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Speaker 1: Sports Book. Mm hmmm mm hmm. Welcome back all the
Speaker 1: smoke for twenty edition. Yes, sir Jack, what's a good
Speaker 1: fun of these burgers? I just had shout out the
Speaker 1: verd and uh that big old blunt I had after that,
Speaker 1: So with just bad with me. Man, we got a
Speaker 1: very special guest today, a poet year uh in the
Speaker 1: cannabis space, but also amazing athlete. Welcome to the show,
Speaker 1: Ricky Williams man brother. Yeah good, and we rolled them
Speaker 1: up some of this bond bonds, the seven Leaves bond bonds.
Speaker 1: We enjoying the seven Leaves bond bond on this special
Speaker 1: for twenty episode. Man, what is the present day looking
Speaker 1: like for Ricky Williams? These days? I mean a lot
Speaker 1: of this, A lot of smoking and a lot of talking.
Speaker 1: So I have a couple of businesses, so I wake
Speaker 1: up and handle like business stuff and then the afternoons
Speaker 1: by like side hustle is uh. I do professional astrology
Speaker 1: readings and so well talk to people like three people
Speaker 1: a day. So you read cards. I read cards, but
Speaker 1: but more I read astrology charts. So people give me
Speaker 1: their birth information, and then I look at the where
Speaker 1: the stars and the planets, where when they were born
Speaker 1: and just try to give them some insight. How long
Speaker 1: does that take? Because I want to do that ship
Speaker 1: after the episode? Yeah, I mean no, that's dobe. What
Speaker 1: got you? What got you into that? So back in
Speaker 1: two times before, when I were tired from football, I
Speaker 1: just started traveling around the world and I met this
Speaker 1: lady and she started talking to me about ship and
Speaker 1: it's just like I lost and it just blew my
Speaker 1: mind and gave me some direction. And so I said, like,
Speaker 1: whatever that is, I need to like it. That's a
Speaker 1: doe with the NFL Draft around the corner. Are you
Speaker 1: still locked in the football all you pay attention at all?
Speaker 1: Or you kind of removed yourself from that now If
Speaker 1: it's on, I can't help but be all the way,
Speaker 1: all the way in it. Um so, but I don't
Speaker 1: watch it that much. It's funny. I was watching the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl with my wife and we got married after
Speaker 1: I finished football, and so she never really seen me
Speaker 1: watched sports, and so the game was on and I
Speaker 1: just was so locked. Did She's like, who are you? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 1: do you do you miss it at all? Obviously. You
Speaker 1: know we're gonna get into how decorated your career was.
Speaker 1: You chose to step away, obviously a little sooner than
Speaker 1: than you could have, but miss it at all, obviously,
Speaker 1: you said when you when you watch you still locked
Speaker 1: in thoughts on just the Supporter as a whole. You
Speaker 1: know what I missed and what I loved about it
Speaker 1: was it was one place I could go every day
Speaker 1: and I could just like put it all on the
Speaker 1: table and just everything and it wasn't too much. And
Speaker 1: I missed that where everyone is aligned with the same
Speaker 1: goal and no excuses, just get to work and get
Speaker 1: it done. I missed that. Talked about talk to us
Speaker 1: about your upbringing the San Diego What was that like?
Speaker 1: Uh So, I guess, like a lot of people that
Speaker 1: grew up in in time, I grew up my parents
Speaker 1: split up, um, and really my mom was more like
Speaker 1: a dad anyway, and so I just had like a
Speaker 1: mom that was just about it, super mom. Yeah like that.
Speaker 1: And so it just taught me how to be tough
Speaker 1: and and above everything, she just taught me that life
Speaker 1: ain't gonna be fair, don't expect it to be. To
Speaker 1: make the most of every situation, my mom's mom similar
Speaker 1: the same way. Like, so having a strong weather like
Speaker 1: that at a young age, did you have to change
Speaker 1: the decision making No? No, because my mom's My mom's
Speaker 1: thing was she wasn't don't do stuff. She was like,
Speaker 1: if you do something, like be smart enough to get
Speaker 1: away with it, and if you're not, like take your
Speaker 1: lumps and learn. And so it just was really an
Speaker 1: attitude that that allowed me just to go for it. Right.
Speaker 1: It's been said that even at the early age, you
Speaker 1: had a profound out look on life has been an adventure.
Speaker 1: Talk about that. That's just from church. I think, you know,
Speaker 1: just going to church, and I was one of those kids.
Speaker 1: I just was always locked in and so whatever the
Speaker 1: preacher was saying, whether he was living in or people
Speaker 1: were living in, I just take it out locked in.
Speaker 1: And so, like I said, my first role model, just
Speaker 1: because I was exposed to him every week, was that
Speaker 1: was Jesus and the idea like he really didn't care
Speaker 1: what people thought. He just was willing to go for it.
Speaker 1: And so I picked that up and I tried to
Speaker 1: live that out in my life. It's not a bad
Speaker 1: role model to half. Yeah, Church started to become an
Speaker 1: issue when I got like fifteen and they started to
Speaker 1: talk about that way till you get married. I like,
Speaker 1: wait a minute, I don't know when did sports of
Speaker 1: martial laws coming to play? Early early? I remember in kindergarten, Uh,
Speaker 1: we had a teacher and she was really big into fitness,
Speaker 1: and so she would make us run two laps around
Speaker 1: the field. And I remember the first day, I was like, man,
Speaker 1: I don't feel like But then after two days, I
Speaker 1: just got curious, like what if I was the first
Speaker 1: one to like finish what I would feel like? And
Speaker 1: I just took off and I never stopped that. I
Speaker 1: got that feeling that I realized I could do something
Speaker 1: or something I was could be the best at and
Speaker 1: I just I just let Patrick Henry High School in
Speaker 1: San Diego. We got another San Diego guy behind the camera.
Speaker 1: Uh what school did you go to? A big fella,
Speaker 1: the Saints Saint Augustine. Uh, football and baseball? With the
Speaker 1: two sports in high school you chose to uh run with?
Speaker 1: Tell me what you loved about each of them? Okay,
Speaker 1: what I love? So baseball was my first love growing
Speaker 1: up in San Diego. Watching Tony Gwen, I thought I
Speaker 1: was the next Tony and my uh my stepdad was
Speaker 1: he was Panamanian and he just loved baseball. So it
Speaker 1: just was like he taught me how to play baseball
Speaker 1: and just was that thing. Because my mom told me
Speaker 1: when I was seven, she said, you are going to
Speaker 1: college and I am not paying for it. So I
Speaker 1: knew I was had to had to do something, but
Speaker 1: I thought it would be baseball. I kept playing. Football
Speaker 1: came along. I started playing when I was eighth grade.
Speaker 1: I just was so much better that it just always
Speaker 1: a running back. I love playing defense to offense always. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I love to hit. I can see you big strong,
Speaker 1: thick ass out there popping people exactly. You know you
Speaker 1: end up taking a scholarship to Texas. What other colleges
Speaker 1: we're going to play At the time, I pretty much
Speaker 1: could have gone to any college. I took my recruiting
Speaker 1: trips to Berkeley. It seems like you would have fitted
Speaker 1: to Berkeley. There wasn't your thing, you know. So I
Speaker 1: decided when I was a kid, I wanted to be
Speaker 1: a professional baseball player, but I decided I wanted to
Speaker 1: be a college football player. So my whole thing about
Speaker 1: was a college football experience. So I went to I
Speaker 1: took a trip to sc close to going to see you,
Speaker 1: took a trip to Texas, uh, Notre Dame, and at
Speaker 1: the end of the day Texas just you know, I
Speaker 1: was looking for that that the program and where they
Speaker 1: were almost on top and they just needed a couple
Speaker 1: of missing pieces and I could be that missing piece. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm looking for And I knew I had to start
Speaker 1: as a freshman. I knew if I was on the beach,
Speaker 1: like if I had a red shirt, I I wouldn't
Speaker 1: make it. We had to go in and play. Yeah,
Speaker 1: straight up to feel that San Diego has a rich
Speaker 1: history of it has been trophy winners. When you're able
Speaker 1: to bring that home, what did that mean for you?
Speaker 1: It's interesting we have four we actually have four husband
Speaker 1: Trophy winnership. So you'll running back Reggie Bush, Marcus Allen Salon,
Speaker 1: Shan Salon, Yeah, he went to he was a Husky, right,
Speaker 1: he was Buffalo. He's a Buffalo. Okay, yeah, okay, Colorado, Yeah, okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: But what did that mean? Obviously, such a rich history
Speaker 1: of great running back from that area, and you were
Speaker 1: able to continue to carry on that tradition likes it
Speaker 1: might sound cheesy, but it was one of those things
Speaker 1: where I just I reflected back on all the people
Speaker 1: that helped me get to that place, and just reflected
Speaker 1: on my upbringing and how when I was a kid,
Speaker 1: I had dreams and realized like all the people that
Speaker 1: had to show up to help me achieve those and
Speaker 1: I was just one of those moments where I accomplished
Speaker 1: something but and I knew I had to do the work,
Speaker 1: but just realizing how many other people it took toll
Speaker 1: and feeling like hoping that all the people, you know,
Speaker 1: because I was a knucklehead sometimes when I was a kid,
Speaker 1: a lot of people had to like let me slide
Speaker 1: and forgive me and give me second chances, and just
Speaker 1: thinking of, you know, all those people hopefully at that
Speaker 1: moment where they saw me receiving the trophy, that they
Speaker 1: felt like they were part of it, right special, Uh
Speaker 1: ninety seven, you played minor league baseball with the Phillies.
Speaker 1: What was that like? It was horrible? It was horrible,
Speaker 1: but but it helped me grow up though, helped me
Speaker 1: grow up. So this is what your I was out
Speaker 1: of high school. So so I left even like three
Speaker 1: days before I graduated from from high school. I got
Speaker 1: on a got on a plane and flew to Martinsville, Virginia,
Speaker 1: which is a tiny little town in in in Virginia,
Speaker 1: in Virginia, and I was eighteen. I was like in
Speaker 1: the South, staying with this dude named Bobby and punkin
Speaker 1: in this house. It was it just was coach a
Speaker 1: shock and I was I just homesick. It just was.
Speaker 1: It was hard, but it was it helped me grow
Speaker 1: up because like my eor League baseball, you making fifty
Speaker 1: eight fifty a month and it's like you're living with
Speaker 1: other it's it's what was the baseball? How was the
Speaker 1: baseball part? I struggled? I struggled, do you think mentally
Speaker 1: because it was such an adjustment mentally that you struggled
Speaker 1: obviously on the on the on the actual sports side
Speaker 1: of it. Yeah. If I'm being real, like you know,
Speaker 1: I'm kind of a sensitive person and so if I
Speaker 1: don't feel like comfortable in my surroundings that I like,
Speaker 1: I don't act right. But if I if I feel comfortable,
Speaker 1: I can handle anything, if I and so it just
Speaker 1: took me a while to figure out like what that
Speaker 1: sweet spot is for me? Baseball. I again, it was rough,
Speaker 1: but I grew up because I would go I went
Speaker 1: from my Eor league baseball straight to my freshman year
Speaker 1: playing football, and then I would go back to baseball
Speaker 1: and then back to football. So I would go from
Speaker 1: you know, everybody like being the best to you know,
Speaker 1: just being a dude on the bus swinging the bat.
Speaker 1: So it kept me, It kept me humble. Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you a question, who were you cool
Speaker 1: when they the basketball players? When we with Texas? I
Speaker 1: was who are you cool with? I was cool with? Uh?
Speaker 1: When I was in school with Chris Clack? Okay, so
Speaker 1: I played against him in the state championship my junior year,
Speaker 1: yeah Clack. Yeah. They went to Austin Allison. Yeah yeah, yeah. Sure.
Speaker 1: Also Reggie uh you know Reggie Freeman. Yeah he was
Speaker 1: he was a senior when I when I got there.
Speaker 1: Did you know b J. Tyler? I did that, Sure did. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So we're from the same hometown. Put off the text, Okay,
Speaker 1: yeah for sure. Yeah. We had a James Brown, a
Speaker 1: quarterback with from Port ar Yeah. Yeah. Despite being a
Speaker 1: high first round projected picking none yet you tried decided
Speaker 1: to go back to school for your senior year. What
Speaker 1: made that jump in a time. Actually you were a
Speaker 1: little early, but everyone is so eager to jump. Now
Speaker 1: you actually decided to go back and finish. Like I said,
Speaker 1: when I was a kid, my goal wasn't even really
Speaker 1: to go to the NFL. It was to be a
Speaker 1: college football player. But I'm not gonna lie. After I
Speaker 1: had my junior I led the nation in Russian scored,
Speaker 1: I was thinking, like going to the next level. Uh.
Speaker 1: And then I was sitting in our media guy's office
Speaker 1: and he had one of those almanacs on his desk,
Speaker 1: and so I started flipping through it. And I flipped
Speaker 1: through to the record for all time leading rusher in
Speaker 1: college football history. And I looked and I saw, like, damn,
Speaker 1: if I have a similar year that I had last year,
Speaker 1: I could be like most ever. I flipped a couple
Speaker 1: of pages to touchdowns and same thing. I was like.
Speaker 1: I got. Then I went to all purpose yards, did
Speaker 1: the math. I was like, Okay, if I come back,
Speaker 1: I knew it was a risk. If I come back
Speaker 1: and have the same kind of year, You know, I
Speaker 1: could break all these records with their reach. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: I couldn't. I could have passed it up. So what
Speaker 1: was it like? Obviously, the college experience itself, but then
Speaker 1: knowing what was on the line, really studying it, and
Speaker 1: no one was on the line your senior What was
Speaker 1: that senior year like with all the attention you received,
Speaker 1: you know, for real, it's when I started smoking. When
Speaker 1: at all that when it all started, because I came
Speaker 1: back everything on the line. I was focused, and within
Speaker 1: the first couple of weeks I had, I had a
Speaker 1: bad game against Kansas State and I found out that
Speaker 1: my girl for like two years, was like messing with
Speaker 1: the quarterback on the team on your team, on the
Speaker 1: other team on my tea, dude handed me the ball.
Speaker 1: So so I was sick, and you know, I was
Speaker 1: trying to be like the better person, to not make
Speaker 1: a big deal and like mess up the whole season.
Speaker 1: But at the same time I was. I remember I
Speaker 1: was sitting there at home after the game. I was
Speaker 1: just like, why the fund did I come back for
Speaker 1: this ship? Like, you know, my mind started early in
Speaker 1: the season. Early in the season, my mind started going
Speaker 1: to like I should have gone, I should have I
Speaker 1: should have left. And my homeboy like he's a smoker,
Speaker 1: and he's like, dude, you just need to chill, he said.
Speaker 1: He slid his ball over, I hit it, and it
Speaker 1: was I smoked a little bit, but it was the
Speaker 1: first time I where I noticed that it took my
Speaker 1: mind off of obsessing about the bullshit and I started
Speaker 1: thinking like about next the next game and and no
Speaker 1: lie back to back three yard rushans after after that
Speaker 1: the first time seeing and I loved it. Obviously we're
Speaker 1: gonna get into it. You were a really a pioneer
Speaker 1: in this space as far as it's going to be
Speaker 1: out forward with it. But to see where medicating is
Speaker 1: in sports today, and kind of knowing after that first
Speaker 1: bulk hit that ship really changed your life easy to say,
Speaker 1: I mean throughout your career knowing you needed that. How
Speaker 1: how how do you look at today's uh current policy
Speaker 1: for current athletes. I think it's it's changing, thank goodness.
Speaker 1: But you just said I needed it. And so when
Speaker 1: I got into the league, Yeah, that's that's the right word.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you why. So I got in the league,
Speaker 1: and and when I first got a league, I wasn't
Speaker 1: really smoking that much. I smoke every once in a
Speaker 1: while with the guys, but we're only being tested one
Speaker 1: time a year. And it was in training camp when
Speaker 1: I was with the Saints, and so I've never had
Speaker 1: an issue. And then I my third year, I kept
Speaker 1: getting hurt and so I would start smoking a little
Speaker 1: bit more when I was hurt. And then I got
Speaker 1: traded to Miami, and then I started smoking a lot,
Speaker 1: and and nobody told me that in Miami they drug
Speaker 1: test in the off season. So I came to work
Speaker 1: one day and they're like, you know, and then they
Speaker 1: got they put me in the program. And when they
Speaker 1: put you in the program, they test you nine times
Speaker 1: a month, and you got to talk to like a
Speaker 1: therapist for two years. Same. Yeah, So they put me
Speaker 1: and they put me in the program, and at first
Speaker 1: I was like, I mean, I don't need to smoke,
Speaker 1: it's cool, you know. And then after about like three weeks,
Speaker 1: I was like damn. I was like, I can't do
Speaker 1: this ship if I like taking care of myself. So
Speaker 1: I started to find a way to like smoke and
Speaker 1: still pass the drug testcase. So what I think to me,
Speaker 1: especially football, but I really all sports, if we're you know,
Speaker 1: what we do to our bodies. I think leagues need
Speaker 1: to give us all reasonable beings to take care of ourselves.
Speaker 1: And that that's besides the conversation of how much better
Speaker 1: this is the pharmaceuticals. I completely understand that nine and
Speaker 1: nine nine draft, the infamous trade the same trade every
Speaker 1: single pick they have, I mean, the mascot, the concession stand.
Speaker 1: They trade everybody for the boy talk about that. I
Speaker 1: mean I was, I was. I was honored, but at
Speaker 1: the same time, I wanted to be the number of
Speaker 1: the number one pick. So I'm kind of salty. But
Speaker 1: I mean there's still they're still they're still telling the
Speaker 1: story now, so that that's that's the positive side of
Speaker 1: They gave up headsets, coolers, they gave up all those
Speaker 1: picks and the first pick for the next year. I
Speaker 1: wouldn't have done it, if you're being honest, I would
Speaker 1: have done it. I wouldn't have done it. I mean,
Speaker 1: if if he could come to me and he said,
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about making this trade, I would have said,
Speaker 1: don't do it. Don't do it. So don't do it.
Speaker 1: Knowing all that, and everyone else knowing all that, your
Speaker 1: team knowing all that. How hard did that? Did that
Speaker 1: make it tough coming into training camp and and and
Speaker 1: kind of your first taste of the pros or is
Speaker 1: it it made it tough? In the sense that there
Speaker 1: was just all this like extra like extra stuff on
Speaker 1: top of Yeah, that was like it's not necessary to me.
Speaker 1: What I what I loved about the game was like practice,
Speaker 1: when we go on practice or when the game starts,
Speaker 1: everything is focused. When I hated about all the other
Speaker 1: stuff that happens outside of it. Yeah, to me, it's
Speaker 1: like if I'm doing my job on the field, like
Speaker 1: what does it matter righting me to do especially when
Speaker 1: I'm not really I'm I'm chilling. I'm not out there
Speaker 1: fucking going crazy and doing all this other ship. I'm
Speaker 1: in my house medicating exactly, staying out the way. No
Speaker 1: limit sports. How did that happen? So we're trying to
Speaker 1: get p to I texted the smells like, Yo, we
Speaker 1: have Rick on the show Man. We need you to
Speaker 1: come through it too. But you talk to us about
Speaker 1: what that experience was like hounds, some master p Rollo,
Speaker 1: a little Romeo. Yeah it was. It was a lesson
Speaker 1: you know for me, I I saw it. I was
Speaker 1: an opportunity to do something different. And when I when
Speaker 1: I came into the league and all the age and
Speaker 1: you know, the typical agents comed at me, it just
Speaker 1: felt like slimy and due Terry Rito like p like
Speaker 1: the runner for a No Limit Sports, Like he became
Speaker 1: like an uncle to me and we just can't real tight,
Speaker 1: like I could tell him anything and just he just
Speaker 1: really helped me navigate that process. So when the relationship
Speaker 1: fell through with my with my agent and I was
Speaker 1: looking for finding a new agent, I was like, since
Speaker 1: I have this kind of familiar relationship and I feel
Speaker 1: like these people, that it just makes sense. I didn't
Speaker 1: realize everyone would having like an opinion about it, you know.
Speaker 1: I thought it was an opportunity to say, like we
Speaker 1: we keep looking to these kinds of people to to
Speaker 1: take care of us when there's other types of people
Speaker 1: out there, and and and he was just starting No
Speaker 1: Limit Sports, and I thought landed me like this could
Speaker 1: be an opportunity to change, to change something to help
Speaker 1: grow his company too. So how was your experience with it?
Speaker 1: Like you said, it was a learning It was wonderful.
Speaker 1: You know. I was fortunate because all of this happened
Speaker 1: before the draft, and so you know, Pe being from
Speaker 1: from New Orleans, it was on. It was on, and
Speaker 1: I felt in a sense when I first got in
Speaker 1: New Orleans, I did feel like a familiar kind of
Speaker 1: sense because they were just down in bound rouge and
Speaker 1: they were deep. So I felt like I was part
Speaker 1: of the No Limit family, had my chain and everything. Hey,
Speaker 1: they were a movement, they were a whole movement. And
Speaker 1: then when it came down to actual contract negotiation, UM,
Speaker 1: I took control and I and and this was on me.
Speaker 1: I told my agent what I what I wanted, and
Speaker 1: I and again for me, I saw it as an
Speaker 1: opportunity to explaining the statement for all the people that
Speaker 1: don't know what. So what I said is my My
Speaker 1: agent came back to me and basically had three different deals.
Speaker 1: What I told him going in is I said, you know,
Speaker 1: I said, I want to be paid for for my performance.
Speaker 1: I said, because I'm the only draft pick that there's
Speaker 1: a certain like rookie pool of the max amount of
Speaker 1: money that they can give. I said, just give me
Speaker 1: that like maximount that they can give me for what
Speaker 1: I've done in the past. But moving forward, I want
Speaker 1: my performance, performance, performance space. And my agent said, well,
Speaker 1: you could get hurt and all that stuff. I said,
Speaker 1: I don't. I said, I don't care, and he said, look,
Speaker 1: he said, look, I'm gonna go and negotiate three contracts,
Speaker 1: one that what you want, one of what I think
Speaker 1: more most guaranteed money, and then we'll do something in
Speaker 1: the middle. And he tried to convince me to take
Speaker 1: that one in the middle, but I said no, I said,
Speaker 1: I want the one that only pays me if I
Speaker 1: had kill it. But that makes sense because that's what
Speaker 1: the youngsters y'all need to pay attention. Because the agent
Speaker 1: works for you, you don't work for him. So that's
Speaker 1: how I supposed to be anyway. But then unfortunately got
Speaker 1: hurt though, right I got hurt though, talk to us
Speaker 1: about that process my whole career from Pop Warner all
Speaker 1: the way. So I didn't miss never missed the game.
Speaker 1: So I wasn't even thinking about were registered. What if
Speaker 1: I get hurt? And so first preseason game, first preseason
Speaker 1: game and get a high ankle spraying, and I'm a
Speaker 1: I consider myself one of those those guys just placed through.
Speaker 1: And so I missed a couple of games in the preseason.
Speaker 1: I was just barely ready for the first game, wrapped
Speaker 1: up that ain't going out. Reinjured it the first first quarter. Okay,
Speaker 1: so came out, but I got got myself right for
Speaker 1: the next game. I get wrapped up. Last play of
Speaker 1: the game, quarterback throws me the bomb running down the field,
Speaker 1: dislocate my elbow. So I the ankles just starting to
Speaker 1: get better. Now I got the dislocated elbow. Thank god,
Speaker 1: we had a buye week, so I rehabbed and I
Speaker 1: was ready for that next week. Ankle braids, the elbow braids,
Speaker 1: and I and I tuughed it out for like five
Speaker 1: weeks until I finally got healthy. Now I started having
Speaker 1: a hund of your games. And then I got a
Speaker 1: turf toe and I missed four games. People don't understand
Speaker 1: how bad turf toe is. I had have surgery on
Speaker 1: my turf toe. That ship is no joke. But all
Speaker 1: this you played through. So what you feel like. Obviously,
Speaker 1: cannabis played a huge part in obviously the mental but
Speaker 1: then also the recovery part in in you know the
Speaker 1: truth though, if I if I think if I was
Speaker 1: smoking more earlier in my career, I think I think
Speaker 1: I could have avoided a lot of because when I
Speaker 1: started smoking, I didn't get hurt anymore. Recovery, Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: the recovery, but I think even more so it's just
Speaker 1: getting your mind right, because most of the time people
Speaker 1: get hurt. It's like you're you're not You're not you're
Speaker 1: not dialed in? What or were you? So I was
Speaker 1: someone who smoked the day of the game. Were you
Speaker 1: someone similar or right before? How did you take? I
Speaker 1: mean I was like I was after. I was always after.
Speaker 1: That's because two things. One, I wasn't smoking enough to
Speaker 1: have my tolerance at that level where I felt comfortable.
Speaker 1: And too, I just think the stigma it didn't even
Speaker 1: occur to me. I don't know if you guys have
Speaker 1: had this moment, but I had this moment. I was.
Speaker 1: I was in Jamaica, UM visiting where Bob was born,
Speaker 1: his birthplace, and I was with this his his younger brother,
Speaker 1: and his brother was saying Bob used to go to
Speaker 1: that rock up there and read the smoke and read
Speaker 1: the Bible. And I was like, you can smoke and
Speaker 1: read the bottle At that moment, like where something that's
Speaker 1: supposed to be good for you or something that's supposed
Speaker 1: to be bad for you, how they could come together?
Speaker 1: And I just was like, damn, So I got my Bible,
Speaker 1: got got my split one up there smoked, and I
Speaker 1: like that's when I that's when I had that moment.
Speaker 1: That's when I aint seven is right before. It was
Speaker 1: like a week before I retired, and so like, you know,
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, I think smoking. I had a day
Speaker 1: of practice when I was playing. I played a year
Speaker 1: in Canada and I broke my ankle and uh, it
Speaker 1: messed up my arm. So I wasn't I was in
Speaker 1: rehab and the guys and I was just coming back.
Speaker 1: Then the guys were driving to practice and they were
Speaker 1: passing a blunt around and I was just like, I'm
Speaker 1: not playing, So I was like, I'll smoke before a practice.
Speaker 1: I had the most amazing like practice ever. I didn't
Speaker 1: feel my my pain. I felt like I was a
Speaker 1: kid again out there just bawling. So I got it.
Speaker 1: But it was it was yeah damn. So yeah, I
Speaker 1: was someone who because like I said it, I think
Speaker 1: you said it perfectly, like it locks it. It combs
Speaker 1: the outside noise and you lock in on with your
Speaker 1: with your job is supposed to be and that's you know,
Speaker 1: the ultimate focus Dick ESPN magazine cover. Yeah, how did
Speaker 1: that come abound? Dan Labatard worked for ESPN at the time.
Speaker 1: He's writing for ESPN the magazine and we become close
Speaker 1: and he reached out and he said, they want to
Speaker 1: do a piece for the cover of you and Dica,
Speaker 1: and so they We went back and forth for like
Speaker 1: two months, throw different ideas around about the picture, and
Speaker 1: then one day Dan called and he said, like, what
Speaker 1: about you got you in a wedding dress and Dicka
Speaker 1: that in a text like you guys are getting married
Speaker 1: and as on my phone in the in the car,
Speaker 1: and I laughed and I said that'd be funny. I
Speaker 1: was like, yeah, But then when I got there that day,
Speaker 1: I was like, I was like, and then when it
Speaker 1: came out and I and the media had and then
Speaker 1: it really wasn't funny. But yeah, hey that was today boy,
Speaker 1: he said. At first I laughed, but then I got there,
Speaker 1: it wasn't funny. But I had to put the dress
Speaker 1: on him, and like I realized that was what was
Speaker 1: going on was happening. Yeah, yeah, goddamn. Obviously, you know,
Speaker 1: you spoke of someone who was never injured until you
Speaker 1: got to the Pros. When you're in the Pros and
Speaker 1: you get injured, the first thing they want to do
Speaker 1: was pump you full of all kinds of different bull zoids.
Speaker 1: And and and and ship that is masking one problem
Speaker 1: causing long term effects on the other side. Talked to
Speaker 1: us about that process. I know you've been very vocal
Speaker 1: with the recovery of it, but just also the whole
Speaker 1: overall process. Well. I remember one day was I was
Speaker 1: sitting in the in the training room before practice, and
Speaker 1: I was watching each of the guys come in for
Speaker 1: practice to get the tortof shot, and I started doing
Speaker 1: the math like I was like if someone played eight
Speaker 1: ten years and they have to do this every day
Speaker 1: for practice, Like what is this doing? What is this?
Speaker 1: What is this doing to our bodies? And real quick,
Speaker 1: I don't want to cut you off. Please remember your
Speaker 1: thoughts toward all is so strong that when I was
Speaker 1: with the Clippers going into the playoffs, I got hit
Speaker 1: by Dwight Howard and UH had a minor tear in
Speaker 1: my shoulder. So during my shooting arm, so during the
Speaker 1: whole round, like during the week, I couldn't barely lift
Speaker 1: my arm. I'm doing rehab to lift my arm. I'll
Speaker 1: take the tortol shot two ours before the game and
Speaker 1: I'm totally fine, totally fine, Like unbelievable. You go to
Speaker 1: practice without toward all you feel like you're five years old.
Speaker 1: You didn't imagine doing in a practice I had in
Speaker 1: a game like Superman. That's that's the year we beat
Speaker 1: San Antonio in the first round and the last play
Speaker 1: I blocked Kauai. That was my hurt shoulder that the
Speaker 1: day before I couldn't even lift. Yeah, yeah, so it's real.
Speaker 1: So I understand why. But I was doing the math
Speaker 1: and I said, I gotta find like some other way
Speaker 1: to take care and I just had to smell an
Speaker 1: more and then finding like how to take care of myself.
Speaker 1: Like I spent a little bit more time stretching, and
Speaker 1: also it was when I smoked and stretched, I was
Speaker 1: really getting in there and like it really like yeah,
Speaker 1: different focus. How many years did you play? At what
Speaker 1: point in your career did you kind of say I'm
Speaker 1: leaving this prescribed medicine from the league behind and solely's
Speaker 1: smoking cannabis or was it always a balance of both?
Speaker 1: It was it was a bounce up until that moment
Speaker 1: I just told you about. But after that, I mean
Speaker 1: I might have taken something like I had to be
Speaker 1: in a lot of pain before I would take something.
Speaker 1: So and I was probably six or seven years in
Speaker 1: in but I started taking care of myself and I
Speaker 1: didn't spend any time in the training room, and the
Speaker 1: trainer just left me alone because they were like, whatever
Speaker 1: you're doing. And I think a running back that you
Speaker 1: get hit the most exactly whether you're blocking or running.
Speaker 1: That's a beautiful thing. Damn. I think in the in
Speaker 1: the long term, like, if the sports teams are to
Speaker 1: support players using cannabis, it's gonna save them a lot
Speaker 1: of a lot of money, point blank, that's not What
Speaker 1: do you think about high high profile athletes now not
Speaker 1: necessarily coming out in in hey I'm out here smoking,
Speaker 1: but knowing that they do use it, and there's kind
Speaker 1: of a perception now that they're starting to realize like, okay,
Speaker 1: the best players are actually using this too. What did
Speaker 1: you thought about that? I mean, personally, I think that
Speaker 1: the players should be out there saying because you know,
Speaker 1: what I found is so many people come up to
Speaker 1: me and they've said, you know, I was like how
Speaker 1: to attitude about this? And I was against it until
Speaker 1: like your story and I saw you and because of that,
Speaker 1: I tried it and I and it helped me right,
Speaker 1: And so I think players coming out and being honest.
Speaker 1: It's just gonna really help a lot of people get
Speaker 1: access to this that for whatever reason in their mind
Speaker 1: or whatever, they don't have access to it, and stop
Speaker 1: worrying about what people think. And I think that's the
Speaker 1: biggest part. Like even me, I stopped smoking because I'm Muslim,
Speaker 1: but then again, I know I need it. But but
Speaker 1: I know I'm one of the most righteous people alive,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. It's just got to get
Speaker 1: to the point where you do what's best for you
Speaker 1: and not work about what people say. And I think
Speaker 1: that's why a lot of players don't come out and
Speaker 1: talk about it. But I think a lot of it
Speaker 1: is is misinformation. And what I realized is when we
Speaker 1: were young and so we hear people say like the
Speaker 1: war on drugs, war on drugs. Now that I'm older
Speaker 1: and I've gone back and like just studied a little bit,
Speaker 1: it really was a war. Like literally, like the are
Speaker 1: are this mighty government militarized against Kain's cannabis? Militarized anything?
Speaker 1: Like in any war, there's always a lot of casualties
Speaker 1: and it takes a long time to heal. But if
Speaker 1: we go like pre drug war and we really understand
Speaker 1: the history of this planet. It was used by righteous
Speaker 1: people to help them achieve more righteousness. Like that's what
Speaker 1: it was for. And and I think too, we're remembering that,
Speaker 1: but we're doing it the hard way because we're like,
Speaker 1: at least for me, I became a better person when
Speaker 1: I started. Well, I'm the best man. My wife told
Speaker 1: me that please hurry up back smoke. She used to
Speaker 1: texting me get him back to smoke. He's not the
Speaker 1: same persons needed, just's needed. You traded to Miami in
Speaker 1: two thousand two and led the league in Russian for
Speaker 1: for your first year. You almost had eight hundred carries
Speaker 1: for those first two years, both of the seasons, your
Speaker 1: top twintering for most carris by running back in the season.
Speaker 1: That's a lot of wear and tell on your body
Speaker 1: in the NFL, caring that many times, and we know
Speaker 1: how you run. I just told the people that's gonna
Speaker 1: get to the preview that we're running over ship. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what was your mind saying? Where's your my friend? Um?
Speaker 1: The first year when I led the league in Russian,
Speaker 1: I averaged four point seven yards of carry, so and
Speaker 1: that was great. The next year averaged three point eight
Speaker 1: yards and carry more, carries a lot less yards. That
Speaker 1: was not so. But they stack in the lineup ain't stacked,
Speaker 1: you know, it was. It was there stacking the line.
Speaker 1: But but also like I see, like in any sport,
Speaker 1: when you have a player that not necessarily the best player,
Speaker 1: but the player that everyone is like, thing is everything
Speaker 1: is built around other team knows if we stop him,
Speaker 1: we're gonna win. You need the other guys on the
Speaker 1: team to realize that and step up their game to
Speaker 1: to meet that kind of force. And I think the
Speaker 1: first year the success kind of surprised everyone, and I
Speaker 1: think that second year and you know, when you after
Speaker 1: you win and you go back, you can't take it easy.
Speaker 1: Everybody's coming for you. So you gotta like take your
Speaker 1: game to the next level to be able to meet
Speaker 1: that challenge. And I felt like as a as a team,
Speaker 1: everybody did. We did it. And so I was taking
Speaker 1: the talk and everybody was like, tee it off on
Speaker 1: my ast. Oh man, let's go ahead more. Oh man, alright,
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Speaker 1: It's time to throw out your old hygiene habits and
Speaker 1: upgrade your life. Ask someone in your position, you're coming
Speaker 1: off leading the league, how does that take a toll
Speaker 1: on you? Because I mean that's a lot of the
Speaker 1: mental health that athletes are talking about. You just saw
Speaker 1: Kyrie yesterday kind of go in on fans, like, what
Speaker 1: kind of toll did that take on you. Well, I
Speaker 1: think it takes it. It takes a toll the fact
Speaker 1: that just in general as a professional athlete, that people
Speaker 1: like they forget that we're human being. They know, they
Speaker 1: think because we make money that they can that we
Speaker 1: don't have feeling. Yeah, but he but on a deeper level,
Speaker 1: like like to me, it's like you're the one paying
Speaker 1: money to watch us, you know what I'm saying. So,
Speaker 1: but it's probably something that we're doing that you can
Speaker 1: learn from. And so instead of like throwing it out,
Speaker 1: just like try to learn from us, because whatever we're doing,
Speaker 1: you're like, yeah, you'd rather spend time with us to
Speaker 1: your At some point, I had to figure out that
Speaker 1: it's people that are just fans of the sport. But
Speaker 1: then you've got people that wish they could be you,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. And that's where we get
Speaker 1: the confusion. That you've got people that really they're really
Speaker 1: wish they had like playing Basketball's people that really had
Speaker 1: hoop dreams, they really want to be in the NBA
Speaker 1: that play the man whoever did all that some fun
Speaker 1: everybody that played basketball that made to the NBA. But
Speaker 1: then you got your fans that really love their team.
Speaker 1: I think the fact that they're sitting together in the stadium,
Speaker 1: it's hard to upbraid the good fans and the bad fans. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I agree. Is it a coincidence that you just started
Speaker 1: drug feeling drug tests around this time? Well? I think
Speaker 1: the other question, is it a coincidence that I started
Speaker 1: leading the league and rushing because because so like when
Speaker 1: I first got to Miami, that's when I really started smoking.
Speaker 1: I remember I would come home after after working out
Speaker 1: and I smoke and I would like start to like
Speaker 1: visualize myself like I was killing it, just killing So
Speaker 1: I just had this. I just had this. By the
Speaker 1: time the season came, I just had this knowing that
Speaker 1: just like I was ready, I was ready. So I
Speaker 1: think that had a lot to do with the tree. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I love that. I mean we can we can speak
Speaker 1: to that. Yeah. I feel like I gotta be high
Speaker 1: every doing everything. I agree. I'm just there's no way though,
Speaker 1: I can do nothing without it. You're preaching to the choir, yes,
Speaker 1: would you? I mean it's like I can't back. I'm sorry, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I can't. Two thousand four, Uh you decided to retire?
Speaker 1: What what? Uh? You were over everything? Where are you
Speaker 1: went mentally with that? And what made you come to
Speaker 1: that to smoke my tree in peace? Yeah, you know
Speaker 1: it's interesting. I feel like sometimes in life, like the
Speaker 1: universe is trying to tell us something and sometimes we
Speaker 1: don't want to hear it, and it's got to like
Speaker 1: tell us really loudly. And so two thousand two I
Speaker 1: led the NFL and rushing two thousand and three, he's
Speaker 1: got my tore up. And so coming into the next season,
Speaker 1: you know, I went to the two thousand four, I
Speaker 1: went to the Dolphins and I and I said, like,
Speaker 1: if you're gonna give me the ball, like and expect
Speaker 1: me to do everything, like you need to take care
Speaker 1: of me and make sure that. I started to like
Speaker 1: think about the future and think like if I keep
Speaker 1: doing this, I'm not gonna last very long, and like
Speaker 1: what am I gonna have to show for it? So
Speaker 1: I said, like, if you're gonna do this, I'm good
Speaker 1: with it, but help me feel good about doing And
Speaker 1: their response, but they went to they they came back
Speaker 1: with the business response, and for me, like a business decision,
Speaker 1: right is my business decision? Is? This is my only
Speaker 1: body and I have to find a way to take
Speaker 1: care of it. I need to feel good. That's my business.
Speaker 1: I understand you've got your business and you got salary,
Speaker 1: cap and all that other stuff. Just the way they
Speaker 1: came back to me, I was like, Okay, they don't
Speaker 1: really they don't really appreciate they're taking me for granted.
Speaker 1: And so already I was like okay. And then after
Speaker 1: having a year and thinking, you know, I spent all
Speaker 1: my life trying to be the best football player I
Speaker 1: can be, and I realized that it has there's a
Speaker 1: lot more that goes into me being a good football player.
Speaker 1: And by being a good football player, I've seen that
Speaker 1: I've been kind of like a like not a good
Speaker 1: person at some of these and I started to bother me.
Speaker 1: So I started to think about like what am I
Speaker 1: doing with my life? And what I felt was I
Speaker 1: need to like travel and see the world and do
Speaker 1: some ship because my heart's not in this right now.
Speaker 1: And then with the contract and then all this other
Speaker 1: stuff started to happen, and so I just was like,
Speaker 1: I hear the messages, time for me to go. So
Speaker 1: it was just one of those things where but I think,
Speaker 1: like again, my dream as a kid was was to
Speaker 1: make it as a college football player and then have
Speaker 1: some kind of platform where I could like tell people
Speaker 1: like what I think. And I got to the NFL
Speaker 1: and people were just like, shut up, shut up, we
Speaker 1: don't want to hear. Shut up and run. Yeah, we
Speaker 1: don't want to hear what you have to say. Just
Speaker 1: go run. And then I, you know, I got to
Speaker 1: the point where I was like, I need to have
Speaker 1: I need to say something. But then I realized, because
Speaker 1: I've been chasing football my whole life, I don't really
Speaker 1: have anything to say. So I left and I started
Speaker 1: traveling just having more experiences and meeting different people, and
Speaker 1: went back to school, started studying things, and I was
Speaker 1: really passionate about so I learned. So I now I
Speaker 1: feel like I have actually something to say. What was
Speaker 1: it like because obviously back then, when you were doing it,
Speaker 1: the the cannabis was the ultimate no uh, so that
Speaker 1: the media content starts to paint a picture of a
Speaker 1: bad person went again. You've been explained to all the
Speaker 1: reasons why uh leading up to this, But how hard
Speaker 1: was that having to deal with that on a on
Speaker 1: a daily basis? You know, I was fortunate a couple
Speaker 1: of things, you know, one back in two times before nobody,
Speaker 1: like we weren't educated about cannabis the way we are now,
Speaker 1: Like outside of California and Oregon, nobody was talking about
Speaker 1: medicinal marijuana, and so I didn't have the language. And
Speaker 1: so when it when it first hit the news that
Speaker 1: failing a drug test was connected to my retirement, I
Speaker 1: had a friend of mine who was leaving the country,
Speaker 1: so I was like, yeah, let's go. So I didn't
Speaker 1: have to really deal with with any of it because
Speaker 1: I was trying. I was traveling around the world. And
Speaker 1: the funny thing is I was traveling around the world,
Speaker 1: I kept meeting people who like smoked, and so where
Speaker 1: I like, I wasn't not. I wasn't trying to run
Speaker 1: away from it. But I thought it was interesting that
Speaker 1: as I was like out and about, people didn't even
Speaker 1: know who I was. And I kept running into it,
Speaker 1: and I kept running it into it in ways where
Speaker 1: people were talking about it, in ways that I had
Speaker 1: never heard people talk about cannabis. And so well, I
Speaker 1: ended up um back in uh in northern California, studying
Speaker 1: ara Veda, which Indian medicine, and I was looking through
Speaker 1: a book and I came across a book, and it
Speaker 1: had a whole chapter on cannabis. And again, at that time,
Speaker 1: no one was talking about medicinal marijuana. And so I
Speaker 1: started to realize, there's a lot more to this, to
Speaker 1: this thing than than what we've been told. And because
Speaker 1: I surrounded myself with those kinds of people, when I
Speaker 1: finally did have to to deal with the media, I
Speaker 1: felt more supported. And so Mike Wallace from Sixty Minutes
Speaker 1: came to northern California where I was studying out Ravada,
Speaker 1: and it was like that interview we found we found
Speaker 1: Ricky and one of the questions he asked straight up,
Speaker 1: he said, if the NFL drug tested you right now,
Speaker 1: would you pass the test? And I remember, you know,
Speaker 1: looking at him, and everything in my head was saying lie, lie,
Speaker 1: Lie lie, and something that I just said, like I
Speaker 1: just said no, I would fail. And it was like
Speaker 1: it was this moment where I was being real. This
Speaker 1: was two thousand and four. I was being like honest
Speaker 1: and I was being real and I knew I wasn't
Speaker 1: supposed to, but it felt like really liberating because I
Speaker 1: wasn't in the NFL. It felt like liberating to be
Speaker 1: able to like to tell my truth and not back
Speaker 1: down from it, you know, and like that to me,
Speaker 1: that was a special moment in my life where I
Speaker 1: kind of said, I'm I'm on this side. I made
Speaker 1: a statement. So after that, I mean, that was kind
Speaker 1: of obviously a ground break type of situation. What was
Speaker 1: the with the feedback on that? Because I always say
Speaker 1: like you were just ahead of your time, Like if
Speaker 1: you came out and did that, now you would be
Speaker 1: leading athletes in this space. I mean, you're obviously one
Speaker 1: of the top people. But to do it back in
Speaker 1: that time in two thousand four, once you kind of
Speaker 1: came out and told your truth, it was almost a
Speaker 1: weightlifted on your off your shoulders. What was the what
Speaker 1: was it met with? So you know it funny like
Speaker 1: personally it was it was the coolest thing in the
Speaker 1: world because you know, I'd be on the airport, I'd
Speaker 1: be hanging around. I remember I was in sacrament Or
Speaker 1: at the airport and I was kind of lived up
Speaker 1: there at the time, and some guy like it was
Speaker 1: that same feeling of when somebody recognizes me, but he
Speaker 1: was like, hey, I got I got something in my car.
Speaker 1: You wouldn't come and people would just come up to
Speaker 1: me and just give me weed. Like so it was amazing,
Speaker 1: like the like the one on one dealing with people.
Speaker 1: I felt like I was more real to people and
Speaker 1: there was something up for it to connect on on
Speaker 1: a deeper level. And you know, the NFL. I came
Speaker 1: back to the NFL partially because the Dolphins suited me
Speaker 1: for an eight million dollars um, but also the NFL
Speaker 1: kept asking me to come back. Um they wanted, they wanted. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: So I came back and and it was weird. I
Speaker 1: was still in the NFL drug program, but it was
Speaker 1: like nobody just nobody ever talked about it. And one time,
Speaker 1: one time, somebody, one of the people in the media,
Speaker 1: we had like a bye week and we had a
Speaker 1: couple of days off, and he said, do you ever
Speaker 1: think about smoking weed? And I was just being honest.
Speaker 1: I was like, I think about that ship all the time.
Speaker 1: And then it kind of came up and it was like,
Speaker 1: you know, coach told me, like, you know, don't be
Speaker 1: a distraction. But other than that, people everyone pretended like
Speaker 1: pretend like it didn't happen. Yeah, that's crazy. What did
Speaker 1: you really find out about yourself once you stepped away
Speaker 1: from football? I think I found out that I was
Speaker 1: just a more spiritual person than I that I thought,
Speaker 1: And that's what lead you into all the astrology stuff exactly.
Speaker 1: Just I'm like that, I'm just really curious. I just
Speaker 1: wanted to want to learn exactly. That's all that I
Speaker 1: think about. Where else? Uh did you get to travel?
Speaker 1: You said you travel the world. Were some of the
Speaker 1: favorite places you pit stopped that? I love Thailand? I
Speaker 1: love Thailand. It's beautiful out there. Yeah, Australia was Australia
Speaker 1: was cool because it's different, but everybody speaks English, so
Speaker 1: it was different enough, but but it still felt familiar
Speaker 1: enough in your in your travels. Who had the best grass?
Speaker 1: Good question? I mean, obviously, um, Amsterdam, but but Hawaii.
Speaker 1: Surprisingly we were there. Yeah, we were there. Why I
Speaker 1: was just now the whole another like, I don't know
Speaker 1: if it was that batch or if it's across the board,
Speaker 1: but I had it like it so far out there.
Speaker 1: It was funny because we used to go to Amsterdam
Speaker 1: in the off season, me and some guys that are
Speaker 1: still playing, but they said they get a majority there. Uh.
Speaker 1: We from California, Northern California in particular. You bounced back
Speaker 1: in the league in two thousand five, Right, but you're
Speaker 1: still dealing with the NFL drug policy. Back and forth,
Speaker 1: back and forth. Was there like it's stressful. I know
Speaker 1: it's stressful. You just want to smoke them chill. Well,
Speaker 1: you said, you said at one point you learned how
Speaker 1: to be tested and still was this during that time
Speaker 1: because I went through different phases, Like the first the
Speaker 1: first time I got into the program, I found this
Speaker 1: drink okay and just called liquid. We used to use
Speaker 1: something extra extra clear or something okay, and you gotta like,
Speaker 1: you gotta drink it, and then you wait fifty minutes,
Speaker 1: drink about the water, drink about the water. You gotta win.
Speaker 1: You gotta keep peeing, you gotta keep peeing. Yeah, we're
Speaker 1: giving away our secause we've never talked about this the
Speaker 1: first time. This is the first time our ship used
Speaker 1: to be liquids. That's what got me though, is that
Speaker 1: that time that I got caught. The second time is
Speaker 1: like I went out, we lost to the Eagles and
Speaker 1: we got knocked out of the playoffs, and I just
Speaker 1: was like, went too hard that night, and so he
Speaker 1: would come at six o'clock in the morning, so I
Speaker 1: wake up at five the process and I fell back asleep.
Speaker 1: Didn't get that. I didn't get off barely. I just
Speaker 1: barely failed. You got to get at least three to
Speaker 1: four clear. So that was how he got so speaking
Speaker 1: to your ship. So when I was I was in
Speaker 1: the program with the Clippers and got traded to Memphis,
Speaker 1: and uh, the p man was coming once a week,
Speaker 1: so I would be clean all week. He would come
Speaker 1: to him by name. He would actually I did know
Speaker 1: his Now I forgot to ship, but I'll be clean
Speaker 1: all week and then the day he test me, I'll
Speaker 1: smoke the entire day and then try to get cleaned
Speaker 1: the whole entire week, and I'd be able to take that.
Speaker 1: That was my second That was my second way. At
Speaker 1: the second time when I came back, it was only
Speaker 1: once a week, and and then I got to the
Speaker 1: point where I realized I could take three hits and
Speaker 1: pass the test the next day, three hits and pass
Speaker 1: the next day. So you would just want to take
Speaker 1: a drink, drink a bunch of water, just because I
Speaker 1: was like as an athlete where cycling the cannabis when
Speaker 1: it comes out, it's because it's stored. But if you
Speaker 1: don't smoke enough to store it. Yeah, you was microL
Speaker 1: doce micro doce. Yeah, but but because I was in
Speaker 1: the program and micro doce worked. You know, when you're
Speaker 1: only doing like three hits, not as much exactly get
Speaker 1: you where you need to be exactly. I didn't have
Speaker 1: the powerm you all the way in I'm going, so
Speaker 1: I go to sleep. That's how it was that I
Speaker 1: had some ships shipped shipped up from Cali and every
Speaker 1: once a week I could to smoke once a week,
Speaker 1: so I burned it down like to three joints. I'd
Speaker 1: probably pass out in my chair. It was on the
Speaker 1: regular wake up and just I had to get it
Speaker 1: into We've never talked about that because I never wanted
Speaker 1: to bust no one out. But since there, they don't
Speaker 1: test for it no more. Because everyone used to say
Speaker 1: what do you used to take? And we used to
Speaker 1: have to tell it but it was liquid from g
Speaker 1: NC or when they didn't have liquid. I would just say, yo,
Speaker 1: what I would go to I'd be real to do,
Speaker 1: like I got to pass a P test, what do
Speaker 1: you recommend? What's the hardest cleanser you have? And that
Speaker 1: would give it to you, But you would feel like
Speaker 1: ship though, because you had to take that drink. Now,
Speaker 1: I just used to take a bunch of water. I
Speaker 1: used to have my trainers. I used to drop some
Speaker 1: of my trainers some bread to give me a heads up, like,
Speaker 1: because they got to a point, we're doing four randoms
Speaker 1: during the season. We didn't know what else coming four
Speaker 1: randoms in the season. This is not even in the
Speaker 1: program though, This is just regular four random tests. So
Speaker 1: I would always, you know, I get some of my
Speaker 1: trainers some bread, like just give me a heads up
Speaker 1: in the morning they come. So sometimes I do that
Speaker 1: whole process and be bloated like a motherfucker. I didn't
Speaker 1: even get tested. I was pissed. But at one point
Speaker 1: we knew that you can go on the drug program
Speaker 1: and still smoke, so we told them earlier live. He
Speaker 1: was like, Man, I'm pissing dirty just putting me in
Speaker 1: the program and you can stand up. I stay in
Speaker 1: the program. Damn. The three seasons. It wasn't no penalties there.
Speaker 1: That they wasn't They wasn't help you as long as
Speaker 1: you in the program. You just gotta pay a certain
Speaker 1: amount of times and something because but it was really
Speaker 1: just staying in that mother for three years. If you're
Speaker 1: in the program and you get popped, that's like four
Speaker 1: games suspension. It's like, and it keeps getting worse. It
Speaker 1: probably worse some penalties, but Jack probably just maneuvered. When
Speaker 1: I first got in the league, it was one drug
Speaker 1: test like them, it was a preseason when they got
Speaker 1: the whole two too, so we could we had we
Speaker 1: had weight in the car as soon as we got
Speaker 1: out of practice that day. That's how it used to be.
Speaker 1: How did determinate relationship with the NFL and pack ther image?
Speaker 1: Though I know that kind of pissed you off, honestly,
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, it actually helped. It
Speaker 1: actually helped. I mean I had to come back and
Speaker 1: like finish my career and like earn that kind of
Speaker 1: respect and carry myself a certain way. But at the
Speaker 1: end of the day it turns into like a redemption
Speaker 1: story and it allows me now to tell positive exactly right,
Speaker 1: I was right the whole time. Yeah, basically straight up?
Speaker 1: What was it like? Real quick? I want to know,
Speaker 1: because my brother played with the Argonauts and running a
Speaker 1: great cup, what was that experience? Light? Because I was
Speaker 1: the one thing he was a receiver and he said
Speaker 1: they used to just that the treatment was low grade.
Speaker 1: Just it was tough to really make it if you
Speaker 1: come from even like college and staste to something and
Speaker 1: then you go to that. I mean, our like facility
Speaker 1: were trailers, you know, trailers we need like our on
Speaker 1: our team meeting room was just a trailer. But but
Speaker 1: I will say, like if you if you really are
Speaker 1: about the game, you know, then it I can bring
Speaker 1: you back to it. And for me it did, like
Speaker 1: because if they're only certain there's only a certain number
Speaker 1: of American players that can be on the team. So
Speaker 1: most of the American guy like stayed in the same area.
Speaker 1: So it was kind of like college and after after
Speaker 1: practice we just go play. It was Toronto, yeah, and
Speaker 1: it was Toronto and it was Toronto, right, yeah, so
Speaker 1: it was I had a wonderful experience, did you you know?
Speaker 1: My brother said he loved it, but he's just like
Speaker 1: as far as like the amenities and trying to keep
Speaker 1: your body on top of it, it's tough. It's maybe
Speaker 1: like the gear, you know, trying to get it was tough,
Speaker 1: like idea every but I used to have to give
Speaker 1: this away and now I can't even getting up. When
Speaker 1: you initially stepped away from the game. Was there you
Speaker 1: said you started traveling right away? Was there ever kind
Speaker 1: of like a null? Because I kind of feel like
Speaker 1: when people step away from something they've been accustomed to
Speaker 1: their whole life, there's kind of a little did you
Speaker 1: ever hit the rut or you just kept much? I
Speaker 1: just saw I was going so hardcore just to like
Speaker 1: because it was something that was building up. It wasn't
Speaker 1: like I was. It was something that was building up,
Speaker 1: and I just knew I needed to like sold my
Speaker 1: royal old so SEEI the see the world. So I
Speaker 1: was on it and that way I went on and
Speaker 1: I got to this point where I was like, this
Speaker 1: is great, but for my life to really take off,
Speaker 1: I need to go back to the league and clear
Speaker 1: my name not that, and so it kind of it
Speaker 1: led me back. But I came back and the biggest
Speaker 1: difference was before I was kind of in this there's
Speaker 1: no man's land of like what do I have to
Speaker 1: do to like keep this? And when I came back,
Speaker 1: it was more like what can my career, what can
Speaker 1: the NFL do like do for me? And so I
Speaker 1: was just more intentional. Did you get what you were
Speaker 1: looking for? I got exactly where I cleared my name,
Speaker 1: I was able to walk away and with the platform
Speaker 1: intact that I now have access to. So yeah, uh,
Speaker 1: you recently launched Heisman. What are your hopes and visions
Speaker 1: in this cannabis space with that? I mean really a
Speaker 1: lot of this of these conversations, you know, because like
Speaker 1: I'm hard core, and I'm saying because most people, they say,
Speaker 1: you know, they'll talk about using cannabis, but then they'll
Speaker 1: have all their reasons. You know, I've heard or this
Speaker 1: or that, And I'm saying, like, more like this kind
Speaker 1: of conversation where people are talking about like did you
Speaker 1: take your medicine today? You know where it is people
Speaker 1: I feel comfortable saying I need this. I need because
Speaker 1: people say like I need this for a lot of reasons.
Speaker 1: But when you're saying something, I need this because this
Speaker 1: makes me a better person, I think, you know exactly,
Speaker 1: that's the biggest thingment you can make. Yeah, I think, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I just think hearing the why you know
Speaker 1: this is why. But they've never heard athletes say why.
Speaker 1: It was always just a stigma your you're this, you're that,
Speaker 1: you're you're you're you know, you're not focused but when
Speaker 1: you actually hear the reasons why, you can't argue with it.
Speaker 1: The crazy part, though, is like, is this is what
Speaker 1: I noticed? Is I believe that too? So I thought
Speaker 1: I was doing something wrong, and so I took a
Speaker 1: step back and I said, like, really, what is going on?
Speaker 1: And I was like, uh, And it might sound crazy,
Speaker 1: but at that time, at least from my body's perspective,
Speaker 1: this was better for me. Even football anything. Talk to
Speaker 1: them real ship. I mean, my I started smoking at fourteen,
Speaker 1: and I didn't really know. Obviously I didn't need it
Speaker 1: for the pain at that time, but I had just
Speaker 1: had a tough upbringing. And I remember the first thing
Speaker 1: you said is it just calmed everything on the outside.
Speaker 1: And I knew when I smoked it would take me there.
Speaker 1: So fast forward, you know, I'm forty two now, I've
Speaker 1: been smoking, you know, for more than half of my life.
Speaker 1: But we can always, we can explain until we're blew
Speaker 1: in the face. But I think that the real breakthrough
Speaker 1: was when they were started having medical research behind this.
Speaker 1: So now we're saying what we're saying is backed up
Speaker 1: by actual information, and I think obviously that's why it's
Speaker 1: moving the needle now, but it's we've been saying this,
Speaker 1: we just didn't have, like you said, the terminology, I
Speaker 1: guess is what they needed. And I think it's more
Speaker 1: more people that are are successful in life come out
Speaker 1: and tell their story. I think that's going to drive
Speaker 1: you more. It's going to change the research questions. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I agree, So speak to exactly. I mean, you have
Speaker 1: it pretty narrow focused on different you know, aspects of
Speaker 1: the cannabis space. So speak to us about your and
Speaker 1: in the names of each and what you decided to
Speaker 1: go this route. Yeah, so like overall, you know, creating
Speaker 1: a brand. When I got into the cannabis space, like
Speaker 1: I saw it's like what people were calling a brand
Speaker 1: is you just create some like fancy packaging and then
Speaker 1: you convince people that yours is better than the next.
Speaker 1: And that's a brand. And to me, h, I think
Speaker 1: I get it. And there are people doing a great job.
Speaker 1: But for me, if I'm gonna do a brand, it's
Speaker 1: gotta be like be part of it, has to be
Speaker 1: part of me that that I'm putting out there. And
Speaker 1: so I thinking I was saying like earlier about I
Speaker 1: had this experience of how cannabis actually helped me be
Speaker 1: a better football player and a better person, and so
Speaker 1: helping people make these connections. And one of the ways
Speaker 1: simple ways we did that is through our the naming
Speaker 1: convention of our flower and instead of the more conventional
Speaker 1: sativa indica hybrid, we call the more sativa leaning stradients.
Speaker 1: Pregame the hybrids halftime in the indicase post game, right,
Speaker 1: so it's you're a heavy indicata, you pre game the
Speaker 1: post game exactly. And then and then we've been we've
Speaker 1: been having fun with the different like straining is really
Speaker 1: trying to connect the genetics with our favorite athletes. Oh
Speaker 1: that's dope. Yeah, yeah, I definitely want to check that out.
Speaker 1: Traditionally someone who was kind of private, but you you
Speaker 1: really started to open up more with two docks on
Speaker 1: a TV game show. Working on a biopic. Who you
Speaker 1: want to play you? I feel like it's going to
Speaker 1: be some unknown person that if there was, if there
Speaker 1: was a famous person, though they're a famous person to
Speaker 1: play you because he is tough because we have to
Speaker 1: go to that aide, that age range, and I had like,
Speaker 1: I don't really know that many actors in that age range.
Speaker 1: So you're gonna put someone on the map I can.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna put somebody on. Somebody's gonna just blow us
Speaker 1: away into Yeah. Are you obviously more comfortable in the
Speaker 1: public eye now and and and just kind of freely
Speaker 1: out here kind of being yourself or is it still
Speaker 1: kind of like you to still kind of hold back
Speaker 1: a little bit? Yeah, I'm I'm out there now. I
Speaker 1: like got to the point where I really yeah, I did,
Speaker 1: really don't care anymore. It's me. Yeah, take a little
Speaker 1: take a leave it. At a certain point in life,
Speaker 1: like you realize the young people need guidance and if
Speaker 1: we're trying to pretend to be something else, that's not
Speaker 1: that's not a good that's not a good example. That's
Speaker 1: so and that's a shifty way to live. I tell you,
Speaker 1: be you the best you can be. Is you so
Speaker 1: hard of being somebody else? That's the hardest thing to do.
Speaker 1: Just be yourself. Everyone else is already and and and
Speaker 1: the people that supposed to be in your life and
Speaker 1: as supposed to support you and love you, they're gonna
Speaker 1: be there regardless of who you are. Love. Just be yourself.
Speaker 1: I had that same awareness when I left. Everybody thought
Speaker 1: I was crazy, but my experience was this is the
Speaker 1: happiest I ever been, And so I was like, people
Speaker 1: in my life that can that are happy that I'm happy,
Speaker 1: those are my people and people that have a problem
Speaker 1: with that. Yeah, writings on the wall. Well, man, we
Speaker 1: appreciate your time. We're gonna come down to quick hitters
Speaker 1: being first seen across your mind. Let us know who
Speaker 1: are some of the people in the cannabis space. Uh,
Speaker 1: you look up to h right now. The first person
Speaker 1: that comes to mind is Chris Baulky Ball family farm.
Speaker 1: That's there for that's as far Yeah, I mean just
Speaker 1: like Hart and just like what he's what he the
Speaker 1: opportunity has and what he's doing with it. You know.
Speaker 1: He talks about cultivating the culture. And I think sometimes
Speaker 1: when I when I think about the industry, like it
Speaker 1: makes me sad sometimes because it's becomes just about like
Speaker 1: starting to become just about the money. And what I
Speaker 1: love about what Chris is doing, it's really about the plant.
Speaker 1: We did a collab with him, yeah about shut out
Speaker 1: the family and flower something. He's got some ship over there. Yeah.
Speaker 1: What's the longest time you spent meditating like in one city?
Speaker 1: Four hours? Probably? Wow, But that's not a lot, like,
Speaker 1: that's not that's I got. I got probably close to
Speaker 1: thirty minutes. But you fall asleep now. But you know
Speaker 1: when I pray, you know, after I pray, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: this was like time was up in the him and
Speaker 1: as like just up there to meditate. That's that's a
Speaker 1: long time. So when you say that's when you say
Speaker 1: it's not a long time. What is a long time
Speaker 1: to someone who is actually in the space and really
Speaker 1: well to me, people like me honestly, a good meditation
Speaker 1: is five minutes. It's just about centering yourself and then
Speaker 1: because if someone needs to go out in the day,
Speaker 1: five minutes you're centered. But if you know, I was
Speaker 1: on retreat. I was like out for a couple of months,
Speaker 1: and I was trying to like go deeper into myself.
Speaker 1: And so it's like you sit for five minutes and
Speaker 1: things like settle down to a certain level. But as
Speaker 1: you sit there, like more stuff comes to the surface,
Speaker 1: you know, and then if you can sit there then
Speaker 1: that settles. Then just the more time it just gives
Speaker 1: your ability to just go. So what do you come.
Speaker 1: I'm someone that's kind of wanting to get what are
Speaker 1: you actually focusing on? Why you try to if you say,
Speaker 1: a five power five minute meditation, what so your things
Speaker 1: are coming to your mind? What do you do to
Speaker 1: so what the simplest technique. And really what meditation is
Speaker 1: about is it doesn't really matter what the point of
Speaker 1: focus is. So when people when we're playing our sport,
Speaker 1: we're doing our thing and we're in his own that's
Speaker 1: the meditation because meditation just means the nature of our mind.
Speaker 1: It just goes in all these different directions all the time.
Speaker 1: And meditation is just bringing the medical just bringing it back.
Speaker 1: It doesn't even matter what the point. Some people use
Speaker 1: a mantra, some people use their heart or their their head,
Speaker 1: but it's just having it could be a thought and
Speaker 1: idea a person. It's just having one thing that you
Speaker 1: can bring the mind back to. I mean this is
Speaker 1: why sports, I think, especially at our level, it's so
Speaker 1: beneficial because it forces you to learn to meditate. Right,
Speaker 1: your mind wasn't going what you got a job to do.
Speaker 1: So the mind is trained to be focused on one
Speaker 1: So for us, like we know how to meditate, you know,
Speaker 1: it's just we just got to do something that that
Speaker 1: has our attention and the mind football focus. But but
Speaker 1: that's all meditation. It's just training the mind when it
Speaker 1: goes here to bring it back here. And then once
Speaker 1: it's like it gets trained and stops wandering and can
Speaker 1: sit in one place, and then it becomes more profound.
Speaker 1: You notice more things. Are there any other things, uh, psilocybin, mushrooms,
Speaker 1: anything in that psychedelic realm, so to speak, that you
Speaker 1: feel that can help people. I think all of the
Speaker 1: psychedelics because and I consider can to miss psychedelic. It's
Speaker 1: just miles something you can do more on a daily basis.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of the other psychedelics they're more
Speaker 1: like when you gotta flush your system out, you know.
Speaker 1: But I think that cannabis is more like the daily maintenance.
Speaker 1: And even the worst psychedelic it means soul revealing, right,
Speaker 1: revealing ourselves to ourselves or another word they uses intagen
Speaker 1: is the god within. So I think all of these
Speaker 1: substances that's it's the same thing as meditation. It's just
Speaker 1: getting your mind off the bullshit and just focusing on
Speaker 1: something that's like more real. Five dinner guests dead are alive,
Speaker 1: So definitely Bob Sir, definitely Pop And then I'm like
Speaker 1: Jesus Mohammed and uh ROOMI who's that? He's? Uh? He
Speaker 1: was a mystic poet talk about him? Yeah, yeah, he's
Speaker 1: a look good. Yeah. What ortis do you currently have
Speaker 1: on rotation? And what remusic you best? The best describes
Speaker 1: your running style? Two questions? Um, so what do I
Speaker 1: listen to you right now? Is? I repeat? I just
Speaker 1: have it? Is Damian Marley. I listened to all of
Speaker 1: Marley's a lot, but right now and I've just been
Speaker 1: on Damian for for a minute. Jem rock Yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: and you're running style? What kind of music is? That's
Speaker 1: a good one. I think, Uh, like I came up
Speaker 1: in nineties West Coast hip hop. It's like smooth and
Speaker 1: then it hits it. Yeah yeah yeah. What's the first
Speaker 1: thing you do when you wake up and the last
Speaker 1: thing you do before you go to sleep? The first
Speaker 1: thing I do when I wake up is um, I
Speaker 1: roll up, and then I pray, and then you smoke
Speaker 1: after you. I smoke after I noticed. I noticed. This morning,
Speaker 1: I rolled up. I rolled up first, then I went upstairs.
Speaker 1: Some mornings I prayed first, but this morning I rolled up,
Speaker 1: then I prayed, then I smoked, and then I read, meditate, um,
Speaker 1: and before I go to bed, I'm always reading. I
Speaker 1: read and smoke until I fall asleep. M I pray
Speaker 1: that it takes smoke every more. Yeah, if you can
Speaker 1: see one person on our show, who would it be?
Speaker 1: But before you answer that, you have to help us
Speaker 1: get your answer on the show. All right, Janet Ico,
Speaker 1: Oh that's dope, and she smokes heavy to Jackie Burn. Yes,
Speaker 1: do you know her? I don't. Hey, we're gonna put
Speaker 1: a college big. We need both of y'all. Both of
Speaker 1: you'all big show. There's room for both y'all. Well, man,
Speaker 1: that's a rap, Ricky Man. We appreciate your time. I'm
Speaker 1: glad we got a chance to talk to you. Man.
Speaker 1: I've been a big fan of yours for a long time. Obviously,
Speaker 1: I'm a huge football fan. But the game that that
Speaker 1: you were before your time in the cannabis space, and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, we're someone like myself and my brother Al Harrington.
Speaker 1: We really kind of took that Jackson and really kind
Speaker 1: of continue to push the narrative, man, But I feel
Speaker 1: like it really started with you, man. I appreciate what
Speaker 1: you do. We need it, definitely. I'm a Texas boar,
Speaker 1: so I'm a different type of fan. We got something
Speaker 1: for you. Yeah, I always forget that our own merch.
Speaker 1: Y'all ain't getting his bag, but we got a black
Speaker 1: back by bar Ricky. You can get it all of
Speaker 1: all the smoke dot store. There you go what I'm
Speaker 1: saying for? Here we go, bro, Yeah, a little parting, gifts,
Speaker 1: sweat soup. Yeah, you fresh with you, step out on
Speaker 1: and when you're rolling up, just don't get don't ash
Speaker 1: on it. I was gonna say that's the thing. I
Speaker 1: don't mind ash I just don't like the brow. Yeah. Man,
Speaker 1: that's a rap with our man, Ricky Williams. You can
Speaker 1: catch all the smoke on Showtime Basketball YouTube and the
Speaker 1: I Heart platform Black Effects. See y'all next week.