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Speaker 1: Welcome to the NFL Legends Podcast, an NFL podcast for

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Speaker 1: the players, by the players. Here is your host, four

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Speaker 1: team year NFL veteran and Hall of Famer a Enius Williams. Hello,

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the NFL Legends Podcast. I am a Nius Williams.

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Speaker 1: Over the past two years we've talked with legends about

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Speaker 1: their lives. Today is a little different. We still will

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Speaker 1: be talking about things important to NFL legends, but we

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Speaker 1: have with us three people who may not have played

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Speaker 1: the game, but who work in service of the players

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Speaker 1: and legends, individuals who can convey important information about the

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Speaker 1: benefits and resources available to NFL legends and their families. First,

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Speaker 1: we have Bahadi van Pelt from the Trust, a Collectively

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Speaker 1: Bargained Benefits it set up by the NFL and the

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Speaker 1: Players Association to assist NFL legends with two or more

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Speaker 1: credited seasons. We also have Jacob Frank, the NFL's manager

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Speaker 1: of Collectively Bargained Benefits. And lastly we have Tracy Perlman,

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Speaker 1: Senior Vice President of Football Communications and Marketing at the NFL. Tracy,

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Speaker 1: among others, have been an architect of the NFL Legends

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Speaker 1: community and has seen it growing incredibly over the last

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Speaker 1: six years. Welcome everyone, Bahadi. I want to start with

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Speaker 1: you and the Trust. What the Trust is, how it

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Speaker 1: helps our legends and families, and how the partnership with

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Speaker 1: the NFL works. All right, So, the Trust is a

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Speaker 1: collectively bargained benefit, as you mentioned, came out of the

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Speaker 1: two thousand eleven c b A and it is for

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Speaker 1: any former player that has two or more credited seasons.

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Speaker 1: It covers everything from wellness. We have medical assessments that

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Speaker 1: allow former players to go to our medical partners to

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Speaker 1: get a head to toe physical so they can learn

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Speaker 1: more about their health. We have a scholarship fund. We

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Speaker 1: had minister about two and a half million dollars a

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Speaker 1: year in scholarship money for former players to go back

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Speaker 1: to school and finish their undergraduate degree, get their graduate degree,

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Speaker 1: or some vocational degrees. We actually also have a career

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Speaker 1: partner and UH continuing education partner that we work with

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Speaker 1: an acth Life and they help former players manage the

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Speaker 1: process of either going back to school or if they're

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Speaker 1: looking to coach in sports related fields. We do a

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Speaker 1: lot in the career transition entrepreneurship space. We also work

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Speaker 1: with some financial education partners so that as former players

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Speaker 1: come out, they can understand if they need to adjust

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Speaker 1: their budget, if they're looking to set up a college

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Speaker 1: fund for their children, if they have some questions as

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Speaker 1: far as a state planning. So for us, really, the

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Speaker 1: Trust is a holistic approach to a former players transition,

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Speaker 1: just understanding that the player does not only transition, but

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Speaker 1: the family and the people in his circle transition as well.

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Speaker 1: And then the great thing about what we've been able

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Speaker 1: to do over the last couple of years, working in

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Speaker 1: conjunction with Tracy and her group and then the Player

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Speaker 1: Care Foundation at the NFL as well, blend the learning

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Speaker 1: her group that it allows us to support each other,

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Speaker 1: keep guys connected from the community standpoint, and then also

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Speaker 1: work collectively to make sure that we're supporting players and

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Speaker 1: whatever they need, benefits wise, getting them out, social interaction,

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Speaker 1: just making sure that we don't have players that are

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Speaker 1: isolated and letting them know that there is a community

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Speaker 1: of support for them once they leave the NFL. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: Tracy and Body, how has it been with the league

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Speaker 1: and the Players Association with the Trust? What has it

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Speaker 1: been like? What that collaborative While I answer first because

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Speaker 1: you know from my standpoint. You know, we are it's

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Speaker 1: collectively bargained. So our board, the Trust board, actually has

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Speaker 1: board members from the league and board members from the

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Speaker 1: p A, so we kind of sit in the middle.

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Speaker 1: And so Tracy and I started communicating with each other

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Speaker 1: when the Legends group came on. All of the Legends

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Speaker 1: are enrolled and the Trust our captains are in the

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Speaker 1: Legends community and the portal. So for us, it's just

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Speaker 1: been a natural growth. We started out kind of doing

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Speaker 1: a couple of small things together and then we've grown.

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Speaker 1: We've grown, We we support each other on social media.

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Speaker 1: We're making sure that our events and stuff marketing and

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Speaker 1: promoted so everyone knows that this is available, but also

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Speaker 1: these other things are available as well. So I've been

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Speaker 1: very excited about the progress we've made. For me, I

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Speaker 1: think it's a partnership, and the partnership is about serving

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Speaker 1: the players, and everybody is like minded in that. So

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Speaker 1: every Trust captain, every Legends director and coordinator, all of

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Speaker 1: the people who work on our stabs, we are all

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Speaker 1: here for one thing. And I feel like this whole

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Speaker 1: thing is about This partnership is above all else, and

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Speaker 1: it's in service of the player and making sure that

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Speaker 1: they stay engaged, and however you come in, we just

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Speaker 1: want to make sure that we continue to do and

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Speaker 1: give you what you need, and we're all in it together.

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Speaker 1: And that's the way it feels to me. It never

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Speaker 1: felt any other way. Tracy. What is the best way

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Speaker 1: for legends to get information about what is available to do?

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Speaker 1: So I talked about this all the time. Get on

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Speaker 1: the portal. Register, So we relaunched the website so now

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Speaker 1: you can go to NFL dot Players dot com and

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Speaker 1: register and it's mobile friendly, so everything is on the phone.

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Speaker 1: It is mobile friendly so when you look at it

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Speaker 1: on the phone, it fits the phone screen. But everything

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Speaker 1: is on there. So if you hit perks the Sunday

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Speaker 1: Ticket off or will call MOP, the bo's offer will

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Speaker 1: come up, the Hurts offer and it's right on your phone.

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Speaker 1: If you want something about educational programs, everything that Bahati

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Speaker 1: offers from the trust is on there, but everything we

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Speaker 1: offer from player engagement is also on there, so everything

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Speaker 1: is captured. So the best way to stay engaged is

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Speaker 1: to register because everything is on the portal, but you

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Speaker 1: will also get the newsletter once a month where we

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Speaker 1: try to highlight the things that are happening as they're happening.

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Speaker 1: In addition, we have an actual physical resource guide, so

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Speaker 1: there are some people who say to us, I'm not

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Speaker 1: good on the phone. I will mail you a resource

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Speaker 1: guide if you need it. How do you want us

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Speaker 1: to communicate with you? We are prepared for it. You

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Speaker 1: can also follow us on social media, so there is

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Speaker 1: a private Facebook so if you are a player and

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Speaker 1: you want to be in that Facebook group, we post

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Speaker 1: a lot of information in that group specific to come

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Speaker 1: to a player care screening, attend a Trust breakfast club.

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Speaker 1: It's all on there. Or you can follow us on

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Speaker 1: Instagram and on Twitter and you can see all the

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Speaker 1: things going on as they're happening. Are you finding that

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Speaker 1: guys are responding to have respond? Try? So when the

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Speaker 1: email went out, we were in a staff meeting. We

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Speaker 1: came back out and Alec was like, I don't know

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Speaker 1: what happened. I just got a hundred and seventy three

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Speaker 1: requests in the last five minutes for the portal. And

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Speaker 1: by the end of the day he's like, I have

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Speaker 1: six and eight requests for the portal. So yes, we

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Speaker 1: are getting great response. So when you obviously see someone

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Speaker 1: and this has been around for how long? Now? How long? Right?

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Speaker 1: What have you guys found What are some of the

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Speaker 1: reasons why they've not engaged. It's funny you mentioned that

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Speaker 1: because we actually every couple of years will do a

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Speaker 1: survey those that have been rolled in the Trust. And

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Speaker 1: one of the questions we actually asked this year was

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Speaker 1: what's the best way you want to be communicated with?

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Speaker 1: And then we asked the follow up question basically of

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Speaker 1: the way to Trust communicates with you, you know, for

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Speaker 1: lack of better term, are we sending too much or

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Speaker 1: we're not sending enough? So it's funny, most guys, most

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Speaker 1: of the recipients and the people that responded said, you

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Speaker 1: guys do send us a lot of emails, but when

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Speaker 1: you ask them how do they want to be communicated with?

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Speaker 1: They said by emails? Because we I mean Tracy and

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Speaker 1: I actually have talked about this. Is that you want

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Speaker 1: to make sure you're getting the information so everyone is informed,

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Speaker 1: because you don't want someone to miss something. But we

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Speaker 1: all have that that in the back of our head,

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Speaker 1: trying to make sure are we sending too much? Are

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Speaker 1: we sending it too often? Tracy and I have talked

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Speaker 1: about when they send their newsletter from the legends because

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Speaker 1: when we send updates and Caledulity events, we don't want

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Speaker 1: them to be so close together. But our survey shows

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Speaker 1: that even if people say you email us a lot,

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Speaker 1: they still want to get the emails, even if they

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Speaker 1: don't necessarily open and read it when they get absolutely

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Speaker 1: and I think the thing is guys that are not registered.

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Speaker 1: Some of those younger guys are not in that headspace yet,

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Speaker 1: and then I know you're gonna go to Jacob next,

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Speaker 1: and they're also sending emails, but their emails are saying, hey,

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Speaker 1: you need to know about this because you're in this

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Speaker 1: stage of your life now ours are You can pick

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Speaker 1: and choose if you're in this stage of your life.

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Speaker 1: So I think some of the guys are you know, hey,

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Speaker 1: I'm just gonna wait a minute. I don't know if

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Speaker 1: I want to register for that yet. You'll see that

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Speaker 1: the average age of the guys that we currently have

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Speaker 1: are probably thirty eight to forty two, and we've started

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Speaker 1: to really target those younger guys now to say, look,

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Speaker 1: Ben Watson had retired. He and I spoke. He was

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Speaker 1: ready to register and he went back and I said

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Speaker 1: to him, look, you're Jason Witten, Jason's in the Legends community.

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Speaker 1: Now he's a current player, the portal switch to the

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Speaker 1: current player. It'll come back to the Legends when he's

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Speaker 1: a legend. So all it is is something that's there

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Speaker 1: for you all the time, and we just need guys

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Speaker 1: to really start to under standard said for us, the

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Speaker 1: two things I've seen that are great entry ways for

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Speaker 1: that younger guy that is maybe a year or two out.

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Speaker 1: One is a scholarship because you know they may have

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Speaker 1: some requirements they need to finishing in order to get

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Speaker 1: their undergrad or they're looking to get the masters. And

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Speaker 1: the other one is something very simple but it's very

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Speaker 1: effective us as a y m c A. So we

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Speaker 1: offer free y m c A memberships for former players.

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Speaker 1: And even if younger guy is not aware of anything

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Speaker 1: that the trust does, we usually get the car that says, hey,

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Speaker 1: I just talked to so and so and I'm paying

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Speaker 1: X amount of dollars at the why he just told

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Speaker 1: me I can get a free white membership. He told

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Speaker 1: me to call you. So then that allows us to say, yes,

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Speaker 1: we offer this, but then let's also tell you about

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Speaker 1: the other things. And we always mentioned that the Legends

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Speaker 1: community are you enroll. Because Tracy and I have talked

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Speaker 1: about it. Sometimes guys think that when they enrolled in

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Speaker 1: the Legends community, UH, they've activated their benefit and the

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Speaker 1: trust and then vice versa. That's not the case. No,

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Speaker 1: it's not the case. It's too totally different processes. But

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Speaker 1: over the last couple of years, as we've continued to

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Speaker 1: work together, we've gotten from us to Tracy and from

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Speaker 1: Tracy to us. Because Tracy is she's absolutely right. I

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Speaker 1: get emails all the time when she says, thanks for

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Speaker 1: registering the Legends community. Here's Bahardy at the trust, and

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Speaker 1: then vice versa. When you come to us and we're

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Speaker 1: talking about all the things that are offered as a

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Speaker 1: former player, the Legends community is mentioned and get in

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Speaker 1: the portal. You want to be at super Bowl, you

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Speaker 1: want to be at Draft, you want to be at Combine, etcetera.

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Speaker 1: So for that legend we're targeting and who's listening now?

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Speaker 1: Who will heal this podcast? The one to five uh

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Speaker 1: removed from the game. What would be the key reasons

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Speaker 1: why you would recommend the register to stay engaged. I

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Speaker 1: think that what we heard when we started this and

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Speaker 1: you were there is I feel like a door closed

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Speaker 1: and nobody cared if I was. On the other side,

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Speaker 1: we do, and we want you to stay engaged however

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Speaker 1: you want. You grew up with the game and we

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Speaker 1: know guys say they missed the locker room. We want

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Speaker 1: to recreate it for you. So for me, it's just

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Speaker 1: about keeping you engaged in the game that you loved

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Speaker 1: and using the resources you earned. And we have to

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Speaker 1: keep telling guys that they earned the benefits because guys

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Speaker 1: are like, well I don't need that. Well, you played

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Speaker 1: fourteen years, you earned it. Just use it. It's free,

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Speaker 1: and you know, going back to guys and telling them, hey,

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Speaker 1: there's a free dental plan that they're not signed up for.

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Speaker 1: That to me is hey, stay engaged, understand what's out there,

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Speaker 1: and when you're ready, it's all there for you, but

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Speaker 1: at least understand it. Yeah. For me, I tell former

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Speaker 1: players it's not about me. We you don't need us.

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Speaker 1: We need you. We need you to come and activate

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Speaker 1: that benefit so that that benefit can grow and we

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Speaker 1: can assist in support and god more former players. So

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Speaker 1: it's not about come to the Trust because you're in need,

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Speaker 1: or come to the Legends because you're in need. It's

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Speaker 1: about we need you. You would given to this game,

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Speaker 1: we are now giving back to you. We need you,

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Speaker 1: uh to stay connected and be engaged with us. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and and for me all of the stuff that is

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Speaker 1: there from the benefits and resources side, it's things again

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Speaker 1: talking to Devon, Hey, you have signa for five more years.

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Speaker 1: Once the signa is up, you have an HR And

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Speaker 1: I don't want to talk about it because Jacob can

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Speaker 1: actually give you the real information. I have the top

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Speaker 1: line so I can get you in to talk to

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Speaker 1: Jacob and so Tracy before I come here, Jacob, are

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Speaker 1: there any stories from because I just as I'm doing

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Speaker 1: this podcast, I see the the legend from one to

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Speaker 1: five listening in leaning in. Is there a story from

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Speaker 1: a legend between one to five that finally got registered

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Speaker 1: that you can remember, came back and said thank you

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Speaker 1: and here's why. So, uh, you want one, Luke McCown.

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Speaker 1: Luke McCown. We we do this thing called the Welcome now.

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Speaker 1: So if you retire, you get a letter from the

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Speaker 1: Commissioner and it just says welcome. Somebody from the Legends

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Speaker 1: community is going to reach out to you and we

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Speaker 1: now invite you to New York. We pay for you

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Speaker 1: and your wife to come and for three days we

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Speaker 1: take you through every single thing available to you. And

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Speaker 1: so we took Luke through it, and right after he

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Speaker 1: was like, I want to work for you. I want

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Speaker 1: to serve this community. I care about this. Same exact

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Speaker 1: thing with Stephen Jackson, two guys that now work for

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Speaker 1: the Legends community as coordinators, Luke McCown, Stephen Jackson, and

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Speaker 1: both of them said, when I retired, I wasn't sure

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Speaker 1: what I wanted to do, And as I started listening

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Speaker 1: to what the Legends community is, I want to serve

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Speaker 1: my brotherhood. That to me, that's what this is about. Well, Jake,

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Speaker 1: I see you're chomping at the bit, man, I have

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Speaker 1: to come to you. What don't most players and legends

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Speaker 1: realize about the benefits available to them? It's a good question.

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Speaker 1: I think it's it's important to realize the large scope

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Speaker 1: of financial and health and wellness collectively bargained benefits that

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Speaker 1: are available to non vested as well as vested legends

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Speaker 1: that they earned as a player in the NFL. I

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Speaker 1: want you repeat that, you said non non vested. So

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Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about today a little bit of the

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Speaker 1: non benefits available to non vested legends as well, so

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Speaker 1: that is a common misperception. There are also benefits available

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Speaker 1: to legends family members. This is a common misconception that

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Speaker 1: I find when I'm out on the road, when I'm

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Speaker 1: visiting the clubs, when I'm on panels with Tracy, the

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Speaker 1: legends think, well, these are benefits only available to me. Well,

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Speaker 1: that's not the case. For example, we have the Employee

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Speaker 1: Assistance Program the e a P. This is a benefit

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Speaker 1: and available to Legends and every single member of their household.

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Speaker 1: They can take advantage of eight counseling sessions per topic

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Speaker 1: per year that is administered by SIGNA. Again, that is

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Speaker 1: eight counseling sessions per topic per year that is available

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Speaker 1: to the legend and everyone in the Legends household. Covers

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Speaker 1: a variety of topics, everything from financial wellness to MARYL

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Speaker 1: counseling to legal counseling. What is the greatest misconception about

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Speaker 1: what is available for players and legends. Benefits in general

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Speaker 1: are are oftentimes tricky to to navigate because of the

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Speaker 1: vast landscape and the associated legal language, and so legends

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Speaker 1: may encounter challenges when they are determining which benefits are

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Speaker 1: applicable to them, or perhaps they are unaware of certain

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Speaker 1: benefits that they earned as an NFL player. However, the NFL,

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Speaker 1: the NFL p A, and the NFL Player Benefits Office

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Speaker 1: all have a team of individuals who are experts on

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Speaker 1: all collectively bargained play or benefits and can talk to

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Speaker 1: the legend about their current benefits. They can talk to

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Speaker 1: them about the benefits that they may be eligible to

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Speaker 1: apply for, either right now or in the future. So

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Speaker 1: is there one benefit that most legends don't know is

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Speaker 1: out there or aren't engaging in. I think now more

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Speaker 1: so than ever, we're we're hearing a lot of guys

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Speaker 1: when they step away from the game there they want

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Speaker 1: to go back to school, and they say, is their

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Speaker 1: money available to me to go either and finish finish

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Speaker 1: up my undergraduate degree, obtain a graduate school degree, or

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Speaker 1: even get a trade school certification. And the answer is yes.

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Speaker 1: Through the NFL Player Tuition Assistance Plan for players that

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Speaker 1: are non vested as well as vested who played under

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Speaker 1: the eleven C b A, there is a benefit available

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Speaker 1: to them to go back to school up to a

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Speaker 1: sixty thousand dollar lifetime reimbursement that they can use for

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Speaker 1: tuition for books and fees to go and get that

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Speaker 1: undergraduate degree, that graduate degree or trade school certification. The

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Speaker 1: Trust also has a school olarship benefit, and a lot

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Speaker 1: of guys say to me, well, can I use a

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Speaker 1: scholarship benefit in addition to the player to uh the

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Speaker 1: NFL Player Tuition Assistance Plan? And the answer is yes.

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Speaker 1: We have guys getting that sixty dollar under the tuition

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Speaker 1: Assistance Plan in addition to the twenty thousand dollar Trust

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Speaker 1: scholarship to go back to school, plus the Player Care

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Speaker 1: Foundation money that can also again go against your books

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Speaker 1: and other expenses. So you now have Player Care Foundations

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Speaker 1: money that's within a five year wonder yes correct a year, books, tuition,

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Speaker 1: Player Care and Player Care Foundation. Blenda and her team

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Speaker 1: work with us. So when you apply for the Trust

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Speaker 1: scholarship and our approved you can, you also can apply

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Speaker 1: for the PCF scholarship and then we pay tuition and fees.

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Speaker 1: And Dennis Tracy said they could pay for books and

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Speaker 1: other things that we can't pay for doing the scholarship.

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Speaker 1: So they all act together to support So when you

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Speaker 1: talk about partnership like that is the ultimate partnership. So

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Speaker 1: what I'm hearing and this is probably a different discussion,

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Speaker 1: but why wouldn't we include agents two post career sheet

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Speaker 1: of paper to the players because the players will listened

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Speaker 1: to the agent within that five year. When does that

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Speaker 1: make sense? Yes, So we actually have a meeting for

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Speaker 1: all agents four times a year and the Legends community

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Speaker 1: is part of what we take them through to make

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Speaker 1: sure that they are telling their guys especially you know,

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Speaker 1: we work with a lot of the guys that are

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Speaker 1: still working with their agents who aren't broadcasting on television.

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Speaker 1: A lot of the guys are coaching, a lot of

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Speaker 1: the guys are so again you're right, they listen to

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Speaker 1: their agents or their wife. We invite all the wives

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Speaker 1: to everything and we give all of the information to

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Speaker 1: the agents because we want to make sure that that

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Speaker 1: football commune city is aware of what's going on, so

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Speaker 1: that it gets communicated to the plan and the trust

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Speaker 1: is on the end of the year checklist that all

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Speaker 1: agents have to go through with players at the end

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Speaker 1: of each season, and so there is information provide. We

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Speaker 1: provide that information for the end of the year checklist

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Speaker 1: every year and then I also present to the agents

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Speaker 1: at the combine every year as well. So what would

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Speaker 1: you say to the guys who I think I could

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Speaker 1: play again. In other words, they haven't retired. There's still

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Speaker 1: a thing game. Can they take advantage or do they

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Speaker 1: have to be officially retired. I'll go first, so for

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Speaker 1: us for so, let's use the scenario the men that

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Speaker 1: got cut this weekend, if they have two or more

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Speaker 1: credited seasons and they have not received severance yet, we

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Speaker 1: actually have a free agent program that they can go

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Speaker 1: and work out in. We work with out. What do

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Speaker 1: you mean a free agent program? So I'll use the scenario.

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Speaker 1: You were in training camp, you got released at the

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Speaker 1: Labor Day weekend. You're not looking to transition out. You

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Speaker 1: still hope to play. We work with Exos. Exos is

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Speaker 1: our health and nutrition and lifestyle partner, and we will

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Speaker 1: pay for the workouts for you to go and work

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Speaker 1: out at an Exos facility. We actually created a micro

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Speaker 1: site for players that we consider in the inactive mode.

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Speaker 1: They're not currently on an active roster, but they're not

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Speaker 1: a former player. It's called f a program dot com

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Speaker 1: and you can go on that micro site. You can

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Speaker 1: see which locations you can work out at. You can

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Speaker 1: get an idea of what is covered in the workout

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Speaker 1: and then you can actually click on a button into

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Speaker 1: your information. It will go to Hannibal, Navy's former player

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Speaker 1: that works on our staff, and Hannibal will get you

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Speaker 1: started in the process and then we'll pay for the workouts. Uh,

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Speaker 1: there's pt there's one meal, either breakfast of lunch because

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Speaker 1: usually guys are working out either first thing in the

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Speaker 1: morning or lunchtime. But it's a way for us to

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Speaker 1: stay engaged with that group of player us up until

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Speaker 1: they received severance, and then once they received severance, then

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Speaker 1: the conversation makeshift and now you're talking about what the

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Speaker 1: transition looks like. Guys. Whole of this has been so

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Speaker 1: spectacular and informative, we're gonna break it into two parts.

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Speaker 1: Stay tuned. This has been the NFL Legends podcast. To

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Speaker 1: provide feedback or request a topic for discussion, email us

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Speaker 1: at NFL Legends at NFL dot com.