speaker 5: know that are similar in thought that I have. But
Speaker 5: even as a young kid, I wanted to attack life like,
Speaker 5: if you want it, you gotta.
Speaker 1: Go get it. Ye gotta go get it. So nothing's given.
Speaker 5: God may have given me something, but I had so
Speaker 5: many people that were sharpening me throughout the years that
Speaker 5: allowed me to say, okay, here I am.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 4: And if you didn't have that fire in your gut
Speaker 4: to go get.
Speaker 2: It yea yeah, then what you gotta have the conviction
Speaker 2: to go take it. You have to supersede your fear
Speaker 2: of failure in order to be completely proactive in your
Speaker 2: own greatness?
Speaker 3: How did you channel that on your path to life
Speaker 3: to greatness?
Speaker 5: I gotta admit, like, I was really good at certain things,
Speaker 5: and I was very mediocre at other things. You know,
Speaker 5: you hear the saying play to your strengths, Play to
Speaker 5: your strengths, play your strength. All I did was play
Speaker 5: to my strengths, which wasn't a bad thing all the time,
Speaker 5: but it did catch up to me eventually once I
Speaker 5: got to a certain level.
Speaker 1: So here is my strength.
Speaker 5: My strength was you give me the football, or you
Speaker 5: tell me to tackle someone. I was really good at that,
Speaker 5: and I knew I was good, but you put me
Speaker 5: in geology class, or you put me in any math class,
Speaker 5: and I had zero work ethic. So I disguised everything
Speaker 5: by saying I'm such a good athlete, see me, yeah,
Speaker 5: see me like, and everybody loved me because of such
Speaker 5: and such. Right, you got away a lot, and I
Speaker 5: covered up the fact that I didn't really want to
Speaker 5: work that hard in school.
Speaker 1: I really didn't.
Speaker 5: I knew my sister was highly intelligent, my mom's very
Speaker 5: highly intelligent. I knew I had it in me because
Speaker 5: certain times I'd be like I put the work in,
Speaker 5: I get it done. But I just didn't. I was
Speaker 5: mediocre at best. I just didn't care. Right, So it
Speaker 5: caught up to me my junior year in high school.
Speaker 5: So everyone's recruiting me around the country and because of
Speaker 5: my athleticism, and then when they come and they look
Speaker 5: at my transcripts, they were like, dude, you're great, suck.
Speaker 5: You're not gonna make it. We're not gonna give you
Speaker 5: a scholarship. And then you get into college and you're
Speaker 5: out in the first week.
Speaker 1: My we we're not. So I got recruited by a
Speaker 1: lot of schools.
Speaker 5: I ended up going to Arizona State because all the
Speaker 5: other schools said, we're not going to accept you because
Speaker 5: your grades are so bad. Arizona State brought me in
Speaker 5: as what they call a prop forty eight. I went
Speaker 5: to Arizona State or I went to a Juco.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 5: If I would have went to a Juco, I would
Speaker 5: have been lost. Honestly, I would have been lost, right bro.
Speaker 1: No on either way, I know, I don't I don't.
Speaker 1: I think I think the wheels would have fallen off.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, because I'm an extremist in a lot of ways. Right,
Speaker 5: So my mother had a conversation with me, and there
Speaker 5: was a young man. His name is Don Baki. He
Speaker 5: was recruiting coordinator for Arizona State. He changed my life.
Speaker 5: You're talking about people that pour into you. That is
Speaker 5: so special. And when you look, man, I get.
Speaker 4: Dude, don't crying about You're good deeper hey.
Speaker 1: But gradually for being human.
Speaker 7: Yeah, man, Man Baki, don't run from that.
Speaker 5: I'm not gonna let you get away with that right here. Man,
Speaker 5: I know, but look emotionally, he was so special. He'd
Speaker 5: show up every single day my senior year in school,
Speaker 5: going to class or going towards class because halftime I
Speaker 5: wasn't going, but he would be in the hallway. He's
Speaker 5: a recruiter at Arizona State, right he is the football
Speaker 5: head of football recruiting there. He would be in the
Speaker 5: hallway and he said, man, you need to get a class.
Speaker 1: He's showing my grades. Look at you're crazy. And he
Speaker 1: was there every single day.
Speaker 5: So my mom and coach Baki had a long conversation
Speaker 5: and my mom said, look, you're going to Arizona State.
Speaker 1: You're going to go. And I couldn't play my first year.
Speaker 1: I couldn't even be around the team. Is that part
Speaker 1: of the.
Speaker 5: Right. My entire focus was school. That was it fish
Speaker 5: out of water man. It was the first time that
Speaker 5: I missed the football season. So I was seven years old.
Speaker 5: I've been playing since I was seven, never missed the season.
Speaker 5: I was a fish out of water. I was at
Speaker 5: a big school, fifty five thousand students.
Speaker 1: I was just.
Speaker 5: Going there because I couldn't be around the football program.
Speaker 1: It was against the rules for me to even go
Speaker 1: to a game to watch it.
Speaker 5: So my first year, every Friday, I had to report
Speaker 5: back to Baki. We would sit down and said, how
Speaker 5: school going, blah blah blah. It's all he could give me. Right,
Speaker 5: we couldn't meet in the athletic facility. We had to
Speaker 5: meet on campus, right, So I met with him. It
Speaker 5: was the first time. I was so embarrassed because I
Speaker 5: wasn't playing. People thought I was stupid, and I felt
Speaker 5: like my back was against the wall. And I had
Speaker 5: two decisions to make. Either I was going to be
Speaker 5: conformed to just being stupid, or I was going to
Speaker 5: show everyone you talk about a chip on my shoulders because.
Speaker 1: I'd see players, I see guys that I played with
Speaker 1: in high.
Speaker 5: School on the team and they would see me, and
Speaker 5: I know the thought process was like, oh, ye're too stupid.
Speaker 5: Yeah you can't get right. Right, you get all that athleticism,
Speaker 5: but you're too dumb.
Speaker 1: Right. And see, guys, they give me that little look.
Speaker 1: And they probably weren't even giving me the look, Jacob,
Speaker 1: have any of them been on the DOCKU for the
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame? I'm just cheers. I guarantee you they
Speaker 1: didn't mean.
Speaker 5: I know I look it that way, right, Yeause, I
Speaker 5: was so defensive.
Speaker 1: I was like, I know you're looking at me. I
Speaker 1: know judging right.
Speaker 5: It just had this chip on my shoulder that I
Speaker 5: got to get better. I got my first year. I
Speaker 5: had a three point two right, No tutors. They couldn't
Speaker 5: give me anything. Right, Oh dude, I killed you and
Speaker 5: utilized it. But I had nothing. I had nothing. I
Speaker 5: had zero resources from them, right. I just figured it out.
Speaker 5: How about going to school? And Baki helped me in
Speaker 5: so many ways, like the little things when you go
Speaker 5: to class, right when you get out of class, if
Speaker 5: you have time in between, you took notes, rewrite your notes.
Speaker 1: Like I learned so much.
Speaker 5: I learned my deficiencies of like I could hear a
Speaker 5: lecture and and if I recorded it, like I can
Speaker 5: hear a lecture, man, and I'm like, I'm missing ninety
Speaker 5: percent of it, because that's how I think. That's how
Speaker 5: I receive information, right, So I take notes. And then
Speaker 5: after that I listened to the recording on the tape
Speaker 5: recorder and I just handwrite my notes and see him
Speaker 5: once I wrote it down, boom, I got it. And
Speaker 5: that's how I learned. I didn't know that's how I learned.
Speaker 5: I just figured it out along the way because Baki
Speaker 5: told me to do this right, and I overcame so much,
Speaker 5: like my confidence in self and just me shot through
Speaker 5: the roof once I got those good grades. And then
Speaker 5: when I got the okay the season ended, I got
Speaker 5: the okay to go.
Speaker 1: Everybody stand by to the first day of practice field.
Speaker 5: I was like, oh, I'm bringing it, everybody. It's you
Speaker 5: who called me those days. I'm just making up stuff
Speaker 5: in my.
Speaker 1: Own Mind's your eyeboss, look at me. I saw you
Speaker 1: on campus. But I think I just grew so much
Speaker 1: in that one year.
Speaker 5: I mean just because I got knocked down mentally, I was,
Speaker 5: you know, but at the same time I had to
Speaker 5: fight It's either I crawled up, I fought up out
Speaker 5: of that, or I just remained a victim and you
Speaker 5: just cried about it. Why blame someone else? The only
Speaker 5: person to blame was me. My mom told me, hey,
Speaker 5: this ain't on me. She told me, hey, I worked
Speaker 5: two jobs.
Speaker 1: Good on her.
Speaker 5: This is on you. Good right and accountability. Account That's right, son. Three.
Speaker 3: Every day we have a choice, yes, every day. And
Speaker 3: I mean that was your tipping point. I just got
Speaker 3: chills when you said that, because as soon as you
Speaker 3: stepped on that field, well, I mean it was game
Speaker 3: on from there and you had so much to release. Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, when you're playing football, the school wants you to
Speaker 5: be focused on football, like they always tell you're.
Speaker 1: A student athlete.
Speaker 5: It should be athlete students because honestly, you make You
Speaker 5: are a commodity and you make a lot of money
Speaker 5: for the school, right, So what do they want your focus?
Speaker 1: They want your focus on the field, right, and.
Speaker 5: Just past the class that's it just passed. We have
Speaker 5: all these resources who would get you to all this.
Speaker 5: You get to see you're playing, right, And my mind
Speaker 5: really flipped when I didn't have football, because I started
Speaker 5: to think, okay, I'm gonna be competitive on the field,
Speaker 5: but I'm also going to be competitive in that classroom, right,
Speaker 5: super competitive. And it took me three and a half
Speaker 5: years to graduate because I was that competitive. Every summer
Speaker 5: I took the maximumount of summer at school classes.
Speaker 1: I didn't go.
Speaker 5: I mean I was from Phoenix, I didn't I'm going
Speaker 5: to go to West Side, stayed on campus, got my classes,
Speaker 5: many classes I could take in the summer, and I
Speaker 5: was just like, oh, man, I didn't do anything special.
Speaker 5: Lovey Smith was my position coach. He made us all
Speaker 5: everyone that was on that position, you didn't go home.
Speaker 5: You're from Jersey, New Jersey, or you're from California, you
Speaker 5: did not go home any off season. You stayed stayed there,
Speaker 5: and you maxed out summer school. He was so serious
Speaker 5: about education, which I just fell on line. I was like, hey,
Speaker 5: I wasn't the only one. I didn't do anything spectacular.
Speaker 5: Other guys are doing it as well. I just had
Speaker 5: a focus. Man. I just didn't want to just go
Speaker 5: to summer school to just get through. I want to
Speaker 5: go to summer school. I'm gonna get that A. Yeah,
Speaker 5: I'm gonna try to get that A. Half the class.
Speaker 5: I didn't get a but I was trying. It was
Speaker 5: just a different mindset. You can be competitive. And it's
Speaker 5: the same reason why today I'm a partner in the
Speaker 5: commercial real estate firm. I have a software company. That's
Speaker 5: the reason why. Because when football ended, my life wasn't over.
Speaker 5: What I knew I could do this on the outside, right,
Speaker 5: I knew I could do it because I've done it
Speaker 5: in school.
Speaker 3: It gives me chills to think of the beautiful life
Speaker 3: that you've built at this point.
Speaker 4: But tell us about your football career.
Speaker 5: I mean, there's not a lot my football career. I
Speaker 5: tell you what it was a dream coming true. First
Speaker 5: of all, I get drafted by the Cowboys, the team
Speaker 5: I hated when I was a kid, the Cowboys. Freaking
Speaker 5: hated the Cowboys. I was a.
Speaker 1: Challenging to be a Cowboys.
Speaker 5: We didn't have a We didn't have a team in
Speaker 5: Arizona at the time. With the Cardinals didn't come in
Speaker 5: until I.
Speaker 1: Was a sophomore in college.
Speaker 5: Well maybe it's a junior year in high school or
Speaker 5: something like, but by that time I didn't have I
Speaker 5: didn't I didn't have no affiliation to him, right, But
Speaker 5: my team growing up with the Steelers. Was my sister Monica.
Speaker 5: Loved Lynn Swan and Terry Bradshaw. I had a ton
Speaker 5: My best friends are all Cowboy fans. Everyone in Phoenix
Speaker 5: was a Cowboy fan. Still his day, Cowboys one of
Speaker 5: the two. Right. All my buddies were Cowboys fans, and
Speaker 5: the Steelers were the only team that was they getting
Speaker 5: the Super Bowl boom. Steelers would win those games and
Speaker 5: so I became a big time Steelers fan.
Speaker 1: So I get drafted by the Cowboys and.
Speaker 5: I was like, my god, the only team I hate
Speaker 5: freaking draft me, right, but okay whatever, But I walked.
Speaker 1: Into a locker room.
Speaker 5: Yeah, thake thanks to Dave Campo who came out and
Speaker 5: worked me out. He showed up to a linebacker, didn't
Speaker 5: Yeah you know, he showed up to watch my best
Speaker 5: friend Sparks, who was a cornerback. So that's how so
Speaker 5: Dave Campbell. So I'm we're getting it's our pro day.
Speaker 5: So I go to the combine. I have a really
Speaker 5: good combine. I ran really good, worked out well, and
Speaker 5: then we had a pro day at Arizona State. And
Speaker 5: when we have these pro days, you have all the scouts,
Speaker 5: every team comes out right and Dave Campbell ended up
Speaker 5: coming out to pretty much watch Felipe because Felipe was
Speaker 5: a guy they needed to they needed a cornerback, and
Speaker 5: he came out to watch him. I ran a really
Speaker 5: good time, ran a four three five on that field man,
Speaker 5: and then I worked out that was what they call
Speaker 5: a tweener. I played linebacker, safety, and no one knew
Speaker 5: where to really play me, and they saw me run
Speaker 5: and Campbell was like, he's a safety. Jimmy's the one
Speaker 5: who ends up pulling the trigger to draft me. And
Speaker 5: then I get drafted and I still really don't know
Speaker 5: what position I'm going to play with the Cowboys because
Speaker 5: they're still like nose, I don't know if you were
Speaker 5: a corner, and say they brought me in in the
Speaker 5: safety room. We get the mini camp and we do
Speaker 5: what we call one on ones, like you got to
Speaker 5: cover the receiver, whoever the receiver is, you.
Speaker 1: Cover them right.
Speaker 5: And I covered in college, and the Lovely Smith made
Speaker 5: me play multiple positions. Right If I played safety, linebacker,
Speaker 5: sometimes I cover running backs or tight ends or whatnot.
Speaker 1: So I knew how to cover. They didn't know.
Speaker 5: I knew how to cover, and I got out there
Speaker 5: and we're covering one on one and Jimmy was like,
Speaker 5: you're my nickel guy. Not like the nickel guy is
Speaker 5: not the safety or the linebacker. The nickel guy, it's
Speaker 5: your third corner. Wow. I became a corner. Basically, I'm
Speaker 5: covering tight ends and I'm covering running backs and every
Speaker 5: once in a while I cover a slot receiver or whatnot.
Speaker 5: I became that guy and I ran down the field
Speaker 5: on special teams. And I tell you this because my
Speaker 5: first year, of course, I wanted to be the guy.
Speaker 1: I just wanted to be the dude.
Speaker 5: Man.
Speaker 1: I wanted to play safety every game.
Speaker 5: I wanted them to say my name at the beginning
Speaker 5: of the game, or when John Madden is calling the games,
Speaker 5: my face shows up as the starting safety or whatever
Speaker 5: it is, right, And it burned me.
Speaker 1: Man. Now, whoever's listening to this, it's okay to be
Speaker 1: upset for not.
Speaker 5: Whatever whatever your goal you have, you don't reach it,
Speaker 5: or if you got a little animosity about it, it's okay.
Speaker 1: I should burning you.
Speaker 5: Right. So I would be at practice and I'd be
Speaker 5: so upset that I wasn't the start of safety. There
Speaker 5: were multiple times that Jimmy would walk up and he
Speaker 5: tried to, hey, just waste your time, be patient, and
Speaker 5: I was like, damn patience, I'm on the start. And
Speaker 5: Jimmy loved that about me. I know he did, because yeah,
Speaker 5: he knew it meant something to me. Campbell to saying
Speaker 5: they knew it meant something to me. And every day
Speaker 5: I'd go out there, I just wanted it.
Speaker 1: I wanted it. I wanted it, wanted it.
Speaker 5: But I grew so much because now I'm playing, I'm
Speaker 5: covering all the time, I'm doing all those little things
Speaker 5: where you know, a lot of safeties weren't doing that,
Speaker 5: they weren't covering at all. Basically, I became the hybrid guy,
Speaker 5: now the nickel guy that they call today the nickel
Speaker 5: I was one of the first guys to ever do that, right,
Speaker 5: But I cut my teeth because I had to cover,
Speaker 5: had to cover at the cover. And then when I
Speaker 5: became the starter at safety, I played multiple positions. And
Speaker 5: those multiple positions because I could cover, allowed me to
Speaker 5: be a guy who never experienced free agency because they.
Speaker 1: Knew the value absolutely.
Speaker 5: And it's crazy how it's like a vicious circle. Man,
Speaker 5: Sometimes you got to go through. You never put your
Speaker 5: fire out. Never put the fire out, That's right.
Speaker 1: I kept burning hot, just kept burning hot, and it's
Speaker 1: paid dividends. Yeah, I mean it was all sudden. Actually,
Speaker 1: I just like, man, some players that are just fun
Speaker 1: to watch. You were one of those dudes. I appreciate it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because of that fire, because of that hood, because
Speaker 2: of everything.
Speaker 1: It was like you knew, I don't know what's going
Speaker 1: to happen.
Speaker 2: Somebody's gonna get teed off on right right now. You
Speaker 2: would probably be objected from the game.
Speaker 6: Games fun and exciting, and dude, I'm telling you, I've
Speaker 6: seen you work out even now, and I'm like, I mean,
Speaker 6: I would like to see you just sit up this
Speaker 6: one time.
Speaker 1: See that ain't happen.
Speaker 5: You would cuss me out watching me play now, trying
Speaker 5: to backpedal, giving like, come on man, let that guy
Speaker 5: run by you.
Speaker 1: Hey, I know where I stand now.
Speaker 2: You know what, though, it was this conviction that you've
Speaker 2: had in you, and that was instilled in you rather
Speaker 2: that was from your mom and clearly is an angel,
Speaker 2: or your uncles who were just two salty devil dogs trying.
Speaker 1: To figure it out.
Speaker 2: It taught you how to make a point, yeah, exactly,
Speaker 2: colorful point yeah, and drive and drive I mean from
Speaker 2: your sister who I know you, But I learned.
Speaker 1: From so many people like I'll give you an example.
Speaker 5: So for the longest time, when COVID hit like, I'd
Speaker 5: work out like you just mentioned. I work out a
Speaker 5: lot before COVID happened, and we were like three months
Speaker 5: before there was a shutdown. I was ordering equipment. I
Speaker 5: was going to a gym to work out. The gym
Speaker 5: started getting packed and I couldn't get to the weights
Speaker 5: at six o'clock in the morning. I couldn't get to
Speaker 5: the squad rack.
Speaker 1: I couldn't get to this. Yeah.
Speaker 5: So I said, I'm gonna build a gym in my garage. Right,
Speaker 5: So I build this gym in my garage, and every day,
Speaker 5: like when COVID hit, man, I just had my garage
Speaker 5: and I would work out every day.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 5: So I've been consistently that guy, because I'm a guy
Speaker 5: that if I don't work out, my body hurts.
Speaker 1: And it doesn't have to be weights. I can just
Speaker 1: walk on a treadmill. Right.
Speaker 5: I gotta get SOLDI I've had eleven surgeries. I gotta
Speaker 5: get moving, man.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know, trust trust don't you start with me.
Speaker 7: I just I know I feel don't make me cussing anyway, so.
Speaker 5: You don't feeling like I'm hurting. I gotta get these
Speaker 5: bad going. So every day I'm working out, working out.
Speaker 5: And then I would say about a year and a
Speaker 5: half ago, I was working out five days a week,
Speaker 5: and I traveled and I came back from New York
Speaker 5: City and I remember taking a day off. It was
Speaker 5: like a Tuesday, right. Actually was in New York on
Speaker 5: a Monday, got off the plane, worked out, came had meetings,
Speaker 5: came back and the next day, instead of me getting
Speaker 5: up and going to go work out, I was like,
Speaker 5: AHM taking this. I'm seriously do I'm every day Monday
Speaker 5: through Friday, I'm doing something, staying active. Five thirty morning,
Speaker 5: I get up and I go do something right and
Speaker 5: I just dropped the ball down. I was like, I'm tired,
Speaker 5: I don't want to do it. And I'm telling you
Speaker 5: to this day. This is about a year and a
Speaker 5: half ago. I have not been that consistent up until
Speaker 5: two months ago. See the problem I had was I
Speaker 5: was so cookie cutter and I was so into a regiment,
Speaker 5: regimen regiment. I took one day the coward showed up
Speaker 5: and said, nah, I'm gonna take this day off, right,
Speaker 5: And it took me up until two months ago to
Speaker 5: get back on track. And we act like we're always
Speaker 5: consistent with no, we're not like no one does it
Speaker 5: every single the Coward's going to show up at some point, right,
Speaker 5: And I've always been like, nah, no, it won't happen
Speaker 5: to me. And now it happened. And then here's the deal.
Speaker 5: This is what got me, this is what really got me.
Speaker 5: So I'm working out. I'm in my gym, I'm in
Speaker 5: my garage, and the doors are open right every day.
Speaker 5: Five forty five, about six oh five, a lady named
Speaker 5: Carol runs like clockwork.
Speaker 1: Like clockwork.
Speaker 5: She lives two blocks down right, and Carol, she used
Speaker 5: to see me working out all the time. And this
Speaker 5: is where I knew I really slipped up. I'm out
Speaker 5: there working out one day and I'm not consistent. I'm
Speaker 5: out there twice maybe a week or whatnot. Carol runs up.
Speaker 5: She says, hey, you've been traveling a lot, and I'm like, no,
Speaker 5: what are you talking about. I've been here. She's like,
Speaker 5: I haven't seen you, And I thought, okay, Cal there
Speaker 5: is I see how Yeah, there it goes to chip again.
Speaker 5: Ye okay, I need the chip, dude, I need Oh
Speaker 5: you're gonna see me tomorrow, Carols. Matter of fact, you're
Speaker 5: gonna see me every single day. But I need that
Speaker 5: right because if I don't have the motivation, if I
Speaker 5: don't have something that's gonna spark me, I tend to
Speaker 5: fall off.
Speaker 4: What do you mean by the coward showed up?
Speaker 5: The coward is that person like you work every day,
Speaker 5: you wake up, you look in the mirror, right, and
Speaker 5: the coward is the one who's always saying, hey, you
Speaker 5: know you worked out last week, or you let me
Speaker 5: worked out every day this week.
Speaker 1: Take the day off, go get back in bed. That's
Speaker 1: that coward, right.
Speaker 5: Coward also wants to be tumultuous, wants to fight people,
Speaker 5: wants to argue.
Speaker 1: Hey, man, your wife.
Speaker 5: She came in a little late yesterday, she said, so
Speaker 5: she snapped at you a little bit.
Speaker 1: Man. You need to take it out like you. You
Speaker 1: need to give it back to her today like this
Speaker 1: revenge time.
Speaker 7: Right.
Speaker 1: The coward's always the one. He's dysfunctional.
Speaker 5: It's that dysfunctional part of you that wants to speak
Speaker 5: to you and wants to have this that subgroup who
Speaker 5: wants to have their largest voice just wants to have
Speaker 5: this loud voice and scream from the mountains. You got
Speaker 5: to defend your mind. You gotta need your mind. He's
Speaker 5: the taker, he's the victim. He wants me to play
Speaker 5: the victim card. Oh man, did you see what happened
Speaker 5: to the black guy on TV yesterday?
Speaker 1: Every white person should pay for it?
Speaker 5: No, man, Like, let's reset, look in the mirror and
Speaker 5: tell the coward, no, bro, it ain't going down that way.
Speaker 5: It's not happening. This is how I'm gonna live my life.
Speaker 5: I'm gonna live it with grace. I'm gonna live it
Speaker 5: with structure. I'm gonna live it in Jesus' path. That's
Speaker 5: the way I'm gonna I'm gonna live my life.
Speaker 1: Period.
Speaker 5: I still need that chip because if I don't have
Speaker 5: that chip on my shoulder, the coward will show up.
Speaker 4: That's your fuel, that's my fuel. What do you call
Speaker 4: the champion?
Speaker 1: Dude? That dude like I got that dude, that that
Speaker 1: dude is a guy that's like, hey man, we ain't
Speaker 1: hearing all that. Let's go, let's go. We gotta go
Speaker 1: choose one.
Speaker 2: I call that that's the good versus evil.
Speaker 1: Yeah, everybody's got it every day every day wake up,
Speaker 1: you can decide which weren't fighting for.
Speaker 3: Yeah, what would your daily affirmation be to yourself as
Speaker 3: you're looking in the mirror?
Speaker 5: How many people I touched in that day? The one
Speaker 5: thing I do have. First of all, I have three
Speaker 5: four kids. Three of them are out of the house.
Speaker 5: One that I got a seven year old. Right, So
Speaker 5: I try to get that work out in the morning
Speaker 5: every day and my son goes to school. I take
Speaker 5: them to school about seven thirty. I'm gonna have breakfast
Speaker 5: with them. Wow, every single morning, right, it's just hands down,
Speaker 5: there are no meetings. If I'm in town, I'm having
Speaker 5: breakfast with him. I'm sitting down just here, and my
Speaker 5: wife is usually either working out or she's doing her
Speaker 5: own thing.
Speaker 1: Right. I get him dressed, feed them, take them to school.
Speaker 1: That's a win for me.
Speaker 5: I got workout in, I took him to school, spent
Speaker 5: time before seven thirty in the morning, got that done.
Speaker 5: Those are two wins, and I count wins. I'm sorry,
Speaker 5: I just have to That's what I do.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 5: But then on the way to work, daily affirmation is
Speaker 5: basically on the way to work. Again, I'm always in
Speaker 5: these modes, right, Like I can be.
Speaker 1: Up and down or whatnot.
Speaker 5: And I'm always trying to shake that mode of because
Speaker 5: I can be confrontational on certain things, right, shake the
Speaker 5: mode of, hey man, instead of being confrontational, what are
Speaker 5: you gonna bring?
Speaker 1: Like, what positiveness are you gonna bring?
Speaker 5: I love those guys Like he walks into a room
Speaker 5: and then he lights the room up. However you want
Speaker 5: to take it like he's gonna be a charge. He's
Speaker 5: super charged all energy, right, And when Jake walks in
Speaker 5: the room, You're like, Okay, herey comes. I don't know
Speaker 5: how he's gonna go, but here comes that energy, right.
Speaker 5: And I think special people have that, and I want
Speaker 5: to be that person. Like I want to walk into
Speaker 5: my office and I want people to look at me
Speaker 5: and say, man, you dude the energy because I hear
Speaker 5: that all the time from me when I walk in
Speaker 5: my office, hey man, you bring that positive energy because
Speaker 5: I walk in, I'm smiling. One that's one is I
Speaker 5: always tell myself, you're gonna smile when you walk in
Speaker 5: the office, regardless of what's happening. The admins whomever You're
Speaker 5: gonna walk up and say what's going on?
Speaker 1: Yes, talk loud. Sometimes when I walk in the office
Speaker 1: and like good Marning Darren, that's a response. I'm like,
Speaker 1: you better hear yes, good, Yeah, here we go right good.
Speaker 5: I want to bring that energy because I think there's
Speaker 5: something about it.
Speaker 1: Right. Who wants to hear that guy? Yeah? Who wants
Speaker 1: to be that guy? They walk in the room and.
Speaker 4: It's just like, don't be the one that drains it, just.
Speaker 1: Suck the light. I don't want to be that guy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: be a soul feeder. Short you only get one shot, man, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 5: And I'm telling you who's watching all the time. Your
Speaker 5: kids are watching. Jackson's watching.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, they're watching it.
Speaker 5: Like, if you don't have that energy, if you don't
Speaker 5: have that pop when you walk in the room, they're probably.
Speaker 2: Like, that's right everything you do.
Speaker 3: Did those voices the coward and the dude? Did that
Speaker 3: start early in life?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 1: I did. It started when I was a kid.
Speaker 5: I went to junior high and I remember being on
Speaker 5: a bus and something it went down the day before.
Speaker 5: It was a little scrap right on the basketball courtiods
Speaker 5: playing basketball. One guy says something I said something. We
Speaker 5: went back and forth. Gang member. He's a Hispanic gang member.
Speaker 5: School was half black, half Hispanic, and sometimes there was
Speaker 5: went down sometimes playing basketball. If we got into it
Speaker 5: didn't even It's like, oh whatever. So I remember the
Speaker 5: next day, I'm on the bus and I'm getting off
Speaker 5: the bus and I wasn't even thinking about it.
Speaker 1: And I'm getting off, about to get off the bus,
Speaker 1: and I remember the bus stopping.
Speaker 5: I look down and old boys with his whole you
Speaker 5: got his whole posse right there.
Speaker 1: Right, I'm by myself.
Speaker 5: Right, my boys are already they've already been dropped off, right,
Speaker 5: my bus stop. So I remember here it goes right,
Speaker 5: you better not back down. You better not like you
Speaker 5: cannot they if your boys see you, coward back to dude,
Speaker 5: you couldn't do it right. So that coward was in
Speaker 5: my head, the hole. Don't get off that bus. Don't
Speaker 5: get off that bus. Don't get off that bus. I
Speaker 5: mean he's just talking to me, and dude, it's like, now,
Speaker 5: you don't give it to his ass today. You're gonna
Speaker 5: get to do that today.
Speaker 1: Right, And I remember sitting there in the bus driver
Speaker 1: sitting there, what's it?
Speaker 5: I can hear him waiting. He's waiting, and he says, hey,
Speaker 5: you ain't got to get off. You ain't got to
Speaker 5: get off.
Speaker 1: Brother, dude, black dude, big heavy dude named Ernie, you
Speaker 1: ain't got to get off. New you knew you got
Speaker 1: that bag. We don't get.
Speaker 5: But that's one where I'm like, that sucker was there
Speaker 5: right back.
Speaker 1: And forth and the way back then. Look, we weren't.
Speaker 5: Fighting with guns and all that stuff, right, he knew
Speaker 5: it was gonna be. He was going and I got
Speaker 5: off the bus. Did nothing happen. No, I got the bus,
Speaker 5: got my bag, started walking. He just looked at me,
Speaker 5: said a few things, kept on going. But that's one thing.
Speaker 5: That's one time I remember, like, you know how mad?
Speaker 5: Honestly I didn't know, but I was just having his
Speaker 5: battle of it was going back and I don't know
Speaker 5: how long.
Speaker 1: Dude was holding the door, like, hey he had the
Speaker 1: door closed. He didn't. He was like, hey, that was
Speaker 1: a test. Yeah it was a test, dude.
Speaker 5: But I know where that guy is cause it's the
Speaker 5: same thing that happens to me when I'm sitting there
Speaker 5: and I know I got a prep for an RFP
Speaker 5: or whatnot. Because the Cowury is gonna say, you got this.
Speaker 5: You just wing it, just wing this thing. You know
Speaker 5: you got Walmart tomorrow, just wing it. No. The dude's like, no, No,
Speaker 5: we're gonna get down. We're gonna get dirty today. We're
Speaker 5: gon we're gonna learn something. We're gonna learn something.
Speaker 3: All right, talk to us about the triumph of winning
Speaker 3: not one, not two, but three Super Bowls.
Speaker 5: You know, winning Super Bowls was first of all, it's
Speaker 5: people see us play these games and they think, oh, man,
Speaker 5: you know, you guys are so talented and blah blah blah.
Speaker 5: What people don't see is the time that goes into this. Right,
Speaker 5: So the season ends, let's say the Super Bowls played
Speaker 5: in I don't know, February ninth or tenth. Right by
Speaker 5: the end of March, you're back in the gym, right,
Speaker 5: So that's when it starts. It's a little different now,
Speaker 5: But when I was playing, it started like the end
Speaker 5: of March. You're starting to get back in the gym.
Speaker 5: I say, like March twentieth, you take some time, and
Speaker 5: then March twentieth you get back in the gym and
Speaker 5: you have these times where.
Speaker 1: You work out together.
Speaker 5: Right, So it's defensive backs, linebackers that work out at a
Speaker 5: certain time on the line and they work out of
Speaker 5: side and it's usually our group was usually going.
Speaker 1: At seven am. That's when the groundwork started.
Speaker 5: It start right then you start to set the tone
Speaker 5: of Okay, March twentieth, and then you get into April,
Speaker 5: we get the you have the NFL Draft, and there's
Speaker 5: guys that are coming and going, they're chopping, they're firing,
Speaker 5: they're cutting.
Speaker 1: Guys, they're bringing in new guys.
Speaker 5: And then by the time you get into May, you
Speaker 5: kind of know who's going into training camp, right, but
Speaker 5: you're still building this team. And like for me as
Speaker 5: a captain of the defense, I'm always engaging with the
Speaker 5: young guys coming in or trying to engage with people
Speaker 5: to say, Okay, we gotta do this, and I'm trying to.
Speaker 1: Keep my own job at the same time.
Speaker 5: Right, But that's when it starts, so people don't see
Speaker 5: all the things that take place. And then you get
Speaker 5: into training camp. And then when you're in training camp,
Speaker 5: you get guys coming and going in. Then you have
Speaker 5: injuries throughout the season, Then you have big wins throughout
Speaker 5: the season, then you got these big losses throughout the
Speaker 5: seasons like a roller coaster ride, Right, emotions are just
Speaker 5: going up and down, and then you get into the
Speaker 5: playoffs and then it heightens itself even that much more. Right,
Speaker 5: There's so much that goes into this because you set
Speaker 5: these goals early on and you're trying to get there,
Speaker 5: and you have these ups and downs and valleys and
Speaker 5: those and you eat this a long season and coaches
Speaker 5: that are talking about getting fired and all the things
Speaker 5: that are going on, and then you finally get there and.
Speaker 1: You get into the playoffs and you're like, man, we're
Speaker 1: in the tournament. Now.
Speaker 5: We got three games, three games, and here we are.
Speaker 5: And that is what people don't see. They don't see
Speaker 5: the fact that every morning on Monday, I can't walk.
Speaker 5: I can't walk Monday morning, I gotta get nice up.
Speaker 5: I'm struggling to get to Wednesday's practice. Right Monday, I'm
Speaker 5: beat down. I'm just trying to stay a little lose. Tuesday,
Speaker 5: I'm like, I can't even get out of bed. I
Speaker 5: don't want to do anything.
Speaker 1: Isn't it weird? It's always two days later?
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, yeah, I don't know, especially if you play
Speaker 5: on turf, play on turf, bro, it is a beating.
Speaker 5: You know, you got turf burns that you don't want
Speaker 5: to get, staff infections and all. I mean, there's so
Speaker 5: much that goes on to this. So but hey, again
Speaker 5: I ain't whinting because paychecks are nice.
Speaker 1: Hey, there's a give and take here. Now I'm not
Speaker 1: whining about it.
Speaker 5: And then again, so now you're trying to get there.
Speaker 5: You're in the playoffs, and it's one game at a time.
Speaker 5: There is no seven game series, five games series. It
Speaker 5: is one game you gotta win. And when you do,
Speaker 5: when you finally get there to the pinnacle and you
Speaker 5: win that championship, it's unmatched. The feeling of victory, the
Speaker 5: feeling of walking into that locker room, because I could
Speaker 5: care less when we won the Super Bowl, I can
Speaker 5: care less what was going on outside that locker room.
Speaker 5: That locker room was hot. It was just dudes are
Speaker 5: crying emotionally, you're spent, but you're just like we did it.
Speaker 4: It's special.
Speaker 5: It's special, yeah, and you never lose that, right. There's
Speaker 5: a certain camaraderie that's a super Bowl winning team and
Speaker 5: you stay together all these We just had a reunion
Speaker 5: two months ago. Troy set it up and man, we
Speaker 5: had a great time.
Speaker 1: Like that's we look different, we all looked different, but
Speaker 1: we still tell them lies. We teld all these lies.
Speaker 5: But it's just you, just that fraternity you'd never forget.
Speaker 5: And it's just a special moment, it really is.
Speaker 3: What would you say to that young man back in
Speaker 3: Phoenix if you could talk to him today?
Speaker 5: Who if I could talk to him today, I would
Speaker 5: probably say, it's okay to cry, It's okay, yeah, because
Speaker 5: I didn't have I mean, there was so many times
Speaker 5: I just want to be hard.
Speaker 1: I had to be hard.
Speaker 5: I had to you know, I didn't have my father there,
Speaker 5: I didn't have all those little things. And it's okay
Speaker 5: to just let it go and just yeah, be human
Speaker 5: and just and move forward because I just I held
Speaker 5: on to so much negativity. There are times where I
Speaker 5: probably just wouldn't let it go. Yeah, it would have
Speaker 5: made for better me at a younger age.
Speaker 4: But it's okay to have the chip, but don't let it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, don't let it consume you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, bro, thank you for sharing that.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean I was just gonna ask a questions, but
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, you're done.
Speaker 2: Actually be the tea like I want to know, and
Speaker 2: you can't say. We can say whatever you want, but
Speaker 2: what do you do to recharge? What do you do
Speaker 2: to put soul food in you to get back up
Speaker 2: and get back out there and to continue to pour
Speaker 2: in to make people and businesses and teams.
Speaker 1: And man, dude, you hit. I'm glad see you brought
Speaker 1: some value today. You do. Absolutely, that was that was
Speaker 1: a great, great question. So every day I had talked about.
Speaker 5: When I get up in the morning and go work out,
Speaker 5: all right, there's this minute like I usually have like
Speaker 5: these three minutes where I just go, man, and I
Speaker 5: go into my closet. I got my shoes on and
Speaker 5: stuff like that. But I'll usually go, I'm looking for
Speaker 5: a shirt, do it, and I get on my knees.
Speaker 5: Like every single day, it's like the recharge, right, and
Speaker 5: I'm laying down flat and I'm just telling God, I
Speaker 5: ain't worthy. I love you, Please pour into me because
Speaker 5: I know I'm not worthy. That's like my recharge time.
Speaker 5: For some reason. It's just that feeling of and sometimes
Speaker 5: I don't even say anything. I just sit there and
Speaker 5: just try to listen, and I'll do it for like
Speaker 5: three to five minutes in my class. My wife has
Speaker 5: come in so many times, like we've had workouts and
Speaker 5: she'll come in and I've seen her turn the lights on.
Speaker 1: And be like, walk right back out.
Speaker 5: She knows, that's my timetime, that hey, my time. Oh
Speaker 5: she knows, she knows. But I just every morning, I
Speaker 5: just need it. Every morning, I just need it.
Speaker 2: I just continue to love you more every freaking time
Speaker 2: we're I'm around you, I'm.
Speaker 1: Like, God, that's just that's good. That's good ship right there.
Speaker 4: That's the good ship. Or we're changing the name of
Speaker 4: the podcast.
Speaker 3: I mean, I think that's the first time I've cussed
Speaker 3: on the podcast people.
Speaker 4: I mean, Darren Woodson, thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Thank you for your.
Speaker 3: Time, thank you for your vulnerability, for telling us your
Speaker 3: story and your truth and everything that you do to
Speaker 3: practice and rest assured.
Speaker 4: You are the good energy in the room. When you
Speaker 4: walk in, everything elevates, and it does.
Speaker 5: I love you, of course, I love y'all too, And
Speaker 5: we've known each other for a while. But y'all just
Speaker 5: good folks, sharp and good folks. And he this dude
Speaker 5: ain't gonnaver let me drop the ball. He's gonna make
Speaker 5: sure I got it right. But I also want to
Speaker 5: thank Nick. Right months ago, Nick Rock, I had a
Speaker 5: long conversation out and actually I was sitting in the
Speaker 5: gym when we had that conversation, but it was it
Speaker 5: was a deep like he asked me some questions that
Speaker 5: I was like, Man, that's very inquisitive. That really got
Speaker 5: me to thinking about a lot of other things. So Nick,
Speaker 5: I know you're listening. Man, appreciate you.
Speaker 1: Brother.
Speaker 4: He is the best.
Speaker 1: Couldn't period, no Nick, no good stuff. Yeah, that's simple.
Speaker 2: There's a reason he's he does what he does. He
Speaker 2: is a solid, solid human being. Well, thank you.
Speaker 1: I tell you know how I feel about you anytime.
Speaker 2: Anytime, anywhere, any day, no questions, time and place.
Speaker 1: I'm there back at you, bro, I know I love it.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much for listening today.
Speaker 3: If this episode touched you, please share it and be
Speaker 3: part of making someone else's day better.
Speaker 2: Put on your bad ass caves and go be a
Speaker 2: champion today and remember you can't do epic stuff without
Speaker 2: epic people.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to the good Stuff.
Speaker 3: The Good Stuff is executive for used by Ashley Shick,
Speaker 3: Jacob Schick, Leah Pictures and q Coode Media, Hosted by
Speaker 3: Ashley Shick and Jacob Schick. Produced by Nick Cassellini and
Speaker 3: Ryan Count's house post production supervisor Will Tindy. Music editing
Speaker 3: by Will Haywood Smith, edited by Mike Robinson,