Speaker 1: Welcome to the Good Stuff. I'm Jacob Chick and I'm
Speaker 1: joined by my co host and wife, Ashley Shick.
Speaker 2: Jake is a third generation combat Marine and I'm a
Speaker 2: gold Star granddaughter. We work together to serve military veterans,
Speaker 2: first responders, frontline healthcare workers, and their families with mental
Speaker 2: and emotional wellness through traditional and non traditional therapy. At
Speaker 2: One Tribe Foundation.
Speaker 1: We believe everyone has a story to tell, not only
Speaker 1: about the peaks, but also the valleys they've been through
Speaker 1: to get them to where they are today.
Speaker 2: Each week, we invite a guest to tell us their story,
Speaker 2: to share with us the lessons they've learned that shaped
Speaker 2: who they are and what they're doing to pay it
Speaker 2: forward and give back.
Speaker 1: Our mission with this show is to dig deep into
Speaker 1: our guest journey so that we can celebrate the hope
Speaker 1: and inspiration their story.
Speaker 3: Has to offer.
Speaker 2: Thrilled you're joining.
Speaker 1: Us again, Welcome to the Good Stuff.
Speaker 2: We are so excited about today's episode. Our friend Joshua
Speaker 2: Ritchie is a mindset coach and motivational speaker. He's a
Speaker 2: former professional football player and works with merging veterans and players.
Speaker 2: It's an organization that focuses on bringing veterans and former
Speaker 2: professional sports players together.
Speaker 1: Joshua is here to tell his story of survival, how
Speaker 1: he survived street violence as a child, how he survived
Speaker 1: the shooting as a young man, how he survived the
Speaker 1: death of his dream of making it in the NFL,
Speaker 1: and how he survived the devastation of a severe gambling addiction.
Speaker 2: And now he's here with us as a living, breathing
Speaker 2: example of what it means to thrive.
Speaker 1: This is truly my brother from another mother, and his
Speaker 1: story is raw strap in It's about the get ball beat.
Speaker 2: I am so excited to dive into this conversation. This
Speaker 2: is one like we've never had here on the good stuff.
Speaker 2: Joshua Richie, thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 3: Thank you for inviting me. I'm excited.
Speaker 1: Hey, we're honored to have you.
Speaker 3: This is going to be.
Speaker 1: A great perspective food for people. Let's do it.
Speaker 2: Tell us about where you came from and what your
Speaker 2: childhood was like.
Speaker 3: I was born and raised in Aerina, Oklahoma, little country
Speaker 3: town about fifteen twenty miles west of Oklahoma City. And
Speaker 3: my mom she was amazing, still is amazing to this day.
Speaker 3: But six weeks before she had me. A month before
Speaker 3: her vacation pay, she was fired due to racism, and
Speaker 3: my mom didn't know what to do. She was struggling,
Speaker 3: I'm about to have a child. What do I do? Yeah,
Speaker 3: she became stressed in me and the womb. I received
Speaker 3: that and my mom was severely stressed. Wasn't going to
Speaker 3: have any money, what she was going to do? She
Speaker 3: was about to have a baby. Yep, So now she's stressed.
Speaker 3: I'm stressed. So I developed asthma from that seizures. So
Speaker 3: all these things were happening to me, was going on
Speaker 3: with me because of my mom was stressed because of
Speaker 3: what was going on out side, and I received it
Speaker 3: on the inside. And so that's how it started in
Speaker 3: the womb.
Speaker 2: So you're here by the grace of God absolutely, So
Speaker 2: tell us about your upbringing. What was it like growing
Speaker 2: up in that home?
Speaker 3: It was definitely a challenge. No father present at all. Ever,
Speaker 3: my mom was doing the best she could to bring
Speaker 3: me and my sister up and some things that she
Speaker 3: had to do to sacrifice her life. And she told me,
Speaker 3: she said, son, I never wanted to be on welfare,
Speaker 3: never wanted to do that. I wanted to work for
Speaker 3: my money. But she was forced to be on wearefare
Speaker 3: because she was fired. And when she got on the welfare,
Speaker 3: now it seemed like life was happening to us and
Speaker 3: not for us. Sometimes she would have to do things
Speaker 3: that she didn't want to do, and sometime we got
Speaker 3: to the point where she said, son, you know, I
Speaker 3: just had to sell myself because I wanted to provide
Speaker 3: for my children. And I would see she never knew
Speaker 3: that I was noticing this stuff, but I used to
Speaker 3: see like old rich white man coming into the house
Speaker 3: and boom, they relieve I would see this and taking
Speaker 3: that on in that whole process, not having a father,
Speaker 3: not having a male figure in the household, not teaching
Speaker 3: me how to become a man and what it looks
Speaker 3: like to be a man. My mom did the best
Speaker 3: she could try to raise me. She taught me streets.
Speaker 3: He wanted me to learn streets. Who wanted me to
Speaker 3: be a PhD In streets? She did that. Yeah, And
Speaker 3: that's the one thing she said, You're gonna low streets.
Speaker 3: You're gonna know how to live, survive, You're gonna know
Speaker 3: how to thrive. You're gonna know how to be the
Speaker 3: best person you can.
Speaker 2: Be what does that mean. She taught you how to
Speaker 2: know streets.
Speaker 3: So she would bring me out to the block. We
Speaker 3: called it the block in the hood. She would bring
Speaker 3: me out to the block. She would let me see
Speaker 3: the violence. She would let me see the drugs and alcohol.
Speaker 3: She would let me see all of that. And she
Speaker 3: showed me and she said, well, if you in this situation, son,
Speaker 3: this is what is gonna happen. If you're over here
Speaker 3: in this situation, this is gonna happen. If you're here,
Speaker 3: this is gonna happen. So I got to see drugs,
Speaker 3: I got to see alcohol, I got to see prostitution,
Speaker 3: I got to see gains, violence, I got to see
Speaker 3: all that. So at three years old, I was here
Speaker 3: by a car. My mom was having a rum and
Speaker 3: cell and my ball went out in the street and
Speaker 3: I ran out there in the street to get my
Speaker 3: ball and booming car hits me. Now the police comes
Speaker 3: and the police and my mom take me to the hospital.
Speaker 3: At this point, my mom was like, diah forms, you
Speaker 3: didn't know what was going on. And the doctor had
Speaker 3: put me in like freezing ice water. My grandma was
Speaker 3: there was like the think's going on? What is this.
Speaker 3: She snatches me out of the ice water. They take
Speaker 3: me to Oklahoma City to a specialist. The specialist was
Speaker 3: discovered that I had seizures from the car from the
Speaker 3: car hitting me, and he gave me fema barbatah. But
Speaker 3: if you're aware of what fema barbatah does, it slows
Speaker 3: your brain down. And so my mom was noticing changes
Speaker 3: in me and she took me off of it. And
Speaker 3: the doctor said, never tell a junkie that your son
Speaker 3: is on fema barbaitah. My mom was like what she said,
Speaker 3: because I junk it would probably kill you for it.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: And so my mom was like, that's it, it's over,
Speaker 3: no more of that. Yeah, So she took me off
Speaker 3: of it. I was a special A class from second
Speaker 3: grade through the twelfth grade. So I thought I was dumb.
Speaker 3: I thought it was stupid. I didn't think I was smart,
Speaker 3: had low self esteem, I was insecure, didn't love myself,
Speaker 3: didn't like me.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So that was a life that I lived. No father.
Speaker 3: My mom was emotionally sometimes abusive to me and my
Speaker 3: sister mentally abusive. She whooped us, we got whoopings, all
Speaker 3: those things. I thought it were good. I thought I'd
Speaker 3: come out great, but not knowing what it was doing
Speaker 3: to my subconscious. In my mindset, I was suppressing a
Speaker 3: lot of feelings. So then I would go to school
Speaker 3: and I would act it out. I'm doing quotation marks.
Speaker 3: I would act out. But it wasn't a behavior problem.
Speaker 3: It was a relationship problem. And when I realized that
Speaker 3: and my mom started to open up tell me things,
Speaker 3: I knew exactly what it.
Speaker 2: Was, even at a young age.
Speaker 3: Even at a young age, so at seven years old,
Speaker 3: almost drowning the pool. The guy was dunking me, I thought,
Speaker 3: and then when you go to the pool, the older
Speaker 3: guys to dunk you.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, horse playing, yeah, playing chicken.
Speaker 3: But I told him, I said I can't swim. He
Speaker 3: thought I was just playing. I didn't want to be dunked,
Speaker 3: and he dunked me. So one of my friends run
Speaker 3: up the stairs and go get my mom, and my
Speaker 3: mom would come yelling down the thing you be able
Speaker 3: to get my baby out of that water. To this day,
Speaker 3: I have no understanding, no recollection of what happened. How
Speaker 3: long I was in the water, I don't have no clue.
Speaker 3: But as my mom was doing that, his mom came
Speaker 3: out she said, baby gidding. I'm sorry, but I can't
Speaker 3: do anything with him. He killed his toward sister, same
Speaker 3: exact way.
Speaker 2: Wow, he drowned.
Speaker 3: Her drownder, same exact way, same thing, And so my
Speaker 3: mom was like WHOA. Three weeks before that, my mom
Speaker 3: picked us up from my grandmother's house and o'c clomb City.
Speaker 3: We're going to the gas station and my mama was
Speaker 3: inside the store. Me and my sister was in that window.
Speaker 3: We're seven years old. We're in the window, we're looking
Speaker 3: for her and waiting on her, and a guy just
Speaker 3: comes and blows the guy's brains down. We see the
Speaker 3: brains just come. So my mama's in the door in
Speaker 3: the class light, waving us get down, get down. I'm
Speaker 3: trying to pull my sister down now at this point,
Speaker 3: she's not trying to come down, but I'm down on
Speaker 3: the floor now and I'm trying to pull my sister down.
Speaker 3: I'm trying to get her down, and all I can
Speaker 3: just think of, like, man, what is this guy gonna
Speaker 3: do to my mom? So my mama's just like here
Speaker 3: in the head, like stuck and just looking and the
Speaker 3: god walks by does nothing. Then we leave, We go
Speaker 3: to the back to our house, and soon as we
Speaker 3: get to there, a lady comes running down the street.
Speaker 3: It's a guy dead at the store. She had killed
Speaker 3: her husband. Wow, my mama's boyfriend's cousin. So this is
Speaker 3: all in the spin. This is what I'm seeing at
Speaker 3: seven years old.
Speaker 2: The stories that you've told us in a few minutes
Speaker 2: we've been talking. Maybe one of those will happen to
Speaker 2: someone in their lifetime.
Speaker 3: And you've just.
Speaker 2: Told of the first formative years of your life. You've
Speaker 2: already been through this much. That was an everyday occurrence
Speaker 2: in the environment you grew up in.
Speaker 3: Yes, And at age nine, my sister had came into
Speaker 3: my room and said, get up, get up. I'm like,
Speaker 3: I'm sleep. I just got home school. I'm sleep. Like,
Speaker 3: leave me alone. No, I'm not getting she said, no,
Speaker 3: wake up, wake up. It's something red in the kitchen,
Speaker 3: Like leave me alone, please, I don't care. She's like, no,
Speaker 3: get up, I get up. Boom, it's a fire in
Speaker 3: the kitchen. So now I gotta go fill up a
Speaker 3: whole thing with water. And I threw it on the
Speaker 3: fire in the fire to say night. I did it
Speaker 3: again and it got bigger. Warning I said they'd be
Speaker 3: one more time. I'm gonna do it one more time.
Speaker 3: We gotta go filled it up again. I threw it
Speaker 3: on it and this just boom popped me and my
Speaker 3: sister said we got to go. We ran out. So
Speaker 3: we lost everything nine years old, all our stuff, animals.
Speaker 3: We had hundreds of stuff animals in My aunt Miami
Speaker 3: used to give us because she's just drive eighteen willers
Speaker 3: and lost clothes everything at nine. So childhood was challenging.
Speaker 3: I tell people a lot that my childhood experiences, all
Speaker 3: the things that I've experienced, it taught me a valuable lesson.
Speaker 3: But I had to learn when I got older. But
Speaker 3: in those times I didn't understand. I just suppressed my feelings,
Speaker 3: my emotions. I suppressed it all. I didn't know I
Speaker 3: was doing that. And in my culture, you don't talk
Speaker 3: about therapy. You don't talk about counseling anxiety. You better
Speaker 3: get up. You better get up, boy, you better, you
Speaker 3: better adjust yourself off. Don't let that little boy look
Speaker 3: at you crying. You're a man. Never let somebody see
Speaker 3: you crying. This is what I was taught. So nothing
Speaker 3: was going to FaZe me if I got hurt. I'm
Speaker 3: back up on my feet. That's how I grew up.
Speaker 1: Where did you find connection even at a young age.
Speaker 1: Was it on a field to play? Was it playing football, baseball? Basketball?
Speaker 1: Did you have any connection outside of your mom and
Speaker 1: your sister, your aunt?
Speaker 3: That's a great question. I had my grandmother, So both
Speaker 3: of my grandmas died when I was fourteen, and then
Speaker 3: my grandma died. She died when I was eleven, I
Speaker 3: mean twenty eleven. Then I had my memo too, So
Speaker 3: I had a foundation of women, you know, really comfort me,
Speaker 3: not only my mom, but my grandmother's, my aunts, and
Speaker 3: I had that connection. But for me it was I think,
Speaker 3: Jake is the field. So when I got on the
Speaker 3: baseball diamond, I was a whole different animal. When I
Speaker 3: got on the diamond, I thought that was gonna be
Speaker 3: my deal. And so when I got on the baseball diamond,
Speaker 3: I was ready. And then when I got on the
Speaker 3: football field, I was really ready because I ran fast.
Speaker 3: I was the fastest in my county. Nobody could nobody
Speaker 3: can out rub me. So that's what I think. That's
Speaker 3: what the connection was for me. That I knew I
Speaker 3: was fashioned baseball. They caught me flash so I was
Speaker 3: an act called flash.
Speaker 1: I just you know, because I'm thinking it back to
Speaker 1: my childhood and where I really the only outlet I
Speaker 1: had was playing football, and know I had that outlet
Speaker 1: of releasing all that stuff that I was suppressing. You know,
Speaker 1: I was more of the hitter as opposed to the
Speaker 1: hit tee. But it was something where I could leave
Speaker 1: there and just for a minute, I felt peace, you know,
Speaker 1: regardless of knowing where I was going back to, like,
Speaker 1: I felt peace. And look, I applaud you for your
Speaker 1: openness and your willingness to say yah, my culture we
Speaker 1: don't do that. We don't talk about it. I guess
Speaker 1: what it wasn't just in your culture. It's crazy because pride.
Speaker 3: And ego will kill you aste.
Speaker 1: And it's one of those things where you know, we
Speaker 1: tell our sons, if you got to say something, say something,
Speaker 1: I'll never judge us on our job. Yes, talk to
Speaker 1: us please, And we can't help what we don't know.
Speaker 2: With the education that your mom gave you, of the
Speaker 2: streets that was so important for her to show you,
Speaker 2: where did that take you?
Speaker 3: It took me and it led me to now me
Speaker 3: and my brother we started our little game and so
Speaker 3: we become leaders of a game. And in our whole
Speaker 3: perspective on that was that we never had fathers growing up.
Speaker 3: The older guys used to come to our games to
Speaker 3: watch us. They supported us, the older guys, so the
Speaker 3: older ones in the hood, they would come to our
Speaker 3: games and support us. And my brother and I we decided, Okay,
Speaker 3: this is what we wanted to do, and we wanted
Speaker 3: to be different than any other game because we were
Speaker 3: athletes and we wanted to develop an organization that was
Speaker 3: going to be like we're going to wear our clothes,
Speaker 3: we're going to wear our big chains, and but we
Speaker 3: were going to be excited about it. But also when
Speaker 3: we left our city in Arena, now we go to
Speaker 3: Oklahoma City, that's when violence happens. That's when fights and
Speaker 3: the violence and the guns and all that stuff became
Speaker 3: a part of life. But that's not how we wanted
Speaker 3: it to be. We just wanted to represent our colors,
Speaker 3: represent who we were, and just be us the athletes.
Speaker 3: But we go to Kloma City because we probably beat
Speaker 3: them on the football field, we beat them on the
Speaker 3: baseball diamond. Whatever. They didn't like us small town, they
Speaker 3: knew where we're from. They knew we're gonna fight hard,
Speaker 3: We're gonna play hard. They knew that. Now when we
Speaker 3: go to Oklahoma City, that's what it was. So my
Speaker 3: mom her teaching me that and me seeing tons of
Speaker 3: game violence and sometimes I'll be walking down the street
Speaker 3: in my city and broad daylight. We got enemy over
Speaker 3: here that's shooting and we got the duck and like,
Speaker 3: oh my goodness, this iseem like they're shooting a look,
Speaker 3: we can peer peer, we can hear the bullets flying.
Speaker 3: It's like, oh this broad daylight. I was always alert.
Speaker 3: I knew every exit, my mama taught me. I knew
Speaker 3: every exit, and I knew eskate route for everybody immediately
Speaker 3: and I would never see it with my back to
Speaker 3: the door. None of those things. So that's what those
Speaker 3: things she taught me, and I still use them today
Speaker 3: because it was valuable. And she told me different ways
Speaker 3: in different routes, and we had sound language that we
Speaker 3: would do, we had different words that we would say.
Speaker 3: So we created this me and my mom. She created
Speaker 3: these different things in me to show me, like this
Speaker 3: is what is going to be necessary for you to
Speaker 3: live the life you want to live. Growing up like
Speaker 3: that is it can be challenging, but at the same time,
Speaker 3: it was like, okay, what do you do? Because that's
Speaker 3: all we knew is that.
Speaker 2: It's hard for me to sit here. I mean because
Speaker 2: you know, I sit here and try to think that
Speaker 2: was your reality. Yes, always on edge, always having to
Speaker 2: check the door, always having to know your environment. Did
Speaker 2: you ever get in trouble like when you would go
Speaker 2: to Oklahoma City or things got gnarley? Was there ever
Speaker 2: any trouble.
Speaker 3: In our hood and in our environment? So if you
Speaker 3: look at my grandpa was a killer and he was
Speaker 3: a known killer, it's just what he was. So the
Speaker 3: name was respected, and then we have other people in
Speaker 3: our community was really respected that had bodies as well
Speaker 3: in our community. But Oklahoma City they don't know who
Speaker 3: my grandpa was. I don't even dank who your grandpa is.
Speaker 3: Your uncles got bodies or your uncles did this, and
Speaker 3: I don't give a thing about that. They want to
Speaker 3: see your heart beating, check you out, well, who are you?
Speaker 3: And so that what was going on when we went
Speaker 3: to Talkoma City, So it was fights and all these
Speaker 3: different things. So for me it was I never drank
Speaker 3: alcohol ever in my life, so I was always alert,
Speaker 3: so my prefund the cortex was always pretty solid, so
Speaker 3: my decision making was there. And I was standing not
Speaker 3: on the dance floor, but I would be up high
Speaker 3: and I'll be watching like our little homies down on
Speaker 3: the floor doing what they do. And if I see
Speaker 3: me got a little out of hand, I would, you know,
Speaker 3: come down and kind of check and let people know that,
Speaker 3: you know, I'm kind of leading this side. I'm looking
Speaker 3: for their leader and whatever there are, and we can
Speaker 3: talk about it, or we can just let them go.
Speaker 3: However y'all want to do it. One time, men, their
Speaker 3: leader got kicked out and we were walking out. I'm like, man,
Speaker 3: what do you want to do? Like you know where
Speaker 3: we're from, Like what do you want to do? He's like, man,
Speaker 3: I'm not even talking to you, so sorry. That's cool.
Speaker 3: So he goes and gets in the car. Some girl
Speaker 3: picks him up in the car and he comes by
Speaker 3: me in the car and fast as a forty cal
Speaker 3: at me. I say, what are you gonna do with that?
Speaker 3: And he's looking at me, say what are you gonna
Speaker 3: do with it? He's just showing it and waving it.
Speaker 3: So I hit him up, disrespected.
Speaker 2: Him, boom, What does that mean?
Speaker 3: Well, I just do it. Whatever his game is, I said,
Speaker 3: a killer to it. So I hit him up and
Speaker 3: I say, you know what it is on mine? And
Speaker 3: I just looked at him in his eye and they
Speaker 3: just rolled off and then he starts shooting in the
Speaker 3: air once he got on the highway. Coward. I knew
Speaker 3: that at that time that a lot of these cats
Speaker 3: are cowards and they really don't want to fight, they
Speaker 3: really don't want to shoot, they really want to do
Speaker 3: any of that. But this was happening day there, every weekend.
Speaker 3: Then we went to Oklahoma City. Something like that was
Speaker 3: going to happen. But we just never got arrested or
Speaker 3: anything like that happened. So we just never got any trouble.
Speaker 3: I guess it was a drilling rush that we wanted
Speaker 3: to go to Oklahoma City and we wanted to you know,
Speaker 3: todd the girls and go to the club. And I
Speaker 3: did that. My brother didn't do that, but I did that.
Speaker 3: He stayed and he sold drugs and we supposed to sold drugs,
Speaker 3: but he wanted to make money.
Speaker 2: What kind of drugs did you sell?
Speaker 3: We sold crack and we sold the wheed. We learned
Speaker 3: how to do it, and my brother was telling me.
Speaker 3: He said, may you remember when we were going to
Speaker 3: Houston and we wanted to go to Houston for spring
Speaker 3: break and we needed money. I'm like, yeah, I remember that.
Speaker 3: He said, you remember I made a thousand and I
Speaker 3: think you had eight fifty and we made that like
Speaker 3: in a day and a half. I was like, dang,
Speaker 3: I remember that. That was crazy. So he just told
Speaker 3: me this the other day and I'm like, wow, yes,
Speaker 3: I remember that, And that right there started it all.
Speaker 3: I mean I was shooting dice on the block on
Speaker 3: the corner probably I was twelve thirteen years old. It
Speaker 3: was like gambling and drugs and all that was part
Speaker 3: of our nature.
Speaker 2: Did you ever partake in the drugs?
Speaker 3: No? I never did any drugs either. Never never did
Speaker 3: any drugs, never smoked the sit We had, never popped
Speaker 3: any pill, never smoke any weed or any of that.
Speaker 3: But I used to roll my brother's blumps for him.
Speaker 3: I did that. So no alcohol, no drugs, none of that.
Speaker 3: I never did any of those things. I haven't said
Speaker 3: a cuss right now in twenty three.
Speaker 1: Years, Kay, you knew you were doing wrong right by
Speaker 1: selling drugs and doing all that right. Was there something
Speaker 1: telling you, like, you know you're doing wrong by selling
Speaker 1: the drugs and all that, it's fast money. Why go
Speaker 1: get a job when we can make almost two grand
Speaker 1: in less than two days? Right? Yes, But does something
Speaker 1: tell you not to get involved in smoking the weed,
Speaker 1: smoking crack? Did you just subconsciously almost know? I know
Speaker 1: I'm doing wrong, but I could get really caught up
Speaker 1: if I start doing these things.
Speaker 3: So my mom is she's a magician. She says, son,
Speaker 3: do as I say, not as I do. And that
Speaker 3: was part of the teaching. This part of the education
Speaker 3: is watching what it was doing, what drugs were doing
Speaker 3: to the older people in the community, what alcohol was
Speaker 3: doing to the people in the community. That was part
Speaker 3: of my education. That was part of the streets. She
Speaker 3: was teaching me. If you get caught up in these
Speaker 3: drugs by using them, caught up in alcohol using it,
Speaker 3: it will affect your behavior, It will affect your mindset,
Speaker 3: it will affect who you become. And so I never
Speaker 3: wanted to participate in any of those things because I
Speaker 3: used to see what it was doing to the people,
Speaker 3: my friends, my mom, what it did to them, and
Speaker 3: I was like, I don't want any part of that.
Speaker 1: It brings a whole different perspectives of seeing is bleeding
Speaker 1: absolutely so.
Speaker 2: Then gambling. You mentioned rolling dice, shoot shooting dice, shooting ice.
Speaker 2: I'm so white girl, preppy younce. So shooting dice, tell
Speaker 2: me about that? What did that lead to?
Speaker 3: Yes, I mean, shoot dice was definitely part of the culture.
Speaker 3: It was something that we did. We started being fun.
Speaker 3: At first. It was just a hobby. We could do it,
Speaker 3: and I became real good at it. And when you
Speaker 3: become real good at it, now people don't want to
Speaker 3: They don't want to play you anymore. They don't want
Speaker 3: to shoot you anymore. So it's like, okay, what do
Speaker 3: you do? And it was this one particular guy we
Speaker 3: should shoot dice life. He was like he sold a
Speaker 3: lot of joy and he had a lot of money
Speaker 3: all the time. And he would come and I would
Speaker 3: break him in my mama's house. My mama would watch it.
Speaker 3: I would break him. I would probably get, you know,
Speaker 3: four or five thousand dollars from me. He had that
Speaker 3: type of money all the time, and it was like,
Speaker 3: whoa cool? Now it becomes fun. All the gambling it
Speaker 3: starts to becomes fun. Then it become a like a habit,
Speaker 3: and now the habit develops is like it's a job now,
Speaker 3: and the job is like, okay, more and more and more.
Speaker 3: I need that dope, I mean fixed, I got a habit.
Speaker 3: I got it. I need more and more and more.
Speaker 3: It's just like a drug adds an alcoholic. They need more.
Speaker 3: And when you alert the nucleus combas it says, look
Speaker 3: that tasted good, I need more of that, sending it
Speaker 3: up to the prefund of cortex with the decisions gonna
Speaker 3: be made, and there you go. It's more. And now
Speaker 3: the casino starts to be involved. Now Las Vegas starts
Speaker 3: to be involved, because we don't have craps in Oklahoma
Speaker 3: at that time. Now they do. I don't even do
Speaker 3: it anymore. It could have been a good thing. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I don't know, but yeah, so Las Vegas and crabs
Speaker 3: and going to casino playing poker and learning that game.
Speaker 3: It costs a lot of money to learn that because
Speaker 3: nobody teaches you. You gotta gotta have a little balls
Speaker 3: a little bit.
Speaker 1: And yeah, yeah, I've played lots of poker in Monday too.
Speaker 1: It's crazy how I have similarities.
Speaker 2: You'll have a lot of parallels.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what would you say that the game being gave
Speaker 1: you that you didn't otherwise have.
Speaker 3: That's a powerful question, amazing question. I'm glad you asked
Speaker 3: it so it can be broken down because because I
Speaker 3: thought about it all day. So, yeah, you said it
Speaker 3: hit the nail on the on the head right there.
Speaker 3: When you're talking about the brotherhood and loyal tea and
Speaker 3: commitment and dedication to each other, and you think about blood,
Speaker 3: sweating tears together thinking about and you're talking about that
Speaker 3: none of us not having fathers and us just being
Speaker 3: who we are together as a brotherhood as a that
Speaker 3: foundation and setting that loyalty, commitment and dedication to one
Speaker 3: another that we're going to do this for our brother
Speaker 3: no matter what.
Speaker 2: How much of this lifestyle stuck with you as you
Speaker 2: went on to play sports.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so it was. It's always been there since I
Speaker 3: was younger, So just I mean being in the street
Speaker 3: and understanding those that lifestyle sports was just right there
Speaker 3: with it. So my mom, it was like almost contradictory.
Speaker 3: I didn't understand it then as a child, but I
Speaker 3: get it now, and I tell I was like, you
Speaker 3: were condradicting yourself, So you were teaching me streets. But
Speaker 3: then you forced me to play someone went to fall
Speaker 3: spring baseball to get me off the streets, Like like,
Speaker 3: when that comes, what is that? How does that work?
Speaker 1: Mom?
Speaker 3: Around, I'm like, okay, cool. So yeah, so we laugh
Speaker 3: about that now, But that's what it was doing. I
Speaker 3: mean in sports, I became more aware and more focused
Speaker 3: and in baseball, but I got burned out because I
Speaker 3: played someone on a false spring. Yes, and my mom
Speaker 3: was this coach a call and say it's just unavailable. Yes,
Speaker 3: he is available, and I'm like, mam, I just played.
Speaker 3: I'm done. I'm tired. I don't want to do that anymore.
Speaker 3: Are you going he's coming to get you? You're going?
Speaker 3: Am I gonna tell my mom?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 3: Heg No. I could hit in the mouth, No way. So,
Speaker 3: I mean my mom was pretty solid too. She wanted
Speaker 3: those slouch and she was a street walker. So no
Speaker 3: way in the world I was gonna tell my mom
Speaker 3: was yeah. And so that's what happened with me is sports.
Speaker 3: I became really I started to really be more focused,
Speaker 3: but I didn't work because I was gifted, and that
Speaker 3: was a problem. I didn't have to work at it.
Speaker 3: I was just gifted and I would go out and
Speaker 3: run routes here and there, and catch the football here
Speaker 3: and there and throw the baseball here and there. But
Speaker 3: I didn't work like I should have worked, and it
Speaker 3: damaged a lot of a lot of things. And I
Speaker 3: didn't have any support. Again, I didn't have a father.
Speaker 3: So my teammates they had dads and they had all that.
Speaker 3: But I didn't understand what it was doing to me
Speaker 3: until later because I was just suppressed it. I didn't
Speaker 3: have a father. I didn't care about that. I wasn't
Speaker 3: gonna talk about it. I wasn't gonna do any of that.
Speaker 3: But I had my mom. I had my grandma, so
Speaker 3: I had my aunts. That's all I needed. That's all
Speaker 3: I cared for. That's all I knew. That's what it
Speaker 3: was going to do. I was recruited by Oklahoma State
Speaker 3: in a ton of other Division Wants schools, but I
Speaker 3: didn't have any grades. My grades and I remember, I'm
Speaker 3: especially a class. I'm saying grade to the twelfth grade,
Speaker 3: and now my grades are terrible. I don't care for school.
Speaker 3: Some teachers said I would never mount to anything. Some
Speaker 3: teachers said I'll be dead in prison. I'm like, WHOA,
Speaker 3: But I also had teachers that loved me and nurtured
Speaker 3: me and cared for me. They knew this guy was
Speaker 3: going to be here one day, but I just had
Speaker 3: to get through the weeds first and discover who I
Speaker 3: am today. So when opportunities came, and then now I
Speaker 3: go to junior college and I'm playing in junior college. Cool.
Speaker 3: I get a scholarship, go to junior college, which is great,
Speaker 3: and I go to Division two and I've been played
Speaker 3: Division two for three years from one to oh four?
Speaker 3: Did that? My junior year we went one in eleven?
Speaker 3: Oh tough. My senior year we went oh and twelve. Oh.
Speaker 3: Do you think that I have a shot to go
Speaker 3: into the NFL? Absolutely not. I'm in playing. Yeah, Like,
Speaker 3: what the heck? This was the whole thing. I wanted
Speaker 3: to buy a house for my mom, my grandma's, I
Speaker 3: want to get my mom out the hood. I want
Speaker 3: to do all these different things. And now that's not
Speaker 3: gonna happen. So now I'm like fierce. I'm like, I
Speaker 3: don't give a dang forget football. Now I'm like forget it.
Speaker 3: So two thousand and five, I took the whole year off,
Speaker 3: and my issers like dude, you gotta do something. You
Speaker 3: gotta go play a Reena ball. You got like, I'm
Speaker 3: way too good for that. I'm not doing that. If
Speaker 3: I can't get a shot first into the lead, I'm
Speaker 3: not doing it. It's just dumb. And I took the
Speaker 3: whole two thousand and five off, and.
Speaker 2: I was bitter, were you still gang banging?
Speaker 3: I was still out there. I wasn't banging as hard
Speaker 3: as I did, but I was still obviously affiliated. It
Speaker 3: was I'll still hit you up. Yeah, yeah, I was
Speaker 3: still hit you up, but I wasn't really just banging
Speaker 3: hard like that. And I never really banged hard. I
Speaker 3: wore my colors and I represented wherever was from, and
Speaker 3: that's really what I did. But I was still definitely affiliated.
Speaker 3: So that was two thousand and five and I took
Speaker 3: that off. And then the Esperados, the Dallas Deesperados, the Areenity.
Speaker 3: They had a tryout at the old AT and T
Speaker 3: Stadium or the old Dallas Cowboys Stadium, and I signed
Speaker 3: up and I said, okay, my agent was like here,
Speaker 3: two thousand and six, minute took a year off, let's
Speaker 3: go and try this, right, I'm like, all right, cool,
Speaker 3: I'm hold on myself. I'm gonna do it. I would
Speaker 3: and killed that work out and demolished it, and every
Speaker 3: coach there ran to me after I ran my forty.
Speaker 3: They were like, man, where are you from? Who's your agent?
Speaker 3: What school did you go to? I'm like, oh my goodness,
Speaker 3: what the heck is this? What's going on? Yeah, I'm
Speaker 3: like doing so I told him, and this is where
Speaker 3: everything was going on. I was like, okay, cool. So
Speaker 3: now after the forty, now we go run routes on air. Cool.
Speaker 3: Then the DB's come that we running one on once.
Speaker 3: The head coach that's Dallas Desperados, he was right there,
Speaker 3: and the Marcus where was there also when first I
Speaker 3: first met the markets where and I was running routes.
Speaker 3: I was doing what I was doing. It was probably
Speaker 3: two hundred of his receivers. And I had a girl
Speaker 3: in the stance. She can verify everything I'm saying. And
Speaker 3: it's crazy. She was in the stand.
Speaker 1: Susy, you had a little extra motivations.
Speaker 3: I did. I did it.
Speaker 1: I did.
Speaker 3: You're right, Jake, I did. I did so. Yeah, I
Speaker 3: had to do it. How to do? And so I'm
Speaker 3: running these routes. It's two hundred of US receivers. Every
Speaker 3: hour he was cutting people. Wow, so every hour you
Speaker 3: were getting cut. Here, call a huddle and bring everybody
Speaker 3: in the huddle. He's like, well, number such and setting
Speaker 3: such and sudding such, certing says that, thank you so
Speaker 3: much for participating.
Speaker 2: We're out.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I gotta go. And now it gets all the
Speaker 3: way down to ten. I'm still there. And so this
Speaker 3: dude is like, can anybody hold two fifty two? That
Speaker 3: was my number? Can anybody hold two fifty two? Because
Speaker 3: he is killing all day. I said, coach, matter of fact,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna tell her route. I'm a run and I'm
Speaker 3: gonna see what's gonna happen. That's what I did. I said,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna run a post. This is what's gonna happen.
Speaker 3: He was like, hold on two fifty two. So you're
Speaker 3: gonna tell him to route? You do run. I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 3: let's do it. I'm trying to make the squad. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: I just I ran a poe boom de molister dB.
Speaker 3: He was like, he just told you what he was running.
Speaker 3: And yeah, So we got all the way down. I
Speaker 3: was a number one receiver at that camp that time,
Speaker 3: and somehow they lost all my times. They didn't know
Speaker 3: who I was for whatever reason, and so I talked
Speaker 3: to the Marcus Races like, dude, you're gonna be up
Speaker 3: here with me. I'm like, that's what I'm trying to
Speaker 3: get to. I'm trying to be a cowboy, like that's
Speaker 3: what I'm trying to do my favorite team. And so
Speaker 3: I was talking to him and that's the first time
Speaker 3: I ever even met the guy. Knew who the guy
Speaker 3: was and I didn't even know who he was, and
Speaker 3: Boom was right there. But that's what happened. They lost everything.
Speaker 3: So there was Arena two coach there and he got
Speaker 3: my information. He wanted me to come to his squad
Speaker 3: and at Marillo, Texas, and that's what I did about
Speaker 3: myself again. And I went there and I played a
Speaker 3: few games there. He put me on IR for whatever reason,
Speaker 3: and my agent was like, dude, you hurt. I'm like, no,
Speaker 3: I'm not hurt. Like what you talking me? He said?
Speaker 3: Why are you are hard in It's like I don't know.
Speaker 3: It means injurest what the heck? I have no idea.
Speaker 3: So I go talk to coach. I'm like, dude, why
Speaker 3: am I he's like, oh, well, I got to humble you.
Speaker 3: And you know what this dude told me. He said,
Speaker 3: you're not supposed to be in this league. In my head,
Speaker 3: I'm like duh. And he said, you think you're manchho,
Speaker 3: you think you like t o to real owens. I'm like, coach,
Speaker 3: I don't even talk. I don't do that. That's not me.
Speaker 3: He's like, I put your or to humble you. I said, okay.
Speaker 3: So I went to talk to my agent. I said, look,
Speaker 3: he's got to cut me, release me something. This is ridiculous.
Speaker 3: I'm not going to do this. This is dumb. So
Speaker 3: he ended up finally releases me, and then I go
Speaker 3: and work out in Streetport Bosa City Streetport Louisiana.
Speaker 2: That's where Jake's from.
Speaker 3: Oh look at their battle wings went down.
Speaker 2: There.
Speaker 3: Went to a workout two days, a two day workout.
Speaker 1: I have been in Jill and.
Speaker 2: A minute, casinos Andreport City. It is a still gambling.
Speaker 3: I was. I was all over boats, all over them.
Speaker 1: I just one in particular I've been banned from for life,
Speaker 1: which one is that I'm not even okay cool.
Speaker 3: I don't even want to say to one. I like
Speaker 3: because it might be that.
Speaker 1: So you're absolutely right, Yeah, it's the same one than
Speaker 1: you're thinking.
Speaker 3: I guarantee it is, yep, yep, it is. I guarantee yes, what.
Speaker 2: You are talking.
Speaker 3: I definitely was still gatherling there. End up making that
Speaker 3: team first day, Boom said, met me at the office
Speaker 3: and you're on the squad. So Boom, I get on
Speaker 3: the squad do that. End up playing that season and
Speaker 3: I'm like, I didn't really get the ball that much.
Speaker 3: And I'm like, so every week he was coming to me.
Speaker 3: He was like, man, Richie, my bag, Man, I gotta
Speaker 3: get your ball. I gotta get your ball. Every single week.
Speaker 3: This was happening every week. I'm like, yeah, coach is cool.
Speaker 3: I'm like, I'm here, coach, let's get it. Every week. Nothing. Nothing.
Speaker 3: I finally ended the season, I go back to Oklahoma.
Speaker 3: I'm like, I'm done. I said, I'm not leaving, say
Speaker 3: to Ogahoma again. We had to ring the team in Oklahomaself,
Speaker 3: I'm done, I'm not gonna do it. So my agent
Speaker 3: was like, dude, we got this opportunity and see I'm like,
Speaker 3: here we go again. I said, I'm not leaving Oklahoma.
Speaker 3: I'm not gonna do that. That's dumb. I have a
Speaker 3: ton of hate in my heart now, a ton of
Speaker 3: resentment in my heart. And I'm like, I just motion
Speaker 3: to come back. Yeah see, I'm like, man, this is ridiculous.
Speaker 3: And so this is two thousand and seven, and I said,
Speaker 3: I told my dad. I said, I'm gonna play here
Speaker 3: in Oklahoma. I don't care. I'm gonna I'm gonna stay here.
Speaker 3: He said, well, this is a good opportunity. It's a
Speaker 3: good deal. These guys that really want you, they play
Speaker 3: the game, they know the game. They get it. I said, like, cool,
Speaker 3: I signed in the week. If it's still there in
Speaker 3: the week I signed, He said, all right, I tell
Speaker 3: him he was still there in the week. So guess
Speaker 3: what I signed. So I'm now I'm excited. I said, Okay, cool,
Speaker 3: I go to Seattle Side whatever. Cool, Cool, I get
Speaker 3: to go. I get to go again. I'm gonna tumble
Speaker 3: myself again. I'm gonna see what's gonna happen. And now
Speaker 3: in two thousand and seven, so we play in the spring. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I think it's the spring summer and in the fall.
Speaker 3: So I'm coaching high school football now at Mama Matter.
Speaker 3: I grew up in my city and there, you know,
Speaker 3: some coach of high school football. I'm excited about it.
Speaker 3: And that's just what I do. Me and my friends.
Speaker 3: We go to Bricktown, enjoin Bricktown. No need to have
Speaker 3: a gun or any of that stuff because we're in Bricktown.
Speaker 3: Police crazy in Bricktown. That tough, Like, no, we don't
Speaker 3: need that. So we're going to get some chicks and
Speaker 3: that's this is what we're gonna do, and we're gonna
Speaker 3: move on bout our business. So I ended up meeting
Speaker 3: a girl there, and what do you know, we kind
Speaker 3: of hit it often. So I told the girl, said, like,
Speaker 3: we're goinna go this concert, I'm gonna hit you out.
Speaker 3: And so he forty was doing a concert in Oklahoma
Speaker 3: City at the club. So we go to the concert,
Speaker 3: me and my boy. We go inside the concert. The
Speaker 3: forties not there yet, and but he's on the way
Speaker 3: the police escorting men. Of course they put him over
Speaker 3: in boomboo bo. So now now escorty men. So he's
Speaker 3: coming on in now, So it's cool. So he gets there.
Speaker 3: We're in the club probably about fifteen twenty minutes and
Speaker 3: here he comes and he's like rocking it concerts. Are
Speaker 3: we leaving, We get in the cars. When we're going
Speaker 3: to the house, it's like four point thirty in the morning.
Speaker 3: Now like, I'm tired. I got this chick waiting. She's
Speaker 3: trying to come and get I'm like, oh, my goodness,
Speaker 3: let's get back to the town. She's on the way.
Speaker 3: And as we pulled to the stoplight, a car behind us,
Speaker 3: I guess, jumps behind us, and one of the homies says, man,
Speaker 3: that just car has jumped behind us, real quick, crazy.
Speaker 3: The first thing to come to me, I'm like, you scared.
Speaker 3: We're not scared. We're from Areada. We're not scared of
Speaker 3: anything or anybody. And so now I raise up because
Speaker 3: I'm all the way in the seat. I'm like, lo,
Speaker 3: now I raise up. I'm looking in my riv because
Speaker 3: I'm on the passenger side, and I kind of ease
Speaker 3: over to the review to see what was going on behind.
Speaker 3: So now I'm like, oh, Now, as we turn into
Speaker 3: the close lane, that car turns into the far lane.
Speaker 3: I can hear him bickering. I'm tired. It's fourth thirty
Speaker 3: in the morning. I hear him bickering. So I'm like,
Speaker 3: so I start hitting him up, boom boom. Before I
Speaker 3: knew it, the dude on the passenger side is on
Speaker 3: top of the car. The dude in the back you know,
Speaker 3: he's raising out of the car. You know how you
Speaker 3: sit on the door, He's raising out of the car.
Speaker 3: The dude in the back seat was like, slow down,
Speaker 3: I'm about to let these before I can. Before he
Speaker 3: gets let these dudes have it. The dude was already shooting,
Speaker 3: and then both of them was like And for me,
Speaker 3: I knew if the waist up, I wasn't gonna get hit.
Speaker 3: I was gonna live. So I had ducked in the
Speaker 3: back seat and I turned and as I was turning,
Speaker 3: then I was exposed. My lower half was exposed. And
Speaker 3: so when I get now, I don't know what happened
Speaker 3: on Black album we had wrecked. When I wake up,
Speaker 3: I told the homie, I said, man, hey, my leg
Speaker 3: is burning. It's like, what do you mean, Ross, I'm like,
Speaker 3: my leg is burning. I don't know, I can't move it.
Speaker 3: I said, man, check my leg. He said, man, you good? Ross.
Speaker 3: I said, nah, bro, check my hip. He said, you laking.
Speaker 3: I said, ah me here. Once I wake up from
Speaker 3: all that, the fireman is at the door. Now, he said,
Speaker 3: I gotta get you out of here. I was like,
Speaker 3: I can't get out. I've been shot. He said, I no,
Speaker 3: I gotta get you out of here because you just
Speaker 3: hit this pole. And if I don't get you out
Speaker 3: of here, gonna get eletrocuted. I said, get me out
Speaker 3: of here then, and now we're going to the hospital. Now.
Speaker 3: I'm terrified Sean Taylor just got killed because it's just
Speaker 3: like I think about a month or months before he
Speaker 3: got shot in the leg and he got he died,
Speaker 3: and I'm like I was thinking about that in an ambulance.
Speaker 3: I'm like, I'm asking to do it. I'm like, man,
Speaker 3: am I gonna die?
Speaker 2: My good?
Speaker 3: He's like, man, you're in shock right now. And then
Speaker 3: he said I just passed out and I didn't wake
Speaker 3: back up until I got into the hospital. And I
Speaker 3: got in the hospital, what woke me up was my mom.
Speaker 3: She was yelling all the way at the other end
Speaker 3: of all. They wouldn't let her in because it's games.
Speaker 3: And I was like, is that my mom? The nurse
Speaker 3: was like, I don't know something. Later, I said, that's
Speaker 3: my mom. Let her in. She's like, oh, you see,
Speaker 3: I'm like, let her in or she's coming. Let her
Speaker 3: in or she's coming for sure. How do you want
Speaker 3: to do it. You can be peaceful or it can
Speaker 3: be calm, but let her in nice. Yeah, And so
Speaker 3: my mom called me. She's like, oh my god, son
Speaker 3: is so good to say. I'm like, Mom, is so
Speaker 3: good to see you. And by that same time, the
Speaker 3: detective came. He's like, are you miss rich And I'm like, yes, sir.
Speaker 3: He said, you're lucky to be alive. I said, no,
Speaker 3: I'm not lucky to be alive. From God son, God
Speaker 3: and my father like what you're talking about, I'm not
Speaker 3: lucky to be alive. He said. Eleven bullets hit your door.
Speaker 3: He said, wow, So two of them hit me and
Speaker 3: one is still lifted me today and right before, like
Speaker 3: I just signed that contract a couple of weeks prior,
Speaker 3: and you know what am I going to do now?
Speaker 3: So now I hook up with my training. He's my uncle.
Speaker 3: He called him my uncle. He's a hard nose, white guy, solid,
Speaker 3: it's crazy and he could pull out of here. And
Speaker 3: my uncle with like best friends and I called him
Speaker 3: Mark said uncle, Mark man, that's a guy shot. He said,
Speaker 3: what the heck? Come to the house. I'm like him
Speaker 3: and his brother are freaking crazy, like Uncle Dan, Uncle Marka.
Speaker 3: I'm like, man, what the heck? What happened? So they
Speaker 3: giving me the whole third degree and they're furious. I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 3: I know me too. So he changed me, gets me right,
Speaker 3: gets me going, and I'm now able to move a
Speaker 3: little bit, and I'm good. I feel like the bullet
Speaker 3: made me faster. I don't know, it's pretty crazy, like
Speaker 3: it's more explosive, like it was crazy. I'm like, what
Speaker 3: the heck. So he's like, man, I think that bully
Speaker 3: made you faster. Like I'm like no, I like feel great,
Speaker 3: and I couldn't even walk for a minute. And it's like,
Speaker 3: all of a sudden, I'm jumping on like forty inch
Speaker 3: boxes and I'm just running like crazy. And now I
Speaker 3: get to the season. I'm playing the season now, the
Speaker 3: first four games coaching throwing the ball. So now I'm
Speaker 3: going back. I'm like that resentment is there. I'm like,
Speaker 3: this is why didn't want to come. I'm like, this
Speaker 3: is ridiculous. I told my agent. I was like, this
Speaker 3: is exactly why they want to come. But an approached
Speaker 3: you play sixteen games Yea, there's twelve more games left
Speaker 3: and Joshua Richie has forty four touchdowns, one hundred and
Speaker 3: forty eight catches, one nine hundred and seventy yards receiving
Speaker 3: twelve games. Because I broke every record on the team,
Speaker 3: every team record, and I bot multiple records in the league.
Speaker 3: I was ready to rock and roll.
Speaker 2: No kidding, just got shot.
Speaker 3: My mama's in prison. What am I going to do?
Speaker 3: So every week I'm sending her clips. I'm crying, I'm
Speaker 3: in tears. I'm sending her clips, in spying her and
Speaker 3: she's in prison, sending her pictures and sending her news
Speaker 3: clippings of everything I'm doing. Every single week. Every week,
Speaker 3: I was scoring five touchdowns every single game. I had
Speaker 3: a purpose, had a vision, I had a goal. I
Speaker 3: was trying to get to the league. And that's what
Speaker 3: I was doing. So do all that. My mom went
Speaker 3: to prison. Boom, She's in prison, locked in, locked up,
Speaker 3: And I'm still I'm just out here. I mean way
Speaker 3: in Seattle, on from Oklahoma, way and Seattle. My mom's
Speaker 3: in prison in Oklahoma. All I can do is center clips.
Speaker 3: That's all I can do. Now. After that, I go
Speaker 3: to Arena one. Now, so that was Arena two. I
Speaker 3: go to Arena one and two thousand and yeah, so
Speaker 3: seven eight Arena one. I'm playing in there in two
Speaker 3: thousand and nine to leave folds. So I'm like, man,
Speaker 3: you gotta be kidding me. Here we are again, Like
Speaker 3: what the hell? This is crazy? So now I'm really
Speaker 3: hating the game. Now it's really come back. Now the
Speaker 3: resentment is really there. And for me, it was like, okay,
Speaker 3: so I'm done. I'm gonna start a family, I'm gonna
Speaker 3: have some kids, and this is what's gonna happen. I
Speaker 3: don't even give it an yep, it's over. So what
Speaker 3: I get a call? Of course, a freaking quarterback. A
Speaker 3: freaking quarterback you call it said, dude, you're not in
Speaker 3: the lead hit. I'm like, no, freaking the AFL just photed,
Speaker 3: Like what the heck? He hung up on me, So
Speaker 3: I'm tripping. Then the phone rings and he's like, hold on,
Speaker 3: is this Joshua Rich. I'm like yes, sir. He's like, well,
Speaker 3: this is such and such and jac just gave me
Speaker 3: a number to call. You say, you're looking for an agent,
Speaker 3: You're trying to get to the lead. I'm like yes, absolutely.
Speaker 3: So this dude hangs up on me, and so now
Speaker 3: an agent calls. He's like, dude, I just got a call. Said,
Speaker 3: you're trying to get to the lead. You're six y three,
Speaker 3: you're like one ninety, and you run extremely fast and
Speaker 3: you catch the ball extremely good. And what's up? I said,
Speaker 3: what's up?
Speaker 1: Tell me?
Speaker 3: You tell me. I don't know, like you tell me
Speaker 3: what's up. So he's like, okay, well I didn't made
Speaker 3: five calls already. I said, cool, let's do it. I'm
Speaker 3: excited about it. I'm like, I'm geeked. I'm like, oh man,
Speaker 3: this is what I've been waiting on. He puts me
Speaker 3: on the phone. He calls you tried to call it
Speaker 3: Tampa Bay. He calls Jacksonville. Neither one of them answer.
Speaker 3: Then he calls the Jets. The Jets answer. So the
Speaker 3: Jets was like, we've seen the film. We like him.
Speaker 3: He's big, let's go, so just give me an opportunity.
Speaker 3: I'm there for like a week I think eight days
Speaker 3: some with the Jets, and the Jets was like at
Speaker 3: that time, I think I was twenty seven. The Jets
Speaker 3: was like, well, we want to draft two young guys.
Speaker 3: We want to send you to a camp in CFL
Speaker 3: and we won't bring you back in the.
Speaker 2: Training camp Canada.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, Canada. I'm like, the heck, But I did
Speaker 3: get it was there. I said, okay, humble myself. I
Speaker 3: didn't really bring onto the resentment anymore. But now I
Speaker 3: get to this camp in the CFL. It was the
Speaker 3: wrong team. So it's not the team that I'm supposed
Speaker 3: to be in. It's not the team that I'm supposed
Speaker 3: to be act somehow, I'm like, come on, man. So
Speaker 3: my agent had all these different people. He had some
Speaker 3: receivers in the draft, he got drafted like second third round.
Speaker 3: He got all these players, and I'm like, the world,
Speaker 3: can you send me to the wrong place? And the
Speaker 3: Jets is this is what they're doing, this is their farm.
Speaker 3: So now I really don't give it two craps about
Speaker 3: football anymore. I hate the game. I don't even know
Speaker 3: that agent's name. I don't even know the coach's name,
Speaker 3: the general manager from the Jets, I don't know the
Speaker 3: dude from the freaking Canada. I don't even tried to
Speaker 3: think of their names. And remember, I can't even do it.
Speaker 3: I had so much hatred toward the game so much.
Speaker 3: I despise a football game. I hated it. I didn't
Speaker 3: care to see it, didn't care to watch it, didn't
Speaker 3: care to If anybody talked about it, I would move,
Speaker 3: I would leave. I didn't care. I hated it that much.
Speaker 3: I'm like, I feel like you really took that from it.
Speaker 3: But then when I look back at it today, I say, well,
Speaker 3: if you would have really grind, if you were really
Speaker 3: put that work in, if you really would took some
Speaker 3: steps differently before all that, then you probably would have
Speaker 3: got the shot that you wanted. But I believe that
Speaker 3: I didn't work. And I also if I did hit
Speaker 3: the lead, I was going to furnish my hood and
Speaker 3: bring more drugs. I knew that was going to happen.
Speaker 3: Just gotta be real. Wow, I knew I was going
Speaker 3: to do that. God was like, Nah, we're not going
Speaker 3: to do that.
Speaker 2: That was life happening for you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that was life having it for me. That was
Speaker 3: life having them for me. Absolutely, actually, one hundred thousand
Speaker 3: percent correct.
Speaker 1: I dig your ownership because like you know, damn good
Speaker 1: and well, like you're a domin doesn't with that story,
Speaker 1: that was that close, right, you know that? And but
Speaker 1: the fact that you own it, that's what makes you
Speaker 1: who you are today, because there's a lot of people
Speaker 1: that want there's a lot of people still pointing fingers.
Speaker 2: So your football career was over, But did surviving that shooting?
Speaker 2: Did that make you rethink your street life?
Speaker 3: Absolutely on, hundred percent, And I'm glad you asked that.
Speaker 3: When I got shot, I took my flag down out
Speaker 3: of the window and I walked to my mom. I said, Mom,
Speaker 3: I'm done. She said, what do you mean. I said,
Speaker 3: I'm done with the whole gang life. Done. I don't
Speaker 3: want any part of it anymore. She broke down bawling.
Speaker 3: She's like, oh my gosh. I didn't think this time
Speaker 3: would ever come. So I said, Mom, I'm going to
Speaker 3: go buy a blue shirt now, and she bowed even harder.
Speaker 3: She's like, oh my gosh, is this my son? I'm
Speaker 3: like absolutely.
Speaker 1: So when you finish up football, where football finishes with you,
Speaker 1: however you want to look at it, Yeah, that's what
Speaker 1: it was. And then you lose that outlet you find
Speaker 1: yourself in the depths of gambling. Where does that lead?
Speaker 3: I had foul Chapter seven bankruptcy, lost in everything. When
Speaker 3: I was on my couch at home. I was severely depressed, broken,
Speaker 3: had no relationship with my kids, had no relationship with
Speaker 3: their mother. We were going at each other's throats and
Speaker 3: court back and forth for years, like we were just
Speaker 3: doing it, and I was broken. I remembering on that
Speaker 3: couch with tears coming down my face in the fetal position,
Speaker 3: curled up, balling just like a baby. Had no electricity,
Speaker 3: had to take freezing coat showers. The only thing that
Speaker 3: I could focus on was like the bugs that were
Speaker 3: hitting my window. And then my neighbor had that little
Speaker 3: bug light that would get the bugs, and I was
Speaker 3: hearing that. Then I would sit up and I would
Speaker 3: just be in a meditative state. Tears would just be falling,
Speaker 3: and all I can do is just be with me.
Speaker 3: I made a decision that moment. I said I'm done.
Speaker 3: This is over stopping this, and I made that commitment
Speaker 3: to myself that I'm gonna get through this. I would
Speaker 3: go take a freezing coach shower and I would breathe
Speaker 3: in that shower, in the shower to get warm. I
Speaker 3: didn't know what was going on. I don't know why
Speaker 3: was that happening. So the more I did it, I
Speaker 3: got comfortable and I would take like four or five
Speaker 3: showers a day because I had no ELECTRICI so I
Speaker 3: had no running hot water. That's all I could do
Speaker 3: is take freezing cold showers. Then I moved things around.
Speaker 3: I moved my couch around. I moved my chairs around.
Speaker 3: I moved my TV around. I move my kitchen table around,
Speaker 3: my chairs around. I just moved everything around. And I
Speaker 3: started taking different routes home. And I was working for
Speaker 3: the school system at that time. I was getting paid
Speaker 3: once a month, but I had payday loans. I was
Speaker 3: some severe debt every month, and I didn't know what
Speaker 3: to do, didn't know who to turn to, didn't know
Speaker 3: what was going on. I was broken. I was lost,
Speaker 3: like nothing, disgusted.
Speaker 2: But then you made a decision.
Speaker 3: But I made a decision, and a decision has to
Speaker 3: be made within zero to ten seconds. Anything after that,
Speaker 3: in my opinion, it's kneel and void. It doesn't sniper
Speaker 3: gonna work. Now it's been eight years. I haven't touched
Speaker 3: some dice nor been at a casino in eight years.
Speaker 3: Because I made that decision that I was going to
Speaker 3: bet on me in that moment. That's what I did.
Speaker 3: I bet on me, and I changed everything. Now I
Speaker 3: got the relationship with my kids, got a relationship with
Speaker 3: the mother. Life is great, beautiful.
Speaker 1: Well done, well done, and congratulations bro.
Speaker 2: And thank you for sharing this story.
Speaker 3: Absolutely And I'm just grateful for who I am today
Speaker 3: and where I'm at today. And my three things that
Speaker 3: I live by in my life is self love, healing,
Speaker 3: and forgiveness. Those are the three things that got me
Speaker 3: to where I'm at today. Amen. I believe healing is
Speaker 3: a lifetime commitment. It's just never You're never going to
Speaker 3: be fully healed. It's a lifetime commitment. I believe that
Speaker 3: every day you got to heal something, every day you
Speaker 3: got to get there. I'm pretty sure related, Yes we are.
Speaker 3: I'm almost positive, yes, yes. And so those are the
Speaker 3: three things I live by. And you see my life
Speaker 3: the all the forgiveness I had to do. When I
Speaker 3: look at my life today, that's where I'm surrounded by
Speaker 3: his self love, healing, and forgiveness. And those are the
Speaker 3: three things. And the caveats is courage, bravery, and boldness.
Speaker 3: I had to have enough courage to face that. Then
Speaker 3: I had to be brave enough to walk through it.
Speaker 3: Even on the fire was hot, I still had to
Speaker 3: walk through it, be bold enough to take a risk
Speaker 3: and bet on me.
Speaker 2: That is the good stuff right there. Joshua Richie, thank
Speaker 2: you so much for telling your story. What an unbelievable,
Speaker 2: crazy roller coaster of a story. But truly thank you
Speaker 2: for digging deep and telling us all that.
Speaker 3: Thank you for having me. Yeah, you showed up today.
Speaker 3: I'll tell you what.
Speaker 1: When I walked in this room, you know, I came
Speaker 1: from a meeting where I was like, I was really
Speaker 1: missing war because I was like, I don't have an
Speaker 1: outlet that is good enough right now for how I'm feeling.
Speaker 1: God knew all I needed was you, bro. Yeah, that's it,
Speaker 1: So thank you. I appreciate it.
Speaker 3: Thank you for being you with.
Speaker 1: Conviction and being the leader in the inspiration that you are.
Speaker 1: We're related. You're probably gonna know all the things that
Speaker 1: I want to say. You already know, yes, and so
Speaker 1: your family to me forever, and I appreciate you, and
Speaker 1: I appreciate your grindness absolutely and humility. So don't stop.
Speaker 3: No, never, good never. I appreciate you too, Jake. We're
Speaker 3: definitely brothers, no doubt about it now. Actually we're sisters
Speaker 3: and brothers.
Speaker 2: That's right, I'll take it anyone I'm.
Speaker 1: Related to by defaults she's related to. It's one of
Speaker 1: those things like I do the blood in for you.
Speaker 2: I think that was a gang thing, but I don't know, don't.
Speaker 3: Man. Thank you, Yes, absolutely, you welcome.
Speaker 1: Man. I'm so glad I won't spoke at that MVP game.
Speaker 1: I know I could tell just by looking at Joshua.
Speaker 1: I was like he and I your same cloth.
Speaker 2: Absolutely great energy, A motivator.
Speaker 1: Yeah, his scars are honest, absolutely no, no wonder he is
Speaker 1: who he is. He is a motivator and inspirator and.
Speaker 3: A driver through and through.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for listening. If this episode touched
Speaker 2: you today, please share it and be part of making
Speaker 2: someone else's day better.
Speaker 1: Put on your badass caps and go be great today.
Speaker 1: And remember you can't do epic stuff without epic people.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to the good Stuff. The Good
Speaker 1: Stuff is executive produced by Ashley Schick, Jacob Schick, Leah
Speaker 1: Pictures and q Code Media, Hosted by Ashley Shick and
Speaker 1: Jacob Shik, Produced by Nick Cassolini and Ryan Counts House