WEBVTT - Family Over Everything with Devale Ellis 0:00:09.760 --> 0:00:12.320 Hello, and welcome to this episode of Keep It Positive. Sweetie. 0:00:12.320 --> 0:00:13.840 I'm Christophine Hazeley. 0:00:13.600 --> 0:00:18.079 And today I have with me my dear, dear friend, 0:00:18.280 --> 0:00:21.360 my brother from another mother, Deval Ellis. 0:00:21.480 --> 0:00:21.880 What's up? 0:00:25.680 --> 0:00:25.800 You know? 0:00:26.520 --> 0:00:26.960 We got you? 0:00:27.280 --> 0:00:31.680 Listen, they've been asking for you. No, can we get 0:00:31.680 --> 0:00:33.400 di val At Kadeen on the couch. 0:00:33.440 --> 0:00:36.200 Here, he's here, I'm here, we got him. 0:00:36.479 --> 0:00:40.880 We appreciate you. I love this. I'm excited you Remember 0:00:40.880 --> 0:00:43.239 when it was just a thought I thought and I 0:00:43.360 --> 0:00:44.760 was here. I like it. I like you. 0:00:44.880 --> 0:00:46.480 Oh my goodness, thank you so much. 0:00:47.680 --> 0:00:52.400 When I think of you, Deval, I think anything pop smoke, 0:00:53.280 --> 0:00:54.360 anything Brooklyn. 0:00:55.440 --> 0:00:56.680 So what's a Brooklyn song? 0:00:56.720 --> 0:01:03.000 Where? Brooklyn? Where Brooklyn? I got yup? You see what 0:01:03.080 --> 0:01:03.480 I'm saying. 0:01:03.560 --> 0:01:06.280 No, literally, that's what I think of because everywhere we go, 0:01:06.360 --> 0:01:07.520 it does not matter where we are. 0:01:08.120 --> 0:01:10.720 Devala is going to rep Brooklyn. We could be head 0:01:10.760 --> 0:01:12.400 in the Atlanta Hawks game. Working. 0:01:13.400 --> 0:01:14.520 What are you gonna bring that up? 0:01:14.680 --> 0:01:15.000 Working? 0:01:15.160 --> 0:01:15.840 An bring that? 0:01:16.280 --> 0:01:20.360 Like? Who stand up? I got fired in State Farm Arena. 0:01:20.480 --> 0:01:23.440 I can't do what are you doing? I can't do it? 0:01:22.959 --> 0:01:24.759 You're like, and I'll do it again. 0:01:24.800 --> 0:01:26.440 And that's why they don't ever bring me back up. 0:01:26.480 --> 0:01:28.040 There have these swag surfing. 0:01:28.280 --> 0:01:29.440 Yeah, everybody was like. 0:01:31.760 --> 0:01:33.080 And they was playing the nets too. 0:01:33.720 --> 0:01:34.400 It was crazy. 0:01:34.560 --> 0:01:35.480 Yeah, it was crazy. 0:01:36.560 --> 0:01:38.720 For those who don't know, let me tell you. Daval 0:01:38.800 --> 0:01:42.319 Ellis is a former NFL player turned actor. Currently, he 0:01:42.440 --> 0:01:45.080 is a serious regular and the number one cable television 0:01:45.160 --> 0:01:48.120 drama series Tyler Perry's Sisters, and the star of his 0:01:48.360 --> 0:01:50.840 very own number one rated spin off is The Team, 0:01:50.880 --> 0:01:54.200 Though which he has the pleasure of playing opposite. 0:01:54.440 --> 0:01:58.560 Truly talk about it, talking about it. 0:01:58.320 --> 0:02:00.680 And can't leave this out. 0:02:00.760 --> 0:02:03.280 You are also a New York Times bestseller for your 0:02:03.360 --> 0:02:05.880 book Yes We Over Me, that you co worked with 0:02:05.880 --> 0:02:09.519 your wife, Kadema Elis. Yes, amazing. I'm so happy you 0:02:09.560 --> 0:02:11.640 are here. You are one of my closest friends. I 0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:14.360 just love you. I look up to you, and I 0:02:14.400 --> 0:02:17.560 admire you so much when I think about the first 0:02:17.639 --> 0:02:19.200 time we met. The first time I actually saw you 0:02:19.320 --> 0:02:21.920 was on Instagram and social media. Oh w, that was 0:02:21.960 --> 0:02:24.680 my first introduction of you. But I never a word, 0:02:25.000 --> 0:02:25.920 Like everybody. 0:02:25.520 --> 0:02:31.400 Ain't seen you a word, but we got to. 0:02:31.600 --> 0:02:33.320 The first time I actually met you in person or 0:02:33.360 --> 0:02:35.640 saw you in person, was in the audition room. 0:02:35.840 --> 0:02:37.119 Yup, for Sisters. 0:02:38.240 --> 0:02:40.720 At the time, Fatima was a really small character that 0:02:40.720 --> 0:02:43.200 hadn't yet been introduced. Yeah, and I was a producer 0:02:43.240 --> 0:02:44.799 on the show, or still have a producer on the show. 0:02:44.800 --> 0:02:46.440 But I was sitting in the back of the room 0:02:46.520 --> 0:02:50.520 watching all the auditions with Tyler, and that's the first 0:02:50.520 --> 0:02:52.560 time I got to see you as an actor and. 0:02:52.520 --> 0:02:56.040 I was like, Wow, he has something special. Yeah, no, 0:02:56.240 --> 0:03:00.839 for real, for real. Then got to know each other 0:03:01.080 --> 0:03:02.480 through Sisters. 0:03:02.880 --> 0:03:04.840 I remember getting the call saying I'm gonna make you 0:03:04.960 --> 0:03:07.920 Zach's girlfriend or his love interest, and I was like what. 0:03:08.560 --> 0:03:10.160 Yeah. When I first read it, I was like, I 0:03:10.200 --> 0:03:12.359 was like, where's this going on. I didn't understand it. 0:03:12.440 --> 0:03:14.040 Yeah, I was like, y'all can't give me. 0:03:14.360 --> 0:03:18.239 You know what I'm saying, tall dark chocolate and that's 0:03:18.280 --> 0:03:20.560 your tight too, your type too. 0:03:21.639 --> 0:03:26.040 That is your type too. It is It's gonna. 0:03:25.880 --> 0:03:29.720 Just put that in the atmosphere, tall dark chocolate and. 0:03:29.680 --> 0:03:30.160 Some other things. 0:03:30.200 --> 0:03:31.960 Cause I learned I gotta be careful what I say 0:03:32.000 --> 0:03:33.639 because that's what God will bring me. And that's all 0:03:33.680 --> 0:03:35.520 you have is just tall, dark frolic. 0:03:36.360 --> 0:03:39.520 So I gotta be careful what I say. But I 0:03:39.560 --> 0:03:41.119 remember when we got the call. 0:03:41.240 --> 0:03:44.040 We started rehearsing together and at first it was just 0:03:44.080 --> 0:03:46.480 like straight rehearses. One day you were like, so tell 0:03:46.520 --> 0:03:48.320 me about yourself. We had never just had a conversation. 0:03:48.440 --> 0:03:51.120 It was like, hey, I'm Crystal, Like do you want 0:03:51.160 --> 0:03:52.160 to run it? 0:03:52.360 --> 0:03:56.480 So like meek and I was like, First's the funny 0:03:56.480 --> 0:04:00.440 thing is, I got the scripts and you know, there 0:04:00.440 --> 0:04:02.960 were a couple of guys who had a crush on you. 0:04:03.080 --> 0:04:05.360 Oh I remember they had a crush on you. I'm 0:04:05.360 --> 0:04:07.880 not going to blow them up, but I got the 0:04:07.920 --> 0:04:10.400 scripts and I'm reading the scripts and it says Zack 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:12.600 and Fatima and Zaki and Fatima, and then finally it 0:04:12.640 --> 0:04:14.920 says Zak and Fatima started to have sex. So I 0:04:14.920 --> 0:04:20.640 immediately called those guys. I said, well, well, well guys, 0:04:21.360 --> 0:04:24.520 and they were pissed at me that letting y'all know. 0:04:24.760 --> 0:04:26.719 But then we were also scared because you're also a 0:04:26.720 --> 0:04:29.040 producer on the show. So I was like, this is 0:04:29.080 --> 0:04:31.719 our boss, so like there has to be a level 0:04:31.920 --> 0:04:35.640 of respect, you know, when dealing with this role. So 0:04:35.640 --> 0:04:37.359 when you called me, I was just I was nervous. 0:04:37.400 --> 0:04:39.640 I was like, she called me as a producer, as 0:04:39.680 --> 0:04:42.120 an actor, and he was so meek on the phone, 0:04:42.120 --> 0:04:43.600 and I was like, why is she so meat? Like, 0:04:43.600 --> 0:04:45.880 you're a producer, you worked with Tyler all of these years. 0:04:46.279 --> 0:04:47.800 I was nervous more than anything else. 0:04:47.920 --> 0:04:49.200 Wow, that's crazy. 0:04:49.520 --> 0:04:51.800 And I was nervous because that was my first time 0:04:51.880 --> 0:04:54.640 really acting, and then having the same partner like you, 0:04:54.680 --> 0:04:57.240 who's had experience and been on all these shows. I'm like, 0:04:57.279 --> 0:05:00.760 oh God, Okay, here we go. And I remember calling 0:05:00.800 --> 0:05:03.000 you to rehearse because it was during the pandemic. No, 0:05:03.080 --> 0:05:06.120 actually the pandemic hadn't happened yet. It's beginning of January. 0:05:06.160 --> 0:05:09.440 It was the beginning of Remember, we got the call 0:05:09.520 --> 0:05:12.040 we were gonna do it, and then in March, yep, 0:05:12.160 --> 0:05:14.479 we got we got the call marks so we weren't 0:05:14.480 --> 0:05:18.880 coming back because of COVID. So that was our initial interaction. 0:05:19.200 --> 0:05:23.159 And here we are five years later, five years later, 0:05:23.240 --> 0:05:25.120 but since twenty nineteen. 0:05:25.400 --> 0:05:27.640 Yees, since twenty nineteen, but that was actually twenty twenty, 0:05:27.680 --> 0:05:29.440 so four years later, four years later. But I do 0:05:29.520 --> 0:05:33.720 remember us running lines the first couple of times, and 0:05:33.839 --> 0:05:35.800 we were just like, yo. I kind of liked this 0:05:35.880 --> 0:05:39.000 chemistry of where the story's going because at the time 0:05:39.080 --> 0:05:42.000 you were paralegal and Zach just coming out of prison. 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:44.520 It was just like they can have like a coming 0:05:44.560 --> 0:05:47.640 of age love story. Yeah, we were like, we're gonna 0:05:47.640 --> 0:05:48.360 get our own show. 0:05:48.560 --> 0:05:50.720 Literally said that it shows you the power of the time. 0:05:50.800 --> 0:05:51.200 Guys. 0:05:51.360 --> 0:05:55.000 We literally said this. And like two years later or 0:05:55.000 --> 0:05:55.840 even less than that. 0:05:56.720 --> 0:05:58.719 It was No, it was less than that. We sat 0:05:58.800 --> 0:06:01.839 on the bed ready to do a scene and Tyler 0:06:01.960 --> 0:06:05.280 walked in and walked in and said I like it. 0:06:05.400 --> 0:06:06.880 I like this, and we looked at each other. 0:06:08.880 --> 0:06:10.000 It's about. 0:06:11.320 --> 0:06:12.640 We knew it at that moment. 0:06:12.760 --> 0:06:15.360 I remember it had not been officially announced, and we 0:06:15.440 --> 0:06:17.720 heard the crew whispering about the team was coming as 0:06:17.720 --> 0:06:19.960 a teama because they saw it on the production calendar. 0:06:19.960 --> 0:06:22.000 And we're like, we like talking about it. 0:06:22.680 --> 0:06:25.360 And then I got the call, Yo, you got your 0:06:25.720 --> 0:06:26.160 I was like. 0:06:26.320 --> 0:06:29.120 You are lying to me? That was oh my gosh. 0:06:29.160 --> 0:06:30.840 I was in bed. I was in bed with K. 0:06:31.240 --> 0:06:34.640 He called me, and K was just looking at me 0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:37.360 like she could tell that something was happening. Yeah, because 0:06:37.360 --> 0:06:40.039 I was on the phone. Then I sat up and 0:06:40.240 --> 0:06:49.120 I remember saying, you serious playing Yeah. She tooked up 0:06:49.160 --> 0:06:53.600 like yeah, she looked nervous I was, and I told 0:06:53.640 --> 0:06:55.000 her it was. It was an exciting time. 0:06:55.440 --> 0:06:58.680 It really was history. That's amazing. 0:06:59.440 --> 0:06:59.919 We did that. 0:07:00.240 --> 0:07:01.800 We did we know, we really did that. 0:07:01.839 --> 0:07:04.520 We manifested it. Yeah, we did it. 0:07:05.080 --> 0:07:07.840 Speaking of manifesting, I feel like a lot of your 0:07:07.880 --> 0:07:09.120 life has been manifested. 0:07:10.720 --> 0:07:12.120 Yeah, let's take it back. 0:07:12.200 --> 0:07:13.760 Let's go all the way back, because I want to 0:07:13.760 --> 0:07:16.800 give people the full scope of de val, going all 0:07:16.840 --> 0:07:19.840 the way back to being raised in Brooklyn, New York, 0:07:21.000 --> 0:07:23.360 having these dreams. Did you always dream of being an 0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:25.560 NFL star? Did you always dream of being an actor? 0:07:25.960 --> 0:07:26.760 How did that come about? 0:07:26.800 --> 0:07:28.880 I ever wanted to be in an NFL really, so, 0:07:28.880 --> 0:07:29.280 how did that? 0:07:29.320 --> 0:07:35.200 You were just that good one of my Yeah, you know, no. 0:07:35.400 --> 0:07:38.720 This is a true story. My parents didn't want her. 0:07:38.840 --> 0:07:41.400 My parents didn't want their kids in the streets in Brooklyn, 0:07:41.680 --> 0:07:45.280 so they used to send us down to Morristown, Tennessee, 0:07:45.680 --> 0:07:50.080 Tennessee every year for eight weeks, our grandparents. We went 0:07:50.120 --> 0:07:53.520 down there. They had an acre and a half of grass, 0:07:54.160 --> 0:07:56.880 they had trees, they had everything, and it was a 0:07:56.880 --> 0:07:59.480 space for us to have some time to be away 0:07:59.520 --> 0:08:01.480 from the city. All you have to do there is 0:08:01.560 --> 0:08:07.600 ride bikes, run, jump, climb trees. Exactly that led man, 0:08:07.880 --> 0:08:11.000 stay outside. If you come back inside, you inside all 0:08:11.120 --> 0:08:14.440 day that. You know how country parents are. So I 0:08:14.440 --> 0:08:17.040 remember going down to Morristown, Tennessee and just being super 0:08:17.080 --> 0:08:19.760 athletic because we had nothing else to do. Like, all 0:08:19.760 --> 0:08:22.360 we did was playing jump, run and race and run 0:08:22.440 --> 0:08:24.320 up the hill. And they lived in the mountains, so 0:08:24.360 --> 0:08:28.160 everything was uphill or downhill. So all that acceleration deceleration 0:08:28.320 --> 0:08:30.880 made me athletic. But here's the thing that kind of 0:08:31.080 --> 0:08:33.200 sparked my interest. We used to go to the Boys 0:08:33.240 --> 0:08:36.640 Club when we turned thirteen. Then they turned it from 0:08:36.640 --> 0:08:39.520 the Boys Club to the Boys and Girls Club of America. 0:08:40.240 --> 0:08:44.520 And when they did that, they added Creative Arts. And 0:08:44.559 --> 0:08:47.920 I remember being thirteen years old and I went back 0:08:47.920 --> 0:08:50.559 into the Creative Arts Center and they were in there 0:08:50.640 --> 0:08:53.680 singing and dancing and putting on plays, and I was like, 0:08:55.040 --> 0:08:57.880 I want to do that. Wow. But here's the crazy part. 0:08:58.200 --> 0:09:01.600 I'm a kid from Brooklyn and everybody who goes into 0:09:01.600 --> 0:09:06.119 the Creative Arts who's a male is looked at as soft, weak, gay, 0:09:06.320 --> 0:09:09.440 you know. And this is the nineties, Yeah, different times. 0:09:09.440 --> 0:09:12.160 It's a different time. No one is even speaking about 0:09:12.160 --> 0:09:13.760 that type of lifestyle. So it was like, what do 0:09:13.840 --> 0:09:16.360 I do. I'm gonna just play sports. I'm gonna just 0:09:16.400 --> 0:09:19.800 ignore that part of my life and play sports. So 0:09:19.880 --> 0:09:22.200 I did that, and I just told my parents I 0:09:22.240 --> 0:09:23.840 was going to find a way to go to college 0:09:24.160 --> 0:09:25.959 so that after I go to college, I could be 0:09:26.000 --> 0:09:27.439 an artist. Wow. 0:09:27.720 --> 0:09:28.720 That is amazing. 0:09:29.280 --> 0:09:33.040 So when you so when you started playing how old 0:09:33.040 --> 0:09:34.439 are you when you started playing football? 0:09:34.720 --> 0:09:37.959 Sixteen? I was a basketball player. I could dunk when 0:09:37.960 --> 0:09:39.840 I was in eighth grade. I'm not tall, I was 0:09:39.880 --> 0:09:41.839 only five seven, and but I was crazy explosive, like 0:09:41.880 --> 0:09:44.320 I said, being in Morristown. So my brother and my 0:09:44.360 --> 0:09:47.360 cousin and I we were all just super athletic. And 0:09:47.480 --> 0:09:50.400 I was like, you know, I'm gonna go to the NBA. 0:09:51.320 --> 0:09:53.240 But my goal to go to the NBA was only 0:09:53.280 --> 0:09:55.320 to make enough money so that I didn't have to 0:09:55.320 --> 0:09:56.280 be a starving artist. 0:09:56.679 --> 0:09:57.199 Wow. 0:09:57.640 --> 0:09:59.640 And then yeah, that's that's literally the whole thing was 0:09:59.640 --> 0:10:02.320 I'm gonna the NBA. So I looked at Alan Iverson. 0:10:02.360 --> 0:10:04.880 He was like my size, and you know, I designed 0:10:04.920 --> 0:10:08.160 my game around him. And then my basketball coach, you know, 0:10:08.200 --> 0:10:09.920 he was he was a tough guy, but he wasn't 0:10:09.960 --> 0:10:11.560 one of those guys that got kids in the college. 0:10:12.400 --> 0:10:14.040 And then the football coach came and said, yo, you 0:10:14.200 --> 0:10:16.280 five nine and you can dunk. This is when I 0:10:16.360 --> 0:10:19.760 was a sophomore school. I'm dunk. Why don't you just 0:10:19.840 --> 0:10:21.920 play football? I was like, man, anybody's playing no football 0:10:21.960 --> 0:10:24.959 one hundred and thirty pounds. I said this to me, 0:10:25.040 --> 0:10:28.640 said you want to go to school? Said yeah. He 0:10:28.679 --> 0:10:29.880 said you want to go to school for free? I 0:10:29.920 --> 0:10:32.400 said yeah. He said you played between the numbers and 0:10:32.440 --> 0:10:34.840 the sideline. I'll get you to school for free. So 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:37.880 at sixteen years old, I picked up football. Wow, and 0:10:37.920 --> 0:10:38.760 the rest was history. 0:10:38.800 --> 0:10:42.600 The rest was history. That is crazy. So you go 0:10:42.640 --> 0:10:43.480 to school at Hofstra. 0:10:43.960 --> 0:10:48.320 Yeah, and then you were you drafted or did. 0:10:48.200 --> 0:10:50.200 You wasn't drafted? I was first of all, I was 0:10:50.920 --> 0:10:53.840 walking on at Hofstra. I was walking on. I was. 0:10:53.880 --> 0:10:56.240 I was small at the time when I was being recruited. 0:10:56.240 --> 0:10:59.400 And this is something for parents to understand. I was 0:11:00.200 --> 0:11:02.199 seventeen when I played my last down in football in 0:11:02.280 --> 0:11:05.920 high school. Because I was in school early, so I 0:11:05.920 --> 0:11:08.000 didn't turn eighteen until the end of the year. But 0:11:08.080 --> 0:11:10.439 that season I was seventeen. I was competing against eighteen 0:11:10.480 --> 0:11:12.880 nineteen year olds, so I was only at the time, 0:11:13.280 --> 0:11:16.679 five ten, one hundred and forty eight pounds. So all 0:11:16.720 --> 0:11:21.280 the schools came and they were just like you wish 0:11:21.280 --> 0:11:23.480 she was one hundred and forty fifteen. It cannot be 0:11:23.480 --> 0:11:27.280 one hundred and forty pounds to stop that. But I 0:11:27.280 --> 0:11:31.199 haven't been that way since high school. But I broke 0:11:31.400 --> 0:11:34.320 a bunch of records. I got twenty six passes for 0:11:34.320 --> 0:11:37.160 eight hundred and thirty one yards fifteen touchdowns. I thought 0:11:37.200 --> 0:11:39.720 I was gonna get a scholarship. Offer never came, so 0:11:39.760 --> 0:11:43.360 Hopshaw offered me a partial scholarship, which was just room 0:11:43.440 --> 0:11:46.240 and boarding books. At the time, it's ten thousand dollars. 0:11:46.320 --> 0:11:48.520 My parents had to pay fifteen thousand dollars for tuition. 0:11:49.280 --> 0:11:51.199 So I told my parents, I said, YO, just let 0:11:51.200 --> 0:11:54.480 me walk on. I'm gonna earn a scholarship. Once I 0:11:54.520 --> 0:11:57.960 get the scholarship, my plan was to make a practice 0:11:57.960 --> 0:12:00.640 squad in the NFL. I could make a undred thousand 0:12:00.640 --> 0:12:03.200 dollars in four months, and those four months, I was 0:12:03.200 --> 0:12:05.120 going to buy a brownstone in Brooklyn. Shout out to 0:12:05.160 --> 0:12:08.480 Brooklyn ran out. The top two floors lived downstairs. So 0:12:09.360 --> 0:12:11.080 I had a whole plan. Wow, if I had a 0:12:11.120 --> 0:12:12.960 whole plan from the time I was seventeen. 0:12:13.200 --> 0:12:17.720 Wow, So you've always been like this because you for 0:12:17.760 --> 0:12:19.480 me to know you now you're a strategic thinker. 0:12:20.200 --> 0:12:23.360 Well, remember you started talking about manifestation. God gave me 0:12:23.400 --> 0:12:25.840 all of these visions, my kids, you not. From the 0:12:25.880 --> 0:12:28.440 time I was young, a voice always said to me, 0:12:28.559 --> 0:12:30.480 where you are is not going to be where you 0:12:30.520 --> 0:12:34.080 spend the rest of your life. That voice told me that. Yeah, 0:12:34.120 --> 0:12:36.559 And the same voice always told me to question things 0:12:36.600 --> 0:12:40.160 and challenge things and not to do things the traditional way. 0:12:41.120 --> 0:12:44.400 So ever since I had that, I always felt like 0:12:44.480 --> 0:12:47.160 God had me. So when it came time to doing 0:12:47.200 --> 0:12:51.760 something outside the box, God got me. 0:12:51.880 --> 0:12:52.320 Wow. 0:12:52.440 --> 0:12:52.959 I love that. 0:12:54.120 --> 0:12:58.840 So you get through college and it's time for NFL drabs. 0:12:59.120 --> 0:13:03.280 So what happened? This is a funny, man. I killed college. 0:13:04.160 --> 0:13:05.800 I was on pace to be the only receiver to 0:13:05.840 --> 0:13:07.280 have a thousand yards two years in a row. 0:13:07.559 --> 0:13:07.800 Wow. 0:13:08.360 --> 0:13:10.720 I played with Marcus Colston, who was a freaking savage. 0:13:10.720 --> 0:13:13.959 Everybody knows that, but if we're being honest, I was 0:13:13.960 --> 0:13:15.360 a number one receiver on the team. He was the 0:13:15.440 --> 0:13:18.280 number two receiver. But if you look at Marcus Colston, 0:13:18.320 --> 0:13:20.640 he's sixty five, two hundred and thirty pounds and runs 0:13:20.640 --> 0:13:24.280 a four to four. If I'm taking a receiver, I'm 0:13:24.280 --> 0:13:28.240 taking market. I taking a little fast guy. But once again, 0:13:28.280 --> 0:13:30.160 my plan was to just make a practice squad. It 0:13:30.240 --> 0:13:33.880 was like, yo, I didn't get drafted. I wasn't even 0:13:33.920 --> 0:13:36.880 a high priority for agent. I wasn't. It was just 0:13:37.000 --> 0:13:38.760 I ran a fast time. They was like, you can 0:13:38.760 --> 0:13:40.400 come try out if you want to. Ran a four 0:13:40.480 --> 0:13:43.280 three and forty fourty in is vertical ten to five 0:13:43.320 --> 0:13:45.520 on the broad jump. Like I had all the measurables, 0:13:45.679 --> 0:13:48.040 just some small guy from a small school. So at 0:13:48.040 --> 0:13:51.239 this point five eleven, one hundred and seventy five pounds 0:13:51.280 --> 0:13:51.960 still tiny. 0:13:52.160 --> 0:13:52.480 Yeah. 0:13:52.760 --> 0:13:55.120 I told my wife Kay, I said, Yo, all I 0:13:55.160 --> 0:13:57.640 gotta do is make a practice squad. I get one 0:13:57.720 --> 0:14:00.640 hundred thousand dollars and then we can get our dream. 0:14:01.600 --> 0:14:04.160 And I ended up making the team wow, and made 0:14:04.200 --> 0:14:06.199 way more than one hundred thousand dollars now, and then 0:14:06.200 --> 0:14:08.760 it was like, all right, well, I can buy some property, 0:14:08.760 --> 0:14:11.400 I can start some businesses. So this way, when I 0:14:11.480 --> 0:14:14.640 get into my art, I'm not broke right. And then 0:14:14.679 --> 0:14:18.800 I got cut unexpectedly my third season, at the same 0:14:18.840 --> 0:14:21.760 time as the recession lost all my money. 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:25.960 So okay, wow, So what in that moment? What is 0:14:26.000 --> 0:14:28.920 going through your head? Because I would have been like, Lord, why. 0:14:30.080 --> 0:14:33.320 I was mad? Yeah, I was mad, and I was mad. 0:14:33.960 --> 0:14:37.200 I hate saying this. I was mad at God. You 0:14:37.200 --> 0:14:39.160 know how they say, you know, Jesus was on the 0:14:39.200 --> 0:14:41.240 cross and he said, God, why have you forsake? Yes, 0:14:41.880 --> 0:14:45.760 that was me in my bathroom running the shower. K 0:14:45.880 --> 0:14:47.360 is in there because I had just proposed a k 0:14:47.520 --> 0:14:49.560 I just bought a house. I just I was planning 0:14:49.680 --> 0:14:51.720 my life. Remember I always had a plan. I was 0:14:51.760 --> 0:14:54.600 planning in my life. I was slated to be the 0:14:54.680 --> 0:14:57.880 number three receiver, punt returning, kick returner. And that summer 0:14:57.920 --> 0:15:03.160 comes around and all just went to shit. I got cut. 0:15:03.360 --> 0:15:05.360 I was losing fifteen thousand dollars a day in the 0:15:05.400 --> 0:15:09.400 stock market. I had bought two properties. Both properties value 0:15:09.400 --> 0:15:12.760 was going down because the housing market had burst, so 0:15:12.840 --> 0:15:14.600 I had no equity in the properties. I had to 0:15:14.640 --> 0:15:18.440 move back to Brooklyn and my grandparents all apartment with 0:15:18.600 --> 0:15:21.680 my fiance, and I sat in my I used to 0:15:21.680 --> 0:15:23.240 sit in the bathroom. I used to put the water on, 0:15:23.920 --> 0:15:26.920 close the door and I would cry. I would cry, 0:15:26.960 --> 0:15:29.160 I would and she'd be like, bab you okay, and 0:15:29.200 --> 0:15:31.320 I'd been there. I used to be like yeah, I'm 0:15:31.360 --> 0:15:34.520 like yeah, yeah, I'm good letting the water heat up 0:15:34.800 --> 0:15:36.680 because we lived in an old apartment. That water used 0:15:36.680 --> 0:15:37.760 to be hot. And I used to be in there 0:15:37.800 --> 0:15:40.480 freaking boling because I was like, what do you to do? 0:15:40.880 --> 0:15:43.800 I followed everything you told me to do. When all 0:15:43.840 --> 0:15:45.640 my friends and people in the NFL and they were 0:15:45.640 --> 0:15:47.640 buying chains and they were buying They're going to the 0:15:47.640 --> 0:15:50.760 strip club, buying fancy cars. I drove a Ford f 0:15:50.800 --> 0:15:53.640 one point fifty. My payment was one hundred and thirty 0:15:53.680 --> 0:15:55.960 five dollars a month. I put all my money in 0:15:56.000 --> 0:15:57.920 property in the stock market, and all that they got 0:15:57.920 --> 0:16:02.600 taken and I was like, I was like, I listened. Yeah, 0:16:02.680 --> 0:16:06.640 I was committed. You know. I was with my girlfriend 0:16:06.640 --> 0:16:08.280 at the time, was my wife. I was doing everything 0:16:08.320 --> 0:16:10.600 the right way and it all was taken from me. 0:16:10.840 --> 0:16:14.920 And I was just like like God, why the same fear, 0:16:15.960 --> 0:16:18.440 Like I was like that this is this is trash, 0:16:18.440 --> 0:16:20.440 if this is life, why did I do all of that? 0:16:20.880 --> 0:16:23.160 I said, I could have been promiscuous, I could have 0:16:23.200 --> 0:16:25.480 been the strip clubs. I could have bought chains and cars, 0:16:25.480 --> 0:16:27.320 and I still would have the same amount of money, 0:16:27.840 --> 0:16:29.640 and I would still have the same feeling because I 0:16:29.640 --> 0:16:31.640 felt like less of a man. I'm like, I asked 0:16:31.640 --> 0:16:34.320 this woman to marry me under the pretenses that I 0:16:34.360 --> 0:16:36.080 was going to take care of her, and now I'm 0:16:36.120 --> 0:16:39.640 asking her to move back to my grandparents' apartment in Brooklyn. 0:16:40.560 --> 0:16:44.840 Like I just felt like, Yeah, my ego was done. 0:16:45.640 --> 0:16:47.680 I was just kind of like, and I don't like 0:16:47.720 --> 0:16:49.840 to say I have suicidal thoughts because that's just the thing, 0:16:49.880 --> 0:16:51.560 but I did. It was times I was just like, man, 0:16:51.600 --> 0:16:54.000 why I ain't even living? Like I didn't want to 0:16:54.000 --> 0:16:56.080 get out of bed, Like it was bad. 0:16:57.200 --> 0:16:57.920 In that moment. 0:16:58.040 --> 0:17:00.880 What was the pivot that made you say, you know what, 0:17:00.880 --> 0:17:03.160 get up to val Like I need you gotta move 0:17:03.240 --> 0:17:05.320 on from this. Life has to go on and I 0:17:05.320 --> 0:17:06.320 need to pick myself up. 0:17:07.359 --> 0:17:11.080 It's it's gonna sound crazy, but when you're responsible for 0:17:11.160 --> 0:17:15.919 someone else, like you just can't. Yeah, I asked my 0:17:16.000 --> 0:17:20.320 wife to marry. What I'm gonna do now, like what 0:17:20.400 --> 0:17:24.080 I'm gonna do? And then growing up in a Baptist church, 0:17:24.480 --> 0:17:27.119 you always hear about trials and tribulations. Absolutely always hear 0:17:27.160 --> 0:17:30.680 about tests. And then it was like, there was one 0:17:30.680 --> 0:17:32.320 person who used to always call me. It was my 0:17:32.359 --> 0:17:37.560 aunt Debbie. Yes, I love you on Debbie. When you 0:17:37.600 --> 0:17:40.719 go through something like that, most of your family doesn't 0:17:40.800 --> 0:17:44.960 know how to approach you. People think that, you know, oh, 0:17:44.600 --> 0:17:47.199 when when you're on high, everybody wants to be around you. 0:17:47.200 --> 0:17:49.480 But then when you know, nobody wants to be discard you. 0:17:51.119 --> 0:17:53.640 I've learned that it's not that they just discard you, 0:17:53.680 --> 0:17:56.840 but if you're the light to so many people and 0:17:56.880 --> 0:18:00.600 now your light goes out, those people really don't know 0:18:00.640 --> 0:18:03.240 what to say or how to be of service. Yeah, 0:18:03.560 --> 0:18:05.720 you've been of service to so many people and now 0:18:05.800 --> 0:18:09.639 you need somebody. They really don't know. My aunt Debbie 0:18:09.680 --> 0:18:13.520 would call me like once a week poopoo ha poo boo. 0:18:14.080 --> 0:18:16.240 I'm like, what's up on, Debbie? She's like you all right? 0:18:17.200 --> 0:18:19.879 I'm like yeah. She used to ask me time you 0:18:19.920 --> 0:18:24.240 and your Bible? I should be like, yeah, lying lion, 0:18:24.680 --> 0:18:27.920 lie like straight lining, and she's like, pool Pool, you 0:18:27.920 --> 0:18:31.120 don't got a lie to me. And all she said 0:18:31.200 --> 0:18:33.480 was you just remember how you was raised. That's all 0:18:33.520 --> 0:18:35.600 she would say, You remember how you was raised. And 0:18:35.600 --> 0:18:39.000 that was kind of like, you know what you're right, 0:18:39.600 --> 0:18:43.280