Speaker 1: Drafted is a production of Tree Fork Media, Clutch Sports Group,
Speaker 1: and I Heart Radio Actual. I just said, I just say,
Speaker 1: welcome back to Drafted. I'm Steven Johnson, and in our
Speaker 1: last two episodes, we followed two of the highest rated
Speaker 1: prospects in this draft class, superstar receiver Davante Smith. I
Speaker 1: never bagged down for nobody. I don't care who you are.
Speaker 1: How I've always been scrappy and dominating offensive lineman Alex Leatherwood.
Speaker 1: You gotta move another human being who doesn't want to
Speaker 1: be moved from one point to another. Now we're less
Speaker 1: than twenty four hours away from the start of the
Speaker 1: first round in Cleveland, Ohio. The next step and Alex
Speaker 1: Leatherwood's long term plan is finally on the horizon. From
Speaker 1: mastering his blocking techniques to playing for the top college
Speaker 1: program to learning multiple positions on the offensive line, remove
Speaker 1: he's made has been a deliberate march to this point.
Speaker 1: He's definitely a mastermind and planning and executing. The next
Speaker 1: big step on Alex's master plan is to become a
Speaker 1: first round draft pick. That's part of the reason he
Speaker 1: returned to Alabama for his senior season. Although whether he'll
Speaker 1: be picked in Round one or not is still up
Speaker 1: in the air. In fact, it's such a big unknown
Speaker 1: that ESPN's NFL expert Jeremy Fowler calls to Marius Bilbo,
Speaker 1: Alex's agent at Clutched Sports, to specifically ask about Alex's
Speaker 1: draft position. So what do I owe this honor of
Speaker 1: hearing from Jeremy Fowler. Jeremy Fowler asked to Marius, if
Speaker 1: Alex is going to be taken in the first round. Man,
Speaker 1: that's that's that's a question for us. All I got
Speaker 1: in between and this. I literally told him, this is
Speaker 1: a huge gap. Huge I got in between nineteen and
Speaker 1: forty and the range. And I say that because most
Speaker 1: teams I've talked with Jeremy they only have like fifteen
Speaker 1: and sixteen first round grades. Most NFL teams only have
Speaker 1: first round grades on fifteen or sixteen players. This year,
Speaker 1: because there was no scouting combine, the college season was
Speaker 1: about half the normal length, and a large number of
Speaker 1: players opted to sit out the year completely. Scouts and
Speaker 1: executives accustomed to making draft decisions with folders of data
Speaker 1: and dozens of hours of game tape are now being
Speaker 1: forced to do a lot more speculating a sure guy,
Speaker 1: like for Leatherwood to be a guy that's a plug
Speaker 1: and play guy. I mean, for god, say, he won
Speaker 1: the Outline Trophy. He played at Alabama, he played at
Speaker 1: the highest level of football. He played multiple positions, whether
Speaker 1: they be guard, on left tackle, and the right tackle
Speaker 1: too because he protected to his blind side. You know,
Speaker 1: I've always saw him as one of the top tier guys,
Speaker 1: and you know, so it has been not concerning, but
Speaker 1: just I think people are reaching for other guys because
Speaker 1: he's such a sure guy. He's such a short pick,
Speaker 1: people start reaching outside of that and saying, Okay, every scalt,
Speaker 1: every person want to be the guy that discovered that
Speaker 1: next guy. And I just feel like Leatherwood is a
Speaker 1: safer guy when you when you're using the first round
Speaker 1: pick on the guy, you want to make sure he
Speaker 1: can come in and play. And people always talking about
Speaker 1: that guard and tackle, which can he be? I mean,
Speaker 1: I say, look at look at the guy from Washington
Speaker 1: redsk and that's just franchise tag. He was drafted from
Speaker 1: Iowa the tackle and they slid him down and he's
Speaker 1: an All Pro guard. You know, I think that the
Speaker 1: least that's what you get with Leatherwood. Ironically, teams are
Speaker 1: questioning whether Alex is too much of a sure thing.
Speaker 1: He won the Outland Trophy, which is given to the
Speaker 1: best interior offensive lineman in the country, and on top
Speaker 1: of that, he has consistently played at an elite level
Speaker 1: for multiple years and has excelled at almost every position
Speaker 1: on the offensive line. So of course teams are doing
Speaker 1: everything they can to p Coles in his draft status,
Speaker 1: asking questions like does he have a natural position in
Speaker 1: the NFL? Is he a true franchise left tackle capable
Speaker 1: of protecting a quarterback's blindside? Or has playing at Alabama
Speaker 1: already helped him peak and therefore do other linemen have
Speaker 1: more of an upside in the long run. It's enough
Speaker 1: to make even the most confident prospect begin to question
Speaker 1: himself and being an anchor on the line is absolutely
Speaker 1: not how Alex Leatherwood's career began at Alabama. Here's Alex
Speaker 1: talking about arriving on campus as the most sought after
Speaker 1: offensive line recruit in the country. I was bright eyed
Speaker 1: and bushy tailed. Is that what they called it? I
Speaker 1: was definitely that when I first got there. But um,
Speaker 1: the hardest thing I feel like, you get such a
Speaker 1: good player, you're like top playing in the country, coming
Speaker 1: out of high school, all that stuff you think of,
Speaker 1: how ship and then um season comes in life, you're
Speaker 1: not starting this. She kind of like hits you hard,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? At first, I was but
Speaker 1: hurt and my felings. I'm my damn not starting to
Speaker 1: not playing him just on the sideline bench warming and ship.
Speaker 1: Alex was the top ranked recruit in the state of
Speaker 1: Florida and the top ranked offensive tackle in the entire country.
Speaker 1: Coming in as a freshman and not playing wasn't a possibility.
Speaker 1: He ever considered happening. His close friend and teammate to
Speaker 1: rest Parks weighs in on some of Alex's challenges. The
Speaker 1: biggest obstacles to Alex probably had to take on going
Speaker 1: through this program and him executing his plan was making
Speaker 1: sure he was consistent with everything that he did. Consistency
Speaker 1: is such a hard thing to really do for a
Speaker 1: lot of people, especially at this level, and we're all human.
Speaker 1: It wasn't just the struggles with consistency. The initial conditioning
Speaker 1: and physical demands also caught Alex off guard. It was
Speaker 1: definitely tough at first. I graduated early. I got there
Speaker 1: in January and that's when we do our winter conditioning program.
Speaker 1: Fourth quarter blare easily by far, the most harsh thing
Speaker 1: I've ever done in my life. Here's Alex's teammate Jurez again,
Speaker 1: Oh whoa who All Right. Running program consists of us
Speaker 1: working really really hard in training. We run like crazy,
Speaker 1: like it's It's probably one of the hardest things that
Speaker 1: I've ever done in my entire life. And I know
Speaker 1: that I'm smaller than Alex, so running is not that
Speaker 1: hard on me. But going through that program, I felt
Speaker 1: that as I was going to die every time I
Speaker 1: did it. So Alex, yeah, he's very much a hard worker,
Speaker 1: but that is something that will fight your brain at
Speaker 1: the core. College football fans have likely heard whisperings of
Speaker 1: this notorious conditioning program. However, the details of the workouts
Speaker 1: are guarded like a national secret. Here's Alex again offering
Speaker 1: a low level security clear in summary, it's a funnel
Speaker 1: running heavy lifting. Um. I know when we had got
Speaker 1: a new coaches staff changed my junior year on a
Speaker 1: new oldline coach, Coach Flood, he was like, I can't
Speaker 1: believe it. Y'all are like America's biggest cross country team.
Speaker 1: He's a lot of running, That's all I got to say.
Speaker 1: Here's Jarazz again on how challenging these workouts can be
Speaker 1: regardless of your size. It's a level of not understanding
Speaker 1: is this my body hurting or is this my head?
Speaker 1: Like my brain? And I know that he struggled with
Speaker 1: that because that is that's some ships. Sorry excuse my language,
Speaker 1: but that program is some ship that that that we
Speaker 1: cannot survive. You know. Um, there are many moments where
Speaker 1: I felt as, oh, I'm about to stop playing football.
Speaker 1: I can't do this anymore, Like I was willing to
Speaker 1: give up the entire sport at some point, just because
Speaker 1: I knew that I was just I can't do this
Speaker 1: workout anymore. This is it's really hard. But I've definitely
Speaker 1: seen him kill those workouts at times and seeing the
Speaker 1: workout kind of get the best of him at times.
Speaker 1: They can be humbling for an elite recruit to suddenly
Speaker 1: find himself overwhelmed by practices and workouts, many of which
Speaker 1: are so demanding you openly question your desire to continue
Speaker 1: playing the sport. And after each grueling week of practice,
Speaker 1: Alex spent every Saturday watching from the sidelines, only playing
Speaker 1: in mop up time to run out the clock. This
Speaker 1: kind of adversity often leads to young players blaming coaches,
Speaker 1: finding excuses, or even transferring programs, But instead Alex looked inward.
Speaker 1: So like the first couple of weeks, I was just
Speaker 1: for myself and things like that. But shortly after I
Speaker 1: was like, let me clearly, I'm not playing because I'm
Speaker 1: not ready. I mean, just um self talking really like
Speaker 1: licking myself in the mirror, having a tough conversations with
Speaker 1: myself and talking myself through it, you know, live down.
Speaker 1: While am I not playing all that type? Shipn't really
Speaker 1: like me answering the question for myself. That was the
Speaker 1: only answer, you know what I mean. So I was like,
Speaker 1: we're gonna fix it. So learning how to be like
Speaker 1: mature and a grown man about my work and my
Speaker 1: practice in my craft, Durette saw Alex's preparation and work
Speaker 1: ethic begin to transform, and his master plan growing even
Speaker 1: more detailed. The way that he went about that struggle
Speaker 1: about like him always being his playbook, always watching film,
Speaker 1: always making sure that he's up, meeting when his coaches,
Speaker 1: and and making sure that the rest of the guys
Speaker 1: on the on the line of doing what they have
Speaker 1: to do, Like he chose to hone in on his
Speaker 1: struggles in a sense and polish him to his best ability,
Speaker 1: versus let them bring him down in a sense or
Speaker 1: or really shake his world. By the end of Alexi's
Speaker 1: freshman season, Alabama makes it to the two thousand and
Speaker 1: eighteen National Championship game against the University of Georgia. I mean,
Speaker 1: of course I was excited about the game. I had
Speaker 1: all the faith in my team that we were going
Speaker 1: to get the job done and what they asked and
Speaker 1: all that good stuff. So I wouldn't really check him
Speaker 1: about the game. I was just uh grateful to be there.
Speaker 1: But my mom was the furthest away from like playing,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Alex anticipates having an amazing
Speaker 1: view from the Crimson Tide sidelines throughout the night, and
Speaker 1: then Alabama's starting left tackle gets hurt in the third quarter.
Speaker 1: As the injured star leads the field, the team turns
Speaker 1: to a freshman who barely played the entire season, who
Speaker 1: had no intention of ever getting into this game, and
Speaker 1: who now has to step up with the national championship
Speaker 1: on the line. Yeah, Essentially, he got hurt, and I'm like, damn, um,
Speaker 1: I hope I don't go out here and get my
Speaker 1: ass whooped on national TV because this is like the
Speaker 1: only game everybody in the country is watching right now.
Speaker 1: I'm a freshman. I think it's like a couple of
Speaker 1: first rounders on that defense like us, like it's too
Speaker 1: really good as Russia's all the goods. And I'm just like, damn,
Speaker 1: these are some grown ass man. We just dude's probably
Speaker 1: got children and ship. I'm like, what e team, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go get my ass whooped. Perhaps seeing the concern
Speaker 1: and Alex's eyes, Alabama coach Nick Saban pulls him aside
Speaker 1: and gives him a quick pep talk. He was just like,
Speaker 1: take it up play by play, don't worry about what
Speaker 1: happened to last play, and don't be too anxious about
Speaker 1: the next play. But all you gonna do is do
Speaker 1: your job. And and we trusted you because we we
Speaker 1: got you out here so you can do a job,
Speaker 1: So do it. Basically, the bright eyed, bushey tailed freshman
Speaker 1: is thrown into arguably the worst possible scenario, playing his
Speaker 1: first significant minutes of the season in the second half
Speaker 1: of the National Championship game against the top ten defense
Speaker 1: full of future NFL players. Alex breaks the huddle, settles
Speaker 1: into a stands and the ball is hyping. As soon
Speaker 1: as that balls not on my first play out there,
Speaker 1: all the butterflies are gone. Like that, it was over with,
Speaker 1: and like I went out there and I was like black,
Speaker 1: I'm a dog too, you know. So we find them shot,
Speaker 1: we find the dance from the tango, we finish, see
Speaker 1: who wanted more? And you know what I mean, I
Speaker 1: was good. Once he got that first play under his belt,
Speaker 1: Alex's confidence grew and if you recall from the end
Speaker 1: of episode one, Alabama and Georgia take the championship game
Speaker 1: into overtime. It's really a blessing because like, if I
Speaker 1: would have carried on that season hill and sorry for
Speaker 1: myself and not really putting the work in to like
Speaker 1: be the best player that I can be, then I
Speaker 1: probably would have winning that game and lay the egg.
Speaker 1: But I didn't. I went out there and I'll trusting
Speaker 1: my train and trusting my work. The work that I
Speaker 1: put in your ship, I bought out. He excelled all
Speaker 1: the way into the final play of the game when
Speaker 1: Alex holds up the pass rush long enough to give
Speaker 1: the Alabama quarterback time to throw deep down the true freshman.
Speaker 1: I'm good, l up Deafantam Alabama right, George your heart.
Speaker 1: If he doesn't stop his man, the ball never rives
Speaker 1: in Davante Smith's hands, and Alabama potentially doesn't win the
Speaker 1: national championship. He'd spent the whole year preparing for this opportunity,
Speaker 1: and then it actually happened. He called the touchdown and
Speaker 1: like everybody swung the field shout. I was in shambles.
Speaker 1: I was crying, eyes out for life a whole hour after.
Speaker 1: I was a bad award because like you're coming from
Speaker 1: like a bad high school program, then as a freshman
Speaker 1: going to the best college football program, putting in all
Speaker 1: that work, you know what I mean, and even like
Speaker 1: behind the scene when like you cannot playing and ship
Speaker 1: and to see all your hard work coming fruition and
Speaker 1: come to life, like I contributed to that win. I
Speaker 1: helped my team win that and that's something that will
Speaker 1: never be taken away from me. That ship was insane,
Speaker 1: isn't that them? Like that first one? Nothing like that
Speaker 1: first one. Alex won the National championship again this past year,
Speaker 1: but it didn't live up to that final play his
Speaker 1: freshman year, and maybe nothing else ever will compare, or
Speaker 1: maybe his next life changing moment will transpire when all
Speaker 1: his hard work and sacrifice culminate once again, this time
Speaker 1: with an NFL team calling his name in the draft,
Speaker 1: something that he hopes will happen very very soon. We'll
Speaker 1: be right back. A few hours after talking to ESPN's
Speaker 1: Jeremy Fowler, agent to Marius Bilbo gets another call from him.
Speaker 1: This time the call is about a new agent at Clutch,
Speaker 1: not the players they represent. We are growing. I told you,
Speaker 1: I told you long ago that Rich was better than advertised.
Speaker 1: He knows what he's doing and we have a vision
Speaker 1: for the football side of Clutch and is shown on
Speaker 1: this final day before the draft kicks off, Clutch Sports
Speaker 1: announces they've signed agent Nicole n Yeah. She's She's impressive,
Speaker 1: very impressive, and I've always been a fan of her. So,
Speaker 1: like I said, it's it's official now, so we're excited
Speaker 1: and ready to get to get the building. Over the
Speaker 1: last few years, Nicole has become one of the most
Speaker 1: high profile agents in the NFL, and in twenty nineteen,
Speaker 1: she became the first black female agent to ever represent
Speaker 1: a top ten draft pick, and like Alex and DeVante
Speaker 1: and many of the other players she personally reps, the
Speaker 1: road to the NFL has not been easy. Here's Nicole.
Speaker 1: I grew up in what I would call the hood,
Speaker 1: a dairy impoverished neighborhood, below the poverty line and really
Speaker 1: in the middle of gang violence and a lot of crime.
Speaker 1: Just not your middle class American family was very much
Speaker 1: we're just trying to survive. And most of the people
Speaker 1: that I was surrounded with were black males that lived
Speaker 1: that same life. Like our only goal was to get
Speaker 1: out of the hood. How do we get out of
Speaker 1: the hood? And some didn't make it out. My brother,
Speaker 1: for example, was killed at one He was shot and
Speaker 1: killed because of gang violence. Like many of the people
Speaker 1: I was surrounded, I did not make it out. However,
Speaker 1: some of them did because of sports. Nicole grew up
Speaker 1: in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and attended the University of Oklahoma for
Speaker 1: undergrad and for law school, and during her time there,
Speaker 1: her career in sports came about very naturally. There were
Speaker 1: a lot of players when I went to Oklahoma that
Speaker 1: I knew from either back home or we talked, and
Speaker 1: so I would watch them kind of make it out
Speaker 1: and make it into football, maybe go to the NFL
Speaker 1: for a year too, because the NFL's career link is
Speaker 1: really short, and then i'd somehow see them like on
Speaker 1: Christmas break back in the hood, or broke everything that
Speaker 1: they had for a couple of years, They're already broke,
Speaker 1: and I could not believe it. I could not understand
Speaker 1: it because once I was out, I was never looking back,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, what in the world, Like, how does
Speaker 1: how does that happen? How do you have millions of dollars?
Speaker 1: I mean, I just I could not make sense of
Speaker 1: it in my head. But sevent NFL players within two
Speaker 1: years of leaving the NFL claim some level of financial distress,
Speaker 1: whether that stay filed bankruptcy, they go broke, And so
Speaker 1: I tell my guys, I'm like, that's three out of four.
Speaker 1: I mean, there is no reason that that should happen.
Speaker 1: And so it was like my mission to help these
Speaker 1: when I want to say young men, but these were
Speaker 1: my friends. I got certified at. Most of my clients
Speaker 1: were my exact age, these were my peers, These are
Speaker 1: people I grew up with. So you hear agents or
Speaker 1: financial visors talk about players going broke because the family
Speaker 1: is like, you know, mooching off of them. I get it,
Speaker 1: though it's not just mooching off. It's it's survival. There
Speaker 1: is nothing else. And so I get when the aunts
Speaker 1: and uncles and moms and dads are calling for money.
Speaker 1: I know where that is coming trump and I know
Speaker 1: how to handle and navigate that because even just as
Speaker 1: a lawyer, I had the same thing happened. I'm not
Speaker 1: an NFL player. I don't have NFL player of money,
Speaker 1: but even just as a lawyer of being successful in
Speaker 1: that not the same same exact situation. And so I'm
Speaker 1: able to relate to them on just again another level,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, oh, yeah, we're from the same situation.
Speaker 1: Like they got it, they understood like we we both
Speaker 1: came from the same circumstances. After Clutch makes the announcement
Speaker 1: about Nicole, they throw a dinner in Cleveland to welcome
Speaker 1: her as the new president of football operations and to
Speaker 1: honor their draft prospects who flew into town. This includes
Speaker 1: Alabama received for Davante Smith, who was enjoying some bread
Speaker 1: and butter at his table. But it's sweet Matt, we
Speaker 1: will just call this. That's Davante's agent Kelton Crenshaw talking
Speaker 1: about how he's receiving text from coaches and teams even
Speaker 1: at this late hour the night before the draft. Specifically,
Speaker 1: he just received messages from Carolina Panthers head coach Matt Rule.
Speaker 1: Carolina has the eight overall pick and is one of
Speaker 1: the teams reportedly interested in drafting Davante. This is the
Speaker 1: game team's play as the draft gets closer and closer,
Speaker 1: scrambling to do their final homework on potential picks or
Speaker 1: showing their interest without tipping their hand. What you did,
Speaker 1: Ohio State. But I'm still pretty nuest you know how.
Speaker 1: This is Maverick Carter, a longtime friend and business collaborator
Speaker 1: with Clutch Sports founder Rich Paul and NBA legend Lebron James.
Speaker 1: That ship was right, but I was room for the
Speaker 1: Did you kicked our show? How are you doing? Dog
Speaker 1: for good? Yeah? Good? Cut that nervous entage so good.
Speaker 1: No matter where you going, keep out in New York
Speaker 1: and Caney, Yeah, you just don't want to be in
Speaker 1: New York, Texas too, Just like Alex and their teammate
Speaker 1: Landon Dickerson. Davante is worried about paying too much in
Speaker 1: taxes as soon as he enters the NFL. Apparently, the
Speaker 1: University of Alabama locker room spends a great deal of
Speaker 1: time discussing state tax policy in between crushing all their
Speaker 1: opponents and winning national championships. So you want to be Texas,
Speaker 1: say this, see Florida here you're staying with From my text,
Speaker 1: I live in Kelly. I know where. It's like I
Speaker 1: ain't try to come out now. It's like love and
Speaker 1: literally choked the Brady like a month after day wanted
Speaker 1: he was came at tam Super Bowl. I think I'm
Speaker 1: a good standing I like he likes you buying the house.
Speaker 1: That's what being up the top. It's nice time up
Speaker 1: good meaning who what everything, appreciating food coming out, food
Speaker 1: coming out? You are ye snake sound. Some people might
Speaker 1: be impressed with these new celebrity circles and the late
Speaker 1: night text from NFL executives. Davante Smith is not one
Speaker 1: of those people. He's more interested in eating his steak
Speaker 1: that just arrived so he can head back to the hotel.
Speaker 1: Excuse me, I had a one something similar. Yes, it
Speaker 1: is personally you want this steak. He's offering his steak
Speaker 1: to his little brother Christian because he likes the steak
Speaker 1: well done and he won't eat it if it's too rare.
Speaker 1: He likes a one sauce on it, and he doesn't
Speaker 1: care what anyone thinks about that. He knows what he
Speaker 1: likes for sure. He knows what he likes. He knows
Speaker 1: we just like he's a very deliberate guy to be
Speaker 1: so young. This is his agent Kelton talking about that
Speaker 1: high level of self awareness Davante always exhibits. He's not
Speaker 1: like one of these people that's just kind of like whatever.
Speaker 1: He has strong opinions for sure. But as far as
Speaker 1: like getting rattled even like will you hear stories of
Speaker 1: like how during the season when like Certainty Bees and
Speaker 1: like said things that are kind of quote unquote took
Speaker 1: shots at him. Those were like the guys he had
Speaker 1: like his best games. Generally, he doesn't really get too high,
Speaker 1: he doesn't get too low. He's a very even killed
Speaker 1: young man. He's definitely mature beyond years. He just does
Speaker 1: everything the right way. Man. He knows what he likes
Speaker 1: and he sticks to it. And based on his two
Speaker 1: national championships, winning the Heisman Trophy and completing arguably the
Speaker 1: best season a receiver ever had in college football. His
Speaker 1: approach seems to be working. So instead of a steak,
Speaker 1: Devanta eats some mashed potatoes as Clutch Sports founder and
Speaker 1: CEO Rich Paul stands to give a toast, I just
Speaker 1: want to you know, often time the only opportunity in
Speaker 1: the time he was thinking about it fo way, So
Speaker 1: I want to say the relationship you all lot tomorrow
Speaker 1: and I want to be to Yeah for cold Heads
Speaker 1: days are official your first day for a while. He
Speaker 1: rather is to both Bill Hall and Kelton as well.
Speaker 1: Smile all you guys who behind the other. Here's a
Speaker 1: Rich on the decision to bring the over to Clutch.
Speaker 1: The coach great watched her a long time, inquired about
Speaker 1: her around the league. Nothing but great things, really professional,
Speaker 1: really good agent. We didn't hire her because she was
Speaker 1: a woman, because she was a black woman. Hired her
Speaker 1: because she was in a great agent. Unless she knows football,
Speaker 1: she knows business. Male female, It didn't matter to me.
Speaker 1: She belongs so I didn't look at it from that perspective.
Speaker 1: I was just trying to add to our group. Even
Speaker 1: though Rich doesn't view her as a female agent, specifically
Speaker 1: for as a black woman. First and foremost, Nicole's experience
Speaker 1: working in a field where of the certified agents are
Speaker 1: male means she hasn't had that same luxury in her career.
Speaker 1: The whole thing is tough, Like I'm a woman, and
Speaker 1: then I'm a black woman. And then for a very
Speaker 1: long time, I was very young, and you know, I'm
Speaker 1: still pretty darn young. So for a while, my age
Speaker 1: was always a thing. You know, I signed my first
Speaker 1: first rounder at twenty nine, Like what I have? You know,
Speaker 1: I was twenty eight and I did one of my
Speaker 1: first big contracts and my player was twenty eight, So
Speaker 1: that was also I was like, oh, you're you're young,
Speaker 1: you're under thirty year woman, you're black. It was just
Speaker 1: always something like, for example, i'd run Clutch and one
Speaker 1: of the agents who's amazing and has had multiple top
Speaker 1: five picks and done all this amazing stuff. You know,
Speaker 1: in his presentations, he doesn't talk much about himself. You know,
Speaker 1: he's like, here's our company, and here's what we do,
Speaker 1: and let's talk about what we can do for you.
Speaker 1: But he doesn't give his resume, and I'm always like, man,
Speaker 1: why are you not giving your resume and show them
Speaker 1: how legit you are. He's like, oh, I just don't
Speaker 1: do that. I was like, wait a second, you don't
Speaker 1: have to do that. There's a difference. I have to
Speaker 1: I have to go in. I don't walk in the
Speaker 1: room as a credible person. I'm a woman. They don't
Speaker 1: immediately know that I know the game. I have to
Speaker 1: spend twenty minutes explaining I worked at the n f
Speaker 1: l p A, I know the game. I'm married to
Speaker 1: a college coach. I know what a four or three defenses.
Speaker 1: I have to create, set the stage. He doesn't have
Speaker 1: to do that and so, and that's a knock on him.
Speaker 1: It's just it's an observation, like, Wow, how different the
Speaker 1: world is. And you know, it's like I always have
Speaker 1: to navigate things very, very differently. We'll be right back.
Speaker 1: Just how different is it operating in the world of
Speaker 1: pro football when you're a young black female agent. Even
Speaker 1: something as basic as networking is no longer straightforward. You
Speaker 1: go to the combine and you usually like you try
Speaker 1: to take out general managers, to stay dinners, to network.
Speaker 1: That's part of networking as an agent. You hit up
Speaker 1: a guy, hit up a GM, hit up a scalt,
Speaker 1: let's go to drinks, go to dinner, you know, and
Speaker 1: you pay for it and you wine and dine them.
Speaker 1: I can't do that. I can't call up so and
Speaker 1: so GM and take them to dinner. The optics are there,
Speaker 1: and so it takes me three times the work to
Speaker 1: build the relationship with the GM because I can't hang
Speaker 1: out with him one on one, right, And so it's
Speaker 1: it's little stuff like that that people don't know, they
Speaker 1: don't think of. I have to be more cautious what
Speaker 1: I'm saying when I'm texting what not. You know, everything
Speaker 1: I do, I have to think about it first, like, oh,
Speaker 1: does this come off in any way? But professional, it's
Speaker 1: like none of my peers are thinking about that. They're
Speaker 1: just doing what they want to do that feels right.
Speaker 1: I don't get to do that. I don't have that luxury.
Speaker 1: And sometimes the differences between genders extends far beyond standard
Speaker 1: professional challenges. Seems will sometimes book reserve or did you
Speaker 1: discount at the player's hotel as an agent, especially if
Speaker 1: the team is on the road, so that you can
Speaker 1: see your guys. And so this particular team had booked
Speaker 1: my room for me, and I was trying to see
Speaker 1: my player who's at the same hotels me, just on
Speaker 1: a different floor. And the security guard, which was in
Speaker 1: front of the elevator, like when I got off, I
Speaker 1: thought for sure that I was a girlfriend sneaking in
Speaker 1: and like literally escorted me out of the whole hotel,
Speaker 1: not the floor, not to the elevator of the whole hotel,
Speaker 1: Like you can't be doing this. And this was pretty
Speaker 1: early on in my career, so I'm pretty bold, like
Speaker 1: that would never happen to me. Today I would lose MYSH.
Speaker 1: But in the moment, I was just like, what is
Speaker 1: happening right now? And so I'm trying to name drop
Speaker 1: and I didn't have my I D on me, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, I promise you I'm an agent. I'm you
Speaker 1: could ask anybody just weird stuff like that. It's like
Speaker 1: nobody would ever do that to a mail That would
Speaker 1: never happen. And so one of my big goals in
Speaker 1: this career in life is to empower other women to
Speaker 1: feel confident to do what I do, and not just
Speaker 1: do what I do as and be an agent, but
Speaker 1: be comfortable in their own skin, be comfortable with being
Speaker 1: their authentic self in whatever situation they're in, be comfortable
Speaker 1: with being in a male dominated field, being able to
Speaker 1: advocate for their seat at the table. I promised myself.
Speaker 1: I committed to myself that I would get to where
Speaker 1: I wanted to be, and I would drink every woman
Speaker 1: that I could with me across the room. Rich takes
Speaker 1: a more literal seat at the table, joining DeVante and
Speaker 1: his family after everyone finishes dinner. He's recounting the trip
Speaker 1: from l A to Cleveland for the draft this weekend.
Speaker 1: My kids asked me, I'll be flying commercial private now,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, what are y'all getting this stuff from?
Speaker 1: Taking now? Rich turns to Davante's father, Alvin Dickerson, Pops,
Speaker 1: I got a question because he told me something at
Speaker 1: my house. Is it true, jag go outside, take a squirrel,
Speaker 1: ain't carving him up? What comes from und? I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm from the country too, but that one said just
Speaker 1: this out of the crazy. When DeVante and his dad
Speaker 1: were in Los Angeles meeting with the Clutch team, they
Speaker 1: told stories about shooting squirrels back home, as well as
Speaker 1: how some people in the area eat them. They may
Speaker 1: or may not have also mentioned being chased by wild
Speaker 1: hogs in the swamp too. Like DeVante's agent, Kelton said,
Speaker 1: he's a very confident and deliberate guy. To be so young, rabbit,
Speaker 1: I'm an mind the rack suld friend. That was a
Speaker 1: little straw, perfect, Dad, I was. I can think about that.
Speaker 1: Since you left, I've been telling my story. I said,
Speaker 1: heard that, Yeah right, yeah. But I talk to Jeff today.
Speaker 1: He wanted to Detroit. Oh cool? Did he like ship here? Detroit?
Speaker 1: Whistle riches, referring to cornerback jeffer Couda, last year's third
Speaker 1: overall pick, who was featured in season one. I'm drafted.
Speaker 1: Are you trying to come in at the morning. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna going to trade. I'm gonna gona trade me
Speaker 1: in the morning too. That's DeVante's agent Kelton, asking about
Speaker 1: joining his client for his morning workout. Of course, Kelton
Speaker 1: might not realize what he's getting into, but I'm probably
Speaker 1: with this the long just up about it. Hit the
Speaker 1: trade mill, then probably get the pool. Not at pool.
Speaker 1: You hit that pool, you go out straight to sleep out?
Speaker 1: Is over? Wait and you hit the pull with his
Speaker 1: over with you? The pull? You my way? You can't
Speaker 1: say anything. The rest of the day and pool real.
Speaker 1: So be there at six and pitch you in sleep,
Speaker 1: start sex. That's fool having sex while you lay like that.
Speaker 1: Davante is laughing at how shocked Kelton is about his
Speaker 1: plans for draft day. Yes, he's waking up at five
Speaker 1: am for a serious workout on arguably the biggest day
Speaker 1: of his life. And yes he could train all morning
Speaker 1: and still be calm and relaxed enough to take a nap,
Speaker 1: dozing off while waiting to find out where he'll be living,
Speaker 1: what team he'll be playing on, how much money he'll
Speaker 1: be making, and who his teammates and coaches will be.
Speaker 1: Normal people get nervous about every single one of those
Speaker 1: life changing unknowns. Davante isn't losing over any of them.
Speaker 1: He already knows what he wants and that everything else
Speaker 1: is just a distraction. Yeah. I mean I've been working
Speaker 1: for this moment, so I kind of expected to be here.
Speaker 1: I probably worked that I put in just knowing that
Speaker 1: day in the day out I've been grinding, So I
Speaker 1: mean I expected to be here. I expected nothing less.
Speaker 1: Next undrafted, you know they're not just handing out Hodsman
Speaker 1: Trophy awards and outline trophy awars. I think a part
Speaker 1: of that kind of got to me. You know, it's
Speaker 1: like what more can I do? It's probably like a
Speaker 1: quarter of a mile stretch of land. There was a stage,
Speaker 1: and then there was like a large area that was
Speaker 1: like green room pods. All of that was inside of
Speaker 1: this tent area. To be honest, what exactly what he
Speaker 1: said kind of a blur because I was just elated.
Speaker 1: I couldn't do anything but break down in tears because
Speaker 1: that plan came to life. It was just one of
Speaker 1: the amazing moments to just be there and witness and
Speaker 1: just be a part of them. I was just like, well,
Speaker 1: I guess we're going to New York. At this point,
Speaker 1: I was just kind of like, we're going to New York,
Speaker 1: and is what it is? That's the dupe thing about
Speaker 1: the NFL Draft is super unpredictable. Drafted is a production
Speaker 1: of tree Ford Media, Clutch Sports Group, and I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: The executive producers are Kelly Garner, Lisa Ammerman, Eric Slott,
Speaker 1: Eric Weiner, and Seawan Tatone. The series is produced and
Speaker 1: written by Eric Winer. Garme Mamalu is our coordinating producer.
Speaker 1: Coral Silverberg is our associate producer. Tom Monahan is our
Speaker 1: senior audio engineer. The show is mixed, edited and hosted
Speaker 1: by me Stephen Johnson, additional production help from Tim Shower
Speaker 1: and Haley Mandelberg. For transcripts of the show and more information,
Speaker 1: undrafted put a tree for dot fm, and for more
Speaker 1: podcasts from My Heart, visit the I Heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.