Speaker 1: Everybody I always talk to say you cheat, it ain't cheap.
Speaker 1: I'm smart, but they usually be the one to say
Speaker 1: you're cheap. Then the one all my life and grinding
Speaker 1: all my life, sacrifice hustle back price. One slice got
Speaker 1: the pro dice to swath all my life. I've been
Speaker 1: grinding all my life, USh all my life and running
Speaker 1: all my life sacrifice, hustle back price, one slice got
Speaker 1: the dice to swath all my life. I've been grinding
Speaker 1: in all my life. Hello, welcome to another additional club,
Speaker 1: Sha Shay. I am your whole. Shannon Sharp also the
Speaker 1: proprietor Club Sha Shay, and the guy that's stopping by
Speaker 1: for drinks and conversation today is an NFL Hall of Famer.
Speaker 1: He's a four time Pro Bowl Offensive Rookie of the
Speaker 1: Year in nineteen ninety nine, led the league in rushing
Speaker 1: two consecutive years nineteen ninety nine and two thousand, two thousand,
Speaker 1: all decade Indianapolis Coats Hall of Famer, and he's the
Speaker 1: coach all time leading rusher in the tenth yards and touchdowns.
Speaker 1: Mister doodd all the edge Edgwan j Man, I'm good.
Speaker 1: You know I'm good. Always You're always good, always good.
Speaker 1: I've never I've never not seen you with a smile
Speaker 1: on your faith. Damn you that happy all the time?
Speaker 1: Life would be really good. I mean when you overcome,
Speaker 1: when we overcome, maybe it's gotta be good. It's gotta
Speaker 1: be good. Yeah, thanks for stopping by the day. Let's
Speaker 1: go back because I thought you had a very your
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame speech. Congratulations on making that. Yeah, I appreciate.
Speaker 1: I think you three fifty four six three three six, yeah,
Speaker 1: three three six. They've been over twenty five thousand men
Speaker 1: that's played, coach managed in the NFL, seven billion people
Speaker 1: in the world. Only three hundred and fifty four men
Speaker 1: can say they got a gold jacket. How does that
Speaker 1: make it? Drin James Field? Oh, man, it make all
Speaker 1: the work that you put in make it even work it.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's what really stands out when you see
Speaker 1: all the work you put in. You say, all the
Speaker 1: people that's actually trying to play this game right, and
Speaker 1: you realize you wanted a few that made it and
Speaker 1: got that gold jacket, so it's like they really captured
Speaker 1: off and say, man, it was all worth it. Right
Speaker 1: when you started playing for did you always know you
Speaker 1: wanted to play football, even as a kid growing up
Speaker 1: in Florida. Yeah, football is like the thing to do
Speaker 1: down south, So we're gonna play football. Like I really
Speaker 1: wanted to be a basketball player, but I only had
Speaker 1: strong right, I ain't have left food, but football. Football
Speaker 1: was too easy for me. Like football was real easy.
Speaker 1: It was It's always been easy. So I knew that
Speaker 1: was like that was the thing to do. Yeah, that
Speaker 1: was that. That was the ticket, that was the that
Speaker 1: was the best shot at changing things. When did you
Speaker 1: realize that I'm really good at this. No, I'm really good,
Speaker 1: and I can change my families. Oh, I can change
Speaker 1: my family's life forever. When I got to the University
Speaker 1: of Mind. You know, when you're in high school, you're
Speaker 1: playing against the people in your area, right, you know,
Speaker 1: so you really don't have no measuring stick. Right. Then
Speaker 1: when you get to college and you and you start
Speaker 1: seeing all these guys, like a lot of these guys
Speaker 1: they have like all these five stars that raided, right,
Speaker 1: and then you go out and practice and you just
Speaker 1: like dominating them, right, and you just say, man, this
Speaker 1: thing right here seemed like it's pretty easy. Then you
Speaker 1: start having guys from your team going to the NFL, right,
Speaker 1: And I'm like I just was out there with him
Speaker 1: and a yeah. So now I'm like, yeah, I know,
Speaker 1: I'm I know him gonna be on the next level
Speaker 1: right now. I think it's after my freshman year. That's
Speaker 1: when I knew. And I just locked in and I
Speaker 1: had a clock. I said, I'm gonna be out of
Speaker 1: here my junior year. Right, you get to the NFL,
Speaker 1: you get selected, what fifth fourth pick in the draft?
Speaker 1: They do something. They moved Marshall to select eddri and Jane.
Speaker 1: Did you understand, like Marshall could do it all. He
Speaker 1: could catch, he could run, he could block. They moved
Speaker 1: a guy that was Rookie of the year, had great numbers,
Speaker 1: and it's like, we think this guy right here could
Speaker 1: be just as good, if not better for me. I
Speaker 1: really didn't understand what was going on. Man. I just
Speaker 1: come in front of you trying to get to the NFL, right,
Speaker 1: you know, And so for me, it wasn't It had
Speaker 1: nothing to do with it. I didn't think about no
Speaker 1: marsh I didn't think about nobody. I think about, man, look,
Speaker 1: this is my opportunity right to make it to the
Speaker 1: NFL and once I get to the NFL, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: make my mark. So I really didn't looking to all. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I focused on me, and that's that's kind of how
Speaker 1: I did my whole career. You know, I always focused
Speaker 1: on myself and never got into comparing to nobody or
Speaker 1: trying to compete with nobody, because it was always me
Speaker 1: versus me every time you get there. Okay, so obviously
Speaker 1: you're rookie, go through the camp. Now, y'all need to
Speaker 1: make the money right, Definitely. Obviously the money was right
Speaker 1: because Andrew James held out for the better part a
Speaker 1: long long time. Yeah, I mean it's the money was right. Hey,
Speaker 1: money was right. Comparing where we came from, well, I'm
Speaker 1: coming from the money. The money was right. But you know,
Speaker 1: you gotta do things that, like you gotta do things
Speaker 1: in the proper order, and like when you get drafted
Speaker 1: the fourth pick, you know you need to be compensated
Speaker 1: right right where you're supposed to be compensated. That it's
Speaker 1: like they could have like deep down inside, like the
Speaker 1: money was right on the first offic with me, Like
Speaker 1: I know where I'm coming from because like I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: all I needed some money one time. I get some
Speaker 1: money one time, I'm I'm a double trip of that.
Speaker 1: Later I ain't worry about that. But it was like,
Speaker 1: you know, for the game, for the betterment of the game,
Speaker 1: running back position, you got to stand up sometimes and
Speaker 1: the guys coming from behind. Yeah, like you can't just
Speaker 1: accept whatever. So I said, Man, I'm gonna even though
Speaker 1: there's money, right, but I'm gonna do what we gotta
Speaker 1: do to make sure that the numbers are right. And
Speaker 1: so we went through the whole process. I held out
Speaker 1: and it turned out to be well worth it. Right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you come into the league, you got dreads, you got
Speaker 1: gold teeth. Did anybody try to convince you, man, you
Speaker 1: need to get rid of you need to cut the dreads.
Speaker 1: You need to do it with the goal. Did they
Speaker 1: try to convince you to like you in the NFL?
Speaker 1: Not you gotta like have this like polished image. No.
Speaker 1: I think first, first time I'm getting there, you know,
Speaker 1: it's like you're surprising everybody because you're the pick right
Speaker 1: for a pick. And then I think after I became
Speaker 1: real good, real fast, that's when that's when it started coming. Like, man,
Speaker 1: you may want to you may want to remove your
Speaker 1: dredge you may want to remove your gold teeth because
Speaker 1: there's so many opportunities out there for you. And that's because,
Speaker 1: you know, when you become real good, and they were like, man,
Speaker 1: you got commercials, you have all these endorsement opportunities, right,
Speaker 1: and so that's when it really got to push. You know,
Speaker 1: after the first year, it was like, I'm going to Indianapolis,
Speaker 1: conservative city, right, And it wasn't it wouldn't know. Everybody
Speaker 1: just kind of wait and see. But then we hit
Speaker 1: it fast. We hit the ground running, right. We changed
Speaker 1: that franchise instantly and the division thirteen to three. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then you actually you're actually a dominant player out there.
Speaker 1: And so that's when the push came because it's like, man,
Speaker 1: it's man, we can we can really market you, we
Speaker 1: can really use you because you know, I'm sitting next
Speaker 1: to the man, I'm sitting next to p Yeah, and
Speaker 1: you know, so they're like, man, you can really do
Speaker 1: some some good things off the field, right, And so
Speaker 1: that's when that push came for that. But for me,
Speaker 1: it was more, man, I'm I'm edge, you know, that's
Speaker 1: part of what made me who I am. So it
Speaker 1: was never a consideration for myself you know it was
Speaker 1: just from the marketing stamper and the business opportunities. You know,
Speaker 1: I could have made millions of dollars off the field
Speaker 1: easily and became more popular, But that wasn't my second Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, it's like it wouldn't have been pure, and
Speaker 1: it really wouldn't. I don't know what I would have
Speaker 1: been on the football field. The gold teeth and the
Speaker 1: drill with a part of you, with yourselves, that's where
Speaker 1: your strength, Like, that's the strength man, you know, the darker. Hey, hey,
Speaker 1: you know this this man I got on my head
Speaker 1: and I carry that. You know, it's that strength, and
Speaker 1: but you get it. It's really about being yourself, you know,
Speaker 1: like you can go farther being yourself and trying to
Speaker 1: be somebody else. Why was that so important to you?
Speaker 1: Why was it so important for edriand James to maintain
Speaker 1: the drills, to maintain the gold teeth. Yeah, you're from
Speaker 1: You're from South Florida, and you know when we came
Speaker 1: up the gold teeth with a thing, everybody tried to
Speaker 1: get the gold teeth or have a gold tooth, but
Speaker 1: you had you had the whole grille and you had
Speaker 1: to grill It was important because man, you got you
Speaker 1: got all these short that look up to you. You
Speaker 1: got everybody that that see you in it, and now
Speaker 1: you you kind of get them hope to say, Man, look,
Speaker 1: I don't have to go beat this or be that
Speaker 1: to make it right, you know. And that why it
Speaker 1: was very important for me just to be myself. And
Speaker 1: plus I don't I don't know no other way, you know.
Speaker 1: So it was really important because the world is opening up.
Speaker 1: You know what. I'm like, Man, I'm here to play football.
Speaker 1: You know, if you if you are polished and you
Speaker 1: got yourself together, but you can't ball, they're gonna get
Speaker 1: rid of you anyway. Right. But I know if I
Speaker 1: can get out there and play ball and play at
Speaker 1: a high level, I ain't worry about them get rid
Speaker 1: of me. But you think about the night Edge. You
Speaker 1: were the first, you one of the few. Not everybody
Speaker 1: got drigged, everybody got twisted, everybody got coming out the helmet.
Speaker 1: But when you did it, you wasn't a whole lot
Speaker 1: of people doing that. Yeah, tell them things to age. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you may be comfortable right now. Yeah you did. You
Speaker 1: definitely made him comfort. So you said, like, I got
Speaker 1: an opportunity. I'm next to paint many obviously painting this
Speaker 1: button up. You look at Marvin Harrison, he's really quiet.
Speaker 1: Buttoned up you Reggie was there yourself? Did you look around? Like? What? Dang?
Speaker 1: Look where I'm at and all this money, I mean,
Speaker 1: I can make almost as much money off the field
Speaker 1: is on the field. All I gotta do is just
Speaker 1: no little tape up, you know, little shave up, you know,
Speaker 1: pull the grills off it. But then they won't be
Speaker 1: fun like I got fun money. You know, I got
Speaker 1: to be myself. You know, it's like we want we
Speaker 1: want to live in this little box and you can't
Speaker 1: do like the way I live my life. Man, I
Speaker 1: get to beat me. I don't have to walk around
Speaker 1: right and try to put on this disguise and try
Speaker 1: to put on and that ain't fun. You know. It's like, okay,
Speaker 1: if you get some money and you're able to enjoy
Speaker 1: it a lot. Yeah, Because this is the dreadlock with
Speaker 1: the dreadlocks and the gold teeth and kidding from South
Speaker 1: Florida that probably chased did you uh you? From you?
Speaker 1: From my you from Miami? Right? No, I market it's
Speaker 1: our Western mind. But for who kids with it. I
Speaker 1: we got. We had a lot of guys in better
Speaker 1: state for Bell Glades. Yeah, we grew up on the Yeah,
Speaker 1: we'll grow up on our western minami Ricky jack Foot. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's the area. But they did they think they brought them.
Speaker 1: They brought some players apart of there too, Right when
Speaker 1: when you look, kid, you're playing with you, you're playing
Speaker 1: with your cousin, you're playing with your homeboys, y'all playing football.
Speaker 1: What was it like for you growing up then? Obviously
Speaker 1: you didn't have a whole lot, but you had the
Speaker 1: love of your family. You had people around you that
Speaker 1: loved you. What was it like for you as a
Speaker 1: child growing up? Now? It's normal like that, it's normally.
Speaker 1: You don't realize things aren't normal till you step outside
Speaker 1: of your space, you know, because everybody living just like me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it wasn't no big deal, you know, you don't. You
Speaker 1: don't even realize. It's like, it's so much more to
Speaker 1: offer of the world, got so much more to offer,
Speaker 1: right until you remove yourself from that space. And then
Speaker 1: but then the beauty of it is I got a
Speaker 1: great appreciation for things, and that's why I like every
Speaker 1: day I'm having a good damn always in a good
Speaker 1: space because I know where I'm coming from, a lot
Speaker 1: of people they don't really understand what it's like to
Speaker 1: make it out a certain situations. So and I think
Speaker 1: all our lives kind of run parallel, especially like the athlete.
Speaker 1: You look at the ones that's dumb that they always
Speaker 1: got a story. Yeah, they always got something to make
Speaker 1: them dig deep. You had to something, yeah, everybody, I
Speaker 1: mean every champion got to overcome something or it ain't
Speaker 1: even fun. You know, that's when it's worth it. Mentioned
Speaker 1: I'm reading your Bioles said you harvested watermelons in Georgia. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we just had to go do that. What part of
Speaker 1: Georgia were we heited to? It was like Ashburn, Cordia, Okay,
Speaker 1: South Middle Georgia. Yeah we had but we had to go.
Speaker 1: Like it was for us. It was a thing that
Speaker 1: there was like a chance to get away from South floor, right,
Speaker 1: you know. So it's like we get a chance to
Speaker 1: go out and watermelons. They eat load watermelons. Not easy.
Speaker 1: I did that. That didn't eave a job, I know,
Speaker 1: but at the end and make you make you tough
Speaker 1: and eat that grown man. I ain't want to be tough.
Speaker 1: I want to be the other kids. I want some money.
Speaker 1: I want some money. And I was like, man, I
Speaker 1: figured out how to get me some money. Like that
Speaker 1: was a way to get some money on my own.
Speaker 1: You know, especially when you're thirteen fourteen, you know you
Speaker 1: got the fire. I want to do chores to get
Speaker 1: some money. I want to take out the trash I want.
Speaker 1: I ain't want to be doing grown man work. I
Speaker 1: ain't gonna lie. I appreciate the grown man work because
Speaker 1: I ain't doing no more grown the rest of my life.
Speaker 1: You know what I tell I tell kids that when
Speaker 1: I talk to kids, now, do a lot of things
Speaker 1: while you're growing up, because they'll show you what you
Speaker 1: don't want to do for the rest of your life,
Speaker 1: exactly doing that, propping tobacco, clipping onions, load watermelon bailing. Hey, man,
Speaker 1: I don't want to do this for them forty years
Speaker 1: y'all crazy, some of this. I don't even like lifting
Speaker 1: my own bags now. Man, Like man, I ain't doing
Speaker 1: nothing hards but and that's what I'm saying. I got
Speaker 1: all that out the way early. Everything is depending on
Speaker 1: the weather it rained. You can't go to work you'll
Speaker 1: get no payday. Cat WoT no parts it is. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I really like you said you didn't really lift weights
Speaker 1: until you got the until you got to college. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Like I mean I would I want part of no
Speaker 1: weight program. You know. Our stiff want structure like that,
Speaker 1: you know, and that would say everything is off the
Speaker 1: muscle right here. You know, Like you get the college,
Speaker 1: you gotta weight room, you got a program, you got
Speaker 1: all that stuff right there. You can't help but to
Speaker 1: get better. I couldn't help but to get better. You know.
Speaker 1: Now you get three good meals a day. It ain't
Speaker 1: no eat but we always ate good. You ain't good, right,
Speaker 1: We always ate good. We always ate good. After the
Speaker 1: came out in Live with y'all there, no, we're gonna
Speaker 1: say the family gonna make sure we eat good. That's
Speaker 1: one thing you're gonna do. You're gonna eat good. You
Speaker 1: wanted to transfer high school and your mom said no,
Speaker 1: Yeah nah, see not like it's it's like we don't
Speaker 1: need to go somewhere else to kind of get that advantage.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. Like the game of football
Speaker 1: is if you good, you good, you know, and a
Speaker 1: lot of people don't realize the team needs you more
Speaker 1: than you realize it, right, you know, And if you're
Speaker 1: really good you can help this team. They're coming to
Speaker 1: get you. So that's one thing that that was that
Speaker 1: my mom made sure, like we're gonna stay right here,
Speaker 1: We're gonna rock, We're gonna rock out right here. And
Speaker 1: if they come for you, they come for you. And
Speaker 1: that the university. Mind me there, Your mom was a
Speaker 1: cafeteria worker, made seventeen thousand dollars a year. What was
Speaker 1: how did you see what she's going through if you
Speaker 1: try to provide for you and your family? What kind
Speaker 1: of fire did that light inside of you? Like, man,
Speaker 1: look at what my mom going through. My mom shouldn't
Speaker 1: have to work gets hard. I got to get up
Speaker 1: out of here. I mean, when you ship an opportunity,
Speaker 1: you're like, okay, yeah, you want to be the one
Speaker 1: that you want to be the one that saved the day,
Speaker 1: you know, and like you want to be the one
Speaker 1: that said okay. Like a lot of a lot of
Speaker 1: times everybody was talking about what they'll do for their
Speaker 1: mom or what they'll do. They running out going to jail,
Speaker 1: they're going out to get in trouble and like, nah,
Speaker 1: like you're gonna represent for your mom. You gotta make
Speaker 1: sure you're staying out of trouble. You make sure you
Speaker 1: retire her, You make sure you take care of her.
Speaker 1: You make sure that when she walk in the room
Speaker 1: and her son his name is bro, she light up.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, like, yeah, this this is
Speaker 1: my child. You don't want to be where where your
Speaker 1: mom always going worried about you. They gotta go to
Speaker 1: the prison to see you. Like every time you like
Speaker 1: every time you go to the prison, you gotta go.
Speaker 1: You see a bunch of moms in there. It's like
Speaker 1: everybody talking about what they'll do for their MoMA. Like, now,
Speaker 1: I'm really about that, you know, I'm really about taking
Speaker 1: care of my mom. And I really dedicated myself to
Speaker 1: doing that, and I made sure that I said, man, look,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go do everything I can do make sure
Speaker 1: this lady don't have to work, don't have to do
Speaker 1: nothing the rest of her life. And I've been upholding
Speaker 1: my end of the bargain, you know, But it all
Speaker 1: came from the beginning. When you sit up, then you
Speaker 1: make that commitment and you said, man, I'm not I'm
Speaker 1: not about to be out here getting in trouble, you
Speaker 1: know for that word, Yeah, that's that's really embarrassing your mom.
Speaker 1: But like a lot of times, you're seeing everybody like, man,
Speaker 1: I'll die for my mom. I get embarrassing. You're killing her.
Speaker 1: You're killing her right now with the way with your actions,
Speaker 1: you know. And so for me, it was always important
Speaker 1: to say, Okay, look, if I got an opportunity to
Speaker 1: do something, let me make the most out of it.
Speaker 1: And that's why with football, you know, that was my
Speaker 1: opportunity going into your senior year, He's like, Okay, this
Speaker 1: is my opportunity to shine. Did you always want to
Speaker 1: go to the University of Miami or was it about
Speaker 1: getting those scholarship and getting getting one step closer to
Speaker 1: doing what you had said the time? My mom taking
Speaker 1: care of my mom, making sure my mom. Hey mom,
Speaker 1: you ain't gonna do nothing else. You gotta you got
Speaker 1: a son, They're gonna take care of this thing. We
Speaker 1: straight now. The University Minement always top dog, number one school,
Speaker 1: like especially in South Florida, you know, the University Mineent
Speaker 1: was always the number one choice, you know, the only
Speaker 1: thing that made me even look into other situations because
Speaker 1: the University. Mine was coming up with SAT They had
Speaker 1: these sanctions, they were about to go on probation, right,
Speaker 1: so we had to look into all those factors, you know,
Speaker 1: to see, Okay, are they gonna do something with the program?
Speaker 1: Is gonna be restricted? You know, Once we got the information,
Speaker 1: that's a no brainer. Like I think, I think that's
Speaker 1: the best school in the world, you know, because it
Speaker 1: provides everything. You know, it provides. It's a it's a
Speaker 1: total package, you know, Like I ain't I'm not built
Speaker 1: from no college town, you know. I want to be
Speaker 1: with an action. I gotta be where it's set. So
Speaker 1: Alabama and the LFU that we're gonna cut it for
Speaker 1: you huh, but nah, they do. They just they just
Speaker 1: drink beer and wrestling and play video games. I like, man,
Speaker 1: I ain't got time for all that. Man. You know,
Speaker 1: like we're hat to you. Man, we're really doing our thing. Well.
Speaker 1: If you from if you go to the you obviously
Speaker 1: trick Daddy and Uncle Luke automatically. Yeah, ain't no whale
Speaker 1: rotting automatically. But I'm saying that's that's the thing. We
Speaker 1: got our We got our own everything, you know, we
Speaker 1: got our own rappers, We got our own everything. And
Speaker 1: but it's it's a small it's a small school. But
Speaker 1: it's the thing, the hunger and and things that you
Speaker 1: get from coming from that place. You know. It's like, man,
Speaker 1: it's something you can't really describe. That's why you are.
Speaker 1: You see, it's anything you've been on with somebody from
Speaker 1: the youth. You're going in the locker room, you're gonna
Speaker 1: know they're a little bit different. Yeah, bag, They're always different. Man.
Speaker 1: I played with Poulters, Man, Pulfrid Pole will do bad
Speaker 1: out with feet. You should have been around Poe a
Speaker 1: lot longer that Pope would have done right. Pope wouldn't
Speaker 1: do right for nothing. Gonna get it together, man, that's
Speaker 1: my boy. Man, you can get it. You can get
Speaker 1: it right. I told you, don't realize how special you are. Man.
Speaker 1: I know I'm gonna do no, you're not gonna do
Speaker 1: right right. I just saw you leave the hotel half
Speaker 1: for the game. You're gonna do right. But that's my boy.
Speaker 1: I love that dude. I love that dude. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: good good dude. Man, Like that's my boy. Man. What
Speaker 1: with the like hanging out with Trick and and Luke,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean like we all like like Trick,
Speaker 1: we all around the same age, so we kind of
Speaker 1: grew together, right, Like we grew together, you know, Uncle
Speaker 1: Luke a little bit old. He always been the mentor. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: But the thing about it is that like when you
Speaker 1: ball in and you you kind of enjoying each other's
Speaker 1: success the game over. You know, I'm jumping the car
Speaker 1: with Trick, Daddy. We're going to do what we do,
Speaker 1: you know, like and then you got Uncle Luke. Uncle
Speaker 1: Luke always he always that guide in force for yeah,
Speaker 1: like it ain't likely they gonna have you out here
Speaker 1: going for bad or doing them bad, but you're gonna
Speaker 1: have fun. But at the same time, we understand like,
Speaker 1: look man, I can look do so much in the
Speaker 1: community and so much with the kids, right, and you
Speaker 1: understand like, okay, it's important to go out here, ball out,
Speaker 1: but stick your face back in the community, right, still
Speaker 1: be active, still be around the show these young kids. Like, look, man,
Speaker 1: you can actually do it too, right, And so he does.
Speaker 1: He has he has a great balance with that and
Speaker 1: that's one thing that we've always kind of did. We
Speaker 1: always had good balance. You know, we we're gonna have
Speaker 1: fun right now that We're definitely gonna have fun, but
Speaker 1: it's gonna be the right way when you finally go,
Speaker 1: you get drafted by the Cold's fourth overall, you hold out,
Speaker 1: but you finally get that get the pay day. It
Speaker 1: wasn't a direct depositive back then. They see you that check,
Speaker 1: you get that chicken. You look at that check, You're like, oh,
Speaker 1: what was going What was the first thing they went
Speaker 1: through your mind when you saw that check. But me,
Speaker 1: you know, like you let you let you first of all,
Speaker 1: you go And I only look at the chack for
Speaker 1: like three folks seconds because like, man, I was like
Speaker 1: I had to secure the bag, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: Like it was secured. So when it's like, man, okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: I got this part right here. So I just glanced
Speaker 1: glanced that and I handed. But I wanted to go
Speaker 1: to practice, you know. It was like I wanted to
Speaker 1: get out there and show you, like, man, like what
Speaker 1: you gave me this much? Like no, like I'm for real,
Speaker 1: I'm for real, I'm really that deal. Like but it's
Speaker 1: like because you you know, you're going through the things
Speaker 1: where you're getting questioned, like they're like why they got
Speaker 1: this guy? And we don't really know this guy. And
Speaker 1: so a lot of people questioning the draft, and so
Speaker 1: for me, it was just like, man, I can't wait
Speaker 1: to get out of hands. Just show them what I'm
Speaker 1: capable of doing. So when I get to check, I
Speaker 1: handed to our people and I said, man, I'm ready
Speaker 1: to go. I just get right to practice. Then you
Speaker 1: had to. You had a too, You said, okay, let's
Speaker 1: go to practice. Man, that is look at all this
Speaker 1: zero that's mine. I ain't gonna worry about that. Man,
Speaker 1: I'm going to get the other stuff, you know, like
Speaker 1: that's already mine. Trying to get another bag now, yeah,
Speaker 1: that was secured. That's a man. I don't look at nothing,
Speaker 1: old man like that's there, you know. Like, but now
Speaker 1: I'm trying to get out here so I can go
Speaker 1: out there and represent. Okay and show you like, man,
Speaker 1: y'all gonna see that the AD is the real deal,
Speaker 1: you know. And it didn't take loan for that to happen.
Speaker 1: What was the first thing that you bought? Man, I
Speaker 1: don't even know. Man, I still my first surge. Did
Speaker 1: you spurge you on anything? You ain't getting to roll it?
Speaker 1: You ain't getting No, you ain't getting no, dun, you
Speaker 1: ain't getting no. You ain't getting no beans. You you
Speaker 1: ain't buy nothing. I don't know, I really, man, I
Speaker 1: take care of my family. Mentioned about mom on the straight,
Speaker 1: but I ain't. My first year, I still lived with me.
Speaker 1: I still live in my college. I'm still in my
Speaker 1: college apartment with my arm with the roommate because I ain't. Now,
Speaker 1: I wasn't even tripping. My thing was just to get
Speaker 1: some money. You know, That's that's the main thing. Hey. Yeah,
Speaker 1: everybody el would talk to say you cheat. It ain't cheap.
Speaker 1: I'm smart, but they usually be the one to say
Speaker 1: you're cheap. Then the one hey be like It's like,
Speaker 1: I ain't never asked nobody for nothing. Kids ain't never
Speaker 1: ask nobody for nothing. All our stuff nice. I got
Speaker 1: all the nice things that everybody else got. I just
Speaker 1: do mind a different way, right. I got the roads, roys,
Speaker 1: got the ball league, got the boat, got a bunch
Speaker 1: of properties. But I just do it different. You know.
Speaker 1: It's like they think you. They think it's cool to
Speaker 1: go out and spend thirty thousand at the club strip.
Speaker 1: Come on, man, for real, Yeah, but I'm cheap because
Speaker 1: I won't go spend thirty thousand, Like yeah, like nah,
Speaker 1: making hel though for him? You know, I got a
Speaker 1: couple of cars. I ain't. I can't make it rain
Speaker 1: like they do. Na, I'm not gonna tell him to
Speaker 1: stop doing it because what I did I entered the
Speaker 1: club business. So right, come over that thirty thousands. Come
Speaker 1: on with that same thirty thousand, that same intensive show
Speaker 1: me you ain't cheap that I want to see, show
Speaker 1: me you ain't cheap. I don't want to hear that.
Speaker 1: A can you cut the price? No, I'm the cheap one. Remember, man,
Speaker 1: I'm looking at you. Your first sign of bonus you
Speaker 1: bought to run down build in a drug area and
Speaker 1: Amokey marcha Machaly and turn them into summer together for
Speaker 1: local kids. Then you had a fun house, big spreen,
Speaker 1: video game, food, table cards, kitchen. Made you do that.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's appropriate, you know, the things you're
Speaker 1: supposed to do. You know, it's like that's your way
Speaker 1: of really giving back and helping and showing you know
Speaker 1: you can, show you can. You can have a lot
Speaker 1: of people by making one move. One move can can
Speaker 1: change the structure of so many other kids life. Like
Speaker 1: right now, from a Marcha le Mark leg We got
Speaker 1: four guys that's in the NFL right now, and those
Speaker 1: same four guys used to come to that same building
Speaker 1: right that we opened up and that we had around
Speaker 1: and it was actually pretty cool to actually see that,
Speaker 1: you know, there was a part of it. And then
Speaker 1: you're showing them what they could do. You're showing them like, look, man,
Speaker 1: when it's your turn, make sure you follow something back. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's always can see when you can actually
Speaker 1: see somebody from your area do something. Possibly go to
Speaker 1: the NFL and go to the NBA or either I
Speaker 1: mean a law, your doctor, special athlete because you know,
Speaker 1: young black kids, a lot of us were aspire to
Speaker 1: be athlete. Hey, that's that's how we see our take
Speaker 1: it out. And to see Edger and James hold On
Speaker 1: from there, well he got out, I can get out
Speaker 1: because that's how I looked at my brother. My brother
Speaker 1: went to college. Well, I played with him, I beat
Speaker 1: him sometimes one on one. I can go to college.
Speaker 1: He went to the n hold On he went. He
Speaker 1: ain't the same food I eight. He got rained on
Speaker 1: in the same house I did. I can too exactly.
Speaker 1: And that that's but that's what it's about, Like you
Speaker 1: showing them that it's possible, and that's part of them,
Speaker 1: that's part of my whole m O. Man, Like, look,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna come across as normal and I'm gonna do
Speaker 1: all the same things y'all do. So I'm showing you
Speaker 1: that it's possible. Right now, you got to dig into
Speaker 1: it a little bit more to say, Okay, what separated
Speaker 1: me from them? Right, And that's when that discipline, that
Speaker 1: hard work, and that really knowing what it's gonna take
Speaker 1: or doing what it's gonna take to get there. You
Speaker 1: mentioned about the fun house that you established in your
Speaker 1: hometown and you said there there were four little kid
Speaker 1: kids that later became NFL players. You know, they're that
Speaker 1: you got digits and not You got McKenzie Alexander, you
Speaker 1: got the Ernest Johnson that played for the keep Cleveland Browns, huh.
Speaker 1: And then you got the Pro bowlers JC that played
Speaker 1: for New England Patriots, you know. And all four of
Speaker 1: those kids, they they used to be around there, all
Speaker 1: out of mark Lea. And that's what that's what it's about.
Speaker 1: You know, the burden have kids that's in the community
Speaker 1: that actually see you do what you do, and they
Speaker 1: following those footsteps, so they refer to you as oncome
Speaker 1: I got I got a million names. I got a
Speaker 1: million names for them, like like they actually make you
Speaker 1: feel old, like they really them the ones that make
Speaker 1: you feel oh you like and then you go back,
Speaker 1: you go through some of the pictures, right, and you
Speaker 1: see the kids out there doing what they were doing,
Speaker 1: and it's like, dang, Like I'm like, I've really been
Speaker 1: around a long time and like like to see JC
Speaker 1: go to the Pro Bowl or you know, like you're like, man,
Speaker 1: I watched this kid from birth right, you know. But
Speaker 1: it's it's it's a good feeling to know that you
Speaker 1: got people coming from your area that you inspired your
Speaker 1: rookie season fifteen hundred and fifty three yards Rookie of
Speaker 1: the Year. Next year, you followed it up with over
Speaker 1: seventeen hundred yards another All Pro. You get off to
Speaker 1: the start that you got off, You're like, were you thinking,
Speaker 1: damn this eat man? It might be either than you.
Speaker 1: It was. Man, It's like like, I don't I think
Speaker 1: me personally, I came. It came down the sport, But
Speaker 1: I think for me a lot of time, I was
Speaker 1: like Man, the NFL is overrated, you know, I thought
Speaker 1: it was. I felt like it was overrated because you're
Speaker 1: twenty one, twenty two years old. And then I got
Speaker 1: this dude in the locker room that's thirty thirty one
Speaker 1: thirty two, right, I know he can't keep up with me,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. And it's like, so the balance,
Speaker 1: I mean, the age difference. It made me like, man,
Speaker 1: this this this game is like a joke, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, Like, now I'm playing with these older guys.
Speaker 1: I can't do that. They got to be in the
Speaker 1: cold tub, you know. Like for us, we just suit up,
Speaker 1: gold play and then do whatever we do. And then
Speaker 1: you started saying, man, it's not really that hard, you know,
Speaker 1: especially if you know, if you know what you're doing
Speaker 1: and you and you on top of your stuff, like
Speaker 1: it's not hard because there's no secrets in the NFL.
Speaker 1: Like when you line up, I know exactly what you're
Speaker 1: gonna do. They got all the film, all the information.
Speaker 1: You got to study. Now, yeah, but that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: That's made me. That would made me say, cause we studied, right,
Speaker 1: like you study, you put it in the work. And
Speaker 1: I'm like, man, this game really easy. Like you know,
Speaker 1: you think about it in college. You don't study, you know,
Speaker 1: high school, you don't study. You just you figure it
Speaker 1: out my second third quarter and the pros. You know
Speaker 1: from the first play to the last. But you know
Speaker 1: exactly what's gonna happen. And whoever do it the best,
Speaker 1: that's who's gonna win. Right, how you got me? Look
Speaker 1: you with Marvin Reggie Peyton, Man, you guys turn it
Speaker 1: around just like that. It was because everybody came with
Speaker 1: the same approach mentality. Nobody was like a pre premadonna.
Speaker 1: Everybody put in at work, you know. So if you
Speaker 1: see all your big dogs putting in at work, everybody
Speaker 1: around you gotta follow suit, right Like marb gonna go
Speaker 1: out and do his thing, you know, pe gonna do
Speaker 1: his thing, and then okay, I'm coming in. I'm coming
Speaker 1: from the University of Minament where we came from a
Speaker 1: NFL style coaching, you know, Coach Davis, he came from
Speaker 1: the Dallas Cowboys. Our whole thing was structures. So when
Speaker 1: I get to Indianapolis, the structure of the price was
Speaker 1: exactly the same. So it wasn't no difference with that,
Speaker 1: and if you start just focusing on okay, yeah, you
Speaker 1: just focus on your job and you focus on what
Speaker 1: you gotta do. You're like, man, all I gotta do
Speaker 1: is just work, and everybody put in work. And by
Speaker 1: us putting in work, the the gym had them put
Speaker 1: together the right pieces and we had a nice balance.
Speaker 1: What was it like playing with because we see the
Speaker 1: old Maha and people talking about, man, he's a smart
Speaker 1: what's it like playing with Peyton? You're playing with somebody
Speaker 1: that's committed to the game, like, totally committed to the game,
Speaker 1: not on him outside distraction, and you can tell that
Speaker 1: the game means a lot to him, you know. And
Speaker 1: then when you when you start digging into it a
Speaker 1: little bit more, you can say, man, this man really
Speaker 1: loved this game, you know. And you see all the
Speaker 1: work that he put in. He continued to put in
Speaker 1: the work, and that's the thing that you get a
Speaker 1: great appreciation for. And you start seeing like that this
Speaker 1: man really like, this man really loved football, you know.
Speaker 1: And then you start saying, Okay, the things they're doing
Speaker 1: to get better and get better and always looking at
Speaker 1: the little detail, even they come to a fake you know,
Speaker 1: some people they just do a fake like this, he
Speaker 1: gonna do it, stick his head do all. Yeah, that
Speaker 1: wide stretch, that right, that wide stretch that y'all Randy,
Speaker 1: he going away out there, he dump and you double
Speaker 1: it over like you really got the ball, the details
Speaker 1: of it. And what I'm saying every day every day
Speaker 1: you said, you know, called you. I mean, you play
Speaker 1: a long time while you get boring out there, you know,
Speaker 1: you practice, get boring. But when you say a person
Speaker 1: doing it every day, now you gotta go appreciation for
Speaker 1: you know, they really love the game. And and he
Speaker 1: did exactly what you're supposed to do. Right. What was
Speaker 1: it like reuniting with Reggie because Kane, Kane, you get
Speaker 1: That's what I can honestly say this. You guys, if
Speaker 1: you're from the youth, yeah, whether you can you graduated
Speaker 1: from you in nineteen eighty three or you graduated you man, Man,
Speaker 1: I ain't never see nobody ride like y'all do. Y'all
Speaker 1: bad that thing that y'all down, Yeah, we downed with
Speaker 1: so with Reggie. You know, like I kind of got
Speaker 1: I kind of got an insight that we were gonna
Speaker 1: be drafting Reggie. I thought we Reggie or saying towns.
Speaker 1: And you know, I had to give him the heads up.
Speaker 1: So you get us at school, you don't don't tell Hey,
Speaker 1: don't tell me nothing about one of my boys and
Speaker 1: tell me to keep a secret. I'm letting you know, like, hey,
Speaker 1: he gonna no, but you know not that you know
Speaker 1: that that like he don't know right. So but when
Speaker 1: he got the phone call, you know, it was like, man, damn,
Speaker 1: we're back together again, right, you know, we're back and
Speaker 1: I know what I'm gonna get from Reggie. And with Reggie, Reggie, Reggie,
Speaker 1: Reggie was a dog from the first time we met.
Speaker 1: And I actually talk about that in my book, you know,
Speaker 1: because Reggie the first time, being Reggie, our first encounter,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of hit it off at the right
Speaker 1: and from then on, I'm like, yeah, he one of
Speaker 1: us right there, and that boy right there, he got it.
Speaker 1: And to know he coming to to the coats because
Speaker 1: I already know we got p we got eights. And
Speaker 1: now once you get the other side secured, you don't
Speaker 1: have no worries now because I know I know what
Speaker 1: they're gonna get right of Reggie Wayne, right, you know,
Speaker 1: and then now I got Now I got a workout partner,
Speaker 1: because when you get to the pros, you realize they
Speaker 1: don't really work out like like you used to work out.
Speaker 1: You know, everybody, they ain't working out the NFL. You
Speaker 1: ain't working out like yeah, ain't working out like that,
Speaker 1: and so they so you're like in you're in this
Speaker 1: space where you're like, man, shit, I'm the only one
Speaker 1: out here really working out like this. But it's the
Speaker 1: way everybody. Everybody do things different when Reggie comes, like
Speaker 1: we got we got the same summer workouts, in season workouts,
Speaker 1: everything the same. So it's actually pretty good. It was
Speaker 1: actually pretty cool. Marvin, he's the guy. Look, everybody knows Peyton,
Speaker 1: they know you. We're talking to you and giving us
Speaker 1: an insight. Marvin hadn't done a whole lot of interviews.
Speaker 1: Marvin was really really quiet. You see him on the bench,
Speaker 1: You would just be sitting there like staring off. What
Speaker 1: was he like? What was Marvin really like in the
Speaker 1: lock room? Nah? Mom, the real they're like, man, mob,
Speaker 1: Marvin's about his business. You know when you see when
Speaker 1: when you're talking about somebody that's about his business. I'm
Speaker 1: here to take care of my business. That's mob, you know.
Speaker 1: All the extra stuff. It's like it's really irrelevant. It
Speaker 1: don't really it don't really matter to mob, you know.
Speaker 1: So he just came out doing it's been up to
Speaker 1: my work hard. You ain't gonna never see him miss practice.
Speaker 1: They're gonna never see him not do the things supposed
Speaker 1: to do. And great teammate and like me and Maum
Speaker 1: we talk every day, still talk now, you know. And
Speaker 1: when you when you got somebody like that, man, they
Speaker 1: strictly about their business and they're gonna do what they take. Man,
Speaker 1: that's that's what you want with you on your squad.
Speaker 1: You have to leave the Coats. Were you disappointed that
Speaker 1: you would force to after you have spent so many
Speaker 1: great years there and you seem to be like, man,
Speaker 1: we really man, we really close. I know we could
Speaker 1: do this thing, and you end up going to Arizona. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean for me when you when you go into
Speaker 1: the NFL, you know it's a business, right, So I
Speaker 1: don't I don't take nothing personal. I never talk none personal.
Speaker 1: And I just ride out as long as I can
Speaker 1: ride out. And then it's like it's a decision, Okay,
Speaker 1: if I want to stand the Coats, I mean I
Speaker 1: need to take this or I go to Arizona and
Speaker 1: get this. You know, and we know what I'm here for.
Speaker 1: Y'all know what I'm here for. You know, I made
Speaker 1: you try to try to get the third back. Yeah, bad,
Speaker 1: you got the second back. But I was never shy
Speaker 1: about why I'm here, what I'm here to do. Right,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do my job, but i'm here. I want
Speaker 1: to make sure that I secure my future. I better
Speaker 1: to do what I set out to do, because that's
Speaker 1: what the game was for me. You know, if I
Speaker 1: win a Super Bowl, I win a chip of the ship,
Speaker 1: I win all that stuff, that would be great, you know,
Speaker 1: But for me, what the game? What they did? My
Speaker 1: call into this game with the bredest man. You know what,
Speaker 1: you can take this lady and secure her future to
Speaker 1: make sure you like like you're somebody's blessing. Sometimes I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: maybe maybe my mom was blessing. Well, so I understood
Speaker 1: why I was there, So when it came to happen
Speaker 1: to go to another team, it wasn't that big a
Speaker 1: deal for me. You know. For me, it's like, okay,
Speaker 1: then find the best situation because I understand like this,
Speaker 1: it's just the nature of the business, and nobody's gonna
Speaker 1: be locked me in with one team for the rest
Speaker 1: of their career and get it the way they wanted
Speaker 1: for the most part. So for me, are like when
Speaker 1: the time is up, it's time to go. And for me,
Speaker 1: you didn't. You're not gonna hear me be better. You're
Speaker 1: not gonna see me complain. Yeah, I'm just looking for
Speaker 1: the next action, you know. It's like, and I'm glad
Speaker 1: because I went to Arizona, made some friends, got a
Speaker 1: chance to get into a new space, and then we
Speaker 1: actually made it to the super Bowl. So I knew
Speaker 1: I made the right decision because we went I went
Speaker 1: to a team. I took the risk, you know, to
Speaker 1: go to a team that wasn't even popular, that wasn't
Speaker 1: doing much, and we still end up turning that franchise around.
Speaker 1: So I got a chance to do it twice. Were
Speaker 1: you disappointed when the coach went to the Super Bowl
Speaker 1: and they won? Nah? I was happy for I was
Speaker 1: actually like when they when they got Joseph would die.
Speaker 1: I made sure I reached out the Joseph die. Let
Speaker 1: him know all the information you needn't know about the
Speaker 1: stretch play, about all the offense, you know, and I
Speaker 1: was down there hanging with them, you know, I just
Speaker 1: didn't have to go to practice, and I got a ring.
Speaker 1: The coach like I got hey, I have to know work.
Speaker 1: Mister say called you, says ed, you know, for the
Speaker 1: great player, of the great person that you had been.
Speaker 1: I know that you know you weren't here, but I
Speaker 1: want you to have a Super Bowl ring? How did
Speaker 1: that make you feel? And I don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't know that that didn't happened off an edge.
Speaker 1: I mean, I mean it lets you know that man,
Speaker 1: they appreciate what you're doing. And and and I call
Speaker 1: him the big Man. The big Man always did things
Speaker 1: the right way. You know, he always you know, he
Speaker 1: understands the business. And but you understand the person too,
Speaker 1: and like they know we built that thing that we
Speaker 1: built it up. But the business is gonna do what
Speaker 1: it does, you know. And for me, I wasn't tripping,
Speaker 1: so he say, okay, yeah, man, they're gonna give me
Speaker 1: a Super Bowl ring. And that's that's like a it's
Speaker 1: like you appreciate that, you know, you appreciate that, you know,
Speaker 1: and for some guys, you got guys played forever and
Speaker 1: they never got a chance to even be part of
Speaker 1: a playoff win whatever. I'm part of an organization that
Speaker 1: I'm tired too forever and everything worked out just like
Speaker 1: it's supposed to. You. You mentioned you did get to
Speaker 1: the super Bowl with the Cardinals, laugh, Fish Gerald, Kurt Warner, yourself,
Speaker 1: three headed monster. And you got the lead late in
Speaker 1: the ball game. What's going through your mind? As the
Speaker 1: Steelers have the ball late and they're going down the field,
Speaker 1: what are you thinking? Because the side of your hands
Speaker 1: now you know going down the field, you got the lead,
Speaker 1: got un done your part? You did your part, We
Speaker 1: got the lead. It's two minutes left. What's going through
Speaker 1: Drew James mind? We just need to stop once. You
Speaker 1: just need one stop. And that's that's what it comes
Speaker 1: down to. What you know, most NFL games are won
Speaker 1: at the last, the last two minutes. And Pittsburgh they
Speaker 1: went they did their thing. You know, they found a
Speaker 1: way to win. You know, we just need but we
Speaker 1: just needed one stop. So you just one stop away
Speaker 1: from actually winning the game. But you play enough games, man,
Speaker 1: you you understand how it goes. You win something like that,
Speaker 1: you lose something exactly been on been on the winner
Speaker 1: end of a lot of games, and so happened. It
Speaker 1: was on the big stage and it didn't happen. But man,
Speaker 1: we did some great things that year. Looking at your stats,
Speaker 1: you know, your top fifteen hundred yards four times, you're
Speaker 1: on the one or four players to ever do that,
Speaker 1: Barrass Sanders, Eric Dixon, Walter Payton and yourself over twelve
Speaker 1: thousand rush yards, eighty touchdowns and level of year career
Speaker 1: over fifteen thousand scrimmage yard eclipsed one thousand yards seven times.
Speaker 1: Of the numbers that you have personal your personal accolades,
Speaker 1: what's that you're most proud of? I like the fifteen
Speaker 1: hundred the one going there because you with that group
Speaker 1: and it's just hard to do. You don't realize, but
Speaker 1: it's actually really hard to do it that many times.
Speaker 1: But the fact that I did it after the injury,
Speaker 1: because if I don't get hurt, I'm gonna lead the
Speaker 1: league probably, I don't know how many times. On what
Speaker 1: would a minute, the first two years you lead the
Speaker 1: league in Russian you tell your ACL Yeah your third year, right, yeah,
Speaker 1: I was leading. I was I was off to my
Speaker 1: best start my third year, you know, and that I
Speaker 1: had the ACL injury, right, but it's part of the game,
Speaker 1: you know, so they don't really trip on that. Like
Speaker 1: that's that's what really. How did the injury change it?
Speaker 1: It chained my game, you know, it made me change.
Speaker 1: It chained my game. It made me get a great
Speaker 1: appreciation for the game because before I ain't even really
Speaker 1: I didn't really trip on football. I just go out
Speaker 1: and play. It was too easy, it was. It was
Speaker 1: way too easy. If you work out, you train, you study,
Speaker 1: you gonna play, You're gonna have success. And that's the
Speaker 1: way I always look at it. But then when you
Speaker 1: get hurt, now you can't do the things that you
Speaker 1: normally do. And so now you gotta get a little
Speaker 1: more grime. You gotta get into your studies. Like I
Speaker 1: need to know a little bit more about what the
Speaker 1: defense about to do. I need a little bit more
Speaker 1: of an edge, right because once you get hurt, you
Speaker 1: got you need to know more. And so it turned
Speaker 1: into a better student and to run to run for
Speaker 1: fifteen hundred after that twice, you know that right there
Speaker 1: was that was a big deal. And I think that
Speaker 1: was something that because it's hard, it's hard to do.
Speaker 1: Edrian James, the general manager. You get to pick one
Speaker 1: back who you taking in today's game. In today's game,
Speaker 1: it depends on what type of offense I'm running. It
Speaker 1: depends because man, you got some you got you got
Speaker 1: some good backs. Man. But I like Davin Cook Man.
Speaker 1: You look Davin. I liked Davin. Yeah, you take it.
Speaker 1: Davin Cook over a Jonathan Dayly No, because I watched
Speaker 1: I like Jay his style more fit. No, you have
Speaker 1: to remember I watched Davin Cook and Pop Wanna you know.
Speaker 1: So it's and that's what I'm saying. So for me,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm looking at a person from there. Jat he
Speaker 1: running the ball. I love to watch Ja my favorite
Speaker 1: back to watch this year. You know I watched him.
Speaker 1: I watched him and watch what he did with the coats.
Speaker 1: But when I say okay, like for me, I look
Speaker 1: at it from from a youth perspective. I used to
Speaker 1: go out and watch this kid playing on on on
Speaker 1: a pot Wanna or a high school level. So I like,
Speaker 1: I like the way Cook. We're running Cook out of nowhere.
Speaker 1: He's gonna explode, you know, like when we watch the explosive.
Speaker 1: Do you believe if Derek Henry doesn't get hurt. He's
Speaker 1: going over two thousand again because he has almost a
Speaker 1: thousand week eight. Yeah, seventeen games. You're gonna gona do
Speaker 1: more than I'm more a beast man. That boy. That
Speaker 1: boy was killing it, man, So yeah, it was gonna
Speaker 1: I think he's gonna see a lot of guys going
Speaker 1: over two thousand. I was hoping JT got the two
Speaker 1: thousand this year. He got a little late start, but
Speaker 1: he was. What state has the best athletes? Florida, California
Speaker 1: for Georgia. You said the first one first, I gotta
Speaker 1: I gotta throw the movie. I gotta throw the boot
Speaker 1: up in Now it's Florida. It's Florida, man, it's Florida
Speaker 1: because we get around and then were hard nosed, like
Speaker 1: Florida is hard enough, Florida rough rugged and so the
Speaker 1: best football state of Florida. So we go, we go
Speaker 1: just Texas, you do, Calia, You doe Georgia. Y'all got
Speaker 1: no chance. It stops. It stops in Florida. Like it's
Speaker 1: just Florida. Man, how about this mount rushmore of dred
Speaker 1: athletes from traded athletes. I don't know, man, is aired
Speaker 1: you up there? I don't William you Ricky Ricky, Ricky
Speaker 1: balled out. Man got him pretty boy dress? Yeah you
Speaker 1: got different dress? Man? What kind of dress it got like?
Speaker 1: But no, I don't. Everybody got everybody everybody rock and dress,
Speaker 1: everybody you the godfollowed the draft in the NFL. Man,
Speaker 1: I need to get some kind of conversation. Hello, you
Speaker 1: you try to get another back to the opportunity out there.
Speaker 1: I just saw Justin Jefferson at the Pro Bowl with
Speaker 1: a grilled Yeah. I mean he hit out it grill.
Speaker 1: It's grill cast the grill. I think he has some
Speaker 1: diame with him thing he must have with him, you know,
Speaker 1: Johnny Dang, I know, man, I gotta see how we
Speaker 1: can get on the other side of that. They want
Speaker 1: these grills. I didn't be on that. You find out
Speaker 1: people want grill, you want to find out how to
Speaker 1: go and start making grill, and then you're supposed to
Speaker 1: and it's how I go. I'm surprised you'd try to
Speaker 1: be like Elon Muss because everybody everybody want to elect
Speaker 1: your cards, come back, start making a listen and there's opportunity. Man.
Speaker 1: We gotta we gotta look into that. What is age?
Speaker 1: What is what is the typical day like now for
Speaker 1: Edric James, it depends on what's going on, Like everything
Speaker 1: based around my kids. Like my kids, they got six
Speaker 1: three girls, boy, three boys, three girls, and so right
Speaker 1: now it's basket from twenty four to fourteen fourteen. Yeah
Speaker 1: at a ten year run. You got a lot of
Speaker 1: comedy ten year year run, man. So but no, it
Speaker 1: depends on what's going on. Like if if it's somebody
Speaker 1: need to go to the college, I'll show up to
Speaker 1: the college. If it's a basketball game, I show up
Speaker 1: to that, and so i'na make sure I do everything
Speaker 1: I gotta do for them first and then outside that
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do me. I could do me one o'clock,
Speaker 1: two o'clock, three o'clock five. You know, say, man, like
Speaker 1: I'm good, but I got I got a pretty good lifestyle. Man.
Speaker 1: It's like kind of do what you want to do, right,
Speaker 1: And that's why I like, like I always say, created
Speaker 1: life you want to live, And that's what I did.
Speaker 1: I created this whole thing to where you know I'm
Speaker 1: here early in the morning. I usually don't. I don't
Speaker 1: like to get up early in the morning because I
Speaker 1: liked to be alert at night, so I could just
Speaker 1: kind of move the way I want to move and
Speaker 1: now like moving like let my body wake me up,
Speaker 1: and I don't like to just jump up because I
Speaker 1: had to go do something. How how did you do
Speaker 1: well in football? Because you know, football you got to
Speaker 1: get up early. Yeah, I know we had to be
Speaker 1: the work at nine. We had to be working at nine. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we had to be working at nine. But in college
Speaker 1: it's earlier than that because you know, you got the
Speaker 1: early morning to work out those lifting sessions, those running
Speaker 1: sessions in the off season. That that was when I
Speaker 1: was on somebody else's clock. And that's what I was saying.
Speaker 1: I was always preparing. Yeah, so I was just I
Speaker 1: was just making sure that I said, I'm gonna prepare.
Speaker 1: But when it become my turn to be the boss, right,
Speaker 1: and how I'm gonna do my lifestyle. And that's where
Speaker 1: my lifestyle is not a way, it's just the way
Speaker 1: I want it. Like I don't have to be up
Speaker 1: early in the morning unless it's something I commit to, right,
Speaker 1: you know, and and that way I can't. I wouldn't
Speaker 1: change nothing that I got going on, cause it's all
Speaker 1: it's laid out pretty cool. What do you want your
Speaker 1: kids to be most proud of when they talk about
Speaker 1: their dad that is committed to them, you know, That's
Speaker 1: that's the thing. It's like, you know, you got a
Speaker 1: lot of fathers. It's easy to let sit out there
Speaker 1: and make them but to make them great, to get
Speaker 1: behind them, you know, that's that seems like it's a
Speaker 1: challenge when it shouldn't be a challenge, but it seemed
Speaker 1: like it's a challenge. And if you deal with a
Speaker 1: lot of these youth programs and a lot of these
Speaker 1: underprivileged situation, the thing is always missing is the father,
Speaker 1: right you know most of the time. And so for me,
Speaker 1: you know, my kid's not gonna be to say they
Speaker 1: daddy wasn't there. You know that they dad, and they
Speaker 1: daddy didn't make a way, didn't sit up there and
Speaker 1: put them in the best position possible. Like for me,
Speaker 1: any opportunity or any situation where anything they're getting involved in,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm gonna go above and beyond to make
Speaker 1: sure I position them the best I can possibly position them.
Speaker 1: And I'm gonna always be there. You know, that's the
Speaker 1: main thing. That's a very tough balance because I told
Speaker 1: people that in order to be great, and there's a
Speaker 1: level of greatness, how great you want to be, you
Speaker 1: gotta sacrifice a lot. Now you're gonna miss some recitals
Speaker 1: or maybe football game or this or that because in
Speaker 1: order because Edrin James wanted to be the best, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you wanted to cure the bag. But in order to
Speaker 1: schure the bag, you gotta be the best. Yeah, you definitely.
Speaker 1: And that's and that's that's one I'm balanced that a
Speaker 1: lot of people don't really understand how hard it is. Yes,
Speaker 1: but you got you got this. If there's a gap
Speaker 1: or there's an opportunity, I'm gonna make it happen. Right.
Speaker 1: So it's like if I have to be somewhere and
Speaker 1: it's and it's it's important they know, Okay, yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: I'm gonna miss this situation right here. But if there
Speaker 1: is a true opportunity to be there, I'm gonna be there.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm gonna make sure that I'm there. I'll
Speaker 1: make sure I'm on point. I don't care if it's
Speaker 1: you have to jump on the private plane or if
Speaker 1: you have to jump on this plane that plane. You
Speaker 1: get there and then you get where you gotta get.
Speaker 1: You But it has to truly be something where it's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I had a chance to be there, because I don't
Speaker 1: want to be where you can blow something off all
Speaker 1: the time. You know, and I and I in our world,
Speaker 1: we can always make an excuse. You can always say Okay,
Speaker 1: oh yah, I had to go take care of some business,
Speaker 1: right But it comes from within, you know, from within
Speaker 1: where you're saying okay, yeah, I'm personally, I'm gonna make
Speaker 1: sure I'm there if I can really be there. So
Speaker 1: if I'm not there, I couldn't be there. You and
Speaker 1: I were talking off camera. Your oldest is twenty four,
Speaker 1: and you say, one of the things that you're proud
Speaker 1: of is that your kids got an opportunity to see
Speaker 1: what you did for a living, and someone didn't have
Speaker 1: to tell them when your daddy was this, your dadd
Speaker 1: was that. How did that make you feel? Get an
Speaker 1: opportunity to see you kids? Because my kids got an
Speaker 1: opportunity to see me play. You know, my son was
Speaker 1: coming to the locker room. My kids got an opportunity
Speaker 1: to go to the super Bowl. How did that make
Speaker 1: you feel? Knowing that you know what, this is why
Speaker 1: I'm doing it, guys, This is really why I'm doing it.
Speaker 1: I got mom back home, but I got eyes in
Speaker 1: the stands just watching me. Yea, my eyes. Yeah it started,
Speaker 1: but it started at the university of mine. You know
Speaker 1: when you when you eighteen and you're like, okay, I'm
Speaker 1: about to have a child, Like okay, now things really
Speaker 1: turn up and so give you another level or another
Speaker 1: reason to push or or even go harder, and then
Speaker 1: to watch for them to actually see, like my oldest
Speaker 1: got a chance to kind of witness the whole You
Speaker 1: got a chance to see the whole thing. So they
Speaker 1: understand exactly where you're coming from, and they can they
Speaker 1: can see that Okay, yeah, yeah, my daddy really did.
Speaker 1: It's the youngest one they really don't know. You know,
Speaker 1: they really didn't understand it till probably later, till it
Speaker 1: probably went to the hall and all that, right, But
Speaker 1: the oldest got a chance to really see it, and
Speaker 1: they understand that, like, man, they ain't my daddy really
Speaker 1: did all this right. And then when they started looking
Speaker 1: back at how you get there, you know, that's that's
Speaker 1: one thing that really stands out to them. Like now
Speaker 1: my kids are reading the book. They're reading the book
Speaker 1: and they're like ain't that. I ain't know you did
Speaker 1: all this or did all because that was before that time.
Speaker 1: And so now they got even greater appreciation for their dad.
Speaker 1: How do you get your kids because the way you
Speaker 1: came up, you came up in the area that was
Speaker 1: invested with drugs, there was not a whole lot of money,
Speaker 1: and you was like, Okay, this is my opportunity, this
Speaker 1: is what I could do to get out. They come
Speaker 1: up in a very different situation than you, and that
Speaker 1: was the hardest thing to try to teach my kids discipline,
Speaker 1: but knowing the sacrifices that I made was to make
Speaker 1: sure they didn't have to live the life that I
Speaker 1: had to live. So how do you balance that edge? Well, you,
Speaker 1: first of all, you don't keep nothing away from them, right,
Speaker 1: you know, you put it in front of them. You
Speaker 1: show them, Okay, that's what I had to do. But
Speaker 1: this should you get a chance to do, and so
Speaker 1: they get a chance to see it, they get the comparisons.
Speaker 1: You know, that's where it really really kind of opens
Speaker 1: their eyes. You know, you just point those things out,
Speaker 1: like I don't hide nothing from my kids. I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna hide nothing to say, Okay, they made like everything
Speaker 1: was peaches and creams. You know, you're gonna sit back
Speaker 1: and sell because these are situations or these are things
Speaker 1: you have to go through, or these are things that
Speaker 1: it took and now you're here. Don't set up for
Speaker 1: where you're at. But but there's just one level. There's
Speaker 1: other levels that you can go to, right so I
Speaker 1: pushed them to even go to even higher levels, you know.
Speaker 1: And my daughter she chose to be a lawyer, you know,
Speaker 1: and like man, you want to get in positions of power.
Speaker 1: You want to go to a space that people don't
Speaker 1: normally go. My kids, I got four in and HBCUs.
Speaker 1: You know, they understand the importance of being there for
Speaker 1: your culture, being somebody that people can look at it
Speaker 1: and say, man, Dane, they did it the right way.
Speaker 1: They didn't just take the easier out, you know. They
Speaker 1: made sure that they're aware of what they're doing. You you,
Speaker 1: we didn't get to this earlier. But there's a tragic
Speaker 1: incident that happen. You say, your uncle, So your uncle
Speaker 1: commits suicide. You had uncles and a dealing with the
Speaker 1: crack cocaine, the epidemic, which was very prevalent in the
Speaker 1: black community, especially in the South where it was all
Speaker 1: over in the cities, but in the South. Also when
Speaker 1: you're when you're watching that, when you're around that, what's
Speaker 1: going through your mind as a child, Well, you just
Speaker 1: a child. It's to know him, so you really don't know.
Speaker 1: It goes back to the beginning. You're like, you really,
Speaker 1: you really don't know those things all. You just know
Speaker 1: that you want to do better, right, You just want
Speaker 1: to always do better, and you just started learning now
Speaker 1: what it is better. You know sometimes some people just
Speaker 1: getting you know, back in the day, if you just
Speaker 1: went to college, you was doing great. You know, now
Speaker 1: the level has went up, you know, so you just
Speaker 1: always want to just continue to do better. And that's
Speaker 1: why I always do this. So you always want to
Speaker 1: improve on things and just try to always do more
Speaker 1: and position more people. What is your proudest accomplishment? My kids,
Speaker 1: you know, to have like right now, I'm fourth for four.
Speaker 1: I got four kids in college right now. Okay, So
Speaker 1: it's like that's that's for me. It always gonna be
Speaker 1: around my kids because I understand like how important it is.
Speaker 1: But you're bury to do it the way that I'm
Speaker 1: doing it, and I don't have a cause degree. My kids, like,
Speaker 1: they're gonna be running your busins, they're gonna be running
Speaker 1: your businesses. Yeah. Man, like you contradicting yourself. That's saying
Speaker 1: it's important to have a degree, but you don't have
Speaker 1: a degree. I'm like, oh, this is totally different over here.
Speaker 1: So you want obviously you want to go. You want
Speaker 1: to you want to go six for six, But I
Speaker 1: lost my train of throat right here. Do your kids
Speaker 1: follow you on social media? Yeah, they're gonna follow me.
Speaker 1: My kids don't follow me. My kids you know what
Speaker 1: do your kids? My kids, my daughters get up set
Speaker 1: it to mention my name because they think you're gonna
Speaker 1: give them something because of who their dad is, not
Speaker 1: because of what they earned. So they're very reluctant to
Speaker 1: say when someone says do you know Sharon Shark, Instead
Speaker 1: of saying yeah, that's my dad, they said, yeah we
Speaker 1: know him. No, my kids, our kids want all my
Speaker 1: kids want all that action. Many my son my son's
Speaker 1: will say yeah that's my dad. Yeah. The girls, especially
Speaker 1: my oldest, my oldest girl like, yeah, we know him, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I know him. Why do you ask na mine? I
Speaker 1: didn't want you to know, Like, hey, this what's uping? Like,
Speaker 1: but they got a cool Mine got a cool daddy.
Speaker 1: You know, Like I'm I'm into what they into, Like
Speaker 1: you know, so and that's what make it cool. That's
Speaker 1: what make it cool. Like you get a chance to
Speaker 1: grow with him. Like I don't advise nobody to run
Speaker 1: out and have kids at the early age. Yeah yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: but if you do the benefits, man, it's great because
Speaker 1: like you get the chance to really kick it and
Speaker 1: grow with them. Right, that's one thing, like we can
Speaker 1: we on the same level, just chopping it up. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because you know, I'm sitting on the bed and my
Speaker 1: daughter come in and they start talking, why we we
Speaker 1: gotta have this conversation. You know, you gotta have this conversation.
Speaker 1: But we go out. They're like, uh, they bring the
Speaker 1: drink me and you. I like to get you drink.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm like old on wait a minute. They're like, daddy,
Speaker 1: I'm thirty. I was like okay, because you know, they
Speaker 1: are caged. I still look at them as as kids.
Speaker 1: I don't look at them as adults. Man. Over the
Speaker 1: past couple of years, I had to change myself. I
Speaker 1: go to Nah, we go to club. My daughter grass
Speaker 1: some Hennessy. I didn't what I didn't bust out laughing.
Speaker 1: I'm like you, Hennessy, I can't even drink. And then
Speaker 1: the other ones, you're gonna take thee you give her some.
Speaker 1: I don't know, they're gonna pop the champagne. They're gonna
Speaker 1: do it like you're gonna thank my kids rappers, like
Speaker 1: they bothered it up. Man. They living like that, Like
Speaker 1: it's like the things I want to do. They're like,
Speaker 1: okay that you don't want to have fun with this money,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do it. They're gonna have fun with it,
Speaker 1: and so I enjoy, you know, So I would make
Speaker 1: sure they get everything set up they can go out
Speaker 1: and have them a good time, because like I'm I'm
Speaker 1: more chilled conservative, you know, I'm in I'm in this
Speaker 1: space where I'm like, man, I'm always thinking about the
Speaker 1: next move. What i gotta do with them. They're like, man,
Speaker 1: you don't want to they think about They thinking about
Speaker 1: today now, they're gonna spend it. They thinking you're thinking
Speaker 1: about tomorrow. They thinking about today today right now, right now.
Speaker 1: You talked about a little bit your book, what's the
Speaker 1: name of it? From gold Check to Gold Jacket. You know,
Speaker 1: it's it's kind of my my my timeline of my
Speaker 1: storyline going from you know, from youth all the way
Speaker 1: get into the Hall of Fame. And I think it's
Speaker 1: something that a lot of people see themselves in this book.
Speaker 1: They'll see so many situations that they can relate to,
Speaker 1: knowing that it's not an easy path, but it's it's
Speaker 1: a possible path. And I try to include anything that
Speaker 1: I think was relatable or things that I think people
Speaker 1: could actually use. And it's I think it's a pretty
Speaker 1: dope read. I think every athlete should read it, right,
Speaker 1: and I think anybody that all right, I think parents too,
Speaker 1: they can they can actually see see themselves in a
Speaker 1: situation like that before. From Gold Teeth the Gold Jacket.
Speaker 1: You can find it on my website every day, Edgendjane
Speaker 1: dot com or Amazon or anywhere books are being sold. Right,
Speaker 1: you heard it here, edgrind Jane from Gold Teeth the
Speaker 1: Gold Jacket, brouh. I appreciate you stopping by, really appreciated
Speaker 1: regulations on everything. All the best, All right, man, thanks
Speaker 1: for having me on all my life, running all my
Speaker 1: life sacrifice Custle Bay Pricing, Want a slice got the
Speaker 1: broder dice? Swad all my life. I've been grinding all
Speaker 1: my life, all my life, and running all my life
Speaker 1: up sacrifice, hustle, back prices. Want a slice? Got the
Speaker 1: bro dice swat all my life. I've been running all
Speaker 1: my life,