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Speaker 1: Did you hear that Chris Pratt is going to voice Garfield?

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Speaker 1: He can't voice Garfield and super Mario. That's like, that's

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Speaker 1: like a monopoly on cartoon voices, an iconic nineties cartoon characters.

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Speaker 1: That's outrageous. I'm just thinking about all of our voiceover friends.

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Speaker 1: When when is the when is the government going to

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Speaker 1: get involved in, big big voice coming in here, taking

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Speaker 1: over all these parts, giving them all to the one

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Speaker 1: per centers. Pratt's you know what's the big idea. I'll

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Speaker 1: be writing to my congressman this afternoon saying, excuse me,

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Speaker 1: I'd like something to be done about the Pratt situation

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Speaker 1: because he now has I would like a bill introduced.

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Speaker 1: Please has to have some kind of cute acronym, though,

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Speaker 1: work on that. It'll be the Pratt Act and it

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Speaker 1: will stand for people really aren't thinking this through. It's

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Speaker 1: three the Pratt Act. People really aren't thinking this through.

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Speaker 1: We did just learn that the voice of Triton and

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Speaker 1: Little Mermaid is Uh Inspector Kemp in Young Frankenstein. Yes,

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Speaker 1: I love him. Frankenstein is so good. That was one

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Speaker 1: thing we did for Halloween was watching Young Frankenstein. I

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Speaker 1: hope everybody else had a great Halloween, classic classic film,

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Speaker 1: Yeah so good. We also took this hike on Halloween

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Speaker 1: night called the dolls Head Trail, which is in Atlanta,

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Speaker 1: not far from where we live. Honestly, um short drive

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Speaker 1: and it's a super cool little trail out in the woods.

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Speaker 1: You feel like you're in the middle of nowhere, which

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Speaker 1: many spots in Atlanta. Atlanta is a forest if you've

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Speaker 1: never been here, uh so, there's lots of little spots

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Speaker 1: you can go into the woods and feel like you're

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Speaker 1: in the middle of nowhere. Yeah. It's called Constitution Lakes

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Speaker 1: Park and it's really like kind of a marsh, I

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Speaker 1: guess you could say, a lot of water there. We

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Speaker 1: were kind of like we would never come here in

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Speaker 1: the summer it would be like Mosquito Town. But in

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Speaker 1: the fall it was perfect, like peaceful. The colors are

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Speaker 1: really nice. And then you get through this trail and

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Speaker 1: there's this artist that did basically an installation made out

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Speaker 1: of litter that would have been dumped in this In

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Speaker 1: this park, it used to be like a brick works,

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Speaker 1: so there was all these clay pits that filled up

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Speaker 1: with water and that's where the ponds come from. Now

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Speaker 1: and stuff. So there's a bunch of litter there, a

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Speaker 1: bunch of bricks, like random stuff, and he kind of

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Speaker 1: came through and turned it into a trail, like an

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Speaker 1: art artist trail. And people still contribute to it, but

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Speaker 1: only with any other litter that's already there. Um, So

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Speaker 1: you know, the idea is not to bring more trash

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Speaker 1: to the park, obviously, it's just to turn it into

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Speaker 1: something fun to look at. And it was really cool

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Speaker 1: and super creepy because all these broken dolls and like toys,

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Speaker 1: weird toys and just tires and stacks of old misshapen

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Speaker 1: bricks and stuff that had been disc hearted and they

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Speaker 1: found out in the mud. Um, so really cool, like

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Speaker 1: little artsy path, beautiful day for it. It was perfect.

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Speaker 1: You can see for our dog two, who's old, so

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Speaker 1: it was like a perfect trail for him. You can

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Speaker 1: see pictures on either of our instagrams um of of

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Speaker 1: some of the highlights of this trail. But it's super cool,

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Speaker 1: a good time. But now we are we're done with Halloween.

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Speaker 1: It's November one. We're phasing into another season and I

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Speaker 1: hope that you all enjoyed our recruptulous romance series. We

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Speaker 1: want to do that. Every year. We just take our spookiest,

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Speaker 1: creepiest erieus stories and tell him in October to kind

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Speaker 1: of set the mood for the season. Yeah, and now

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Speaker 1: that that series has passed for we're we're coming back

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Speaker 1: with a bit of a palate cleanser today. Nice clean,

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Speaker 1: refreshing drink. Something you might say is the polar opposite

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Speaker 1: of like say, the Carl Tonsler story or ease, give

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Speaker 1: me the polar opposite of the story. Moster reikes all

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Speaker 1: those creepy growth stories. This one is wonderful and joyous

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Speaker 1: and happy and lovely, wonderful examples of humanity throughout. Absolutely,

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Speaker 1: so we're very happy to be kind of shifting the

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Speaker 1: mood for a minute. Now. Um Now, I gotta tell

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Speaker 1: you for our non American listeners, because I know that

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Speaker 1: we have some awesome devoted listeners all across Canada and Australia,

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Speaker 1: the UK. Y'all three are are vying for that number

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Speaker 1: to slots. So so thank you. Tell your fellow countrymen

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Speaker 1: to get involved so you can really you know, Australia,

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Speaker 1: I want you to stick it to those Canadians. Canada,

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Speaker 1: defend your position. Get your friends listening with the number

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Speaker 1: two country at the end of the year is going

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Speaker 1: to get a special price one T shirt to share. Um.

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Speaker 1: But for for all of you non American listeners out there,

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Speaker 1: we're gonna be talking a lot in this episode about football,

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Speaker 1: but of course we're talking about American football. That's the

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Speaker 1: football that you hold in your hands. Uh yeah, very

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Speaker 1: few feet involved. Yeah, I mean, I have to admit

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Speaker 1: I really don't know very much about football myself. And yeah,

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Speaker 1: researching this story I did, there are some notes that

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Speaker 1: if you are a football, if you're a big sports person,

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Speaker 1: we're probably not going to hit. I'm quite like you

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Speaker 1: would because I just don't know what they mean. I

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Speaker 1: had to look up what rushing yards was, and they

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Speaker 1: talked about like somebody accepting a red shirt position even

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Speaker 1: though they were better than that, and I didn't know

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Speaker 1: what that meant. Well, a red shirt. Red red shirts

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Speaker 1: go down to the planet first before Captain Kirk, and

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Speaker 1: they get killed off by whatever threat is down there.

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Speaker 1: So you know that there is a threat, right, That's

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Speaker 1: that's what a red shirt does. Oh great, al right,

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Speaker 1: well then I do know what a red shirt is,

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Speaker 1: and this is going to be great. H But even

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Speaker 1: if you don't care about football. This story is absolutely wonderful.

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Speaker 1: It is about de Land McCullough, who had a loving

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Speaker 1: adoptive mother and brother and a wife and kids and

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Speaker 1: the job of his dreams as a running backs coach

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Speaker 1: for the Kansas City Chiefs football team. But he had

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Speaker 1: always wondered about his biological parents, and in seventeen he

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Speaker 1: got his adoption records unsealed and found his biological mother,

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Speaker 1: but there was no information about his biological father, since

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Speaker 1: his adoptive father had left his family when the Land

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Speaker 1: was only two. He was really searching for a father figure,

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Speaker 1: and he found one, but his search for his biological

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Speaker 1: parents would still change his life. So let's hear the

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Speaker 1: amazing true story of de Land McCullough's search for his

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Speaker 1: biological parents. Yeah, what do they say in football? But

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Speaker 1: they go game on? Okay, great, I don't know. Hey

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Speaker 1: their friend, Well, Elia and Diana got some stories to tell.

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Speaker 1: There's no matchmaking a romantic tips. It's just about ridiculous relationships,

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Speaker 1: a love. It might be any type of person at

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Speaker 1: all and abstract const concrete wall. But if there's a

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Speaker 1: story with the second plant, ridiculous roles, a production of

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Speaker 1: I Heart Radio. Now. We got most of these details

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Speaker 1: from this really really great in depth article from ESPN

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Speaker 1: by Sarah Spain, so big shout out to her. This

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Speaker 1: is a very good article. That de Land mccullo was

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Speaker 1: born John Kenneth Briggs in December two in Pennsylvania. He

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Speaker 1: was up for adoption and the agency called Adele comber.

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Speaker 1: Adele lived in Youngstown, Ohio with her husband A. C. McCullough,

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Speaker 1: who was a popular local radio host, and their son Damon.

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Speaker 1: And tragically, Adele and A. C. Had lost their second

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Speaker 1: son at only twenty eight days old from an intestinal

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Speaker 1: birth defect. And after that happened, they decided to become

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Speaker 1: foster parents, and they were really looking to adopt another child,

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Speaker 1: which I think is so amazing to respond to a

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Speaker 1: tragedy like that being like, let me open my home

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Speaker 1: to right, babe, that's really cool. Um. And when the

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Speaker 1: agency placed baby John into her arms, she said it

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Speaker 1: was quote instant connection love mother's son. So they named

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Speaker 1: him to Land Scott McCullough and took him home. Amazing.

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Speaker 1: For a while, everything was totally fine, great life they

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Speaker 1: had for themselves, smooth salem. But then Adele's father had

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Speaker 1: a stroke and he was going to need dedicated care

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Speaker 1: and a lot of attention. So she brought him home

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Speaker 1: to live with the family, but her husband, A C.

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Speaker 1: Wanted to put him in a nursing home, and it

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Speaker 1: was a big fight. It was a whole thing. Um.

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Speaker 1: You know, we can't say specifically why, but speculation station.

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Speaker 1: You know, maybe A C. Wasn't interested in taking on

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Speaker 1: full time care of an elderly relative of his wife's

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Speaker 1: a job. Maybe he just didn't like the guy, maybe

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Speaker 1: each other. That would be tough though, if you really

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Speaker 1: hated your in laws and then you had to take

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Speaker 1: them in and I don't know, take care of them

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Speaker 1: and be nice to write. I feel like there's a

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Speaker 1: couple of sitcoms based around this idea. But it's like

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Speaker 1: you mentioned, you know, isn't that an important conversation to have. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I think that is something you know that maybe you

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Speaker 1: wouldn't think of, especially if you marry kind of young

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Speaker 1: or something, or if your family is really healthy, like

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Speaker 1: our families are really healthy. I don't think we talked

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Speaker 1: about anything like that before. We have not discussed what

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Speaker 1: we would do if either of our parents, any of

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Speaker 1: our four parents suddenly needed care. I mean I would say, well,

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Speaker 1: I have a younger sister who could probably do better

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Speaker 1: than I could at assisting them. Molly. Yeah, by the way, Molly,

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Speaker 1: we're really counting on you. Everyone always has been here,

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Speaker 1: we go again. Yeah, but it does seem like one

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Speaker 1: of those things that, like people say, you should probably

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Speaker 1: talk about how you might react to a situation like that,

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Speaker 1: because there are some people who you know again speculation station.

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Speaker 1: Maybe Adele is like, it is so unfeeling to put

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Speaker 1: your father in a nursing home. You know he he

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Speaker 1: you know, raised me to care of meat and put

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Speaker 1: me in a home, and why would I do it

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Speaker 1: to you? Like, some people really don't like that idea

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Speaker 1: and have a very strong reaction against it. Um And

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Speaker 1: then also, homes are very expensive, so I wonder if

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Speaker 1: that was came up where she's like, I mean, sure,

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Speaker 1: put him in a home, but how we pay for that?

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Speaker 1: You panned for that, or my patent? How's that working?

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Speaker 1: Because we you know, that is not cheap. Right to

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Speaker 1: take care of another person. Child cares not cheap, elderly

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Speaker 1: cares not cheap. It's almost like that sounds like a

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Speaker 1: problem that needs to be fixed. It sounds like something

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Speaker 1: we should address. Well, whatever the reason, and we we

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Speaker 1: don't know what the actual rift here was. But they

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Speaker 1: didn't reconcile their positions and a c ended up moving

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Speaker 1: out of the house and they got divorced when the

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Speaker 1: land was only two years old. Adele got a number

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Speaker 1: of different jobs to support the family. She was a

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Speaker 1: social worker, a switchboard operator, a waitress, and a part

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Speaker 1: time short order cook at a bowling alley. She was working.

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Speaker 1: I'm imagining her doing all of these at once. She's

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Speaker 1: not like she's got something in the friar while she's

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Speaker 1: on the phone, like giving somebody life advice, and then

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Speaker 1: she's like, hang on, I have to switch your call

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Speaker 1: over Vondike nine. You know switchboard Klondike nine. I assumed

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Speaker 1: she was on the switchboard in the thirties. They had

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Speaker 1: an upgraded their equipment. So she's working a lot. I mean,

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Speaker 1: she's got a bunch of jobs. She's like an octopus

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Speaker 1: in the frame drodger rabbit and just like plailing around

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Speaker 1: it seems like. But still money was always tight um.

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Speaker 1: She worried constantly about keeping the lights on, paying the

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Speaker 1: rent on time. Sometimes she had to choose between the

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Speaker 1: power bill, getting paid and having a working phone. Um,

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Speaker 1: so you know this is a probably a lot of

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Speaker 1: people nodding to this. This is a common story, I

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Speaker 1: feel in America. You can have many, many jobs and

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Speaker 1: still have no money somehow. And it took her two

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Speaker 1: years to pay off a couch that she had put

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Speaker 1: on layway. But on the first day after she had

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Speaker 1: paid this couch off, she came home to find three

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Speaker 1: big gashes in it. And I'm sure she was like,

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Speaker 1: what the hell I just the off? Yeah right, my god,

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Speaker 1: I worked for two days. She's thinking of all the

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Speaker 1: short orders she had to fail to get that couch.

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Speaker 1: And it turned out that it happened because de Land

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Speaker 1: had gotten really upset because kids at school were teasing

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Speaker 1: him about being adopted, which common story also, I feel like,

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Speaker 1: so he accused Adele of not loving him as much

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Speaker 1: as she loved her quote unquote real son, Damon, and

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Speaker 1: she told him that she loved Damon and the Land

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Speaker 1: for different reasons. She loved Damon because he came from

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Speaker 1: her belly, and she loved the Land because she chose him.

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Speaker 1: And de Land rarely mentioned his adoption again. So Adele

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Speaker 1: kind of thought, cool, I I laid that to rescue him.

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Speaker 1: Figure that out. We're good here, I said the exact

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Speaker 1: right thing. I am good at this. Yeah, mom My,

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Speaker 1: damn good mom. But de Land said that he had

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Speaker 1: always still felt a void around that, but he just

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Speaker 1: got really good at hiding it is that he describes

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Speaker 1: it now. Adele had a few relationships after her divorce

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Speaker 1: from Macy. Some of them were described as quote combative

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Speaker 1: and abusive. Damon, who was her older son, um, he

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Speaker 1: would sometimes kind of try to intervene when these things

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Speaker 1: got bad, but the Land's way of coping with it

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Speaker 1: was kind of just shut down and shut out the world.

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Speaker 1: In that ESPN article, Adele admits that she can be

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Speaker 1: didto this chaos in the house. She called herself quote

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Speaker 1: the biggest drama queen in the world. And it sounds

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Speaker 1: like maybe she continued to date a little after that,

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Speaker 1: but she maybe stopped trying to have anything serious with anyone. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's it sounded kind of like she was maybe trying

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Speaker 1: to get remarried and like really have something serious when

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Speaker 1: they were younger kids, and then as they were getting older,

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Speaker 1: she was kind of like, I'm going to get them

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Speaker 1: through high school and get them right, you know, out

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Speaker 1: of the house on their own before I try to

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Speaker 1: address my love life's I'm already working eight jobs at once. Here.

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Speaker 1: I got time to to, you know, deal with some

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Speaker 1: some guy, right, especially if these guys are coming around me.

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Speaker 1: And yeah, out of an abusive and thanks. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I'm freaking dealing with French fries and social case social

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Speaker 1: worker cases leaving alone. So Adele's doing it. She's trying

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Speaker 1: to hold it together here, Yeah, for sure. And she

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Speaker 1: was a very dedicated mom too. Again, she's got all

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Speaker 1: these jobs. Keep that in my They were still very

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Speaker 1: active in church. She insisted on checking their homework every night, um,

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Speaker 1: not only to make sure they were doing it, but

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Speaker 1: also that they actually understood what they were doing. Um.

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Speaker 1: She shuttled them to all kinds of activities, including the

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Speaker 1: theater program at the Youngstown Playhouse, and to track and

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Speaker 1: basketball and football practice. So cool that he did theater.

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Speaker 1: I'm just I'm just glad that you let your kid

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Speaker 1: to do theater. Is so good because they get out

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Speaker 1: there in front of people and they learned there's nothing

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Speaker 1: to be afraid of, and you can talk and you

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Speaker 1: can present, and you can I don't know, Yeah, well,

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Speaker 1: not only that my theater pitch, but it's so rounding

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Speaker 1: because even in high school, like there's just this perpetual

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Speaker 1: idea that these two things are the opposites of each

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Speaker 1: other and they're polarizing, and that's like you either like

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Speaker 1: theater and art or you like sports. And when I

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Speaker 1: knew so many people who loved both, who still love

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Speaker 1: both as adults, who found a lot of value in

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Speaker 1: either one and have have grown as a person because

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Speaker 1: of what they learned from either one of those things.

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Speaker 1: And I've think this notion in high school. A lot

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Speaker 1: of it comes down to time, because if you're going

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Speaker 1: to do either one of those things, it better be competitively,

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Speaker 1: so you have to devote your entire self to it,

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Speaker 1: which sucks because you shouldn't know how to do that

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Speaker 1: in high school. But yeah, and at its best, we're

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Speaker 1: talking about two things that are about a big group

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Speaker 1: of people working together towards a common goal. And those

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Speaker 1: are that's great skills to learn, no matter how you

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Speaker 1: learn them. And even competition. We had some some steady

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Speaker 1: competition in theater. We went to we went to Thespian

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Speaker 1: Conference and and uh and tackled another theater Troupe the

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Speaker 1: Ground gave him all concussions and bye bye Birdie, but

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Speaker 1: bye bye bye bye Birdie because they weren't going to

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Speaker 1: do that show no more. So. Yeah, when a theater

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Speaker 1: kid in me was just very happy that he did

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Speaker 1: some theater. But de Land fell in love with football.

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Speaker 1: He loved it from early on. When he played peewee

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Speaker 1: football and he heard its name over a speaker, he

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Speaker 1: was immediately like, yet, so it sounds a lot like

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Speaker 1: an actor getting applause, but the first time and going, oh, yeah,

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Speaker 1: this is me the rest of my life. You're saying

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Speaker 1: my name. And he would even carry a football to

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Speaker 1: bed with him at night. I think it's cute. And

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Speaker 1: Adele would go to all his games and cheer for him.

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Speaker 1: She brought multiple signs. She run up and down the sideline.

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Speaker 1: She would holler d Matt, d Mat, d Mac from

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Speaker 1: the stands. She's just real into it. And the other

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Speaker 1: moms were like, okay, we all got kids in the game,

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Speaker 1: but okay, but still, de Land had no father figure,

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Speaker 1: and he was pretty thirsty for a male mentor. Fortunately, though,

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Speaker 1: he was able to have his pick because for a

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Speaker 1: while de Land played as a junior defensive back, and

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Speaker 1: he thought that he'd probably play for like a small

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Speaker 1: college or maybe enlist in the Navy and play with them.

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Speaker 1: But then he got moved to the running back position

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Speaker 1: and he really started to get some attention there. Suddenly

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Speaker 1: some of these really good colleges came a calling for him,

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Speaker 1: and he was now meeting with some of the top

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Speaker 1: coaches in the country. The then head coach, Jim Tressel

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Speaker 1: tried to entice him to Youngstown University. Bob Stoops, the

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Speaker 1: defensive backs coach at Kansas State, showed up with a

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Speaker 1: big bag of swag, like, hey, Kansas, you think about it,

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Speaker 1: because you've got to show up with a bag of swag.

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Speaker 1: You're going to try and get people to come to Kansas,

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Speaker 1: you know. And then Sherman Smith, the running backs coach

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Speaker 1: at Miami University of Ohio, he showed up too, and

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Speaker 1: to Land was sitting in class like a third period

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Speaker 1: high school, boring some class, sitting next to the window,

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Speaker 1: and out corner of his eye he sees this candy

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Speaker 1: apple red Mercedes tricked out gold rims pull up and

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Speaker 1: so he was like, okay, who's this person? And then

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Speaker 1: that person actually wanted to meet him, and it only

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Speaker 1: got better as they talked. It was Sherman Smith from

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Speaker 1: Miami University of Ohio, and he was an aspirational figure

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Speaker 1: for de Land. Sherman had been a star quarterback at

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Speaker 1: Miami of Ohio when he was in college. Then he

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Speaker 1: was the second round draft pick running back for the

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Speaker 1: Seattle Seahawks. He played professionally for eight years. He was

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Speaker 1: this powerfully built guy with like a booming voice. He

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Speaker 1: was a successful, confident, competent man, you know, walking around

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Speaker 1: looking like a boss in a really nice car. And

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Speaker 1: de Land was like, that's the kind of guy I

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Speaker 1: want to be around. That's the kind of guy I

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Speaker 1: need in my life. You know, I need to model

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Speaker 1: myself after somebody like this. This is a successful person.

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Speaker 1: And Sherman also was really impressed with de Land. He

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Speaker 1: thought he was very intelligent and expressive. So they really

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Speaker 1: wanted to work together. So, even though there was a

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Speaker 1: lot of interest from other schools, de Land chose to

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Speaker 1: attend Miami of Ohio and when he got there, they

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Speaker 1: kind of pushed him to become a wide receiver and

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Speaker 1: he declined just because he really wanted to work with

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Speaker 1: Sherman and Sherman was the running backs coach, so he's like,

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Speaker 1: I'm running back. I'm working with Sherman, so I'm doing

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Speaker 1: and in a lot of ways, it seemed like Sherman

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Speaker 1: was kind of coming into fill this father figure position

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Speaker 1: that de Land had been trying to fill throughout his

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Speaker 1: whole life. DeLand told ESPN quote, if anything was going on,

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Speaker 1: I was going to go talk to Coach Smith. Everybody

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Speaker 1: gravitated towards Coach Smith, just because that's the type of

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Speaker 1: person he was, and Sherman encouraged it. He says in

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Speaker 1: the article quote, I would tell the players, you may

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Speaker 1: not be looking for a father, but I'm going to

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Speaker 1: treat you like you're my Son's I just looked at

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Speaker 1: every guy like he was my son. I wanted to

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Speaker 1: exemplify what I thought my father exemplified for me. And

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Speaker 1: that's so cool. I mean, like, what a great coach figure,

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Speaker 1: you know, to kind of take on that role and

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Speaker 1: imagine to Land, you know, freshman at university and his

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Speaker 1: coach says, you might not be looking for a father,

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Speaker 1: but I'm treating you like you're my son. And He's like,

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Speaker 1: I am is exactly what I've been looking for. I

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Speaker 1: wasn't gonna ask, but if you can fill that position,

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Speaker 1: that's that's perfect for me. So even though after that season,

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Speaker 1: Sherman actually left Miami to become a tight ends coach

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Speaker 1: at Illinois University, he and the Land stayed in touch.

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Speaker 1: They were just that close. He was that important to him.

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Speaker 1: So again, that's just such an awesome relationship for him

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Speaker 1: to find. And despite him not knowing who his biological

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Speaker 1: parents were, the Land had finally found this father figure

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Speaker 1: that he was looking for, and he now had like

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Speaker 1: college ahead of him. He knew he was on this

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Speaker 1: way to a career and professional football, but his search

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Speaker 1: wasn't over. He still wanted to know who his birth

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Speaker 1: mother and father were, and we imagine so do you.

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Speaker 1: So we're going to come back to it right after

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Speaker 1: we take this quick commercial break. Welcome back to the

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Speaker 1: second quarter here where the score is the Land one

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Speaker 1: father figure, one that adopted mother, and no biological parents

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Speaker 1: identified as of yet. That's we're on the UH first

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Speaker 1: and three uh with it two yards to go. Very exciting. Wow,

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Speaker 1: I don't know what any of that means. Well, I

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Speaker 1: certainly do. Well, I'll tell you who does probably know

392
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Speaker 1: how ridiculous now was and that's Delanne McCullough. Yeah, he

393
00:22:41,160 --> 00:22:44,000
Speaker 1: had a great career in college. He set a school

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Speaker 1: record with four thousand, three hundred sixty eight rushing yards.

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Speaker 1: I got a real quick just for our non American

396
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Speaker 1: listeners around the globe, four thousand three rushing yards is

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Speaker 1: three rushing meters. Put that in context. Now we know

398
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Speaker 1: almost the same number, so close. Yeah, this is a

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Speaker 1: Hall of Fame showing apparently of rushing yards, which I

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00:23:18,760 --> 00:23:21,600
Speaker 1: guess is just how much I've looked it up, all right,

401
00:23:21,680 --> 00:23:24,960
Speaker 1: and how much. It's how much ground you gain without

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Speaker 1: getting a pass. So it's just you ran a lot

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Speaker 1: without touching the ball, I guess being stopped. And so

404
00:23:31,119 --> 00:23:34,679
Speaker 1: you're fast and you got far. Good. That's good in football.

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00:23:34,720 --> 00:23:37,840
Speaker 1: It's very good in football. And so people were like, oh,

406
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Speaker 1: that guy got fast and went really far. We like him.

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Speaker 1: He's good. It's a hall of famer. I'm sure that's

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Speaker 1: how the conversation. I think that was it. That's all

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Speaker 1: they do so because it's so impressive. He was very

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Speaker 1: surprised that his name was not called in the draft,

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Speaker 1: but he was invited to some workouts and he ended

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Speaker 1: up signing with the Cincinnati Bengals, and he was leading

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Speaker 1: the NFL in preseason rushing when at the last exhibition

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Speaker 1: game he suffered a season ending knee injury. He played

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Speaker 1: a few seasons in Canada with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers,

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Speaker 1: and he underwent several knee surgeries, but in two thousand

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Speaker 1: one he had to accept that he was never going

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Speaker 1: to be able to play professionally, which just sucks. Like

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Speaker 1: I'm just like, imagine that movie where he's leading and

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Speaker 1: everyone's like, oh, this guy is going about to go

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Speaker 1: really far in the NFL, and in the last game

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Speaker 1: before you actually are playing professionally, everything's over. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I would feel like such a dany mom. That's so tough,

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Speaker 1: And it's tough when your your job is to kind

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Speaker 1: of punish your own body. But if your if your

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Speaker 1: body is too punished, you can't do your job anymore.

427
00:24:49,280 --> 00:24:52,960
Speaker 1: Like that's such a tight blind walk. It's so difficult. Wild.

428
00:24:53,240 --> 00:24:55,720
Speaker 1: I have a friend who's a professional dancer, and it's

429
00:24:55,720 --> 00:24:59,080
Speaker 1: a very similar conversation with her is like, okay, like

430
00:24:59,160 --> 00:25:00,879
Speaker 1: when she was twenty eight, she's like, well, I'm a

431
00:25:00,920 --> 00:25:04,840
Speaker 1: little old now for ballet or something, And I was like, what,

432
00:25:07,160 --> 00:25:09,280
Speaker 1: But it's it is very hard on your body when

433
00:25:09,320 --> 00:25:12,080
Speaker 1: you're an athlete. It's a tough path to walk. But

434
00:25:12,240 --> 00:25:15,760
Speaker 1: it sucks for him. Of course, he took it very

435
00:25:15,800 --> 00:25:18,080
Speaker 1: well and he was like, you know what, I got

436
00:25:18,160 --> 00:25:19,960
Speaker 1: to show that I could have played on a professional

437
00:25:20,080 --> 00:25:23,399
Speaker 1: level and everyone knows it, so I feel good about that.

438
00:25:24,359 --> 00:25:27,440
Speaker 1: And he ended up turning his attention to coaching. So

439
00:25:27,520 --> 00:25:30,679
Speaker 1: he went and taught and coached part time at Harmony

440
00:25:30,720 --> 00:25:32,720
Speaker 1: Community College and that kind of game the bug to

441
00:25:32,800 --> 00:25:35,960
Speaker 1: coach more. So he called Miami of Ohio and was

442
00:25:36,080 --> 00:25:37,879
Speaker 1: kind of like, hey, what you got for me? Maybe

443
00:25:37,960 --> 00:25:41,760
Speaker 1: in the coaching arena and they were like hell yeah,

444
00:25:41,800 --> 00:25:45,320
Speaker 1: I get over here. And so before hit the job started,

445
00:25:45,560 --> 00:25:48,320
Speaker 1: he called his old coach, Sherman Smith, because of course

446
00:25:48,600 --> 00:25:50,639
Speaker 1: that guy already had the job before. So he's like, hey,

447
00:25:50,720 --> 00:25:53,040
Speaker 1: what what should I know about this? And Sherman had

448
00:25:53,080 --> 00:25:56,440
Speaker 1: a similar career path to coaching as de Land. After

449
00:25:56,560 --> 00:26:00,800
Speaker 1: he played professionally, he started coaching with high schoolers and

450
00:26:00,920 --> 00:26:03,080
Speaker 1: then he went on to Miami of Ohio and then

451
00:26:03,160 --> 00:26:05,040
Speaker 1: he worked his way up to becoming a coach with

452
00:26:05,119 --> 00:26:10,120
Speaker 1: professional teams including the Houston Oilers and the Washington less

453
00:26:10,160 --> 00:26:15,560
Speaker 1: offensive team name coming in early two we swears and

454
00:26:15,720 --> 00:26:18,200
Speaker 1: he was the running backs coach with the Seattle Seahawks

455
00:26:18,280 --> 00:26:20,720
Speaker 1: when de Land called for advice about Miami of Ohio.

456
00:26:21,400 --> 00:26:23,159
Speaker 1: So of course he's like, you know, I'll tell you

457
00:26:23,200 --> 00:26:28,400
Speaker 1: everything I know. And by de Land had done great

458
00:26:28,440 --> 00:26:31,000
Speaker 1: at Miami of Ohio, he'd moved on to coaching at

459
00:26:31,080 --> 00:26:35,080
Speaker 1: Indiana University, and Sherman then invited de Land to join

460
00:26:35,240 --> 00:26:38,080
Speaker 1: him with the Seahawks for a coaching internship. So he

461
00:26:38,240 --> 00:26:41,919
Speaker 1: was like really kind of ushering him into the professional arena,

462
00:26:42,480 --> 00:26:44,639
Speaker 1: professional football arena, and was like, I can tell this

463
00:26:44,680 --> 00:26:47,840
Speaker 1: guy's gonna be really good coach. But then off the field,

464
00:26:48,160 --> 00:26:50,920
Speaker 1: de Land was still consumed with the search for his

465
00:26:51,040 --> 00:26:55,080
Speaker 1: biological parents. It always bothered him not to know, but

466
00:26:55,320 --> 00:26:58,399
Speaker 1: he had obviously been able to push that aside until

467
00:26:58,600 --> 00:27:01,879
Speaker 1: eventually he got married and then he had his first child.

468
00:27:02,280 --> 00:27:04,720
Speaker 1: At this point he really started thinking about this issue

469
00:27:04,720 --> 00:27:06,920
Speaker 1: again with not knowing who his parents were. He wanted

470
00:27:07,000 --> 00:27:09,600
Speaker 1: to know who his sons took after, who they looked like,

471
00:27:10,320 --> 00:27:12,720
Speaker 1: and of course he's trying to tell them like their

472
00:27:12,760 --> 00:27:16,200
Speaker 1: family medical history, but he doesn't have that obviously, because

473
00:27:16,200 --> 00:27:19,520
Speaker 1: he doesn't even know who is you know, biological family

474
00:27:19,640 --> 00:27:22,920
Speaker 1: before him was so this was difficult for him. But

475
00:27:23,760 --> 00:27:26,399
Speaker 1: he was still struggling, you know, in this search because

476
00:27:26,600 --> 00:27:30,160
Speaker 1: he was adopted in Pennsylvania, and they had laws against

477
00:27:30,320 --> 00:27:33,480
Speaker 1: unsealing adoption records, even for the person who had been

478
00:27:33,520 --> 00:27:38,560
Speaker 1: adopted out. But in two thousand seventeen the law changed

479
00:27:39,000 --> 00:27:40,960
Speaker 1: and the Land was able to get his hands on

480
00:27:41,119 --> 00:27:45,720
Speaker 1: his adoption records. He read his birth certificate eagerly, and

481
00:27:45,840 --> 00:27:50,879
Speaker 1: he discovered his birth name, John Kenneth Briggs, and he

482
00:27:51,000 --> 00:27:56,000
Speaker 1: found out his biological mother's name, Carol Denise Briggs. Next

483
00:27:56,080 --> 00:28:01,080
Speaker 1: to father's name. The line was blank. Oh that must

484
00:28:01,080 --> 00:28:05,080
Speaker 1: have felt so crazy, just like, here's all the answers. Oh.

485
00:28:07,880 --> 00:28:10,159
Speaker 1: The Land went ahead and reached out to Carol, his

486
00:28:10,280 --> 00:28:15,040
Speaker 1: biological mother. She opened up her Facebook one day to

487
00:28:15,200 --> 00:28:18,760
Speaker 1: find a message waiting for her that just said, quote,

488
00:28:19,119 --> 00:28:21,200
Speaker 1: did you have a baby in nineteen seventy two in

489
00:28:21,240 --> 00:28:25,680
Speaker 1: Allegheny County that you placed for adoption? What a message

490
00:28:25,920 --> 00:28:31,480
Speaker 1: can you imagine? Uh? Just opened your Facebook one day? Oh,

491
00:28:31,640 --> 00:28:34,480
Speaker 1: new message request, probably spam or like somebody I knew

492
00:28:34,520 --> 00:28:37,920
Speaker 1: trying to get me into an MLM or something. And

493
00:28:38,040 --> 00:28:42,320
Speaker 1: then uh so it's just like he's into it a

494
00:28:42,360 --> 00:28:45,160
Speaker 1: little buddy. Hey, I have a question for you. I

495
00:28:45,240 --> 00:28:47,720
Speaker 1: think we might know each other something like that. Instead

496
00:28:47,760 --> 00:28:50,200
Speaker 1: of just straight out the gate, hey do you have

497
00:28:50,280 --> 00:28:53,040
Speaker 1: a baby that you gave up for adoption? Would be like, damn,

498
00:28:53,960 --> 00:28:58,320
Speaker 1: how long you've been watching me? Whoa for real speculation station?

499
00:28:58,400 --> 00:29:02,600
Speaker 1: Maybe he found like fifty Carol Briggs. Yeah, in in

500
00:29:02,680 --> 00:29:05,200
Speaker 1: Allegheny County or something. It was just like you know what,

501
00:29:05,840 --> 00:29:10,800
Speaker 1: copy paste, So he's got like forty nine people answered

502
00:29:10,880 --> 00:29:14,920
Speaker 1: no or ignored it left him on red because like,

503
00:29:14,960 --> 00:29:18,400
Speaker 1: I hope you're not my mom? You left me on red. Yeah,

504
00:29:18,480 --> 00:29:22,600
Speaker 1: So she was obviously shocked by this message. She told

505
00:29:22,680 --> 00:29:27,480
Speaker 1: Sarah Spain in ESPN quote Luckily, I was already sitting

506
00:29:27,960 --> 00:29:32,240
Speaker 1: over real. Can you imagine falling on your ad just

507
00:29:32,360 --> 00:29:35,240
Speaker 1: fallen out because of that? It would be so crazy.

508
00:29:36,120 --> 00:29:40,040
Speaker 1: So Carol Denise Briggs was only sixteen years old when

509
00:29:40,080 --> 00:29:42,520
Speaker 1: she found out she was pregnant with the land. She

510
00:29:42,680 --> 00:29:45,560
Speaker 1: spent most of her pregnancy at the Zore Home from

511
00:29:45,640 --> 00:29:50,720
Speaker 1: Mother's Babies and Convalescence in Alison Park, Pennsylvania, so hardly

512
00:29:50,840 --> 00:29:53,800
Speaker 1: anyone outside of her immediate family knew she was pregnant.

513
00:29:54,360 --> 00:29:58,080
Speaker 1: On December one, she spent the day sledding with some

514
00:29:58,200 --> 00:30:01,040
Speaker 1: other girls after a big snow stor arm and then

515
00:30:01,120 --> 00:30:04,880
Speaker 1: woke up at two am in labor and she had

516
00:30:04,920 --> 00:30:07,200
Speaker 1: already planned to put the baby up for adoption with

517
00:30:07,320 --> 00:30:10,720
Speaker 1: her parents blessing. She told ESPN that at that time,

518
00:30:11,200 --> 00:30:13,520
Speaker 1: you know, her mother was still cleaning up her room

519
00:30:13,600 --> 00:30:15,600
Speaker 1: for her once a week and stuff like that. She's like,

520
00:30:15,680 --> 00:30:17,960
Speaker 1: I just knew I was not ready to be anybody's mother.

521
00:30:19,160 --> 00:30:21,520
Speaker 1: And she also was kind of thinking, like, I'm young,

522
00:30:22,280 --> 00:30:25,160
Speaker 1: you know, what kind of chance does this kid have

523
00:30:25,400 --> 00:30:29,160
Speaker 1: with me? Um? She told ESPN quote, I just didn't

524
00:30:29,160 --> 00:30:32,400
Speaker 1: want him to get cheated out of anything, um. And

525
00:30:32,480 --> 00:30:34,280
Speaker 1: she kind of was like, my parents had given me

526
00:30:34,360 --> 00:30:36,760
Speaker 1: a very loving, stable home, and you know, I just

527
00:30:36,840 --> 00:30:38,960
Speaker 1: felt like I wasn't in a position to offer that

528
00:30:39,120 --> 00:30:43,760
Speaker 1: to another another person. So she's like cool, very at

529
00:30:43,840 --> 00:30:46,880
Speaker 1: peace with her decision to adopt this child out until

530
00:30:47,040 --> 00:30:50,480
Speaker 1: right before she's going to sign the papers, she thought

531
00:30:50,640 --> 00:30:54,400
Speaker 1: of the father. Now, the father was a teenage fling

532
00:30:54,600 --> 00:30:57,200
Speaker 1: who had left for college before she ever found out

533
00:30:57,280 --> 00:30:59,120
Speaker 1: she was pregnant, so he did not know a thing

534
00:30:59,200 --> 00:31:02,120
Speaker 1: about it, and she kind of was like, Okay, should

535
00:31:02,160 --> 00:31:04,600
Speaker 1: I tell this guy? Does he have a right to

536
00:31:04,680 --> 00:31:09,320
Speaker 1: know or whatever? And she ultimately decided not to tell him.

537
00:31:10,120 --> 00:31:12,320
Speaker 1: She says in the article quote he was just a

538
00:31:12,400 --> 00:31:15,320
Speaker 1: kid too, so she kind of felt like she would

539
00:31:15,360 --> 00:31:19,160
Speaker 1: be derailing his life for no reason, maybe making him

540
00:31:19,200 --> 00:31:22,000
Speaker 1: feel bad or some or or more connected to her

541
00:31:22,080 --> 00:31:24,920
Speaker 1: than she felt like he needed to be. Something like that.

542
00:31:25,080 --> 00:31:27,000
Speaker 1: She's just like, I don't know, it felt like a

543
00:31:27,080 --> 00:31:30,160
Speaker 1: waste of time. Maybe if she's not keeping the child.

544
00:31:30,280 --> 00:31:34,760
Speaker 1: Maybe I don't know. I guess that, Yeah, speculations station Indeed,

545
00:31:34,960 --> 00:31:37,480
Speaker 1: I think that, you know, she thought, well, I'm giving

546
00:31:37,480 --> 00:31:39,440
Speaker 1: this child up for adoption. It's not going to be

547
00:31:39,680 --> 00:31:41,720
Speaker 1: part of my life. It's not going to affect my

548
00:31:41,840 --> 00:31:46,120
Speaker 1: life anymore beyond this, So why why just tell him that,

549
00:31:46,280 --> 00:31:50,120
Speaker 1: just to like right somewhere, Yeah, just to rattle his

550
00:31:50,200 --> 00:31:53,840
Speaker 1: brain for something that's not going to ultimately matter sort

551
00:31:53,880 --> 00:31:56,480
Speaker 1: of in the long run. Yeah, So I can I

552
00:31:56,520 --> 00:31:58,640
Speaker 1: guess I can see that. Yeah, I guess. Yeah, I don't.

553
00:31:58,640 --> 00:31:59,959
Speaker 1: I don't really know. I have never had to make

554
00:32:00,040 --> 00:32:03,720
Speaker 1: that decision, fortunately, right. She also said she thought she

555
00:32:03,920 --> 00:32:06,520
Speaker 1: kind of got herself into the situation and she'd get

556
00:32:06,520 --> 00:32:10,360
Speaker 1: herself out of it. Which felt a little like self

557
00:32:10,440 --> 00:32:13,600
Speaker 1: blameing to me because it takes two people to make

558
00:32:13,600 --> 00:32:16,760
Speaker 1: a baby. So I know, she was like, I shouldn't

559
00:32:16,760 --> 00:32:20,280
Speaker 1: have had sex outside of wedlock or whatever, but come on,

560
00:32:21,800 --> 00:32:24,880
Speaker 1: you didn't do that on your own. But yeah, so

561
00:32:25,080 --> 00:32:28,600
Speaker 1: she she ultimately was like, Okay, no not telling him,

562
00:32:28,600 --> 00:32:30,960
Speaker 1: I'm going to sign these papers. The next day, she

563
00:32:31,200 --> 00:32:34,280
Speaker 1: was back home in her hometown of Youngstown, Ohio, and

564
00:32:34,360 --> 00:32:37,200
Speaker 1: she was ready to be a teenager again. And her

565
00:32:37,320 --> 00:32:40,960
Speaker 1: last contact with the adoption agency was when they told

566
00:32:41,000 --> 00:32:43,840
Speaker 1: her they placed her baby with a doctor and his

567
00:32:44,040 --> 00:32:49,000
Speaker 1: wife in Columbus, Ohio. But she had never forgotten John.

568
00:32:49,320 --> 00:32:51,840
Speaker 1: She would wish him a happy birthday on her Facebook

569
00:32:51,880 --> 00:32:56,000
Speaker 1: wall every year. Um she checked adoption sites to see

570
00:32:56,000 --> 00:32:58,520
Speaker 1: if he was searching for her. So she was even

571
00:32:59,160 --> 00:33:02,040
Speaker 1: maybe kind of hope one day to get that Facebook message,

572
00:33:03,120 --> 00:33:06,360
Speaker 1: and her mother started to tell her, you need to

573
00:33:06,400 --> 00:33:10,040
Speaker 1: find that boy. More and more, she got older, even

574
00:33:10,080 --> 00:33:12,160
Speaker 1: though you know, her parents had been totally down with

575
00:33:12,240 --> 00:33:15,280
Speaker 1: her decision to have, you know, put the baby up

576
00:33:15,280 --> 00:33:18,920
Speaker 1: for adoption. But Carol never married or had any other children,

577
00:33:19,560 --> 00:33:22,000
Speaker 1: so I'm like, probably her parents were getting older, like

578
00:33:22,040 --> 00:33:24,440
Speaker 1: we do have a grandkid, out there and we want one,

579
00:33:24,520 --> 00:33:26,320
Speaker 1: and we want him. We'll know where he is. Yeah

580
00:33:27,960 --> 00:33:30,680
Speaker 1: and uh. Carol used to joke that one day John

581
00:33:30,720 --> 00:33:32,800
Speaker 1: would walk up to her house and quote find her

582
00:33:32,840 --> 00:33:38,200
Speaker 1: home alone dancing around the house to Funkadelic. But instead,

583
00:33:38,360 --> 00:33:42,719
Speaker 1: here he was on her Facebook page. Sliding into someone's

584
00:33:42,760 --> 00:33:45,280
Speaker 1: d m s is the twenty one century version of

585
00:33:45,440 --> 00:33:48,840
Speaker 1: walking up their house and seeing I'm dancing alone to Funkadelic. Right.

586
00:33:50,400 --> 00:33:53,960
Speaker 1: Carol's brother warned her this could be a scam. Good brother,

587
00:33:54,000 --> 00:33:56,800
Speaker 1: because it was smart. This guy might just want some money,

588
00:33:57,600 --> 00:34:00,440
Speaker 1: but or whatever, you know, he might be. You know

589
00:34:00,560 --> 00:34:04,040
Speaker 1: that old trick. Yeah, I get those messages all the time. Hey,

590
00:34:04,160 --> 00:34:08,400
Speaker 1: I'm your son. You have been ignoring me all these years.

591
00:34:09,560 --> 00:34:11,640
Speaker 1: Uh why did you slammed the door in my face?

592
00:34:11,800 --> 00:34:16,560
Speaker 1: I like that never happened. Never happened. But Carol was like, no,

593
00:34:16,640 --> 00:34:19,160
Speaker 1: I'm going to respond this message. She She answered him

594
00:34:19,200 --> 00:34:21,319
Speaker 1: back anyway, and they ended up setting up a meeting

595
00:34:21,400 --> 00:34:24,080
Speaker 1: to speak on the phone. In the meantime, she googled

596
00:34:24,160 --> 00:34:26,879
Speaker 1: his name and she read everything she could find about

597
00:34:26,920 --> 00:34:31,040
Speaker 1: this guy, and when he called, they spoke very easily

598
00:34:31,080 --> 00:34:34,359
Speaker 1: to one another. She learned that he hadn't actually gone

599
00:34:34,400 --> 00:34:37,080
Speaker 1: to Columbus, Ohio at all, but he had actually grown

600
00:34:37,160 --> 00:34:39,799
Speaker 1: up only a few miles away from her in Youngstown.

601
00:34:40,560 --> 00:34:43,080
Speaker 1: They might have even passed each other in the grocery store.

602
00:34:43,719 --> 00:34:46,839
Speaker 1: I mean, that is so crazy to me, Like if

603
00:34:46,920 --> 00:34:48,880
Speaker 1: you gave up a child for adoption, thought they were

604
00:34:48,960 --> 00:34:51,600
Speaker 1: hours away and found out they were literally your neighbor.

605
00:34:52,200 --> 00:34:56,000
Speaker 1: So wild, basically your neighbor. She even felt like her father,

606
00:34:56,480 --> 00:34:59,000
Speaker 1: who was at this point de ceased, but he had

607
00:34:59,040 --> 00:35:02,200
Speaker 1: been a huge Warts fan and he probably followed de

608
00:35:02,320 --> 00:35:06,879
Speaker 1: Land's high school football career amazing, just like he would

609
00:35:07,000 --> 00:35:12,400
Speaker 1: his grandson. The Land was of course, just so happy

610
00:35:12,520 --> 00:35:16,080
Speaker 1: to reconnect with his birth mother, but he'd always had

611
00:35:16,080 --> 00:35:18,480
Speaker 1: a mother in his life, you know. Adele had made

612
00:35:18,520 --> 00:35:20,880
Speaker 1: sure that he was fed and educated and cheered on

613
00:35:21,080 --> 00:35:26,040
Speaker 1: and loved. So he was so happy to have met Carol,

614
00:35:26,280 --> 00:35:33,080
Speaker 1: but he was still missing his father. Within ten minutes

615
00:35:33,120 --> 00:35:37,400
Speaker 1: of their phone call, he asked her point blank, all right,

616
00:35:37,840 --> 00:35:42,719
Speaker 1: who's my father. Carol obviously knew that he was going

617
00:35:42,760 --> 00:35:46,200
Speaker 1: to want to know, and she'd only ever told three

618
00:35:46,440 --> 00:35:50,400
Speaker 1: people the guy's name before because she was afraid that

619
00:35:50,680 --> 00:35:53,280
Speaker 1: you know, this guy would learn maybe through careless gossip

620
00:35:53,360 --> 00:35:55,200
Speaker 1: that he had a kid out there. She didn't want that,

621
00:35:55,280 --> 00:35:58,800
Speaker 1: she wanted control over this info. But she decided, you

622
00:35:58,880 --> 00:36:01,360
Speaker 1: know what, de land has a right to know. So

623
00:36:01,520 --> 00:36:09,319
Speaker 1: she told him, your father's name is Sherman Smith. Can

624
00:36:09,400 --> 00:36:14,080
Speaker 1: you imagine? Oh my god, Oh my god. I mean

625
00:36:14,160 --> 00:36:16,879
Speaker 1: it made me cry when I first read it. He's

626
00:36:17,000 --> 00:36:20,440
Speaker 1: just this college football coach, you know. I think he

627
00:36:20,560 --> 00:36:24,160
Speaker 1: was at Miami of Ohio for a while. Yeah, de

628
00:36:24,280 --> 00:36:28,120
Speaker 1: Lande thought he might pass out obviously, like I do

629
00:36:28,320 --> 00:36:32,239
Speaker 1: right now. Carol describes it quote, I could hear him

630
00:36:32,280 --> 00:36:34,719
Speaker 1: take a big breath, and I could kind of hear

631
00:36:34,760 --> 00:36:38,560
Speaker 1: him choke up a little. And finally he says, well,

632
00:36:38,640 --> 00:36:42,680
Speaker 1: I've known Sherman my whole life. Oh my god. That

633
00:36:42,840 --> 00:36:46,520
Speaker 1: just gets me so hard. Like how crazy to have

634
00:36:46,880 --> 00:36:49,640
Speaker 1: been longing for someone who is standing right next to

635
00:36:49,719 --> 00:36:53,480
Speaker 1: you for a lot of your life. It's just insane.

636
00:36:53,880 --> 00:36:56,320
Speaker 1: And for de land a lot of dots were connecting

637
00:36:56,800 --> 00:37:01,080
Speaker 1: throughout his years long friendship with Sherman. People had told

638
00:37:01,120 --> 00:37:03,759
Speaker 1: them all the time they were carbon copies that they

639
00:37:03,840 --> 00:37:07,160
Speaker 1: looked alike and talked alike and carried themselves that like,

640
00:37:07,840 --> 00:37:09,960
Speaker 1: they were always joking about it and the land had

641
00:37:10,000 --> 00:37:14,120
Speaker 1: always dismissed it. He told ESPN, quote, if you would

642
00:37:14,120 --> 00:37:17,000
Speaker 1: have told me to pick who my father was, there's

643
00:37:17,120 --> 00:37:19,160
Speaker 1: no way I would have picked him because I might

644
00:37:19,200 --> 00:37:21,480
Speaker 1: have thought I wasn't worthy for him to be my father.

645
00:37:22,760 --> 00:37:26,520
Speaker 1: I mean, look, you've got stack, every stack, all these

646
00:37:26,560 --> 00:37:28,759
Speaker 1: feelings up at once, because not only have you got

647
00:37:29,719 --> 00:37:31,640
Speaker 1: I just learned who my father is. Let's just take

648
00:37:31,719 --> 00:37:35,800
Speaker 1: that base level. That alone is a very emotional experience.

649
00:37:36,360 --> 00:37:40,239
Speaker 1: Who Okay, not only that, but it's someone I've known

650
00:37:40,360 --> 00:37:43,160
Speaker 1: my whole life. Okay, let's put that on top of it,

651
00:37:43,560 --> 00:37:45,480
Speaker 1: Like I already knew this guy and it turns out

652
00:37:45,520 --> 00:37:48,200
Speaker 1: he's my father. Let's put another layer on top of that.

653
00:37:48,560 --> 00:37:53,640
Speaker 1: This guy was already a father figure. He was everything

654
00:37:53,719 --> 00:37:56,560
Speaker 1: I would want my dad to be, and he is

655
00:37:56,719 --> 00:38:00,840
Speaker 1: my dad. It's like he wished on a coin and

656
00:38:00,960 --> 00:38:02,879
Speaker 1: threw the well and was like, you know, I wish

657
00:38:02,920 --> 00:38:05,040
Speaker 1: Sherman Smith was just my father, and then woke up

658
00:38:05,040 --> 00:38:07,800
Speaker 1: the next day and they were like, granted, there you go.

659
00:38:08,800 --> 00:38:13,920
Speaker 1: I'm so amazed by this. I mean, just it's I mean,

660
00:38:14,080 --> 00:38:17,000
Speaker 1: it's insane. No, it sounds made up, it does, but

661
00:38:17,120 --> 00:38:23,000
Speaker 1: it is fucking real, incredible well, obviously this isn't the

662
00:38:23,120 --> 00:38:25,840
Speaker 1: end of the story, because there's another big conversation to

663
00:38:25,960 --> 00:38:29,560
Speaker 1: be had, and that is when the Land contacts Sherman

664
00:38:30,360 --> 00:38:34,719
Speaker 1: to let this guy know who didn't had a son,

665
00:38:36,320 --> 00:38:41,719
Speaker 1: that his son figure was his son. And I think

666
00:38:41,800 --> 00:38:43,640
Speaker 1: that we're going to have to save that for right

667
00:38:43,680 --> 00:38:52,120
Speaker 1: after this commercial break, and we're back with the fourth

668
00:38:52,239 --> 00:38:57,680
Speaker 1: quarter of the de Lane McCullough story. Scores one adoptive mother,

669
00:38:58,320 --> 00:39:04,640
Speaker 1: one biological mother, one biological father. Um. But maybe the

670
00:39:04,640 --> 00:39:08,680
Speaker 1: biological father doesn't know he's playing the game. They might

671
00:39:08,800 --> 00:39:12,040
Speaker 1: need to go get him. Yeah, from the locker room.

672
00:39:12,160 --> 00:39:16,239
Speaker 1: Areas exciting game? It sure is. It's one for the book.

673
00:39:18,480 --> 00:39:21,239
Speaker 1: So de Land searched for his biological father, brought him

674
00:39:21,360 --> 00:39:23,040
Speaker 1: right back to the man who had already been his

675
00:39:23,120 --> 00:39:25,959
Speaker 1: mentor for twenty eight years, this guy who had helped

676
00:39:26,040 --> 00:39:28,359
Speaker 1: him along his career path, the man he had looked

677
00:39:28,520 --> 00:39:33,000
Speaker 1: up to since he was sixteen years old. He had

678
00:39:33,040 --> 00:39:35,600
Speaker 1: a photo of him and Sherman from when the Land

679
00:39:35,640 --> 00:39:39,200
Speaker 1: was in high school, just beaming as the Land signed

680
00:39:39,239 --> 00:39:42,960
Speaker 1: his letter of intent to play at Miami, and the

681
00:39:43,080 --> 00:39:46,279
Speaker 1: Land had kept that photover over two decades. He kept

682
00:39:46,320 --> 00:39:48,880
Speaker 1: it in a zip block bag that traveled with him

683
00:39:48,920 --> 00:39:53,000
Speaker 1: to every job. He said to Sarah Spain, quote, I

684
00:39:53,160 --> 00:39:56,560
Speaker 1: felt like my blessings came full circle because I'd always

685
00:39:56,600 --> 00:39:59,239
Speaker 1: wanted to be somebody like him. I mean, does that

686
00:39:59,360 --> 00:40:01,320
Speaker 1: not make you want to cry? That he's like I

687
00:40:01,440 --> 00:40:05,000
Speaker 1: have me and my dad together. I mean, like that

688
00:40:05,160 --> 00:40:09,960
Speaker 1: just makes me so happy and like touched. I don't know.

689
00:40:10,680 --> 00:40:13,560
Speaker 1: So yeah, obviously he's super excited to find out that

690
00:40:13,640 --> 00:40:16,759
Speaker 1: it's Sherman. So he's like immediately texts him and it's like,

691
00:40:16,880 --> 00:40:19,520
Speaker 1: can we talk about something important tomorrow? You know, can

692
00:40:19,560 --> 00:40:22,800
Speaker 1: I call you? And Sherman was thought it was a

693
00:40:22,840 --> 00:40:25,160
Speaker 1: football related because it was fall, it was about to

694
00:40:25,200 --> 00:40:27,960
Speaker 1: be November, so I was like, oh, surely something come

695
00:40:28,080 --> 00:40:31,359
Speaker 1: up career wise. So it's like, sure, obviously, I'll call

696
00:40:31,440 --> 00:40:35,080
Speaker 1: me tomorrow. And over the phone, DeLand told Sherman all

697
00:40:35,120 --> 00:40:38,160
Speaker 1: about his search for his biological mother and finding her

698
00:40:38,200 --> 00:40:40,480
Speaker 1: and everything, and Sherman was so thrilled. He was like,

699
00:40:40,600 --> 00:40:44,640
Speaker 1: Praise the Lord, what a blessing. And then DeLand told

700
00:40:44,719 --> 00:40:48,160
Speaker 1: him his mother's name and Sherman realized that he knew her,

701
00:40:49,239 --> 00:40:52,040
Speaker 1: and then DeLand said, quote, I asked her who my

702
00:40:52,120 --> 00:40:57,160
Speaker 1: father was, and she said it was you. Now, Sherman

703
00:40:57,360 --> 00:41:00,719
Speaker 1: is bold over by this information. Honestly, Like, this guy

704
00:41:00,760 --> 00:41:03,200
Speaker 1: at this point was sixty three years old, he had

705
00:41:03,280 --> 00:41:07,640
Speaker 1: married his college sweetheart, he had grant, they were grandparents now,

706
00:41:08,239 --> 00:41:11,080
Speaker 1: and he hadn't heard Carol's name in over forty years.

707
00:41:11,280 --> 00:41:14,000
Speaker 1: So this was just all kind of hitting him like

708
00:41:15,320 --> 00:41:19,240
Speaker 1: real hard, I think, and he sort of was very stunned,

709
00:41:19,320 --> 00:41:21,440
Speaker 1: and he asked the land, if you know, maybe can

710
00:41:21,520 --> 00:41:23,800
Speaker 1: I have some time to think about this? And that

711
00:41:23,920 --> 00:41:26,480
Speaker 1: kind of hurt the Land's feelings a little bit. Um

712
00:41:26,920 --> 00:41:29,640
Speaker 1: But of course I can't blame him, because, you know,

713
00:41:29,800 --> 00:41:33,960
Speaker 1: he said himself. Later he realized, you know, he and

714
00:41:34,200 --> 00:41:37,399
Speaker 1: Carol had had forty four years to think about each

715
00:41:37,440 --> 00:41:40,520
Speaker 1: other and wonder about each other. Sherman really had no

716
00:41:40,920 --> 00:41:44,520
Speaker 1: idea that there was anyone to wonder about. I can't

717
00:41:44,560 --> 00:41:46,360
Speaker 1: hope to meet that son. I didn't know I have

718
00:41:46,640 --> 00:41:50,440
Speaker 1: one day. So yeah, so he just he you know,

719
00:41:50,520 --> 00:41:52,440
Speaker 1: at first he was his feelings were hurt, but then

720
00:41:52,480 --> 00:41:53,960
Speaker 1: he came to kind of really see it from his

721
00:41:54,040 --> 00:41:58,000
Speaker 1: perspective and he was like, okay, I get it. And Sherman, meanwhile,

722
00:41:58,200 --> 00:42:00,920
Speaker 1: you know, told ESPN. He kind of hung up, the

723
00:42:01,000 --> 00:42:04,080
Speaker 1: phone and was thinking about it, and his overwhelming feeling

724
00:42:04,200 --> 00:42:07,160
Speaker 1: was guilt. Um, because he was like, even though he

725
00:42:07,200 --> 00:42:10,560
Speaker 1: didn't know anything about Carol being pregnant, he still felt

726
00:42:10,640 --> 00:42:14,560
Speaker 1: that he had abdicated his responsibilities. Um, which is kind

727
00:42:14,600 --> 00:42:16,640
Speaker 1: of kind of what I was thinking. Takes two to

728
00:42:16,680 --> 00:42:18,120
Speaker 1: make a baby. So he was like, even though I

729
00:42:18,160 --> 00:42:21,560
Speaker 1: didn't know, you know, I still had some responsibility in that.

730
00:42:22,480 --> 00:42:25,200
Speaker 1: And he's also a very he's a deeply religious man,

731
00:42:26,040 --> 00:42:28,800
Speaker 1: and so he was sitting there wondering what having a

732
00:42:28,880 --> 00:42:32,040
Speaker 1: baby out of wedlock and abandoning it even unknowingly said

733
00:42:32,040 --> 00:42:34,560
Speaker 1: about him as a man, as a person, you know

734
00:42:34,680 --> 00:42:38,360
Speaker 1: how God might see that. And he found himself hoping

735
00:42:38,440 --> 00:42:40,400
Speaker 1: that a DNA test would show that he was not

736
00:42:40,640 --> 00:42:44,080
Speaker 1: the Land's father, which only made him feel more guilty

737
00:42:44,080 --> 00:42:45,840
Speaker 1: because of course he loves the Land, and you know,

738
00:42:46,040 --> 00:42:48,120
Speaker 1: he's already really close to this guy and everything. But

739
00:42:48,239 --> 00:42:50,600
Speaker 1: he was just like, I don't want this big change

740
00:42:50,640 --> 00:42:53,840
Speaker 1: to be true. Um, And so he's like, you know what,

741
00:42:54,040 --> 00:42:56,040
Speaker 1: let me let me call Carol. I'm going to talk

742
00:42:56,080 --> 00:42:58,680
Speaker 1: to Carol about this. I'm trying to picture, you know,

743
00:42:58,719 --> 00:43:01,719
Speaker 1: if my high school girlfriend showed up one day and

744
00:43:01,840 --> 00:43:05,560
Speaker 1: was like, here's your son. Well, first of all, I'd

745
00:43:05,560 --> 00:43:11,760
Speaker 1: be like, that's very impossible. Yeah, but I would definitely

746
00:43:11,880 --> 00:43:15,360
Speaker 1: think I need it. I need a minute before I

747
00:43:15,480 --> 00:43:19,600
Speaker 1: can just jump into this. So Carol agrees to have

748
00:43:19,680 --> 00:43:23,439
Speaker 1: a conversation with him. But the entire day before their call,

749
00:43:23,800 --> 00:43:26,520
Speaker 1: she was just in tears. She just crying. She said

750
00:43:26,560 --> 00:43:28,399
Speaker 1: she was scared of what he was going to say

751
00:43:28,440 --> 00:43:30,560
Speaker 1: to her. You know, would he hold this against her,

752
00:43:30,600 --> 00:43:32,520
Speaker 1: would he be upset, would it be angry? Did she

753
00:43:32,640 --> 00:43:36,880
Speaker 1: wrong him by making the choices she made? But fortunately

754
00:43:37,840 --> 00:43:41,520
Speaker 1: she had nothing to worry about. They talked, They spent

755
00:43:41,600 --> 00:43:44,919
Speaker 1: a long time just catching up before he even brought

756
00:43:45,040 --> 00:43:48,600
Speaker 1: up to land, and he apologized to her for leaving

757
00:43:48,680 --> 00:43:52,080
Speaker 1: her to make this huge decision all by herself, and

758
00:43:52,239 --> 00:43:54,799
Speaker 1: she explained her reasoning for leaving him in the dark,

759
00:43:54,960 --> 00:43:57,279
Speaker 1: and she said all she'd ever wanted over the years

760
00:43:57,440 --> 00:44:00,160
Speaker 1: was to know that their baby was okay. But Sureman

761
00:44:00,239 --> 00:44:03,640
Speaker 1: was able to give her this reassurance that their son

762
00:44:04,160 --> 00:44:08,640
Speaker 1: had grown up to be a wonderful man. I think

763
00:44:08,680 --> 00:44:13,799
Speaker 1: it's so crazy that they had they had two different experiences,

764
00:44:13,920 --> 00:44:18,040
Speaker 1: Like Carol knew she had a son, but didn't know

765
00:44:18,640 --> 00:44:23,759
Speaker 1: what he was like, Meanwhile, Sherman, I knew what this

766
00:44:23,920 --> 00:44:26,319
Speaker 1: kid was like, but didn't know that it was his son.

767
00:44:27,160 --> 00:44:29,759
Speaker 1: So like, together they got the full picture. And I

768
00:44:29,880 --> 00:44:34,640
Speaker 1: think that's so that's what to me, their story is

769
00:44:34,719 --> 00:44:36,960
Speaker 1: sort of like the romance here in a way, because

770
00:44:37,000 --> 00:44:40,400
Speaker 1: it's like their little fling ended up not you know

771
00:44:40,680 --> 00:44:42,320
Speaker 1: that these weren't two people who were meant to be

772
00:44:42,400 --> 00:44:44,840
Speaker 1: together as husband and wife has been their lives together,

773
00:44:45,400 --> 00:44:48,360
Speaker 1: and yet they were able to come together, uh and

774
00:44:49,120 --> 00:44:53,080
Speaker 1: finish this picture, which I think is so beautiful and

775
00:44:53,200 --> 00:44:55,400
Speaker 1: how wonderful that she kind of got what she needed

776
00:44:55,480 --> 00:44:58,440
Speaker 1: to because she had always wanted to know, and then

777
00:44:58,680 --> 00:45:00,840
Speaker 1: he was able to like fill her in on everything

778
00:45:01,840 --> 00:45:06,800
Speaker 1: since he was sixteen. Amazing. He hung up on that

779
00:45:06,880 --> 00:45:10,080
Speaker 1: phone call with her just feeling more sure than ever

780
00:45:10,280 --> 00:45:13,680
Speaker 1: that de Land was in fact his son. So Sherman

781
00:45:13,760 --> 00:45:16,919
Speaker 1: went back to talk to his own wife, and he thought,

782
00:45:17,000 --> 00:45:20,960
Speaker 1: you know, how's this gonna go, sweetie? I know we're

783
00:45:21,000 --> 00:45:23,680
Speaker 1: in our sixties, but guess what, I've had another son

784
00:45:23,760 --> 00:45:27,600
Speaker 1: this whole time. Surprise, So he was worried that she

785
00:45:27,719 --> 00:45:31,040
Speaker 1: was going to be angry, but once again, all she

786
00:45:31,160 --> 00:45:35,160
Speaker 1: said to him was, quote, if it's true, then our

787
00:45:35,239 --> 00:45:41,480
Speaker 1: family just got bigger. Everyone in his story Ted Lasso episode,

788
00:45:42,040 --> 00:45:45,279
Speaker 1: you know, just like the sweetest people, like everyone in

789
00:45:45,360 --> 00:45:48,080
Speaker 1: this is like the best example of humanity. I just like,

790
00:45:48,200 --> 00:45:50,680
Speaker 1: I love how every at every turn, they're just making

791
00:45:50,719 --> 00:45:54,280
Speaker 1: the most loving choice is possible to make. It's so wonderful.

792
00:45:54,719 --> 00:45:56,960
Speaker 1: He went on and told all his grown children about it,

793
00:45:57,000 --> 00:45:59,040
Speaker 1: because of course they were adults with children of their

794
00:45:59,040 --> 00:46:03,799
Speaker 1: own right, and much like de Land, Sherman flashed back

795
00:46:03,880 --> 00:46:06,520
Speaker 1: to people who would crack jokes about how alike they

796
00:46:06,600 --> 00:46:09,719
Speaker 1: were when they were when he was coaching him. He

797
00:46:09,880 --> 00:46:12,640
Speaker 1: looked at some articles and pictures from de Land's time

798
00:46:12,680 --> 00:46:15,480
Speaker 1: with the Canadian Football League, and he thought he was

799
00:46:15,560 --> 00:46:19,880
Speaker 1: looking at pictures of himself. He told Sarah Spain, quote,

800
00:46:20,160 --> 00:46:22,920
Speaker 1: I kept thinking, I don't remember taking this picture, I

801
00:46:22,960 --> 00:46:25,919
Speaker 1: don't remember doing this article. I'm looking at de Land

802
00:46:26,040 --> 00:46:30,360
Speaker 1: and I'm thinking that's me. He called his aunt in

803
00:46:30,480 --> 00:46:33,080
Speaker 1: Youngstown to tell her about it, and she googled the

804
00:46:33,120 --> 00:46:36,320
Speaker 1: Land's name and then called him back and said, quote, nephew,

805
00:46:36,600 --> 00:46:38,000
Speaker 1: I could save you the money on the d n

806
00:46:38,080 --> 00:46:44,000
Speaker 1: A test. She's like, this is your kid. And at

807
00:46:44,040 --> 00:46:46,719
Speaker 1: this point Sherman realized that he was hoping the test

808
00:46:46,800 --> 00:46:49,360
Speaker 1: results would prove that he was de Land's father, and

809
00:46:49,440 --> 00:46:52,399
Speaker 1: in fact, he would be devastated if it showed anything else.

810
00:46:53,440 --> 00:46:58,440
Speaker 1: And sure enough, the test confirmed it chance Sherman was

811
00:46:58,640 --> 00:47:02,239
Speaker 1: de Land's father, and so a few weeks later they

812
00:47:02,320 --> 00:47:04,920
Speaker 1: met up in Nashville, and Sherman knew de Land was

813
00:47:04,960 --> 00:47:07,480
Speaker 1: really nervous because he was like watching from the window,

814
00:47:07,760 --> 00:47:10,880
Speaker 1: which is also a fun booke. End of de Land's

815
00:47:11,320 --> 00:47:15,600
Speaker 1: first look at Sherman was him driving up and Sherman

816
00:47:15,680 --> 00:47:17,520
Speaker 1: was looking out the window and watched the Land drive

817
00:47:17,680 --> 00:47:19,680
Speaker 1: up and park on the street, and then he just

818
00:47:19,800 --> 00:47:22,400
Speaker 1: sat in his car for like five minutes, and Sherman

819
00:47:22,480 --> 00:47:24,320
Speaker 1: Kevin Land, what was he doing in there? And he

820
00:47:24,400 --> 00:47:26,640
Speaker 1: must have been so like just trying to get get

821
00:47:26,760 --> 00:47:30,120
Speaker 1: his will together. Um. But finally he walks up the

822
00:47:30,160 --> 00:47:32,480
Speaker 1: steps to the door, and Sherman greeted him with his

823
00:47:32,640 --> 00:47:35,680
Speaker 1: arms wide open and said, my son. And it was

824
00:47:35,719 --> 00:47:37,839
Speaker 1: the first time in de Land's life that anyone had

825
00:47:37,960 --> 00:47:41,640
Speaker 1: ever called him that. I'm sorry. I got teared up

826
00:47:41,640 --> 00:47:43,719
Speaker 1: because it just must have meant so much to him

827
00:47:44,920 --> 00:47:47,800
Speaker 1: to like see, especially because he already knows him and

828
00:47:47,920 --> 00:47:51,359
Speaker 1: respects him so much and already has this feeling for him,

829
00:47:51,920 --> 00:47:55,120
Speaker 1: and then he walks my son like everything you wanted,

830
00:47:55,360 --> 00:47:59,719
Speaker 1: everything you ever wanted. Nobody gets that, it gets like that.

831
00:48:00,160 --> 00:48:07,000
Speaker 1: It's perfect of a story, amazing. But there was one

832
00:48:07,040 --> 00:48:10,680
Speaker 1: more relationship to worry about. The Land hadn't told his

833
00:48:10,760 --> 00:48:14,320
Speaker 1: adoptive mother, Adele yet, and he was worried that she

834
00:48:14,480 --> 00:48:16,600
Speaker 1: might be upset that he went and tried to reconnect

835
00:48:16,640 --> 00:48:19,239
Speaker 1: with Carol. You can understand, You're like, but I'm I'm

836
00:48:19,320 --> 00:48:20,800
Speaker 1: your mother. Why do you feel like you need to

837
00:48:20,840 --> 00:48:25,440
Speaker 1: seek out We weren't enough for me. Thing might feel

838
00:48:25,560 --> 00:48:29,480
Speaker 1: like he had some type of resentment or something right,

839
00:48:29,760 --> 00:48:32,400
Speaker 1: So he's concerned that this might be the case with Adele.

840
00:48:33,640 --> 00:48:38,200
Speaker 1: But damn it, once again, sweetest pie, there was nothing

841
00:48:38,280 --> 00:48:41,879
Speaker 1: to worry about. Carol and Adele totally hit it off

842
00:48:42,040 --> 00:48:45,640
Speaker 1: right away, and Adele wouldn't begrudge to land his biological family.

843
00:48:45,880 --> 00:48:48,560
Speaker 1: She says in the article quote, that's my son, and

844
00:48:48,680 --> 00:48:52,600
Speaker 1: I want nothing but a best for him. She calls

845
00:48:52,680 --> 00:48:55,520
Speaker 1: it just a miracle that he'd had his birth father

846
00:48:55,719 --> 00:48:57,800
Speaker 1: in his life since he was sixteen years old. I

847
00:48:57,920 --> 00:49:01,880
Speaker 1: call it that too, what you call it? Straight up?

848
00:49:02,040 --> 00:49:07,600
Speaker 1: Scripted from on High and Carol gives Adele endless credit.

849
00:49:07,800 --> 00:49:10,440
Speaker 1: She says, quote, she did what I couldn't do. She

850
00:49:10,600 --> 00:49:12,719
Speaker 1: was an adult, she was married at the time, so

851
00:49:12,800 --> 00:49:15,279
Speaker 1: you know, she brought him into a family structure. That

852
00:49:15,480 --> 00:49:17,320
Speaker 1: was what I wanted for him. I wanted him to

853
00:49:17,360 --> 00:49:19,960
Speaker 1: have what I had, and she gave him that. She

854
00:49:20,120 --> 00:49:22,400
Speaker 1: gave him all the tools that he needed in growing

855
00:49:22,520 --> 00:49:26,560
Speaker 1: up to be the successful man that he is right now. Lovely,

856
00:49:27,200 --> 00:49:31,759
Speaker 1: they had a giant family reunion in July. If you

857
00:49:31,880 --> 00:49:34,880
Speaker 1: go to the ESPN article, there's a big there's a

858
00:49:34,920 --> 00:49:37,319
Speaker 1: picture of them all and it's totally worth seeing if

859
00:49:37,400 --> 00:49:40,200
Speaker 1: you can, because it's just a huge family and everyone

860
00:49:40,480 --> 00:49:43,280
Speaker 1: has just the hugest smiles on their face and it's wonderful.

861
00:49:44,520 --> 00:49:46,640
Speaker 1: De Land went on to win a Super Bowl as

862
00:49:46,719 --> 00:49:50,160
Speaker 1: the running backs coach for the Kansas City Chiefs, and

863
00:49:50,280 --> 00:49:52,759
Speaker 1: he got him to the Super Bowl again in one,

864
00:49:53,080 --> 00:49:57,280
Speaker 1: although they did lose to Tampa Bay. Whatever, no comment,

865
00:49:58,600 --> 00:50:02,439
Speaker 1: no com and he's now called one of the most

866
00:50:02,520 --> 00:50:06,480
Speaker 1: respected coaches in the country. And this summer he became

867
00:50:06,520 --> 00:50:10,160
Speaker 1: the running backs and associate head coach with Indiana University,

868
00:50:10,280 --> 00:50:13,440
Speaker 1: so he moved back to Bloomington with his wife Darnell

869
00:50:13,880 --> 00:50:17,880
Speaker 1: and their four sons, de Land the second daya disson

870
00:50:18,160 --> 00:50:21,719
Speaker 1: and d M. Now d M is only five, but

871
00:50:21,880 --> 00:50:24,600
Speaker 1: his other three sons or college age, and they all

872
00:50:24,680 --> 00:50:28,120
Speaker 1: played football too, And when de Land the second was

873
00:50:28,200 --> 00:50:31,200
Speaker 1: a senior, his brother Dissan started as a freshman at

874
00:50:31,239 --> 00:50:33,240
Speaker 1: the same high school and they were like super excited

875
00:50:33,280 --> 00:50:37,000
Speaker 1: to play on a football team together. But that dream

876
00:50:37,080 --> 00:50:39,600
Speaker 1: kind of died when de Land the second suffered a

877
00:50:39,680 --> 00:50:41,960
Speaker 1: knee injury early in the season which kept him off

878
00:50:42,000 --> 00:50:44,160
Speaker 1: the field. And I wonder if de Land was like,

879
00:50:44,160 --> 00:50:51,480
Speaker 1: shouldn't have named him after me? That's exactly happened. But

880
00:50:51,719 --> 00:50:54,919
Speaker 1: later de Land the second accepted an offer to play

881
00:50:55,080 --> 00:50:57,919
Speaker 1: at Miami f Ohio, of course, his dad's alma mater.

882
00:50:59,640 --> 00:51:05,360
Speaker 1: But then UH twenty did its thing and COVID arrived

883
00:51:05,640 --> 00:51:08,640
Speaker 1: to disrupt all those plans as well, and to Land

884
00:51:08,680 --> 00:51:12,919
Speaker 1: the second went back home to Indiana. While he was there,

885
00:51:13,400 --> 00:51:16,120
Speaker 1: he realized that he honestly hadn't really fallen in love

886
00:51:16,160 --> 00:51:20,160
Speaker 1: with Ohio. His other brother, da had always loved Indiana,

887
00:51:20,360 --> 00:51:23,400
Speaker 1: so he had already committed to playing football at Indiana University,

888
00:51:24,120 --> 00:51:26,960
Speaker 1: so he knew his dad and his brother would be

889
00:51:27,239 --> 00:51:30,560
Speaker 1: on the team at home. In Bloomington's, so to Land,

890
00:51:30,600 --> 00:51:33,680
Speaker 1: the second started thinking about maybe I'll transfer, and not

891
00:51:33,840 --> 00:51:37,279
Speaker 1: long after he committed to Indiana University too. So you've

892
00:51:37,320 --> 00:51:40,799
Speaker 1: got dad and two of the three older brothers are

893
00:51:40,880 --> 00:51:44,960
Speaker 1: playing on the same team now. And de son, meanwhile,

894
00:51:45,360 --> 00:51:49,399
Speaker 1: he had committed to Ohio State, while he's watching both

895
00:51:49,520 --> 00:51:52,520
Speaker 1: his brothers commit to Indiana and his dad get this

896
00:51:52,640 --> 00:51:55,719
Speaker 1: job and everything. Um, and there was something a little

897
00:51:55,760 --> 00:51:59,839
Speaker 1: irresistible about three sons, one dad, one team right. Um,

898
00:52:00,080 --> 00:52:03,120
Speaker 1: his mom, Darnell says in an article. Um, it's an

899
00:52:03,840 --> 00:52:08,919
Speaker 1: Indiana University magazine article. She said, quote, I mean, let's

900
00:52:08,960 --> 00:52:11,560
Speaker 1: be honest, this really couldn't happen anywhere else. How many

901
00:52:11,640 --> 00:52:13,640
Speaker 1: kids get a chance to play football with their dad

902
00:52:13,680 --> 00:52:15,520
Speaker 1: as a coach and their brothers on the team too.

903
00:52:16,040 --> 00:52:17,560
Speaker 1: It's not like they're all going to play on the

904
00:52:17,640 --> 00:52:21,320
Speaker 1: Kansas City Chiefs together, which I don't know Kansas City Chiefs.

905
00:52:23,160 --> 00:52:26,360
Speaker 1: I don't think about it. But de Land and Darnell

906
00:52:26,520 --> 00:52:29,399
Speaker 1: like never brought that up. They never told the son like, hey,

907
00:52:29,520 --> 00:52:31,839
Speaker 1: think about coming over with with your you know, they

908
00:52:31,920 --> 00:52:33,560
Speaker 1: never thought about They were like, you're going to Ohio.

909
00:52:33,600 --> 00:52:35,399
Speaker 1: It's going to be great, everything's gonna be great. We're

910
00:52:35,440 --> 00:52:39,440
Speaker 1: happy for everybody. But on his own, disn quietly made

911
00:52:39,560 --> 00:52:44,640
Speaker 1: arrangements and recently announced that he's also committing to Indiana University,

912
00:52:45,239 --> 00:52:47,239
Speaker 1: which is great news for them because apparently he's the

913
00:52:47,280 --> 00:52:52,080
Speaker 1: highest ranked recruit in Indiana history. And so in three

914
00:52:52,160 --> 00:52:54,920
Speaker 1: they will all take the field together in one uniform.

915
00:52:56,239 --> 00:52:59,920
Speaker 1: Because for de Land McCullough, football really is a family.

916
00:53:00,040 --> 00:53:03,520
Speaker 1: The affair. Wow, it sure is like right in the

917
00:53:03,600 --> 00:53:07,200
Speaker 1: d N A. I mean really all over the DNA.

918
00:53:07,320 --> 00:53:09,800
Speaker 1: I mean, if anyone was just like meant to be

919
00:53:10,080 --> 00:53:15,320
Speaker 1: in football, it's this entire family. They were all like

920
00:53:16,520 --> 00:53:20,560
Speaker 1: just brought together in the strangest way. Well, and I listen,

921
00:53:20,640 --> 00:53:23,640
Speaker 1: I just love that because of course, originally the story

922
00:53:23,760 --> 00:53:26,400
Speaker 1: was just going to end with their family reunion right

923
00:53:26,560 --> 00:53:28,200
Speaker 1: then I was like, I wonder how he's doing now,

924
00:53:28,960 --> 00:53:31,440
Speaker 1: And then to find out about all his sons suddenly

925
00:53:31,560 --> 00:53:35,279
Speaker 1: like going, let's go play with dad in the same university.

926
00:53:35,320 --> 00:53:38,400
Speaker 1: And of course Indiana University is like, oh, they're like, whoa,

927
00:53:39,920 --> 00:53:47,600
Speaker 1: we're rolling in McCullough's That's I'm so amazed by this

928
00:53:48,200 --> 00:53:53,160
Speaker 1: story existing. That's outrageous. Honestly, I'm a little insulted that

929
00:53:53,560 --> 00:53:56,640
Speaker 1: they're trying to pass this off as circumstantial coincidence. This

930
00:53:56,760 --> 00:54:01,200
Speaker 1: is this is you're we're living in a movie. Yeah,

931
00:54:01,680 --> 00:54:03,839
Speaker 1: this is a movie. This is a movie. I mean,

932
00:54:03,920 --> 00:54:06,600
Speaker 1: and can you imagine this movie? Because it would definitely

933
00:54:06,640 --> 00:54:08,440
Speaker 1: make me cry. No, this is one of those stories

934
00:54:08,560 --> 00:54:10,160
Speaker 1: that I think if you took it to a studio,

935
00:54:10,200 --> 00:54:12,759
Speaker 1: they'd be like, no, this doesn't sound real. Yeah, I

936
00:54:12,840 --> 00:54:15,880
Speaker 1: think we can't do this. This sounds written, It sounds scripted.

937
00:54:16,920 --> 00:54:22,560
Speaker 1: No one will buy it. But yes, it was really

938
00:54:22,640 --> 00:54:27,399
Speaker 1: nice to just have a nice, lovely, inspiring, everybody being

939
00:54:27,480 --> 00:54:30,560
Speaker 1: loving and kind type of story. At no point was

940
00:54:30,640 --> 00:54:33,360
Speaker 1: I stressed out or frightened while I was reading this.

941
00:54:33,719 --> 00:54:37,560
Speaker 1: There was no corpses involved. Well, I hope you all

942
00:54:37,880 --> 00:54:42,000
Speaker 1: felt as warm and and special and like the world

943
00:54:42,080 --> 00:54:45,600
Speaker 1: is a magical place after listening to this one. Of course,

944
00:54:45,640 --> 00:54:48,719
Speaker 1: we're always happy to have you. Sorry for all the

945
00:54:48,960 --> 00:54:52,520
Speaker 1: terrible football look that we did, because we don't know

946
00:54:52,840 --> 00:54:56,600
Speaker 1: I can follow a football game. It's just those details. Well,

947
00:54:56,640 --> 00:54:59,319
Speaker 1: and again, it's so much the culture of football where

948
00:54:59,360 --> 00:55:02,280
Speaker 1: they're like, you know, I was sitting on the sideline,

949
00:55:02,280 --> 00:55:04,400
Speaker 1: you know, I don't know. I don't know what's important.

950
00:55:05,280 --> 00:55:06,960
Speaker 1: I was sitting on the side. Is that where they

951
00:55:07,000 --> 00:55:11,239
Speaker 1: lose you and you're like, I'm checking out of this conversation.

952
00:55:12,760 --> 00:55:18,160
Speaker 1: Forget it, I'm done. I'm I'm confused. I think they

953
00:55:18,239 --> 00:55:21,680
Speaker 1: have sidelines at every sport. Do they do? No? I

954
00:55:21,800 --> 00:55:24,960
Speaker 1: just can't think of any example. Yeah, I don't know

955
00:55:25,040 --> 00:55:28,600
Speaker 1: what a running back is. Well, he's behind, he runs

956
00:55:29,640 --> 00:55:34,359
Speaker 1: back back, he runs back towards the toward the It's

957
00:55:34,400 --> 00:55:38,360
Speaker 1: not that. Uh, it's it's you know, it's kind of

958
00:55:38,400 --> 00:55:41,239
Speaker 1: the cat football. It's all about staying loose, you know,

959
00:55:41,360 --> 00:55:43,600
Speaker 1: you don't let that you can't box yourself in with

960
00:55:43,760 --> 00:55:47,120
Speaker 1: these labels. You know, I'm a running back, but like,

961
00:55:47,320 --> 00:55:50,000
Speaker 1: what does that even mean? I run, I run back,

962
00:55:50,320 --> 00:55:52,440
Speaker 1: I run back to the ball, I run back to

963
00:55:52,560 --> 00:55:56,400
Speaker 1: my car, I run home. I'm back on my couch.

964
00:55:56,960 --> 00:56:02,439
Speaker 1: That's that's the kind of running back football is all about.

965
00:56:02,760 --> 00:56:05,319
Speaker 1: They're like, we don't we don't subscribe to all these

966
00:56:05,440 --> 00:56:08,759
Speaker 1: rules and regulations. We kind of just go with the flow. Yeah,

967
00:56:08,960 --> 00:56:11,279
Speaker 1: you know, everybody just agrees to have a good time.

968
00:56:11,360 --> 00:56:18,399
Speaker 1: That's what football is all about. Definitely. It's National Flexible League. Yes, yep,

969
00:56:19,680 --> 00:56:26,600
Speaker 1: just right. That's the NFL slogan for our non American listeners.

970
00:56:26,719 --> 00:56:29,880
Speaker 1: That's the slogan for outback Steaks, or you can get

971
00:56:29,920 --> 00:56:32,839
Speaker 1: a deep fried onion. That's right, So it's our very

972
00:56:32,880 --> 00:56:39,040
Speaker 1: authentic Australian eatery yes, yes, yeah to our Australian listeners,

973
00:56:39,120 --> 00:56:40,839
Speaker 1: shoot us an email. Let us know if you guys

974
00:56:40,960 --> 00:56:44,120
Speaker 1: eat deep fried onions because I feel like that's not

975
00:56:44,239 --> 00:56:47,120
Speaker 1: an authentic Australian food. And then just you know, shoot

976
00:56:47,200 --> 00:56:49,560
Speaker 1: us an email for anything. Reach out to us. We

977
00:56:49,640 --> 00:56:52,200
Speaker 1: love hearing from you always. Let us know what you

978
00:56:52,280 --> 00:56:54,359
Speaker 1: thought about this story. Let's know if you got any

979
00:56:54,360 --> 00:56:57,640
Speaker 1: ideas about stories in the future. Our email address whatever

980
00:56:57,680 --> 00:56:59,759
Speaker 1: you want to send us is Romance at I heart

981
00:56:59,800 --> 00:57:02,719
Speaker 1: mate a dot com yep, or we're on Twitter and Instagram.

982
00:57:02,800 --> 00:57:05,400
Speaker 1: I'm at Dianamite boom and I'm at oh great, it's

983
00:57:05,480 --> 00:57:10,520
Speaker 1: Eli and the show is at Riddick Romance, So please holler. Yeah.

984
00:57:10,640 --> 00:57:11,920
Speaker 1: We want to hear from you. We want to see

985
00:57:11,960 --> 00:57:15,279
Speaker 1: your smiling faces. Um and uh we hope you have

986
00:57:15,520 --> 00:57:19,120
Speaker 1: a wonderful November and uh we will catch you on

987
00:57:19,160 --> 00:57:23,520
Speaker 1: the next episode. Cannot wait. Thanks again, all you lovely people,

988
00:57:24,240 --> 00:57:26,320
Speaker 1: get out there and be the Delande mccollo you know

989
00:57:26,480 --> 00:57:31,920
Speaker 1: you can be yes all right. We'll catch you next time. Bye.