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Speaker 1: Welcome to the NFL Legends Podcast, an NFL podcast for

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Speaker 1: the players, by the players. Here is your host, four

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Speaker 1: team year NFL veteran and Hall of Famer a Enius Williams. Hello,

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Speaker 1: and welcome to the NFL Legends Podcast. I'm a Nius Williams.

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Speaker 1: We're continuing our podcast series remotely doing this COVID nineteen crisis.

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Speaker 1: We want all the NFL players and legends, as well

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Speaker 1: as the fans to know we are all in this

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Speaker 1: together and in the worst of times, we lean on

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Speaker 1: each other to be our best selves. All Americans have

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Speaker 1: been affected in some way by this crisis. For our

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Speaker 1: guests today, Mark Patterson, the virus has impacted his goal

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Speaker 1: to be the first NFL Legend to reach the Seven Summits.

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Speaker 1: I'll say it again, to reach the Seven Summits. We

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Speaker 1: had originally planned this podcast to talk about climbing Mount Everest. Instead,

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Speaker 1: we're talking about the strength and stamina needed to handle

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Speaker 1: a time when many of our plans have had to

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Speaker 1: change for reasons beyond our control. Mark, take us through

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Speaker 1: how your plans have changed over the last thirty days

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Speaker 1: and how you've responded. Tell us about your initial reaction. Yeah, well,

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Speaker 1: I look at I appreciate the the intro and uh,

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Speaker 1: you know when we did talk six months ago, I

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Speaker 1: had been in hardcore training to leave on the thirty

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Speaker 1: one of March Um and go to Mount Everage. So

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Speaker 1: I was gonna fly to Nepal and uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: you don't just show up. Uh. It would be like

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Speaker 1: you're gonna plan the super Bowl and then the super

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Speaker 1: Bowl gets canceled. So how would you feel? Um? I

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Speaker 1: probably put in um in the last three months, over

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Speaker 1: a hundred and fifty thousand vertical feet of climbing in

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Speaker 1: some valley, Idaho, up and down the mountain every single night. UM.

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Speaker 1: I had put all my bags into my car with

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Speaker 1: all my climbing gear, uh, driven from some valley, Idaho

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Speaker 1: to l a Um. My plan was to be here

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Speaker 1: for two weeks, see my daughters and then leave out

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Speaker 1: of l a x in rout to Nepal. Kept man

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Speaker 1: do and um. You know when the China side there's

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Speaker 1: two sides of Mount Everest. One you go through Tibet,

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Speaker 1: which China controls. Uh. They shut that down a couple

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Speaker 1: of weeks ago, and then we thought they were going

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Speaker 1: to keep Nepal open. And at the end of the day,

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Speaker 1: ultimately the entire world shut down. It was just a

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Speaker 1: massive disappointment. Um, my body was strong, my mind was wrong.

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Speaker 1: I had set that goal and and you know, like

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Speaker 1: a lot of things in life, you have to take

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Speaker 1: a zig zagg you get cut from a team, you

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Speaker 1: gotta take a zigzag in traverse through life and you've

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Speaker 1: got to readjust And so that's what I've had to do. Mark,

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Speaker 1: Could you tell us about how important preparation is You've

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Speaker 1: done all of this this preparing, what's what's it like?

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Speaker 1: How important it is besides the physical grueling training part.

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Speaker 1: How important was it to not only have the vision

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Speaker 1: to climb the seven Summits and this final Everest Mount Everest?

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Speaker 1: How important was it for you to to visualize are

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Speaker 1: right down the actual plan in order to accomplish it. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: there's quite a bit of stuff in there. Um number one.

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Speaker 1: You know, I always say preparation. When preparation meets opportunity,

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Speaker 1: great things can happen. Right And and so the best

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Speaker 1: thing um I could have done, which is what I

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Speaker 1: was doing, in which I continue to do on a

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Speaker 1: daily basis, is put myself in the best physical and

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Speaker 1: mental place. Uh. That I can go and I can

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Speaker 1: attack this goal. So I didn't cancel it. Um what

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Speaker 1: I did is I postponed it. And that's the way

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Speaker 1: I had to reset that thing in my mind. So

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Speaker 1: as we speak today, um uh, everything, my flights, my

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Speaker 1: guiding group, my sure pus, everything up pushed to April

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Speaker 1: two thousand twenty one. And now what I have to

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Speaker 1: do is reset my my my myself a little bit.

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Speaker 1: I'm geting it back. I normally work out twice a day,

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Speaker 1: once in the morning, once at night. I'm in l

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Speaker 1: A waiting out the C nineteen virus more resources here

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Speaker 1: before I head back to some valley which probably won't

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Speaker 1: be now until June, and then I'll you know, put

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Speaker 1: myself back in gear. But I know there's a lot

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Speaker 1: of legends in the you know, in their course of

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Speaker 1: they're playing career, where everything is going great. They go

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Speaker 1: into training camp, they've been training and then all of

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Speaker 1: a sudden they blow out their knee or they have

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Speaker 1: a hamstring injury or something something that makes them go

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Speaker 1: off course to what they thought they were going to do.

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Speaker 1: And and ask answering your your question about you know,

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Speaker 1: preparation and going back and setting the goal of the

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Speaker 1: seventh Summits. You know, I was going through a tough time, uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, seven eight years ago, and so I need

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Speaker 1: a massive goal to put out there. Uh So that

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Speaker 1: would help me pull myself out of it and not

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Speaker 1: just work out to work out, but work out with

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Speaker 1: a goal in mind. And a lot of it you

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Speaker 1: know gets around too, especially when you're extreme mountain conditions

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Speaker 1: around the world. Um, you're talking about your life and

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Speaker 1: so that the stakes are high, and I had to

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Speaker 1: take myself to a place I had never been before

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Speaker 1: even playing football, where I knew I could sustain things

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Speaker 1: like that. So things happen to are all of us,

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Speaker 1: and you have to pivot, whether it's your career, whether

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Speaker 1: it's something athletic like I'm doing. Um, and you need

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Speaker 1: to adjust and then attack. And that's kind of the

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Speaker 1: game plan I've always had in managing your emotional response

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Speaker 1: to it. You you said a minute ago in your mind.

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Speaker 1: Instead of you asserting that this is canceled, it was

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Speaker 1: important that you say has postponed and not canceled. Tell

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Speaker 1: us about how you are able to manage your emotions.

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Speaker 1: Just with how you define our name something. Yeah, you

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Speaker 1: know that's a great question and this and again I

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Speaker 1: I equate it to going and we've all played in

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Speaker 1: the big game and you've gone out there done your

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Speaker 1: best and your best wasn't enough for whatever reason on

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Speaker 1: that day, and you get your butt beat. And what

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Speaker 1: you have to do is you have to you know,

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Speaker 1: swallow the loss. You have to learn from it, and

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Speaker 1: you have to come back. And sometimes things are just

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Speaker 1: not in your control. And what we're experiencing today is

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Speaker 1: something that we've never um, you know, gone through. I

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Speaker 1: mean it's you know, we're going back to like World

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Speaker 1: War two times and everything is shut down and and

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Speaker 1: and at the same time, if if you d take

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Speaker 1: a step back and you look at the history of

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Speaker 1: the planet, you know that we've gone through this three

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Speaker 1: or four different times where there's been these massive pandemics

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Speaker 1: that have broken out and they all ride themselves and

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Speaker 1: correct themselves, just like the financial markets and everything else.

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Speaker 1: And what we have to do, uh is put ourselves

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Speaker 1: in the best position to say what can I do

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Speaker 1: and look at this as an opportunity and not something

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Speaker 1: that you're going to go backwards on and you're sitting

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Speaker 1: around not doing anything. I mean, action always creates reaction.

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Speaker 1: And I think that's the key to anything that you

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Speaker 1: want to do. What is the opportunity, what is the

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Speaker 1: blessing out of this whole thing, and how you stand

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Speaker 1: positive and on goal. Well, and you know, I have

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Speaker 1: a routine. I'm a pretty disciplined person and and uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, I still get up every morning, brush my teeth,

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Speaker 1: take a big you know, global air, and then it

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Speaker 1: on with my exercises and I usually get after it

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Speaker 1: for at least an hour. And it's really a combination

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Speaker 1: of doing a bunch of in home exercises. I have

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Speaker 1: some apps in my phone downloaded, you know, and it's

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Speaker 1: doing kind of core strength, body and moving. But I'm

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Speaker 1: doing this every single day just to put myself on

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Speaker 1: the right frame of mind. And then I have been

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Speaker 1: incredibly lucky in terms of my career trajectory and just

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Speaker 1: being in the right place at the right time. But

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Speaker 1: that also had to do with preparation, its opportunity, because

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Speaker 1: I had to learn um a lot of these skills,

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Speaker 1: you know, many years ago, when I could see that

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Speaker 1: digital was kind of the path of the future. And

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Speaker 1: so what that all means is that I'm an executive

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Speaker 1: for Sports Illustrated and so Um, we have not slowed down.

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Speaker 1: If anything, we continue to surge ahead. Um with everybody

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Speaker 1: um uh, social distancing and and spending a lot of

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Speaker 1: time at home. Uh. There's just a lot of participation

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Speaker 1: on on the internet, and so a lot of people

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Speaker 1: continue to have those same patterns of going and looking

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Speaker 1: at their favorite, you know, sports teams. Now, obviously we're

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Speaker 1: not planning sports right now, but we're also covering a

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Speaker 1: lot of things about the draft that's coming up, about

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Speaker 1: the college prospects, about games that happened years ago, the

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Speaker 1: top ten best quarterbacks and all those things, and so, um,

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Speaker 1: I'm busier than ever, and we have not fortunately had

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Speaker 1: to shut down our doors versus if I was in

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Speaker 1: the restaurant business or you know, some other kind of

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Speaker 1: service business where they've pretty much told everybody to shut down. Mark,

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Speaker 1: you mentioned you said you've been fortunately used the term

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Speaker 1: you've been lucky, but then you you backtrack. You said,

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Speaker 1: I said, look, but it's preparation meeting opportunity. Is that

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Speaker 1: what you referred to as what you term luck? Well,

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Speaker 1: I think you know, Jim Mora, when I was down

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Speaker 1: in New Orleans and I think we'd won ten game,

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Speaker 1: is in a row this, and and and and the

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Speaker 1: Saints prior to me getting there had nothing to do

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Speaker 1: with me. It's just timing. But the Saints prior to

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Speaker 1: that had never had a winning season in twenty years.

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Speaker 1: It just blows my mind. And I'd always come from

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Speaker 1: winning programs, right, And so he came in, Uh, he

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Speaker 1: was the head coach at the time, and he said, look,

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Speaker 1: everybody's calling us lucky, but lucky is what is what

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Speaker 1: happens when preparation meets opportunity and we have a bunch

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Speaker 1: of good players in the room, and you know, Ricky

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Speaker 1: Jackson and Morton Anderson by behavior, we had all these

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Speaker 1: amazing players and we worked at it and it's because

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Speaker 1: we put ourselves in the best position that we won.

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Speaker 1: And that was the reason. It wasn't because we're lucky.

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Speaker 1: You know, luck doesn't happen to people who lose. Luck

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Speaker 1: happened to people that put it together and then and

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Speaker 1: then and then find themselves in positions where the succeeding thrive. Right. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: you mentioned earlier, Mark in reference with your executive position

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Speaker 1: with sports, hillis rated that there are some opportunities possibly

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Speaker 1: for legends are uh to connect and being able to

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Speaker 1: provide content for Sports Illustrated. Yeah, it's a great opportunity.

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Speaker 1: So and you know, I encourage everybody to reach out

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Speaker 1: to me if you're interested in this. But um again,

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Speaker 1: this is getting into the world of digital and we

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Speaker 1: know that there's a lot of players and I'm one

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Speaker 1: of them who played a game you know, in many

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Speaker 1: cases many years ago, or they're just emerging out of

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Speaker 1: the sport and we all want to stay connected and

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Speaker 1: and we we have an opportunity now with the way

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Speaker 1: that our our our technology is that we're able to

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Speaker 1: give players a player page that they can go It's

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Speaker 1: just not about about you know, your stats and your

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Speaker 1: your height and your wait and all that kind of

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Speaker 1: stuff and a couple of pictures, but it's ongoing content,

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Speaker 1: you know, where you can write about your favorite team.

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Speaker 1: So say if you grew up in Chicago when you

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Speaker 1: play for the Bears, that you can write about the Bears,

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Speaker 1: you can write about your college team, and it really

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Speaker 1: gives an opportunity the waere again, our our technology is

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Speaker 1: set up that you can interact with the fans that

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Speaker 1: want to come and interact with you on one of

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Speaker 1: the most massive iconic brands. You know, in the world.

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Speaker 1: We're also doing this with s I Swim, which are

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Speaker 1: the models, and so really giving those those those models

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Speaker 1: in our players an opportunity to engage with fans um

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Speaker 1: and in our case, you know, we reach millions and

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Speaker 1: millions and millions of fans. Mark. There's so many legends,

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Speaker 1: players and fans that have had to deal with sudden transition,

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Speaker 1: strategies do you recommend that they use during this time

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Speaker 1: of adversity. Well, again, I see it as an opportunity

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Speaker 1: and the opportunity to uh, to really think about what

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Speaker 1: you want to do. Number one. Number two is nothing

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Speaker 1: will ever get solved. If you don't do anything and

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Speaker 1: you don't move, you're in quicksand. And so I said

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Speaker 1: this before, but action creates reaction. And so just like

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Speaker 1: what I had to do several years ago when I

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Speaker 1: didn't know a thing about the Internet, is really go

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Speaker 1: on and this there's a little friend named Google that

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Speaker 1: you can type in. You know, how do I grow

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Speaker 1: my Twitter page? And how do I grow my Facebook page?

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Speaker 1: And how do I have an engaging blog? Or you know,

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Speaker 1: do I want to work in media? You know, and

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Speaker 1: really research what you want to do and then go

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Speaker 1: after it. Now that may end in the path that

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Speaker 1: you don't want to go down, but Alice, you'll know

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Speaker 1: that you're not interested in that, But you'll never know

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Speaker 1: if you don't get off the couch and do something,

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Speaker 1: which then goes to another set of strategies, which is

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Speaker 1: about being goal oriented and writing those things down and

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Speaker 1: then having that daily discipline to do things towards that

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Speaker 1: goal which are going to get you to a place

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Speaker 1: that you just never know unless you put yourself in

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Speaker 1: that position. So that's really you know, my message that

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Speaker 1: that has worked for me is that I feel my

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Speaker 1: day um of things, I write it down and then

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Speaker 1: I go after them. You know, one of the things

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Speaker 1: you mentioned, Mark is that you already prepared and you

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Speaker 1: you guys kind of sort of digital transition happened years ago.

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Speaker 1: What about those legends who have businesses as well, what

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Speaker 1: would you recommend they do in order to adapt their

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Speaker 1: business to this change in environment? Well, I think, you know,

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Speaker 1: I think what you're seeing today is manufacturers who you know,

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Speaker 1: are manufacturing whatever they do and changing their plans into

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Speaker 1: making face mask right, and so it's sometimes you just

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Speaker 1: have you do have to pivot. You do have to

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Speaker 1: be creative, and I think it does help to have

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Speaker 1: mentors around you. I know, and s You've talked to a

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Speaker 1: a number of times about this on your podcast, the

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Speaker 1: Legends podcast, which I'll listen to. And that is the

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Speaker 1: you know, we all grow up with with having coaches,

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Speaker 1: all these since all these players, right, and then when

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Speaker 1: we get done playing, so many of us stop talking

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Speaker 1: to people. Now we call them mentors, we don't necessarily

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Speaker 1: call them coaches, but whether we were paying for those

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Speaker 1: are getting together and having that camaraderie and sharing ideas

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Speaker 1: on is this something you know that's that that is

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Speaker 1: worthy or not? And a lot of times you can't

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Speaker 1: just talk to other people who who may or may

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Speaker 1: not not know the subject. But you've got to go

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Speaker 1: search out experts that can shed some light on that

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Speaker 1: particular industry that do have the experience that can really

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Speaker 1: help saying who are you reaching out during this time?

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Speaker 1: Who are you reaching out to Mark doing this time? Well,

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Speaker 1: the mentor a formal player, Who are some of the

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Speaker 1: people you're reaching out to? Well, I mean, look, my

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Speaker 1: my days are are are pretty full as it relates

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Speaker 1: to to you know, communicating with a lot of people

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Speaker 1: O sports illustrated and I'm always learning. I mean, I'm

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Speaker 1: so blessed to be surrounded by a lot of talent,

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Speaker 1: you know in that world. Obviously I don't know everything.

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Speaker 1: And and from a technology standpoint, just from a marketing,

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Speaker 1: from a branding, I'm learning a lot. And then on

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Speaker 1: the on the other side of it, on the player's standpoint, Um,

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Speaker 1: I I speak and talked to uh former quarterback of

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Speaker 1: mind at the University of Washington ten, your NFL quarterback

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Speaker 1: Hugh Millon Uh, and so we're in a regular communication

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Speaker 1: as well as Jim Mora Junruh is my best friend

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Speaker 1: and so we actually train all the time in sun Valley.

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Speaker 1: He's there. He's now come back to California as well.

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Speaker 1: But um, you know, he's really my training buddy and

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Speaker 1: keeps me motivated. And that's really you know, help to me.

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Speaker 1: I would have been, you know, driving myself up and

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Speaker 1: down the mountain by myself, and I've done a lot

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Speaker 1: of that, but it always helps to have another person

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Speaker 1: with you to help make sure you're you're accountable for

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Speaker 1: showing up. I have any former teammates reached out to you, No, Uh,

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Speaker 1: they haven't. And Uh, I'm you know, I'm here. You

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Speaker 1: know the way it is, man, it's it's this is

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Speaker 1: the thing that that sucks. And I know that you

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Speaker 1: guys have done a great job of really trying to connect,

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Speaker 1: you know, the former players together because we're on the

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Speaker 1: locker room and and it's such a great place to

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Speaker 1: be and and and form relationships and bonds. And then

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Speaker 1: we split and you now it's proof you're in the year.

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Speaker 1: Everybody's on their own corner of the universe, doing their

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Speaker 1: own thing, and we stop having that same connection. And uh,

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Speaker 1: and I think you guys are doing all the right things. Um,

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Speaker 1: and we just got to figure out better ways to

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Speaker 1: to communicate with each other. Mark, here's my final question.

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Speaker 1: As I listen to you, I hear a passion and

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Speaker 1: a focus in you. And in this last part, would

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Speaker 1: you speak to the legends as relates to your passion

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Speaker 1: of what's possible for legends even during this time. It's

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Speaker 1: just like it's almost like a fire in your bellad

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Speaker 1: that I perceive even right now that there is more

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Speaker 1: could be done. Being a legend doesn't mean you've stopped

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Speaker 1: playing the game, and I'm talking about the game of life.

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Speaker 1: You've just stopped playing football. Could you speak directly into

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Speaker 1: the ears of legends. Are any fans that pretty much

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Speaker 1: have kind of put it on ease and put it

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Speaker 1: in idle? Uh? And during this time, what would you

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Speaker 1: say to them? Well, this is really easy for being

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Speaker 1: and that is uh. And I really didn't figure this out,

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Speaker 1: like I said and Tail about eight years ago. But

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Speaker 1: the one thing I know, it's really easy to be average.

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Speaker 1: And I just don't want to be average because that

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Speaker 1: doesn't take a lot of effort, doesn't take a lot

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Speaker 1: of work. Um, I think a lot of average people

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Speaker 1: can do extraordinary things. And for me, what I what

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Speaker 1: I what I had to do is really recognized that

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Speaker 1: I've done a couple of cool things in my life.

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Speaker 1: But if you take a look at all the things

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Speaker 1: on the planet that are out there that that in

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Speaker 1: my case, I haven't done, it's endless. Right. And so

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Speaker 1: by having this massive goal of climbing the seventh Summits,

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Speaker 1: the seven highest peaks around the world, have now climbed

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Speaker 1: six of the seven. I've been on Kilmandaro twice, once

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Speaker 1: with Chris Long and wat of Boys, uh and a

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Speaker 1: bunch of other NFL players, which was amazing. It's been

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Speaker 1: it's been incredible to step into the fear, which is

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Speaker 1: the biggest thing. Step into the fear, have a big

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Speaker 1: gas goal out there, and then go after it, and

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Speaker 1: that's what keeps me motivated. I still have to go

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Speaker 1: back to Mount Everest this next year. It's going to

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Speaker 1: be a massive goal. It's gonna be a massive achievement

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Speaker 1: to try to get after um. And I'm because I

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Speaker 1: have that that that big goal in front of me.

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Speaker 1: You know, I'm gonna do nothing short of training my

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Speaker 1: ass off to get there. Um. Once that is done,

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Speaker 1: people keep saying, Okay, Mark, so that's done. Now are

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Speaker 1: you done? Are you done climbing? I'm like, no, man,

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Speaker 1: I am just starting. This has taught me about continuing

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Speaker 1: to to to reset new goals, but just not you know,

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Speaker 1: become I don't know, do something simple, but put something

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Speaker 1: out there that I've never done that I fear that

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Speaker 1: I don't know a whole lot about. That's gonna make

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Speaker 1: me learn. It's gonna make me train, and it's gonna

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Speaker 1: make me go after it in ways I've never done before.

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Speaker 1: And I think there's there's you know, it's endless in

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Speaker 1: terms of what those things can be well. I can

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Speaker 1: tell you just as a podcast host, you've inspired me tremendously,

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Speaker 1: and everybody listening or that we'll hear this, Mark will

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Speaker 1: be inspired. Thanks for joining us. We're going to reach

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Speaker 1: out to you when two thousand twenty one, when you

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Speaker 1: climb the top of Mounta of Earth, and we'll be there.

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Speaker 1: Can't wait to celebrate with you and cheer you on

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Speaker 1: and celebrate your victory for the seven Summits, being the

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Speaker 1: first Legend to do it. So we'll reach back out

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Speaker 1: to you. Mark love it. Thanks for listening in the

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Speaker 1: best is yet to come. Thank you, Mark, tremendous job.

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Speaker 1: Thank you. This has been the NFL Legends podcast. To

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Speaker 1: provide feedback or request a topic for discussion, email us

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Speaker 1: at NFL Legends at nfl dot com