Speaker 1: Thank you for tuning in to the NFL Player's Second
Speaker 1: Acts podcast. I'm Peanut Tillman and I got my boy
Speaker 1: gand Off the Gray aka rooman Harbor woman.
Speaker 2: Want something?
Speaker 1: Did you just think of that one? I've never actually
Speaker 1: heard that one. I just came off the top of
Speaker 1: the Don't I like that one?
Speaker 2: All right?
Speaker 1: I'm's been telling me to rap, so I've been thinking
Speaker 1: about some raps. So yeah, getting off the Gray. That's
Speaker 1: that's you all weekend, Getting off the Grad.
Speaker 2: You know what. I appreciate that.
Speaker 3: First and foremost, let me thank all of our listeners
Speaker 3: and people that always tune in and watch us on YouTube.
Speaker 3: Wherever you pick up your podcast, make sure you give
Speaker 3: us a five star rating, give us a review, leave
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Speaker 3: always hit that follow button wherever you pick up your podcast,
Speaker 3: whether it's Apple Podcast, our Heart Radio. Peanut, who is
Speaker 3: the beautiful guest today? This is a man of many,
Speaker 3: many traits. Man.
Speaker 1: Well, let me just read off his bio to you
Speaker 1: real quick around Draft pick twenty eleven Draft dB veteran
Speaker 1: six years in the league.
Speaker 4: He now wears many hats.
Speaker 1: A fashion model, personal trainer and he is probably from
Speaker 1: the greatest state in the United States.
Speaker 3: Baby, well the fact I mean when you said probably
Speaker 3: probably maybe really hey, hey.
Speaker 4: Just say it, Aaron Williams, everybody.
Speaker 2: I appreciate it. That's a great intro.
Speaker 1: Amazingly everybody knows SEXYT football is is king as it
Speaker 1: pertains a football. It ain't no damn Alabama. I mean well,
Speaker 1: first team All State Dave Campbell. Hey, if you know,
Speaker 1: if you're not from Texas, you don't know about that
Speaker 1: Dave Campbell. Like the Texas high school football the magazine
Speaker 1: covered like it's it's everything to make that subject. Benson
Speaker 1: was the first one to make it, like back in
Speaker 1: like I was ninety nine, So he made it in
Speaker 1: like ninety ninety eight or something like that, like.
Speaker 4: It's it's a it's a real it's a real big man.
Speaker 3: The agent Peterson making too, I believe.
Speaker 2: So. Yeah, because he came.
Speaker 3: After him was pretty good.
Speaker 2: He did.
Speaker 1: It was like it was like a god, yeah, there
Speaker 1: isn't he really was he was.
Speaker 2: He was like starting like he was him before he
Speaker 2: was him. That's how That's how he was pretty much. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I didn't know that.
Speaker 3: So I want to get off on this Aaron because
Speaker 3: number one, man, you're a pretty fashionable guy yourself. But
Speaker 3: I went and looked at your LinkedIn profile page and
Speaker 3: I want to know have you updated it at all?
Speaker 3: Because like you got a lot on there, Like how
Speaker 3: often do you update this thing? You got all kinds.
Speaker 2: I try to have my people updated for me because
Speaker 2: I'm just always doing other things. Yes, I try to
Speaker 2: do as much as possible. I mean, being in football
Speaker 2: and we always taught the more you can do, the
Speaker 2: more accessible you are. So I try to just stick
Speaker 2: to one thing. I try to do multiple things and
Speaker 2: just in case one thing doesn't work and go on
Speaker 2: to the next.
Speaker 1: So like a jack of all trades, I try to
Speaker 1: be all right. So how many jobs do you have
Speaker 1: right now? I mean I feel like I got two jobs,
Speaker 1: you know, or maybe three jobs right now. I feel
Speaker 1: like you is like you remember that show Living Colors,
Speaker 1: Like how many job you?
Speaker 2: God mind?
Speaker 4: Not enough? How many jobs you.
Speaker 2: Got right now? Honestly, I have a lot of hobbies.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't consider them jobs because they don't feel like jobs.
Speaker 2: I get paid for them, but I make my own schedule.
Speaker 2: I work with people that I really enjoy being with,
Speaker 2: and I'm not forced to do anything. That's a great
Speaker 2: pleasure of being your own boss.
Speaker 4: So what's the what's the best job you have right now?
Speaker 4: What's the best?
Speaker 2: Definitely definitely training high school, college, and some professional academy.
Speaker 2: And I made to the highest level. So I was
Speaker 2: once that kid. They're like, man, I want to be there,
Speaker 2: So I told myself to get back as much as possible. Plus,
Speaker 2: my dad is really like big in the community. He
Speaker 2: runs a FBU and does the All American Game with NBC.
Speaker 2: So I've been around football camps my whole life, helped
Speaker 2: around the community. Did that same thing when I was
Speaker 2: in Buffalo, so I've been a part of my whole life.
Speaker 3: I got a question for you because you're from McNeill, Texas,
Speaker 3: like number one, where's that at? So I saw his
Speaker 3: population two thousand. Shout out to Thomas me and him
Speaker 3: doing some researches. All right, So tell me about McNeil
Speaker 3: and kind of like your upbringing, because you know, you
Speaker 3: said your dad was around and really helped coaching and
Speaker 3: doing all these other things. But how does he get involved?
Speaker 3: How do you guys get involved in such a small
Speaker 3: community to all of a sudden be able to be
Speaker 3: in such a such a big game or like a
Speaker 3: big way, you know, if that makes anything.
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely. So McNeil is actually the high school I
Speaker 2: went to, and it's in around Rock, Texas, which is
Speaker 2: a suburb north of Boston, about thirty minutes north of Austin.
Speaker 1: I'm loving this conversation with all these Texas towns. This
Speaker 1: is making me feel like home, shaking, kind of good
Speaker 1: about myself.
Speaker 2: And h predominantly white neighborhood, not really recognized for having
Speaker 2: kids come out to make it in sports. It's a real,
Speaker 2: real quiet neighborhood until I got there and I started
Speaker 2: racing have it, but everyone real good people. My dad
Speaker 2: has always been in love with the game of football.
Speaker 2: He had a stint with the Niners, a little try out,
Speaker 2: didn't really pan out for him. Coached for about fifteen years,
Speaker 2: and then I came into the world. Coached me since
Speaker 2: we were I was five, and then my brothers came
Speaker 2: along helped them out, and then we all grew up
Speaker 2: did our own thing. I had a brother play a
Speaker 2: issue baseball issue, another brother went to UTSA, and then
Speaker 2: obviously me went to ut and my little sister commerce softball.
Speaker 2: So family, so we've always been busy running around and
Speaker 2: once we got out of the house, my dad was
Speaker 2: kind of like, I want to continue to help these
Speaker 2: kids because that's his passion, is helping ca Is get
Speaker 2: to the other goal. We've been doing that. We did
Speaker 2: local camps at first, then we started doing state camps,
Speaker 2: and then we nationwide with it. So we're all over
Speaker 2: from Cali to Maine, to Vegas, to Florida to Arizona,
Speaker 2: every say you could probably think of. We've got a
Speaker 2: lot of kids, a lot of kids. C J. Straw
Speaker 2: was probably one of our kids from FBU, so we
Speaker 2: have a lot of kids in the league that came
Speaker 2: through us. And it's I'm real proud of my death
Speaker 2: for doing that and give me a lie of how
Speaker 2: to really get back to community other than just teaching
Speaker 2: them them kids the techniques are on the field. My
Speaker 2: thing is off the field. I'm a big off the
Speaker 2: field guy because I know what it now feels like
Speaker 2: to play football for so long and then it not
Speaker 2: be there no more to try to figure out what's next.
Speaker 2: So I know the struggles of the transition of being
Speaker 2: a part that, and I want kids to understand football
Speaker 2: is going to end.
Speaker 3: At some point.
Speaker 2: At some point everyone's different, but it's going to end,
Speaker 2: and that's when we're to me. Real life really starts
Speaker 2: when football ends. So I try to get ahead of
Speaker 2: the curve with these kids. Understand like, I know you
Speaker 2: think this is gonna last forever, but I thought the
Speaker 2: same thing and that one injury took me out. So
Speaker 2: have a plan. I always try to give these kids.
Speaker 2: Have a plan B, C, D, because I know A
Speaker 2: is football for these kids. But I'm more worried about
Speaker 2: if that Plan A don't work out, what are you
Speaker 2: gonna do?
Speaker 1: So excuse me, what's been one of the most gratifying
Speaker 1: stories that you've had helping some of these kids.
Speaker 2: I think since you've been doing these camps, I think
Speaker 2: for me, it's always great seeing one of your kids
Speaker 2: to make it to D one, D two, D three,
Speaker 2: where wherever they go as far as college wise, and
Speaker 2: even the more accomplishment when they make it to the league.
Speaker 2: But for me is when they come to me and say, hey,
Speaker 2: you change my life, You change my perspective, all things,
Speaker 2: you changed how I look at life. That's that's a
Speaker 2: real reward for me, because man, that's that's the bigger.
Speaker 2: I want people to especial for US athletes. Our mentals
Speaker 2: are so important and it's not talked about a lot
Speaker 2: because as we're put on a high pedestal for such
Speaker 2: a long time, everybody were looked at as idols and whatnot,
Speaker 2: and people forget that we're still humans. So for me,
Speaker 2: it's them coming to me and saying, hey, I'm still
Speaker 2: doing great in life after football. Football stuff is all great,
Speaker 2: that's athletic ability that you and God can talk about
Speaker 2: and pertain. But when it comes to me, how's your
Speaker 2: mental how your family house? How are you? How are
Speaker 2: you treating others? That's the more important goal for me.
Speaker 1: Well, you, I think you alluded to it a little
Speaker 1: earlier when you were saying that, like we all have
Speaker 1: our transition and that's when life really starts. I know
Speaker 1: I had my little transition, rome you did his, obviously.
Speaker 1: That's why we have this podcast, NFL Player Second Acts,
Speaker 1: and it's really trying to figure out and help players
Speaker 1: and really just listen to them as they tell us
Speaker 1: our stories about their transition. How long did it take
Speaker 1: for you to get adjusted to your new lifestyle once
Speaker 1: you transition.
Speaker 2: After football? I'm still there seven years the league. Now, man,
Speaker 2: I say, probably the last year. Yeah, wow, yeah, last year.
Speaker 2: I'm just now started feeling comfortable and not feeling like
Speaker 2: an outsider really in a way.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and outside of like how like as in like
Speaker 3: it's hard to get back to like regular society. Yeah,
Speaker 3: like I'm not in society yet, but I'm like in
Speaker 3: this weird place, right, Okay.
Speaker 2: I consider so my life before I I was a
Speaker 2: football I called the football life. Yeah, because it's totally
Speaker 2: different from the life I'm living now. Football life. I
Speaker 2: was handled at a lot of things and rewarded a
Speaker 2: lot of things just for my athletic ability. And then
Speaker 2: transitioning to not blinging football no more, I had to
Speaker 2: really truly figure out, first of all, who I was,
Speaker 2: because I didn't know. I just knew twenty three Aaron
Speaker 2: Wims from Roynrock me Neil that was me for the
Speaker 2: long sign I saw that was my identity? Did that
Speaker 2: go away and be taking them? I had to refigure
Speaker 2: out my identity and and see what makes me happy?
Speaker 2: How can I give back in any way possible? And
Speaker 2: it took a long time. I'm not gonna lie, it
Speaker 2: took a long A lot of bumpy roads and a
Speaker 2: lot of self help and family members helping me, but
Speaker 2: rehab and all that stuff. It definitely got me to
Speaker 2: the point now where I'm at and I have to
Speaker 2: think football honestly, because it's a mental game. After football.
Speaker 2: At that point, everything is you know, everything was schedule
Speaker 2: was made for you, breakfast was made for you, the
Speaker 2: regiment was made for you. For me now it was like,
Speaker 2: how do I create my own regimen? How do I
Speaker 2: go on day to day? Because the first two and
Speaker 2: a half three years I was waking up like, all right,
Speaker 2: what do I do now? Now? Lucky for me, I'm
Speaker 2: blessed enough to I made two contracts, two very good contracts,
Speaker 2: so the financial side wasn't like worries, which thank god
Speaker 2: because if it was, it would probably be a harder
Speaker 2: road for me. But not being able to like know
Speaker 2: what I'm going to do the day was very, very
Speaker 2: weird for a very long time. It was. It was
Speaker 2: very scary. It was scary because it was fun for
Speaker 2: the first two months, and then after the two months
Speaker 2: it was like, well, you don't want to spend money
Speaker 2: because you're not really you don't have a job. I
Speaker 2: don't have a job, right now, so I can't really
Speaker 2: do what I want without going broke. One of my
Speaker 2: main goals. First thing caught my dad taught me, don't
Speaker 2: go broke. You know that you don't have to keep
Speaker 2: up with the joneses we like to call it. And
Speaker 2: me adjusting to that to be able to once freely
Speaker 2: spend whatever whenever to now looking at my bank account
Speaker 2: and what I'm spending and how I'm spending it and
Speaker 2: one of my investments, how am I going to do
Speaker 2: that when I do put money investments and I don't
Speaker 2: have to readjust how I live in life all those
Speaker 2: certain things until I figure out an occupation or something
Speaker 2: and bring income. That took a little while, but my
Speaker 2: dad being with the camps brought me in and it
Speaker 2: was hard for me to stay be with the game
Speaker 2: still with my whole background story with the football, so
Speaker 2: it took me a long time to be around the game.
Speaker 2: But my dad forced me just because he knew this
Speaker 2: is what I This is what I know, and I
Speaker 2: have a lot of knowledge for it and kids need
Speaker 2: to hear about this. And it took me a while
Speaker 2: for my selfish reasons to not want to be there,
Speaker 2: but I finally finally kicked it in and decided to
Speaker 2: just go for it and try it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I we read up on one of the
Speaker 3: other things you're doing and it's helping lower ranked Yeah,
Speaker 3: lower ranked high school student athletes get scholarships. So it's
Speaker 3: like a big deal for you. You've talked about how much
Speaker 3: you passionately care about the young people that you're helping.
Speaker 3: Kind of tell me how you got into that, and
Speaker 3: like how's it going, and like how rewarding is it
Speaker 3: to see a kid like you said, because you said
Speaker 3: that's what you were mostly excited about. It's not about
Speaker 3: the fifteen percent that they're going to be all right,
Speaker 3: these guys are good athletes, they're gonna make it. But
Speaker 3: the ones that come to you after they've been with
Speaker 3: you and say, man, like you've changed my heart look
Speaker 3: on life, Like I look at things differently.
Speaker 2: I like, I like those comments way more because I
Speaker 2: have former players or former teammates or teammates that I
Speaker 2: call me today and they are struggling and that that
Speaker 2: need help, whether that be financially, whether it be mentally,
Speaker 2: whether it be whatever their situation is, and for for
Speaker 2: kids to get ahead of that curve before it hits them.
Speaker 2: That's that's a blessing for me because I just say,
Speaker 2: that kid a lot of heartache, a lot of pain,
Speaker 2: a lot of suffering. Life is going to give us obstacles, obviously,
Speaker 2: But to help that kid acknowledge and see the things
Speaker 2: that may make made him go down that path before
Speaker 2: you know where I got to makes me feel happier,
Speaker 2: just because how I see my journey was it took me,
Speaker 2: let's see, seven years. It took me about six years
Speaker 2: to really feel kind of like normal. I guess that's
Speaker 2: a prize for me. Man. That's that's saving a life, Honestly,
Speaker 2: a lot of a lot of I know, you guys
Speaker 2: have a lot of friends who played in the league
Speaker 2: and stories of people, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: So, dude, I saw that all growing up. I was
Speaker 3: never My kids are shocked when I'm like, I was
Speaker 3: not the best player on my team at any point
Speaker 3: besides little league football, And I saw so many better
Speaker 3: players than me kind of fall by the wayside, continue
Speaker 3: to grow, and then you see them fall by the wayside.
Speaker 3: High school, college, NFL, you see talent. Talent is in
Speaker 3: abundance on the NFL rosters. It's all about the mental
Speaker 3: side of it. Who could be spiritually, emotionally, mentally locked
Speaker 3: in long enough to outlast the people around them and
Speaker 3: then also four quarters in the game, and usually those
Speaker 3: are the great ones, like those are the great ones.
Speaker 3: That's what separates the great from the good, to the
Speaker 3: guys that aren't here anymore. And it's really good that
Speaker 3: you're able to talk to these people at a younger
Speaker 3: age and kind of tell them, hey, what all pitfalls
Speaker 3: are out there? And it comes to better, so much
Speaker 3: better because I'm a I'm a father of four peanut
Speaker 3: is as well. But when your dad ain't saying it,
Speaker 3: it's come from somebody that actually seems to care about
Speaker 3: you or like a mentor, it just really just seeps
Speaker 3: in so much better, especially with your experience in your background.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the mental I think the well, I know the
Speaker 1: mental aspect of it is super serious. And I know
Speaker 1: you had two serious injuries. I know for me when
Speaker 1: I had injuries. You know, you're either talking to your
Speaker 1: your trainer, pops, or there's there's always that one person
Speaker 1: you can kind of call on when you when you
Speaker 1: when you need something. Who was the individual or individuals
Speaker 1: that you leaned on when you had those those two injuries.
Speaker 2: I'm always say my family, yeah, but I mean outside
Speaker 2: of that Fred Jackson running back, Yeah, brob me brought
Speaker 2: me under under his wing. When I first got this
Speaker 2: and I was a I was a kid from Texas
Speaker 2: that came from a winning program, always handed things to me.
Speaker 2: Then it get the Buffalo wholly different culture and a
Speaker 2: kid from Texas who's never been outside of Texas, only
Speaker 2: knows Texas. But getting up there was a very cultural shock,
Speaker 2: and I didn't really didn't know how to really adjust.
Speaker 2: I was very segregated, segragated myself from not on purpose
Speaker 2: for my team, it was just because I wasn't comfortable
Speaker 2: to where I was at. So he brought me in,
Speaker 2: showed me how to be professional, showed me how to
Speaker 2: be a pro, showed me how to be in the community,
Speaker 2: showed me that it's bigger than just football. And I
Speaker 2: ain't gonna lie Without him, I probably have been out
Speaker 2: second year in the league. But he saw potential me.
Speaker 2: He saw potential he saw I don't know what he saw,
Speaker 2: but I thank him every time because, Uh, I'm where
Speaker 2: I'm at today because of his guidance.
Speaker 3: You know, my man Smoked Dixon. Gerald Smoked Dixon actually
Speaker 3: worked upstairs for Buffy. Yeah, and loved you, raved about
Speaker 3: you being a great ball, great tackler.
Speaker 4: We're gonna take a short break and we'll be right back.
Speaker 3: I want to talk about because he raved about you.
Speaker 3: I used to follow you because my boy talked about
Speaker 3: you so much. I'm like, I should take this other
Speaker 3: safe down. Who's this young cat about to come up
Speaker 3: here and do this, that and the other. You're a
Speaker 3: baller than you. I saw the first neck injury. Was
Speaker 3: that the one with Edelman right where you're diving. It
Speaker 3: looked like a great tackle.
Speaker 1: It looked like it, but it's kind of weird. I
Speaker 1: want to talk to you about these things. I feel
Speaker 1: like we can open up about these a little bit
Speaker 1: now because you've been through them, because you had two
Speaker 1: significant neck injuries.
Speaker 3: Second one was bogus though, yeah, like number one. How
Speaker 3: was the rehab? How do you feel like they happened?
Speaker 3: What exactly was the definition of your first neck injury
Speaker 3: and your second neck injury?
Speaker 2: I couldn't even tell you the men a term of it, yeah,
Speaker 2: like so long or whatever, But basically, when I tackled them,
Speaker 2: when I came down, you'll see my neck whiplash back.
Speaker 2: I have a small from my C five to C seven.
Speaker 2: My vertebrate kind of has a small narrow opening for
Speaker 2: my where my nerves are at. So when I tackled
Speaker 2: the element and it landed, my whiplash the vertebrate, I
Speaker 2: wouldn't say ruptured, but it like pinched on my nerve
Speaker 2: really bad, maybe go partial paralyzed for about a month
Speaker 2: and a half. Oh wow, and then.
Speaker 3: Like how far down was paralyzed.
Speaker 2: On my whole my whole right side. Wow, the whole
Speaker 2: right side was paralyzed. It happened right as soon as
Speaker 2: I landed and I try to get up. You'll see
Speaker 2: on the film, like if you look back, you'll see
Speaker 2: my like trying to roll over, but I can't be
Speaker 2: cause my right side it is not really given.
Speaker 3: So what is that feeling like? Because I've never had
Speaker 3: that feeling?
Speaker 2: Yes you have, Yes you have. And it's funny you
Speaker 2: say that. Remember those terrible stingers, Yeah, it's that, but
Speaker 2: fly or maximized by two and have it stay there
Speaker 2: lingering for a month and a half.
Speaker 4: Because the sting is like ah, and then you started
Speaker 4: to come.
Speaker 2: Now the stingers just stay staying right up here. Have
Speaker 2: it go down your leg, down to your toes and
Speaker 2: have that while you're walking every day or trying to walk.
Speaker 3: I should have a little bit. It's like when your
Speaker 3: legs sleep or something.
Speaker 2: It's basically like when your leg sleep and you're pinching
Speaker 2: and you can't feel. That's exactly how it feels to
Speaker 2: be perilous.
Speaker 1: How screened was that When you felt that was like,
Speaker 1: oh man, okay, oh wait a minute. Knowing that you
Speaker 1: just was like, I just made it. I tried to
Speaker 1: make this tackle, but now I can't move. Like, what
Speaker 1: was the first thing that went through your mind?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 3: Shit?
Speaker 2: Honestly, because I was I remember looking at the sky.
Speaker 2: It was a perfect day, blue blue sky. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: you know, normal tackle get up, yeah, and I'm just
Speaker 2: like Initially I was like, oh snap, I can't move
Speaker 2: and I started freaking out. And then they came to
Speaker 2: me and said, don't move. They started poking me, They
Speaker 2: started pinching me. Can you feel this? Can you feel that?
Speaker 2: I was like, nah, I can't, and then I started
Speaker 2: freaking out, and then I would have totally freaked. They
Speaker 2: put me in the They put me in the ambulance,
Speaker 2: went back to the hospital, put me on the gurney
Speaker 2: and on the table. I think about two hours three
Speaker 2: hours that came back. You feel this? Can you feel this?
Speaker 2: I was like, man, I can't feel nothing. So then
Speaker 2: I started freaking out, like man, this might be it.
Speaker 2: But the warrior in me, I'm sure you guys know,
Speaker 2: as being athletes, we get hurt all the time. It's
Speaker 2: it's it's normal everyday thing for us get hurt. All right,
Speaker 2: what what injury is it? Okay, I've had this before
Speaker 2: about two three months. Okay, bat, what I gotta do
Speaker 2: to get back? My first innection was like when can
Speaker 2: I get back? Which is really crazy at the time,
Speaker 2: but I just thought it was another First of all,
Speaker 2: I thought it was just another painful stinger. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: I just thought, okay, maybe a couple of weeks, you'll
Speaker 2: be back. A month hit and I was like, okay,
Speaker 2: still not really feeling things. But after a month and
Speaker 2: a half I started feeling tinglingess and my feeling started
Speaker 2: coming back. And then I had a rough discussion with
Speaker 2: my head trainer right after I got the surgery or no,
Speaker 2: this is after this my second one, so after the
Speaker 2: first one, they you know, people were like you sure
Speaker 2: you want to come back, and I was like yeah, man,
Speaker 2: like just got paid, I got three more years of
Speaker 2: my contracts. A little, there's nothing I can be all right,
Speaker 2: work my way back six month rehab recovery. Scary recovery,
Speaker 2: by the way, just like I've never felt so scared
Speaker 2: for people to be around me because at the time
Speaker 2: when I had my surgery, my neck was like loose
Speaker 2: because my my neck muscles weren't you know, really Yeah, I.
Speaker 3: Was wondering like like did you have a big muscle atrophy?
Speaker 2: Very much so so because after the surgery, when I walk,
Speaker 2: you know you when you pop something, it's loose because
Speaker 2: it's not That's how my neck felt. So when someone
Speaker 2: bumped into me, it felt like my neck was about
Speaker 2: to fall on the ground. So I was like, okay,
Speaker 2: I'm not moving no more. So I'm gonna say in
Speaker 2: bed for the next two months and just chill. Got
Speaker 2: my brace, my neck brace on. It was it was
Speaker 2: a long, long journey, so work back.
Speaker 3: Did you ever go out with a neck brace?
Speaker 2: No? I didn't go out at all. Okay, there's no way, Okay,
Speaker 2: I didn't go I'm seeing.
Speaker 4: I just like, why are you here? Why are you here?
Speaker 2: I've seen that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm sorry. I had to know balid questions.
Speaker 2: I'm a god. That's like, if I could make a
Speaker 2: way happen, I'm gonna do it.
Speaker 4: And you seemed like that, okay.
Speaker 2: Now tell him. That's how it was. Someone call my
Speaker 2: name and be like, I'd be like, yo, what's up?
Speaker 3: You're good?
Speaker 2: Okay, you don't need me? All right? Cool? So it
Speaker 2: was a lot of weird movie meant for a while. Yeah,
Speaker 2: fast forward, right before we get the training camp, worked
Speaker 2: them my way up to getting uh well, I felt
Speaker 2: like it was one hundred percent first first scrimmage of
Speaker 2: the of the year in training camp, my first contact
Speaker 2: game since my injury. I'm sweating bullets because I'm excited
Speaker 2: to finally get back and play. Yeah, but in my mind, well,
Speaker 2: can I sustain another hit? Yeah? Will I get back
Speaker 2: up again? Will I even walk? Now? None of that's
Speaker 2: really hitting me at the time, but it started hitting
Speaker 2: me when we did the kickoff and then.
Speaker 4: First first series of contact.
Speaker 2: About to make some contact, I had a sweep to
Speaker 2: the right to my side. Runnybody came in and I said,
Speaker 2: we're gonna find out we looked out eyed at each
Speaker 2: other and I said, here we go. Made contact. It
Speaker 2: was a big hit. Got up.
Speaker 3: I was like, oh, I can feel myself.
Speaker 2: I got excited, confidence, confidence, restore. I'm back. We had
Speaker 2: just hired Ed Reid too as as our dB coach.
Speaker 2: My mentor guy looked up to for a long time,
Speaker 2: gave me the cheek hose of the game. All right,
Speaker 2: perfect situation. And then the second hit happens, and then
Speaker 2: Jarvis Landry Jarvis Lander hit, and that that was a
Speaker 2: That was a rude awakening to what I was about
Speaker 2: to get myself into. As far as life comes, ah,
Speaker 2: I wanted to go back again. So the draws landing hit.
Speaker 2: I'm knocked out. Two minutes, three minutes, come in, come
Speaker 2: back conscious. I'm looking at the sky. I'm telling myself
Speaker 2: that I don't get up. This would be my last
Speaker 2: play in the NFL. So I said, Aaron, gotta get up, Bro,
Speaker 2: gotta get up. Got up. They're like, do you need
Speaker 2: a stretcher? Do you need this to bring the ambulance?
Speaker 2: I said, y'all better not bring the ambulance back out.
Speaker 2: They didn't bring it out. I said, I got this
Speaker 2: on a walk man, y'all been in the buiness for
Speaker 2: a long time. When you've been in the business for
Speaker 2: a long time, you kind of know the politics, what
Speaker 2: owners are kind of thinking your gms. I got up.
Speaker 2: I started walking on the field. Man. I don't know why,
Speaker 2: but every sense my smell, my side, my field, it
Speaker 2: heightened like by like ten. I smell the grass I'm
Speaker 2: looking at, like the beautiful stadium in Miami, the sky.
Speaker 2: I hear the crowd roar, and it was silence. But
Speaker 2: then they saw me walk off. It was allowed to applause.
Speaker 2: Something hit me bro and said this is my last game.
Speaker 2: I don't know what it was. It's just like God
Speaker 2: was like, can't can't let you go back anymore, So
Speaker 2: walk on the field. I just I told myself, man,
Speaker 2: take everything in you have right now, because this will
Speaker 2: be the last time we will ever be in a
Speaker 2: field with pads on and being a player. I remember
Speaker 2: that like significantly, like it was yesterday. And then got
Speaker 2: in the locker room, had trainer, assistant trainer, our owner
Speaker 2: Terry Fugula, our GM Doug Whaley at the time, our president,
Speaker 2: and we're in there. We were in there silent. Yeah,
Speaker 2: all of them came came in there, all of them.
Speaker 3: That's how you know how serious that was. The president
Speaker 3: come down, owner.
Speaker 2: The owner, everybody came down. And when they all came in,
Speaker 2: bro I broke down. That's love though it's heck of love.
Speaker 2: It's heck love. But I broke down because I knew
Speaker 2: right then and there that was it. That was it
Speaker 2: was it. So fast forward, get the surgery. We go
Speaker 2: to uh Super Bowl in Houston. Yeah, Doug Whaley our president,
Speaker 2: and I'm and the owner. We meet up. You know,
Speaker 2: we have a conversation. How do you feel, how do
Speaker 2: you rehab going? I'm good, Like I got it. I could.
Speaker 2: I can keep going, keep playing. I've been working my
Speaker 2: butt off. This is not the first time that's happened.
Speaker 2: I'm good. So it's like, okay, like we really want
Speaker 2: you guys to stay here, be here, and we just
Speaker 2: want to look out for your health. And I said, no,
Speaker 2: I'm all good. March rolls around and everybody that's in
Speaker 2: the league knows that March is free. It's that dude.
Speaker 2: Calendar date, March tenth, nine thirty five am. I got
Speaker 2: the call Doug Wayley and man, you're my first big signee.
Speaker 2: But unfortunately, we're going to cut you. And I'm like,
Speaker 2: I'm getting ready to go work out. Yeah, And we
Speaker 2: had just had a conversation in February the Super Bowl
Speaker 2: in Houston. Y'all love me, y'all, y'all wanted me to
Speaker 2: come back, and then now y'all telling me I don't
Speaker 2: want me. So now my confidence is shattered. And that's
Speaker 2: when adult darkness comes in in a dark place, and
Speaker 2: then I'm fighting to be on another team. I gave myself.
Speaker 2: I'm a guy that gave myself a time, a timeline,
Speaker 2: and once that debt, once that period is done, like
Speaker 2: we're moving on to the next thing. So I gave
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't I'm not a guy that want
Speaker 2: that wanted to, like like be around the game and
Speaker 2: not on a team. Like I didn't want to just
Speaker 2: be active, but not on a team. So I gave
Speaker 2: myself a year. Because I've been around the business for
Speaker 2: quite some time, I know how it goes, especially with
Speaker 2: my two injuries. Went through the season, season came and gone.
Speaker 2: That that's it. No one called I worked out the
Speaker 2: whole year. It was the weirdest year of my life
Speaker 2: just to work, just to be working out while watching.
Speaker 2: I'm sure you guys, have you ever been on Wahington
Speaker 2: watching the game, And he'd be like, dang, he's still
Speaker 2: in the league. Dang he got another contract, and.
Speaker 4: Then we know you better than ever.
Speaker 2: I'm not hating it, like it was just like my reality. Like, man,
Speaker 2: I'm sitting here and this guy's out there playing. So
Speaker 2: the season year comes and gone, I'm like, all right,
Speaker 2: that's it. The day the next day, New Orleans caused
Speaker 2: my agent says, hey, we want Aaron to come in.
Speaker 2: You don't have to do no the thing with the
Speaker 2: doctor's physical physical you don't have to work out. We've
Speaker 2: seen his game, we respect his game. We want him
Speaker 2: two year, fourteen, come on in. Man. I couldn't do it.
Speaker 2: I was checked out because once I said the year,
Speaker 2: it was a year, yeah, and that year came and gone.
Speaker 2: Now I could have been like, oh, they're gonna give
Speaker 2: me once. Once you're checked out, you're checked out. And
Speaker 2: I love the game, But it was like, do I
Speaker 2: continue to be a Warrior? Do I keep continue to
Speaker 2: be a savage? Or do I do I finally look
Speaker 2: and say stop, Aaron. You're like you have so much
Speaker 2: ahead of your only at that time, I was twenty six.
Speaker 2: I was twenty six years old, very young, very young,
Speaker 2: And it was like at that time I couldn't see past,
Speaker 2: see myself fifty six years old. I was worried about
Speaker 2: the now, especially the money that I was getting. I
Speaker 2: was like, I'm taking care of my family's family's family's family. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so why would I want to give that up? It
Speaker 2: took me a long time, but my mind, my heart,
Speaker 2: it just it just wouldn't allow me.
Speaker 1: But to me, that's a savage though right there though,
Speaker 1: like you listening to your body right, like I still
Speaker 1: think you're I still know you're a savage. I think
Speaker 1: you're a savage and courage just by the standpoint of
Speaker 1: like you know what, this ain't right, I think I
Speaker 1: need to check out. But look you you got carted offer,
Speaker 1: you got taken off the field four times on a stretcher, right, Like.
Speaker 4: It's happened to me once you any any times?
Speaker 1: Never you play, you've been playing, you placed, you've been
Speaker 1: playing I think Rome. A lot of y'all don't know thise,
Speaker 1: but Rome started playing four all in like nineteen seventy two. Right,
Speaker 1: this is Benjamin Button body right here. No seriously, you
Speaker 1: say that he's been keeping playing a minute.
Speaker 2: I've been watching both of y'all for a long time,
Speaker 2: and I respect y'all's game. I remember seeing Ron I'm playing.
Speaker 2: He took his helmet off two thousand and eleven, maybe
Speaker 2: eleven twelve. So you take your helmet off? I said, oh, no,
Speaker 2: it was it was early. This was when I was college. Yeah,
Speaker 2: keeping two thousand and eight, I'm ready to hear thousand
Speaker 2: and nine, the build up we were watching, I maybe
Speaker 2: take your helmet off. I was like, damn because you
Speaker 2: had the gray hair. And yeah, So fast forward when
Speaker 2: I got drafted. I think we played you guys one time.
Speaker 2: You did and me being a rookie kid twenty years
Speaker 2: old in the league, I'm like, I'm I'm playing. He's
Speaker 2: right here next to me. He's right here next what
Speaker 2: all the time? I said, Dany, he still got great hair.
Speaker 4: You don't want to color it, Ryan. Don't he look
Speaker 4: like a Techmobil player?
Speaker 3: He like.
Speaker 2: I was like, look that was his Like he was
Speaker 2: a throwback.
Speaker 1: Yeah, my god, I saw room the first Like, dang yo,
Speaker 1: this dude is from like tech Mobile, Like he playing
Speaker 1: on an eighty five Bears, like.
Speaker 2: I'm so old that he's still playing. Here's just from
Speaker 2: twenty five. Yes, so that you see that.
Speaker 3: You say, you know, I mean, look, we love to
Speaker 3: hear everybody's first time they recognize me because of my
Speaker 3: gray hair. It's a thing.
Speaker 2: Like damn.
Speaker 3: Everybody has this, like random stories like the first time
Speaker 3: I saw that Roman Harper was great.
Speaker 2: Oh my god.
Speaker 3: They all thought I was way older than what I
Speaker 3: was peanuts still older than me.
Speaker 4: I am, but I don't look it.
Speaker 3: You're correct, but you probably also maybe jing that thing
Speaker 3: a little bit. I don't. So it's just part of
Speaker 3: the deal. It's just part of the deal.
Speaker 4: We're going to take a short break and we'll be
Speaker 4: back in a minute.
Speaker 3: Aaron, I want to know this because you one of
Speaker 3: your job titles is life coach, And if you could
Speaker 3: hire a life coach, or if you were a life
Speaker 3: coach looking at younger Aaron Williams, what kind of advice
Speaker 3: would you give him to be able to handle his
Speaker 3: transition and to kind of kind of walk him through
Speaker 3: that whole phase of his life these last six years.
Speaker 2: For sure, one have the right people around you, that's
Speaker 2: definitely one of the biggest things.
Speaker 3: But how would Aaron know that. How would Aaron know
Speaker 3: who the right people around him?
Speaker 2: By knowing who you are and knowing your morals and
Speaker 2: principles and what you how you want people to perceive
Speaker 2: you as a person. I think the ego of my
Speaker 2: NFL life trickled into my after football life a little bit,
Speaker 2: and I had I was I still had that attitude
Speaker 2: of I'm this, I don't need I'm this. Yeah, And
Speaker 2: it had took me a little bit to understand like
Speaker 2: that ain't even no more. And the people around me
Speaker 2: weren't telling me the right things.
Speaker 3: Oh, they were just feeding it.
Speaker 2: They were feet into it. Been around a lot of people.
Speaker 2: A lot of people have been around me. I've taken
Speaker 2: care of a lot of people. It's kind of it
Speaker 2: was hard to decipher who was there for me and
Speaker 2: who was just there to live the life that I've
Speaker 2: been living. And if you open up your eyes a
Speaker 2: little and it's to me, it's self care. You'll get
Speaker 2: tired of being used after a while. Like at some
Speaker 2: point you're you're gonna be like, you know what, I'm good,
Speaker 2: I'm done, Like I'm I realized that you needed me
Speaker 2: more than I needed you, so respectfully I'm gonna have
Speaker 2: to just it's love, but I'm gonna have to show
Speaker 2: my love from a distance. So when I started part
Speaker 2: of my parton Ways from the Negative wavelength Vibes, whatever
Speaker 2: you want to call it, but I started painting to
Speaker 2: the true people that were there for me. And it
Speaker 2: took my parents to understand or to help me understand, like, yeah,
Speaker 2: that person wasn't really there for you. Remember when he
Speaker 2: did this and that. Yeah, we would try to tell you,
Speaker 2: but you just didn't want to You didn't want to
Speaker 2: see it. We had life had to show you because
Speaker 2: we tried, and life is your is the best teacher,
Speaker 2: and it taught me it's just not the teacher you
Speaker 2: want to teach. But it took me. It took life.
Speaker 2: Took me a while to see who was there for
Speaker 2: me and for me to take to understand and realize
Speaker 2: that I had to understand my own self worth and
Speaker 2: love for myself. So I got tired of just being
Speaker 2: a nice guy. Sometimes you gotta be like, hey, bro,
Speaker 2: I did all I can do for you. Is now
Speaker 2: time for you to do yours. Because I had to
Speaker 2: do that, no one was there when when I had
Speaker 2: my first knick, surgery. My parents were there for me.
Speaker 2: One of my friends came by and said, hey, how
Speaker 2: are you doing? What you're good? How's your neck? Do
Speaker 2: you do anything? It took six months of me to
Speaker 2: do that by myself, I mean my parents, but really
Speaker 2: by myself, to be like dang, like where are my people?
Speaker 2: I'm in my room three days straight in the dark.
Speaker 2: I ain't got one phone call. So when things like
Speaker 2: that started happen, you start regulating the good and the bad.
Speaker 2: And then once you start regularing the good and the bad,
Speaker 2: you have people that are pushing you, influencing you to
Speaker 2: do better, to not be stagnant, to take what you
Speaker 2: learn in football apply to life. Everything we do in football,
Speaker 2: you can apply it to life, showing up to meetings
Speaker 2: on time, plies of life, doing the things you don't
Speaker 2: want to do. There have been time I'm sure you
Speaker 2: guys woke up and was like, I don't want to
Speaker 2: work out today. Yeah you know, but this morning. But
Speaker 2: you knew the results of that, of what would happen
Speaker 2: if you didn't work out. So there's a lot of
Speaker 2: mental push. A lot of family and friends who were
Speaker 2: there for me, loved ones to push me outside the
Speaker 2: darkness and into the light. And then it took me
Speaker 2: to want to better myself because a lot of people say, Aaron,
Speaker 2: go get help Aaron, you should do this, Aaron, go
Speaker 2: be a coach, Aaron, And I know I can do
Speaker 2: those things, but in my mom I just don't want
Speaker 2: to do it. Like I'm not in that mic right.
Speaker 2: My space is just go do it. So I was
Speaker 2: rejecting everything. It took me to be like, you know what,
Speaker 2: bro come on, man, get up the same way you
Speaker 2: got up when you hurt your neck the first time
Speaker 2: and the second time, the same way we got to
Speaker 2: get up, except now we're not in the football field.
Speaker 2: We're in real life. We're in our bed, and we're
Speaker 2: in our bed too long. We're getting comfortable in the dark,
Speaker 2: and that's never a good thing, to get comfortable in
Speaker 2: the dark. So I had to It was hard, but
Speaker 2: I had to push myself. I had to really push
Speaker 2: myself to get out of bed to go brush my teeth.
Speaker 2: That's how bad, that's how down I was. I was
Speaker 2: willing to smell, disgusting, look bad because I just didn't care.
Speaker 2: I didn't have I didn't have I didn't foresee my
Speaker 2: future outside of football. But having my parents and the
Speaker 2: friends that were there, and my players, my young kids
Speaker 2: that I trained. Now, I know they're young, but they
Speaker 2: taught me. They keep me young, they keep they give
Speaker 2: me a good spirit and and they helped me keep
Speaker 2: in track by making sure that they're in there in line.
Speaker 2: So having those things and then having something to get
Speaker 2: you out of the house, having something for you to do,
Speaker 2: whether that be fishing, whether that be doing your LinkedIn
Speaker 2: to get ready for future jobs, whether that be getting
Speaker 2: your resume ready, whatever it may be. It needs to
Speaker 2: do something but create in your in your room and
Speaker 2: ponder about what you did before, because pondering about the
Speaker 2: past ain't gonna get you nowhere. But in the same place.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think my kids keep me out.
Speaker 1: I got too many kids, soccer games and basketball games
Speaker 1: and everything.
Speaker 2: I know you got a whole tribe too, I do.
Speaker 3: I do.
Speaker 2: That's good for us.
Speaker 4: That though I'm a dad uber, I.
Speaker 3: Just believed worm a, I'm a duber. I'd actually never
Speaker 3: heard that until just no, Yeah, that's what we are.
Speaker 2: That's really dope. Though you had to try because for me,
Speaker 2: I didn't. I don't have kid or wife or you're lucky.
Speaker 3: So it's positive and negatives.
Speaker 2: It everything. I'm joking.
Speaker 1: But one thing I do want to ask you, though,
Speaker 1: is what you played. You've been playing? You played what
Speaker 1: twenty five years in the league. I got thirteen, you
Speaker 1: got six? So, uh what was your We all got
Speaker 1: our welcome to the NFL moment? Like, what was your
Speaker 1: welcome to the NFL moment?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 2: Man Marion Barber M Yeah that when he was in Chicago. Yeah, okay, yeah,
Speaker 2: it's twenty eleven and uh yeah RP and my guy,
Speaker 2: I've watched him when he was in Dallas before I
Speaker 2: got to the league. Yeah, and just seeing him on TV,
Speaker 2: he was looking he was a big dude, but in
Speaker 2: person was another, especially with the dress and all that
Speaker 2: it was. I was like, man, you're you're like crazy
Speaker 2: good at what you do. I think it was like
Speaker 2: a it was a power to my side. He jumped
Speaker 2: out of the seat. The sea gap left the wide
Speaker 2: open hole. Our d n got flushed out outside and
Speaker 2: it was mono e mano. I think we're aund like
Speaker 2: on the thirteen fourteen yard line and man, I got
Speaker 2: trucks so bad. That man truck me so bad. And
Speaker 2: I'm like, all right, gotta I gotta prove myself. This
Speaker 2: is right before I made the tackle. I looked at
Speaker 2: his eyes. I said, oh, we want to get him
Speaker 2: went in there boom, oh snaph. I looked around my eyes.
Speaker 2: I said, oh, I'm in the league. I remember being
Speaker 2: social field.
Speaker 3: I'm looking up.
Speaker 2: I said, oh, I'm here. I did it. But then
Speaker 2: we got back to sidelines. Know the dbs like what happened?
Speaker 1: Bro, Why.
Speaker 2: Y'all know who that man was? Y'all tripping? So that
Speaker 2: was my That was my welcome to the league moment.
Speaker 2: But my other one was Calvin Johnson getting mossed by
Speaker 2: Calvin Johnson was probably one of the most embarrassing.
Speaker 1: Was it one player or was it like two or
Speaker 1: three players? Because he was he was he was notorious.
Speaker 1: It was going over seriously.
Speaker 2: It was me. It was me and George Wilson on
Speaker 2: that two of us most both of us.
Speaker 3: This is that already knew give me that.
Speaker 2: And I was in perfect position like I was, yeah,
Speaker 2: you thought you. I thought I had it. And then
Speaker 2: I went up and next thing I know, I see
Speaker 2: two large and just give me this both of us
Speaker 2: and I said, wow, this isn't this isn't college, Like,
Speaker 2: you know, there's I was. I was pretty dominant in college,
Speaker 2: so I was like I had winn against the best
Speaker 2: I went justin Blackman. Was there a lot of receivers
Speaker 2: Big twelve that I can't I can't really remember right
Speaker 2: now because I don't even like receivers like that. But
Speaker 2: you're good, we don't either. I played against top, top guys. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So but when you know, you hear Calvin Johnson, you
Speaker 2: know what to expect, but when it happens to you,
Speaker 2: you're like, oh, no, this man is for real.
Speaker 3: No, we all have Calvin Johnson's stories. We you know,
Speaker 3: Peanut played against him the most. But I remember the
Speaker 3: first time that I was like, oh wow, yeah he
Speaker 3: is different.
Speaker 2: He him, Yeah for real.
Speaker 3: We were in the I played in My My, My,
Speaker 3: My first pro bawl got to play in and he
Speaker 3: was out there. You know, he got the best of
Speaker 3: the best out there, and I'm looking, I'm like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 3: he's still way better than everybody else. It was like
Speaker 3: next level of stuff. His catch, radious, ability able to jump.
Speaker 2: Run, never seen a guy like that, never seen, was
Speaker 2: like unheard of at the time.
Speaker 1: So Big too, so Big, never talked, didn't speak, didn't
Speaker 1: talk any trash, didn't the nicest even off the field.
Speaker 2: I talked to him outside the outside of the game.
Speaker 2: Nicest person you'll ever meet, even nicest person between those
Speaker 2: white lines. Like he'll do the dirtiest thing to you,
Speaker 2: like as far as like one hand catch or or
Speaker 2: taking over your head, but won't say anything. He'd like,
Speaker 2: hey go tryl you know this, very subtle comments, good try,
Speaker 2: good play. But yeah, it was. It was really cool
Speaker 2: and it's a it's such a blessing man to see
Speaker 2: guys like you and Tilman. I grew up watching on TV,
Speaker 2: and I was like emulating in my high school days
Speaker 2: punch out king right here, like I was in practice.
Speaker 2: Like people got mad at me because they got tired
Speaker 2: of me punching, punching them me too, but I was like, man,
Speaker 2: this this great is doing it, and look what's happened.
Speaker 2: So I was punching and so like watching you guys
Speaker 2: and then being able to be on the same field,
Speaker 2: man is Honestly, I wanted to say to you guys,
Speaker 2: it's such an honor to share a feel with you guys,
Speaker 2: because you guys have been great role models for me.
Speaker 2: You showed nothing but positive outlooks of how to be
Speaker 2: a dB one and then two after after football, I
Speaker 2: followed you on the FBI, right, yes, sir, followed. I
Speaker 2: followed you guys, and to see you guys from being
Speaker 2: great football players to just being great men, great husbands,
Speaker 2: great fathers, That's that's what I look for. And I
Speaker 2: want to thank you guys because a lot of I
Speaker 2: was fortunate to have my dad, and when my dad
Speaker 2: wasn't there, you guys were the ones that I was like, well,
Speaker 2: how can I get to that? So thank you for
Speaker 2: being good role model to me, even though you don't
Speaker 2: never knew or noticed that. I was watching you guys
Speaker 2: from a distance. Guys do that and just the way
Speaker 2: you got guys carry yourselves made me want to move
Speaker 2: the same way. And I got compliments from that. And
Speaker 2: I thank you guys because I learned from you guys
Speaker 2: and my peers that helped me through the way as well.
Speaker 3: So, oh, dude, that's ultimate. Thank you. Yeah, peenup receiving that,
Speaker 3: that's a big thing for him. We've worked on this
Speaker 3: since the podcast. He's gotten better at receiving compliments. And
Speaker 3: I didn't see that coming from you, So I appreciate that.
Speaker 3: That's that is awesome to hear, and not only that,
Speaker 3: but it's going to pay it forward to the next
Speaker 3: generation as well, because everything that you're doing in your
Speaker 3: communities that you're serving. I got one last football question
Speaker 3: and then we'll probably finish up on a fun question too,
Speaker 3: And for me, it's that number one what made playing
Speaker 3: in Buffalo special and number two being from Texas like
Speaker 3: me being in Alabama. Like I remember, Buffalo called me
Speaker 3: and I was like, nah, bro, I can't do it.
Speaker 3: Like I can't, I can't do it. I didn't they
Speaker 3: called you, Yeah, Like nah, it's just not Yeah.
Speaker 4: I can't.
Speaker 3: I don't think I'm first of all, I don't think
Speaker 3: my family's going to go up here, and I don't
Speaker 3: think I can deal with the cold. So how did
Speaker 3: you do it?
Speaker 2: Well? First of all, I didn't know where Buffalo was
Speaker 2: when I got drafted.
Speaker 3: Okay, there it is.
Speaker 2: So when I got there because during the draft process,
Speaker 2: I didn't talk to nothing, not one person from from
Speaker 2: the Bill staff. So to get drafted by then was
Speaker 2: completely different. But getting there, like I said, kid from
Speaker 2: Texas with different culture shock, It took me about a
Speaker 2: year and a half to really start to get into things,
Speaker 2: give it a chance to be would.
Speaker 3: You do that first year?
Speaker 4: Just did you wear sleeves in the game?
Speaker 2: Nah, I'm proud to say that, and that that's a
Speaker 2: that's a that's an old school yes, Like I'm old
Speaker 2: school general. I'm y'all's generation to call you guys all
Speaker 2: or anything, but like I grew up learning from you
Speaker 2: guys of like we don't show weakness, Like we don't
Speaker 2: show the other team that were cold and we can't
Speaker 2: keep up with them. So my teammates got mad at
Speaker 2: me because I did the same thing, like we ain't
Speaker 2: wearning sleeves out there. I had a lot of guys
Speaker 2: from Florida, Louisiana and Cali that wanted were sleeves. I'm like, nah, man,
Speaker 2: this is a mental thing. So I was more of
Speaker 2: the old school regiment. But Buffalo was It's a similarity
Speaker 2: between Texas a little bit as far as the football side,
Speaker 2: and then you have the blue collar city that I
Speaker 2: have never been witnessed before. I come from Austin somewhat
Speaker 2: a big city, kind of created city, and then Buffalo
Speaker 2: where there's like not really anything really going on, but
Speaker 2: the people there are so amazing. They work hard for
Speaker 2: what they have. They love their bills like no other. There.
Speaker 2: You guys may notice our fan base is the number
Speaker 2: one fan base I know. There may be the Cowboys or.
Speaker 4: Jump I can break this market.
Speaker 2: It's crazy and they light on fire. They do a
Speaker 2: lot of crazy things.
Speaker 4: It's like they're a college town exactly.
Speaker 2: That's what and that's what. It reminded me of being
Speaker 2: at ut for a while. And when I got outside
Speaker 2: my ways and started actually playing good and then just
Speaker 2: getting with the with the people in the community, I realized, Man,
Speaker 2: this place is actually like really amazing and it's not
Speaker 2: the glitten gamer glamour. You ain't gonna go to a
Speaker 2: red carpet one weekend and then a basketball game the
Speaker 2: next weekend. It's just you find people that you that
Speaker 2: mold what you believe in, and you stick around and
Speaker 2: hang out and then they introduce you to someone else,
Speaker 2: and they introduce you someone else. And the fact that
Speaker 2: they were respectful enough for me to like invite me
Speaker 2: to like their company dinners or their family dinners just
Speaker 2: out of love. I was like, cool, this is this
Speaker 2: is great. But then to be like, hey, invite your
Speaker 2: teammates as well, like not just to be around me,
Speaker 2: They wanted to be just around us, like the team.
Speaker 2: And I felt like that was really special because other
Speaker 2: other teams don't have those type of fan bases where
Speaker 2: they show a lot of love. They may be crazy
Speaker 2: about you on the field, but when it comes off
Speaker 2: the field, it may be a little different. Bill's Mafia
Speaker 2: now they gonna know you, like a lot of people
Speaker 2: don't recognize you because we have our helmets on. But
Speaker 2: Bill's Mafia gonna know you. Once a Bill, always a Bill.
Speaker 2: That's That's one of the things. So I gave it
Speaker 2: a chance, and people treated me like, like I said,
Speaker 2: if I was their own. So I just ran with
Speaker 2: it and just kept going.
Speaker 3: So all right, now, fun question, So are you still
Speaker 3: horseback riding?
Speaker 2: Man I still do horseback ride, having horseback ride, rode
Speaker 2: in Manute just because of the neck in the back.
Speaker 3: I mean, you got some great pictures out there on
Speaker 3: the internet, great pictures.
Speaker 2: I still got my five horses out there. I haven't
Speaker 2: haven't really rodeoed the much that like I used to.
Speaker 3: You have five horses, what are their names? You got names?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: I got got Dallas, I got bo At, least some
Speaker 1: of there's Cisco in there.
Speaker 2: I know Cisco, Cisco in there, Ivy, Rudolph or Rudy.
Speaker 2: I call it Rudy, And I know I'm forgetting one.
Speaker 2: We just got it though, okay, so but yeah, it
Speaker 2: keeps me busy. He's my mind clear for sure. The
Speaker 2: connection with the horse is just.
Speaker 3: Like everybody talks about that you own a horse, you
Speaker 3: have like this connection.
Speaker 2: Connection, man, It teach you how do you? Energy is real?
Speaker 2: Energy is real like when you walk. When you walk
Speaker 2: into a room, people are either going to notice you
Speaker 2: or they're not. And it's just off the energy you
Speaker 2: bring off. And I learned that from horses. I communicate
Speaker 2: through a horse just by hepathically, just like energy. And
Speaker 2: just if I come off and they know I'm sad
Speaker 2: or frustrated or mad about something, they can sense it.
Speaker 2: If I'm happy and create and just want to be free,
Speaker 2: they can sense that. So if I'm sad and the frustrated,
Speaker 2: it's gonna be long day writing because he's gonna feel
Speaker 2: that same tension for loose and having a great time.
Speaker 2: It's it's one of the most peaceful things you can
Speaker 2: be a part of. But it taught me how to
Speaker 2: regulate and how to maneuver in certain spaces and really
Speaker 2: just present yourself with with confidence and everything. So horses
Speaker 2: definitely keep you busy. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you seem like you've had or I know, you've
Speaker 1: had a pretty successful life and your upbringing with mom, dad, parents,
Speaker 1: of your family, who would you say is on your
Speaker 1: personal mount rushmore so helping you get to where you are.
Speaker 3: In life right now?
Speaker 2: Mm hm, outside of my family.
Speaker 1: Just it could be family, It could be it could
Speaker 1: be anybody. It's your personal mount rushmore of four people.
Speaker 2: Oh for sure, Mom and Dad one and two off
Speaker 2: the back, off the rip. Fred Jackson will be number three.
Speaker 3: All right, now, you gotta tell me why you can't
Speaker 3: just name drop keep it moving.
Speaker 2: Mom and Dad is altusly for obvious reasons. They've been
Speaker 2: there since day one. So injury injury.
Speaker 3: You said a little bit about Fred earlier, you talked about.
Speaker 2: Fred. Fred's been been with me through my ups and
Speaker 2: downs life. Uh, He's been with me to the good
Speaker 2: and the bad and the ugly and it's still with
Speaker 2: me to this day. Talked to me yesterday actually, So
Speaker 2: he was never one of those vets that only vetted
Speaker 2: you in the locker room. He was one of those
Speaker 2: vets that checked up on you and make sure you
Speaker 2: things were good and make sure you were on the
Speaker 2: right path. There have been times where I veered off
Speaker 2: and he grabbed me and brought me back. If it
Speaker 2: wasn't for him, I wouldn't have my second contract if
Speaker 2: it wasn't for him. I wouldn't have the love of
Speaker 2: Bill's Mafia. If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have
Speaker 2: the confidence of of of trying new things when I
Speaker 2: don't have any interest of doing it. He taught me like,
Speaker 2: you never know until you try. He was one of
Speaker 2: those guys that told me that there's been times where well,
Speaker 2: I've gotten he's gotten late night phone calls while because
Speaker 2: I was out partying and doing crazy things. And he
Speaker 2: was never the one to just hang up the phone
Speaker 2: and be like, well he's a grown man, let him
Speaker 2: do his own decisions. He'd wake up. I'm talking about
Speaker 2: this man has man. I'm supposed to know this one
Speaker 2: two three, five kids, four or five kids and a
Speaker 2: wife left them to come save me and the time
Speaker 2: of need where I needed him. And you don't get
Speaker 2: a lot of guys that you don't grow up with
Speaker 2: or you just met because of work to have that
Speaker 2: type of love and care for you. So I will
Speaker 2: always be into debt with Fred no matter. There's nothing
Speaker 2: anyone could say bad about Fred to me because I'm
Speaker 2: here now because of partially what he taught me. And
Speaker 2: and just like your kids get on your nerves, I
Speaker 2: got on his nerves, but he never gave up on me. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so that for sure, Fred will be number three. I'm
Speaker 2: gonna say my head trainer, Sean Sean Gibson will be
Speaker 2: number four because I hate like I don't want to
Speaker 2: choke up, but he was the reason why I I'm
Speaker 2: able to walk, I'm able to have a clearer mind.
Speaker 2: He's the one that sat me down. He's the only
Speaker 2: person besides my mom and dad to sit me down
Speaker 2: and say, hey, you're a grateful a player, You're a
Speaker 2: great person. I am not talking to you from a
Speaker 2: head trainer standpoint. Remove the head trainer helmet. This is
Speaker 2: a man, a friend, a person that loves you. You
Speaker 2: need to stop playing the game. It was hard for
Speaker 2: me to hear that.
Speaker 3: I couldn't imagine. I couldn't either.
Speaker 2: It was a guy that wanted me. He knew my goals.
Speaker 2: I want to be pro bowler, all pro super Bowl,
Speaker 2: all this stuff. He knew that I worked hard, but
Speaker 2: he also knew I had so much ahead of me.
Speaker 2: Yea No one in that facility said, Aaron, you might
Speaker 2: need to stop playing this game for your health reasons only,
Speaker 2: not that like call anybody out. I'm not trying to
Speaker 2: call anybody out or anything, but say in the fact,
Speaker 2: this man took off the badge of being a bill
Speaker 2: staff member and put his own personal being love and
Speaker 2: care for me and saying I love you enough too
Speaker 2: much to allow you to want to go back on
Speaker 2: that field and for me to be like, potentially carry
Speaker 2: you off and may not walk again, potentially carry you
Speaker 2: off and tell your family members he's no longer here
Speaker 2: with us because of a hit or because of this,
Speaker 2: because of that, he loved me enough to sit me
Speaker 2: down and say you're more than what you are now.
Speaker 2: And it took someone outside and my family members to
Speaker 2: tell me. Because when your son Dad tells me, it's
Speaker 2: all the time, but it doesn't register like that. For
Speaker 2: whatever reason, I don't know why it doesn't when you're
Speaker 2: here from someone that sees you outside of what your
Speaker 2: parents see you, You're like, oh crap, someone outside my
Speaker 2: parents just telling me the same thing. I might want
Speaker 2: to listen. So Mom, Dad, Fred Jackson, Sean Gibson, my
Speaker 2: Mount Rushmore.
Speaker 3: Dude, that was great. Almost teared up right there then,
Speaker 3: and I cry a lot all the time.
Speaker 2: I started being I started just accepting it's okay to
Speaker 2: let emotions be emotions.
Speaker 3: I think it's it. I did and look, man, I
Speaker 3: because I was laughing so hard. But you know me, though,
Speaker 3: I think you have a real full day whenever you're
Speaker 3: able to laugh and cry.
Speaker 2: Absolutely in the same day, absolutely.
Speaker 1: Full blown, absolute circle of life. I'm still waiting. I
Speaker 1: think my crying is just from this oil I put
Speaker 1: on my face my eye. So that's kind of why
Speaker 1: I'm tearing up right now. It's getting irritate. Well, Aaron Man,
Speaker 1: thank you, man. Appreciate that. Mank you guys for having
Speaker 1: me this beautiful story.
Speaker 3: Man, I'm glad we got to hear that. Man, than
Speaker 3: you got to see each other's faces. And definitely without
Speaker 3: the helmet on, you got great hair. Peanut hairs, all right,
Speaker 3: I mean the great waves is popping.
Speaker 2: We're good. I appreciate you it.
Speaker 3: Thanks man, appreciate it that but hey, first of all,
Speaker 3: let me get this out of here the right way
Speaker 3: for all of our listeners and everybody that always tunes in. Man,
Speaker 3: make sure you give us a five star rating, give
Speaker 3: us a review, hit follow, leave a couple of comments. Please,
Speaker 3: you know, tell a friend to tell a friend to
Speaker 3: do what Peanut, tell a friend there we go, tell
Speaker 3: a friend. Man, wherever you pick up your podcast, whether
Speaker 3: this Apple podcast, iHeartRadio app, please please continue to follow.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 3: We're telling great stories, really allowing people like Aaron Williams
Speaker 3: himself to open up and tell his side of the
Speaker 3: story of his transition and what all we're doing and
Speaker 3: now in our second act. Man, it's been great to
Speaker 3: hear another side of it.
Speaker 2: Thank you guys for having me. Man.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Man, Hey, Peanut getting off the gray that's Aaron
Speaker 1: NFL player.
Speaker 4: Second act podcasts we out