Speaker 1: Welcome to the NFL Legends Podcast, an NFL podcast for
Speaker 1: the players, by the players. Here is your host, four
Speaker 1: team year NFL veteran and Hall of Famer, Enius Williams. Hello,
Speaker 1: Welcome to the NFL Legends Podcast. My name's Ennius Williams.
Speaker 1: This podcast goes out to NFL legends, and today we're
Speaker 1: talking about finding yourself off the field, your passion, the
Speaker 1: thing that makes you who you are far more than
Speaker 1: just an NFL legend. Joining us today are two great defenders,
Speaker 1: one that talked the whole game on real fellow Hall
Speaker 1: of Famer as well, defensive tackle Minnesota Vikings, the great
Speaker 1: John Randall. Then we also have a guy I thought
Speaker 1: was always one of the smooth guys I see them
Speaker 1: on film. The guy look cool. I don't think I
Speaker 1: ever saw Donnie Edward's linebacker for Kansas City Chiefs in
Speaker 1: charges Pro Bowl linebacker. I don't know if I've ever
Speaker 1: seen you sweat man. You look like you want to smooth.
Speaker 1: This cool as guys that I saw play the linebacker position. Welcome, gentlemen,
Speaker 1: thank you, thank you. Let's have some fun. So tell
Speaker 1: me how important is it to find that thing that
Speaker 1: excites you that keeps you moving forward. Come on with it, Donnie.
Speaker 1: It's passionate. You gotta find something in life that you're
Speaker 1: passionate for. I mean, doesn't matter what it is. I mean,
Speaker 1: obviously we're very passionate about the game that we love
Speaker 1: and we played for so long, but there needs to
Speaker 1: be something outside of that as well that you love
Speaker 1: that you're passionate for. I've been very fortunate to have
Speaker 1: passionate a number of things outside of football. That's that's
Speaker 1: been really beneficial to my life. I'm very passionate for history,
Speaker 1: World War two, military history, traveling. I love seeing the
Speaker 1: world and that kind of stuff. And why World War Two.
Speaker 1: You know, my grandfather, Maximilio Rouso, he was like, he's
Speaker 1: apache Indian and he was a pro harbor survivor. He
Speaker 1: was in the army and survived the sneak attack by
Speaker 1: the Japanese December seven one, and he was very proud
Speaker 1: of his service. First generation American is very proud of
Speaker 1: his service and growing up without a father, he was
Speaker 1: kind of like my father figure in my childhood. I
Speaker 1: used to hang around him and all of his friends,
Speaker 1: you know, down at the VFW and the Kawana's and
Speaker 1: all this kind of stuff. It always resonated me. He
Speaker 1: was very proud of his service and always like had
Speaker 1: the uniforms and was teaching me about it when I
Speaker 1: was a young kid. And before he passed away in
Speaker 1: two thousand and five, he said, don't let them forget
Speaker 1: about what we did. And I, you know, read a
Speaker 1: lot of World War Two history. I watched Law of
Speaker 1: TV and then I started doing living history like reenactment.
Speaker 1: That kind of blossom into meeting with World War Two
Speaker 1: veterans because at our events, we used to bring World
Speaker 1: War Two veterans to the events and there was a
Speaker 1: chance for us to connect with the guys that did
Speaker 1: this history and it was great. You know. One thing
Speaker 1: led to another and I was talking about, you know,
Speaker 1: have an opportunity to go to Normandy, and one of
Speaker 1: the veterans that was a Normandy veterans said, I'd love
Speaker 1: to go to Normandy. I'm like, why don't you go.
Speaker 1: He's like, I'm tool, I don't have the money, I
Speaker 1: can't do it. I'm like I was thinking, and this
Speaker 1: is like, I don't know, maybe my tenth year in
Speaker 1: the league, so I'm still playing football at this time,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, well, I'll take you. You know, I
Speaker 1: can't take you during June because I got mini camp,
Speaker 1: but i'll take you any other veterans like I want
Speaker 1: to go too. So before you know it, like I
Speaker 1: was like, hey, you're taking those two, I want to
Speaker 1: go to the first year back in two thousand five,
Speaker 1: end up taking six World War Two veterans back to
Speaker 1: to Normandy and also to Holland as well, and which
Speaker 1: was like remarkable because ever since two thousand five, every
Speaker 1: year I've been taking World War Two veterans not only
Speaker 1: to Normandy and to Germany it's a Holland, but to Iwa, Jima, Okinawa, Sai,
Speaker 1: Pantini and Guam and all over where we fought during
Speaker 1: World War Two. And it's a it's a great legacy
Speaker 1: and tuschment to my grandfather that I do this, and
Speaker 1: you know, and don't forget about these these World War
Speaker 1: Two veterans, you know, in their twilight years at of life,
Speaker 1: to be there to be with them and given us
Speaker 1: an opportunity for them to go back one last time
Speaker 1: to pay their respects to their brothers that never had
Speaker 1: a chance to live a full life. And it's important
Speaker 1: to them and it's it's been wonderful. And I know
Speaker 1: I share this with John a few times about some
Speaker 1: of the events that I've done, and it's been incredible.
Speaker 1: You start doing this while playing the game. How do
Speaker 1: you think it impacted you and how you approach the game.
Speaker 1: I think it helped me more with life, you know,
Speaker 1: because spending a lot of time with these men and
Speaker 1: and I mean these guys are all in their nineties
Speaker 1: and for someone who's at the time it was in
Speaker 1: my thirties, and trying to understand where they are in
Speaker 1: their life and what they've seen, the wisdom, the experience
Speaker 1: that they had in their life, and the stories that
Speaker 1: they say, and just talking to them and like what's important.
Speaker 1: What's important to me right now at this age that
Speaker 1: I don't know that you know now at ninety looking back? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: because like think about your nineties old you can look
Speaker 1: back to someone like look, kids, you know you should
Speaker 1: do X, Y and Z. And I just think the
Speaker 1: things that they helped me, I guess seeing the world,
Speaker 1: seeing seeing life and understanding it, you know, I mean.
Speaker 1: And the one thing that I took away from all
Speaker 1: this is like, it's not about what you ascertaining your life.
Speaker 1: It's about what you do for other people and and
Speaker 1: sharing and and serving and giving back. Especially for me
Speaker 1: a kid from San Diego, from challenging upbringing and not
Speaker 1: really having much nine kids in our family and and
Speaker 1: not having any food and things like that. I mean,
Speaker 1: but people came and they gave and they gave me
Speaker 1: an opportunity. You know, guys like Martin Bayliss who came
Speaker 1: to my high school and and spoke to us about
Speaker 1: you know how you know, if we do X, Y
Speaker 1: and Z, we can you know, just just really positive message.
Speaker 1: People taking a time out of the day and they
Speaker 1: don't understand the impact that they had on this young kid.
Speaker 1: You know, things like that like that's really helped me.
Speaker 1: And on top of other people providing opportunity money or
Speaker 1: gifts during Christmas time so we can have a Christmas
Speaker 1: and things like that. I mean, people don't have to
Speaker 1: do that, but that changed my life. I'm an example
Speaker 1: of what you know, service and giving back could help someone.
Speaker 1: And then now that I'm in a position of my
Speaker 1: life to you know, to get back and to serve,
Speaker 1: and I feel very grateful and honor to to to
Speaker 1: get back and to share my you know my time
Speaker 1: and my effort with with our military, with our World
Speaker 1: War two veterans now, and I want to transition to
Speaker 1: John and for those legends that are listening to this podcast,
Speaker 1: we talked about what how did you find what excites you?
Speaker 1: It's the same thing. I'm the same way. I'm always
Speaker 1: want to learn and just meet new people because you
Speaker 1: just never know what will come from it. It just
Speaker 1: all of a sudden you meet. Like I was always
Speaker 1: believe that life isn't about the destination, It's about the journey.
Speaker 1: So my journey all the different people I have met
Speaker 1: gotten to know, and it's just all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: I'll meet somebody and then just just finis out down
Speaker 1: in Dallas one day, playing from golf talking to this
Speaker 1: guy and next thing you know, he goes, I'm like,
Speaker 1: so what do you do? He goes, I'm the vice
Speaker 1: president of Dr Pepper Cool. Next thing you know, he
Speaker 1: tells me we exchanged numbers and he meets a Dallas
Speaker 1: cowboy I think it was Jones. So he talks and
Speaker 1: he goes, yeah, he says it say he knows you yeah,
Speaker 1: blah blah blah. So from that conversation we started talking
Speaker 1: about the guys from the Ladies Potato Chips. So from
Speaker 1: the Ladies Potato Chips, the conversation goes to a guy
Speaker 1: who works at Tyler's golf Balls. And that guy from
Speaker 1: Tyler's golf Ball lives in Albany, New York. So I
Speaker 1: get invited to Albany, New York, where I meet people
Speaker 1: from Ronald McDonald house and Albany, New York. From that conversation,
Speaker 1: just from the Dr Pepper guy, just from talking to
Speaker 1: just from talking to meet someone you and I think
Speaker 1: they're saying because my wife always told me, Okay, we're
Speaker 1: gonna go here, no talking. Yes, that sounds like my wife. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because I think we're all kind of the same. We
Speaker 1: love but we love life. And like I mean, there's
Speaker 1: always some type of connection with someone you just never
Speaker 1: know you open your mouth. It's like the same thing
Speaker 1: with life. Man, if you just don't like open yourself
Speaker 1: up to learning new things, you're just gonna be sitting
Speaker 1: here and not really growing. I mean, does that's for
Speaker 1: life is constantly growing. I mean, you know, on't you're
Speaker 1: here for a short time, and I want to increase
Speaker 1: that capacity to learn. That's so true because you know
Speaker 1: when you go in the locker room. Every year the
Speaker 1: locker room changes. Somebody comes in there, a new guy
Speaker 1: and what do you gotta do? Hey, how you doing?
Speaker 1: What are you from? And you never know what this
Speaker 1: guy is from? You never you never know that he
Speaker 1: may know somebody that you play with, or you know,
Speaker 1: just vice first, and you never know. That's what was
Speaker 1: so cool about to me. The locker room was like
Speaker 1: a soap oper It was like Young and Restless. I'm
Speaker 1: coming in Hold John, like a soap opera. It's playing
Speaker 1: what I mean in the locker room, it's fifty three
Speaker 1: guys in there, and you can go, all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: go what you do last night? He go? Nothing? What
Speaker 1: you do? Nothing? What you do? Here's what I did?
Speaker 1: This guy all of a sudden starts conversation. You're like,
Speaker 1: where let you go? And all of a sudden it goes.
Speaker 1: That conversation could could continue for the next two to
Speaker 1: three weeks. When it comes down to meeting people. What's
Speaker 1: happening now in our our country right now right a
Speaker 1: lot of tension and you have people, you have maybe
Speaker 1: African Americans and thinking that, oh up, John, you need
Speaker 1: to do that because you play ball, right, but we
Speaker 1: also know that legends listening right now who don't do it,
Speaker 1: who don't leverage their relationships, that don't do just what
Speaker 1: you guys are talking about doing. So the reason why
Speaker 1: I wanted to stop for a moment to to have
Speaker 1: you have both of you guys share as too as
Speaker 1: an African American. Let's take let's let's go this angle
Speaker 1: for a second. Because I mentioned this in a prior podcast.
Speaker 1: My dad makes the statement and says, son is not
Speaker 1: what people don't know that hurt them is what they
Speaker 1: do know. That's not true. And when you enter into
Speaker 1: these environments and there's a Tennessee to people thinking, well
Speaker 1: all many of a different inessity or they're Caucasians, they're
Speaker 1: not really, I don't care, You're just a player. But
Speaker 1: you're saying something totally different in these relationships. You know,
Speaker 1: one of the great things about football. I guess you
Speaker 1: can say basketball, baseball, but not much as football. Fifty
Speaker 1: three people in that locker room, and those people are
Speaker 1: different colors. And you know, I've talked to some uh
Speaker 1: from you, Danny from who had this conversation. Now I've
Speaker 1: learned from talk to military guys and they said the
Speaker 1: same thing. It doesn't matter what color you are. It's
Speaker 1: the guy who's wind up next to you, or it
Speaker 1: is the guy that's you know, that's next to you,
Speaker 1: and you you become your your friends, and it doesn't
Speaker 1: matter what color you are. It don't matter. It doesn't
Speaker 1: matter at all. I wish a lot of people in
Speaker 1: the world played football because they can understand that it
Speaker 1: doesn't matter what color you are. You just open the
Speaker 1: meeting people, or a lot of like are open to
Speaker 1: meeting people. You know. I still I can see a
Speaker 1: guy I hadn't seen in ten years, and like As
Speaker 1: and I played next each other and we won't see
Speaker 1: each other for a year or two, but we're set
Speaker 1: there in that conversation can strike back up like that.
Speaker 1: And that's the part of Donnie that I don't think
Speaker 1: we get the narrative because sometimes with our game we
Speaker 1: hear about the inherent challenges that come with the game
Speaker 1: from a physical standpoint. I don't think we set the
Speaker 1: narrative of our own story of what are the benefits
Speaker 1: of playing this great game? What has been like that
Speaker 1: you not that you're you're out of football. In this
Speaker 1: camaraderie where we were in locker rooms with differentness. It
Speaker 1: is Jonson, people from all over. We had these conversations
Speaker 1: and we were able to have a common goal together
Speaker 1: even though we saw life many times from a different
Speaker 1: perspective because how we grew up. How have you part
Speaker 1: lay that now as a legend. Yeah, well, it's definitely life.
Speaker 1: I mean you think about someone like myself that's made
Speaker 1: up of three different ethnicities, I mean, who am I
Speaker 1: and I mean like I'm I'm I'm inter racial three
Speaker 1: times and trying to understand like who I am and
Speaker 1: trying to connect with you know, on a football team,
Speaker 1: you think about that because a lot of times it's
Speaker 1: you know, we have the African Americans on one side,
Speaker 1: I get the whites on one side, and then you
Speaker 1: have a maybe a couple of some moments in the
Speaker 1: middle or something. That's how it's always normally been on
Speaker 1: the teams that I've been. And then there's like someone
Speaker 1: like me, you know, and everyone was like, what are you?
Speaker 1: I'm like, were you aware of this? Oh? They'll tell
Speaker 1: me straight up. It's interesting. I think if you're open
Speaker 1: to it to try to like understand and see where
Speaker 1: other people come from, if you have that time to,
Speaker 1: you know, and that's a great thing about Like you know,
Speaker 1: when I was playing like always like made the landbackers,
Speaker 1: all the linebackers. We get together, you know, every Thursday
Speaker 1: night we're getting together some we're going to dinner, we're
Speaker 1: doing something. So we get to know each other, you know,
Speaker 1: and we're like became family like bonds, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. Like I was talking to Derek Johnson yesterday,
Speaker 1: DJ from Kansas City, thinking back, like that was like
Speaker 1: a good time, you know, exactly that bond, it's that brotherhood.
Speaker 1: And that's what I think that I really loved about
Speaker 1: it because we took the time off the football field
Speaker 1: to spend time to get to know each other. And
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, like you were talking about
Speaker 1: the way you were raised, like wow, that's crazy, Like, well,
Speaker 1: you know I was raised this way, you're raised that way.
Speaker 1: You came from this one, And all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: like we have the understanding you can see it through
Speaker 1: their eyes. We have that empty where we can kind
Speaker 1: of like see it, you know, and then we have
Speaker 1: that compassion for each other versus like not really talking
Speaker 1: to each other in the locker room. And then like
Speaker 1: Victor Ronnie comes to me, like, who are you? What
Speaker 1: are you? What? I might like, you're black, Mexican, you're white?
Speaker 1: What are you? You're something? You Samoan, I'm like, just me, man,
Speaker 1: I'm just me. You know. So we just it was
Speaker 1: just different. But you know, we never really got that
Speaker 1: opportunity to sit down and talk. You know. It was
Speaker 1: a little contentious a little bit, but you know, and
Speaker 1: it's just how it is sometimes. Unfortunately, then the game
Speaker 1: because part of this conversation gets spur a conversation just
Speaker 1: within our society. Because when we did tell each other
Speaker 1: our backgrounds, it didn't separate us, correct, right then, it
Speaker 1: didn't say okay, I'm moving my locker. Yeah. It literally
Speaker 1: like you knew your teammate and then in the locker
Speaker 1: room it was always shots fired, right. See, But you
Speaker 1: have to be open to it, right, so they have
Speaker 1: that openness, right, you have to have that mentality where
Speaker 1: openness were I want to meet them and try to
Speaker 1: like find out who they are what they are. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's the way that I think you and I think
Speaker 1: we all kind of turned that way. That's why we
Speaker 1: kind of like we're in lock froom that way. But
Speaker 1: there's some guys unfortunately come from a very uh small area,
Speaker 1: small group like life where it's kind of homogeneous. I
Speaker 1: guess it doesn't really like have that multicultural deal where
Speaker 1: they're interacting with other, you know, different types of people
Speaker 1: around the world, and they're a little probably closed off
Speaker 1: a little bit. And I can see like a little
Speaker 1: bit of problems with that if you don't have that
Speaker 1: openness to go out there and try to meet someone.
Speaker 1: I mean, but I never really had very many issues
Speaker 1: like that in the locker room. You know, now, John,
Speaker 1: the transition into all of us, if you play this game,
Speaker 1: the one per centers in the NFL that came out
Speaker 1: of high school, you have fire. We had to have
Speaker 1: a fire. How did you find your fire away from
Speaker 1: the game when you're transition? For me, uh, it was
Speaker 1: one of my things. I love working out, I like
Speaker 1: trying to be healthy was one of the things. But
Speaker 1: beat me on the little challenge, the challenge what what
Speaker 1: kind of challenge of the steps? I try to catch
Speaker 1: you man? I was like, what are you doing? Like
Speaker 1: what steps? We go ahead? We do these steps something
Speaker 1: that challenge like steps every day? So for me, I
Speaker 1: like I get up in the morning like a Tuesday,
Speaker 1: fancy twoes and Thursdays in the summertime. I would get
Speaker 1: up and I would go to workout, and I probably
Speaker 1: burned about maybe god like eight thousand steps because I
Speaker 1: was walking the treadmill offense and I walked. I I
Speaker 1: try to get five miles on treadmill. Then after that
Speaker 1: I make my shake, and after my shake, I go
Speaker 1: walk eighteen holes on the golf course and that's probably
Speaker 1: about ten thousand steps right there. I just like doing that.
Speaker 1: That was one of my things, is working out standards.
Speaker 1: It's not so sometimes when legends started thinking about Okay,
Speaker 1: find your passion, that's just a basic yea, it's just
Speaker 1: h yeah. But also, my wife, who's my best friend
Speaker 1: you are talking about earlier. My wife's my best friend,
Speaker 1: and so she was always telling me, you know you
Speaker 1: you she's basically my wife is the the driver. I'm
Speaker 1: the end. I mean, I'm the car. So she was
Speaker 1: always telling me that you gotta find something that motivates you.
Speaker 1: So for me, Minnesota is my community and got around here.
Speaker 1: I meet just everyday people. So when you're meeting everyday people,
Speaker 1: you kind of go out of your way of finding
Speaker 1: people that made need a little bit of push. A
Speaker 1: friend of mine, Fancy, he was working at at a
Speaker 1: cigarette shop. Kid was kind of like, you know what,
Speaker 1: this is it for me? He kind of was just
Speaker 1: like we probably have thought you saw him, probably thought
Speaker 1: he was at the edge of his life. And so
Speaker 1: I started talking to him one day and I was
Speaker 1: doing a fantasy football and all of a sudden, I
Speaker 1: found out this guy who went this scraggly hair plasy
Speaker 1: like just closes, he just slept in the night before
Speaker 1: was a guy that didn't really care about life, sleep
Speaker 1: in his bed, didn't put a blanket down or anything.
Speaker 1: So I found out he's got a new football and
Speaker 1: started talking to him, and we end up talking about
Speaker 1: him because he liked movies. Were not talking about a
Speaker 1: movie called good Will Hunting, and I told him, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna coming to cigarette shop and you're not gonna be
Speaker 1: here coming around. Football player ex football player Mike Morris
Speaker 1: the Center was doing a radio show, so he asked
Speaker 1: me to do the radio show. I brought my buddy
Speaker 1: down and so my buddy had a weird nickname, nickname
Speaker 1: meet Sauce. So I'm bringing Sauce down and I told
Speaker 1: him I'll get me ready to let Sauce get on.
Speaker 1: Sauce gets on now. Sauce is on this radio show
Speaker 1: now number on radio show in Minnesota. Sauce is the
Speaker 1: guy that was my buddy who was working at the
Speaker 1: cigarette shop with Sauce, Sauce, Meat Sauce, and now he
Speaker 1: has the number one radio show here in Minnesota. And
Speaker 1: you spoke to him that it wasn't going to be
Speaker 1: just like for me, it's like finding people like in
Speaker 1: the locker room who need a little bit of motivation something.
Speaker 1: You said, I'm gonna come to it because you mentioned earlier,
Speaker 1: how did your wife become your best friend? Oh? That
Speaker 1: was easy because she's one I would talk to. We
Speaker 1: just have that relationship just I can't really explain it,
Speaker 1: but she's when I talked to about everything. And as
Speaker 1: we're recording his podcast, Donnie has his beautiful wife see
Speaker 1: right here and tell us Donnie in terms of John
Speaker 1: has just says his wife being his best friend. I'm
Speaker 1: almost sure you said the same words earlier. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: how did how did she become your best Yeah? I did? Actually,
Speaker 1: I mean it's pretty interesting for me. In my life
Speaker 1: is kind of crazy, So I never really loved anyone
Speaker 1: in my life. My mom never told me that she
Speaker 1: loved me. Knowing in my life ever told me that
Speaker 1: they loved me. So I didn't even know what love was.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like a basic thing to have when
Speaker 1: you're a child, so I never knew exactly what it was.
Speaker 1: And you know, as I was growing up and going
Speaker 1: through high school and college, I mean, you know, I
Speaker 1: always run away from, you know, relationships out of fear
Speaker 1: maybe of being vulnerable. I guess I just never allowed
Speaker 1: myself to get there. And when I met my wife,
Speaker 1: I mean, it was like instant connection. It was like
Speaker 1: she was like the the void that I needed in
Speaker 1: my life that I was missing my whole entire time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like because like I wanted to love, but I
Speaker 1: didn't want to give my love to someone who wasn't
Speaker 1: appreciativic and like damage it and then I will never
Speaker 1: go back there ever again. So I'm very very fortunate
Speaker 1: that early on, like I mean, it was just like
Speaker 1: love at first sight, and then like she was committed
Speaker 1: to me as I was committed to her, which is
Speaker 1: very important, you know what I mean, because like in
Speaker 1: any relationship, you need to have like two people pulling
Speaker 1: the same way to bring it together or someone who's
Speaker 1: a compensated or if not, it's going to die. And
Speaker 1: we've always worked at it. And you know, Catherine has
Speaker 1: been just incredible in so many different ways. I mean
Speaker 1: pushing me, like you know, pushed me to be a
Speaker 1: better man, to be a better person, challenging me, Yeah
Speaker 1: what do you what do you hear? That's my wife
Speaker 1: the same way, challenging, challengeing, like making sure six six
Speaker 1: weeks makes six months, let school get to go to the
Speaker 1: the doctor, let's get a check up, this, make sure
Speaker 1: you help. It makes you you're good, you know, those
Speaker 1: little things that that just like a coach, you know
Speaker 1: and watching watching film, well because it's true because like
Speaker 1: a lot of times someone else says it, I definitely know,
Speaker 1: but when it comes from someone that's close, Like if
Speaker 1: I'm using that, you know, if I'm cursing a lot
Speaker 1: for some reason, I'm around something and I'm like every
Speaker 1: other words the F word, She's like, you know you've
Speaker 1: been saying the F word a lot. Later, I'm like, no,
Speaker 1: I have if you're talking about oh yeah, but but
Speaker 1: think about it, Like no one else around me in
Speaker 1: my sphere would you know, will say anything, like you know,
Speaker 1: she's looking out for me. And I'm not even aware
Speaker 1: that I'm like saying this I am and I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, I'm I'm educated. I should be better
Speaker 1: than this, you know. And that's just one example there.
Speaker 1: But it's just great, man. Like you know, I'm very
Speaker 1: very fortunate. I mean I love learning new things. I
Speaker 1: love like challenging myself. I mean I read, I watched
Speaker 1: I try to like learn as much I can. I mean,
Speaker 1: I went back to school, got my master's in education.
Speaker 1: I'm always trying to like, like you know, I don't
Speaker 1: know grow, I guess it's just like constantly challenged myself.
Speaker 1: And and you know, seeing the world has really opened
Speaker 1: up my eyes. I've been to sixty three countries now,
Speaker 1: so I've been I've been to sixty three countries and
Speaker 1: we just came back from a month long trip in Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand,
Speaker 1: Hong Kong, which has been great because like it opens
Speaker 1: up your eyes, like you know, if you travel and
Speaker 1: you see the world, I mean just when you think
Speaker 1: what you know, you don't know, you know, you see
Speaker 1: how other people live and see what they have to
Speaker 1: go through and then like you come back here, it's like, damn,
Speaker 1: we have nothing to complain about, like so good. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but people don't know it would go outside of your microcosm,
Speaker 1: over your world. You have to see outside and see
Speaker 1: like oh my gosh, like and I gotta tell you,
Speaker 1: like traveling, you know, it's really open my eyes and
Speaker 1: gave me so much more appreciation nember one to be
Speaker 1: an American, to live in this country and for someone
Speaker 1: who I didn't serve. I didn't fight for this country
Speaker 1: and I didn't fight for it. I'm just lucky to
Speaker 1: be born into this country. That's why I'm just so like,
Speaker 1: like I just want to like you know, honor, uh,
Speaker 1: you know our veterans that are veterans that that fought
Speaker 1: for this country. And I mean because like this country is.
Speaker 1: It's not perfect, but it's far better than any other
Speaker 1: country in the world, and we're so grateful, so lucky
Speaker 1: to be here. And you don't know that until you
Speaker 1: leave this country and you see what it's like on
Speaker 1: the other side. One of the things I see that
Speaker 1: you guys seem to have a good grasp but in
Speaker 1: that's identity knowing who you are. Did you always know
Speaker 1: who you were after your transition. It's one thing in
Speaker 1: the game, and that's how the game helps. It's a
Speaker 1: lot of players, a lot of legends there. I didnity
Speaker 1: this tied to the game. How have you guys been
Speaker 1: able to understand who you are now away from the game. Well,
Speaker 1: of all, it's kind of like knowing who I was.
Speaker 1: I mean, especially being a you know, of mixed race.
Speaker 1: Either you gotta know who you are and what you're about,
Speaker 1: or you're just gonna be taking advantage by the group
Speaker 1: that you're in, you know, I mean, whatever your group is,
Speaker 1: because if you're just like a sheep, just gonna follow.
Speaker 1: So I've always I've always just been me, you know,
Speaker 1: and and I think that's helped me in terms of
Speaker 1: knowing who I am and what my identity is. Obviously
Speaker 1: when I played football, played sports, that became my identity,
Speaker 1: but I never lost sight of who I am or
Speaker 1: what I'm about. You know, after the game, if I
Speaker 1: just stay true to to myself and to what I believe,
Speaker 1: then everything is okay. But you've got to have that
Speaker 1: confirmation of of who you are and that understanding that, like,
Speaker 1: you know, what I'm secure on what I'm you know
Speaker 1: who I am obviously when you leave the game. I mean,
Speaker 1: we've always been a football player. We all identified ourselves
Speaker 1: as football players. And then someone asked me Rob when
Speaker 1: I finished, like, well, who are you now? I'm a
Speaker 1: football player. No, that's how you used to be who
Speaker 1: you know, and that's that's kind of scary. At the time,
Speaker 1: I was like and I was like John, I wanted
Speaker 1: to get the John this because part of that also
Speaker 1: a self awareness because you're in a conversation on someone
Speaker 1: is saying what you are and become self aware. When
Speaker 1: did you become self aware and when did you find
Speaker 1: your identity outside of the game. Well, coming out for me,
Speaker 1: growing up, my dad, I wasn't very close, not at all.
Speaker 1: I mean my dad was very abusive on my mom.
Speaker 1: And see my dad never told us they loved me.
Speaker 1: So my confidence in football, I guess maybe I was
Speaker 1: always trying to find it. So when I retired, I
Speaker 1: was I retired, not didn't. I wanted to get away
Speaker 1: from football. Never really saw myself as a that's a
Speaker 1: guy who thought about the Hall of Fame. I wanted
Speaker 1: to be more of a I wanted to have what
Speaker 1: I didn't have when I was a kid, was being
Speaker 1: close with my kids, being close to my kids, being
Speaker 1: close to my wife, being a family guy. That's why
Speaker 1: I saw myself when I was playing. I collected a
Speaker 1: bunch of stuff and never even put it up, just
Speaker 1: had it in the basement, tuckway in boxes, never even
Speaker 1: thought about it because I wanted to be so different
Speaker 1: from what I was on the football field. That's why
Speaker 1: even this day, I don't I can't watch myself play football.
Speaker 1: It's just kind of like, even hear my voice, I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: because that's not who I want to be. But I
Speaker 1: knew from football there could be so many things that
Speaker 1: I could I could do, but you know my confidence
Speaker 1: in football, man, I mean every game I was out there,
Speaker 1: I was a different person because that's not me. To me,
Speaker 1: I could be I can sit and relax and listen
Speaker 1: to music, like some nice classical music. And just what
Speaker 1: do you mean when you said that's not you? Because
Speaker 1: I'm not a person who can be. I ain't me
Speaker 1: and just that's on the football field. I had. It
Speaker 1: took me. So are you saying that the John Ramdew
Speaker 1: that we saw on the field was acting? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was definitely acting. It's hard for me to trying
Speaker 1: to understand. You see me, you see me as a
Speaker 1: smiley guy. Hey, what's going on. It's a beautiful day.
Speaker 1: The glasses always half full, never half empty. But on
Speaker 1: the football field, I had to like get into I watched. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I've listen people talk about this guy. When he gets
Speaker 1: in the character, he really has the you know, it
Speaker 1: takes him a while again to it. For me, it
Speaker 1: took that whole week, but get was in football. Oh man,
Speaker 1: I can. I'm a guy like watching fishing shows, relaxing
Speaker 1: my wife and tell you I'm sitting there watching Will
Speaker 1: of Fortune, Jeopardy answering the question doing were puzzles. That's
Speaker 1: interesting because no one ever like watching the football field,
Speaker 1: will even think that there's a side of John Randall
Speaker 1: that's like this. It's perception and reality, and we all
Speaker 1: perceive him as just like crazy all he's got these nuts.
Speaker 1: But then all of a sudden, like you meet him
Speaker 1: and it's like that's the same guy that I just saw,
Speaker 1: you know on the field. Wait a minute, No, no,
Speaker 1: that's a different guy, says. We close this thing out. Man,
Speaker 1: I can't thank you guys enough because believe it or
Speaker 1: not these podcasts. The Legends community that you guys are
Speaker 1: coordinators and directors. It saves lives, right you noticed, John done,
Speaker 1: This saves lives. So I was Legend brothers and our
Speaker 1: current players to remind them because just what you said,
Speaker 1: the game of football teaches us number one, worked together
Speaker 1: and when there's a common goal, it really don't care.
Speaker 1: And that's where we want to push out that we're
Speaker 1: capable of leading in this country because it's needed now
Speaker 1: here more than ever, absolutely ever. So thank you Bunny,
Speaker 1: thank you John. Look forward to doing this again. Thank
Speaker 1: you for a cameo appearance. Cat greatly appreciate it. That's true, right, yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure. This has been the NFL Legends podcast. To
Speaker 1: provide feedback or request a topic for discussion, email us
Speaker 1: at NFL Legends at NFL dot com.