Speaker 1: I'm Peanut too, man, and this is the NFL Player's
Speaker 1: Second Acts podcast. And I got my pastor with me,
Speaker 1: Roman Harper, what's up wrong?
Speaker 2: What's up?
Speaker 3: Baby?
Speaker 1: And I want to tell all of our listeners out there,
Speaker 1: m viewers, please give us click that button like, give
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Speaker 4: Hey, one of our guests was Fred Taylor, Dope Interview.
Speaker 2: Give it a listen.
Speaker 3: We got a good guess.
Speaker 1: Reach off some of these highlights, real quick first round
Speaker 1: pick and ninety eight draft number nine.
Speaker 3: Overall, it's a lot of repick.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a good one. Thirteen year NFL.
Speaker 1: That running back seventeenth on the all time rushing list,
Speaker 1: got eleven thousand, six hundred ninety five yards, Jaguars all
Speaker 1: time leading rusher. He's in the Jaguars Ring of Honor.
Speaker 1: My guy, my good friend, Fred Taylor, what's up boss?
Speaker 3: What's up? Man? What's up? What's up? Listen?
Speaker 1: That was?
Speaker 3: That was That was a great open. I appreciate it.
Speaker 3: Thank you for reading off the only disagreement. You said
Speaker 3: it's an oldie, but goodie. I get offended by that
Speaker 3: word old. I'm very sensitive. Well, I apologize, you know,
Speaker 3: because what do you do with old stuff? You threw
Speaker 3: it out?
Speaker 1: No, you're not necessarily you drink old wine, so you
Speaker 1: should call him anti.
Speaker 3: But it's not necessarily old wine, like it's vintage maybe okay,
Speaker 3: or seasoned.
Speaker 4: I apologize.
Speaker 1: When we all when this is all overdone, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: redo that intro and we got an antique over here.
Speaker 1: It's antique.
Speaker 3: Good antique. Well, antiques are kind of like part of
Speaker 3: my career. You know. They called me fragile Fred for
Speaker 3: we can get into that antiques. When I think antiques,
Speaker 3: I think it's easily broken, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: So I don't know if I like that even at
Speaker 3: that broken.
Speaker 2: What have you broken?
Speaker 4: I mean you were you a tell back, I mean
Speaker 4: you are a legend uh in Jacksonville?
Speaker 2: What what have you broke?
Speaker 4: What was like one of the best best shots you
Speaker 4: took or best shot you dished out?
Speaker 3: Oh man, there's a ton of them. But you know
Speaker 3: what I can say, playing against our hated rival, still
Speaker 3: to this day, I believe they might not consider it
Speaker 3: so much as a rival because we're on the way
Speaker 3: on the bottom end in terms of UH wins against them.
Speaker 3: In order to be a rival has to be.
Speaker 4: What team is that the Titans, Tennessee Titans.
Speaker 3: I believe it was in the year nine eleven happened
Speaker 3: and just a simple zone left play. I did a
Speaker 3: crazy jump cut back to the right in traffic. I'm
Speaker 3: blame Bishop, and I tore my growing off the bone
Speaker 3: right right there on the spot in that play, and
Speaker 3: it hurt so bad. I grabbed my leg. I tossed
Speaker 3: the ball and I grabbed my growing. So I threw
Speaker 3: the ball to my close friend Tomorrow Roll. So my
Speaker 3: coach thought I was probably point shaving because the night
Speaker 3: before he was like, you and samorriw, y'all shouldn't be
Speaker 3: playing those video games. We were at SA Mari's. I
Speaker 3: was playing Madden and Coach Coughlin gave me a warning
Speaker 3: for fratnizing with the opponent that he didn't play that.
Speaker 3: But that was my friend from childhood. So I tossed
Speaker 3: Samri the ball and I just was, you know, down
Speaker 3: on the ground and agonizing pain. The worst pain I
Speaker 3: ever felt, you know, my tire career because usually if
Speaker 3: you have chronic growing, procedure is they go in there
Speaker 3: and they snip it, no doubt, right, and then they
Speaker 3: let a scar and heal and all of that. But
Speaker 3: I did that on the field with no anesthesia, so
Speaker 3: I never broke anything, per se. I had a ton
Speaker 3: of injuries, but that was the worst.
Speaker 1: And you had classical issues a couple of labors, like
Speaker 1: you've done a lot to your body. I want to
Speaker 1: talk less about the injuries and more because I remember
Speaker 1: playing against you, But I want to talk more about
Speaker 1: the Tom Coughlin I would say what you would hear
Speaker 1: about outside of the building. I was never in the
Speaker 1: building with him, had you had to be there a
Speaker 1: couple of minutes early, like these are real hardcore rules
Speaker 1: that I've heard are legendary.
Speaker 3: Old school right right, certainly old school. They wouldn't fly today.
Speaker 3: For example, they didn't necessarily fly with Jalen Ramsey and
Speaker 3: a few other the younger guys that were in the
Speaker 3: building when Tison came back around. But I can say
Speaker 3: this before I get into a few stories. In terms
Speaker 3: of developing you know, boys to men right and being
Speaker 3: appreciative of that, I think players would appreciate that more,
Speaker 3: you know, as they get older, right, because that's all
Speaker 3: he wanted. He wanted you to come in and understand
Speaker 3: and learn how to be a man and approach his
Speaker 3: game as a business, which is what it is. And
Speaker 3: when you carved the fat off, he wanted to make
Speaker 3: sure you were extremely focused on your job. And so
Speaker 3: he tried to make sure he just carved off all
Speaker 3: the distractions and anythings that was going to hinder your
Speaker 3: you know, your push, you know, to try and be
Speaker 3: successful as an individual and as a team collectively. But yeah,
Speaker 3: all of those stories are true. You know, even before
Speaker 3: I got there. I arribbed in ninety eight. They had
Speaker 3: a few camps a few years before I got there,
Speaker 3: so they started in ninety six. TC. They spoke about
Speaker 3: the three of days, you know, spoke about double padded practices,
Speaker 3: spoke about uh, the breaks that you were supposed to have.
Speaker 3: He would take those away and just make you no naps,
Speaker 3: a whole lot of stuff. Uh. We had a concentration
Speaker 3: line where you entered the field, you couldn't step on
Speaker 3: the on the on the white line. Uh, you have
Speaker 3: to turn around and go do it again. All the
Speaker 3: little stuff Yeah, it's all the little stuff, right, but
Speaker 3: he really tried to create this sense of awareness and
Speaker 3: extreme focus.
Speaker 4: Did anybody ever quit like that?
Speaker 3: Was?
Speaker 2: Because it's all I mean, this is a lot. It's
Speaker 2: a whole lot.
Speaker 3: No, it's a lot. But I don't recall, at least
Speaker 3: not in my time. We we he coached. He coached
Speaker 3: me for five years. So in my time, I never
Speaker 3: had anybody that quit. Had a few guys close on
Speaker 3: the brink. Hell I was one of them, but just
Speaker 3: some crazy stuff. Let me say this, so it is
Speaker 3: true being punctual. He didn't mess around. He had his
Speaker 3: own TC time meetings was at eight. You had to
Speaker 3: be there seven fifty. Yeah, so or you were, you
Speaker 3: would get fined and he find you for everything. Two
Speaker 3: outrageous quick stories. I remember Marlins Leroy, he played at Georgia,
Speaker 3: young defensive lineman. He placed the bet with Keenan mccardeal
Speaker 3: back in the day. Keenan was an older vet, always clean. Yeah,
Speaker 3: the nicest suits on the teams, great, great wide receiver
Speaker 3: and great coach now as well. Keenan bet Marlows that
Speaker 3: Florida would beat Georgia, and the Florida Georgia game and
Speaker 3: if Florida won, he would have to let Keenan pick
Speaker 3: out a suit for Keenan would pick out a suit
Speaker 3: for at Marlos. So Keenan picked out the brightest orange
Speaker 3: suit for Marlows to travel with for game day. Coach
Speaker 3: Coughlin saw that guy on the plane. Find him like
Speaker 3: ten grands because he didn't have on our team, you know,
Speaker 3: business type travel. He had on a bright orange suit.
Speaker 3: So TC didn't play that. And the other story is
Speaker 3: Tavian Banks and Cordell Taylor. We had a Saturday nightteen
Speaker 3: meeting and they were driving across this bridge in Jacksonville
Speaker 3: Main Street bridge. There's a slip regrading on the bridge,
Speaker 3: so if you if it's raining and you break the
Speaker 3: wrong way or too fast, your cars lose control. Those
Speaker 3: guys lost control. The front of the car was on
Speaker 3: top of the bridge, almost was going to go into
Speaker 3: the Saint John's river glass. The windshield broke out. Those
Speaker 3: guys are all cut up. They got fined for being
Speaker 3: late to the team meeting.
Speaker 2: You know, these are the legendary stories. I was. That's
Speaker 2: why I had that. I've heard a couple of I've
Speaker 2: heard them.
Speaker 3: These were like these guys almost lost their lives. They
Speaker 3: didn't show up. They didn't make the eight o'clock Saturday
Speaker 3: night the day before the game team meeting. They both
Speaker 3: were fine. Conduct detrimental because they just were rushing. They
Speaker 3: were going to be laid anyway, is what he said.
Speaker 4: Oh I think I'm gonna I'm feeling that one.
Speaker 3: I'm taking what he learned the game is about adaptation
Speaker 3: of adjusting. He leaves Jackson Mill goes to New York.
Speaker 3: A lot of savvy vets in that lockdown, starting with
Speaker 3: Stray and those guys, he learned that he needed to
Speaker 3: pipe down a little bit. He changed his approach and
Speaker 3: he was able to really get the attention those guys
Speaker 3: and went on and went to Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: Fretti, you know, Peanut read off all your accolades, talked
Speaker 1: about all the yards, seventeenth all time, You've been a
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame semifinalists the last couple of years. Yeah,
Speaker 1: how does that feel? First of all to be mentioned
Speaker 1: with all of the greats, but then also coming up short?
Speaker 3: How does that?
Speaker 2: At what point do you almost reached this two?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 1: Am I just done? At this point of frustration? Let
Speaker 1: me know, Like, how does that feel? I haven't got
Speaker 1: my name.
Speaker 2: I don't even care, but I don't.
Speaker 3: Know how you feel. I'm appreciative right that I'm even
Speaker 3: considered and just starting right there. It's a lot of
Speaker 3: great players, man, a lot of guys that have done
Speaker 3: amazing things. So each each year let them back up.
Speaker 3: I'm like, all right, this is an opportunity, you know,
Speaker 3: if nothing else, it is an opportunity. I would love
Speaker 3: that moment when we're able to get in the finalist room.
Speaker 3: So then there they're able to do a deeper dive
Speaker 3: into you know, my achievements, the things I've done, and
Speaker 3: really being able to compare those two the other guys
Speaker 3: that are already in the Hall of Fame, whatever those
Speaker 3: criterias are, being able to stack them up. You know. Unfortunately,
Speaker 3: I never had the best timing throughout my career in
Speaker 3: terms of putting together back to back yearly campaigns which
Speaker 3: would have got my name consider and more Pro Bowl talks.
Speaker 3: You know, I had, you know, but they weren't back
Speaker 3: to back to back like some of these guys. But
Speaker 3: I had years while I outrushed the best backs from
Speaker 3: the previous year, so forth and so on, even starting
Speaker 3: with my with my rookie year more than the Hall
Speaker 3: of Fame talks. I think in the class of ninety eight, myself,
Speaker 3: Peyton Manning, marsh I mean not Marshall or Randy Moss.
Speaker 3: And when you look at the final tally of the
Speaker 3: Rookie of the Year voting, I believe there's a better
Speaker 3: argument for my case for Rookie of the Year then
Speaker 3: Randy wonted than my argument for the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3: But I was trapped in a smaller market, correct. You know,
Speaker 3: Randy had certain attentions on him coming in, right, and
Speaker 3: he had two great games the rookie year Green Bay
Speaker 3: in Dallas. And if you have a made in games
Speaker 3: against the typically the media is gonna tilt or that
Speaker 3: way a bit more as opposed to looking at my
Speaker 3: body of work, my rookie year in terms of touchdowns
Speaker 3: overall numbers. So I go back. They're probably a little
Speaker 3: bit more disappointed about that than the Hall of Fame
Speaker 3: because a lot of those young guys they come in
Speaker 3: with the mindset, Hey, I want to be a Hall
Speaker 3: of Famer, you know. And I think that if I
Speaker 3: had thought that way coming in, as opposed to just
Speaker 3: being excited to be drafted, to the NFL and just
Speaker 3: being able to compete each Sunday. I think if I
Speaker 3: had that mindset, I would have done things a bit differently.
Speaker 3: It would have created a certain structure, you know. But
Speaker 3: I never thought that.
Speaker 2: Tell me two things that you think you would have
Speaker 2: done differently.
Speaker 1: I love just preparation because I was like you, I
Speaker 1: was just happy to get my name right right.
Speaker 3: But more for me, just looking back, preparation, you know,
Speaker 3: taking care of my body a bit more understanding that
Speaker 3: my body is the one thing that's gonna make break me. Beforehand,
Speaker 3: I never I never considered taking care of my body.
Speaker 3: I didn't think about nutrition, you know, I didn't put
Speaker 3: health first. You know. If I felt, you know, a
Speaker 3: toe or something that was hurting, I'm still gonna go
Speaker 3: to Miami and hang out, you know, and go in
Speaker 3: the offseason, go with my you know, go hang out
Speaker 3: with my people and my buddies and just ready to
Speaker 3: get away from the season, as opposed to doing the
Speaker 3: little things, you know, to achieve the end goal. So
Speaker 3: I never had an end goal. Yeah, I wanted to win.
Speaker 3: I wanted to win the super Bowl, but in terms
Speaker 3: of the big the highest achievement from an individual standpoint,
Speaker 3: although team success is at but from an individual standpoint
Speaker 3: would be you know, can, And I just never had
Speaker 3: that thought process in place until later in my career.
Speaker 3: I was like, oh, this is attainable. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 3: when they started talking about the ten thousand yard Russian Club,
Speaker 3: when I became the twenty first running back to do
Speaker 3: it in the history of the league, I was all right,
Speaker 3: this is let's go. This is attainable. And then Jim Brown,
Speaker 3: Jim Brown, you know, putting his numbers, you know, in
Speaker 3: my sight, said this is the guy idolized the most
Speaker 3: in this game. I want to outdo his numbers. You know.
Speaker 3: Unfortunately my last two years didn't go the way I
Speaker 3: wanted them to in New England, but I thought it
Speaker 3: would have helped. But again, if you set your bar high,
Speaker 3: you know, even if you fall just under it, you
Speaker 3: know you've you've gotten really close. And I just never
Speaker 3: set my bar high enough. So yeah, so those talks, man,
Speaker 3: I'm appreciative of them. God's timing is the best. You know,
Speaker 3: when it happens, you know it'll be a good moment.
Speaker 3: And I think it can happen, you know, I think
Speaker 3: it will happen. My teammate Tony Boselli just conducted after
Speaker 3: so many years. But the guys I've played against, the
Speaker 3: old school guys that have played my position, that have
Speaker 3: mentioned certain things about my career and my style of
Speaker 3: play while I was playing, even now that I'm done,
Speaker 3: those guys that are Hall of famers. The fact that
Speaker 3: when I retired and even now, my numbers are better
Speaker 3: than half of the backs that are in all the
Speaker 3: fame still, so I think I have some argument there.
Speaker 3: So when it happens, it'll be a good moment.
Speaker 4: But your former teammate, though, Tony Basili, he spoke about
Speaker 4: that though, he was like, I think Fred is probably
Speaker 4: one of the most underrated backs out there, and I
Speaker 4: don't think that people I personally, I don't think that
Speaker 4: people talk enough about you and your stats, Like does
Speaker 4: that do you feel underappreciated?
Speaker 3: Like, like, not underappreciated, No, not underappreciated, because the numbers
Speaker 3: are what they are. You know, you can line them
Speaker 3: up against some of the best Again, of the one
Speaker 3: hundred you know, years or so that you know, this
Speaker 3: league has been around, there have been thousands of running backs,
Speaker 3: guys that have played the running back position, And when
Speaker 3: I was done. I was fifteenth all time. Yeah, you
Speaker 3: know I'm somewhere. I mean we're talking about one percent
Speaker 3: or h half that, So, I mean, I know I
Speaker 3: had a very good career. I missed out on those things.
Speaker 3: I missed out on some of the hardware, you know,
Speaker 3: that sticky Lombardi, maybe a few other Pro Bowls due
Speaker 3: to you know, certain marketing. And I know, I know
Speaker 3: I deal with this with Ryan.
Speaker 4: Klass Yeah, but trust me, I deal with it all
Speaker 4: the time. Wrong, he's always throwing shade my way because
Speaker 4: I lost to Super Bowls and he won one, Like
Speaker 4: he's always he's constantly just throwing it.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean I get it. So yeah, we certainly
Speaker 3: get it. So it's a prestigious class, you know, to
Speaker 3: be a part of man and congrats, right, don't do that.
Speaker 3: So yeah, but it was great to hear Tony take
Speaker 3: away from or to add that to his Hall of
Speaker 3: Fame speech. It just shows what he thinks of me.
Speaker 3: And that's what it's about, right, what my peers and
Speaker 3: the guys I lined up against every Sunday you talk
Speaker 3: to Ray Lewis, very those guys who led the Ravens defense,
Speaker 3: that old AFC Central they know what I brought to
Speaker 3: the table. I brought him work. Pittsburgh Steelers, they know
Speaker 3: what I brought to the table. Work. I mean. So,
Speaker 3: it's so many other guys that are in the Hall
Speaker 3: of Fame, defensive grats, Derrick Brooks, Warrens, just Troy Pomalu.
Speaker 3: So when they go out and they say we wanted
Speaker 3: to stop him first, that's how we stopped Jacksonville, you know,
Speaker 3: and then their moments where they would consider me the
Speaker 3: first or second best player in team history behind it's
Speaker 3: either me or Tony that speaks volumes.
Speaker 1: I kind of feel like, once you make the Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame, you should get a Hall of you should
Speaker 1: you the Hall of Famer, should get a vote.
Speaker 4: I don't necessarily like to say that. It's always left
Speaker 4: up to the media to vote the player in.
Speaker 2: It's almost considered like like the Heisman, Yeah, because they.
Speaker 3: All get a vote.
Speaker 4: I was talking to Robert griff RG three. I was
Speaker 4: talking to Robert about that and he was like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 4: I still get my vote, And me personally, I think
Speaker 4: it's dope because no disrespect to people in the media,
Speaker 4: but they you haven't played that game. You don't really
Speaker 4: know all of what these players go through or what
Speaker 4: it takes to get to that level. And then if
Speaker 4: you look at recent years, I feel like certain players,
Speaker 4: like Hall of famers, get mad when some Hall of
Speaker 4: Famers is like, well what did he do? You know
Speaker 4: what I'm saying, So I kind of, you know, leave it,
Speaker 4: leave it to the greats, the yellow jackets to see.
Speaker 3: Who you want or see who.
Speaker 4: They want in their club.
Speaker 3: Like the hard part is, you know, how do you
Speaker 3: identify what the criterias are? You know, if there were
Speaker 3: a certain set of guidelines, then it would probably make
Speaker 3: it a little bit easier because if it's Pro Bowls,
Speaker 3: then what do you do now in this era, right
Speaker 3: when the Pro Bowl game is you know, let touching.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's all yeah.
Speaker 3: And even then, you know, even back then, you know,
Speaker 3: guys don't attend to Pro Bowl, but it's still in
Speaker 3: their book. Then you got alternates that come in and
Speaker 3: then now that's considered a Pro Bowl and all these
Speaker 3: different things. But what's the high criteria? And it's so
Speaker 3: so much inconsistency, and it becomes opinionated by these guys
Speaker 3: who consider themselves historians of the game or teachers or
Speaker 3: is it statistics? Like, so what is it?
Speaker 4: It's their bias though too, though, because I honestly, I
Speaker 4: personally think that to should have made it should have
Speaker 4: been a first ballot guy, or second at least second ballot.
Speaker 2: So it's all the politics behind it, for sure, and
Speaker 2: it shouldn't It shouldn't be though. That's the frustrating.
Speaker 3: Politics are only involved if you're not a first ballot, correct,
Speaker 3: But t O should have been a first ballot then,
Speaker 3: and he doesn't have to do the campaign trail and
Speaker 3: the letters of recommendation and all that.
Speaker 2: It was a lot that went into it.
Speaker 1: Fred t Man, you talked about your peers how much
Speaker 1: they respected you, and I'll just flat out be honest.
Speaker 1: You were the first Jacksonville Jaguars. My second year of
Speaker 1: the league was the first time I went into a
Speaker 1: game with a quote unquote tackle plan. All right, you guys, Yeah,
Speaker 1: because they had two different running backs. You had Fred Taylor,
Speaker 1: who if I went against Fred Taylor, I had to
Speaker 1: make sure I tackled him low. He had a knee
Speaker 1: brace on. He didn't like people going at his legs.
Speaker 1: He was trying to sweep the leg like well that
Speaker 1: was the best way he was Yeah, anything's ness. I
Speaker 1: had to go at his legs and like that was
Speaker 1: the plan. Anytime Fredd Taylor has ball, go with his legs.
Speaker 1: When you have Maurice Jones Drew get the ball, you
Speaker 1: better tackle him up high, kiss him almost, and so
Speaker 1: try to because he was so short, you tried to
Speaker 1: go low. You not, that's where his power is. So
Speaker 1: number one, all right, that was the respect that I
Speaker 1: had for you. It was the first time I ever
Speaker 1: had to implement this into my game. Is a tackling plan.
Speaker 1: So would your running style how would you think it
Speaker 1: would go or how would it bode well in today's
Speaker 1: game where it's more space, it's not so much power downhill,
Speaker 1: maybe more shotgun runs. How would you think your style
Speaker 1: of play would transition in today's game.
Speaker 3: I think I'll do numbers in today's game. We all
Speaker 3: got to think that, right, I think.
Speaker 2: Overall though, and why would you do numbers?
Speaker 3: It's a lot of space. You know, I'm gonna give
Speaker 3: you the business in space. I mean I understand tempo,
Speaker 3: you know, I understand bursts, I understand how to make
Speaker 3: guys miss options. And I can run you over, I
Speaker 3: can run past you, I can shake you, spin moves.
Speaker 3: So I had a ton of options.
Speaker 4: But how long did it take you to figure all
Speaker 4: that was was gonna be?
Speaker 2: How long?
Speaker 4: How long did that take to figure out? You know,
Speaker 4: to be the guys slow down, get to flow? Like,
Speaker 4: how did you.
Speaker 1: Know that a lot running back is the easiest transition
Speaker 1: from college to pro I mean, but what you're saying is,
Speaker 1: I don't think it's.
Speaker 3: I mentioned that we were talking about b Jon Robinson.
Speaker 3: The running back is the probably the easiest position to
Speaker 3: transition to the league from a natural rawability standpoint. But
Speaker 3: the hardest thing for it back is past protection, correct,
Speaker 3: and they won't play? And why see that?
Speaker 4: Why is it?
Speaker 3: Why is past protection so hard from because you got
Speaker 3: to understand the different calls. You have to be on
Speaker 3: point with communicating with the quarterback the points from the center,
Speaker 3: and things can change so fast and they don't necessarily
Speaker 3: do that as much, you know, in college, so the
Speaker 3: communication has to be there. Uh, And then that's one part.
Speaker 3: Then actually going out there attacking your back and when
Speaker 3: there is a blitz, once you put your keys into
Speaker 3: play and understand rotation and guys that look like they're
Speaker 3: not coming, but you know they're coming. But you still
Speaker 3: got to go up there and make the block. Because
Speaker 3: in today's game, the quarterbacks are getting fifty plus million
Speaker 3: a year. You gotta protect you gotta protect them. And
Speaker 3: if you don't protect them, I don't care how great
Speaker 3: you are of a runner. You can't play because you're
Speaker 3: a liability. But I learned those other keys later in
Speaker 3: my career. I could say the first five years of
Speaker 3: my career, I was just running off natural ability. I
Speaker 3: would see the film I understand the fronts over under
Speaker 3: where guys were blitzing from understood that, but it was
Speaker 3: our reactionary. But after a few injuries, you know, and
Speaker 3: just trying to maintain that same level of play right
Speaker 3: and so there wouldn't be a drop off. I had
Speaker 3: to get smarter and started to really think the game.
Speaker 3: And that's the part of the game that I missed
Speaker 3: the most, is the preparation for the opponent. People say
Speaker 3: you missed the game. I have moments where when I
Speaker 3: hear a young linebacker, oh this, oh that I wish
Speaker 3: I could show himself. But more than actually going out
Speaker 3: there to compete the exes and o's is what I
Speaker 3: fell in love with like and if I you know,
Speaker 3: wasn't there to raise my four boys and you know,
Speaker 3: be there for my family. I certainly would be coaching,
Speaker 3: you know, because I love the exes and o's And
Speaker 3: when I watch the game now, I watch it from
Speaker 3: a situational standpoint. Yeah, not just that they're dropping back
Speaker 3: throwing the ball. They should be doing this. I would
Speaker 3: be doing this. So I'm actually scripting and running plays
Speaker 3: in my mind as I would see it based on,
Speaker 3: you know, the time of the game and down the distances.
Speaker 4: I probably say my my first COPLE years were like yours.
Speaker 3: I was.
Speaker 1: I was just just young, raw talent, just playing the
Speaker 1: game and didn't really know about third and one or
Speaker 1: third and five or third and.
Speaker 4: Ten, like I'll just play it all the time. I'm just
Speaker 4: playing it all the same, right, And then one of
Speaker 4: my coaches came and he sat me down and it
Speaker 4: was just like, hey, here's how they're attacking you. You
Speaker 4: gotta know the And once I understood the game, it
Speaker 4: was like the matrix, like I could slow everything down.
Speaker 4: I knew what was happening. I knew how you were
Speaker 4: attacking me. Okay, I don't have to try to just
Speaker 4: shoot and make it well, No, I got my d
Speaker 4: n right there. So I got outside leverage.
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm gonna contain and I'm gonna just you
Speaker 1: got time. Were you like that or did you just
Speaker 1: play or you I did just play a lot, And
Speaker 1: then all of a sudden, I had a couple of
Speaker 1: really good VET guys and some coaches like, just teach
Speaker 1: me the game and where it's like, all right, leverage
Speaker 1: as a secondary player is huge. Know where your help
Speaker 1: is at, understanding like you're talking about down in distance
Speaker 1: situations in the football game after a turnover from forty
Speaker 1: to forty shot play. Yes, it's gonna be like these
Speaker 1: little things you never think about, right, but you know
Speaker 1: it's coming.
Speaker 3: And the evolution of the game, like I mentioned the
Speaker 3: speed of today's game, and I truly believe that it's
Speaker 3: gonna only get faster because where the game is even
Speaker 3: you look at something as simple as Madden and what
Speaker 3: they're doing. When I started, you know, with video games,
Speaker 3: it was like tenyard fight. I remember that back it
Speaker 3: was like block moves like that. But now everything's so realistic.
Speaker 3: And when you sit down and you talk talk to
Speaker 3: these kids on the youth level, in the high school level,
Speaker 3: and you see them out there in seven and seven.
Speaker 3: They understand coverages inside out right, they understand you know,
Speaker 3: the jargon, you know. So their knowledge for the game
Speaker 3: and their IQ levels was so high, which, in my opinion,
Speaker 3: when they adapt that even more, is just going to
Speaker 3: continue to you know, speat this game up. Yeah.
Speaker 4: So I know they called you fragile Freddie. I had
Speaker 4: my fair share of injuries and elbows and ribs and
Speaker 4: puncture lungs.
Speaker 2: I think you toy your ACL.
Speaker 4: I think my last year I ended up tearing my ACL,
Speaker 4: like the eighth ninth game of the season, sat out
Speaker 4: a couple of weeks, played some more, tore my ACL
Speaker 4: literally the last regular season game in the twenty fifteen season,
Speaker 4: And for me, I was like, yeah, I'm thirty four.
Speaker 4: I ain't really taken on corner thirty four with with
Speaker 4: torn a cls. I think it's time to call it
Speaker 4: a day. Father time, Yeah, you got me. He's undefeated.
Speaker 4: When did you realize it was time to retire?
Speaker 3: Oh man? Uh, just touching on the fragile frad part
Speaker 3: really quick. I just played a game reckless. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 3: I just was reckless. Didn't necessarily I had a few
Speaker 3: years of uh, just bad luck. And but that was
Speaker 3: due to my style of play and uh, hanging out
Speaker 3: in you know, Miami and doing certain things in the
Speaker 3: off season didn't necessarily help. But you know, at some point,
Speaker 3: you know, something turns on you say, all right, this
Speaker 3: is what I got to do to take care of myself.
Speaker 3: And so I had a stretch of really good seasons
Speaker 3: without injury, without a single injury for that matter, for
Speaker 3: about four years. Uh. And and the last thing as
Speaker 3: it relates to that you know, unsolicited nickname is you know,
Speaker 3: to throw it back in their faces. I played for
Speaker 3: thirteen years. Yeah that was averages three. So some sort
Speaker 3: of toughness and perseverance and all that good stuff in there. Uh,
Speaker 3: but pin, I think the moment I realized that it
Speaker 3: was time to hang it up for me. After leaving Jacksonville,
Speaker 3: I went to New England, signed with the Pats, got there,
Speaker 3: won the starting job both of those years. My first
Speaker 3: year there, I had a severe high ankle sprain slowed
Speaker 3: me down some, so I would sit back like man
Speaker 3: and I want to play. Plus, as I mentioned earlier
Speaker 3: in the show, I had an agenda. I wanted to
Speaker 3: win a super Bowl, which is why I chose the Pats,
Speaker 3: and the other part was I wanted to push those
Speaker 3: numbers up and catch up with Jim Brown. Before I
Speaker 3: got to New England, I was a thousand yards shy
Speaker 3: of passing Jim Brown. None of that happened my second
Speaker 3: year there. Uh, I had turf toe, and I used
Speaker 3: to tease people that turf toe, right, so hey, I
Speaker 3: remember they talked about Dion having turf toe back in
Speaker 3: the day and uh, Ladanian and I was like, turf toe,
Speaker 3: it's a toe, it's turn toe. So I got a
Speaker 3: turf toe in one one foot on one side, and uh,
Speaker 3: like the very next week through trying to compensate for
Speaker 3: this one, I got tackled and I got turf toe
Speaker 3: on the other one like back to back weeks, and
Speaker 3: uh the second one was very extreme. So I'm in
Speaker 3: and out, in and out. So that was my thirteenth year.
Speaker 3: And as the season's going, you know, it's super cold
Speaker 3: in New England and I don't mind the coal.
Speaker 4: You're not used to being a Florida board on.
Speaker 3: If you look at my stats, I break. I love
Speaker 3: the like from a game. I love the cole you know,
Speaker 3: hanging out in the col I enjoyed that. Even my
Speaker 3: two years there living and down in Providence, I adapted,
Speaker 3: I embraced it. I really enjoyed it because it's some
Speaker 3: sort of football toughness that comes with it. Especially being
Speaker 3: a Florida boy. You gotta show him I can do this.
Speaker 3: So that's what I did, and I know so I
Speaker 3: but there would be practices where you know, you're out there,
Speaker 3: you gotta do the dog and pony show for the media,
Speaker 3: and you're like, I know, I'm not practicing the day,
Speaker 3: but that's just part of the Patriot way, right, So
Speaker 3: they don't tip off too much, and everybody's always fifty
Speaker 3: to fifty questionable. You don't know who's gonna play.
Speaker 2: Brady was on the injury list for like years.
Speaker 3: Right, so those moments I would just sit back there.
Speaker 3: I'm like, man, some of the things I used to do,
Speaker 3: I don't know if I could do him still, you know,
Speaker 3: because of the injuries. At this point in my career.
Speaker 3: Now I got a drink, you know, an energy drink
Speaker 3: on a fast Friday. When before I could just go
Speaker 3: out there and it's fast Friday, get excited, you're out
Speaker 3: of there. But now when you got to rev that
Speaker 3: engine up beforehand just to make it through. You're like, okay,
Speaker 3: And then you know, I started saying, all right, I
Speaker 3: want to compete on the other side. I wonder what's
Speaker 3: that that's going to be like? You know, that transition,
Speaker 3: what is that going to be like? So there's a
Speaker 3: certain intrigue that set in, you know, about the statistics
Speaker 3: they throw at you in terms of the fel rate
Speaker 3: of guys making the transition out of the game, the
Speaker 3: divorce rate of guys making a transition. I said, this
Speaker 3: is my new competition. You know, I'm not going to
Speaker 3: be one of those statistics. So I started to develop
Speaker 3: this mindset, in this excitement, you know, in the intrigue
Speaker 3: about what is that going to be like? I don't know,
Speaker 3: but I want to attack it head on. So after
Speaker 3: my thirteenth season, I was like, lucky, thirteen thirteen is
Speaker 3: a good number. But then that was right along the
Speaker 3: time that the CBA happened in two thousand and eleven.
Speaker 3: Then that's the CBA. I was like, all right, I'm
Speaker 3: gonna get back. I'm gonna go do another year because
Speaker 3: I was training a lot of the great young running backs. Yeah,
Speaker 3: so I stayed away from training I forced myself to
Speaker 3: stay away from training down in South Florida. But we
Speaker 3: would have Matt fort T, Jones, Drew, you know, Frank Gore,
Speaker 3: a lot of the young great backs and I would
Speaker 3: go there and I will try to show them up,
Speaker 3: you know, because we would train together each and every
Speaker 3: year prior to my retirement. So I was like, if
Speaker 3: I go train, I know I'll play a fourteenth season.
Speaker 3: I know I'll get picked up somewhere eventually and I'll play.
Speaker 3: So I just purposely stayed away. And then they announced
Speaker 3: the CBA. I was like, you know what, maybe I
Speaker 3: shouldn't retire. Just hit for about a week on my own,
Speaker 3: and then I was like, nah, I'm gonna give it up,
Speaker 3: and I just shut it down.
Speaker 1: So, I mean, you said that this was your next
Speaker 1: goal or the next thing you were going to attack.
Speaker 1: Maybe share with us, how was that transition for you
Speaker 1: when you did finally hang it up. You're not training
Speaker 1: for it so many of us, me and Peanut talk
Speaker 1: about it all the time, and this is what this
Speaker 1: whole podcast is about. It's about that second acting.
Speaker 2: So how to did you have a plan.
Speaker 1: I know you said you had a goal, but did
Speaker 1: you have a plan to help you achieve that.
Speaker 3: Well, the only plan I had was to not ever stop,
Speaker 3: never become dormant, stay busy, stay active, keep moving, stay engaged,
Speaker 3: take advantage of the relationships that that were created over
Speaker 3: the course of my career. Just stay in the face
Speaker 3: of the people in the NFL. Because for years I
Speaker 3: would get opportunities earlier in my career to do you
Speaker 3: autograph signings or brand opportunities that I would turn down,
Speaker 3: you know, five ten thousand dollars opportunities, and that's great money,
Speaker 3: but you know, I wanted to be with my family
Speaker 3: before I had a family like my mother, brother, sister,
Speaker 3: and my friends. So I turned down a lot of stuff.
Speaker 3: Then eventually, at a certain point while I was playing,
Speaker 3: I understood that it's about showing up, you know, and
Speaker 3: allowing people to understand that they can call on you
Speaker 3: that you're going to show up. It wasn't about the money,
Speaker 3: It's just about being there. So that mindset from a
Speaker 3: latter part of my career and then into retirement, I said,
Speaker 3: I want to maintain that, you know, I want to
Speaker 3: stick close to the Jaguars, you know, and take advantage
Speaker 3: of the hard work and the name and the brand
Speaker 3: that I built in the local market. So I wanted
Speaker 3: to get out in front of that, the bad investments
Speaker 3: that I had. You know, how can I speak, get
Speaker 3: on the speaking circuit and speak to you know, the
Speaker 3: young guys, how to steer clear of these different things.
Speaker 3: So all the different things, the bad things that I
Speaker 3: can see, the things I consider bad that happened in
Speaker 3: my career. I took those and I sort of formed
Speaker 3: a mindset that I wanted to use this and be
Speaker 3: able to use that to help me give back, and
Speaker 3: you also use that to steer clear and help me
Speaker 3: direct myself, you know, on the right path by by
Speaker 3: always sharing. So I wanted to get better at investing,
Speaker 3: you know. So that was intriguing. So I started to
Speaker 3: study little things, you know. I started to do the
Speaker 3: opposite of what I would do when people would approach
Speaker 3: me about investments. For example, I learned just a simple
Speaker 3: terminology investment talk. I just got downloaded Investorpedia when that
Speaker 3: was around, in order to communicate you outa understand you know,
Speaker 3: speaking the definition of words. So if I know I'm
Speaker 3: going to be in that space, I know I want
Speaker 3: to continue to invest, you know, uh in private funds
Speaker 3: and stocks and all that stuff. Go and teach yourself.
Speaker 3: So that's what I did. And I also you know,
Speaker 3: leverage the relationships and people uh to use them, uh
Speaker 3: to help myself even more there created a company, started
Speaker 3: create another minority company, uh, and really just started leveraging
Speaker 3: those relationships to try to build uh from there. Uh.
Speaker 3: So I've had some better investments, you know, in my
Speaker 3: second career because I don't call a retirement, I just
Speaker 3: called a career change. Yeah, because because this is not
Speaker 3: what retirement is supposed to feel like, or at least
Speaker 3: what we've been taught that it was supposed to feel like.
Speaker 3: So it's a career change for me. I will never retire.
Speaker 3: I don't think I will. But every every step, every day,
Speaker 3: it's a different uh intrigue for me. It's a different
Speaker 3: competition for me, and I embraced that, you know now
Speaker 3: doing the pivot with Ryan and Channing. I love our grind,
Speaker 3: I love our hustle. Just being able to continue to
Speaker 3: learn from Ryan, you know, someone who actually majored in journalism,
Speaker 3: I do.
Speaker 2: It totally makes a lot of sense. Though he's great,
Speaker 2: makes it.
Speaker 3: He is so good at what he much if you
Speaker 3: learned from him. I really really just because I never
Speaker 3: really talked a lot.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you got like a low got like a little
Speaker 1: Morgan Freeman junior voice going on.
Speaker 3: You know, people do love my sexy voice.
Speaker 4: You know it's a slow key Morgan Freeman.
Speaker 3: You know. Yeah, yeah, hey, the voice over bad time.
Speaker 3: I'm all for that. But no, just really, I think
Speaker 3: what I've learned from Ryan because I still have to
Speaker 3: be myself. I have to be my authentic self and
Speaker 3: that I'm very I'm not afraid to be vulnerable age
Speaker 3: and I think that's what creates the safe space on
Speaker 3: our show. And I'm extremely transparent, you know, I want
Speaker 3: to lead with that, and and I try also to
Speaker 3: be as unbiased as I can. That's the part that
Speaker 3: I learned from Ryan. In order to be in this space,
Speaker 3: you have to be able to tap into uh and
Speaker 3: be unbiased respectfully, you know, when you engage with the
Speaker 3: subject our guests. UH. But I also want to make
Speaker 3: sure that I give people their flowers, which is you
Speaker 3: know what I do. But Ryan, just being able to study,
Speaker 3: you know, study beforehand, not just going in there just
Speaker 3: talking and slang. Like we come in there really prepared
Speaker 3: and we do our homework. So learning that from Ryan
Speaker 3: the hardest working I'm like, I don't know how you
Speaker 3: do it. He has so many different hats that he wears,
Speaker 3: not just in the media, but with his family, his
Speaker 3: son Jordan. Back at ASU, he was coaching all the dbs,
Speaker 3: coaching the dB so you that grind, that hustle, you know,
Speaker 3: being able to sacrifice when need be. All of that
Speaker 3: comes into play once. I actually met Ryan away from
Speaker 3: the field, because on the field I wanted to tear
Speaker 3: him in half when he was a Steeler. But now
Speaker 3: you know, we're really good friends. We have the same
Speaker 3: amount of respect for each other, and that we have
Speaker 3: one agenda, you know, no no drama and just make
Speaker 3: the pivot. You know, one of the best podcasts out there.
Speaker 4: Well, it's it's kind of the blueprint though, like you
Speaker 4: guys are, I mean, it's us. I want to be
Speaker 4: like y'all when I grew up. I want to be
Speaker 4: like y'all.
Speaker 1: I want to I want to we try to set
Speaker 1: that that that tone like y'all and how.
Speaker 4: Y'all ask the questions? And you don't just do athletes
Speaker 4: like you have everybody on musicians, athletes, artists.
Speaker 3: Like we'll consider it. Uh, you know, lifestyle, Yeah, sports, entertainment,
Speaker 3: just the just really a safe space where now you
Speaker 3: have celebrities and their PR teams actually reaching reaching out
Speaker 3: to us because we're trying to tell a great story,
Speaker 3: but we're trying to allow to guests that space and
Speaker 3: that leverage to tell their stories as they want and
Speaker 3: not just how the media, the traditional media right wants
Speaker 3: to traject their their their stories.
Speaker 1: I got two questions for you. Number one, how'd you
Speaker 1: guys come up with the name of the pivot? And
Speaker 1: then number two, you know, the first time we talked,
Speaker 1: you talked about this vulnerability in this safe when you
Speaker 1: guys had your show and the first time and you
Speaker 1: talked about the pitfalls and some of the things the
Speaker 1: mistakes that you guys made early. Could you maybe share
Speaker 1: with the mistakes you made and then also what you
Speaker 1: guys have learned from that and how it's different in
Speaker 1: the pivot.
Speaker 3: And I think those questions will overlap because we can't
Speaker 3: have the pivot without having the second part, the second question.
Speaker 3: So I'll start with the second question and get us
Speaker 3: got back to the pivot. Yeah, So we started during
Speaker 3: the pandemic with another podcast and really just there we
Speaker 3: just wanted to talk about We just wanted to really
Speaker 3: get out of the house right during the pandemic. It
Speaker 3: was during the pandemic. It was everybody was home, so
Speaker 3: we were all neighbors. It started with myself, Reggie, Wayne,
Speaker 3: Brandon Marshall, and Channing Crowder and we said, let's just
Speaker 3: go and talk about current events, you know, and we
Speaker 3: started there, but it took off so fast. It was
Speaker 3: nothing to do during the pandemic, but people were trying
Speaker 3: to find everything to do at home. So podcast was
Speaker 3: like perfect, you know, time to birth the podcast, and uh,
Speaker 3: it just took off.
Speaker 1: It did really just you guys had all you had
Speaker 1: Channing who was talking crazy Mark half the time.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we did not know that you know, it was
Speaker 3: going to do that, but we all had some input.
Speaker 3: And then you know, Reggie sort of uh got tied
Speaker 3: up in his life, you know, and I don't want
Speaker 3: to go into too much details there out of respect
Speaker 3: for everybody involved. But then they inserted Cho Sinko, which
Speaker 3: was another you know, uh character alongside Channing, but it
Speaker 3: just made the podcast a little bit more uh entertaining,
Speaker 3: you know for everyone that was watching. But again, the
Speaker 3: business button up. No paperwork had necessarily been signed, and
Speaker 3: there had been some discussions, but as friends who respected
Speaker 3: each other, we thought we were on the same plan
Speaker 3: fill playing field, and we thought it was one of
Speaker 3: those things that didn't necessarily have to be communicated. But
Speaker 3: then an agenda sort of took over that when the
Speaker 3: success showed up, certain agendas kind of showed up, and
Speaker 3: then there were you know, whispers and looking around like
Speaker 3: all right, well this isn't fair, this isn't fair, Well
Speaker 3: this should have happened. Equity ownership, revenue sharing, all this
Speaker 3: stuff started to kind of take shape and the numbers
Speaker 3: didn't add up. So Channa and I we had a conversation,
Speaker 3: and I would always use the word just you know, pivot,
Speaker 3: just all the time, just everyday life, you know. I
Speaker 3: remember hearing the song jay Z had some lyrics. He's
Speaker 3: like posting pivot, redistribute and some other stuff, and I
Speaker 3: would always just naturally say, man, it's just time to pivot.
Speaker 3: We gotta it's a wrap, you know, it's time to go.
Speaker 3: We gotta pivot. So Channing and I we went to
Speaker 3: had one big meeting and see if we can come
Speaker 3: to an agreement for the old podcast didn't necessarily work out.
Speaker 3: So Channing and I we went behind the scenes and say,
Speaker 3: all right, man, what you want to do? What do
Speaker 3: you want to do? It's like, I don't think it's
Speaker 3: gonna work out for me personally, so much like the
Speaker 3: end of my career, I kind of sat back and
Speaker 3: saw some things unfolding that I necessarily wasn't too happy about.
Speaker 3: So I just kind of accepted it for about three
Speaker 3: or four weeks and that season three of that old podcast,
Speaker 3: and I was like, Nah, this isn't going to do it.
Speaker 3: So we went silent and we just went black for
Speaker 3: a while, myself Channing while they were trying to make
Speaker 3: their minds up and how they wanted to do stuff.
Speaker 3: We just went dark. But during that time we were plotting,
Speaker 3: so we said, all right, what are we going to do.
Speaker 3: We got with Alicia Zubakowski, who's our producer on the podcast,
Speaker 3: thirteen times Emmy Award winner. She's a monster at what
Speaker 3: she does. We got on the phone with our seat,
Speaker 3: he said he was down. We formed our team and
Speaker 3: we said, the one thing we're going to do is
Speaker 3: get the business right. First structure, from the pivot the
Speaker 3: company to our own entity amongst the talent, and how
Speaker 3: it was going to pay out, the distributions, just everything.
Speaker 3: We shaped up, We got the account, we just shaped up,
Speaker 3: and the last thing was what's the name? What are
Speaker 3: we going to name it? And we just you know,
Speaker 3: one day, I said, let's just call it. How about
Speaker 3: the pivot? Because that's what Channon and I that's what
Speaker 3: we're doing. We're about to pivot. And that's what everybody
Speaker 3: in the pandemic was doing. We all had to pivot, everybody,
Speaker 3: you know, and they're going to always be moments in
Speaker 3: all of our lives where everybody at some point is
Speaker 3: going to have to pivot and there'll be pivotal moments
Speaker 3: that create good and bad time. So it just stuck
Speaker 3: and we went and trademarked our stuff and you know,
Speaker 3: made sure that part of it was solid and the
Speaker 3: rest is history.
Speaker 1: Well I'm a fan.
Speaker 2: I'm a big fan.
Speaker 3: I appreciate it. I watch it. All is good. I
Speaker 3: like I like what y'all doing.
Speaker 4: Y'all are y'all definitely setting the tone.
Speaker 3: Trying to get it right.
Speaker 1: What are you guys hoping to accomplish with it? And
Speaker 1: when it's all said and done, you're like, you know what,
Speaker 1: this was a success or do you not even have that?
Speaker 1: You guys got over seven hundred thousand subscribers and so
Speaker 1: you are at the top, well, one of the top
Speaker 1: podcasts that the nation even has. And so when would
Speaker 1: you say, all right, this is what we were trying
Speaker 1: to accomplish or do you did you guys even set
Speaker 1: up the goal? Because you did everything else?
Speaker 3: We like, we're we're we surprise ourselves a lot of
Speaker 3: the times. We just talked about it last night, you know,
Speaker 3: with the YouTube NFL Sunday ticket thing, like we were like, whoa,
Speaker 3: that's a big partnership, you know, for us to achieve.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I think long term obviously, you know, we
Speaker 3: want to be able to have our content you know
Speaker 3: where it's license and you know now we're being paid
Speaker 3: for it, even you know, fifteen twenty years from now.
Speaker 3: But we look at models like the Breakfast Club, you know,
Speaker 3: the consistency and the sustainability, and we want to achieve
Speaker 3: that first. We want to maintain our consistency and as
Speaker 3: long as we do that, everything else is going to
Speaker 3: take care of itself. I think where people mess up
Speaker 3: is when they take too many breaks and then there's
Speaker 3: some uncertainty and you know, then your fans don't know
Speaker 3: what you're gonna do. Uh, And we said, that's not
Speaker 3: what we're gonna do. So consistency is the first thing
Speaker 3: that will help create the sustainability and keep us there
Speaker 3: for the years to come. We're independent now, we we
Speaker 3: we've had some offers you know here and there from
Speaker 3: some of the bigger you know, companies that are eventually
Speaker 3: going towards you know, podcast platforms and stuff. But when
Speaker 3: those numbers you know, come in the right way and
Speaker 3: certain aligns with certain partnerships, then that'll be the right
Speaker 3: moment where we're able to carve off, you know, a
Speaker 3: piece of our ownership you know, for partnership, and then
Speaker 3: maintain some ownership, but always really just right now controlling
Speaker 3: complete ownership of the pivot and licensing our shows to
Speaker 3: go forward because they're going to live on that forever.
Speaker 3: It's going to always be valuable information. But long term,
Speaker 3: we just want to make sure that we're giving back,
Speaker 3: Like we don't have a complete, I guess business agenda
Speaker 3: to just dump it and run with money. We want
Speaker 3: to keep servicing the people because people make podcasts, you know,
Speaker 3: what I'm saying, like, that's what we believe in people,
Speaker 3: the viewers, you know, subscribers. However, they make podcasts. If
Speaker 3: they don't sit there and tune in and listen, you're relevant.
Speaker 3: So we want to make sure we're servicing them. That's
Speaker 3: always our first mindset that we want to do good conversation,
Speaker 3: good content. You have certain guests that going to spike
Speaker 3: your numbers, and that's cool, but it's not always about that.
Speaker 3: And I tried to explain that on the other podcast,
Speaker 3: that it's about building bridges, right and just having dope,
Speaker 3: super dope conversations and content. You don't always need an
Speaker 3: A lister as a guest, just need great conversation with that.
Speaker 4: So we're gonna pivot switch to another topic right right.
Speaker 4: We're gonna ask you some quick hitter questions real quick,
Speaker 4: rookie year, get that contract you sign probably, I know
Speaker 4: for me, I bought me a nice little I bought
Speaker 4: a nice little I had some rims, you know what
Speaker 4: I'm saying. I had that speaker, I had to screens
Speaker 4: falling from the ceiling, I had to screen in the river,
Speaker 4: you know, single note kids. So all my money went.
Speaker 2: Some tee from Florida. You know you had that.
Speaker 4: So he has to tell me though, like what was
Speaker 4: one of the first things he splurs though.
Speaker 3: Oh, man, all right. So the first thing got splurged
Speaker 3: on after I got my contract was I bought my
Speaker 3: grandmother one hundred and fifty thousand dollars house because my
Speaker 3: promise to her when I was around in sophomore in
Speaker 3: high school. Didn't know how I was going to do it,
Speaker 3: but I told I was going to buy her home
Speaker 3: if we were in a two bedroom apartment she raised,
Speaker 3: you know, me and my other four siblings, So I said,
Speaker 3: maybe I'm going to buy your house. So that was
Speaker 3: the first major thing that I bought. And then after
Speaker 3: I got hurt secured, I blew some money on some jewelry,
Speaker 3: some rims, you know, a bins or two. Stuff that
Speaker 3: I look back on now and you see some dumbs.
Speaker 3: It doesn't make doing, Yeah.
Speaker 2: You know, I mean it.
Speaker 1: I know it doesn't make sense because it's a lot
Speaker 1: of dollars. But at the end of the day, man,
Speaker 1: it's what young people do.
Speaker 3: That's true. But that's also a part of where we
Speaker 3: come in as guys that have been there, you know,
Speaker 3: to try to I know, the money's different because I
Speaker 3: was a ninth pick in ninety eight and I think
Speaker 3: my total contract package was around sixteen million total to
Speaker 3: be able to go up to around twenty with incentives,
Speaker 3: and these guys getting that year in a year. But
Speaker 3: they're exposed to so much more, right, But I think
Speaker 3: they're also exposed to having a lot of good people
Speaker 3: around them that can tell them not to make certain frivolous,
Speaker 3: you know, purchases and decisions that are in you know,
Speaker 3: in a in a year, two years from now, you're
Speaker 3: not gonna like it won't even be around.
Speaker 4: Did you have someone when you were making those purchases
Speaker 4: help you out or it was just like, no, this
Speaker 4: is what I'm doing.
Speaker 3: They helped me write to check. They didn't say, hey,
Speaker 3: you you shouldn't do that. No, And but that's another thing,
Speaker 3: you know, learning from those things. You know, they're good,
Speaker 3: great financial advisors, and they're ones that are you know,
Speaker 3: predatory right and and aren't great. So I believe my message,
Speaker 3: whether it's the uh, the this platform, our platform, on
Speaker 3: the pivot, or just speaking engagements, you're seeing these young guys,
Speaker 3: like at the draft at different places, be smart with
Speaker 3: your money. It's a constant reminder like, don't make certain
Speaker 3: you're gonna have fun. Yes, but everything can be calculated.
Speaker 3: Make sure you keep the main thing the main thing.
Speaker 3: Learn how to take your interest or shoe deals or
Speaker 3: you know, appearance moneys and stuff. And if you want
Speaker 3: to go crazy with that, you can kind of, you know,
Speaker 3: justify certain means by with that. But creative plan, you
Speaker 3: know whatever, that plan looks like creative plan. But I
Speaker 3: think it's our duty, you know, as vets guys that
Speaker 3: have been around, guys that have made those mistakes, because
Speaker 3: we can look back on them and say it was
Speaker 3: but it was stupid, right unnecessary. I think at one
Speaker 3: point I had maybe five cars in my and my driveway.
Speaker 3: It's only me. But then I got buddies. Hey, take this,
Speaker 3: Take this. You know.
Speaker 1: It's funny because at some point most guys had an
Speaker 1: extended career orth or grew up in a certain way
Speaker 1: like that is what we wanted. Like I remember the
Speaker 1: Trick Daddy video where I wanted a don't like that's
Speaker 1: all I wanted.
Speaker 2: That had to have rims and I wanted this on but.
Speaker 3: That I went at the end of my career, towards
Speaker 3: the middle of my career. I got because I always
Speaker 3: wanted one. Yeah, and I mean I probably put seventy
Speaker 3: five thousand in that car. Old School had the best
Speaker 3: of everything in it, and the guys loved it. The
Speaker 3: engine five oh two big block, the guys on the team,
Speaker 3: they loved it. And I only pulled it out on
Speaker 3: game day. The other days during the week, it probably
Speaker 3: didn't even crank, probably didn't even start, and I smelled fumes,
Speaker 3: fumes all down the street and parked of my garage.
Speaker 3: My wife was like, we got to get rid of that,
Speaker 3: you know. And I ended up selling it to a
Speaker 3: teammate for like forty thousand. So I took a thirty
Speaker 3: five thousand dollars haircut and he showed it probably four
Speaker 3: months after that for like twenty five I should have
Speaker 3: sold it back to me.
Speaker 4: But yeah, just a lot of Do you have an
Speaker 4: old school right now currently?
Speaker 3: Of course not? Of course not. Okay, so I have.
Speaker 2: Guessed that I would not have guessed it either.
Speaker 3: No, I do not have an old school. It's actually
Speaker 3: it's one old school in my garage and I've been
Speaker 3: trying to get rid of it for years. It's a
Speaker 3: two thousand and eight col five point fifty. It was
Speaker 3: only like five of them ever made beautiful interior. It's
Speaker 3: like this deep Hunter green. I bought it for my
Speaker 3: wife back then. I bought it for her. She's the
Speaker 3: Saint Patrick's day baby. So her favorite color is green, green, green,
Speaker 3: Mark seventeen green. Everything. She will not let me get
Speaker 3: rid of that. I've been trying to get rid of
Speaker 3: that coffee, like, hey, you need to get rid of it.
Speaker 3: But a good thing is it's been paid off. Yep,
Speaker 3: it's eight It only has like fifty thousand miles, so
Speaker 3: it's perfect condition right from the outside, you know, Deans,
Speaker 3: it's perfect. I'm just tired of looking at it. But
Speaker 3: the blessing in disguise is our oldest son. He's twenty
Speaker 3: now and we have a seventeen year old. They can
Speaker 3: drive it and they drive it to work and this
Speaker 3: and that, so it's not as bad. And then I
Speaker 3: don't have to got to check to pay for them
Speaker 3: a car because they like driving a bend. Still. Uh
Speaker 3: So that's the one old school that's in the garage.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm just glad we all can openly admit that
Speaker 1: we all have purchased rims and old schools.
Speaker 4: Oh my god, I had had those free wheels, had
Speaker 4: those the god the spinners.
Speaker 3: If rims ain't coming on the car now, like they
Speaker 3: come standard on certain they do it. We have a
Speaker 3: range Rover. If it doesn't come on, I ain't buying.
Speaker 3: I'm with you, Like I'll personally some stop from the
Speaker 3: from the dealership. Right. But if I'm not going to
Speaker 3: a person to buy twenty three twenty, I'm not doing.
Speaker 3: But if I can get some stuff, I'll even get
Speaker 3: a car. I've gotten cars over the years where I'll
Speaker 3: just take the vehicle in there and I'll get them
Speaker 3: factory coded.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that's what I do now, Yeah, powder cold
Speaker 1: black powder, coat them like factory rim.
Speaker 3: I don't care to be seen. I prefer not to
Speaker 3: be seen. Throw some tent on my car, make them illegal,
Speaker 3: make the they kind of legal. T But I'm going
Speaker 3: to go to my dermatologist and I'll teach you that. Yeah,
Speaker 3: in Florida, you know, I got some skin condition. I
Speaker 3: gotta have dark tents. So work with me here just
Speaker 3: in case I get pulled over due to my tent.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I don't want to be seen in the vehicle.
Speaker 3: Like I don't care about that sort of stuff and
Speaker 3: it's just you know, all superficial stuff. So sorry, we
Speaker 3: have a hard question.
Speaker 2: All right, Top five running backs of all time? You're list?
Speaker 3: Oh boy, this thing changes all the time.
Speaker 4: We keep pivoting.
Speaker 3: That's what it's about so much. I fell in love
Speaker 3: with the game watching Walter Payton Love Sweetness. I would say,
Speaker 3: Jim Brown totally get it. I love Marcus Allen.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't expected I wouldn't either.
Speaker 3: I love Marshall Falk, I.
Speaker 2: Love that one.
Speaker 3: And La Danny and town Alison my guys. But and
Speaker 3: I do this and it's no any no particular order.
Speaker 3: Those are the guys that I absolutely love. But sweetness,
Speaker 3: Jim Brown, Barry Sanders, Marcus Allen, and marsh Fault those
Speaker 3: are my guys. Yeah, I love I just love La
Speaker 3: Danian's game, just his all around ability. You know, Fault
Speaker 3: I felt like in my career I was I wasn't
Speaker 3: the receiver that he was, but in terms of you
Speaker 3: know that and that I was a bigger, you know,
Speaker 3: faster that you know. But yeah, those are the guys
Speaker 3: that I admire. Uh and I believe, in my opinion,
Speaker 3: those are my favorite follow up.
Speaker 1: How about in today's game. Who are like your top
Speaker 1: or favorite running backs to watch in today's game?
Speaker 3: All right? I just love his explosiveness. He's extremely dynamic, strong,
Speaker 3: he's as probably the best jump cut in the game. Yeah.
Speaker 3: He gets from a gap to C gap like that
Speaker 3: and gets back vertical. He wastes no time lateral. I
Speaker 3: like Christian McCaffrey. He's gives that fulk version, you know,
Speaker 3: so he gets it done. I like Jonathan Taylor over Andy.
Speaker 3: You know when I see that twenty eight in the
Speaker 3: Taylor running down the field kind of bring back memories, right.
Speaker 3: I like Alvin Kamara. You know a k Is he's
Speaker 3: a dog. Uh. And I admire a lot of the young,
Speaker 3: the young running back. I like my Florida boy, Dereck Henry.
Speaker 3: You know, he's different.
Speaker 2: They don't build him like him.
Speaker 3: They don't build him like him. He's Eddie George, you joke,
Speaker 3: Eddie George three point zero.
Speaker 4: I saw him this morning when he was leaving George.
Speaker 2: Still he looks good. He can still give you. So.
Speaker 3: I mean, I admire so many, so many of the
Speaker 3: young backs out there. Man, just uh how great they
Speaker 3: are and how versatile they are. They can do it all,
Speaker 3: you know, but it starts again with what youth sports
Speaker 3: is and how that's continuing to evolved from flag you know,
Speaker 3: and then seven on seven you know, and now it's
Speaker 3: developing these guys how to be great receivers, you know,
Speaker 3: how to have that, how to be extremely agile. Then
Speaker 3: they carry it over to you know, the running back
Speaker 3: position and just really being able to think the game
Speaker 3: line up, the x's and o's. I think those things
Speaker 3: are gonna be what separate the greats, the guys that
Speaker 3: are going to be future Hall of famers at that
Speaker 3: position versus the guys that are going to be really
Speaker 3: good at that position, that high level i Q and
Speaker 3: how they see the x'es and o's. I don't think
Speaker 3: it will be too many more ten thousand yard rushers
Speaker 3: because of how the game is evolved. It's more of
Speaker 3: a past dominant game now.
Speaker 2: Running back, so nobody in the.
Speaker 3: Running back position isn't valued as great. There are some
Speaker 3: that that forced the issue there, right, but those are
Speaker 3: the special guys. But I think that you won't see
Speaker 3: as many ten thousand yard rushers because they're splitting carries,
Speaker 3: two headed monsters and stuff like that. So those opportunities
Speaker 3: won't present themselves. Doesn't mean they're not great from an
Speaker 3: ability standpoint, it's just from the opportunities. I don't think
Speaker 3: they'll get as many opportunities.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so another pivot, another serious question. Our journeys require
Speaker 4: great guys, and through my journey of life, I've had
Speaker 4: numerous guys that have helped me along the way. And
Speaker 4: if you could have your mount rushmore of guides or
Speaker 4: people that are helped you to get to where you
Speaker 4: are right now, who would those people be?
Speaker 3: All Right? No, I always I would. I would definitely
Speaker 3: start with my grandmother first, man, just to see what
Speaker 3: she had gone through to raise us. And uh yeah,
Speaker 3: I don't know if I can get to the other
Speaker 3: three because I'm fighting back tears just thinking about her.
Speaker 3: Uh yeah, wrong for that, Yeah, my grandmother first. And
Speaker 3: then my dad. You know, he came to my life later,
Speaker 3: but he was sort of forced out of my life
Speaker 3: early on, but he came back into my life later
Speaker 3: and he did what dads are supposed to do and
Speaker 3: he helped me become, you know, a better person from
Speaker 3: a brotherly approach, and then just a you know, a
Speaker 3: couple of mentors. Coach Pola you know my running backs
Speaker 3: coach who I got towards the end of my career,
Speaker 3: just his fatherly approached, how he kept me on track
Speaker 3: and how he you know, uh, continue to reinforce things
Speaker 3: that were most important. And lastly, I would just say
Speaker 3: my my daughter Natasha, because she was the one who
Speaker 3: initially broke me from you know, all of the knuckleheaded
Speaker 3: stuff you would do and the decisions you would make
Speaker 3: without thinking. My first baby girl, she she made me
Speaker 3: man right. And just really all of those you know,
Speaker 3: people as a collective, and I've never thought of it
Speaker 3: that way, but now since y'all put me on the spot, yeah,
Speaker 3: those people that have been the most influential and helped
Speaker 3: me pivot and become the person that I am today.
Speaker 1: So yeah, well, fred Man, I appreciate that vulnerability, bro,
Speaker 1: And I can attest to the last statement, your daughter,
Speaker 1: you're firstborn.
Speaker 2: I'll never forget.
Speaker 1: I was doing a lot of the same knuckleheaded stuff
Speaker 1: when I first met Peanut at PEO and my girlfriend
Speaker 1: who's now my wife at the time, was she asked
Speaker 1: me a really really hard question, was that would you
Speaker 1: want your daughter to date you? And that really hurt
Speaker 1: because it really makes you look at that man in
Speaker 1: the mirror and say, I really need to like focus
Speaker 1: on what I'm trying to do and who I'm trying
Speaker 1: to represent. And the people you love are the ones
Speaker 1: that you can hurt the most. And so it's really cool.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you being I wanted it vulnerable and sharing
Speaker 1: that too.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I want to also really quick before I get
Speaker 3: kicked out of my own house. Man, we're gonna do
Speaker 3: a mount rushmore plus one. Let's do my wife, Let's
Speaker 3: do it, because you know, I think about in that moment.
Speaker 3: You know, I really, uh, every everything that I lead
Speaker 3: with from getting out of you know, the hanging out
Speaker 3: mode in Miami and uh uh making sure I would
Speaker 3: take care of my body and not going club and
Speaker 3: all the time and stuff. It was. It was it
Speaker 3: was her. Yeah, my wife pretty much changed, you know,
Speaker 3: as a single person, changed the direction of my career
Speaker 3: because I would hang out, like I saying in the
Speaker 3: off season all the time, and you know, she was,
Speaker 3: you know, saying, look, this is what you're going to
Speaker 3: have to do in order to you know, if you
Speaker 3: want to be great, So this is what you're going
Speaker 3: to have to do. So a hard relationship. You know,
Speaker 3: we've been together for twenty plus years. But she's the
Speaker 3: one who helped me pivot and get back on the
Speaker 3: path that I thought I could be on as a player.
Speaker 3: But it also made me a better person, made me
Speaker 3: a responsible person. So yeah, so she, for lack of
Speaker 3: I guess pun intended, she took me out the streets,
Speaker 3: but from hanging out and learning structure and just really
Speaker 3: just developing, you know, sort of a a guideline for
Speaker 3: my life. And so she deserves as much credit as
Speaker 3: the other for that.
Speaker 2: That's also why you're not giving her that bends.
Speaker 3: Want to get rid of that car so bad? Man,
Speaker 3: that's crazy. Man. Hey, next time, y'all got to have
Speaker 3: some nap. I could have dabbed that away, man.
Speaker 4: That was my Oprah moment.
Speaker 1: It was beautiful though.
Speaker 4: Man, it's beautiful.
Speaker 3: Because I think about her, man, and she's battling dementia,
Speaker 3: and to see her like that's you know, that's that's
Speaker 3: heavy on me. Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 4: He appreciate you for coming out, man, Thank you.
Speaker 3: Pleasure appreciate y'all, thank you.
Speaker 2: Guys for listening.
Speaker 4: You know, with every show we do, in every guests
Speaker 4: we have, we try to make it very authentic and
Speaker 4: just be vulnerable and open and secure and make this
Speaker 4: a safe place for these guys to talk. And you
Speaker 4: guys have been awesome for supporting us. We can't thank
Speaker 4: you enough.
Speaker 2: We are here to educate and entertain.
Speaker 1: So make sure, like always and I always ask you,
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Speaker 4: Give us a listen, hit that button, click it.
Speaker 2: I think he needs to stop now