Speaker 1: Welcome to the NFL Legends Podcast, an NFL podcast for
Speaker 1: the players, by the players. Here is your host, fourteen
Speaker 1: year NFL veteran and Hall of Famer and Enius Williams.
Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to the nfl a Legends Podcast. I'm
Speaker 1: a Nius Williams. Today we sit down with the incomparable,
Speaker 1: and I can testify to it. I was the victim
Speaker 1: of one of his ships. I promise you I'm in
Speaker 1: this guy's highlight reel. It's none other than a guy
Speaker 1: that I've walked from a distance and have got to
Speaker 1: know just a little but highly respect his story. And
Speaker 1: that's none other than Michael Vick, who I believe today's
Speaker 1: quarterback is really uh Michael uh in the year two
Speaker 1: dollars and twenty. When I think of Pat Mahomes, I
Speaker 1: think of Watson Jackson in Baltimore. When I think of them,
Speaker 1: I think of Michael Vick. The ability to night just
Speaker 1: run with the ball, but the ability to throw the
Speaker 1: ball with precision and depth. So, as we discussed Michael's
Speaker 1: personal journey how it led to his involvement with initiatives
Speaker 1: geared towards combating recidivism, I'm so excited Mike played fifteen
Speaker 1: season at quarterback with the Falcons, Eagles, Jets, and Steelers.
Speaker 1: It was a four time Pro Bowler and the recipient
Speaker 1: of the NFL's Comeback Player of the Year Award. In
Speaker 1: his groundbreaking career forced all of pro football to rethink
Speaker 1: the quarterback position, and his work today continues to challenge
Speaker 1: conventional thought. I'm so excited to have you on, Michael Welcome,
Speaker 1: Thank your niggas. I will say this, man, I always
Speaker 1: judge your interview, you know, at the end by the
Speaker 1: introduction and uh, so far, so good. I really appreciate
Speaker 1: those kind of words. And you can always alleviate the
Speaker 1: juke move um that I put on you and my
Speaker 1: rookie season. You know, you always find a way to
Speaker 1: bring that up, and I appreciate that, man. You helped
Speaker 1: keep me relevant. But hey, look, then is to be
Speaker 1: able to do that against it a great player such
Speaker 1: as yourself. You know, I know you was, you know,
Speaker 1: respectfully older at that time and I was younger. And
Speaker 1: you know how it is when you get them young
Speaker 1: guys in the league and they're fresh man, because I
Speaker 1: was a victim of it when I got older. You know,
Speaker 1: those you never know what could happen to you, man,
Speaker 1: So I appreciate you always paying respect to that moment
Speaker 1: because I don't know if it would happen if if
Speaker 1: men you would have been playing against each other and
Speaker 1: maybe a year two or three of your career, then
Speaker 1: that that would have been a conversation. But thank you well, Michael,
Speaker 1: Happy but lated birthday, by the way, you celebrate birthday
Speaker 1: on and that's my son's birthday as well. He turned nineteen,
Speaker 1: just graduated from high school. Glad he has the same
Speaker 1: birthday with you. So happy but lated birthday. And you
Speaker 1: you've turned forty man, I turned forty. Yeah, so it's
Speaker 1: hard to believe Michael Vick is forty years old. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I know, I know, And when I think about it,
Speaker 1: I feel very proud. Um. You know, I look back
Speaker 1: at my life over the last twenty years. You know,
Speaker 1: that's just that interval it's been. Um, it's been an
Speaker 1: amazing journey and uh to find myself at this point
Speaker 1: where you know, I look at life and it's just
Speaker 1: not all about me anymore. You know, It's about my family.
Speaker 1: It's about the people that I can help, the people
Speaker 1: that I can have an effect on. It does have been,
Speaker 1: you know, my legacy as well as the people around
Speaker 1: me who helped me get there. So you know, I'm
Speaker 1: just I'm thankful that I made it to see forty,
Speaker 1: you know, because you know that's a mouth stone within itself.
Speaker 1: And what did you do to celebrate your birthday? Michael?
Speaker 1: I just had family and friends come over. I was
Speaker 1: down in Virginia visiting my mom and my sisters, and
Speaker 1: I've been down there for the last three and a
Speaker 1: half months during the COVID. You know, I wanted to
Speaker 1: be close to my family. Uh so my mom, my sisters,
Speaker 1: you know, family and friends, people that I had a
Speaker 1: lot of a lot of love and respect for. I
Speaker 1: was invited over and I kept the group real small.
Speaker 1: You know, still wanted to stay conscious of not not
Speaker 1: wanting to be around a lot of people and invite
Speaker 1: everyone into space. So uh still thinking about you know,
Speaker 1: the pandemic that we in so but so it was
Speaker 1: a nice crowd, man. It was just good to have
Speaker 1: you know, my loved ones over and celebrating a special
Speaker 1: day with me. So there's a question at the age
Speaker 1: of forty, and you mentioned, man, not thinking about yourself
Speaker 1: as much and thinking about family, thinking about your children.
Speaker 1: Does that mindset come with age or does it come
Speaker 1: with experience? M I said, it comes with a little
Speaker 1: bit of both. Um I say, I say age because
Speaker 1: you know, every year you grow older. At some point,
Speaker 1: I think any individuals to look at this age and say, okay,
Speaker 1: at this age, you know, it's it's no set barrier
Speaker 1: for what I should be doing in my life. But
Speaker 1: I know I should be growing in a lot of
Speaker 1: different areas. Like when you turn thirty, you don't do
Speaker 1: the same things that you did when you was tween
Speaker 1: five or you know, we turned thirty five, you're looking
Speaker 1: at thirty like, man, I was a little while and
Speaker 1: out of control then. So you know, I do say
Speaker 1: age player player factor. And then experiences like everything that
Speaker 1: you go through within those you know, five year innivals
Speaker 1: or however you look at your life, so many things
Speaker 1: that you're gonna that's gonna happen to you're good and bad.
Speaker 1: You know, ups and downs and mistakes are gonna be made.
Speaker 1: So as you grow older, you know, because of those experiences,
Speaker 1: I think you should kind of create your life story
Speaker 1: and chronicle everything to get better. Um And and That's
Speaker 1: what I've been able to do over the last, you know,
Speaker 1: twenty years, but still knowing that I have another twenty
Speaker 1: years to go. God bless me. I gotta continue to
Speaker 1: grow and get better. So um, yeah, it's it's aging
Speaker 1: experience both, you know, combined. I think, what would forty
Speaker 1: year old Michael Vick tell Michael Vick when he was
Speaker 1: a rookie? What's one thing if out of anything you've
Speaker 1: learned and experience, what's maybe one thing that comes to
Speaker 1: mind that you would say too Michael Vick when he
Speaker 1: was a rookie. Well, I tell you what. I would
Speaker 1: have gave him an earful um, but I don't know
Speaker 1: if he wouldn't necessarily listen. You know. That's the thing.
Speaker 1: I was hardhead, you know, at the age of twenty
Speaker 1: and then you know, we're talking about age and experience.
Speaker 1: When I turned twenty, I really thought that I was wrong.
Speaker 1: And I wasn't even twenty one yet, you know, so
Speaker 1: you know, but you couldn't tell me anything. I thought
Speaker 1: I had all the answers, um, And you know, like
Speaker 1: I turned twenty five and I'm looking back at twenty like, man,
Speaker 1: I really thought I knew something about life, and I
Speaker 1: really didn't, you know, So you know, right now. I
Speaker 1: would just tell Michael Vicker the age of twenty years
Speaker 1: old one and you know you're you're not grown, you know,
Speaker 1: respect your elders, continue to you know, rely on the
Speaker 1: people who you know guided you throughout the last five
Speaker 1: or six years of your life, whether that has been
Speaker 1: high school coaches, college coaches, coaches that I had in
Speaker 1: the NFL, because I knew they all had, you know,
Speaker 1: my best interests at heart, and I think it would
Speaker 1: have took me down a different path. And um, you
Speaker 1: know also to to to be real conscious of the
Speaker 1: people that you hang around. You are what you eat,
Speaker 1: so to speak. And uh, you know I would have
Speaker 1: just drilled that into him and hopefully he would have listened.
Speaker 1: I will say this, I did. I respect people who
Speaker 1: wanted to give me advice in life. I never just
Speaker 1: kind of like gave him the cold shoulder. You know.
Speaker 1: I wasn't that stubborn or or you know, that ignorant.
Speaker 1: I would say, you know, I gave him that respect,
Speaker 1: and I tried to listen to take bits and pieces
Speaker 1: of what they gave to me. But I still was
Speaker 1: just young with a lot of money, and uh, it
Speaker 1: just kind of made me look at life different, you know,
Speaker 1: like I had all the answers, but I really didn't.
Speaker 1: How would you help today's player, And I know we're
Speaker 1: talking later about mentorship that that you do. How would
Speaker 1: you help them understand how to go forward as a
Speaker 1: professional athlete with the friends that they have. How do
Speaker 1: you help them understand the necessity what needs to happen
Speaker 1: when it comes down to their friendship when they've been
Speaker 1: having friends their boys for a long time. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: What I learned at the age of forty is, and
Speaker 1: I stopped using that as a reference as I grew older,
Speaker 1: is that my real friends don't really ask me for anything. Um,
Speaker 1: my real friends, you know, we go out and we
Speaker 1: have dinner. You know, we can split it four ways
Speaker 1: if I decided to pick up the tad and that's
Speaker 1: what I decided to do. But the friends that I have,
Speaker 1: my real friends that I had since I was younger,
Speaker 1: they pick up the tab for me, or they won't
Speaker 1: allow me to pay that bill, you know, just because
Speaker 1: they know I got it. It was a it's a
Speaker 1: respect level and the respect you know, it's labeling ourselves
Speaker 1: as friends. You know, we don't owe each other anything,
Speaker 1: you know, we owe each other respect and loyalty, you know,
Speaker 1: if that's a week and provide. So you know, I've
Speaker 1: learned that those people in my life, you know, are
Speaker 1: the ones that I want to continue to be around
Speaker 1: every day because the relationship, the friendship don't come with
Speaker 1: any strings attached. It's like, I know what drives you
Speaker 1: and what motivates you, and what you like and what
Speaker 1: you don't like and and vice versa, and we can
Speaker 1: kind of keep it at that and just have fun
Speaker 1: and enjoy life. And and you know, those are your
Speaker 1: real friends. And that's a word that comes to me
Speaker 1: having listen to you describe the type of friend you
Speaker 1: want around you. It's it sound like it needs to
Speaker 1: be mutual. Yeah, yeah, like an understanding, like, um, every
Speaker 1: time we go somewhere, I shouldn't be happy the one
Speaker 1: And you know, I know it's not all about money.
Speaker 1: But I've learned through my experiences because of who I
Speaker 1: was and what I had, that you know, some people
Speaker 1: are just aren't your friends. They're around just to get
Speaker 1: what they can get, you know, and friends have come
Speaker 1: and go, but you know who the real ones are.
Speaker 1: And I just tried to stay in that space. Um,
Speaker 1: and I had to learn that over time. You know,
Speaker 1: I think throughout this whole conversation, we'll talk about age
Speaker 1: and we'll talk about experience, and that's just another example
Speaker 1: of it. You know, I had to find out who
Speaker 1: my real friends were, and the majority of them was
Speaker 1: the ones that I grew up with, you know, from
Speaker 1: the age of seven to eleven. You know, they understood
Speaker 1: me better than anybody else. They knew me, I knew them,
Speaker 1: and Uh, we can be grown and and have that
Speaker 1: same kid relationship in a sense, but being grown man,
Speaker 1: you know, so to speak. So it's even better now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I churched those friendships now even more as we shifted
Speaker 1: now and some of the work that you're doing as
Speaker 1: a as a result, some of the experience you have.
Speaker 1: I find it's fascinating when we talk about recentivism, we're
Speaker 1: talking about the tendency of those released from prison to
Speaker 1: re offend. For those formally and coarcerrated, their release is
Speaker 1: a second chance at life. Michael, what are your thoughts
Speaker 1: on release being a second chance to do things differently
Speaker 1: for those formally incarcerated. Uh, it means a lot. It
Speaker 1: means so much to me to have a second chance,
Speaker 1: Like over the last ten years more than people will
Speaker 1: ever know. You know, I was trying to take the
Speaker 1: time to thank Tony Dungee and Roger Goodell and Andy
Speaker 1: Reid and author Kevin Winston from the Atlanta Falcons because
Speaker 1: they cared about me as a person, as a as
Speaker 1: a man more than anything. Um. I didn't even come
Speaker 1: back and play for the Atlanta Fiul because I went
Speaker 1: and play for the Philadelphia Eagles. But author blank was
Speaker 1: there every step of the way. Um, And that that
Speaker 1: was my second chance. Like so if you know, if
Speaker 1: I would have been just like the average um, you know, citizen,
Speaker 1: which I was, you know, when I came home, I
Speaker 1: I came home to nothing. I had no money, I
Speaker 1: was in bankruptcy, and I knew I had a long
Speaker 1: walk and a you know, a journey ahead at me.
Speaker 1: So you know, they have a chance to you know,
Speaker 1: have people in my corner. Was that was my second chance,
Speaker 1: you know, And and I thank god I had a
Speaker 1: platform before that second chance, and that was my re
Speaker 1: entry was back into you know, society, my family, and
Speaker 1: then the National Football League, which was my profession that
Speaker 1: I really loved. You know, it was a dream of
Speaker 1: mine growing up. So it meant a lot to me.
Speaker 1: Those people was there to help me. That was my
Speaker 1: second chance, and I had that platform. When ninety of
Speaker 1: men and women come home from prison, they don't have
Speaker 1: an opportunity. They don't have a chance to exhale through
Speaker 1: their re entry, you know, mainly because of the things
Speaker 1: they have to go through. One if they have a
Speaker 1: felony on their record, and and to you know, you
Speaker 1: perceived different. You know, you your stereotype and that's just real.
Speaker 1: You know. What I want to do is create change,
Speaker 1: create an opportunity for you know, men and women coming
Speaker 1: home to have a second chance. They have a second
Speaker 1: chance to to have no excuses and to do it
Speaker 1: right through the program that we're in the preliminary works
Speaker 1: on building. Um this is gonna be amazing. Um. I
Speaker 1: found out what the root of the problem was. You know,
Speaker 1: talk to a guy who had just been released from
Speaker 1: prison after a crime he didn't do for twenty six years,
Speaker 1: didn't come out better. Are the ones it was a
Speaker 1: chance opportunity met him over the last three months and
Speaker 1: we've been able to come up with what the root
Speaker 1: of the problem is. And and that's housing in transportation.
Speaker 1: You know, when they do have that, they have a
Speaker 1: chance that making every entry and success. So we kind
Speaker 1: of stopped right there, and I looked at that as
Speaker 1: them having a second chance, and what would that look like, Um,
Speaker 1: if we can create a program centering around that. So
Speaker 1: I found out that that was the root of the problem.
Speaker 1: I when continue to talk about and you might have
Speaker 1: some more questions, but I get excited when I talk
Speaker 1: about it because I look at the amount of people
Speaker 1: that we're gonna have an effect on, and this is
Speaker 1: something that can last a lifetime. As it stands now,
Speaker 1: most current second chance efforts aren't aimed at African Americans.
Speaker 1: Michael talk about the just a system you're involved in
Speaker 1: and how your second chance was a driving force pairing
Speaker 1: you with it. Well, I feel like my second chance
Speaker 1: wouldn't have happen without certain people, and those people know
Speaker 1: who they are. And the great part about it was that,
Speaker 1: you know, I had a platform. But in today's time,
Speaker 1: you know, just realistically, everyone don't have that platform. And
Speaker 1: for the last forty fifty years, we don't have that platform.
Speaker 1: You know, I think somewhether black or white, predominantly black.
Speaker 1: We just don't have resources and we don't have people
Speaker 1: who can reach in and pull us out of the
Speaker 1: situation that we're in. So know, I found out when
Speaker 1: doing some research that you know, when most inmates come
Speaker 1: home man and women, did they come home to um
Speaker 1: no form of housing and no phone transportation. But what
Speaker 1: it happened is that they'll go through the entire process
Speaker 1: of passing courses and curriculums whilet andconcerated. I know because
Speaker 1: I did it myself. You come come home with with
Speaker 1: a lot of accolades and a lot of certificates, but
Speaker 1: it don't equate to you know, the change that's necessary
Speaker 1: and need it needs to be made. So what they
Speaker 1: do is they end up, you know, after about a month,
Speaker 1: when they feel like they don't have anything or they
Speaker 1: don't have any hope, they end up going back and
Speaker 1: you know, just regressing into the person that they was,
Speaker 1: not the person they came out as when they was
Speaker 1: rented back into society. It's because the housing, the transportation,
Speaker 1: you know, that they don't have a chance to carry out,
Speaker 1: you know, what their dreams may they become because now
Speaker 1: they're worried about what they're gonna stay and how and
Speaker 1: how they're gonna get there. And I just felt like
Speaker 1: I was a great starting point, man. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: I was forcing enough to come home and have people
Speaker 1: in my corner, and it's just the zillion people who don't.
Speaker 1: And uh, if I can help, you know, fifty sixty
Speaker 1: people a year, you know, create some type of platform
Speaker 1: for themselves where they can believe that, you know, the
Speaker 1: system actually works. You know, we take these classes, we
Speaker 1: go through these courses. You know, we come out, we
Speaker 1: can become come, We can come out better because we
Speaker 1: have people who are going to reach in and help
Speaker 1: us get to where we need to go. I think
Speaker 1: that's very important, man, because it'll it'll keep the crime breakdown.
Speaker 1: People won't be with repeat offenders, and you know, those
Speaker 1: people can go off and teach other people how to
Speaker 1: you know, become successful in life. And then they'll just
Speaker 1: get assistance, you know, whether that assistance come from the state, local,
Speaker 1: the Bill of prisons, you know, transitional programs, things that
Speaker 1: we're getting involved in, people that we're gonna be you know,
Speaker 1: in direct connection with to help us to make sure
Speaker 1: our program and can sustain for years. We want to
Speaker 1: as a program, go out and buy property, create housing
Speaker 1: situations for it, and make create transportation opportunities. For the inmates,
Speaker 1: whether it's through you bood Counts, whether it's through partner
Speaker 1: with with the local car dealership, whatever it may be.
Speaker 1: Like I said, everything is still in the work says
Speaker 1: it right now. But this is something that hasn't been done.
Speaker 1: The surface hasn't been scratched. And I know that you know,
Speaker 1: inmates come home and they come home to nothing, They
Speaker 1: come home to no opportunity. Uh and you know they
Speaker 1: end up going back to prison. Uh and and it's
Speaker 1: proven fact um. So you know, I decided to create
Speaker 1: this program where people don't actually look into you know,
Speaker 1: helping people when they re enter it, when they re
Speaker 1: enter back into society, because it's so important. Like these
Speaker 1: are the same people that you walk past in the
Speaker 1: grocery stores and you might see, you know, at the
Speaker 1: local gas stations, and you know they might be sitting
Speaker 1: there thinking about doing some crazy because their life is
Speaker 1: in a bad mental state. You know, they don't know
Speaker 1: who to turn to, they don't know where to go,
Speaker 1: they can't find a job. Okay, this has been such
Speaker 1: an important issue that we're going to make it a
Speaker 1: two part Stay tuned for part two of our podcasts.
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