Speaker 1: Welcome to the NFL Legends Podcast, an NFL podcast for
Speaker 1: the players, by the players. Here is your host, fourteen
Speaker 1: year NFL veteran and Hall of Famer Anius Williams. Hello
Speaker 1: and welcome to the NFL Legends Podcast. I'm Tequillo Spikes
Speaker 1: from the Behind the Mass podcast show, sitting in for
Speaker 1: Nius Williams. During COVID nineteen, everyone has had to adapt
Speaker 1: their routines and Father's Day, which is coming up, is
Speaker 1: no different. Today we have with us David Johnson from
Speaker 1: the Houston, Texas to talk about his family and how
Speaker 1: he manages being an NFL player and being a dad
Speaker 1: at this unique time. David, Welcome to the show, My brother, welcome,
Speaker 1: what's up? Thanks for having me. Hey, it's it's it's
Speaker 1: an honor. It's a pleasure to be able to have
Speaker 1: you to come on here. Because at one point of time,
Speaker 1: everybody has their lives and they have so many different
Speaker 1: things to do. But we're going through this COVID nineteam
Speaker 1: pandemic right now. How are you guys adjusting as a family,
Speaker 1: understanding and knowing that typically throughout this time you would
Speaker 1: be training at one of the facilities, you know, it's
Speaker 1: been weird. We're adjusting as best as we can, but
Speaker 1: no one was ready for this. We never was prepared
Speaker 1: for this, so we're really just going on the fly
Speaker 1: and figuring things out as we go day to day. Um.
Speaker 1: The biggest thing I think is struggling with DJ um
Speaker 1: not understanding fully. He's three years old, so he's not
Speaker 1: understanding fully what's going on. And he wants to go
Speaker 1: outside and go to the uh you know, museum, go
Speaker 1: to the zoo and just go and play with kids. Uh,
Speaker 1: And he doesn't have the ability to do that. So
Speaker 1: it's really UM being stressed that way the most. Probably, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you talked about DJ and also London. I know she
Speaker 1: has a birthday coming up, but you know, when you
Speaker 1: look at it, and typically your years have been mapped out,
Speaker 1: your months have been mapped out. How do you see
Speaker 1: your role now playing a part of your kids life
Speaker 1: since you're at home more of the top. It's actually yes,
Speaker 1: since I'm at home more, UM doing helping Megan out,
Speaker 1: my wife a lot more of just taking care of
Speaker 1: the kids, UM, feeding London, putting her down, helping DJ,
Speaker 1: feeding him, playing with him a lot more, getting a
Speaker 1: lot more free time to interact with those guys. And
Speaker 1: now DJ is getting older, he's three, like I said,
Speaker 1: and so now we're trying to teach him how to write,
Speaker 1: you know, how to read, how to count and so on.
Speaker 1: There're a lot more to help out that way. Um,
Speaker 1: not so busy, like you said, on a normal um
Speaker 1: at this time, easily gone into the facility. And so
Speaker 1: now I think it's really relieving Megan a lot um
Speaker 1: and trying to balance two kids now. And now London's
Speaker 1: at the age of walking, so now she's getting around
Speaker 1: and getting into everything and trying to you know, eat everything,
Speaker 1: And so I think I can help my wife out
Speaker 1: that way as well. Yeah, and I know football is
Speaker 1: a big part of your life, and it's everything that
Speaker 1: you do in order to prepare for the season. How
Speaker 1: does football played a major part in their lives right now?
Speaker 1: Throughout this time period. I remember when I wanted to
Speaker 1: spend more time with my daughter. Because my daughter is
Speaker 1: now seventeen, she couldn't come see me play all the time.
Speaker 1: So I remember when I was training, I used to
Speaker 1: bring her with me that she didn't realize I was training.
Speaker 1: She just thought I was doing some fun things outside,
Speaker 1: running around but how has that played a part in
Speaker 1: their lives? Right now, that's definitely been what it's been like.
Speaker 1: DJ has been coming out outside. I basically feel like
Speaker 1: in high school again, training, running on the streets, using
Speaker 1: anything that I have in my disposal as an exercise equipment.
Speaker 1: Right now, I'm doing pull us on dj jungle gym
Speaker 1: and using his toys for ad rollouts and stuff, you know,
Speaker 1: his toys at wheels on it, and so he just
Speaker 1: thinks I'm playing. He'll jump on my back and self
Speaker 1: well and goof around, and so he thinks I think
Speaker 1: right now, he just thinks I'm playing and goofing off.
Speaker 1: I'll go out into the field and start running. He'll
Speaker 1: start spreading with me, and then he gets a little
Speaker 1: tire sometimes and says he's done. He creates to help
Speaker 1: just sit there and watch. So it's funny because he
Speaker 1: thinks that I'm you know, playing all the time, and
Speaker 1: I do goof off with him, but he doesn't know
Speaker 1: that I'm actually trying to like get in shape or
Speaker 1: get my exercises in so I'm ready for the season
Speaker 1: whenever that does come. I guess you could say that's
Speaker 1: what you're doing to keep it fun as well, because
Speaker 1: they don't have a clue because they're so young that
Speaker 1: this is your profession. But you intertwine the both in
Speaker 1: order for them to get they need out of having
Speaker 1: their father and also you get what you need from
Speaker 1: training from the football aspect exactly. It's definitely true because
Speaker 1: whence the season is here, Um, you know, they barely
Speaker 1: see me, especially you know, when we're traveling and then
Speaker 1: we have practice and they don't have the facility long.
Speaker 1: I basically only get to see him when he goes
Speaker 1: down for his nighttime, going down to bid and so
Speaker 1: now I'm here all the time, and I think he's understanding, um,
Speaker 1: a little bit that I'm you know, training training himself,
Speaker 1: but like you said, he's not grasping it wholeheartedly. And
Speaker 1: you know, for me, it's really just trying to spend
Speaker 1: as much time as I can with my family because once,
Speaker 1: like I said, once football comes, it's not like I
Speaker 1: get a lot of time to hang out with them
Speaker 1: and see those special moments of you know, London walking
Speaker 1: or saying our first word and stuff. So during the season,
Speaker 1: I'm so busy that you know, I unfortunately I'll have
Speaker 1: the time I'm doing and I'm loving it now because
Speaker 1: I do have the time to see all those special
Speaker 1: things you talked about your oldest it's three years old,
Speaker 1: and when you look at it, it's it's relatively new
Speaker 1: for you at three and a one year old, even
Speaker 1: though it probably feels longer. But how has that experience been,
Speaker 1: just being a father and making that transition, because I remember, um,
Speaker 1: my my situation was a little different. My daughter stayed
Speaker 1: in Atlanta and I used to fire up sometimes. But
Speaker 1: now you have the double duty part, you know, of
Speaker 1: making sure that you keep that balance on both sides.
Speaker 1: So how has that been as far as juggling that
Speaker 1: schedule so far? Right now? It's not too bad, just because,
Speaker 1: like I said, with the pandemic going on, um, you
Speaker 1: can't do too much football. We're not at the facility. UM,
Speaker 1: We're just doing you know, virtual zoom calls, UM meetings
Speaker 1: that way for a couple of hours. And so it's been, uh,
Speaker 1: pretty good because I'm sitting here, you know, hanging out
Speaker 1: with DJ in London a lot more than I normally would.
Speaker 1: And the balancing, like I said, also hoping out my
Speaker 1: wife um with them too as well, or and just
Speaker 1: being a normal family um, as of right now, and
Speaker 1: so it's been good, um to say the least. We
Speaker 1: all know Father's Day he's coming up, and uh, I remember,
Speaker 1: like we only get one day. That's that's the only
Speaker 1: thing we used to say coming into the locker room.
Speaker 1: But I wanted to ask you because since you you
Speaker 1: take so much pride you have a great family, I
Speaker 1: wanted to ask you, like, what impact do you think
Speaker 1: your own childhood and upbringing have on you as far
Speaker 1: as now you're playing your role as your father. So
Speaker 1: when I was growing up, I didn't have a father figure.
Speaker 1: I had an older brother, but I didn't have a
Speaker 1: actual father. It was just my mom. And now that
Speaker 1: I'm a father, I want to make sure that I'm
Speaker 1: there for everything that I can be there for the
Speaker 1: birth I I said, those milestones, rolling over, crawling, walking, talking, speaking. Um,
Speaker 1: you know DJ is starting to safe or he's been
Speaker 1: saying full senses and stuff like that, and I want
Speaker 1: to make sure that he knows that I'm there. I
Speaker 1: want to make sure that he knows that I'm there
Speaker 1: when he falls, he has an accident. Um, he can
Speaker 1: always come to me, he can confide in me. And
Speaker 1: I want to be the father to teach him you know,
Speaker 1: life and teach London, you know life lessons that I
Speaker 1: was uh that my mom was having to do both
Speaker 1: mother Indian father for um, being the father for her
Speaker 1: kids and so um. That's I think the biggest thing
Speaker 1: that I've learned from my childhood is just as a father,
Speaker 1: I want to be there for everything. And with being
Speaker 1: that old pro dad as you are, you have more
Speaker 1: time to implement things that you see it's vitally central
Speaker 1: to their growth. What's the one thing since you've been
Speaker 1: at home the majority of the time that you've really
Speaker 1: enjoyed other thing that you've really learned about yourself that
Speaker 1: that you said, you know what, I like this and
Speaker 1: I look forward to continuing to do it with the kids.
Speaker 1: I would say the biggest thing is being active. Especially
Speaker 1: in this world today, technology has really I feel hurt
Speaker 1: this younger generation. They're so dependent on cell phones, computers,
Speaker 1: video games that they don't really go outside and play
Speaker 1: anymore or do activities just being in the grass, running around,
Speaker 1: rolling around in the grass, swimming, doing you know what
Speaker 1: I did as a kid growing up. And I think
Speaker 1: now that I'm here, um a lot more at home,
Speaker 1: I get to actually, you know, go out there and
Speaker 1: do that stuff from from early morning all the way
Speaker 1: till night and I get to you know, try to
Speaker 1: figure out ways to keep Dejay active, keep them excited
Speaker 1: about going outside, keep them excited about being, um, being
Speaker 1: an active kid. Um. And I think that's one of
Speaker 1: the biggest things that I've learned since this quarantine is that, hey,
Speaker 1: since we can't just go out and go to the
Speaker 1: zoo or go to the amusement parks, we can try
Speaker 1: to figure out ways to have fun at home in
Speaker 1: the backyard or even just in in the house, playing
Speaker 1: board games, playing card games. Um. You know, we always
Speaker 1: keep playing Hung Hung and Hippo, which was a great
Speaker 1: game for me growing up. And you know, stuff, teaching
Speaker 1: DJ that stuff. Um, you know, I can't can't let
Speaker 1: him win them all, obviously. You gotta teach them, you know,
Speaker 1: how to be able to you know, not a storely
Speaker 1: was it. But you gotta teach him that you can't
Speaker 1: win everything, obviously. And so that's the thing I think
Speaker 1: I want to continue doing, um once this pandemic is over,
Speaker 1: or once DJ and London gets to his age and
Speaker 1: make it over. Yeah, And you do a lot to
Speaker 1: pour out into your kids, and when you look at it,
Speaker 1: you you can't deny the fact that your other half,
Speaker 1: she's helping you tremendously. Talk about the team work that
Speaker 1: you got, you guys have developed in order to create
Speaker 1: such a great environment for raising your kids. Your wife, man, Megan,
Speaker 1: she has been such a tremendous help And I knew
Speaker 1: she did a lot, but once I was done with football, um,
Speaker 1: you know, at the end of this season and now
Speaker 1: having two kids, I understand how much she really does,
Speaker 1: even from like just getting his food ready, and you know, kids,
Speaker 1: they have no patience, and so DJ is like, where's
Speaker 1: my where's my I'm hungry, and like her having to
Speaker 1: balance you know, doing that, washing dishes, cleaning the house,
Speaker 1: doing laundry, just everything that she's doing. Now that I'm
Speaker 1: helping her out, it's it's really amazing to see how
Speaker 1: she works and what she does for this family, keep
Speaker 1: this family together as a good strong unit. Um is
Speaker 1: amazing to watch and witness. And now that I get
Speaker 1: to help her out and relieve some of all that
Speaker 1: stress that she has um of being you know, a
Speaker 1: mother and balancing all this life because you know, as
Speaker 1: you know, as football players were barely home during the season,
Speaker 1: and so now that I get to see it, um,
Speaker 1: you know every day daily is really amazing, and it
Speaker 1: really I feel like for me, it really makes me
Speaker 1: very proud, you know, to be married to Megan and
Speaker 1: everything that she does for us. Hey, I bet she
Speaker 1: had a fabulous Mother's Day. Huh. Yeah, she had a
Speaker 1: great time, and her and DJ had big cinnamon rolls homemade,
Speaker 1: were amazing cinnamon rolls they made from scratch from the
Speaker 1: brig all the way to the icing, and so it
Speaker 1: was a good time. Gave her. She said, these are
Speaker 1: the best flowers I've ever got her. So, you know,
Speaker 1: to this to me, got this big giant arrangement of
Speaker 1: flowers because she deserves it. And you know, I had
Speaker 1: DJ and London and our dog obviously or not obviously,
Speaker 1: we treat him as our kids, and so we had
Speaker 1: had them all trace their hands and write a cool
Speaker 1: Mother's Day car And it was a good day, you know,
Speaker 1: just of us being together, um and enjoying the day. Dave.
Speaker 1: When I hear you talk, man, you take so much
Speaker 1: pride into everything that you do, whether or not, if
Speaker 1: it's being a better father, whether or not if it's
Speaker 1: being a better husband, acknowledging the fact of your wife,
Speaker 1: what she does and how valuable she is. Oftentimes, we
Speaker 1: as men, especially in your position being a leader, you
Speaker 1: pour so much into other people who are around you,
Speaker 1: and when we come back, we have to refiel to
Speaker 1: get our energy back. What are some of the things
Speaker 1: that you do to re feel yourself or should I
Speaker 1: say what motivates? What motivates you to continue to be
Speaker 1: that great dad that you are the biggest things, like
Speaker 1: I said, my upbringing, Um, watching my mom having struggle
Speaker 1: to raise six kids with a set of triplets, and UM,
Speaker 1: I think I just wanted to make sure that my
Speaker 1: kids have the best life as a child is that
Speaker 1: they can't have. UM, make sure I'm always there, like
Speaker 1: I said, and reflecting on my upbringing and um, you know,
Speaker 1: wanting to do everything for my kids so that they,
Speaker 1: you know, don't have to struggle as much as I did,
Speaker 1: and so that they are becoming respectful, responsible young adults
Speaker 1: when they get older. I remember having my teammates he's
Speaker 1: one of my close friends now, Uh, Philip Rivers quarterback
Speaker 1: now in Indy. He had a tribe. I want to say,
Speaker 1: he has like ten kids, and he was. It was
Speaker 1: impressive for me to see how he juggles everything from
Speaker 1: the football side and then be a family man to
Speaker 1: the utmost. He was more so like my role model
Speaker 1: without him even knowing it. Any other guys who see
Speaker 1: who's doing great work that you could just that motivation
Speaker 1: would just say, you know what, I respect to grind
Speaker 1: I respect the hustle because I know how hard it
Speaker 1: is for them to do. I think my thing is um.
Speaker 1: He's actually a former You and I player. He played
Speaker 1: long before me. Um. It's Kurt Winner and he has
Speaker 1: seven kids to him and his wife Brenda, and I
Speaker 1: talked to him all the time, and just to see
Speaker 1: his ability to balance, like you said, the lifestyle football
Speaker 1: and now that he's you know, busy being a commentator,
Speaker 1: balancing all that and still having time to hang out
Speaker 1: with the family, make sure that his kids are respect
Speaker 1: like I said, respectful during their homework, uh and everything
Speaker 1: like that. And another guy for me um is Carson Palmer.
Speaker 1: He was a quarterback for us, and just to see
Speaker 1: him be a great father off the field with you know,
Speaker 1: our Saturday walkthroughs. He's sitting there as a quarterback leading
Speaker 1: the offense. And then he when football is over, he
Speaker 1: knows how to transition to being a playing with his kids,
Speaker 1: running around and jogging around and having fun with his family.
Speaker 1: And I think I've learned from him. Another big thing
Speaker 1: is that when you're in football, being football, but when
Speaker 1: you're with your family, don't have don't um have still
Speaker 1: have that if it was a bad game, don't have
Speaker 1: that bad attitude toward your family. Um try to just
Speaker 1: be be there with your family and enjoy your time
Speaker 1: with your family, um or and you know if I
Speaker 1: fumbled or you know, did had a bad game. And
Speaker 1: he's taught me that to just you know, think about
Speaker 1: it when it comes to the next day when we're
Speaker 1: doing corrections, are watching film. Don't think about it while
Speaker 1: you're reading the book to your son, who's you know,
Speaker 1: going to bid or who's playing and you're having a
Speaker 1: bad attitude, because that will affect, you know, the relationship,
Speaker 1: because your son, like my son now, who's three, he
Speaker 1: isn't understand, you know, what happened to me in the game,
Speaker 1: or he doesn't understand that I had a bad day.
Speaker 1: So he's just trying to have fun and enjoy hanging
Speaker 1: hanging out with his father and Carson Palmer. Just to
Speaker 1: witness the way he did that was amazing. Thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you for sharing that, because in my mind I'm
Speaker 1: thinking like how, like how do is it? Is it
Speaker 1: even possible? How? And what's the why? But you made
Speaker 1: a great point because your kids, they want to make
Speaker 1: sure they're in the moment. They don't care about football.
Speaker 1: They don't even know that that's your profession. So that's
Speaker 1: a great point to add in for all of the
Speaker 1: guys and all of the listeners to hear, because they
Speaker 1: don't know. They only know what they see and what
Speaker 1: they wanted at the moment. So thank you for that, David,
Speaker 1: Thank you. I want to talk about something that most
Speaker 1: NFL dads have to deal with, and that's changing teams. Now.
Speaker 1: I played fifteen years on five different teams, so for
Speaker 1: mean it almost became a routine deal to move around.
Speaker 1: I knew how to move around, and I knew when
Speaker 1: I unpacked everything. Okay, this is what I can't take
Speaker 1: out too far because I know you just never know
Speaker 1: when how long you may be there. How hard has
Speaker 1: it been just from the family life dealing with the change,
Speaker 1: and has it gotten started to the point to where
Speaker 1: you're starting to move things around, so it's been, um,
Speaker 1: pretty difficult. I think the biggest thing, though, is the
Speaker 1: uncertainty of if we're gonna have a season, when we're
Speaker 1: actually gonna pick up and actually me as a team, Um,
Speaker 1: when I'm gonna be able to actually go to Houston
Speaker 1: and move everything. So I think that's right now is
Speaker 1: the hardest part of being on a new team is
Speaker 1: trying to figure out what to move and when we're
Speaker 1: gonna be able to move um. Me and Megan, we're
Speaker 1: still right now trying to debate on what we're actually
Speaker 1: gonna bring, what essential items. Like you said, you never
Speaker 1: know how long you're gonna be on that team once
Speaker 1: you start, you know, changing teams, and you don't want
Speaker 1: to bring, you know, the whole house. You want to
Speaker 1: bring your essentials. And it's I mean, honestly, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: it's gonna be hard for us to figure out which
Speaker 1: one what stuff we need, um when we do go,
Speaker 1: and also just to travel with kids. I read you know,
Speaker 1: how we're gonna get everything down there, um, and what
Speaker 1: stuff do we take you know first or wait a
Speaker 1: little bit. I mean, I don't know. This would be
Speaker 1: my first time, So I think you know when once
Speaker 1: it actually you know, starts developing and and all that,
Speaker 1: I think it's gonna be that's when the stress is
Speaker 1: really gonna come, is trying to figure out how to
Speaker 1: get everything down there and when the when to go down. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you definitely gotta be safe because you look at it now.
Speaker 1: You just even the thought of you taking your kids
Speaker 1: on the plane and the recirculation of the air on
Speaker 1: the plane. So that's something that you have to think about.
Speaker 1: So I would imagine you would get a out of
Speaker 1: mileth put on your car because I'm pretty sure you
Speaker 1: guys will be driving down whenever they open it back
Speaker 1: up exactly exactly, because I don't know. I mean, yeah, dude,
Speaker 1: did we find ourselves down there and didn't have someone shopping?
Speaker 1: But you don't know you know what to bring, so
Speaker 1: you gotta make sure you know how to bring everything.
Speaker 1: And then we drive on there. And I heard that's
Speaker 1: a long drive. So trying to keep kids, especially DJ
Speaker 1: at three years old, um in a car ride for
Speaker 1: that long entertained, it's going to be difficult. David. My
Speaker 1: last question I have for you is we see so
Speaker 1: many guys come into the league and the locker room
Speaker 1: is just turning over and over, and you see so
Speaker 1: many youngsters that come in. But what would be your advice.
Speaker 1: You're a young father, but you have two kids three
Speaker 1: years and coming up with one with the birthday coming soon,
Speaker 1: what would be your advice to those guys to let
Speaker 1: them know, hey, these are some of the steps that
Speaker 1: you need to take to manage your time and manage
Speaker 1: your time on the football side, and also manage your
Speaker 1: time on the family side, so everybody is helped and happy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think my biggest thing for to managing balancing all
Speaker 1: that is once you get into the NFL, so many
Speaker 1: people between relatives or marketing or you know, just everyone
Speaker 1: coming at you to try to get a piece of
Speaker 1: your fame or try to get a piece of you
Speaker 1: being an NFL player. I think the biggest thing I've
Speaker 1: learned and that a lot of veterans have told me,
Speaker 1: coaches as well as that you need to make sure
Speaker 1: you're filtering who is in contact with you. You need
Speaker 1: to make sure you know that the person who is
Speaker 1: uh you're communicating with or interacting with is has the
Speaker 1: best intentions to be with you and be you know,
Speaker 1: alongside of you in NFL because everyone will try to
Speaker 1: come at you to get a piece of the NFL life,
Speaker 1: and that could drain you, and that will take time
Speaker 1: important time that you want to find spend with your family.
Speaker 1: And with football, especially coming in as a rookie, you're
Speaker 1: gonna football is such a fast pace. It's like you know,
Speaker 1: getting pH d in in football, and so you gotta
Speaker 1: have time to study your playbook and be ready to
Speaker 1: go because you don't have a rest shirt year to
Speaker 1: try to play. They're not gonna let you figure it
Speaker 1: out and then you play. They want you to be
Speaker 1: able to play right now. And that's the biggest thing
Speaker 1: is you gotta be able to filter between who's actually
Speaker 1: wanting to have a real um relationship with you and
Speaker 1: who's in it for a different reason um, Because like
Speaker 1: I said, they will drain you, not just you your
Speaker 1: It will drain you personally, will drain you energy, and
Speaker 1: you know it will affect both sides, and only say
Speaker 1: your family and your football side if you're not filtering
Speaker 1: it right. So what you're saying is the benefit of
Speaker 1: having structure. Similar to as we walk into the buildings
Speaker 1: of our respective teams, that will be advantageous of other
Speaker 1: young fathers who are in the game to take advantage
Speaker 1: and take heat up, is what you're saying. Yes, exactly, UM,
Speaker 1: other young fathers who are coming into the game because UM,
Speaker 1: you know, you want to see all like I said,
Speaker 1: you want to see all those milestones. You want to
Speaker 1: be with your family. You want to be with your kids.
Speaker 1: And if you're you know, out doing who knows what, um,
Speaker 1: and you know, not doing the right thing, it can
Speaker 1: affect you, like I said, your family and your football.
Speaker 1: And so you really want to make sure, like you said,
Speaker 1: you have a good structure, good support system around you
Speaker 1: as well with your feeling. But David Mann, thank you
Speaker 1: for your time. Uh and you're insighting your wisdom. Will
Speaker 1: make sure all of the guys here there's across the league,
Speaker 1: across all of the platforms that they can sit down
Speaker 1: and listen to all of the wisdom that you just
Speaker 1: gave them. So thank you for your time, Thank you,
Speaker 1: Thanks for having this has been the NFL Legends podcast.
Speaker 1: To provide feedback or request a topic for discussion, email
Speaker 1: us at NFL Legends at NFL dot com.