Speaker 1: This is How Men Think with broths Like and Gavin
Speaker 1: de grab and I hear radio podcast. Welcome to another
Speaker 1: episode of How Men Think. My name is Brooks Like
Speaker 1: and we have a new co host in here with
Speaker 1: us today. And it's always a joy of mine when
Speaker 1: we bring on. I always look at these guys as brothers,
Speaker 1: brothers or sisters because they are athletes. And we have
Speaker 1: a professional athlete. We have a retired I don't I
Speaker 1: don't even want to say that because it's not my
Speaker 1: spot to say it, but a former uh National Football
Speaker 1: League player NFL player played to the Buffalo Bills, Jackson's
Speaker 1: Bille Jaguars and my Skins, my Washington Redskins. He's a husband,
Speaker 1: he's a father. We have Michael Cosson in with us. Michael,
Speaker 1: welcome to the show. Brother, Thank you, thank you, Brooks
Speaker 1: appreciate it. Man. Dude, did I see your last last name? Right?
Speaker 1: You did? You did? And that's that's my wife's biggest
Speaker 1: gripe about being married with me. Really is my last
Speaker 1: name because legally her last name is Corson and no
Speaker 1: one can pronounce it over phone. Everyone thinks when you
Speaker 1: say s, they say F like, oh, coffin, got it
Speaker 1: got We're like, no, okay, whatever, oh cause my last
Speaker 1: name gets butchered all the time. My last name is
Speaker 1: like although it looks like late and so I'm always like,
Speaker 1: I just want to say people's names right. So, rather
Speaker 1: I appreciate you for being on the show, Um, I
Speaker 1: want to dig into your journey because the reason I like,
Speaker 1: I always loved the journey of an athlete because I
Speaker 1: was one, but like your journey in reading your bio
Speaker 1: and seeing your transition from sport to what you're doing
Speaker 1: now is is just aligns with me. So, Um, you
Speaker 1: were a professional football player, which goes to you do
Speaker 1: that is a freaking beast of a sport that is
Speaker 1: a hard, hard sport. Um, And now you've come out
Speaker 1: of the sport as I have, and I want you
Speaker 1: to share with our listeners to then maybe I haven't
Speaker 1: listened to your podcast yet, but what the transition has
Speaker 1: been like for you coming out of the sport, moving
Speaker 1: in transitioning to trying to find a new passion. For sure,
Speaker 1: it's one of those things that you know as an
Speaker 1: athlete you can kind of relate to when you're in it,
Speaker 1: when you're in your sport. It does feel like it's
Speaker 1: you're going to be in it for your life, Like
Speaker 1: you can't really foresee you not doing it. You know
Speaker 1: inevitably you have to stop, but you just that's not
Speaker 1: a reality for you. It's just for athletes. We get
Speaker 1: stuck in our bubble, in our mindset because it consumes
Speaker 1: you so much. So when you come out of that
Speaker 1: bubble and out of that pink cloud of of reality
Speaker 1: of you know, being an athlete and going back into reality,
Speaker 1: it's it is, though, what now? Like you can prepare
Speaker 1: all you want And I did that too when I was,
Speaker 1: you know, playing the NFL Externships every season, and I
Speaker 1: try to set myself up, but then life happens. I
Speaker 1: meet my wife, I've moved to a different state. All
Speaker 1: my kind of connections were back east, so things are
Speaker 1: just different, and you you roll with those obstacles. So
Speaker 1: it was just you know, I guess I say to
Speaker 1: your listeners, imagine not doing the thing you've done your
Speaker 1: entire life and then just starting all over. It's like,
Speaker 1: what does that look like? So I think that's so
Speaker 1: important because I think a lot of people are going
Speaker 1: through that. I don't think it's just something that professional
Speaker 1: athletes go through. And so as a listener of this podcast,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be Michael and I sharing our stories in
Speaker 1: relation to hockey and in relation to football. But it
Speaker 1: can be just a midlife pivot. It can be maybe
Speaker 1: COVID has interrupted your business or your career and maybe
Speaker 1: now you're looking for a pivot. So in this in
Speaker 1: this episode, we're going to get into possible pivots or
Speaker 1: transitions in career, lots of purpose, shake ups, um, things
Speaker 1: that are outside of your control that maybe redirect you
Speaker 1: on a new path. And we're also going to dive
Speaker 1: into some listener questions about why men like sports so much?
Speaker 1: So who better to answer that than you, buddy? Uh,
Speaker 1: but what have you found being the biggest challenge um
Speaker 1: for you personally in in finding something post sports? What
Speaker 1: has been the biggest challenge for you? Has it been
Speaker 1: letting go of sports or has it been finding something
Speaker 1: else that you're passionate about. It's it hasn't been letting
Speaker 1: go of sports, because I'm sure you can relate. It's
Speaker 1: like the first couple of seasons after you retire, you
Speaker 1: don't want to be around it. You don't really want
Speaker 1: to talk about it. You can't watch it. I don't
Speaker 1: even think about that right Why it's too close to
Speaker 1: home still because you see all these guys that you
Speaker 1: either played beside, played against, and you're like, this guy
Speaker 1: is still playing and you just you miss. And not
Speaker 1: that you're judging that person for not being good enough
Speaker 1: to still play, but you just miss being out there.
Speaker 1: You know, you ask any of us, nine percent of
Speaker 1: us are gonna say, what do we miss the most?
Speaker 1: The locker room, the camaraderie, the guys, that environment. And
Speaker 1: so it's just when I would watch it, I would
Speaker 1: start to think of those things, and think about that
Speaker 1: brotherhood and and think about my connection with my teammates
Speaker 1: and everything, and so I couldn't watch it the first
Speaker 1: couple of years. Now five years removed, I'm to the
Speaker 1: point where I can watch it as a fan again.
Speaker 1: I enjoy it um But it's the biggest struggle for
Speaker 1: me has been so letting go of the game was
Speaker 1: was fine. It's it really is finding that purpose, that
Speaker 1: thing that gets you up in the morning. And again,
Speaker 1: most professional people in general, but especially athletes, are days
Speaker 1: are scheduled from top to bottom, and so when you
Speaker 1: go when you have that lifestyle for so long and
Speaker 1: then it just ceases to exist. It's like, wait, I'm
Speaker 1: used to someone telling me what my day is gonna
Speaker 1: look like, or at least in the offseason, I know
Speaker 1: I'm scheduled with trainers, I'm scheduled doing their things I
Speaker 1: need to do. Now it's like, uh, what you know?
Speaker 1: Trying I'm like lost, I'm like what do I do?
Speaker 1: I don't have to do this, I don't have to
Speaker 1: do that. So that's been the biggest struggle for me
Speaker 1: is on a day to day basis, just trying to
Speaker 1: find a routine. Mine has been. That's interesting, mine has been.
Speaker 1: I bet a lot of people listening can assimilate with
Speaker 1: that because they're their routines have been disrupted with COVID right,
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, you at home, all of a
Speaker 1: sudd now you gotta be a parent and like a
Speaker 1: teacher and do your job, and your gym is closed
Speaker 1: and your church is closed, and like jeez, you used
Speaker 1: to travel, but oh you can't see family now. Like um,
Speaker 1: a lot of routines have been disrupted. My biggest struggle
Speaker 1: struggle has been finding something that I'm equally as passionate
Speaker 1: about to actually two struggles. One I missed the Uber competition.
Speaker 1: I miss lining up with and playing against the best
Speaker 1: in the world, and that measuring stick. I missed that
Speaker 1: so much so I missed the Uber competition. Um. And
Speaker 1: then the other thing I miss is just something that
Speaker 1: I am so consumed by and and driven to accomplish
Speaker 1: and proud of and just fascinated with, the pursuit of mastery.
Speaker 1: I missed the pursuit of mastery because as an athlete,
Speaker 1: that's what you are. You're pursuing the mastery of your craft,
Speaker 1: excellence within yourself to be excellent at this craft. And
Speaker 1: I haven't shown up that way in other things that
Speaker 1: I have done. Um, since I have lost not yeah,
Speaker 1: even the way I say it lost hockey since my
Speaker 1: career says it has been over. So UM. I try
Speaker 1: and be a better podcast host. I try and study
Speaker 1: podcast host, I try and get better at conversations. UM.
Speaker 1: But I'll even admit it's not to the level that
Speaker 1: I was as an athlete. That was a suit every
Speaker 1: single day for every decision you made. And so part
Speaker 1: of my heart breaks the fact that I am not
Speaker 1: that committed like I was as an athlete to the
Speaker 1: podcast or other little endeavors that I do. My heart
Speaker 1: just breaks a little bit for that. Well, think about
Speaker 1: this too, and this is you know, I know we
Speaker 1: have a question today about like why men love sports
Speaker 1: so much. My answer to that, but also to what
Speaker 1: you're saying, is what else in life do does anybody
Speaker 1: have that makes them as excited and passionate as sports?
Speaker 1: There's nothing but maybe gambling, you know, if you went
Speaker 1: a big back. But besides that that instant you know, uh,
Speaker 1: euphoric feeling of of of happiness and success. There's nothing
Speaker 1: that gets you to jump out of your seat. Sports does.
Speaker 1: So when you're playing doing that as a career and
Speaker 1: you have that high and low of working your ass
Speaker 1: off and feeling those feelings, it's like and then you
Speaker 1: go into something else. Like you said, Posca, I try
Speaker 1: to do the same thing. I try to get better,
Speaker 1: I ask you questions. I try to be a better
Speaker 1: host or be at a husband. But there's nothing else
Speaker 1: for that that that gratification of I've seen your hard
Speaker 1: work payoff or whatever it may be. There's the's nothing
Speaker 1: that really gets you out of your seat. So it's
Speaker 1: hard to find a substitute. Yeah, and the sudden victory
Speaker 1: and the sudden death of it, like the and because
Speaker 1: the sudden victory when you see athletes, this is sharing
Speaker 1: to anybody listening, when you see grown men or women
Speaker 1: athletes just overcome by joy and elated at a moment
Speaker 1: of success when they get a touchdown or you score
Speaker 1: a goal or something they win like they just like
Speaker 1: the pure emotion comes out. The pure emotion comes out
Speaker 1: because they're You're competing against somebody that's equally as talented,
Speaker 1: equally as committed, equally as driven, you know, uh, And
Speaker 1: to find your way to overcome that and to beat
Speaker 1: them is such is such a reward because so much
Speaker 1: goes into it. We're not just talking about a month
Speaker 1: of preparation. We're talking about years and decades of preparation
Speaker 1: that go into that moment of overcoming and winning and achieving.
Speaker 1: And that's been hard for me to replace in in
Speaker 1: the transition years of my life right now. But Steve Young,
Speaker 1: who I don't know if you ever played against Steve,
Speaker 1: he was probably out of the league before, but Steve
Speaker 1: is a friend. He gave me great advice one time.
Speaker 1: Steve is three time Super Bowl winner. Uh. He said,
Speaker 1: appreciate your life as an athlete for what it was,
Speaker 1: the building, the sounds of the building, the games you
Speaker 1: got to play, and being on TV is like, appreciate
Speaker 1: all of that, Appreciate the heck out of that, but
Speaker 1: know that you're never going to replace that in your life.
Speaker 1: So don't move into being a former athlete thinking that
Speaker 1: you're going to find something that replaces that. He said,
Speaker 1: find something else that you love and that's really for
Speaker 1: feeling and joyous for you, and focus on that, not
Speaker 1: trying to replace sports with that, but just accepting what
Speaker 1: sports were, loving what they were, being grateful for them,
Speaker 1: and now putting your heart into this. So I've tried
Speaker 1: to remind myself of that, but it's been tough. Are
Speaker 1: you able to let me ask you this? Because I
Speaker 1: know personally certain things are hard for me because I
Speaker 1: set out you know, obviously, we set out goals and
Speaker 1: and and points that we want to reach in our
Speaker 1: professional career when it came to sports, have you been
Speaker 1: able if there is anything that you didn't achieve, have
Speaker 1: you been able to let those goes? Because those are
Speaker 1: the things that have really sat more with me that
Speaker 1: I didn't I wasn't able to accomplish certain things I
Speaker 1: set out to do. Do you have a specific because yes, yes, exactly.
Speaker 1: Do you have any specifics you want to share of
Speaker 1: goals or dreams that you had growing up that you
Speaker 1: were not able to professionally achieve. And I'm I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: I'm poking the dark spot, but you don't have to
Speaker 1: if you don't want to. It's no, it is, it's good.
Speaker 1: It's I mean, you know, I spent five years in
Speaker 1: the NFL, and that was probably longer than really I
Speaker 1: thought maybe that it would last because I was just
Speaker 1: a guy. I was just a guy. I was you know,
Speaker 1: college walk on, free undrafted, free agent, just a guy
Speaker 1: that just made it happen somehow and by the way,
Speaker 1: I appreciate it. And so but still there are things,
Speaker 1: you know, Um, I was able to start the second
Speaker 1: half of one of my years, which was good. So
Speaker 1: you know, I was able to like check that box
Speaker 1: start a game, like even just one game. But there
Speaker 1: are just certain things statistically or personally, or I've never
Speaker 1: went to the playoffs, or I didn't play as long
Speaker 1: as I wanted to, I didn't have the statistics that
Speaker 1: I wanted to. Um, So it's just things like that
Speaker 1: that you know, I worked so hard for that. We
Speaker 1: worked so hard for that. It's just like, man, you
Speaker 1: just kind of left that box unchecked, and it's just
Speaker 1: it's just one of those things that's taken longer to
Speaker 1: let go. Yeah, mine is never winning a Stanley Cup.
Speaker 1: So um, that was my goal the whole time. Mine
Speaker 1: was winning And one of the hardest things for me
Speaker 1: is to let go of that dream, to to accept
Speaker 1: the realization that as a player, I will never win
Speaker 1: a Stanley Cup. But further to that, it's my parents,
Speaker 1: it's my brother, it's my sister, it's my best friends,
Speaker 1: it's the people my coaches throughout my life. It's the
Speaker 1: people that have supported this journey for me that I
Speaker 1: always wanted to bring a Stanley Cup to. It's my
Speaker 1: hometown of a Wolda that I wanted to bring the
Speaker 1: cup back to. Um, that's a big one for me.
Speaker 1: That's a really big one. It's hard to let that
Speaker 1: go because I feel like I disappointed so many people.
Speaker 1: There are personal stats. I wanted to play a thousand games.
Speaker 1: I ended up short of that. A couple of injuries
Speaker 1: caused me, uh short of my career. The release I
Speaker 1: was released. At the end, I didn't retire, you know,
Speaker 1: I didn't say I'm good with this, I'm on my
Speaker 1: own way out piece with this support, like I check out,
Speaker 1: I'm done. I was released. That's a hole in my heart.
Speaker 1: So there were so many things that I didn't accomplish.
Speaker 1: But when I when I have good days, Michael, when
Speaker 1: I look back at it, my good days are filled
Speaker 1: with gratitude. My bad days are filled with what I
Speaker 1: didn't accomplish. And when I actually focus on the fact
Speaker 1: that my actual dream wasn't just winning a Stanley Cup.
Speaker 1: My dream was expressing myself through my sport every single day.
Speaker 1: I actually lived my dream every single day. Right, this
Speaker 1: cup would have been great. But what I can reflect
Speaker 1: with that kind of a mindset, um, So for anybody
Speaker 1: else that's going through like a transition of career or
Speaker 1: a loss of career or something and hasn't accomplished goals,
Speaker 1: that's what I would encourage you. Like your your actual
Speaker 1: goal was probably to express yourself through the thing that
Speaker 1: you love. You grateful for that. So there's there's one
Speaker 1: thing I wanted to mention that that sparked it when
Speaker 1: you said your goals that you weren't able to accomplish.
Speaker 1: And that was I tell my wife this all the time.
Speaker 1: My biggest actual disappointment that that I remember now is
Speaker 1: I always I was single through my NFL days and
Speaker 1: always envied the guys that after practice or after games
Speaker 1: their kids come onto the field and hug them and
Speaker 1: they'd run around the field on with the kids. And
Speaker 1: I was just when I was playing my playing days,
Speaker 1: I was like, man, I can't wait for that, Like
Speaker 1: I can't wait for my kids to like run on
Speaker 1: and see daddy in his pet And I never got that,
Speaker 1: And so that is one thing that's the biggest thing
Speaker 1: for sure. I wish I would have had that memory
Speaker 1: with my kids now. So that's amazing, Yeah, that's I
Speaker 1: get that because it was so awesome to see guys
Speaker 1: bring their kids through the locker room and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: And for me, it's even further like you're a you're
Speaker 1: a father, you have a daughter. Um for me, you
Speaker 1: have one daughter, right, one daughter and a son and
Speaker 1: a son. So you have a daughter and a son
Speaker 1: For me, I don't have kids yet, So my kids
Speaker 1: won't know me as that athlete. They'll be like, really
Speaker 1: you are that, Like they won't be able to wear
Speaker 1: my jersey at the game, you know, which would have
Speaker 1: been a really cool memory to have. So Um, but
Speaker 1: that's by my own choice. You know, that was by
Speaker 1: my own choice. I knew that, But I always thought
Speaker 1: i'd play, as every athlete does, think that we would
Speaker 1: play longer. Um, give me, give me your favorite one
Speaker 1: of your favorite personal memories, or something that you're really
Speaker 1: proud of about your career as an athlete, Michael, something
Speaker 1: internally that you're so just warms your heart and proud of.
Speaker 1: Here's the thing I will say, And this is something
Speaker 1: I always It's kind of intangible and immeasurable. Where I
Speaker 1: never changed. And I say that with confidence and pride
Speaker 1: that the people that knew me before, the people that
Speaker 1: knew me during, the people that knew me after, I
Speaker 1: was the same person. And I tell people too. I
Speaker 1: tell young guys that don't mentor or talk to who
Speaker 1: are in college or or or trying to be in
Speaker 1: you know, in the NFL or whatever. I tell him. Look,
Speaker 1: I knew everyone's name from the janitor to our g M.
Speaker 1: I was like, I should have been cut two years
Speaker 1: prior to when I actually was by buff Low. But
Speaker 1: I truly believe the reason I wasn't was because I
Speaker 1: was a positive guy around the facility. I was just
Speaker 1: one of those guys that like, okay, so we're like,
Speaker 1: he's a he's a good dude. He like brings the
Speaker 1: team up, he's here every day, he works hard. He
Speaker 1: never missed it. He just I was consistent. I was
Speaker 1: the same person every day. And so that's one of
Speaker 1: those things that I look back on and no one
Speaker 1: can take that away from me because I was like
Speaker 1: I never changed. Yeah, that's awesome. I love that about you, man,
Speaker 1: because I feel the same way about myself. Like you
Speaker 1: said the janitor to the gm UM, I missed those relationships.
Speaker 1: I miss seeing the the staff at the rink, you know,
Speaker 1: the dorman or the locker room staff or anybody. It
Speaker 1: could be the guy in the elevator, could be the
Speaker 1: lady at the parking when we get there. Like, I
Speaker 1: miss seeing those faces and just being involved with those
Speaker 1: people's lives um and knowing that you you are part
Speaker 1: of something. You aren't the something, correct, you know. So
Speaker 1: there's there's athletes that are like that. They're like, I'm
Speaker 1: the show. I'm here, You're here to serve me, But
Speaker 1: there's so many other ones that aren't that are like,
Speaker 1: I'm part of this. We are all part of this,
Speaker 1: and they share in your winds, you know, like the
Speaker 1: fun part. They share in your winds. So yeah, um,
Speaker 1: your favorite NFL memory? Favorite NFL memory? Home man like
Speaker 1: asking athletes this, what's one? What's one memory? Maybe a
Speaker 1: play you made, maybe like a feeling looking up and
Speaker 1: see eighty thousand people in the anthem, the planes flying over, Like,
Speaker 1: I don't know what's What's a memory that stands out
Speaker 1: to you? There is a weird plane. So I grew
Speaker 1: up in the d C. Area. Okay, so I grew up.
Speaker 1: I grew up a Skins fan and we were playing
Speaker 1: the Broncos. Was it two? There's two thousand and On
Speaker 1: a play, I was stretching out and I went to
Speaker 1: go block Champ Bailey yea, and I blocked them and
Speaker 1: did my job. It was great, but it was it
Speaker 1: was one of those moments that I'm like, I'm like
Speaker 1: kind of jogging back to the huddle. I'm like I
Speaker 1: was a kid watching him. You know. It's just at
Speaker 1: that moment you play with these guys who you looked
Speaker 1: up to or you were fans of and it's just
Speaker 1: like that's surreal moment that you're like, wait, what what
Speaker 1: just happened? Immediately you feel like you're twelve years old again.
Speaker 1: So that's one of those. I had a few of those,
Speaker 1: but that was one of those moments because I grew
Speaker 1: up a Redskins fan and it was Champ and he
Speaker 1: had been in the league at that point like fifteen
Speaker 1: years or whatever it was. I was just like, Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's the man. And then so did this happen for you?
Speaker 1: Because I had that same thing where you're like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're not that good man. I'm on your level now,
Speaker 1: you know for sure. You're so proud of yourself. You're like, yeah,
Speaker 1: he's just human. He's human, but he's human with you, brother,
Speaker 1: Let's go for sure. And I've also had the reverse
Speaker 1: of that where I've also where I've also go to
Speaker 1: hit a guy and I went to go hit like
Speaker 1: te Kio Spikes when he was with the Chargers and
Speaker 1: he is a brick wall and I went up and
Speaker 1: I was two pounds when my playing days. I went
Speaker 1: up and snacked him. I didn't it was like hitting
Speaker 1: a tree like that. He didn't go anywhere and not
Speaker 1: even like office foot or anything. I just kind of okay,
Speaker 1: you got it, my bad, I'm just getting running back.
Speaker 1: That happens too. Sometimes you'll get a guy you're like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you ain't that bad man. I'm I'm right here with you.
Speaker 1: I'm here, I'm here. And then other times you'll you
Speaker 1: get a guy you're like, oh damn you. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: I get it, you got it, And that's why you
Speaker 1: still got it. You're the man. I love it, um.
Speaker 1: But it was that was that was something for me
Speaker 1: my first ten games in the NHL, I was looking
Speaker 1: around it like these guys. That was just like these
Speaker 1: are my childhood idols. I play them on Sega Genesis
Speaker 1: I haven't guys. And then and then you know, you
Speaker 1: get us. You take a puck from them, like you said,
Speaker 1: you block Champ Bailey, and you're like, okay, I can
Speaker 1: I can hang here? You know, they're great. Great, It
Speaker 1: gives me something to strive to to become and be
Speaker 1: better at. But yeah, I deserve to be here. I
Speaker 1: can hang here so good. Yeah, awesome man. So I
Speaker 1: want to get into more sports with you, um. And
Speaker 1: we're also gonna bring on another tastic guests and the
Speaker 1: hilarious guests. Um, and we're gonna have a conversation about
Speaker 1: sports in generals, what it means to us as men.
Speaker 1: We're gonna explain to a lot of our a lot
Speaker 1: of our community here at how men think our female
Speaker 1: We're gonna explain why sports are so important to us,
Speaker 1: why they matter so much White guys are addicted to sports.
Speaker 1: We're gonna get three different angles on it. Um. We'll
Speaker 1: be right back with another guest right after this. We'll
Speaker 1: get into why sports are so important for men. Okay,
Speaker 1: back from breaks. The question we get from a lot
Speaker 1: of our listeners, A lot of our listeners are female.
Speaker 1: We get this question a lot. Why do men love sports?
Speaker 1: What is it about sports that men are so drawn to?
Speaker 1: So let's ask a professional athlete here, let's ask. Let's
Speaker 1: ask you, Michael, what is it about sports that just
Speaker 1: not just men, but answering from the male perspective, why
Speaker 1: your men drawn to sports? There's there's two reasons. One
Speaker 1: one is, uh, maybe the surface level one to the
Speaker 1: second is a little bit deeper. The surface level is
Speaker 1: there are some guys who may be into sports because
Speaker 1: it feels like their own thing. They know they're significant
Speaker 1: others or their girlfriends might not be that into it.
Speaker 1: So it's their time. It's their excuse to have time
Speaker 1: to themselves. They're excuse to hang out with their buddies,
Speaker 1: they're excused to do something else. So that's surface level.
Speaker 1: But the main reason I think, is I kind of
Speaker 1: touched on before, is there's nothing else in life, in
Speaker 1: my opinion, besides maybe hitting big on the blackjack table
Speaker 1: that gives you that immediate uh energy or excitement or
Speaker 1: euphoria that sports does. Nothing else in life gets you
Speaker 1: out of your seat jumping, or have grown men and
Speaker 1: women paint their faces or were crazy costumes at arenas
Speaker 1: or stadiums. Nothing else does that. That's why we love it.
Speaker 1: That's true. Um so is it? Do you think that
Speaker 1: like guys are reliving their glory days with that or
Speaker 1: is it the other reason? One other reason I heard
Speaker 1: why men really love sports, it was a great conversation
Speaker 1: I had, was because they see people that pursued their dreams.
Speaker 1: So they see people that didn't give up. Because I
Speaker 1: think every I could be wrong. I'm not I shouldn't
Speaker 1: put paint just a broad stroke, but a lot of
Speaker 1: guys when their kids want to be a professional baseball player,
Speaker 1: played in the NFL, be a professional hockey player. Those
Speaker 1: are things we want to do when we're kids. We
Speaker 1: see that as so cool, right, And as you get older,
Speaker 1: for a lot of men, they let that go and
Speaker 1: they pursue other things in life, which is great. They're
Speaker 1: very successful. They maybe are more fulfilled and happy in
Speaker 1: other areas. But they also I think have somewhat of
Speaker 1: a respect for that guy held onto that dream and
Speaker 1: he pursued it. And I used to play against that guy.
Speaker 1: I played against one guy who played college. You know,
Speaker 1: like they still find themselves, they see themselves in the
Speaker 1: sport a little bit. And we all we all know
Speaker 1: the guy too that that said that, Well, if I
Speaker 1: didn't have this, and if I didn't blow my shoulder
Speaker 1: out in high school, if I didn't tear my cl
Speaker 1: on this, I would have I would have dated too everywhere.
Speaker 1: Uh and then there's the other guy. The older they get,
Speaker 1: the better they were. Um. Yeah, those guys are put
Speaker 1: the guys with the injuries. So true story. I had
Speaker 1: one guy. I met a guy I was on vacation
Speaker 1: after the season ended. I would book like four flights,
Speaker 1: five flights. Me and my brother and my buddies and
Speaker 1: we go somewhere and we're in Mexico and I had
Speaker 1: a guy was just talking to him. I was like, so,
Speaker 1: what's your name and he's like, my name is blah blah.
Speaker 1: I don't want to say his name. And he's like
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, um, tell me give me a
Speaker 1: real quick life story in like twenty seconds. And he's like, well,
Speaker 1: I was a professional hockey player. I was drafted by
Speaker 1: the Washington Capitals. Um, you know professional. I ended up
Speaker 1: never going pro, but I was drafted, you know, when
Speaker 1: I was seventeen, and just then I went into like
Speaker 1: medical or I went into insurance whatever. He gives me
Speaker 1: the spield. But but he's like, yeah, I still consider
Speaker 1: myself an athlete. And my buddy sitting beside me is
Speaker 1: just tapping me on the shoulders like oh my god.
Speaker 1: And the guy's like what is going on, And my
Speaker 1: buddy goes so, you know, Brooks here has played for
Speaker 1: the Capitals for ten years and this guy just like
Speaker 1: shut it. He was just like, oh damn, it's just
Speaker 1: like I preached us to the wrong guy. But yeah,
Speaker 1: they still have the dream. I think that's why guys
Speaker 1: love it. They still have the dreams. You're so right, Michael,
Speaker 1: with the like the jolt of energy. And I think
Speaker 1: also as I think about that, as they say that
Speaker 1: the jolt of energy, it also gives men a reason
Speaker 1: to like express themselves. I don't think guys are really
Speaker 1: I mean, you're a father, so you get to express
Speaker 1: it with love and stuff too to your children. But
Speaker 1: like I don't think guys unless they still play sports themselves,
Speaker 1: get to like, yeah, like well, just like have that
Speaker 1: life come out of them, right, have that that that
Speaker 1: life of that intensity, because maybe they go to work
Speaker 1: in the work environment isn't like that, or maybe they
Speaker 1: have a couple of daughters and it's not that kind
Speaker 1: of like an atmosphere you know that who knows, Like
Speaker 1: it's just so, but that beast is still in there.
Speaker 1: That competitive drive is still within guys. There's testosterone. They're
Speaker 1: still like it's a watching sports. They get to act
Speaker 1: as that expression that makes sense? Oh, absolutely, which I
Speaker 1: want to turn the tables with quick and ask you
Speaker 1: a question around that. When you do have kids, are
Speaker 1: you worried about being that way too much? Like when
Speaker 1: they do, whether even if it's your daughter or something, whoever,
Speaker 1: it is. Are you worried about your energy or your
Speaker 1: expectations coming out when it comes to sports. I'm not, truthfully,
Speaker 1: I'm not, and this is why, Um, I don't have kids,
Speaker 1: so I can't say that I'm going to be perfect
Speaker 1: at it. But my parents were so freaking good, so
Speaker 1: amazing at being so supportive but never pushy, that they
Speaker 1: never pushed me over the edge. And I never said
Speaker 1: you have to do this, you have to do that.
Speaker 1: You're like like my my mom, God bless her heart,
Speaker 1: always like I always think I played the most amazing
Speaker 1: or always thought I played the game. I could never
Speaker 1: play a bad game in front of Mom because he's
Speaker 1: just like, you played so good, you tried so hard.
Speaker 1: And then and then Dad, on the other hand, Dad
Speaker 1: off constructive criticism because he knew I wanted to get better.
Speaker 1: In his job, he was my coach. His job was
Speaker 1: to try and help me get better, always the port
Speaker 1: of always from a place of love, always from a
Speaker 1: place of trying to help me, not putting pressure on me.
Speaker 1: So I think I learned a lot from how my
Speaker 1: parents handled me. But let me ask you that question
Speaker 1: having two kids, like how do you how do you
Speaker 1: navigate them being in whether it's sports or competition, whether
Speaker 1: it could be dance or anything else, Like, how do
Speaker 1: you navigate that as a parent, Um, do you push
Speaker 1: them hard? Do you find you push them hard? How
Speaker 1: do you navigate that? You know that some of that
Speaker 1: is to be determined because you know, my daughter's four
Speaker 1: should be five in January, my son's almost two, so
Speaker 1: they're still young in that. UM, what I will say
Speaker 1: in contrast of your story, I learned my mom was
Speaker 1: similar to yours, but my dad was kind of opposite.
Speaker 1: Where so for me, I'm kind of I've learned what
Speaker 1: not to do based on my experience of um, you know,
Speaker 1: level of disappointment or how that was expressed towards me,
Speaker 1: or frustration and how that was expressed towards me. It
Speaker 1: wasn't necessarily healthy. Having said that, the toughness also is
Speaker 1: what I needed to to drive me to where I was.
Speaker 1: Um to you know, I really look back and be like, well,
Speaker 1: if he wasn't that hard on me and my personality,
Speaker 1: and maybe I wouldn't have achieved what I have. So
Speaker 1: but my biggest thing is I'm trying to practice now
Speaker 1: is always to tell them I'm proud of them to
Speaker 1: get on their level, like even if they did do
Speaker 1: something wrong or or whatever, and you'd work at something.
Speaker 1: I get on their level. I never looked down at them,
Speaker 1: you know, and patronize them in that way. Um A,
Speaker 1: what A what a gift that is just for our
Speaker 1: audience to hear that share that again? Can you tell
Speaker 1: us like a little story there? Yeah, So for me,
Speaker 1: this is something I heard. God where did I hear
Speaker 1: it from? I can't even remember. Someone way way smarter
Speaker 1: than me said it, and I pick it all. I
Speaker 1: made a mental note of it. And it was all
Speaker 1: about the child psycho oology of because I remember being
Speaker 1: a kid and most of my memories are of my
Speaker 1: dad looking down at me, yelling at me, screaming at me, abusive,
Speaker 1: whatever it was. And so I was like, I don't
Speaker 1: want that fear for my kids. I want them to
Speaker 1: know that I'm imperfect, that they can come and talk
Speaker 1: to me about fears, about issues about you know, adversity,
Speaker 1: and also happiness and joy and everything like that. So
Speaker 1: what I learned was just getting down on their level,
Speaker 1: whether it good, bad, or and different, and just talking
Speaker 1: to them from that level, especially when they're little kids,
Speaker 1: and just being like talked to daddy or if I'm
Speaker 1: disappointed or if I'm happy, whatever it may be. That way,
Speaker 1: they look at me as a peer. They still respect
Speaker 1: me as a parent, but they look at me as
Speaker 1: as not some superior being. That's always right. Yeah, Wow,
Speaker 1: that's powerful, man. That's why I love bringing fathers on
Speaker 1: this show. That's all. That's a gift. Thank you, Like
Speaker 1: personally just for me, that's a gift. Um, because I've
Speaker 1: never really heard that before. Um, but yeah, I can
Speaker 1: see that. A's like because you think coaches you might
Speaker 1: have had of something just like Hauler and at you
Speaker 1: down and make you or insecure lack of confidence, whereas
Speaker 1: somebody down eye level talking to you can be so supportive.
Speaker 1: You're gonna we're all gonna have our moments where we
Speaker 1: don't have handled it perfectly or sometimes they do just
Speaker 1: need to kick in the assid you know. But you
Speaker 1: know ninety eight percent of the the time, I want to
Speaker 1: be able to to do that in everything. But let
Speaker 1: me ask you this too, though. So this is a
Speaker 1: debate my wife and I had where my daughter a
Speaker 1: couple of years ago, she had a dance recital. Okay,
Speaker 1: our daughter was the one who was running around in
Speaker 1: circles like not doing the routine. She was like two
Speaker 1: and a half. It was the cutest thing in the world.
Speaker 1: So afterwards they all got handed this little trophy with
Speaker 1: this spinny star on it. So we get home. I
Speaker 1: look at my wife. I was like, hey, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: throw this in the trash and she's like, what, No,
Speaker 1: you can't throw a trophy in the trash. Like I'm like, what,
Speaker 1: Why's she's gonna forget about this like tomorrow, Like she
Speaker 1: doesn't even remember it now. We're just in the car ride, like,
Speaker 1: why do we need to keep it? Well? She and
Speaker 1: I was like why can't us just saying we're so
Speaker 1: proud of you. You should be proud of yourself. Be enough.
Speaker 1: And so I'm big anti trophy for everything, but I'd
Speaker 1: love to know another professional athletes feelings on that when
Speaker 1: you know the time comes oh man on that one up.
Speaker 1: I don't know because I agree with you. I mean,
Speaker 1: kids get trophies for every single thing now, which devalues
Speaker 1: a trophy, right you If you get a trophy for
Speaker 1: every weekend that you play a tournament or something, it's like, well,
Speaker 1: I got two hundred of these so instead of like, wow,
Speaker 1: I earned these five you know, so I see that.
Speaker 1: On the other hand, I don't know, man, if I'm
Speaker 1: just because because I'm not a dad and I'm not
Speaker 1: a dad to a daughter. If she's two and a
Speaker 1: half and she gets a trophy, I'm gonna put that
Speaker 1: figure right up on the I just like I don't
Speaker 1: just because I still want to be a dad and
Speaker 1: take down the TV. The trophy is going up, guys,
Speaker 1: a little ledge for this boor in trophy. This thing's
Speaker 1: get a spotlight on. Yeah, let's get a spotlight on here.
Speaker 1: We got look at this shopy, look at this because
Speaker 1: she was the best answer out there. Let me as
Speaker 1: see that transition though, coming from like from being an
Speaker 1: alpha male. I'm asking the male playing an alpha sport.
Speaker 1: How how is it as a man going to like
Speaker 1: a dance recital, dance competition. I love it. I'm a
Speaker 1: d that dad that's in the back, like doing the
Speaker 1: moves like with my daughter, like no, you gotta do
Speaker 1: it like this and like this. And I'm so if
Speaker 1: even if my daughter wants to pursue dancing or cheerlead
Speaker 1: and I will be that dad that's doing the moves
Speaker 1: practicing the routine with her, like, let's do this, let's
Speaker 1: get after it. I love it. That's awesome, man, I
Speaker 1: could see myself doing that. Were you nervous about that
Speaker 1: before you were a parent? Like, Oh, I wonder if
Speaker 1: I'm gonna, like, if I have a daughter and she's
Speaker 1: not into sports like I am, I'm am I going
Speaker 1: to be able to connect with her? Were you nervous
Speaker 1: about that? You know? I think that's that's a great
Speaker 1: question because I think as athletes, we we get that
Speaker 1: question all the time, right, like, you're gonna steer your
Speaker 1: kids away from sports because of health reasons that you
Speaker 1: know of? Are you gonna steer your kids? Are you
Speaker 1: gonna make them play sports because you did at the
Speaker 1: highest level. I'm I'm indifferent. I want them to They're
Speaker 1: gonna do something right sitting at whom am I doing anything?
Speaker 1: But like our daughter, she's showing more interest towards dance,
Speaker 1: and she's very artsy, like loves to draw. She's a
Speaker 1: phenomenal drawer for four years old. So we might get
Speaker 1: her a little art teacher to come over and like
Speaker 1: and help inspire hers her creativity somewhere because she's so creative.
Speaker 1: So I really don't care because and you'll learn this
Speaker 1: when you you're a dad. You see them doing something
Speaker 1: that makes them happy. Like our daughter yesterday just drew
Speaker 1: a picture of the family and she even draws me
Speaker 1: bald without any hair. You know, it's so fitting, and
Speaker 1: she puts it up on the fridge. I'm like, how
Speaker 1: cool is this? Like you know, like she drew the
Speaker 1: dogs and everything, and it's just I love it. I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't care um at all. Really, I love that outlook. Uh.
Speaker 1: I feel like and I can only project this because
Speaker 1: I'm not there yet, but I feel like I would
Speaker 1: be the same. What I do want to do is
Speaker 1: I want to get when I have kids, I want
Speaker 1: to get them touches on as many things as possible.
Speaker 1: So I don't want to just take them to the
Speaker 1: rain and say, Okay, this is what you're gonna do.
Speaker 1: I want to play soccer with him and play basketball
Speaker 1: with him. I want to dive in the ocean with them.
Speaker 1: I want to play off with them. I want him
Speaker 1: to water ski, I want them to um dance. I
Speaker 1: want them to like whatever and then just see just
Speaker 1: expose them to everything and then see what they gravitate
Speaker 1: towards like you said, your daughter is gravitating towards drawing
Speaker 1: or being an artist, dancing, very artistic side. So I
Speaker 1: do want to And I'm also curious because I don't
Speaker 1: want them to be me, and I don't want my
Speaker 1: kids to be me because they're not me there they
Speaker 1: would be mixed with a partner, and I want to
Speaker 1: just see what they're life is. So I don't know.
Speaker 1: I think it's got to be so cool man, you know,
Speaker 1: I will say to that though. So my wife grew
Speaker 1: up in Michigan, Okay, she figure skated for like thirteen years.
Speaker 1: So she's trying to get Jolie on the ice a bunch,
Speaker 1: and our daughter hates it, and she can't wait to
Speaker 1: get our son on the ice too, and she she
Speaker 1: wants to be a little hockey mom and and all
Speaker 1: that stuff. She was even a skate girl for the
Speaker 1: Red Wings back in the day or some some crap.
Speaker 1: But and I told her. I told her, I was like,
Speaker 1: you can't have both. I was like, you can't take
Speaker 1: both of them and want them to do skin. I
Speaker 1: was like, my biggest thing is I just want one
Speaker 1: of them to do something I can help teach them, right,
Speaker 1: So I never did you know? I love hockey, but
Speaker 1: I never played hockey. I can skate okay, because I'm athletic,
Speaker 1: but that's about it. So I was like, I can't
Speaker 1: teach them anything. I just want to be able to
Speaker 1: share my knowledge of something, and so that includes you know, golf, basketball, baseball, football,
Speaker 1: even soccer. But I was like, anything outside of that,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't, which is cool too. If if
Speaker 1: neither one of them do any any of those, I'm
Speaker 1: cool with it because I'll learn about it, I'll dive in.
Speaker 1: I'll just help them from a general standpoint of like
Speaker 1: work ethic and and and everything like that. But that
Speaker 1: is one thing I told him. I was you can't
Speaker 1: have both. I was like, I want to be able
Speaker 1: to teach them something. Um, what just a personal question
Speaker 1: for you. What if your boy said, um, dad, I
Speaker 1: really want to play football. I want to I want
Speaker 1: to make football my life and pursue a career in
Speaker 1: professional football. I want to go to college. But um,
Speaker 1: what would you feel if your son approached you with that?
Speaker 1: You know that? Yeah, like what I've never been asked
Speaker 1: that question? Good question because I'm typically asked what if
Speaker 1: they don't want to play, and I'm fine with that.
Speaker 1: But if they do want to play and they talk
Speaker 1: about they want to pursue it seriously mhm um, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna have to do some introspection because knowing, you know,
Speaker 1: guys like us, knowing what it takes, that doesn't make
Speaker 1: exact thoughts to get there. Knowing the sacrifices and knowing
Speaker 1: that it takes luck two like you can be in
Speaker 1: the it really does, whether luck from injuries, luck from
Speaker 1: right place, right time, just luck. So and to know
Speaker 1: how that lifestyle is of of uncertainty and of of
Speaker 1: traveling across across the country and maybe bouncing from team
Speaker 1: to team from you know, from trying to manage your
Speaker 1: schedule as a young adult in college and being a
Speaker 1: student athlete, and so that I have more fear around
Speaker 1: that because because guys like us know what it takes
Speaker 1: and know how much time effort emotionally, mentally and physically
Speaker 1: it takes on you, do you think it would take
Speaker 1: you a while to like dive in and help him?
Speaker 1: What have you said? Okay, Dad, I appreciate that. I'm
Speaker 1: still going to go anyway. Yeah, I mean I would
Speaker 1: be right there for him. I would just want him
Speaker 1: to know that, you know, what you're signing up for
Speaker 1: takes a lot, you know. And I had so I
Speaker 1: have a younger brother who's fourteen years younger than me,
Speaker 1: and same parents, and every think my parents were married
Speaker 1: thirty or some years. She was just a nice little surprise.
Speaker 1: And he's in college right now playing football. And you know,
Speaker 1: when he started saying that, I thought I was gonna
Speaker 1: have to have more of that conversation. But the thing
Speaker 1: about him which was cool is he was old enough
Speaker 1: to see me play and come to my games, which
Speaker 1: was cool that he saw me working. He saw how
Speaker 1: hard you know, how much effort it took, and everything
Speaker 1: in the off season, and and so he's able to
Speaker 1: he was able to mimic that. So I haven't really
Speaker 1: had him have many of this conversation. That's almost like
Speaker 1: if you work twice as hard, harder than idea at
Speaker 1: your age. So I'm not worried about him, but it
Speaker 1: is scary if if you know, our sons come up
Speaker 1: to us and say they want to play the sport
Speaker 1: that we played. Yeah, I can see. I could see
Speaker 1: that when you were when I asked you that question,
Speaker 1: you echoed my what I was thinking. My first thought
Speaker 1: would be, do you know how far, how deep and
Speaker 1: dark that you've got to go to get good enough
Speaker 1: to be there? Like the depth of what how you
Speaker 1: how far you need to pursue this? Like, oh, that
Speaker 1: would give me hesitancy because I know and you know
Speaker 1: how far you have to go what it requires of you,
Speaker 1: um to get that. So um, I mean think about
Speaker 1: think about the days, and I'm sure you can attest this.
Speaker 1: I feel like, you know, everyone on the outside looking
Speaker 1: at professional athletes like, man, they gotta love their job,
Speaker 1: their liver, their dream and all that stuff, Like they're
Speaker 1: probably happy every day. Yes, essentially we are. But those
Speaker 1: dog days of those workouts, in those days where you're
Speaker 1: just like, do I really want to do this anymore?
Speaker 1: Or even when you're trying to make it and you're
Speaker 1: training and you're throwing up and you're exhausting, you're like,
Speaker 1: and then you have to get up and do it
Speaker 1: again tomorrow. It's like those are the moments that you
Speaker 1: you fear because you want your child or someone close
Speaker 1: to you to be able to do that. But those
Speaker 1: are the days exactly that you're talking about that is
Speaker 1: just you go to a dark place. Man. There was
Speaker 1: a week, dude, there was a week in February. This
Speaker 1: happened in February every year. It was thirteen years pro,
Speaker 1: fifteen years pro, thirteen years in the NHL. Um, every
Speaker 1: year in February, there's one week where I was like,
Speaker 1: I quit. It's just like I quit, man, I just
Speaker 1: quit because it's just like, I this sucks. I'm so
Speaker 1: beat up, I'm so cut tired. Um. Because you play
Speaker 1: every second day. Second half of the season, we play
Speaker 1: every second day, and then it continues right through playoffs
Speaker 1: and you're traveling. You're five games and seven nights and
Speaker 1: five different cities on the road, and you're just like
Speaker 1: a zombie shoulders rack, can't turn your head right, knees
Speaker 1: banged up, just block a shot, and you're just like,
Speaker 1: I quit. But but you pursue it, you go through it,
Speaker 1: through it. I'm surprised. Actually, that is one thing. I
Speaker 1: know we're gonna get Petris on here in a minute,
Speaker 1: but that is one thing that I uh commend, like
Speaker 1: you guys and all pretty much all the other professional
Speaker 1: sports besides football, the traveling aspect. I can't imagine the
Speaker 1: traveling that y'all have to do the amount of hotels
Speaker 1: you have to stay because that's the thing we get.
Speaker 1: I mean, we're maybe two nights in the hotel, and
Speaker 1: that's if we're going from coast to coast. We go
Speaker 1: a day early, we leave on Fridays, but mostly it's
Speaker 1: leave on Saturday. You spend one night in a hotel,
Speaker 1: and then you go back home on Sunday after the game. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you don't just get used to it, and you stay
Speaker 1: in like stay in the same hotel as you guys
Speaker 1: do Martory for the c b A that we stay
Speaker 1: in five star hotels, so it's it's Carl four seasons
Speaker 1: and stuff. Um, you just kind of get used to it.
Speaker 1: But the travel, I mean, you know, professional teams have
Speaker 1: traveled down to a science as a sleep doctor. So
Speaker 1: they'll look at the schedule and get you scheduled and
Speaker 1: we're gonna stay overnight in this city. The hard part
Speaker 1: about the travel is when you play a Uh you're
Speaker 1: in d C. And we play a game down in
Speaker 1: Tampa Bay and we fly back that night. We get
Speaker 1: in to thirty and we've got to be at the
Speaker 1: rink at for practice the next morning. And you're like,
Speaker 1: I'm hired and then uh, you know, and maybe that's
Speaker 1: after your third game in four nights or something. So
Speaker 1: that's the tougher part of it. But um, joining us now, mychael, Um,
Speaker 1: we're gonna bring in another guest to talk about sports
Speaker 1: because they haven't had enough of sports with you and
Speaker 1: I yet, So we're bringing in another guest. I believe
Speaker 1: he has just joined this beautiful, beautiful zoom called by
Speaker 1: the Way. I hate to I'd rather see you guys
Speaker 1: in in studio, but this man is a college football
Speaker 1: analyst for Fox Sports. He is hilarious. He's also on
Speaker 1: the Petros and Money Show, and he has if I
Speaker 1: was a sportscaster, I think I would love to say
Speaker 1: this name if he's an athlete. Petro's Papa docas in
Speaker 1: the house. Petros, Are you there, brother, I'm here, dude.
Speaker 1: I just want to say your name again, like Petrols pop.
Speaker 1: But Doc, guess like you could be. I could hype
Speaker 1: you up as the most the most thrilling athlete of
Speaker 1: all time and with that name, can you I used
Speaker 1: to be an athlete and they they had they had
Speaker 1: a hard time saying my name back in the day.
Speaker 1: Oh I'm sorry, Is that a back that's oral Her.
Speaker 1: I interviewed Oral Hershazer last time I was doing so
Speaker 1: we got a picture. I am in an old Cougie
Speaker 1: sweater the eight back when the Dodgers, last time the
Speaker 1: Dodgers won the World Series. Hold on, I'll make it normal.
Speaker 1: I love it, man, and I love it. Leave it.
Speaker 1: But I used to play football. I'm the captain of
Speaker 1: the worst football team in uh USC history. So they
Speaker 1: used to say my name all the time back in
Speaker 1: the day. Uh But now I say other people's names
Speaker 1: and then try my best to get them right for
Speaker 1: the last you know, twenty years. Um So, brother, welcome
Speaker 1: to the show. So sorry, I'm like, no, no worries
Speaker 1: it all. You never lay, never be sorry. Bro, We
Speaker 1: appreciate you being here. Michael and I have been diving
Speaker 1: into our journeys as professional athletes migrating out of sport.
Speaker 1: But then also we're diving into the journey of why
Speaker 1: do men love sports so much? Like what is it
Speaker 1: about sports that just draws men to sports? We're trying
Speaker 1: to answer this question for our female listeners of how
Speaker 1: men think they're like, why do you guys love sports?
Speaker 1: Petros tell us why we love sports? Well, Uh, that's
Speaker 1: many layered but interesting. You know, I'm Greek, so and
Speaker 1: I've traveled a lot in Greece, especially when I was
Speaker 1: a young person. So uh, going to Greece and going
Speaker 1: to those old arenas which are still there where they
Speaker 1: would have competition, and it was different back then. Obviously
Speaker 1: everybody was naked and all greased up, and uh, the
Speaker 1: women who had to hide in the trees if they
Speaker 1: wanted to watch a bit of a misogynistic society. Uh uh.
Speaker 1: But but the one thing you kind of head out
Speaker 1: of it is I mean, there wasn't really any reward
Speaker 1: for competing back then, but people competed because really for
Speaker 1: the same reason people compete now at its core, which
Speaker 1: is the competition itself is just men or women or
Speaker 1: whoever competing. But what gets revealed because of the competition
Speaker 1: is character and virtue. And I mean, deep down, I
Speaker 1: think that's why people are interested, because it's you know,
Speaker 1: especially with a football background that I have, which is
Speaker 1: a sport that probably shouldn't exist, you know, if if
Speaker 1: we had a perfect world. It's a bludgeoning, really tough sport.
Speaker 1: But one thing that you can say about every football team, uh,
Speaker 1: is there's people young men overcoming adversity, and uh, it's
Speaker 1: one thing to do, right, Like, we all kind of
Speaker 1: want to do it and be on a team. If
Speaker 1: there's a lot of sacrifice. I heard you guys talking
Speaker 1: when I was struggling to get on. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of real sacrifice involved in doing it at a very
Speaker 1: high level and consistently and maintaining that. But we all
Speaker 1: like to be on its periphery too. You know, you've
Speaker 1: seen the ugliest athletes on the world in the world
Speaker 1: with some of the most beautiful partners, and you wonder
Speaker 1: what's going you know, well maybe maybe you know, she
Speaker 1: didn't know what it's like to score a touchdown, you know,
Speaker 1: but she wants to be as close as possible, even
Speaker 1: if the guy looks like uh sea monster. So uh,
Speaker 1: I mean we've all seen it. Uh. So there's something
Speaker 1: there's just something attractive about it that goes way past
Speaker 1: uh you know, corporate sponsorship and TV and Buffalo Wild
Speaker 1: Wings and you know fat Guy's tailgating and Lincoln Nebraska. Uh,
Speaker 1: there is something. There's a human uh drama I guess
Speaker 1: that we all want a piece of at some level.
Speaker 1: It will take interesting take is that, So I like
Speaker 1: that take. That's a different outlook than Michael and I
Speaker 1: have covered some of my Michael has touched on that,
Speaker 1: but um, what do you think believe? Just further to that,
Speaker 1: I love what you said, is that overcoming the the
Speaker 1: obstacle or the adversity in the game, there's there's something
Speaker 1: revealed about a person's character, virtue, who they are as
Speaker 1: a human being, not just who they are as an athlete.
Speaker 1: Why do you think what is it that you think
Speaker 1: draws you? And I'll ask both of you guys to
Speaker 1: be a fan of a specific player where you're like,
Speaker 1: that's my guy. What is it in in in that
Speaker 1: athlete that you really like? Why like Petro's Why do
Speaker 1: you like this picture or this you know, cornerback or
Speaker 1: what is it? What is a characteristic that you were
Speaker 1: drawn to when watching sports? Well you might be shocked
Speaker 1: to know that I like flawed people. Uh so uh
Speaker 1: And I was a big, stupid running back. Actually I
Speaker 1: wasn't as fat when I played, but I love bludgeoning backs,
Speaker 1: you know, I love there was a guy who had
Speaker 1: a big, a lot of personal problems. I saw Hi
Speaker 1: when I was a kid on the sideline. Um, where Michigan.
Speaker 1: My dad played at USC as well, and Michigan destroyed
Speaker 1: USC in a Rose Bowl in the eighties and it
Speaker 1: was a running back named Leroy Horde who who was
Speaker 1: the MVP of the game, and he went on to
Speaker 1: have an NFL career, but he had cocaine problems and
Speaker 1: all these things that plague athletes, you know, especially in
Speaker 1: the eighties, and he had to come back after a
Speaker 1: guy got hurt. Robert Smith, who was a colleague of
Speaker 1: mine at Fox at Old Ohio State running back who
Speaker 1: was trying to get a premed degree at the same time,
Speaker 1: made a lot of news back then, and he had
Speaker 1: to come back and he had like a fifteen hundred
Speaker 1: yard season and they asked him, you know, can you
Speaker 1: describe your running style, you know, to to the to
Speaker 1: the fans, and he said, well, if you need one yard,
Speaker 1: I'll get you three. And he said, if you need
Speaker 1: ten yards, I'll get you three. To me, you know that,
Speaker 1: to me, it's that kind of humility and that kind
Speaker 1: of awareness of your mortality as an apple ate that
Speaker 1: I kind of because most guys, obviously to do it,
Speaker 1: you've got to feel pretty invincible, and you got to
Speaker 1: approach it like that, So little glimmers of stuff like
Speaker 1: that really attract me. That's something I'll never forget, you know.
Speaker 1: I like that, Michael for you two part question, Um,
Speaker 1: what attracts you to be a fan of a player today?
Speaker 1: And why were people fans of you? What characteristics did
Speaker 1: you have that people made you a fan of you
Speaker 1: for sure today? Kind of like Patris said, I like
Speaker 1: when I know people's story and they've overcome adversity, like
Speaker 1: even taking it back, like I like Michael Vick even
Speaker 1: when his glory days in Atlanta, but then the fact
Speaker 1: that he dealed with what he out with, came back
Speaker 1: and played, Like where else other than sports can you
Speaker 1: go from hero to zero and zero to hero again,
Speaker 1: like you know what I mean. So it gives you
Speaker 1: that platform to be able to control your narrative and
Speaker 1: overcome this adversity publicly where instantly, really success can help
Speaker 1: change people's image of you based on you know, even
Speaker 1: over from what you've gone through negatively. So I really
Speaker 1: do like that. And then I mean outside of guys
Speaker 1: I know personally, like Ryan Fitzpatrick is my favorite human being.
Speaker 1: He was my quarterback in Buffalo the years I spent there,
Speaker 1: and and people always what why is he playing for
Speaker 1: so many I was like, you meet this guy, you
Speaker 1: realize why every team wants them there. And I was like,
Speaker 1: that's and he was one of the guys that I
Speaker 1: looked up to when I played because I was young then.
Speaker 1: And so that's what I would say, Brooks to your
Speaker 1: second part of the question is why people were a
Speaker 1: fan of me or again enjoyed having me around? Was
Speaker 1: because I was a positive energy. I was a smile
Speaker 1: on my face. I said hi to people, never too
Speaker 1: good to do anything. Always you know, again, like we
Speaker 1: talked about before, whether it's Keith the janitor or you
Speaker 1: know our GM, So it didn't matter. I was talking
Speaker 1: to everybody. I was treating everybody like a peer. And
Speaker 1: I think that's why, you know, people enjoyed communicating with
Speaker 1: me and having me around. I think a lot of
Speaker 1: people I love that man. That's awesome. What they call
Speaker 1: that intangibles in sports, those are intangibles that those are
Speaker 1: glue guys is like the team wants that guy to
Speaker 1: be here. The team is like telling the GM, can
Speaker 1: you sign Michael, Like we need him here, we want
Speaker 1: him here. Um, those guys are awesome. Those are some
Speaker 1: of my favorite teammates of all time. Um I've played
Speaker 1: with some world class guys, unbelievably talented guys, and some
Speaker 1: of my favorite teammates are guys that's carved out to
Speaker 1: ten year careers with UM. I had one one teammate
Speaker 1: that was one of my top three to five teammates
Speaker 1: of all favorite teammates of all time. And his skills
Speaker 1: might have been like minor league level, but he had
Speaker 1: such heart, such dedication, so fun, and he's so good
Speaker 1: in the locker room, showed up for every single teammates,
Speaker 1: so dedicated. You know, just that he carved out an
Speaker 1: amazing career for himself and I just have such respect
Speaker 1: to that. The other thing that you see is you
Speaker 1: in sports. I believe this, there's a lot of As
Speaker 1: in any industry, there's good humans and there's bad. In sports,
Speaker 1: there are a lot of exceptional human beings. Like you
Speaker 1: just said, Ryan Fitzpatrick, there are some human beings the
Speaker 1: fabric of the quality of person that they are. They
Speaker 1: are leading and spearheading an entire group of people, a city,
Speaker 1: a movement, and everybody is watching them and for the
Speaker 1: right reason, because they are that kind of a person.
Speaker 1: Man or a woman. So I I aligned with that too.
Speaker 1: I aligned with the human nature of a person, their
Speaker 1: service and and and there, as you said, their mortality,
Speaker 1: patrols and their humility and there they're like gratitude for
Speaker 1: being part of this city. Not being you played for
Speaker 1: the Skins. You were from the DC area. I wasn't.
Speaker 1: I was from Canada, but the city welcomed me in
Speaker 1: as an adopted son. You know how freaking cool that is?
Speaker 1: You know, So I want to represent my adopted family
Speaker 1: as best I can. UM. I think that was one
Speaker 1: of the reasons I was loved UM. But it's really interesting,
Speaker 1: like why why certain people are drawn to certain players? UM.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you both this both as former players.
Speaker 1: Another question, do you guys get the same adrenaline Russia
Speaker 1: when watching as you do when playing as you did
Speaker 1: when playing ahead? Uh? For me? I, you know, I
Speaker 1: I call games and have been doing it for you know,
Speaker 1: since two thousand four for Fox. And I was really
Speaker 1: young when I was doing that, and I was calling
Speaker 1: the games, you know, specifically Impact twelve games ten at
Speaker 1: that time that you know, there were guys that I
Speaker 1: had played with, or against, or or recruited, you know,
Speaker 1: now I'm forty three, and the guys look like kids,
Speaker 1: you know, and face mask and and I like that
Speaker 1: about college football because kids make mistakes and it does
Speaker 1: make the game exciting. Whereas you know, in the NFL,
Speaker 1: the hashbox are closer's. As you know, there's there's no
Speaker 1: room to go anywhere unless you have the balls to
Speaker 1: go through somebody. And uh. And it makes the level
Speaker 1: of football excellent but also a little bit predictable. In college.
Speaker 1: I mean, these guys are freaking out. You know, most
Speaker 1: of them aren't even used to the crowd and can't
Speaker 1: even hear their teammates. I mean, the chaos of it
Speaker 1: is really something that I try to continue to connect
Speaker 1: with because you know, when when you get older and
Speaker 1: you're up in the booth and you have your suit
Speaker 1: on and somebody has given you water, and you know,
Speaker 1: somebody picks you up and drives you the airport when
Speaker 1: it's over, you know, you can become an a hole
Speaker 1: pretty fast. Uh. But they've moved me down on the
Speaker 1: field for a couple of years. And I did kind
Speaker 1: of like a sideline analyst thing for Joel Klatt who
Speaker 1: works at Fox, and I kind of smelled the players
Speaker 1: you know, wet again and listen to the coaches scream
Speaker 1: and just kind of felt the chaos of it. And
Speaker 1: that gave me a little bit more adrenaline that I
Speaker 1: was used to, you know, covering games. Uh. But you know,
Speaker 1: it's kind of funny when you're watching these games without
Speaker 1: fans and you're watching guys, you know, Mookie beats, you know,
Speaker 1: the most excellent level of athlete out there, and they're
Speaker 1: they're playing this really high level without the fans there,
Speaker 1: you know, and gosh, you know, channeling twenty years ago.
Speaker 1: You know, if you get the ball in a college
Speaker 1: football game, a hundred thousand people in the States, they
Speaker 1: see the whole. When you see the whole and they
Speaker 1: get all you know, they get up too. And you
Speaker 1: can't recreate that, you know, you just can't. There's not
Speaker 1: enough pores in your body to recreate that stuff. So
Speaker 1: I guess the long answer is no, Michael, what about you?
Speaker 1: Do you get adrenaline rush watch like you watch your brother?
Speaker 1: Do you get the same adrenaline? I mean, nothing compares
Speaker 1: for sure when you're the one under the helmet or
Speaker 1: anything with the you know, cleats lay sed up. But luckily,
Speaker 1: now being far enough and move playing fantasy sports again.
Speaker 1: That gets me, That gets me amped up enough. You know. Um,
Speaker 1: but I will say to Patriots's point, you know, I
Speaker 1: was watching the Tour Championship last round yesterday. I'm a
Speaker 1: big golfer and watching these guys were you know, Justin
Speaker 1: Thomas and Xander softly, We're kind of making their move
Speaker 1: on Dustin Johnson, and you know, Justin Thomas said a
Speaker 1: big birdie put on like sixteen, and I just I
Speaker 1: was like to myself, I was like, oh, but I'm like,
Speaker 1: there's no roar on the TV, and it's just even
Speaker 1: a sport as quiet as and calm and professionalist golf,
Speaker 1: not feeling that crowd. I was just missing the hell
Speaker 1: out of it. I was like, I can't even even
Speaker 1: imagine football started on Thursday. I don't even know how
Speaker 1: we're gonna It's gonna be the weirdest thing in the world.
Speaker 1: If I can't handle watching golf without fans, I don't
Speaker 1: know how we're gonna watch football. Hockey's in it right now.
Speaker 1: Hockey's in the third round of the playoffs with no fans. Um,
Speaker 1: And exactly what you said, there is the reason we
Speaker 1: love the reason I love being a professional athlete is
Speaker 1: people get to bear witness to your excellence. Right, so
Speaker 1: when you make a player, like when I would score
Speaker 1: a goal eighteen thousand, twenty thousand, people erupt and as
Speaker 1: you said, Petrol, it's like chanting your name, like your number,
Speaker 1: like high fiving because of you, Like your name comes
Speaker 1: up on the scoreboard and they cheer and they clapped,
Speaker 1: like people get to bear witness to the years and
Speaker 1: decades that we put in, Michael of pursuing this excellence
Speaker 1: to be there. And that's such a thrill. Like I
Speaker 1: don't think I don't even come close when I'm watching
Speaker 1: to having that same kind of adrenaline rush as as
Speaker 1: when playing, just because it was It's just it's such
Speaker 1: and it almost breaks my heart. I've actually thought, like,
Speaker 1: what can I do in life again where I can
Speaker 1: be in front of a stadium stadium audience, because that
Speaker 1: is so freaking cool. So, um, I want to I
Speaker 1: want to hijacker question Brooks real quick for Patriots because
Speaker 1: I've I've personally, I've known enough guys now that that
Speaker 1: kind of in the line of work that you are
Speaker 1: in Patriots. But I remember even before I did, and
Speaker 1: watching commentators or watching sideline analysts or whatever, being like, man,
Speaker 1: that's gotta be so easy. All you gotta do is
Speaker 1: just talk about it. But I know, now knowing enough
Speaker 1: guys in that world, how crazy and how much work
Speaker 1: y'all put into it. So I'd love for for Brooks
Speaker 1: listeners on the show to understand how difficult, how much
Speaker 1: goes into what you do. Now. Well, what's interesting, you know,
Speaker 1: is I wasn't, you know, clearly a star football player.
Speaker 1: I mean, I was serviceable, But my value when broadcasting
Speaker 1: is not like, hey, this guy want a heisman or something.
Speaker 1: You know, it turned out being that, you know that
Speaker 1: I've had longevity. So I trained a lot of people,
Speaker 1: or at least used to. This year is a little walky,
Speaker 1: but usually I'm in the booth with somebody else, like
Speaker 1: try to train Mark Helfridge, uh Hudgens and Big Hodge
Speaker 1: the Hall of Famer. You know, some guys are better
Speaker 1: than others, and you know, they all know more football
Speaker 1: than I'll ever know. You know, they'll forget more football
Speaker 1: than I'll that you know, Uh, I trained to Marco Murray.
Speaker 1: He went back to coaching Shane Vereen. We recently trained
Speaker 1: so you know, usually I do a three man booth
Speaker 1: with a guy and I teach him how to call
Speaker 1: a game for Fox. And you know, it's a really
Speaker 1: interesting question because it does seem pretty easy. As a
Speaker 1: football player. You sit down and you say, oh, they're green, right,
Speaker 1: you know, here comes you know, here comes horse to
Speaker 1: you know, hot proco or whatever. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: and you just do it. You speak your football language
Speaker 1: in your mind as an ex football player, and when
Speaker 1: whether it's defense or offense, and you just watch the
Speaker 1: guys line up a game. Is calling a game is
Speaker 1: so much different. And the one thing to really remember
Speaker 1: that I try to teach these guys with TV is
Speaker 1: I mean, we're part of this, but it ain't about us.
Speaker 1: I mean, we're we're we have a director. I mean,
Speaker 1: the cool thing about football on TV is football on TV. Right,
Speaker 1: the colors, the pictures, the close up stuff, the slow
Speaker 1: motion cameras. You know, if we can show that without
Speaker 1: vomiting all over the thing and telling old football stories
Speaker 1: about stuff that when no one cares about anymore. Uh,
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff is uh is helpful. But you know,
Speaker 1: everybody gets caught up. You know, you think it's your
Speaker 1: moment and you hear yourself talking and you get all
Speaker 1: riled up. So there's a real balance, you know, between
Speaker 1: giving everybody their due, like you know, that's your moment,
Speaker 1: you know, especially in a college game, like your family
Speaker 1: is probably gonna watch that touchdown five times, you know,
Speaker 1: on the DVR and everybody in your town, and man,
Speaker 1: I gotta get that guy's name right, you know, I
Speaker 1: gotta we gotta celebrate that properly. That's his moment, you know,
Speaker 1: But you don't want to overdo it too, because we
Speaker 1: got pictures. So you know, it's a real balance, uh
Speaker 1: to walk. Some people like it, you know, when Tony
Speaker 1: Romo tells everybody what's gonna happen. But Michael, you know
Speaker 1: that a lot of guys can tell you what's gonna happen,
Speaker 1: you know. But we're not supposed to be future tellers
Speaker 1: unless the audience wants it. And the audience got really
Speaker 1: excited when Romo did it, and now he's getting like
Speaker 1: forty million dollars to go. Okay, one one question for
Speaker 1: both you, because we don't have a lot of time left.
Speaker 1: One question for both you start with you, Michael, what
Speaker 1: is it that you love the most about sports? In
Speaker 1: like two to three sentences, What is it that you
Speaker 1: love the most about sports? It's the opportunity for young
Speaker 1: men and women two to achieve greatness every day, whether
Speaker 1: it practice or a game. It's it's their opportunity every
Speaker 1: day to grow. And there's tangible evidence typically whether you grow,
Speaker 1: you to get Like all of our coaches have said,
Speaker 1: you need to get do you get worse every single day.
Speaker 1: Any athletes heard that. So it's it's an opportunity every
Speaker 1: day to do that. Jose, what about you? What is it?
Speaker 1: What is the thing that you love the most about sports?
Speaker 1: For me? You know, just going to Dodger Stadium and
Speaker 1: doing a show, you know, doing our radio show leading
Speaker 1: up to the game and seeing all the people that
Speaker 1: make Mutch a lot of us. You know, all the
Speaker 1: people that sports bring together, you know, whether they're working
Speaker 1: or playing or watching or coaching, or a special needs
Speaker 1: person or people in a retirement home that can't go anywhere,
Speaker 1: and it's their pleasure for three hours a day to
Speaker 1: hear the game or to watch it. You know, to me,
Speaker 1: that's that's its power, you know. It It brings us together,
Speaker 1: whether you can perform or not. And that especially nowadays
Speaker 1: very special. Love is Yeah, mine is uh. I look
Speaker 1: at it from an athlete's perspective, because as a former athlete,
Speaker 1: mine was the chase of my potential be marrying of
Speaker 1: intelligence with the physical capabilities, having to develop both and
Speaker 1: all of the characteristics. UM, the pursuit of excellence as
Speaker 1: a human. To be able to master a craft, I
Speaker 1: need to get better in so many ways, not just
Speaker 1: physically but mentally spiritually. UM. The discipline and that pursuit
Speaker 1: of excellence in order to express myself through the mastery
Speaker 1: of a craft. UM. It taught me almost everything I
Speaker 1: know about myself those lessons good and bad. It taught
Speaker 1: me everything almost that I know about myself, and so
Speaker 1: that will forever live on with me. So really interesting, guys.
Speaker 1: I appreciate, appreciate your perspective. Petro's we gotta let you
Speaker 1: go right now, uh, and then uh, Mike will be
Speaker 1: back with another little bit with you after the break.
Speaker 1: But both of you guys are on a time crunch,
Speaker 1: so we're gonna be real quick. But thank you Patros
Speaker 1: for coming on. My man. Look forward Totimore games. Either way,
Speaker 1: you know the world's gonna keep up to it. You Okay, cheers, cheers, buddy,
Speaker 1: after this break. What an awesome hour. Michael, you're the man,
Speaker 1: um Buddy. Where can our community or how a Man
Speaker 1: Think podcast community? Where can they get more of you?
Speaker 1: Where do you hang out? Social media? The podcast tell
Speaker 1: us where they can find more of you, buddy, for sure.
Speaker 1: So I'm not on social media. I'm a rare unicorn
Speaker 1: of that aspect. But my everything is kind of through
Speaker 1: my wife. She she posted enough for both of us,
Speaker 1: so it's her. Her instagram is that Creamer Girl. You
Speaker 1: can go to UM www dot jan might dot com.
Speaker 1: We also have our podcast on my Heart Radio wind
Speaker 1: Down with Jana and Mike, and we also our book
Speaker 1: comes out UM that we wrote called The Good Fight
Speaker 1: comes out September twenty two, and you can pre order
Speaker 1: your addition right now on Amazon. Man. And you guys
Speaker 1: like on the podcast, you guys are too transparent people. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's no there's no more skeletons these closets, I'll say that, man.
Speaker 1: You guys like you guys, If you haven't listened to
Speaker 1: their podcast, check it out because they'll they'll air all
Speaker 1: of it and and it's refreshing to see UM, to
Speaker 1: see people air disagreements you know in couples, like I think, um,
Speaker 1: I think couples too often harbor things and internalize things.
Speaker 1: And you guys, you guys are almost the exact. Obviously,
Speaker 1: you'll share everything. What have you learned the most? What's
Speaker 1: been like one big lessons from doing the podcast with
Speaker 1: your wife? You know, we have found it is therapeutic
Speaker 1: for us because it does it does get us. Talking
Speaker 1: has become our our brand per se that we we
Speaker 1: discussed these hard topics and these difficult conversations. Um, for us,
Speaker 1: it's just it's opened us up even more because we
Speaker 1: realized that people do want to be open, people want
Speaker 1: to be transparent with each other. It's just society puts
Speaker 1: this pressure on you to look a certain way, to
Speaker 1: act a certain way, to show happiness all the time.
Speaker 1: And we're like, look, that's why we titled our book
Speaker 1: The Good Fight. Were like, couples are going to fight.
Speaker 1: For those of you who don't think you're going to,
Speaker 1: it's bs like you're going. It's inevitable. So if you're
Speaker 1: gonna fight, you might as well do it in a
Speaker 1: way that you can grow you all closer together as
Speaker 1: opposed to you apart. Yeah, it's a good saying that
Speaker 1: I heard um and used it actually just the other day.
Speaker 1: Fight for, not fight against exactly, Yeah, fight for. So
Speaker 1: what was the but the book writing process, like man,
Speaker 1: it was, it was a process. It was a yearlong process.
Speaker 1: And in the thing that Jan and I are the
Speaker 1: most proud of is we wrote every word ourselves. We
Speaker 1: didn't have a ghostwriter anybody help us. It was just
Speaker 1: us in our office cranking this stuff out. It's from
Speaker 1: both of our voices. It's from her voice, from my voice,
Speaker 1: and from a wee voice. And it's that way you
Speaker 1: really get the tone and the feeling of of what
Speaker 1: the the you know, the words coming off this page
Speaker 1: and and everything. So you you'll feel our motion through
Speaker 1: through the pages. And it's a it's a long process
Speaker 1: that caused a lot of arguments in itself and you know,
Speaker 1: cause a lot of fights and uh, but it was,
Speaker 1: it was. It was cool. Man. I've been I've been
Speaker 1: asked a couple of times to write a book and
Speaker 1: I I just haven't dedicated the time to it. I've
Speaker 1: been like, I don't know what my purpose with doing
Speaker 1: that right now would be. Um, but one one person,
Speaker 1: one friend actually gave me a great point. They're like,
Speaker 1: it's actually really a great reflection and study of your life.
Speaker 1: It will actually really catch you up to speed on
Speaker 1: your life and you'll get you'll get insights from it
Speaker 1: that are that you'll discover that you didn't even weren't
Speaker 1: even really aware of because it's you're sharing your heart,
Speaker 1: you're sharing your something value. You only got X amount
Speaker 1: of pages, So something in your life that's going to
Speaker 1: go in there, it's got to be something that that
Speaker 1: UM defined there was part of your life in a
Speaker 1: massive way that you want to share to help people with.
Speaker 1: So UM for that journey, did you experience that? Did
Speaker 1: you learn a lot about yourself actually through and your
Speaker 1: wife your relationship through that journey? Yeah, I think we
Speaker 1: really um grew a higher level of respect for one
Speaker 1: another because we're writing these pages and reading these words
Speaker 1: and we're like like, damn, we've been through a lot,
Speaker 1: you know, like both of us individually, both of us
Speaker 1: as a couple, and it's just like it was. It
Speaker 1: was invigorating because it was it was also inspiring because
Speaker 1: we're like, hey, we've done all of what we just wrote,
Speaker 1: like we can do this, like you know, so it
Speaker 1: was there was a form of reflection and gratitude afterwards.
Speaker 1: It's like, look at what we what we've overcome, and
Speaker 1: I can imagine the same thing, like you said, your
Speaker 1: friends said to you, like it would be the same
Speaker 1: where you you you know, talk about your life and
Speaker 1: things you've done. You're like, man, I did that, and
Speaker 1: it's really, uh, it really is validating to your soul
Speaker 1: to be like, hey, I'm a human being. I've been
Speaker 1: through some hard times, but I'm still standing here on
Speaker 1: two feet breathing, and I can be present and grateful
Speaker 1: for that. That's amazing. I love that you and John
Speaker 1: are so involved and like, um, commanded you do a
Speaker 1: lot of projects. You do the podcast wind Down together,
Speaker 1: did the book together. Um, it's a great way. I
Speaker 1: admire it from far. I admire it that you both
Speaker 1: stepped forward because a lot of couples will actually avoid
Speaker 1: that is that's tough stuff to have that much proximity
Speaker 1: with your partner and that much vulnerability and transparency, and
Speaker 1: then to have the world comment on it. Right, not
Speaker 1: not even just to show up like that in a relationship,
Speaker 1: but to show up like that in a public platform
Speaker 1: and forum where then people are going to offer their unsolicited,
Speaker 1: just whatever, uneducated opinion on things and judge your relationship
Speaker 1: and to have to deal with that. I just commend
Speaker 1: you both to think you're both kind of pioneers in
Speaker 1: the space leading with your heart, and I think you've
Speaker 1: inspired a lot of people to open up in their relationship.
Speaker 1: So good on you, brother, Thanks man, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: You know. The thing about it kind of touches on
Speaker 1: a touch on what we talked about at the beginning
Speaker 1: with like the transitional thing, the one thing about you know,
Speaker 1: Jane and I work in so much together it would
Speaker 1: be hard for any couple of ship. It's going to
Speaker 1: have its obstacles. And I'm one of those people, Like
Speaker 1: my ideal day is like by myself around nobody. Her
Speaker 1: idea day is like right next to me, what are
Speaker 1: we gonna do all day, every second of the day.
Speaker 1: We just have different love languages. And for me, you know,
Speaker 1: finding my identity after sports, you know, being married, being
Speaker 1: with someone of celebrity status that you can relate to,
Speaker 1: and and where you go from being your own entity
Speaker 1: to now you're so and so's husband, so and so's
Speaker 1: fiance and so. I've had times where I've struggled that
Speaker 1: we do so much together because I'm like, man, am
Speaker 1: I gonna have just my own thing? And I know
Speaker 1: that there are things will happen. But I did a
Speaker 1: I had a normal job a couple of years ago
Speaker 1: in l A when we're first leving out there. So
Speaker 1: for two and a half years, I did medical sales
Speaker 1: and it was a grind, an absolute grind, and but
Speaker 1: it was also the most fulfilling the thing that I
Speaker 1: had done since my plan in days because it was
Speaker 1: just me. It was just me doing something, me punching
Speaker 1: the clock, you know, my own responsibilities. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of fires you gotta put out in that job and
Speaker 1: you've got to perform. And so they they love hiring
Speaker 1: athletes because of that. So there is something to be
Speaker 1: said about working so much together. But early on I
Speaker 1: had an issue. Now I've I've been able to realize
Speaker 1: that I can get out of my own and be like, hey,
Speaker 1: this is us doing this. This isn't just me writing coattails.
Speaker 1: It's we have our thing together, and that's great, super cool. Brother.
Speaker 1: I appreciate that. I respect that. I love that, I
Speaker 1: love that your father, love that you're committed to the
Speaker 1: relationship and committed to um to the struggle. I say
Speaker 1: it in my prayers daily. I think I'm thankful for
Speaker 1: the blessings and the challenges in our lives because both
Speaker 1: of them, both of them become and define who we are.
Speaker 1: You know, so they sped to change and challenge and
Speaker 1: mold us to become who we are. So, uh my, dude,
Speaker 1: I appreciate you. Any of our listeners, check out Wine
Speaker 1: down This man is real. Right here, You're gonna get
Speaker 1: the real deal with Michael and his wife Janna. Um
Speaker 1: Until next week, Michael, thank you so much. I could
Speaker 1: go on, dude, we gotta have another conversation about the
Speaker 1: athlete anything. We can go on all day. I love
Speaker 1: it one forever. But I love what you're doing. I
Speaker 1: love that you're finding your groove in uh after first retirement,
Speaker 1: Well right, we called first, that's right. I love that
Speaker 1: you're finding your group in in whatever you move forward,
Speaker 1: and a lot of the characteristics from being an athlete
Speaker 1: will serve you in this next chapter. So thank you
Speaker 1: for listening. Everybody. Until next week, take care of one another,
Speaker 1: love one another, and we'll see you back here for
Speaker 1: another episode of How Man Think Brooks, Thanks Buddy,