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Speaker 1: Welcome to the NFL Legends Podcast. I'm as Williams. Celebrating

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Speaker 1: family and football is what we do here at the NFL,

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Speaker 1: and that's why we celebrate NFL Fathers to Kill. Spikes

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Speaker 1: leads a series of discussions focused on parenthood and how

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Speaker 1: current players and legends continue to be engaged in dad's

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Speaker 1: In this episode, Takeo sits down with Walter Payton Man

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Speaker 1: of the Year nominee pier Desire about his fatherhood journey.

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Speaker 1: Let's listen in Welcome to the first edition of the

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Speaker 1: NFL All Pro Dash. I am your host, Tequillo Spikes,

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Speaker 1: and yes, we have a very special guest joining us today,

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Speaker 1: Pierre de si it Man. Welcome to the shows. Man,

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Speaker 1: thank you for having me. Man, how do you know

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Speaker 1: we got to talk about the season now right quick?

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Speaker 1: How did you finish up for the season with It

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Speaker 1: didn't end up the way that you wanted it to be,

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Speaker 1: but you guys got back to the playoffs and hopefully

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Speaker 1: next year it can be something different. Yeah. Man, the

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Speaker 1: playoffs is something special. A lot of players they don't

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Speaker 1: get the opportunity going to playoffs, and you know we

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Speaker 1: did something special. We had to win five games just

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Speaker 1: to just to make it. We didn't. We didn't falter,

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Speaker 1: We didn't you know, hang our heads low like, oh man,

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Speaker 1: worry us. But we just went. We grind, we worked,

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Speaker 1: we had a good time, great ride and then and

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Speaker 1: the way we wanted it. But that's that's that's how

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Speaker 1: it works. Sometimes that's the business. It takes a special commitment,

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Speaker 1: as you said, some people take it for granted going

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Speaker 1: to the playoffs. And that commitment is something that you

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Speaker 1: guys displayed just looking at the way that you play,

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Speaker 1: the commitment that you displayed, even going all the way

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Speaker 1: back to your earlier years, you learned how to handle

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Speaker 1: yourself and your personal values, like from a quite early

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Speaker 1: from a young boy's perspective, now from a man's perspective,

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Speaker 1: Like what does that mean to you when you talk

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Speaker 1: about commitments and the commitment to your family? You know,

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Speaker 1: the commitment to my family is something that was taught

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Speaker 1: to me early on as a kid. Family is very

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Speaker 1: important to me, and I know that there's certain people

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Speaker 1: in my life that have helped me get to where

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Speaker 1: I am today. So I always trying to give back

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Speaker 1: to them, show their appreciating them by working hard, by

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Speaker 1: getting my job done. By doing what I have to do,

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Speaker 1: taking care of business because there's a lot of people,

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Speaker 1: you know that took care of me, and I know

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Speaker 1: that they want to see me do well. And I'm

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Speaker 1: gonna do well because, um I made that commitment. When

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Speaker 1: you talk about commitments that usually come along with sacrifices,

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Speaker 1: and um we all aspired when we are in high

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Speaker 1: school to be there. Hey, I want to go D one.

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Speaker 1: I want to be the first this. I want to

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Speaker 1: be the first DAT. But your route definitely didn't go

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Speaker 1: to D one way you went through D two, sir.

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Speaker 1: Talk about that story the grind, So yeah, man, you

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Speaker 1: know the grind grinded D two, you know being uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, being a team father and you know, being

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Speaker 1: being a team dad first and then still trying to

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Speaker 1: pursue my dreams of going to college and playing ball.

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Speaker 1: I know, for me, I kind of like developed as

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Speaker 1: mantra and it's called push and I kind of did

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Speaker 1: that through high school and college, kind of developed early on,

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Speaker 1: which just means persistence, utilizing opportunity to sacrifice and hustle.

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Speaker 1: So I kind of just implanted that in me and

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Speaker 1: just kept going. So, you know, going from D one

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Speaker 1: not being able to getting D one offers, but not

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Speaker 1: being able to you know, pass the A C T

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Speaker 1: or get eligible. Um had to go another route D two.

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Speaker 1: And that's a grind. You don't get the you don't

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Speaker 1: get the attention as most as most D one players get.

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Speaker 1: But you still gotta work hard. You gotta work that

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Speaker 1: that much harder just even get noticed. Yeah, and the

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Speaker 1: sacrifice for the family seeing it through, How did the

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Speaker 1: family responsibilities impact what your responsibilities was or were as

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Speaker 1: a player? Yeah, man, I had, you know, I had

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Speaker 1: to sacrifice a lot, sacrifice a lot of time away

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Speaker 1: from my family, but away from my kids, because I

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Speaker 1: had to make an effort to provide for a better future.

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Speaker 1: And you know, just just growing up my parents. No

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Speaker 1: one's gonna do it for you, you know, you gotta

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Speaker 1: do it yourself. I leaned on that. I worked hard

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Speaker 1: and I made sure that whatever I did, it was

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Speaker 1: gonna be worth it because I'm sacrificing being away from them,

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Speaker 1: sacrificing a lot of things that I would want to do.

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Speaker 1: You know, high school guys want to go party, guys

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Speaker 1: want to do all this. I didn't get to do

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Speaker 1: all that. You know, I had a baby girl, that

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Speaker 1: was taken care of, and say you had your first

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Speaker 1: kid at sixteen, seventeen seventeen, So like that's crazy because

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Speaker 1: a lot of things you missed out on, you didn't

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Speaker 1: get it. Like typically we feel like we're entitled to that,

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Speaker 1: we're privileged in that, But like, how hard was that

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Speaker 1: adjustment knowing that you had to make the decision or

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Speaker 1: maybe it wasn't hard at all for you. You know,

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Speaker 1: it was hard at first because you know, you you're

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Speaker 1: at a time where it's supposed to be, you're supposed

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Speaker 1: to learn, grow, you're your kids. Still, I'm still a kid.

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Speaker 1: I'm still kid, and I'm raising a kid. Most of

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Speaker 1: my friends like, hey man, you want to go to

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Speaker 1: this party, as I now, I gotta make sure my

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Speaker 1: daughter is taken care of. So a lot of things

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Speaker 1: that they were they were they were doing, I missed

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Speaker 1: out of. But I learned that because what I went through,

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Speaker 1: it made me appreciate a lot more of the things

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Speaker 1: that you know, taught me responsibility, taught me, you know,

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Speaker 1: go set and taught me to go after what I

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Speaker 1: wanted because I had somebody that had to take care of.

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Speaker 1: So it was tough. It was tough at first, but

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Speaker 1: you know, it was something that definitely helped me and

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Speaker 1: shaped me to what I am today. Yeah, and and

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Speaker 1: through your story, you went to different places, a couple

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Speaker 1: of different schools, and now you fast forward professional NFL,

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Speaker 1: professional football player. You've been played for a few teams.

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Speaker 1: How has that impacted your family as far as just

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Speaker 1: moving around and what's changed. I mean, we've been through

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Speaker 1: it before. You know. Um, in college, I had I

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Speaker 1: switched schools. I had a lot of adversity with that.

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Speaker 1: I had to sit out a year at school and

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Speaker 1: I had to work. So I was we weren't a

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Speaker 1: fool to adversity or hard work. You know, we're going

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Speaker 1: into the league. You know, you get cut sometimes, you

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Speaker 1: know what I mean, You get cut, but you don't

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Speaker 1: let that define you. You don't let that, you know,

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Speaker 1: be the end all. You always gotta keep pushing. You

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Speaker 1: always gotta keep driving. And just if you have that power,

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Speaker 1: if you have that passion and you have the love

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Speaker 1: for what you wanna do, and you have the support

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Speaker 1: system you have your your family around you and people

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Speaker 1: that love you, you can do anything. So I mean

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Speaker 1: I just always kept that in mind and never took

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Speaker 1: whatever the team didn't like me or not for to

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Speaker 1: being the last thing. Yeah, you talked about getting cut,

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Speaker 1: and that's tough. It's tough for the player. I remember

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Speaker 1: I went through if you played long enough, regardless of

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Speaker 1: how great that you are, and it's going to happen

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Speaker 1: to you. I remember being at the top of my

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Speaker 1: game two of my achilles, and at the end of

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Speaker 1: the year the team didn't want to pay me moving

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Speaker 1: forward because of salarycap reasons. The next year, so the

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Speaker 1: cut world came into play. I remember coming back home

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Speaker 1: after having the conversation with Andy Reid and he was like,

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Speaker 1: you know what, you know, it is what it is,

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Speaker 1: this is where we are. I remember being around my

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Speaker 1: daughter and my daughter was like, Daddy, I I know you.

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Speaker 1: You seem like you're sad, but it'll be okay. And

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Speaker 1: so when you bring up the cut deal and you've

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Speaker 1: been through so many other things, how will your family

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Speaker 1: they're able to support you while going through that stage

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Speaker 1: of life? Man? That cut is That cut is tough.

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Speaker 1: It's a it's a tough it's a tough call. You know,

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Speaker 1: you don't want to you don't want to get that call,

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Speaker 1: no matter when it happens. You know, after training camp

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Speaker 1: or even during the season. But you know, my my

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Speaker 1: family never lets me for that, don't let me forget

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Speaker 1: why I'm doing this. And I know who I'm doing

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Speaker 1: it for. My wife is my kids, and I love

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Speaker 1: the game. So I'm gonna keep doing it until I can't.

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Speaker 1: But We've been through so much from I was in

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Speaker 1: high school, with college, with life in general. This football

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Speaker 1: thing is kind of easy when you look back on life.

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Speaker 1: For most people we were probably take it as personal.

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Speaker 1: But for you, what you went through to get you

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Speaker 1: and your family where you are life, his life is

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Speaker 1: a lot more difficult. You know. If I, if I

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Speaker 1: can go through being a team dad, if I can

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Speaker 1: go through getting D one offers and then having to

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Speaker 1: go D two, if I can go through sitting out

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Speaker 1: a year of football and having to transfer school and

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Speaker 1: working just to get the opportunity, I can handle being cut.

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Speaker 1: You know what I mean. I've done it. So I look,

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Speaker 1: I fall back on those things that I had to

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Speaker 1: overcome and put myself in that mindset again. So when

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Speaker 1: I come through the situation and getting cut, I'm like,

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Speaker 1: I've been through this, I've done this before. Let's keep moving,

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Speaker 1: Let's keep pushing. Let's let's keep going in order to

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Speaker 1: keep much pushing, in order to keep moving. You've talked

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Speaker 1: about your support staff, your family, and a lot of

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Speaker 1: your family. The majority of them is still in Missouri. Correct. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: So how does that Missouri was always home based? Even

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Speaker 1: when you went through your adversity trials, Missouri was home base.

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Speaker 1: How important have the stability from your parents and that

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Speaker 1: support system being able to support you knowing that you've

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Speaker 1: moved across the country. My family is awesome, you know.

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Speaker 1: They they keep me going. Because even even with as

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Speaker 1: much as strong will that you can be, there's there's

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Speaker 1: times where you're like, man, I don't know if I

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Speaker 1: can do this. But if you have a strong, positive

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Speaker 1: support systems, like hey, man, listen, now, come on, cut

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Speaker 1: that out. This is you want to do this, This

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Speaker 1: is what you want to do. Um you love this.

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Speaker 1: I always, I mean I talked to my parents, talked

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Speaker 1: to some my friends, teachers, talk to my kids, just

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Speaker 1: to just to you know, check in, you know, to

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Speaker 1: make sure for me that I'm in the right mindset.

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Speaker 1: And you know, I tell them my goals and they

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Speaker 1: make sure that I, um, you know, working on them

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Speaker 1: and just it's just it's just such a beautiful thing.

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Speaker 1: When you have people that wanted to see you do

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Speaker 1: well and they push you to do well. You talk

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Speaker 1: about doing well. What's important for you is giving back

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Speaker 1: because somebody took time to be able to help you.

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Speaker 1: You never forgot that throughout your journey. Talk about how

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Speaker 1: important it is just for you giving back to your

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Speaker 1: community to where you are now. I know, you know,

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Speaker 1: doing football, you do a lot of you do a

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Speaker 1: lot of weights meetings, and I think it's very important

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Speaker 1: to not forget, forget the community, and forget the people

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Speaker 1: that helped you and to give back. You know, I

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Speaker 1: had a lot of positive influence in my life from teachers, friends,

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Speaker 1: to just everyday people that helped me get to where

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Speaker 1: I am and I always wanted to get back to

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Speaker 1: the community and show them. Look, even though I'm busy

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Speaker 1: with my schedule or football, I still want to give

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Speaker 1: back because I know how important is and if I can,

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Speaker 1: you know, just have one kid listen or have one

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Speaker 1: person listen, and that can be that motivating factor for

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Speaker 1: them to influence them and what they want to do.

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Speaker 1: That's all. That's that's what it's that's what's the most important,

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Speaker 1: I think one of the most impressive things understanding and

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Speaker 1: knowing what you went through reading your story. You was

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Speaker 1: the Man of the Year finalists and nineteen with Indy

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Speaker 1: and twenty with the Jets. For me, I was the

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Speaker 1: Man of the Year recipient for the Forts and I

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Speaker 1: remember putting in the time. I remember looking at affecting

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Speaker 1: people's lives and seeing what the fact that has on

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Speaker 1: little kids. What was your wife behind that? My wife

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Speaker 1: is because when I was when I was growing up,

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Speaker 1: you know, I had coaches that were very important in

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Speaker 1: my life that I still talked to this day. Todd Berke,

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Speaker 1: Patrick Ross, and just some teachers that that were very influential.

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Speaker 1: And you know, you know, growing up was tough, you know,

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Speaker 1: growing up so we didn't have we didn't have a

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Speaker 1: lot as a when I was a kid, and you know,

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Speaker 1: they definitely helped out, reached out and even help me

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Speaker 1: figure out how can I go from D one to

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Speaker 1: D two. I saw the impact, the impact that the

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Speaker 1: hell in my life is something that still sticks with

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Speaker 1: me to this day. And I still talked to those

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Speaker 1: people and and it could be something like very little

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Speaker 1: they checked up on me. You know, Hey, how you doing, Hey,

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Speaker 1: how school doing and stuff like that, and I saw

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Speaker 1: them give back to the community. You know, we did

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Speaker 1: like we we helped you know at shelters. We we

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Speaker 1: did like backpack uh school school backpack giveaways. And I

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Speaker 1: saw that. I saw that impact, and you know, it's

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Speaker 1: a humbling experience, be like, I'm going through that same situation,

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Speaker 1: but I'm still able to help somebody else. So for

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Speaker 1: me is where it doesn't matter how much money you've got.

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Speaker 1: You know, you can give your time. It doesn't have

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Speaker 1: to be necessary money. And I saw that through those

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Speaker 1: those people. That was just a very impactful uh time

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Speaker 1: in my life, and that made me want to get

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Speaker 1: back as well when I was able to. When you

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Speaker 1: look at the things that you've done, the things that

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Speaker 1: you've accomplished, and your first born at seventeen years old.

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Speaker 1: I remember reading a part about when you were in

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Speaker 1: college and you it was discrepancy that you had with

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Speaker 1: your your first coach. He didn't want to release you,

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Speaker 1: and he was like, now, because I want to make

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Speaker 1: sure i'm home with my order. Most people, even kids

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Speaker 1: at that age range, if they feel like they got

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Speaker 1: somebody to have that support system, they would have been

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Speaker 1: like you know what, I'm okay with letting somebody being

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Speaker 1: able to help from afar. You were like, nah, me

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Speaker 1: and my me and my wife. She wasn't your wife.

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Speaker 1: Your wife now wasn't your wife at the time, but

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Speaker 1: you made it clear. I want to be home with

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Speaker 1: my daughter because I don't want her, not forgetting me.

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Speaker 1: I don't want her forgetting me. Uh. Now that you

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Speaker 1: see what you've done, the see that you planted for

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Speaker 1: your kids, what do you hope they get out of

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Speaker 1: it one day? I hope. I hope that they see

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Speaker 1: the value of a family and that through hard work

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Speaker 1: you can achieve anything and never sew yourself short. You know,

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Speaker 1: I knew how important it was to be around my

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Speaker 1: kids at the time, especially when they're you know, babies,

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Speaker 1: they're growing up. It's very important that you're around. I

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Speaker 1: had to take a step back from what wanted to do.

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Speaker 1: I was going to find a way to do it,

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Speaker 1: but I knew that they were my main priority. So,

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Speaker 1: you know, just put your priorities first. Work hard, dream hard,

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Speaker 1: work hard, and don't sell yourself short. So I hope

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Speaker 1: they take that out of when I tell them, you know,

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Speaker 1: all the jobs that I had to do to grind

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Speaker 1: through college just to just to make some money. And yeah,

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Speaker 1: just and always showing them that, you know, love and

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Speaker 1: uh appreciation. How much of the how much do those

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Speaker 1: conversations come up now, just because you know, whenever they

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Speaker 1: be acting up, I was like, you know, what I

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Speaker 1: was doing back in the day was taken care of.

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Speaker 1: H Yeah, you know, I try to bring it back.

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Speaker 1: I try to let them know because you know, they

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Speaker 1: they were little throughout that process, so they didn't see

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Speaker 1: the they didn't see the late nights, they didn't see

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Speaker 1: the the the countless mornings of waking up trying to

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Speaker 1: you know, get a job or you know. I remember

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Speaker 1: when I when I transferred, I was and I had

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Speaker 1: to h I had a job at this cable company

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Speaker 1: and I and I couldn't and I was suspended technically

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Speaker 1: from the n C double A, so I couldn't joined

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Speaker 1: the team for workouts. I remember, you know, waking up

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Speaker 1: at seven thirty um making said, you know, making sure

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Speaker 1: I see my kids before I go to school. And

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Speaker 1: I had to work out by myself, couldn't work with

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Speaker 1: the team seven thirty classes from like nine to nine

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Speaker 1: to two, come home, make sure I saw my daughter

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Speaker 1: get off the bus and I worked from one, I

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Speaker 1: mean from four to two am, and this repeated that cycle.

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Speaker 1: You know, when I got home at two am, my

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Speaker 1: youngest daughter was still up. Dady was like, hey, hey, hey,

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Speaker 1: and you know I wasn't like I was tired, but

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Speaker 1: I was like, you know what, this is my time

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Speaker 1: with her sure at that time. So yeah, man, they

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Speaker 1: didn't They didn't really see the grind, but I know

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Speaker 1: they understand it now just because of where we're at.

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Speaker 1: And we tried to show them pictures like hey, this

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Speaker 1: is where we used to live, like this is the

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Speaker 1: job that I used to do, and just and just

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Speaker 1: show them that, you know, you can if you work

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Speaker 1: hard enough, it can't happen. And uh so yeah, I

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Speaker 1: would bring it up, especially when they act up. I

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Speaker 1: always bring it up. I gotta remind to remind, got reminds,

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Speaker 1: like you see this house, you remember we was leaving

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Speaker 1: the day. So yeah, yeah man. And they work hard too.

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Speaker 1: They work hard too. They know they know that I

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Speaker 1: worked for everything and nothing was given to me. And

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Speaker 1: I try to preach that to them. You gotta work hard.

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Speaker 1: Nothing's gonna give nothing's gonna be given to you. You

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Speaker 1: gotta go take it. Pierre Man, we really appreciate you

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Speaker 1: taking time out of your day as an all pro dad.

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Speaker 1: From one all pro dad to another man, thank you

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Speaker 1: for sharing your story and uh we don't keep up

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Speaker 1: with you, bro. Absolutely if you got an interesting story

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Speaker 1: and I can't wait to continue reading. Thank you, Ma,

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Speaker 1: I appreciate you, Thank you, appreciate you. This has been

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Speaker 1: the NFL Legends podcast. To provide feedback or request the

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Speaker 1: topic for discussion, email us at NFL Legends at NFL

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Speaker 1: dot com. Un