Speaker 1: Welcome back to another edition of the Jets Official Podcast.
Speaker 1: Here in the Playing GM Studios. Jonathan Harrison in studio,
Speaker 1: Thanks for coming up, Florida game. Yeah, I knew there's
Speaker 1: gonna come. Let's move you out of here, bringing Marcus
Speaker 1: May and people as well. Let's get this going right now.
Speaker 1: We don't need where's this love for your undergraduate school?
Speaker 1: Don't worry about it if you yeah, that's right, if
Speaker 1: you have an advance. Okay, what's your most recent degree?
Speaker 1: University of Florida, Masters of Mass Communication. Hey, you can
Speaker 1: take that title, you can. Yeah, it's all yeah, no doubt, Okay,
Speaker 1: that more power to you. I don't share the gator love,
Speaker 1: you know. I'll root for you on Saturdays because we're
Speaker 1: in different conferences. Gator bait, you know, so don't get
Speaker 1: in our way. No one wants to play this Ere's
Speaker 1: orange anyway. Okay, So that gator bait might be like
Speaker 1: the equivalent of to a school of fish. At least
Speaker 1: you can say you guys have good colors something. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's fair. I will I will agree with that, all right, Jonathan.
Speaker 1: There's so much that I feel like we know about
Speaker 1: you that we want to tell fans about. But you
Speaker 1: mentioned it earlier to me off off camera that you
Speaker 1: were in the city today doing an interview for Stomp
Speaker 1: Out Bullying. So just to paint the picture here, you
Speaker 1: went from being bullied as a kid to being a
Speaker 1: bully on the offensive. Lot, Like, it's weird to think,
Speaker 1: obviously that someone your size, which is the play and
Speaker 1: stomp Out Bullying, was bullied as a kid. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I definitely am. I definitely get that a lot, And
Speaker 1: I think a lot of it came from, you know,
Speaker 1: in my household, my parents did not promote violence. Like
Speaker 1: there was no there's no weapons, there was no like
Speaker 1: we didn't really watched like violent movies or like you know,
Speaker 1: action films or anything like that. Like that was just
Speaker 1: that was just the way they were. And um and
Speaker 1: my mom, like I remember, she would always tell me,
Speaker 1: She's like, you can't retaliate against the people that are
Speaker 1: messing with you, picking on you, whatever it was, because
Speaker 1: you can actually hurt them. And like I accidentally hurt
Speaker 1: my friends all the time, you know, like everyone's like,
Speaker 1: you know, boys growing up, you're wrestling rough house and
Speaker 1: jumping on the trampoline. I've broken an elbow someone else's
Speaker 1: elbow broken, someone else's ankle. You know, like we weren't fighting,
Speaker 1: we were just like playing like friends, and like so
Speaker 1: she's like, she like would emphasize that. She's like, you
Speaker 1: don't understand like how large you are compared to the
Speaker 1: kids your age, So I don't want you to retaliate.
Speaker 1: And she's like, it's not worth it. You know, it's really,
Speaker 1: it's really not worth it. You'll look back at this
Speaker 1: when you're older and you'll you'll probably laugh, and you know,
Speaker 1: you'll think, like, these guys look foolish for messing and
Speaker 1: when with you? When they did? When did the bowling start?
Speaker 1: For you? Though? Because reading your story you had appointed
Speaker 1: in my words and New York just dot com and
Speaker 1: yourself it's in my words. Yeah, I understand of that,
Speaker 1: but I helped him. Okay, this is not the Green Show.
Speaker 1: I gotta get you talking gators. I gotta get something
Speaker 1: in there. What stood out? It feels like that, yes, bollying,
Speaker 1: but some of that felt like racism as well. Correct. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: there's definitely. Um so when did it start? What happened?
Speaker 1: I'm trying to think, Um, I I always point to
Speaker 1: fifth grade, you know, fifth grade of my first year
Speaker 1: in this new area that I moved to in central Florida.
Speaker 1: You know, I was born in South Florida, you know,
Speaker 1: moved around a little bit down there, and my parents
Speaker 1: will travel nurses, so they would take you know, a
Speaker 1: year assignment here, two years of time in here, and
Speaker 1: just kind of bounce around, and eventually one of the
Speaker 1: assignments took them to Orlando, So we did Orlando for
Speaker 1: a year. Didn't really have any issues in Orlando. Moved
Speaker 1: about an hour west of Orlando for fifth grade through
Speaker 1: the rest of high school, and that's when I slowly
Speaker 1: started like noticing things at you know, know, there was
Speaker 1: there was a couple of times. There's a couple of
Speaker 1: times when like you know, like like true like racial
Speaker 1: slurs or something would come out. I'm not gonna say
Speaker 1: it was all the time or very frequent, but it
Speaker 1: was just an odd coincidence that you know, me being
Speaker 1: you know, the race that I am and all of
Speaker 1: that in the class was the main person getting picked on,
Speaker 1: you know by like the same group of guys for
Speaker 1: a couple of years and stuff like that. So it
Speaker 1: was just and you know, I even experienced it from
Speaker 1: like a teacher, you know, the teacher, like, I'll just
Speaker 1: be completely honest. There was three black kids in my class,
Speaker 1: and we were all in the enrichment program. So that's
Speaker 1: that's stating that, you know, we're a little advanced, you know,
Speaker 1: so exactly that that's what it's stating. But then you know,
Speaker 1: there's an English teacher that failed the three of us
Speaker 1: in in her her English class. And we had each
Speaker 1: of us had straight a's in each of our other
Speaker 1: subjects and an F in her class, not like a
Speaker 1: C or something like that, and F. And no matter
Speaker 1: what we did, we would still have an. And I
Speaker 1: would compare my test to someone else's test. I should
Speaker 1: have the same grade day have I still had enough?
Speaker 1: And then so like you know, I end up. Um
Speaker 1: so I'm kind of like trailing right now. But um
Speaker 1: like I ended up the graduating or the end of
Speaker 1: middle school. I couldn't graduate because I failed English. And
Speaker 1: so you know, I'm like, all right, I'm going to
Speaker 1: summer school. And I told my mom. Of course she's
Speaker 1: she's furious. She was like, like, where are you slacking
Speaker 1: off in school? Like why why are you going to
Speaker 1: summer school? And um so, I was like you know,
Speaker 1: I just gotta do it so I can graduate go
Speaker 1: to high school. So I'm in summer classes and the
Speaker 1: first day I'm there, I forget if it was the
Speaker 1: principal or the vice principle, but whoever was at the
Speaker 1: school he saw him. He's like, what the hell are
Speaker 1: you doing here? And I'm like, you know, I failed English,
Speaker 1: so you know I'm here for summer school. He's like,
Speaker 1: there's no way that's possible. So he calls my mom
Speaker 1: on spot and he's like, come get your son out
Speaker 1: of summer school. He's not supposed to be here. And
Speaker 1: then my mom came, yeah, yeah, yeah, my mom came
Speaker 1: grabbed me out of the summer school. Like that was that.
Speaker 1: That was that, And then we like put two two
Speaker 1: together and like, no, this teacher really had like an
Speaker 1: issue with you. But but no one realized. No one
Speaker 1: else from the school realized that that teacher was doing
Speaker 1: that or saw I guess, I guess I'm a little
Speaker 1: surprised at maybe the principle or the vice principle, whoever
Speaker 1: it was, it slipped through the cracks up until summer school.
Speaker 1: It wasn't like he was looking at the grades and
Speaker 1: then all of a sudden was like, WHOA, what's going
Speaker 1: on here? Let me get ahead of it. It happened
Speaker 1: once you were literally in a seat in summer school.
Speaker 1: That's crazy. And I know that you had also talked
Speaker 1: about on your way. I don't remember the story you
Speaker 1: told me, but something about every day going to lunch
Speaker 1: and there was a hill. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I honestly
Speaker 1: like earlier today, I'll get back to that, but earlier
Speaker 1: today I was kind of just like I call it
Speaker 1: black holing, like I'm just going to like memories in
Speaker 1: my head. I'm like, man, I've really just like trapped
Speaker 1: away and like filed. But I gotta imagine when you
Speaker 1: go to these schools that because this means so much
Speaker 1: to you, is that all these memories gotta we're talking
Speaker 1: about this and and the great thing about you is
Speaker 1: you're willing to share your experience. Um definitely, Um, definitely.
Speaker 1: There's some triggers going to the schools and anything. You know,
Speaker 1: I don't lose my mind, but I'm just like wow that, like, man,
Speaker 1: like I really thought this was okay what I was
Speaker 1: going through at the time, like you know, just part
Speaker 1: of growing up type thing, but it really wasn't. Um,
Speaker 1: and that's why, you know, I'm gonna try to, you know,
Speaker 1: make a difference. However, you can try to make a
Speaker 1: stand because it's it's behavior that's truly, truly inappropriate, behavior
Speaker 1: that can really affect somebody for the rest of their life.
Speaker 1: And um, well, yeah, the one story you're referring to,
Speaker 1: this one, I'm not gonna say it was like it
Speaker 1: was like a racing or anything, but this one was
Speaker 1: more of me being a very large guy. Same height,
Speaker 1: same height, and eighth grade, same height. I am now
Speaker 1: two seventy pounds though, so you know, I'm I'm like
Speaker 1: thirty pounds heavier, but same height, and um, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm a really big kid. And I didn't play any sports.
Speaker 1: I tried out for every sport team in middle school,
Speaker 1: didn't make any of the teams. And I was a musician.
Speaker 1: Like going into the middle school, I was a musician already,
Speaker 1: So let me continue playing the French horn and the guitar.
Speaker 1: I don't see anything wrong with it. You know, it's
Speaker 1: a cool skill to have. But um, you know, definitely
Speaker 1: definitely got made fun of for being this huge kid
Speaker 1: in the band, you know, band NERD all that stuff. Blah,
Speaker 1: blah blah. And there was a group of like the
Speaker 1: athletic middle schoolers, because there's no true like jocks in
Speaker 1: middle school. You know, it's like the athletic middle school
Speaker 1: was that played Pop Warner football, that play Little League
Speaker 1: basketball or whatever, you know, and um, and they just
Speaker 1: thought it was funny. You know, I'm coming down the
Speaker 1: hill going to lunch, and our lunch line would get
Speaker 1: so long because there's multiple cities that went to this
Speaker 1: one middle school. So our lunch line would get so
Speaker 1: long that if you weren't one of the first I
Speaker 1: don't know, a hundred people whatever it was in line,
Speaker 1: you weren't getting food. The bell would ring you about
Speaker 1: the class of no food. It's not they would run
Speaker 1: out of food. The lines were just that long. So
Speaker 1: it was a thing. It was a thing to always
Speaker 1: like pre set your locker, and so you get out
Speaker 1: of class, your lockers already set, throw your books in there,
Speaker 1: and you're gone. You're booking it to lunch. And then
Speaker 1: every day, like I'm coming down the hill, I'd run
Speaker 1: the same way. It was the fastest route to lunch,
Speaker 1: and I'd see the group of um, the group of
Speaker 1: I was. I was a little bit younger. So the
Speaker 1: group of upper class and the eighth graders coming up
Speaker 1: the hill and I see his one big kid. He's like,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, oh yeah, hold my books, hold my books,
Speaker 1: and then just come charging at me. And I mean,
Speaker 1: like first time, I just took it like he came,
Speaker 1: just dropped the shoulder bomb, you know, just knocked me,
Speaker 1: knocked me on my back. I'm stuffed up all this stuff.
Speaker 1: Everyone's laughing or whatever. The interview just wanted to baul
Speaker 1: my eyes out when I'm like, I gotta look tough,
Speaker 1: you know, I gotta look tull. So it just kind
Speaker 1: of like dust myself off, keep going on lunch, and
Speaker 1: then you know, like it just kept getting worse, like
Speaker 1: it would turn into like a game for him. So
Speaker 1: I'd like jump over the railing. I'm running in the
Speaker 1: grass like all this stuff, trying to get away from this.
Speaker 1: And they just thought it was so funny, just like
Speaker 1: just knocked me on my tail. Every single day. Well, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: that was that was definitely. I was one of the things.
Speaker 1: And I didn't think much of it at the time.
Speaker 1: I almost thought it was like my passage to becoming
Speaker 1: an eighth grader. Eventually to becoming a high schooler eventually.
Speaker 1: And but how did you cope? Because you talk about
Speaker 1: your parents and your mother telling you, listen, Jonathan, you
Speaker 1: can't fight back. We're not going to do that. How
Speaker 1: were you able to deal with it? And I guess
Speaker 1: part B of that would be what do you tell
Speaker 1: the kids now we're dealing with it. I didn't deal
Speaker 1: with it well. I just kept viewing it as you know, oh,
Speaker 1: this is all right. Everybody goes through it, you know,
Speaker 1: so I would just tuck it inside. But then that
Speaker 1: you know, all this is going on, and it's just
Speaker 1: crushing my confidence, you know, Like I walked like hunched
Speaker 1: over and like I wouldn't look anyone in the eye
Speaker 1: when I was talking to them, just like little things
Speaker 1: will just keep crushing my confidence. So the way I
Speaker 1: handled it, I just kind of like just dealing with it,
Speaker 1: just like accepting it got me through, got me through school.
Speaker 1: But I will honestly admit that I know it affected
Speaker 1: me more than like I'll ever let on and um,
Speaker 1: and I see it in like like daily life and
Speaker 1: like certain times that I just feel like anxious for
Speaker 1: no reason. Even to this day, there's times like when
Speaker 1: I go do these talks at the schools, and I
Speaker 1: just like I'm almost having like an anxiety attack just
Speaker 1: because I'm like, you know, like what are these kids
Speaker 1: thinking about me? Like this is that? Like and I
Speaker 1: know a lot of that stems from, you know, all
Speaker 1: this stuff that like people would say to me or
Speaker 1: mess with me about or whatever growing up. And and
Speaker 1: I'm much I'm much better now, of course, but it's
Speaker 1: definitely yeah, yeah, it's one of It's one of those
Speaker 1: things that like like I look at society now and
Speaker 1: I look at the access kids have the social media,
Speaker 1: and that's just a whole another I didn't have to
Speaker 1: worry about social media, so like I could only imagine
Speaker 1: what it would be like if I had to worry
Speaker 1: about social media. And like the best thing I can
Speaker 1: say is like, don't you think it's normal and just
Speaker 1: deal with it or don't say anything. Don't think that
Speaker 1: you're being like a snitch or a tattle tale or
Speaker 1: anything like that for speaking up, Like no, like speak
Speaker 1: up for yourself because it's a former like standing up
Speaker 1: for yourself, like you're not you're not snitching. Like if
Speaker 1: someone keeps I don't know, like I'm literally like making
Speaker 1: something because someone keeps like throwing stuff that you were
Speaker 1: spinning spitballs at you, and it's bothering you. You're not
Speaker 1: approving of that, Go say something to someone, Like, if
Speaker 1: you're not comfortable enough to like approach this person's face
Speaker 1: to face, go say someone to something. Tell tell your
Speaker 1: friend to tell somebody, Go tell the teacher, go find
Speaker 1: like just nonchalantly, like you know, I'm not trying to
Speaker 1: cause a scene, but you know so and so is
Speaker 1: doing X, Y and Z and it's really bothering me.
Speaker 1: How difficult is it, though, to try to get in
Speaker 1: the mind of a middle school, because I'm thinking about
Speaker 1: when I was in middle school and you don't want
Speaker 1: to be the snitch because of what you're talking about
Speaker 1: the athletic middle school ors what. And if you're in
Speaker 1: a small school, then everyone's gonna know that it's you,
Speaker 1: whereas you can almost be law in the crowd in
Speaker 1: a larger school. So how difficult is it to get
Speaker 1: into the mind of middle school? And what do you
Speaker 1: think is the most effective way to do so? Because
Speaker 1: I have to imagine it's one on one versus maybe
Speaker 1: a larger group. Yeah, and it's definitely one of those things. Um,
Speaker 1: Nobody wants to be that snitch. You know, nobody wants
Speaker 1: to be that because then you're even less cool than
Speaker 1: you feel before. You probably don't even like that term exactly. Nobody,
Speaker 1: Like nobody wants to be that person. Um, but we
Speaker 1: got to look out for each other. You have to
Speaker 1: look out for each other. That's the thing. So I
Speaker 1: feel like the best thing is ensuring within the school
Speaker 1: that there's a you know, a group of kids, a
Speaker 1: group of people that are kind of designated to handle
Speaker 1: that situation where it's like a safe zone. Almost I
Speaker 1: didn't have a safe my safe zone with my mom
Speaker 1: and my stepdad, you know, going home. Um, But like
Speaker 1: I feel like like developing that group, you know, whether
Speaker 1: it's a teacher, whether it's a principle nominating certain students
Speaker 1: that they know can uphold that standard, you know, and
Speaker 1: they know that they know what the right thing to do,
Speaker 1: like a group of kids like that, Like I I
Speaker 1: can like picture and I'm like, you know, six kids,
Speaker 1: whoever's getting bully goes up to these six kids like, hey,
Speaker 1: look like I need some help, and all six of them,
Speaker 1: all seven of them or whatever you want to do,
Speaker 1: like go over and like talk to his bully. I
Speaker 1: go talk to them like, hey, look like that's not cool. Like,
Speaker 1: I know it makes you feel cool, but it makes
Speaker 1: this person feel like crap. You know, like something like
Speaker 1: that would be like great. You just mentioned the dangers
Speaker 1: of the social media. How often do you now as
Speaker 1: a professional athlete, a guy who's overcome some of his
Speaker 1: fears and his anxieties to get to this point professionally,
Speaker 1: And also look at what you're doing personally? How much
Speaker 1: time do you spend on social media? So me, personally,
Speaker 1: I'm not great with keeping up with social media, but
Speaker 1: I know that I need to be involved with so
Speaker 1: social media to to kind of like reach reach the
Speaker 1: audience that I'm trying to reach. And so I'm trying
Speaker 1: to do a better job, you know, getting more involved
Speaker 1: with social media and posting positive things, are keeping it light, whatever,
Speaker 1: just showing a little insight to my life. And um,
Speaker 1: like I do that more for work, you know, I
Speaker 1: do that more for work. But if it's not work related,
Speaker 1: then people are just on there, you know, the brows
Speaker 1: they're scrolling, you know, scrolling the gram whatever it is.
Speaker 1: And that's what gets people in trouble, is like the
Speaker 1: scrolling and and like there's a long, long trail to
Speaker 1: this long story short, like you know, a kid seeing
Speaker 1: what a person, what social media is painting for like
Speaker 1: the typical human being to be. Kids are seeing this,
Speaker 1: especially like young girls and stuff. They're seeing, you know,
Speaker 1: you know, the beautiful people of the world, and they're like, Okay,
Speaker 1: well that's what I'm supposed to look like, but I
Speaker 1: don't look like that, so I'm ugly. Okay. Then god
Speaker 1: A comes around and says something about you know that girl,
Speaker 1: you know, makes fun of that girl, says her hair
Speaker 1: looks funnier or whatever, her shoes whatever, knocks her down
Speaker 1: a couple more notches. And then that rumor goes through
Speaker 1: the school knocks her down a couple more you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. Like so just like a like a
Speaker 1: snowball effect, all based on like what people are visioning as,
Speaker 1: like what people should be, what society should be from
Speaker 1: social media. You know. It's like a it's like an
Speaker 1: exaggerated image of like society on social media, if that
Speaker 1: makes any sense. Yeah, I had a classmate, Um I
Speaker 1: had to transfer schools because you of cyber bully and
Speaker 1: that what one of them, the two people involved one
Speaker 1: of them stayed and one of them had to go.
Speaker 1: And it's just one of the things where to your point,
Speaker 1: even at my age, I didn't quite have that experience
Speaker 1: with Instagram or Twitter and any of that because it
Speaker 1: wasn't in full force yet. But I can only imagine
Speaker 1: in what kind of effect they would have had on
Speaker 1: me or anybody else that I know for that matter,
Speaker 1: because it's it's terrifying to think about. And I'm sure
Speaker 1: that's one of the things where it's difficult for you
Speaker 1: to talk about because you didn't quite go through the
Speaker 1: social media phase of it. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: you're more wise with it because you're older than a
Speaker 1: middle schooler obviously, and on that on that note, it's funny,
Speaker 1: not funny, but it's interesting that even as a professional athlete,
Speaker 1: I still get cyber bullied, you know, like, yeah, you
Speaker 1: have to you have to do, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: Like like so like I'll like, I'll be completely honest,
Speaker 1: Like I got a message like yesterday out of nowhere,
Speaker 1: like I was just I didn't I didn't follow this person.
Speaker 1: I didn't like any of their pictures, Like oh, you know,
Speaker 1: the Jets sucked. I'm like was that necessary? Yeah, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, like, this is my job, this
Speaker 1: is my livelihood. Like what made you go out of
Speaker 1: your way to write this stranger such of like you know,
Speaker 1: like a harassing message, you know, like that's so rude.
Speaker 1: But the only difference is as an adult now I
Speaker 1: know that you know this will pass, Like I know
Speaker 1: that you know those are just words, and I can
Speaker 1: see the light at the end of the tunnel. It's
Speaker 1: different when you know a younger person is getting that
Speaker 1: when you're your teenage or adolescent years are the most
Speaker 1: important years of your life at that time. I feel
Speaker 1: there are just a lot of unhappy people out there
Speaker 1: for whatever reason. I second that, and and and social
Speaker 1: media tends to amplify that. And you know, instead of
Speaker 1: I guess going off social media completely because we can't, uh,
Speaker 1: I do think we can take The message from you
Speaker 1: is that we don't remind people what's positive out there,
Speaker 1: you know, because it seems like the things that are
Speaker 1: going to grab attention are are the solaceous things or
Speaker 1: the crazy comments and threats and things of that nature.
Speaker 1: And uh, sports sometimes there's a microcosm of what we've
Speaker 1: seen in life. Yes, yes, for sure, Um, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: there's there's there's not enough positivity out there right now.
Speaker 1: There's too much negativity, and it's easy to be negative.
Speaker 1: It's easier, like you wake up on the wrong side
Speaker 1: of the better, you stub your toe or whatever, like
Speaker 1: it's easy just to be negative, just to be angry.
Speaker 1: But like if everyone just worked to try to be positive,
Speaker 1: you know, try to just be nicer to people and like, like,
Speaker 1: like I try to tell some of the kids I
Speaker 1: talked to him, like, you're not gonna like everybody. Everyone's
Speaker 1: not gonna like you. But that doesn't mean you have
Speaker 1: to go out of your way to say something to
Speaker 1: that person. You're entitled to your opinion, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, to yourself, Like, but you don't go insult
Speaker 1: that person because they're entitled to do as they want
Speaker 1: as well. You know. So it's just well, it's just
Speaker 1: one of those things that you know, there's no true,
Speaker 1: true solution, there's nothing like there's no quick fix or
Speaker 1: anything like that. But you know, we can just, you know,
Speaker 1: one person at a time just kind of get on
Speaker 1: board with with this positivity train. You know, I feel like,
Speaker 1: how happy are you you're using this platform to go
Speaker 1: out into the schools and talk about your first hand
Speaker 1: experiences and also listen to these children about their problems today.
Speaker 1: How would all come about in terms of the jets
Speaker 1: and the anti bowling uh with the community relations department.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to think what really started it? Um So
Speaker 1: I believe there was a former teammate here, former teammate,
Speaker 1: and he was kind of involved. It's not about bullying,
Speaker 1: and he was doing a visit to a school, like
Speaker 1: an assembly visit to talk to the school and just
Speaker 1: kind of giving some positive words and all this stuff.
Speaker 1: And it was my first one going, you know with him.
Speaker 1: And then like, you know, after that first assembly, you know,
Speaker 1: after I talked to the kids, I'm like, wait, this
Speaker 1: was my life in a nutshell. I'm like I might
Speaker 1: be able to like like kind of like get more
Speaker 1: involved with this. So then I was like, you know,
Speaker 1: you guys, just let me know whenever there was an
Speaker 1: assembly or you know, school visit, will meet with some
Speaker 1: kids one on one, you know, just to like make
Speaker 1: their day. You know, they're in the middle of class
Speaker 1: and you know, to have like an NFL player show
Speaker 1: up in your classroom grabbing you, like, hey, let's go
Speaker 1: have a bye the pizza real quick, like that will
Speaker 1: just make anyone's day, make anyone feel cool, you know,
Speaker 1: so UM, you know, very very glad, very glad that
Speaker 1: that UM to be involved with this. And you know,
Speaker 1: I'm just hoping. I'm just hoping to think and kind
Speaker 1: of just branch on just kind of you know, pick
Speaker 1: up some more steam because like the cyber bullying threat
Speaker 1: and you know, just throughout in America, it's like it's ridiculous.
Speaker 1: It's so ridiculous. Like I'm asking third and fourth graders, like,
Speaker 1: you know, who all has an Instagram account. Everyone's raising
Speaker 1: their hands like what do you need in Instagram for?
Speaker 1: I didn't have a phone, And thank you. I have
Speaker 1: a phone ntil like eight or nine, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to think what game system I had at
Speaker 1: that time. I think it was like sixty four or
Speaker 1: something like that. I'm just like that's all I needed
Speaker 1: was my n sixty four, you know, and I was cool.
Speaker 1: So were dating. We're gonna date myself here. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: talk about flip phone, the land lines. You guys don't
Speaker 1: even know what a land line. I beg for a
Speaker 1: private line. I beg and beg for a private line
Speaker 1: and then you just heard that the phone was hollow
Speaker 1: and like, Mom, get off the phone. I thought my
Speaker 1: parents used to have their parents, Um the really old
Speaker 1: phones where the dial phone? Yeah, I used to love that.
Speaker 1: I fascinating. Yeah, yeah, it was like, what are you
Speaker 1: talking about? You have to do like this, Like I
Speaker 1: just punching the numbers. You can probably get those in
Speaker 1: an antique story. Yeah yeah, yeah, And you guys probably
Speaker 1: don't even know what busy signals are. Oh, of course,
Speaker 1: dial up up, dial up. No one can be on
Speaker 1: the phone with the dialoge. I didn't have two parents
Speaker 1: of dialog. I'll date myself, you know, the the A
Speaker 1: O L. DIC that you have to put in you know, hey, um,
Speaker 1: what you're doing is outstanding. I think what it also
Speaker 1: highlights is you just that at that you're not gonna
Speaker 1: like everybody at your workplace. So just fifty three guys
Speaker 1: on an NFL roster, there's no way in how you're
Speaker 1: gonna like everybody on on that roster. With that being said,
Speaker 1: all right, who don't you like that? There there are
Speaker 1: players in the National Football League who get in trouble
Speaker 1: with the law, who do things that aren't good and
Speaker 1: don't put the league in a favorable light. But there
Speaker 1: are a lot of dudes like you conversely who are
Speaker 1: out there in the community who are good people who
Speaker 1: care about the future, who care about community causes, who
Speaker 1: are actively involved, and you can you talk a little
Speaker 1: bit about that as far as the small fraterning in
Speaker 1: the National Football League and how there are guys like
Speaker 1: yourself who really are concerned about just more than winning
Speaker 1: and losing on Sunday. Um, yeah, there's definitely there's definitely
Speaker 1: a lot more of us in the NFL than people
Speaker 1: realize because not everyone does it for publicity or you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, like not saying that people like
Speaker 1: you know, it's just like sometimes people are just like, no,
Speaker 1: I genuinely care about animals, so I go to all
Speaker 1: the animal shelters whatever it may be, just trying to
Speaker 1: make a difference. And um, and I just think that
Speaker 1: that should be like, you know, however it's done, that
Speaker 1: should be like, you know, highlighting and emphasized a bit more.
Speaker 1: Because of course it's one of those things like you
Speaker 1: turn on the news in the morning, what's gonna grab
Speaker 1: your attention is the the six six car car accidents
Speaker 1: you know, with two deaths or you know what I
Speaker 1: mean exactly exactly, but like what somebody said on Twitter,
Speaker 1: exactly exactly. But like you know, the positive news and
Speaker 1: stuff like that doesn't grab as much attention, so people
Speaker 1: tend to like shy away from that. But um, you know,
Speaker 1: there's definitely there's definitely a bunch of guys throughout the
Speaker 1: NFL that are that are trying to make a difference,
Speaker 1: you know, that that have a purpose. And I think
Speaker 1: it's it's amazing thing that they're using this platform to
Speaker 1: do so, because you know, the one like obviously looks
Speaker 1: great for the NFL, but to like you're gonna reach
Speaker 1: a lot more people using the NFL platform in such
Speaker 1: a positive light. And you know, I highly encourage everybody to,
Speaker 1: you know, if you have some kind of purpose, some
Speaker 1: kind of cause, like in the within the NFL, to
Speaker 1: use that platform, use that to kind of magnify you know,
Speaker 1: your your purpose. And and like I said, you know,
Speaker 1: I keep saying, I'm like, you know, the world can
Speaker 1: be a much better place. I think about things now
Speaker 1: like this is legit what I think about, Like when
Speaker 1: I'm on my couch at home, I'm like back then,
Speaker 1: like there were no school shootings, you know, like why
Speaker 1: like why are kids so angry that they're you know,
Speaker 1: they're bringing a rightful to school and shooting up to school?
Speaker 1: I want and you don't wonder why, Like they're not
Speaker 1: just like oh well my mom was mean to me,
Speaker 1: so I'm gonna go shoot up to school. No, it's like,
Speaker 1: you know, like this person said X, Y and Z
Speaker 1: about me in school. This person won't leave me alone
Speaker 1: day in day out. This person, I don't know, like
Speaker 1: trash can me, you know, was a swirling like put
Speaker 1: my head on the toy. Like all this stuff that
Speaker 1: that that still goes on in various forms today, and
Speaker 1: that brings out like like those actions, those negative actions
Speaker 1: bringing it brings out, you know, the evil people. Jet's legend.
Speaker 1: Marty Lyons has always said you can change a person's
Speaker 1: day by just saying hello to them. Totally agree with that,
Speaker 1: just saying hello to them. Why why is that? Why
Speaker 1: is that so difficult? It's not, It's just it's one
Speaker 1: of those things that I think evolved over time. And
Speaker 1: to your point about the news being so negative, it's
Speaker 1: not not to be like to get in my routine
Speaker 1: here once a week, I go on the treadmill for
Speaker 1: and I hate I hate it for two reasons. One
Speaker 1: because I hate the treadmill too because the TVs all
Speaker 1: have the news on it and I can't change them.
Speaker 1: And every morning when I look at the TVs, it's
Speaker 1: car crash, this X y Z, and it's just like
Speaker 1: kind of depressing and it's just like and to flip
Speaker 1: the script, though, as much as we've talked about cyber
Speaker 1: bullying and social media negativity, the one thing that gets
Speaker 1: me every time is when something happens in sports and
Speaker 1: it's promoted on Twitter, and it chokes me up. Whether
Speaker 1: it's like um, homecoming for someone that's active overseas, if
Speaker 1: it's a scholarship in college, when someone gets put on scholarship, UM,
Speaker 1: when someone who's sick meets their idol and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: Like I'm a sucker for that, and I will watch
Speaker 1: it all day and it'll it's you feel like you
Speaker 1: need more of it because there's just not enough to
Speaker 1: go around. That's a great transition to speaking of school,
Speaker 1: let's go back to the World's Greatest. Can you tell
Speaker 1: us about your major at Florida, what you ultimately want
Speaker 1: to do after your long playing career is over. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, I had every every bit of you know,
Speaker 1: the desire to be a sports college just going into
Speaker 1: college start out psychology, and um, the only biology class
Speaker 1: they offered was an online bio class. I don't do
Speaker 1: wealth online classes, especially, you know, I had a job
Speaker 1: in college and you know, full time athletes, so so
Speaker 1: ended up having to go a different route. Failed that
Speaker 1: class twice. When different route, ended up with a double
Speaker 1: major anthropology and criminology, and I forgot the classes that
Speaker 1: kind of got me in that direction. But I was like,
Speaker 1: man like, I was like, like, homicide kind of kind
Speaker 1: of interesting. It's funny because like it's such like a
Speaker 1: weird topic. But I'm like man like, like becoming like
Speaker 1: a homicide detective would be kind of cool. Like I'm
Speaker 1: all about like critical thinking and puzzles of all sorts.
Speaker 1: And I was like it sounds morbid, but you show
Speaker 1: up to a crime scene, it's like a life size
Speaker 1: puzzle of like what happened? Like why life? Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: like it really and um, that's just kind of like
Speaker 1: how my mind works. So um, you know, my my
Speaker 1: end and end goal would be you know, to be uh,
Speaker 1: to be a homicide detective, you become a homicide detective.
Speaker 1: But as of right now, I've really become more passionate
Speaker 1: about like fitness and training, and I'm kind of leaning towards,
Speaker 1: you know, training training professional athletes, whether it's training offensive lineman,
Speaker 1: whether it's just training athletes in general, whether it's more
Speaker 1: like a strength coach route, like all of that's kind
Speaker 1: of on my radar right now because something I understand
Speaker 1: well and that I myself do well. So like I know,
Speaker 1: like you know, being in that kind of career, I'll
Speaker 1: always be able to practice what I preach. Well. We
Speaker 1: had Justice on Justice, Galick had strength and conditioning coach.
Speaker 1: You said, you're in there all the time. Wait, we
Speaker 1: asked him, who are the people that are that you
Speaker 1: have to kick out of the weight room. Then you're
Speaker 1: on the shorelist, so you do practice what you preach.
Speaker 1: Their great interpersonal communicators, so I think you'd be able
Speaker 1: to motivate folks in there as well. Now we have
Speaker 1: to have you back on the podca on this year
Speaker 1: so we can go into the homicide detective stuff into
Speaker 1: yeah but real quickly, and we can get into this
Speaker 1: next time. The music. Do you still do a little
Speaker 1: music still yeah, well I was wondering that too, so
Speaker 1: very musically inclined, like most just about any song that
Speaker 1: comes on, like I know the lyrics too, or something like,
Speaker 1: no matter what genre, no matter what genre, Like people,
Speaker 1: I'll catch people off guard by, you know, knowing every
Speaker 1: like lyric to songs. I probably shouldn't know every lyric too.
Speaker 1: I'm just I almost almost just threw myself under the bus.
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna spinning right now. Just just you can
Speaker 1: just just talk to some of the people like I.
Speaker 1: I know, I don't even have a good voice, and
Speaker 1: I'm just like a song comes on, I'm just singing.
Speaker 1: I got I'm just singing. But um no, still still
Speaker 1: love music. I can still pick up the guitar and
Speaker 1: do a little something. I don't keep up with it. Um,
Speaker 1: I haven't touched the French horns since um yeah, since
Speaker 1: like I left school. Um but you know, would I
Speaker 1: pick it up one day again? Maybe? Maybe? But um overall,
Speaker 1: I just enjoy music, and I think playing music kind
Speaker 1: of grew my passion for it, you know, like I'll
Speaker 1: listen to a song in a different way than somebody
Speaker 1: like typically would listen to a song, you know, like
Speaker 1: I'm listening to the different instruments in the background, like
Speaker 1: the rhythm of the beat, you know, like lyrics and
Speaker 1: stuff are always cool, but like I guess more of
Speaker 1: the creation aspect of the music is whens. Well, not
Speaker 1: to come full circle here, I feel like it's how
Speaker 1: an average person would watch a football game versus how
Speaker 1: you would watch a football game. And that's one thing
Speaker 1: I do enjoy. Like people who who are like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, I little football. I watch football NonStop and
Speaker 1: then drop a little bit of knowledge. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: drop a little bit of knowledge. I'm like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: you know, if you watch a running back here on
Speaker 1: this play, he's doing this for this reason and well
Speaker 1: you know this stuff like it's such a different vantage point. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know. Okay, before we let you go, I have
Speaker 1: one final question for you. I want to know just
Speaker 1: leave us with a little bit of I don't know
Speaker 1: if it's positive, but give me the time where the
Speaker 1: bullying stopped, the first time where you realize you could
Speaker 1: become the bully being on the offensive line, and that
Speaker 1: the bullying has got to come to an end. Alright.
Speaker 1: So earlier I was wondering, you know, kind of like
Speaker 1: talking to myself, like should I really share you know,
Speaker 1: like kind of the breaking point story, which I'm like, honestly,
Speaker 1: I'll be like I'm embarrassed about like like, oh, you
Speaker 1: don't have to share it if you don't want to,
Speaker 1: but like it's it can be an off camera conversation,
Speaker 1: or you can keep it to yourself. Um, but or
Speaker 1: we'll keep the people hanging for next time. Maybe we'll
Speaker 1: keep them hanging. Maybe we'll see. But long story short,
Speaker 1: my freshman year in high school. Freshman year in high school, UM,
Speaker 1: there's like like four or five six I don't know
Speaker 1: upper like upper classmen, seniors and juniors that you know. Um,
Speaker 1: the first time they met me was in summer training
Speaker 1: before my freshman year, and that's when I acquired the
Speaker 1: name Big Baby. I know anything else football, I know
Speaker 1: anything about lifting weights, never lifted I couldn't do a
Speaker 1: push up, you know. And UM, so like, oh, you
Speaker 1: know that, we're just gonna call you big Baby. You
Speaker 1: know we you don't know anything wrong, you know whatever.
Speaker 1: So I'm like, all right, cool. So I just kind
Speaker 1: of took that and embraced that name. I was like,
Speaker 1: all right, I couldn't I could work with that like whatever.
Speaker 1: Um it was like a month later or whatever it was. Um,
Speaker 1: we're in the locker room hanging out. Our last period
Speaker 1: of the day was a football class, Like it was
Speaker 1: a gym class that you know, we can get something
Speaker 1: like we could watch a little film, we could work
Speaker 1: out whatever it was. And like I remember one time
Speaker 1: they thought it would be funny to mess with me
Speaker 1: and um and they all just started like harassing me
Speaker 1: in like this other locker room. So like we had
Speaker 1: the main locker room, then there was like a JV
Speaker 1: locker room that no one was in at the time,
Speaker 1: and like they just they just like harassing me like whatever,
Speaker 1: like pinning me down, like trying to take my stuff
Speaker 1: off me, like like and it got it got, it
Speaker 1: got pretty bad. You know, I got pretty bad. And
Speaker 1: like I'm trying not to like like I didn't get
Speaker 1: like angry, you know, hey get that far, you know,
Speaker 1: like I didn't get angry when I'm trying like honestly,
Speaker 1: I'll be honest, like I was trying not to not
Speaker 1: to cry verse you know, trying to laugh it off
Speaker 1: and act like I'm cool, like oh, hey, I'm one
Speaker 1: of the guys, Like you know, this is my initiation,
Speaker 1: but like it really wasn't like it was. It was
Speaker 1: definitely like every bit of hazing, every bit of bullying
Speaker 1: like it was and nobody else went through that. Nobody
Speaker 1: else went through that. So you know, all that said
Speaker 1: and done. Um, you know it really like it really
Speaker 1: got under my skin and all this stuff. And so
Speaker 1: we're practicing I don't know how long after and we're
Speaker 1: doing I guess what would be considered like Oklahoma, the
Speaker 1: old Oklahoma. But yeah, and I remember like I hit
Speaker 1: the first dude bham Bom got past him and the
Speaker 1: biggest guy on our team, Um, the biggest guy on
Speaker 1: our team, Um, I'm not YEA, don't know names or nothing,
Speaker 1: and uh and just sitting there and he was one
Speaker 1: of the guys I was messing with me in the
Speaker 1: locker room, and like I caught him with my helmet
Speaker 1: like right under his chin and just dropped him. It
Speaker 1: was like three pounds at the time, like a big
Speaker 1: country joker. Yeah, and I just dropped him. And then
Speaker 1: something just kind of went through me, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: wait what I got? I got a little stuff to
Speaker 1: me like like like yeah, I'm like hold up, because
Speaker 1: I never hit somebody like that before I'm like, hold up,
Speaker 1: hold up. And then that's when it slowly started to turn.
Speaker 1: It's like the guys were like they would still like
Speaker 1: after that, after I did that to them. You know,
Speaker 1: that's a big dude. That was a honcho you know
Speaker 1: with this group. So like they slowly stopped messing with
Speaker 1: me as much, and um, you know eventually would try
Speaker 1: to be like buddy buddy with me, and like I was,
Speaker 1: I wasn't having that. I was like, there's no way
Speaker 1: I'm having that. And then um, just you know, as
Speaker 1: I grew older in high school, they graduated, they left,
Speaker 1: and then I kind of moved up to that senior role.
Speaker 1: And that's like, you know, I'm starting like I was
Speaker 1: getting recruited by colleges all this stuff, and the recruitment
Speaker 1: and that attention kind of brought some like natural confidence
Speaker 1: to me because I was a cool like I'm from
Speaker 1: a small country school like I now, he was a
Speaker 1: cool kid on campus, like I'm I'm the big time
Speaker 1: football player. All these guys that messed with me are
Speaker 1: are not working at the grocery store, you know, and
Speaker 1: so that gave me a little boost of confidence. And
Speaker 1: that's when like I kind of took a turn for
Speaker 1: the better and going to college, like it just kind
Speaker 1: of increase. It's a little bit more confidence, a little
Speaker 1: bit more and here I am, you know, like I
Speaker 1: can put on a good front, but like I'll be
Speaker 1: the first admit that I'm not. I'm not naturally like
Speaker 1: a confident person, you know. So I think it's cool
Speaker 1: that you admit your flaws more than anything else to like,
Speaker 1: you're hot. What's your highway six, three or five? Yeah,
Speaker 1: A good guess. I don't know if it's a flawed.
Speaker 1: I'd just say I admire your yeah, honestly, yeah, because
Speaker 1: most people won't go that raw. And credit your mom too, man,
Speaker 1: she said, I love to hear that, and I make
Speaker 1: sure send you know. I got a chance to meet
Speaker 1: her last year, but that she said, Jonathan, you can
Speaker 1: hurt somebody. And and you took care of your issue
Speaker 1: between the white lines. You didn't even have to do
Speaker 1: it outside of school. You did on the football and
Speaker 1: boom jokes on whoever picked on him, because big babies
Speaker 1: in the NFL, that's going strong. That definitely was football
Speaker 1: became my outlet to like be a legal bully, a
Speaker 1: legal bully, illegal bully love that well, we really appreciate
Speaker 1: you coming on the Official Jet Podcast in the play
Speaker 1: MGM Studios because this is has been great and make
Speaker 1: sure to check out what Jonathan's doing in the community.
Speaker 1: Stop out bullying and we'll see you next week on
Speaker 1: the pod.