Speaker 1: Welcome to the Good Stuff.
Speaker 2: I'm Jacob Schick and I'm joined by my co host
Speaker 2: and wife, Ashley Shick.
Speaker 3: Welcome everyone. We know that everyone has a story and
Speaker 3: we can all gain something from other people's experience. We
Speaker 3: want to tap into the perseverance and the tenacity that
Speaker 3: it takes for people to get through the hard times
Speaker 3: to get to the light.
Speaker 2: And that's why we're here with you today, bring you
Speaker 2: an amazing story that's going to give you inspiration and
Speaker 2: perspective to help you get through the day and whatever
Speaker 2: it is you're possibly battling. We love doing stories like
Speaker 2: this because we get to draw a light from it,
Speaker 2: we use it in our own lives.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to the Good Stuff.
Speaker 3: Our guest today is Chad Hennings, who flew forty five
Speaker 3: successful missions with the Air Force bringing humanitarian aid to
Speaker 3: Kurtis refugees fleeing their homes in northern Iraq in the
Speaker 3: aftermath of the Gulf War. He was then promoted to
Speaker 3: captain and twice awarded the Air Force Achievement Medal.
Speaker 2: Yeah He's also authored three books. He is a three
Speaker 2: time Super Bowl champion of the Dallas.
Speaker 3: Cowboys, America's team that's.
Speaker 2: Right, twenty seven years old. It's all he was as
Speaker 2: a rookie. Crazy twenty seven. I mean, that's light years
Speaker 2: ahead of his fellow rookies. And I love this guy
Speaker 2: regardless of the fact that he's an Air Force veteran.
Speaker 1: I truly love this guy. I first bumped.
Speaker 2: Into Chad when I was at Coppel High School in Coppel, Texas,
Speaker 2: as a young teen, and we're definitely definitely going to
Speaker 2: unpack that later.
Speaker 3: We are so excited to bring you our conversation with
Speaker 3: Chad Hennings.
Speaker 2: Was the camaraderie close from your Air Force service to
Speaker 2: when you transition and made it big time with the
Speaker 2: boys in the NFL.
Speaker 4: I tell you it was like going from one locker
Speaker 4: room to another. Squadron, well duty, Honor Country, Mission orient
Speaker 4: It same thing with the Cowboys. It was offense defense,
Speaker 4: special teams, mission orient win super Bowls. It was two
Speaker 4: bunch of alpha males in both and guys trying to
Speaker 4: get after it. And when games are successful, training or
Speaker 4: combat missions.
Speaker 1: God, that's awesome here.
Speaker 3: Absolutely.
Speaker 4: I think men or men, guys or guys or guys
Speaker 4: in high performing units or whatnot, that that cohesiveness, that fraternity,
Speaker 4: that is free a corps for any organization to be
Speaker 4: a success of it. And again company professional athletic team,
Speaker 4: military unit, they have to have that. It's all about relationships,
Speaker 4: the brotherhood. The brotherhood exactly right.
Speaker 3: And clearly that led you to not just being a
Speaker 3: rookie at age twenty seven with the Dallas Cowboys, but
Speaker 3: the greatness you achieved while being a Dallas Cowboy, three
Speaker 3: super Bowls and an iconic era of Dallas Cowboy football.
Speaker 4: You know that was God's providence over that one. I've
Speaker 4: never been around a group of guys that were more selfless,
Speaker 4: more dedicated to their craft, wanting to win. Whatever it took,
Speaker 4: We're gonna win.
Speaker 2: I love you realize, and I'm sure completely accepted the
Speaker 2: fact that, like you're a unicorn, nfler and veteran on
Speaker 2: both sides on military and the NFL, you get three
Speaker 2: super Bowls in the first four season, Like you know,
Speaker 2: I don't have to give you odds on your unicorn.
Speaker 3: Yeah, graduation, We're so thrilled to have you here on
Speaker 3: the good stuff. Chad Hennings, air Force pilot, three times
Speaker 3: super Bowl champion and friend, and we're thrilled to call
Speaker 3: you friend and how did the two of you meet,
Speaker 3: because I know you've known each other.
Speaker 4: Why, I lived in Copel for a number of years,
Speaker 4: so we may have run into each other when you
Speaker 4: were a young man. You were just a wee little
Speaker 4: lad at back in the day I was.
Speaker 2: And I do remember when you guys are still practicing
Speaker 2: out at Valley Ranch and Coppel had built that indoor facility.
Speaker 2: I remember one day it started.
Speaker 4: Pouring rain and we practiced over the yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And so coach comes in and he's like, all right, jents,
Speaker 2: we're all getting wet today.
Speaker 1: Got the Dallas Cowboys coming. They need to use the
Speaker 1: indoor facility.
Speaker 2: And I remember thinking, like, I love you guys, but
Speaker 2: what the hell, Like, you're the Dallas Cowboys. You can't
Speaker 2: get an indoor facility. You gotta come over to our facility.
Speaker 2: And I remember us walking out, walking out, y'all are
Speaker 2: coming off the bus, and I will never forget all
Speaker 2: of us, Like we may not win, but we'd fight
Speaker 2: them right now.
Speaker 3: Wow, just because like it was Texas football.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was like freaking cowboys, can't get wet.
Speaker 1: We're cowboys too, that's right, Coppell Cowboys.
Speaker 3: I'll never forget that Texas football and Texas high school football,
Speaker 3: especially the Friday night lights. It's iconic. And yeah, you're
Speaker 3: probably pissed, like we have to go practice in the
Speaker 3: mud now because the Cowboys have to have indoor facility.
Speaker 2: I'm telling you, we were ready to fight, and knowing
Speaker 2: we would lose, it was like, this is not right,
Speaker 2: successful friendly.
Speaker 4: Groundwork for eventually what the man that you became take
Speaker 4: out all lot No.
Speaker 3: Football is huge in our family for generations, cheerleading football,
Speaker 3: it really dominates our life and now our boys both
Speaker 3: play football, and we couldn't be more thrilled about that
Speaker 3: because it's such a great sport. It's such a great game,
Speaker 3: and it lends back to what you talked about the brotherhood.
Speaker 3: You've been rewarded for living a life of dedication, focus,
Speaker 3: hard work. You've flown a ten fighter planes, You've won
Speaker 3: super Bowls. Your accomplishments are legendary. But despite all the victories,
Speaker 3: all the accolades, you're actually here to tell us about
Speaker 3: one of the most challenging times in your life and
Speaker 3: events you've ever lived through. And it's the one thing
Speaker 3: you credit above all else with making you the man
Speaker 3: that you are today. Being a father, when your firstborn son,
Speaker 3: Chase was battling some terrifying health issues.
Speaker 4: Yeah. For me, that was the first thing in my
Speaker 4: life that I couldn't control. Right after we won the
Speaker 4: third Super Bowl in four years, we beat the Pittsburgh Steelers,
Speaker 4: and I had a believers in magic. I had a
Speaker 4: Super Bowl record. I was tied. I had two sacks
Speaker 4: in that game. Two sacks in that game.
Speaker 1: Completely believe it, by the way, And then I remember
Speaker 1: the JG.
Speaker 4: White broke it the next year. I think he had
Speaker 4: two and a half sacks. But for a period of time,
Speaker 4: I was one of ten guys that had two sacks
Speaker 4: and whatever in the Super Bowl. It was in Phoenix
Speaker 4: and they had a Luke Air Force Base was right
Speaker 4: near there, so I had friends that were stationed at Luke,
Speaker 4: So I took one of our days off. Prior to that,
Speaker 4: I took a contingent of guys out to Luke to
Speaker 4: fly the tax Sims, the F sixteen sims and or
Speaker 4: my cowboy career. I took guys out on aircraft carriers.
Speaker 4: We took them out to fly tax sims, to go
Speaker 4: out to Fort Worthy Dry Reserve, but JRB to do
Speaker 4: a variety of different things so they can get a
Speaker 4: glimpse into the experience that we have that a lot
Speaker 4: of other military men and women have.
Speaker 1: And most people will never ever be able to get.
Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly. Former teammate of mine from the Air Force
Speaker 4: Academy was part of the four ship that did the
Speaker 4: flyover then prior to the game. Look, it's just a
Speaker 4: slew of emotions going through and then you know, win
Speaker 4: the game. It was just a high point. Married for
Speaker 4: six years. My son was two and a half. He's
Speaker 4: just a blowing and going, let's get after a little
Speaker 4: boy that's just tearing things up. And it was good.
Speaker 4: I mean, it was at the peak of life for
Speaker 4: us at the game. Yeah, my whole family, mom, dad, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins,
Speaker 4: you know, fill up your whole Super Bowl ticket contingent. Again,
Speaker 4: from a life standpoint, making more money than ever thought
Speaker 4: I'd make notoriety being a Dallas cowboy in North Texas,
Speaker 4: in Dallas, it doesn't get any better than that. From
Speaker 4: a relational business, relational standpoint, beautiful, family life was just good.
Speaker 3: It was cowboy fans. Did they travel? Did they show
Speaker 3: up for that game?
Speaker 4: They always showed up. Cow fans are They're awesome, They're
Speaker 4: the best. And the thing about it, we had fans
Speaker 4: from all over the world, you know, warming up on
Speaker 4: the sidelines. There's Kevin Costner and here comes Merle Hagger
Speaker 4: singing the national anthem. That was every game. There was
Speaker 4: something for being an America's team, and that was really
Speaker 4: back in the day. It was that way. We had
Speaker 4: fans all over the world.
Speaker 3: You played with some iconic.
Speaker 4: On that one, you know the trip. It was Troy Emmett,
Speaker 4: Michael Dion Sanders, Charles Hadley here, what's will be a
Speaker 4: future Hall of Famer, all the guys that were on
Speaker 4: that team. It was just we are teammates, your friends.
Speaker 4: It's like your fellow co workers. People put individuals that
Speaker 4: are either in social media now or that are half
Speaker 4: some perceived notoriety because they're on TV. They put them
Speaker 4: on a pedestal, but realize that they're just a normal guy.
Speaker 4: They got families, their kids get sick, you know, they
Speaker 4: got to pay their same bills. It's just that you're
Speaker 4: in the public eye. But people are people across the board,
Speaker 4: and these guys were phenomenal teammates and some of them
Speaker 4: are crazy, but we don't need to get into that.
Speaker 4: We had a lot of fun in the locker room.
Speaker 3: Awesome. What was it like in the locker room that day.
Speaker 4: It was like being a fighter pilot. And I'll describe
Speaker 4: it like this. As fighter pilot. They had that certain
Speaker 4: mentality I call it confident arrogancet that I know I'm good.
Speaker 4: Every fighter pilot you've probably ever met is the world's
Speaker 4: greatest fire pot, and I'll tell you that. But it's
Speaker 4: that confidence. I know my craft, I know my job.
Speaker 4: I'm really good at what I do, and I know it.
Speaker 4: And that was the same as the Cowboys. When we
Speaker 4: would go on the field, we know we're going to win.
Speaker 4: We knew that we're the best team out there. And
Speaker 4: a lot of times the other team do that too.
Speaker 4: We win the game before they know. The initial gun
Speaker 4: goes off to start the game.
Speaker 2: If you won the mental battle before the first whistle,
Speaker 2: you've already won.
Speaker 4: That's it.
Speaker 2: You have to have that arrogance. And it's not so
Speaker 2: much like a conceited selfish arrogance. It's almost like a
Speaker 2: survival thrival mechanism. In those high stress and environments that
Speaker 2: you know you're going to enter into, rather be flying
Speaker 2: an aircraft in a combat zone or walking out in
Speaker 2: the Super Bowl. If you don't have an error about
Speaker 2: you knowing A. I deserve to be here.
Speaker 3: I've earned the right.
Speaker 1: I've put in the work to be here and that
Speaker 1: can't be questioned. And then B.
Speaker 2: We know we're the best. How do you come away
Speaker 2: with the highest title in the world not having that?
Speaker 2: I just don't think you can.
Speaker 4: If you constantly thought abouts I'm thinking it as a
Speaker 4: fier padd and talk it as a fire pound. Now
Speaker 4: that if you thought about all the what if what
Speaker 4: if I you know, insured malfunction, what if I'm flat failure,
Speaker 4: what if I have gun failure? What if the essay
Speaker 4: two site's there? What if you know the essay six?
Speaker 4: What if physiast? What if all these things are there?
Speaker 4: You never accomplish your mission. You have to concentrate always
Speaker 4: on that end goal mindset. It's everything. You have to
Speaker 4: have that confidence.
Speaker 3: I live with a marine and totally understand what you're
Speaker 3: talking about, and I agree that understands.
Speaker 2: Like you, just like when he was flying on his missions,
Speaker 2: like I can't get too close to those marines, even
Speaker 2: though you probably did.
Speaker 1: You being older, the Grand old men when you went
Speaker 1: in there rookie.
Speaker 4: Of the year.
Speaker 2: By the way, do you think your other teammates, even
Speaker 2: some of the vets that you were still older than,
Speaker 2: leaned on you a little bit because you were a
Speaker 2: little wiser, had more life experience under your belt, especially
Speaker 2: because of the military.
Speaker 4: I would teach him, Yeah, you know, I had a
Speaker 4: real job before I came here, you know, really real
Speaker 4: life work experience. And I was in the same draft
Speaker 4: classes as Michael Irvin and then Ken Norton Junior, who
Speaker 4: was with us for the first two Super Bowls and
Speaker 4: he went to UH San Francisco. And here's the thing
Speaker 4: that I tell a lot of veterans, those guys on
Speaker 4: the grid iron or those professional athletes whatever, they are
Speaker 4: in awe of you guys, you veterans for what you
Speaker 4: do because his kids, as we grew up, where everybody
Speaker 4: played cowboys and indiansury, you played army, you played soldier,
Speaker 4: or you wanted to be your favorite professional athlete. We
Speaker 4: all role played on these different things, and those guys
Speaker 4: did the same. They're in awe of those active duty
Speaker 4: members in the military, whether fight or pilot, whether they're Marine,
Speaker 4: whether they're Navy, seal or whatever. Just as much as
Speaker 4: you admire them, they admire you. And these guys would
Speaker 4: ask questions, what was it like? Man? They didn't care
Speaker 4: what I did. You know, as an Outland Trophy winner
Speaker 4: at college, my college, they could care less about that.
Speaker 4: Tell me those missions. What was it like to fly?
Speaker 4: Take off out of Turkey and fly Northern roct Tell
Speaker 4: me about those submissions. What's it like to fly that plane?
Speaker 4: But tell me about that. I've been asked many times,
Speaker 4: would you rather do go back play for the Cowboys
Speaker 4: or fly? I said I would go back and fly
Speaker 4: in a harp Cowboys, Been there, done that. I want
Speaker 4: to go fly. Still that young boy and me still
Speaker 4: wants to go. Let my hair on fire and let's go.
Speaker 2: Because of your real job, because that's exactactly what it
Speaker 2: was being a fighter pilot in the Air Force. You
Speaker 2: walked in the doors with respect that had nothing to
Speaker 2: do with football. That's a rarity, you know that. That's
Speaker 2: a rarity in the NFL or any professional sport. For
Speaker 2: a veteran, let alone combat veteran, to walk in the doors.
Speaker 2: Something tells me that they're not going to say heyo,
Speaker 2: carry my helmet.
Speaker 4: Yeah, for me though, I still felt that I had
Speaker 4: the personal discipline, call it whatever, the mindset that I
Speaker 4: had to earn it. Even though I had accomplished stuff,
Speaker 4: that I had to still go out there and prove
Speaker 4: my worst right, same as when I went to be,
Speaker 4: you know, in a fire squad, you have to prove
Speaker 4: you have that gravitas. Rank has its privileges, they have
Speaker 4: to be earned to that point. For me, yeah, I
Speaker 4: did have that reputation, that respect from that, but I
Speaker 4: still for me personally, I did have that mentality that hey,
Speaker 4: look at me, look at it I did. I was
Speaker 4: a fighter pilot. No, that's what I did. You know,
Speaker 4: what you do is not to find who you are
Speaker 4: from a mindset standpoint. But I still had to go
Speaker 4: in and I had to prove that I could be
Speaker 4: a football player.
Speaker 3: And we mentioned you were older. You were twenty seven
Speaker 3: when you got into the league. And so now here's
Speaker 3: Super Bowl three and you're older, but your family's there.
Speaker 3: You're a family man. Maybe the rest of them are
Speaker 3: going to go out and get drunken party.
Speaker 4: But Jerry owaystill is a great party afterwards where all
Speaker 4: the families would come by. Then it's eleven twelve, o'clock
Speaker 4: at night. You just got them playing a game. You're
Speaker 4: spent anyway, but you're still from that emotional high. The
Speaker 4: adrenaline is still flowing. Just a chance to decompress with family,
Speaker 4: with teammates, get a picture in front of Lombardi Trophy,
Speaker 4: the third one, the third one.
Speaker 1: Yeah, in four years.
Speaker 3: Take us now to post super Bowl. It's February. You're
Speaker 3: ready to relax, recharge, do family time. Take us to
Speaker 3: that period.
Speaker 4: We had been two weeks into our vacation time. We
Speaker 4: had been to Iowa to see my family were out
Speaker 4: in Colorado see and my wife's family. Also the player
Speaker 4: rep for the Cowboys at the time, which meant to
Speaker 4: a part of our players Association, and we'd get a
Speaker 4: trip out to Hawaii to Maui every year. So that
Speaker 4: was in the first part of March. So kind of prepping,
Speaker 4: laying back, relaxing for that. But then my son Chase,
Speaker 4: who was two and a half at the time, just
Speaker 4: woke up with a fever. Didn't feel well. I was
Speaker 4: at the Cowboys facility doing a light workout. My wife
Speaker 4: took him two of the pediatrician and white kids always
Speaker 4: get sick on a Friday. I don't know, but this
Speaker 4: was on Friday, so we said just take him home,
Speaker 4: will monitor him. But anyway, he continued to get worse,
Speaker 4: high high fevers, rash started to grow all over his body,
Speaker 4: and like, what the heck's going on here, So we
Speaker 4: admitted him to the hospital and we spent the next
Speaker 4: week in the hospital where they poked and prod dropped
Speaker 4: blood trying to figure out what this is, and bottom mind,
Speaker 4: they had no clue. And then we were released. After
Speaker 4: spending a week in the hospital with what they called
Speaker 4: the fever of an unknown origin, his body started to
Speaker 4: attack itself, creating an autoimmune process and went on for days,
Speaker 4: for weeks, so emaciated and depleted, to the point where
Speaker 4: we had to do some emergency medical procedures to keep
Speaker 4: him from going on. And it was for me tough
Speaker 4: because this was a point in my life. You know,
Speaker 4: at the time, I was the strongest cowboy Jake. I
Speaker 4: could bench five point fifty, I could squat seven fifty
Speaker 4: at Believe me, I intimidated more doctors to stand over.
Speaker 4: I'm like, okay, doctor, fix my son, right, fix my son.
Speaker 4: You know, we don't know what's going on. We'll try
Speaker 4: this we'll try this cocktail. That's called practicing medicine. And
Speaker 4: I don't blame the physicians because it's the human body
Speaker 4: is so ornate that everybody is so unique that it's
Speaker 4: not a one stop shop to fix or create somebody
Speaker 4: by here, take this pill or keep this medication. The
Speaker 4: human body reacts in different ways. It'd be like daily,
Speaker 4: his fever would start to go up, and you'd give
Speaker 4: him his children's tile and all or motrin, and that's
Speaker 4: a dose he can only give every four hours. But
Speaker 4: his fever continued to climb throughout a hundred and one
Speaker 4: hundred and two hundred and three. I'm like, okay, now,
Speaker 4: what do you do? Draw a type of temperature bath,
Speaker 4: go old school to bring the core body temperature down.
Speaker 4: It was in our master bedroom and my wife was outside,
Speaker 4: no she's crying, and I'm looking at my son and
Speaker 4: he's it's like, daddy, Daddy, am I.
Speaker 5: Gonna be okay? You know, realize he's two and a half.
Speaker 5: He doesn't know what's going on. And I'm like, yeah, buddy,
Speaker 5: you're gonna be good, daddy. What's the matter with me?
Speaker 5: Why do I feel so bad all the time? And
Speaker 5: I'm my son, you can be okay, buddy, and inside
Speaker 5: of me, by guess it's just being torn out.
Speaker 4: And again, because I was a guy who was always
Speaker 4: performance based, I could fix anything by my work, ethic ability, whatever,
Speaker 4: and I couldn't do anything. And this is where I
Speaker 4: came to the end of myself. I pray that three words,
Speaker 4: simple prayer, God help me, because I can't do it.
Speaker 4: I can't do it. But this was the one thing
Speaker 4: in my life that I couldn't fix, that I couldn't correct.
Speaker 4: And that's where I struggled. I really struggle with that
Speaker 4: aspect of who I am as a man. You know,
Speaker 4: why can't I do this? It was either going through school, academics.
Speaker 4: You study harder on the wrestling matter, on the football field,
Speaker 4: you practice harder, you put more time in. But this
Speaker 4: was the one thing in my life that I couldn't fix,
Speaker 4: that I couldn't correct. And I started with my fate.
Speaker 4: You know, I ask God why? And also who are
Speaker 4: you that you could allow this little boy to be
Speaker 4: able to suffer like this? And I questioned it. Man.
Speaker 4: I during this time, I read, of all people, Nietzsche,
Speaker 4: who had a quote that says, he who has a
Speaker 4: why to live, work, and bear almost anyhow. He who
Speaker 4: has a purpose, a mindset, and identity. It came to
Speaker 4: me is okay, not necessarily why did this happen? But
Speaker 4: it became okay, to who am I going through this?
Speaker 4: God doesn't take you out of it. He gives you
Speaker 4: the strength and the courage to sustain and to walk
Speaker 4: through it. And that's where I learned that truth for me.
Speaker 4: And I didn't have anybody around me. I didn't have
Speaker 4: my tribe around me, the guys where you can really
Speaker 4: feel it. You could open up, be honest and say, guys,
Speaker 4: I'm not holding it together today, or guys that you
Speaker 4: know my son had fevered up to one hundred and
Speaker 4: five last night, we spent the night in the hospital,
Speaker 4: or he was up all night crying and you know
Speaker 4: I can't Or I had to take him to a
Speaker 4: specialist my day off yesterday for Tuesday, and then it
Speaker 4: just these things he can't share because at that time
Speaker 4: I do want to say, hey, I don't have it
Speaker 4: all together, because that was the antithesis of what I
Speaker 4: thought it meant to be a man. You know that
Speaker 4: you have to have it all together, you have to
Speaker 4: have all the answers that you can't show any chinks
Speaker 4: in your armor, that you have to be Rambo or
Speaker 4: Jason Bourne or going back to my day, John Wayne,
Speaker 4: that's what it means to be a man. And it
Speaker 4: impacted my marriage too. And I looked at statistics that
Speaker 4: showed where couples that have a child that goes through
Speaker 4: extreme illness or the death of a child, divorce rates
Speaker 4: are way north of AVE. That's the one thing my
Speaker 4: wife and I sat down from a relational standpoint, Hey
Speaker 4: we're in for the long haul, let's stick together. But
Speaker 4: for me, I look back that whole fight or flight mechanism.
Speaker 4: I was in a constant firefight the whole time. I
Speaker 4: had to emotionally disconnect myself to the point that I
Speaker 4: had or survive. I got to compartmentalize. I got to
Speaker 4: play a game on Sunday. But then coming home, my
Speaker 4: son's got to go to a treatment or whatever, and
Speaker 4: he's not feeling well. What's the plan of execution? That
Speaker 4: you never had time to decompress and never had no
Speaker 4: off time. So you'd imagine the constant cornsole levels that
Speaker 4: are showing through your body, the adrenaline rush, and I
Speaker 4: thank god that I was able to sustain me through
Speaker 4: us and from my wife to it alone. I'm look
Speaker 4: at me, I'm sitting here complaining about this, but what
Speaker 4: my son went through was beyond that. I mean, this
Speaker 4: is a little kid that would be time for you
Speaker 4: couldn't even put a sheet on him, it would be
Speaker 4: so painful for him to even sleep, and not being
Speaker 4: able to go to school with his classmates just because
Speaker 4: he hurt all over. The extreme amount of pain, it
Speaker 4: broke our hearts for my wife and myself, and that's
Speaker 4: where our faith as Christians got stronger. We did realize
Speaker 4: that God loves Chase, God loved us is more than
Speaker 4: we could ever love him in that regard, and it
Speaker 4: actually strengthened our faith and it gave me an extreme
Speaker 4: sense of empathy towards others that are going through trials
Speaker 4: in life. That man, I know what you're going through.
Speaker 4: I know what you're going through, and I tell you, man,
Speaker 4: just hang in there. There is hope. There's always hope.
Speaker 3: But you are the man that you are today.
Speaker 4: Because of that struggle and the struggle as we all know,
Speaker 4: I've learned more through my pain and through my suffering
Speaker 4: and obstacles in life. Than I did through any Super
Speaker 4: Bowl victory. That was what defined me and for my
Speaker 4: son and myself, that helped define our relationship going forward.
Speaker 4: It's made him the man that he is today. But
Speaker 4: that's where as parents now, and as i'll give philosophical here,
Speaker 4: we do our kids at disservice by denying them the
Speaker 4: ability to struggle, the ability to go through life to
Speaker 4: figure it out.
Speaker 2: You learn your lessons in the valleys, not on the peaks.
Speaker 2: The view from the top is great, but you knew
Speaker 2: that It's all about what did you learned during the climb.
Speaker 2: And that's something that I think we can all relate
Speaker 2: to you. We all know that you're gonna get knocked down,
Speaker 2: it's a guarantee. And for you to be able to
Speaker 2: at that time having this epic high and then looking
Speaker 2: at Chase and feeling one d per helpless, it is
Speaker 2: something for people like us it is very foreign. You know,
Speaker 2: after I got hit, I never did me Why God,
Speaker 2: I didn't do that. I was grateful, in fact that
Speaker 2: it was me and not my fellow Marines, better me
Speaker 2: than my marines. But I was pissed that I lived
Speaker 2: because I went from being one of as you all know,
Speaker 2: one of the world's most elite gladiators to good news
Speaker 2: a bathroom on my own and literally a millisecond that
Speaker 2: started my journey of helplessness and having to succumb to
Speaker 2: my pride and lay down my weapons and go, Okay,
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna be able to win this one on
Speaker 2: my own, like I'm gonna need help for everything. And
Speaker 2: I can only imagine as a father now, and literally
Speaker 2: when I say that, I mean it, I can only
Speaker 2: imagine and not even well. And I know Chase and
Speaker 2: love you guys and love your family, and to know
Speaker 2: what you guys went through, I can only imagine that feeling.
Speaker 2: But the one thing that is all relatable to us
Speaker 2: I've learned in my journey thus far is pain and
Speaker 2: suffering sucks. Yeah, and we're not built to do it alone.
Speaker 2: There's times in life where your grit is gonna be
Speaker 2: equally as tested, if not more so, as your grace.
Speaker 3: You also had to embrace the vulnerability of talking about it,
Speaker 3: of building that community around you, because you couldn't do
Speaker 3: it alone.
Speaker 4: You know. And that was why I was so got
Speaker 4: into a lot of the guys coming back from down
Speaker 4: range that coming back with post traumatic stress. We all
Speaker 4: as young men bought off on that lie that to
Speaker 4: be a man, you had to show that you weren't vulnerable,
Speaker 4: that you can never show any vulnerability, that you had
Speaker 4: to have it all together at all times. And that's
Speaker 4: the antithesis of it, particularly for our guys today, because
Speaker 4: you're constantly engaged in that fight or flight. Whereas conflicts
Speaker 4: in the past, yeah, you may have a period of time,
Speaker 4: but then you had a reprieve. I can miss imagine,
Speaker 4: you know, the Peloponnesian War back in the Greek times,
Speaker 4: that guys would go through a major battle and they
Speaker 4: sit around the campfire and they talk out. Man, did
Speaker 4: you see that dude I hit today? Man, his head
Speaker 4: just lopped up, you know. Yeah, but they're able to
Speaker 4: process and talk through that.
Speaker 2: Or the Spartans, it was mandatory that they wurn their losses. Yeah,
Speaker 2: for an hour after every major battle. And we've regressed
Speaker 2: tremendously as warriors, modern day warriors and gladiators. And it's like, man,
Speaker 2: where did we go wrong? Where did that start? Because
Speaker 2: just like you said, it's a lie, and not only
Speaker 2: to the warrior class, but to me the humankind where
Speaker 2: I grew up where I actually grew up. Bad things
Speaker 2: happen and it's like, hey, you be okay, you're good.
Speaker 2: Let's keep on moving. We'll not talk about it. You'll
Speaker 2: be fine, just keep going. It's like, Nope, that's not suppressing.
Speaker 2: And at some point that pressure cooker is going to
Speaker 2: go off right.
Speaker 3: And it just keeps building and building. But you realized
Speaker 3: you needed support around you, and you also knew that
Speaker 3: other people need support too. So what did you do?
Speaker 4: Amen started a men's ministry group called Wingman because I
Speaker 4: thought about these experiences that I had in life. Every
Speaker 4: time that I would fly a mission, whether it be
Speaker 4: a training missionor mission in combat, I never went solo.
Speaker 4: You guys, never went out ever solo. Even with the
Speaker 4: sniper team. You always had a spot or you always
Speaker 4: had somebody with you all the time.
Speaker 1: Always have a shadow to check.
Speaker 4: Your six and we always talk about check your six
Speaker 4: because as people, you can't see back one behind you.
Speaker 4: That's why you need those relationships the success. For me
Speaker 4: to have a successful mission come back and land, I
Speaker 4: needed to take care of my wingmen. My wingmen needed
Speaker 4: to take care of me, and if we didn't the
Speaker 4: likelihood of something bad happening to us goes way up,
Speaker 4: and the likehood of us actually accomplishing the mission goes
Speaker 4: way down.
Speaker 3: So how is Chase today?
Speaker 4: Chase is doing great. Bought us first house last year.
Speaker 4: He's dating a nice young Lady's got a phenomenal job.
Speaker 4: He's doing really well. Physically. He has had his limitations.
Speaker 4: He gets around a wheelchair. He had a lot of
Speaker 4: arthritic damage done to his joints in some of the
Speaker 4: connective soft tissue.
Speaker 1: But his attitude palpable.
Speaker 4: I love that young man. And the fact that I've
Speaker 4: been around is some extreme, strong minded, high performers in
Speaker 4: all aspects, but they pale in comparison to him for
Speaker 4: what he went through and his effort, his mentality. He
Speaker 4: gets up and every day it's a choice. I may
Speaker 4: not feel well, but man, I'm gonna go out and
Speaker 4: make it a great day. And I ask, that's what
Speaker 4: life's about. As if I had anything to do with
Speaker 4: that as a father, you know, but you did was
Speaker 4: just what God's sustained him. And he has become a
Speaker 4: phenomenal young man and I couldn't be more proud of
Speaker 4: who he has become as man. And for me, that's
Speaker 4: my legacy. I could care less about the Super Bowls
Speaker 4: or air Force status or my legacy was gonna outlast me.
Speaker 4: Is him, He and my daughter and venture their grandkids,
Speaker 4: and that, to me, that's what life's about. Relationships.
Speaker 3: That's beautiful. And it's clear you're not only proud of
Speaker 3: him as a father, but he inspires you every day.
Speaker 3: That's amazing. What better legacy could you have? So, having
Speaker 3: gone through this, how do you define strength?
Speaker 1: Now?
Speaker 4: It's the ability to be able to when you face adversity,
Speaker 4: to face it and to continue to plod forward and
Speaker 4: to move forward. To me, that strength, that's courage. Having
Speaker 4: the fear, having the potential anxiety of knowing what's going
Speaker 4: to happen, but still willing to face it and to
Speaker 4: go forward. That's true strength. Every day, every day.
Speaker 3: Preachy much what Jake was doing a speaking engagement one
Speaker 3: time and EMMTT Smith was sitting on the side and
Speaker 3: he kept going preach Jake like all times, like loud
Speaker 3: as hell.
Speaker 4: That's awesome.
Speaker 1: I looked at him. I almost gave him like to
Speaker 1: come on, man, trying to talk. I have a very
Speaker 1: limited time. Man.
Speaker 2: So do you find yourself using the lessons in your
Speaker 2: day to day life. Now you're jat Inning is the husband, father, businessman,
Speaker 2: leader in your community, I mean your leader in every
Speaker 2: fast in your life. And do you use the lessons
Speaker 2: that you've learned through these trying times? Do you think
Speaker 2: on a day to day basis?
Speaker 4: Every day? Every day? You know? And that's one of
Speaker 4: the things I took this course. Make your very sponsorous
Speaker 4: for brain health doctor Sandy Chapman phenomenal, very familiar. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: I love said. But you know what I took from
Speaker 4: her book and going through that was that people talk
Speaker 4: about intelligence wrote memory, regurgitating content, information, but that's not it.
Speaker 4: What true intelligence is is the ability to think integratively, innovatively, strategically.
Speaker 4: So for me, it's the aspect of taking your experience
Speaker 4: or someone else's experience and being able to apply and
Speaker 4: apply that to my life. And that's where I take
Speaker 4: the experiences from listening to you or another mentor or myself.
Speaker 4: How can I apply that to me? And how can
Speaker 4: I make that personal for me? And that's what I've
Speaker 4: really strive for my life now is to take some
Speaker 4: of these experiences because not everybody's going to get a
Speaker 4: chance to fly a jet or play for the cowboys
Speaker 4: or do those things. But when I'm talking about what
Speaker 4: it boils down to it each and every one of us.
Speaker 4: I go through the same routine which you can go
Speaker 4: through to apply these lessons to your life. And that's
Speaker 4: embrace the suck, Embrace the grind, celebrate the time, movements,
Speaker 4: be with your family. All those things. They're universal truths.
Speaker 4: And I don't care who you are what you do again,
Speaker 4: what you do is not define who you are, but
Speaker 4: that's those are lessons that can be applied to anybody
Speaker 4: in any facet of your life.
Speaker 1: Nor what's happened to you define who you are exactly.
Speaker 3: Yeah, what do you do to relax or recharge?
Speaker 4: Be around my family? You know? And that's the thing
Speaker 4: that we are now empty nesters. So my wife and
Speaker 4: I we make time too. We have a call it
Speaker 4: coffee time and wine time. We have coffee in the morning,
Speaker 4: we go through our day devotionally. All night, we come
Speaker 4: home and maybe have a glass of wine and just
Speaker 4: relax talk about the day. And for me that's peace
Speaker 4: and how I also I work out. I love to
Speaker 4: work out after that and I love to read books.
Speaker 4: That's what recharges me and my aspect of self awareness
Speaker 4: and self help. Is trying to expand my knowledge base
Speaker 4: absolutely greatness.
Speaker 2: Is there one person organization that's had a significant impact
Speaker 2: on you in your life that you can think of?
Speaker 4: The guys who have impacted me the most, particularly early
Speaker 4: in my life for my coaches, yep. And I think
Speaker 4: that's the most hallowed profession in our culture today as
Speaker 4: being a coach.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just this lifelong impact.
Speaker 4: They changed the trajectory of my life. Yeah, because I
Speaker 4: was a kid, you know, not highly recruited a small
Speaker 4: rural community in Iowa for football, and I wanted to
Speaker 4: play division on college football. My coach my junior senior
Speaker 4: year that summer asked, Chad, what do you want to do? Coach,
Speaker 4: I'd really like to go to the Air Force Academy.
Speaker 4: Wasn't how they recruited to play at a football powerhouse school.
Speaker 4: He took it upon himself to make a sixteen millimeters
Speaker 4: highlight follow and me drove it nine hundred miles from
Speaker 4: our hometown in Iowa to Colorado Springs, handed off to
Speaker 4: the coaches there that recruited that area and says, you
Speaker 4: need to take a look at this kid. That's how
Speaker 4: I got there. Wow, probably changed the trajectory my life
Speaker 4: with that question. Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 3: One question we ask all of our guests on the
Speaker 3: good stuff. What feeds your soul?
Speaker 4: What feeds my soul is my relationship with my Lord Savior,
Speaker 4: Jesus Christ Barnard and Blood by Pascal. That inside man
Speaker 4: is a God size vacuum that only God can fill.
Speaker 4: And I've tried to fill with so many other different
Speaker 4: passions and pursuits of life, and it was always vacuous,
Speaker 4: and it was always empty. But he is the one
Speaker 4: that brings me a purpose, meaning and satisfaction in life.
Speaker 2: Beautiful, well said brother. All Right, have one more question, Yeah,
Speaker 2: and I'm asking it. So you've played with the Dallas
Speaker 2: Cowboys for nine seasons, you have three Super Bowl championships
Speaker 2: under your belt, and according to the stats, you have
Speaker 2: exactly one NFL touchdown.
Speaker 4: Explain it was against Arizona Cardinals. Out there, it was
Speaker 4: it's like the twenty yard line. We did a run
Speaker 4: blitz Darren and came through as a safety blitz. Just
Speaker 4: nailed the running back in the Yeah, drop the ball
Speaker 4: right in front of me, you know, I picked it
Speaker 4: up and it was like a rolling ball of butcher knives. Man,
Speaker 4: I did. I. I had to run about fifteen yards
Speaker 4: to run into the end zone. This is what's funny,
Speaker 4: and this is the impact of a coach. I get there,
Speaker 4: and this is what's crazy. I remember what my high
Speaker 4: school football coach, same guy that drove the film out
Speaker 4: to the Air Force Academy, said, he goes, act like
Speaker 4: you've been here before, sear. I ran up to the
Speaker 4: referee and I handed in the football and I started
Speaker 4: drawing back. But then I realized, Hey, in the NFL,
Speaker 4: you can keep the footballs, I said, sir, Can I
Speaker 4: have that? I'd like that was my only Touchdo I'll
Speaker 4: probably have?
Speaker 1: Can I have that?
Speaker 4: I ran back, But that's that stuck with me forever
Speaker 4: and has those important life lessons. Act like you've been
Speaker 4: here before.
Speaker 1: I do. I do remember it. And did you call
Speaker 1: me a mentor?
Speaker 2: Okay, I was just checking because Chad Hennings referred to
Speaker 2: me as a mentor.
Speaker 4: It's recorded anybody that you can learn something from in
Speaker 4: life as a mentor.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, we have learned a lot today, and we're truly
Speaker 3: grateful that you not only took the time to come
Speaker 3: and do this, but to be vulnerable with us and
Speaker 3: share with us your story, your highs and your lows,
Speaker 3: and all of the lessons you've learned from it. Such
Speaker 3: an incredible story and we're truly grateful.
Speaker 2: Dude, nothing but love, respect, and admiration for you and
Speaker 2: your family. You epitomize mentor and leader and victor, and
Speaker 2: you do it with grace and humility, and you do
Speaker 2: it beautifully.
Speaker 1: Bro.
Speaker 2: Yeah, just your presence and existence is inspiring. So thanks
Speaker 2: for the hope and the soul for brother. I literally
Speaker 2: want to run through a brick.
Speaker 3: Wall or climb a mountain.
Speaker 1: Nope, I'll take the brick wall. So inspiring what this
Speaker 1: does for my soul.
Speaker 2: The best way I can describe it is on the
Speaker 2: drive here. You know, I'm on the Struggle bus right now,
Speaker 2: and I see these guys on this window washing mechanism
Speaker 2: on this giant building in Dallas, smelling out hope with
Speaker 2: white panels or something on the side of the building,
Speaker 2: and it was like a godwink for me, like, hey,
Speaker 2: you got it, You're good. And that's what I get
Speaker 2: from this. This is the perspective and the mindset that
Speaker 2: I needed today.
Speaker 3: Right, And like Chad said, it's all about mindset that
Speaker 3: no matter how prepared you are in life. You and
Speaker 3: I we always try to prepare, make sure we've got
Speaker 3: all of our tea's crossed and all of our eyes
Speaker 3: dotted and all of our ducks in a row, because
Speaker 3: we've lived and lead such a busy life, but life
Speaker 3: still happens. And hearing Chad talk about everything that he
Speaker 3: went through and he's got it all squared away and
Speaker 3: then life happened. You know, was that life happening to
Speaker 3: him or was that life happening for him? And it's
Speaker 3: just so beautiful to hear mindset, perseverance, just keep going
Speaker 3: no matter what. Dig deep, but you can get through
Speaker 3: through this, you can get to the top of that peak.
Speaker 4: That's right.
Speaker 2: Act like you've been there before. I think that has
Speaker 2: everything to do with mindset. Regardless of what the circumstances
Speaker 2: is or what may arise. Don't overreact, don't underreact, just
Speaker 2: act like you've been there before.
Speaker 1: And I feel like that's what we all struggle with.
Speaker 2: And because we have all these different things going on,
Speaker 2: But if we're able to just act like we've been
Speaker 2: there before, that's gonna put us completely present in the moment,
Speaker 2: just like today where again I'm driving the struggle bus,
Speaker 2: but I get in this conversation. I acted like I've
Speaker 2: been here before, and it really the rest took care
Speaker 2: of itself. So it is all about mindset and perseperience
Speaker 2: and understanding.
Speaker 1: It's not over. That's why I'll take the brick wall,
Speaker 1: screw the mountains.
Speaker 3: I'm so grateful to have this soul food today because
Speaker 3: we need it. We all need it from time to time.
Speaker 3: If you enjoyed this story with Chad Hennings, please feel
Speaker 3: free to share this episode. And if you have a
Speaker 3: story that you want Jake and I to tell here
Speaker 3: on The Good Stuff, something that's fed your soul, something
Speaker 3: that's encouraged you to go on, please reach.
Speaker 4: Out to us.
Speaker 2: The Good Stuff is executive produced by Ashley Schick, Jacob Schick,
Speaker 2: Leah Pictures and q Code Media. Hosted by Ashley Shick
Speaker 2: and Jacob Shick. Produced by Nick Casselini and Ryan Counts.
Speaker 2: House post production supervisor Will Tindi. Music by Will Haywood Smith,
Speaker 2: edited by Mike Robinson, sound effects by Eric Aaron, Mixed
Speaker 2: by Ryan Sanchez,