Speaker 1: Thank you all for tuning into this week's special edition
Speaker 1: of the NFL Players Podcast. I'm Peanut. So many hosts,
Speaker 1: and today we got this guy right here, Mr Thomas Davis. Uh.
Speaker 1: He's just a former NFL All Pro, Nobody Important, Man
Speaker 1: of the Year. You know what's going on, guy, Peanut punts.
Speaker 1: What's going on? My guy? How you doing? I'm doing
Speaker 1: good man? How are you doing? I'm all right, man,
Speaker 1: I'm all right. Um. Thank you for coming to the show.
Speaker 1: We appreciate you. Thank you for having me. The fans
Speaker 1: they love it, they love it. So what you're doing
Speaker 1: right now and I'm just enjoying this retired life. I'm
Speaker 1: working with the Legends community, trying to have an impact
Speaker 1: on that field and that in that space, and just
Speaker 1: trying to do the best job I can in that area.
Speaker 1: All right. So you have a very unique story, and
Speaker 1: I don't think a lot of people know like the
Speaker 1: upbringing you're from Georgia. Y'all know, y'all just want to
Speaker 1: or excuse me the college championship, which I dispute, but anyway,
Speaker 1: you have a great story. He's still hating. I'm still hating.
Speaker 1: I'm still hating, But you got you got a great
Speaker 1: story though. That was one of the things I when
Speaker 1: we were doing our NFL Man of the Year things
Speaker 1: and what I think two thousand eleven twelve, Yeah, and
Speaker 1: I really got to hear your story and like upbringing,
Speaker 1: how you grew up? Can you can you just lessen?
Speaker 1: I want to start right there. I want you to
Speaker 1: just tell me about how how that shaped you and
Speaker 1: who you are today. You know, so I've talked about
Speaker 1: it a lot, man, But just growing up in Shelman, Georgia, UM,
Speaker 1: small small town. Everybody knows, everybody is. I think you
Speaker 1: hear this story from a lot of players that have
Speaker 1: gone on and make it to the NFL, But just
Speaker 1: growing up in a small town, man, and you see,
Speaker 1: as a young kid, you understand that there are not
Speaker 1: a whole lot of opportunities. There are not a whole
Speaker 1: lot of things that are going to be presented to
Speaker 1: you to be able to be successful after you graduate
Speaker 1: from high school. So if you want to do something
Speaker 1: with your life and you want to be successful and
Speaker 1: you want to get out of that area, you have
Speaker 1: to try to get a scholarship. Because obviously my mom
Speaker 1: couldn't pay for me to go to school Um, so
Speaker 1: I knew that I had to do everything in my
Speaker 1: power to earn a scholarship. So I played basketball, I
Speaker 1: played football, and I ran track year round, never left
Speaker 1: school after school was over. Um, just trying to do
Speaker 1: something to earn a scholarship so that I can get
Speaker 1: out of the situation that I grew up in. And
Speaker 1: it wasn't really until a coach came and watched me
Speaker 1: practice basketball. My senior year was when I got my
Speaker 1: football scholarship offer. So all up to that point, no
Speaker 1: one had been looking at you, only only smaller schools,
Speaker 1: like I had an offer from Gramlin University, so I'm
Speaker 1: signing on signing day. Those were my two offers, University
Speaker 1: of Georgia and Gramlin University. You got Georgia to look
Speaker 1: at you, and that was the only they were the
Speaker 1: only one. They were the only one. And the only
Speaker 1: reason that happened was because Georgia has just hired a
Speaker 1: new staff and Brian Van Gorder, who was the defensive coordinator,
Speaker 1: he was going to another time to see another kid,
Speaker 1: and they held one of the coaches over and they
Speaker 1: told him like, hey, go check out this kid from Randolph.
Speaker 1: Play talked to the coach about him. He didn't know
Speaker 1: that we were gonna be at basketball practice that day,
Speaker 1: so he came in. He sat down with my coach
Speaker 1: and he watched me practice basketball, and like, we see
Speaker 1: this guy coming to gym. We don't know who he is,
Speaker 1: but we just My high school basketball team was one
Speaker 1: of the best in the state. So we just went
Speaker 1: hard all the time and super competitive every single day.
Speaker 1: And that's one of the things that I tell kids
Speaker 1: all the time. You never know who's watching you, right,
Speaker 1: so you always want to have good integrity. You always
Speaker 1: want to do things the right way. For me, it
Speaker 1: showed up that day because what if I had skipped practice,
Speaker 1: What if I was being disrespectful to my coach, what
Speaker 1: if I wasn't doing the things that I'm normally accustomed
Speaker 1: to doing. So I went in after that practice was over,
Speaker 1: We go up. My high school um football coach called
Speaker 1: me over. We go up. He introduced me to the
Speaker 1: guy that was with him. He said, this is Brian
Speaker 1: Van Gorder. He's a defensive coordinator for Georgia. He looks
Speaker 1: at me, he said, I don't know where we will
Speaker 1: play you at, but from what I just saw, the
Speaker 1: athleticism to speed, to change of direction. I'm offer you
Speaker 1: a scholarship right now to come play from me at Georgia.
Speaker 1: So you got a scholarship at the University of Georgia
Speaker 1: playing basketball, playing basketball. I played eight different positions in
Speaker 1: high school at at football, so I feel like, I mean,
Speaker 1: you try to show your versatility eight positions. I played
Speaker 1: eight positions, and I'm not talking about I'm not talking
Speaker 1: about over the course of my high school career. I'm
Speaker 1: talking about in every game, you could find me at quarterback,
Speaker 1: at running back, at wide receiver, at tight end, or
Speaker 1: I would play cornerback. I play safety. Like in the
Speaker 1: crazy part about it, I never played linebacker. Did you
Speaker 1: drove the bus? I was a punt returner. I was
Speaker 1: a kick off return I was the punner, and I
Speaker 1: was the kicker, so he was a whole team. I
Speaker 1: literally did everything in high school, and for me, you
Speaker 1: only had no athletes and we had some guys, but
Speaker 1: for me, they didn't play the football. My mindset was
Speaker 1: to show that I was capable of doing so many things,
Speaker 1: and in terms, I think that actually ended up hurting
Speaker 1: me as a player because nobody really knew what to
Speaker 1: play me yet or what to do with me. So,
Speaker 1: by the graces of God, I was able to take
Speaker 1: that scholarship from the University of Georgia and just run
Speaker 1: with it. Man. I went in as one of the
Speaker 1: last guys given a scholarship, and as the story goes,
Speaker 1: man I was the first guy to be drafted out
Speaker 1: of like thirty guys. So similar story in it since
Speaker 1: my school new coach. My coach called a friend, Hey,
Speaker 1: I got this kid. But you know, they look at
Speaker 1: the film. But then just so happened. I had a
Speaker 1: basketball game. We go to the game, I play, you know,
Speaker 1: don't do this run around change with our right in
Speaker 1: and he was like, yeah, here's your trip. I mean
Speaker 1: I didn't get the scholarship. I guess I was good.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I was that good. But they're like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I want him to come. He needs to come to
Speaker 1: uh come to our school. We we want I want them,
Speaker 1: I want them. So I ended up going to the school,
Speaker 1: and obviously I committed to Louisiana. But yeah, similar, a
Speaker 1: similar similar Sup. You never told me that, man, Yeah,
Speaker 1: they never never, never never saw me play an actual
Speaker 1: game in college football. Who game got me in college?
Speaker 1: But but that just goes to shoulder. Like I try
Speaker 1: to tell parents and kids now play everything, don't just
Speaker 1: don't don't just stick with don't just stick with football.
Speaker 1: I was literally, so I have an AU team in basketball.
Speaker 1: And I was literally having this conversation with a parent
Speaker 1: the other day, like hell bent on having her kid
Speaker 1: played only basketball, but the kid is begging her to
Speaker 1: let him play football. And I explained to her playing
Speaker 1: and simple, like, listen, he has a frame that he
Speaker 1: can He can do a lot of things in football.
Speaker 1: He can play tight end, he can be a defensive end,
Speaker 1: he can play linebacker, he can do whatever he wants
Speaker 1: to do. I said, when you look at a basketball draft,
Speaker 1: you got two rounds. That's it, two rounds of kids
Speaker 1: that are going to be drafted each year. I said,
Speaker 1: when you look at the football draft, you got seven rounds.
Speaker 1: That increases your opportunity. Not saying that he's going to
Speaker 1: be drafting in either of those, but odds are if
Speaker 1: you're not extremely tall and extremely skilled as a guard,
Speaker 1: then your chances for getting drafted in the NBA are
Speaker 1: a lot slimmer then it would be in the NFL.
Speaker 1: So I mean, just having that conversation and kind of
Speaker 1: breaking that down to it though, Um, she came to
Speaker 1: the agreement with her son that she's gonna let him
Speaker 1: play football this year. I don't. I don't think as
Speaker 1: a parent that we should make decisions to make our
Speaker 1: kids one dimensional based on how we feel. If these
Speaker 1: kids are begging, then they want to do these things,
Speaker 1: allow him to go out and do it. Right. So
Speaker 1: I won the Man of the Year award, and then
Speaker 1: that very next year, you win the Man of the Award.
Speaker 1: That night, everything you've gone through, your foundation, it kind
Speaker 1: of was like, like, tell me, tell me how you
Speaker 1: felt in that moment when Goodell called your name and
Speaker 1: you walked up there and you accepted the award and
Speaker 1: your speech was amazing. Man, I was. I was so
Speaker 1: shocked because one of the things they had done, like
Speaker 1: in previous years, they would let the person know beforehand
Speaker 1: he was the first year. Yeah, you're the first year.
Speaker 1: They didn't tell anybody anybody, so I had no clue.
Speaker 1: We didn't have a clue who Yeah. So and then
Speaker 1: I'm and just just to kind of bounce back to
Speaker 1: the year you wanted. I'm sitting in there listening to
Speaker 1: your speech and I'm emotional, like watching you, I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: I'm just crying. I couldn't imagine I'm sitting here thinking
Speaker 1: like I couldn't imagine being the winner right now, up
Speaker 1: here giving this speech because I'm sitting here like emotional
Speaker 1: crime right now. Then the next year I actually win
Speaker 1: the award and like and I'm like, I'm not gonna cry.
Speaker 1: And this is what I actually did on my wedding
Speaker 1: day too. I told my boys had a bet that
Speaker 1: you know you're gonna get emotionally, you're gonna cry. So
Speaker 1: I literally cut my vioals, like straight to the point
Speaker 1: no tears. And I got heckled for that for years
Speaker 1: and years, you know, just sitting on that stage, man,
Speaker 1: and then everything just coming to fruition on. Like you
Speaker 1: don't go out and do this work to try to
Speaker 1: gain the recognition, like none of us do that, but
Speaker 1: to see people taking note to the things that you're doing,
Speaker 1: the difference that you're trying to make in the community,
Speaker 1: the spaces that we're trying to make better um for players. Man,
Speaker 1: that that's huge because we know the impact and the
Speaker 1: difference that it's gonna make for our foundation, for the
Speaker 1: kids that we worked with for the communities that we
Speaker 1: serve UM, and it did that for my foundation, like
Speaker 1: a lot of people made donations, a lot of people
Speaker 1: volunteer more so it was great. So I know, I
Speaker 1: know what you do, but explain to the people listening
Speaker 1: and watching, like what's your foundation? Explain what they actually do?
Speaker 1: So we we what you actually So we worked with
Speaker 1: underprivileged youth and I'm passionate about that. Like I just
Speaker 1: told you guys, from the way I grew up as
Speaker 1: a young kid, I grew up in a single parent household.
Speaker 1: My mom raised me and my sister, and like literally
Speaker 1: we went through so many different struggles. For my foundation,
Speaker 1: I wanted to try to even the playing field. I
Speaker 1: know that there are a ton of parents out there
Speaker 1: that are dealing with the same things that we went
Speaker 1: through UM, in particular single moms. So I know that
Speaker 1: there are kids that are going to school that don't
Speaker 1: have school supplies that UM, that are waking up on
Speaker 1: Christmas that don't have Christmas gifts, that are having Thanksgiving,
Speaker 1: that don't have meals or even beyond Thanksgiving, just everyday life.
Speaker 1: You know, they may end up having to miss the
Speaker 1: meal because their mom can't provide for them. So that's
Speaker 1: what we try to do foundation. We try to provide
Speaker 1: those things for those kids. We try to make sure
Speaker 1: that um, when they go to school, everything that the
Speaker 1: other kids that are living in two parent households have,
Speaker 1: we try to make sure that we can provide for
Speaker 1: those kids. And in doing that, you know, we started
Speaker 1: in Charlotte, North Carolina. We moved to Georgia while I
Speaker 1: was from, and then now we're doing in South Carolina
Speaker 1: what Kelly is from as well. For us to be
Speaker 1: able to grow like that and um just have the
Speaker 1: impact and all of those different spaces, man, I just
Speaker 1: think that really speaks to the the body of work
Speaker 1: that we've been able to do with this foundation and
Speaker 1: how we've been able to grow. And now we have
Speaker 1: a separate branch with My Leadership Academy, where we work
Speaker 1: with middle school kids and we're directly impacting their lives
Speaker 1: at the stage that they're in to try to teach
Speaker 1: them how to be productive leaders. So it's been it's
Speaker 1: been great to watch this thing grow since two thousand
Speaker 1: and eight when we started, and since since two thousand
Speaker 1: and eight was with your Leadership Academy. I'm sure those
Speaker 1: middle schoolers there there are there are adults now, Is
Speaker 1: there a story can you tell me orry about one
Speaker 1: of the kids that truly got the message As a
Speaker 1: one of the kids, I got the story that went
Speaker 1: through your Leadership Accademy. So I think one of the
Speaker 1: stories that I really looked back on, one of the
Speaker 1: parents came to us and our kids was struggling real
Speaker 1: bad with um just going down the wrong path, getting
Speaker 1: involved with gangs, doing all these other different things, running
Speaker 1: with people that absolutely had no good intentions for him
Speaker 1: in his life that would leading him down the path
Speaker 1: to destruction. And he came and he became a part
Speaker 1: of the Leadership Academy and like literally man, he he
Speaker 1: literally dove in into everything that we would teach them.
Speaker 1: And his mom still kind of credit us to this
Speaker 1: day to him changing his life around, and to me,
Speaker 1: if we don't have an opportunity to effect or make
Speaker 1: a difference in any other life, to know that we
Speaker 1: were able to help him out, to know that, you know,
Speaker 1: he was able to go onto the military, he was
Speaker 1: able to do a lot of other things that his
Speaker 1: mom told us flat out he would never have been
Speaker 1: able to accomplish had he not been a part of
Speaker 1: the Leadership Academy. We've helped out first generation kids that
Speaker 1: have gone to college by providing them with scholarship opportunities
Speaker 1: and to see those kids go on and graduate and
Speaker 1: now they come back and they help us with the
Speaker 1: Leadership Academy. I mean, that's what it's all about for us. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's um something similar. We we do this. We do
Speaker 1: certainly certain things our foundation. We try to provide resources
Speaker 1: to these families while they're while they're in the hospital.
Speaker 1: And one of the one of the hardest things, I think,
Speaker 1: one of the hardest things for a man to do
Speaker 1: is ask for help. I think women they can do it,
Speaker 1: but for for a man, for us, it's hard because
Speaker 1: you are the protector your security, your comfort, your you're
Speaker 1: you're you're the guy who's supposed to take care of everything.
Speaker 1: We have this one of our programs, Tiana Fund, and
Speaker 1: you're really just right whatever you're the worst need or
Speaker 1: the most the basic need, whatever you need, we'll we'll
Speaker 1: call and we try to secure it for you. And
Speaker 1: a lot of the time when you go from two
Speaker 1: incomes to one. Most of the time, you know, whoever
Speaker 1: the bread winner is, they keep their job and the
Speaker 1: lower person partner, a spouse, they quit to stay at
Speaker 1: home with the sick child. Well, mortgages, you know, and
Speaker 1: you if you were a really relied on those two incomes,
Speaker 1: you lose one and then the mortgage of the rent,
Speaker 1: the gas to heat electricity. Yeah, stuff starts to get behind.
Speaker 1: And I just remember, um, I remember a dad, and
Speaker 1: we get these we get them all the time, but
Speaker 1: I never get to meet these people. I just I
Speaker 1: just I'm literally just reading these applications. And he pulled
Speaker 1: me aside. I don't know where we were somewhere, maybe
Speaker 1: just walking by, and he was just like, oh man,
Speaker 1: and he coming was like, hey, man, you don't you
Speaker 1: don't know me, but I used your Tiana Fund when
Speaker 1: my my my my daughter, my child, they're in the hospital. Man,
Speaker 1: and I just want to let you know, like, and
Speaker 1: he said he, as a man, it was hard for
Speaker 1: me to ask for help because I felt I felt ashamed,
Speaker 1: I felt I was embarrassed like that I couldn't provide
Speaker 1: basic needs for my for my kids. But your your
Speaker 1: your foundation came through in a major way. And man,
Speaker 1: I'm just here to let you know, like as a man,
Speaker 1: I really appreciate you on that and I was just
Speaker 1: like like I was, I was. I was blown away,
Speaker 1: really just blown away that. Like, man, I didn't even
Speaker 1: know how blessed this dude. And you were talking about
Speaker 1: like blessings like you you had an opportunity and you
Speaker 1: you seeze that opportunity, but yet you're giving back and
Speaker 1: you're blessing these kids and they go on and they
Speaker 1: bless others and it just continues to grow and grow
Speaker 1: and grow. And that's that's kind of like the beauty
Speaker 1: of the blessing. Like it's just it just kind of
Speaker 1: keeps on, man. Yeah, and it just keeps going and
Speaker 1: going and going like that, like that inner drives are
Speaker 1: bunny like, it just doesn't stop. Like that's the that's
Speaker 1: the coolest thing. That's I don't know. I really do
Speaker 1: love your story and I like how I like how
Speaker 1: you tell it. I like what you represent. I don't
Speaker 1: really like the red and the black because you've got
Speaker 1: Georgia colors on. You got red and black on. Sir.
Speaker 1: This isn't no. This this is like and if that's
Speaker 1: not read, this is certainly rare. This is certainly rad.
Speaker 1: But you can't see this. This is an undershure. This
Speaker 1: is what I this is what I'm in, This is
Speaker 1: what I sweating. This is the Jays for you speaking
Speaker 1: to jay'son you were jump man, right, Yes, sir, Tell
Speaker 1: me a story. Tell me a story about Mike. Tell
Speaker 1: me how cool Minke is. Man, he's one of the
Speaker 1: coolest guys you've ever meet. Honestly, Um, one of the
Speaker 1: most competitive guys still to this day. I think I
Speaker 1: might be able to beat him in basketball. Now I
Speaker 1: don't think so. I got a scholarship based on basketball.
Speaker 1: I don't think you're gonna beat him though he's the
Speaker 1: other Go tell he I totally agree he'd go. But
Speaker 1: tell him, I said, I think I might be able
Speaker 1: to score a point or two on them. Um, can
Speaker 1: we could show him this you? We could put this
Speaker 1: clip together. I said it. I said I could score
Speaker 1: on him. I don't think so. I think I could score.
Speaker 1: I get still done too, By the way, so can you. So.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you noticed, but my I'm retired.
Speaker 1: You still were playing. I was in Carolina, y'all play
Speaker 1: when I met him. Okay, so I'm gonna tell you
Speaker 1: all anyway, I'm in the locker room, I'm with them.
Speaker 1: We're very or whatever. I go back upstairs to the
Speaker 1: tour see was in and one of the guys in
Speaker 1: the elevator was like, hey, Peanut, take this elevator. I
Speaker 1: was like, okay, I get in the elevator. It's MJ
Speaker 1: and like another person. So we're in this elevator and
Speaker 1: I'm freaking out, like dang, this is this is m J.
Speaker 1: So I'm sitting there thinking like, okay, should I say
Speaker 1: something now. I don't want to be that corny dude
Speaker 1: and say something now. I'm gonna say this MJ. How
Speaker 1: can I make it not so corny? Well, I happened
Speaker 1: to look down at my shoes and I was like, yes,
Speaker 1: I wore a pair of red of Levins. So I
Speaker 1: look over to him KNA and I said, hey, you
Speaker 1: like the shoes and he kind of chuckled and he
Speaker 1: was like, yeah, yeah, I like the shoes. So I
Speaker 1: go in and I try to introduce myself and he's like,
Speaker 1: I know you're a peanut, and I was like, well,
Speaker 1: you know, So at that moment, I was like damn,
Speaker 1: I made it like MJ knew my name and I'm
Speaker 1: rocking your shoes and I look, I got the m
Speaker 1: J T shirt on you could have said it might
Speaker 1: have been the corners thing, but it's he smiled. He
Speaker 1: was thinking like that it was terrible, but he chuckled,
Speaker 1: he eat giggled right, and I gotta I got a
Speaker 1: little chocolate. But what he knew my name? And I
Speaker 1: was just like, well, dang, everybody knows. Man. No, See,
Speaker 1: why do y'all do that? Though? I don't think you
Speaker 1: can really understand. I don't, as God is my witness,
Speaker 1: I don't. I think I'm just I'm just the most Yeah,
Speaker 1: I just I don't think that I'm really Yeah, like
Speaker 1: when we win and they no, Peanut, it ain't Charles
Speaker 1: Tillman like you're peeannut. I am peanut, and I appreciate it, though,
Speaker 1: I appreciate it. So you got some linebackers, right, Yes,
Speaker 1: you got the linebackers. Y'all got some drills. What are
Speaker 1: the some of the advice you're gonna give some of
Speaker 1: these guys? Just throughout this comment just finished all the drills.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's one of the things that I've been
Speaker 1: talking to him about so far. Teams are going to
Speaker 1: be coming through looking for guys that are going to compete.
Speaker 1: They're gonna try to find guys with great leadership qualities.
Speaker 1: So show that in any way that you possibly can.
Speaker 1: While you at this combine. You want to be able
Speaker 1: to get out there and show that, hey, I can
Speaker 1: lead a team because linebackers are required to be the
Speaker 1: quarterbacks of the defense. So when you go out there,
Speaker 1: make sure that you know what you're doing for first
Speaker 1: and foremost, that they're explaining the drill. Get into place
Speaker 1: where you can see where you to stand what's going on.
Speaker 1: You can get out you can execute that drill to
Speaker 1: a t. But also when you go out you're going
Speaker 1: through these drills, don't don't try to go out and
Speaker 1: be cool. Go out and act like your your life
Speaker 1: is on the line, like your your your job is
Speaker 1: on the line when you go out here and you're
Speaker 1: doing these drills. And that's one of the things that
Speaker 1: you see with kids these days. They try to come
Speaker 1: through here and try to be kind of like a
Speaker 1: finesse kind of guy. You know, just ease up towards
Speaker 1: the end of the drill. Man finished through these drills
Speaker 1: hard man. And that's one of the things that I
Speaker 1: want to impress upon them, to make sure that everything
Speaker 1: that you do here, you're giving Max effort. Do you
Speaker 1: think that you were the max effort kind of guy? Always, always,
Speaker 1: always um spice dub. Yes. He told me a story
Speaker 1: how he got a scholarship just by running to the
Speaker 1: ball he went to. He went to a football camp
Speaker 1: just just by chance some senior, a senior asking and
Speaker 1: go with him to this football camp and I think
Speaker 1: he might have in a junior and he was like okay.
Speaker 1: So they go to this camp and from drill to
Speaker 1: drill to drill to drill, dub sprinted to every single
Speaker 1: drill top speed. After he got there the last day,
Speaker 1: one of the coaches was like, yo, who is this kid?
Speaker 1: Hey man, what's your name? They talked to him, He's like,
Speaker 1: you want to meet uh Joe? You want to meet
Speaker 1: Joe Pat And he was like, oh yeah, okay, sure
Speaker 1: Like he didn't he didn't know, He didn't have a
Speaker 1: clue what he was doing. He was just being himself.
Speaker 1: And fast forward a year later, they I think no, no, no,
Speaker 1: he said. They offered him a scholarship right then and there.
Speaker 1: That was like you do you want to go to
Speaker 1: Penn State? You want to play football? And he was like,
Speaker 1: I got I gotta talk to my mama. First, let
Speaker 1: me let me ask my mama. He literally got a
Speaker 1: football scholarship just from sprinting. He went to some football
Speaker 1: camp and to how big of a difference that that
Speaker 1: can make? Right? So imagine when you're trying to get
Speaker 1: a job in the NFL what teams are thinking when
Speaker 1: you have a guy that's out here that's giving maximum effort.
Speaker 1: They know that if you're doing this in this setting,
Speaker 1: once we draft you, this is kind of who you are.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's what and that's what you want to display,
Speaker 1: and that's what you want to show team While you're here,
Speaker 1: what was your what was your best drill? While you're
Speaker 1: at the combine? What was your best drill? And then
Speaker 1: were you prepared to like, did someone actually prepare you
Speaker 1: for the combine? I mean you went to Georgia. Y'all
Speaker 1: got all types of top prospects that are yeah prospects,
Speaker 1: players that come out of there. Were you prepared when
Speaker 1: you came here? I was very prepared. Um. I will
Speaker 1: tell this story, and I've been telling this story at
Speaker 1: nausea to anybody that would listen. When I came here
Speaker 1: with that forty time, I ended up running like a
Speaker 1: four four six forty yet to combine faster than you.
Speaker 1: Let me tell the story. You gotta stop talking to
Speaker 1: listen because I was never supposed to run the forty. Here,
Speaker 1: I'll go around to these different rooms and the coaches
Speaker 1: are like, hey, you're supposed to be the number one safety.
Speaker 1: Why aren't you running? Because we had a plan, Me
Speaker 1: and my trainer and my agent. We came up with
Speaker 1: a plan. We're just gonna wait to run that prote
Speaker 1: By the fourth interview room, I go in and they're
Speaker 1: telling me like, listen, why aren't you running? And then
Speaker 1: Brian Van Gordon, who was my defensive corder, he had
Speaker 1: uh he was on the staff with the Jaguars at
Speaker 1: the time, and he was like, hey, poop, why why
Speaker 1: don't you running? Like you know, that's like your strong suit,
Speaker 1: Like I'm fast. I'm like, well, we had a plan.
Speaker 1: I'm like, man, forget it, because they now that I
Speaker 1: feel like they're questioning whether or not I'm competitive or not,
Speaker 1: and you know, like I feel like I'm one of
Speaker 1: the most competitive guys ever. So I'm like, forget it, man,
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna go ahead and run. Never practiced the
Speaker 1: double line start, you know how you have to have
Speaker 1: both hands, and so I go out, I run a
Speaker 1: four six and I literally to combine, thinking like I
Speaker 1: just cost myself a first round pick. So my agent
Speaker 1: was like, look, that is the reason why you have
Speaker 1: your pro day, because you have an opportunity to go
Speaker 1: back and make up and show what you're able to do.
Speaker 1: Just safe. He was like, say, for instance, if you
Speaker 1: go out and you don't run it to combine, and
Speaker 1: now you go to your pro day and then you
Speaker 1: run that time, and now you just stuck with people
Speaker 1: thinking that you're a four six guy. I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 1: that makes sense, and that's what I'm trying to tell
Speaker 1: all these guys. Take advantage of doing all the drills. Here,
Speaker 1: see where you are right now, kind of gaze it,
Speaker 1: and now you go back, you know what you need
Speaker 1: to work on to be better at. If it's not
Speaker 1: a number that you feel like you're capable of producing,
Speaker 1: you can do it again. So for me, I went
Speaker 1: um to our pro day and it just so happened
Speaker 1: to be on my birthday March twenty two is my birthday.
Speaker 1: Pro day was on my birthday and I ran a
Speaker 1: four for three both times, both forties. Was a four
Speaker 1: for three, So I'm like, all right, I'm good, but
Speaker 1: I just say that to say that because I practiced it.
Speaker 1: We went back and know we wanted to focus in
Speaker 1: on all of the other things first because I was
Speaker 1: coming in with like a risk injury, so I couldn't
Speaker 1: really do the bench at the combine. But I mean
Speaker 1: and then like teams were looking like his shuttle time
Speaker 1: and all of that stuff was like really really good.
Speaker 1: It didn't match up with the forty, so they were
Speaker 1: trying to figure it out. And like my vertical was good,
Speaker 1: all of my other things were good, had to come
Speaker 1: by except for my forty. So I go back from
Speaker 1: my forty and I think it just proved and solidified
Speaker 1: um that I was explosive, I was fast, and I
Speaker 1: ended up being a first round pick. What what what number?
Speaker 1: I felt like sitting there waiting till they to the
Speaker 1: fourteen pick. It literally seemed like it took ten hours.
Speaker 1: It seemed like it took imagine. I was to me
Speaker 1: it was quick because I was I was expected to
Speaker 1: go like third or fourth round, so I was just
Speaker 1: like I just happened to be watching, so uh to
Speaker 1: go thirty five was like, oh snap, I was almost
Speaker 1: the first round. I wasn't really supposed to go to
Speaker 1: the third round. That's why you can't. That's why you
Speaker 1: can't sit back and just listen to all these publications.
Speaker 1: I had people calling me. On draft day. Charles Grant
Speaker 1: played with the Saints. He was like, man, they just
Speaker 1: talked to me. They told me that we're going to
Speaker 1: draft you. They drafted literally right before the Panthers. They
Speaker 1: were thirteen. So I'm sitting I have this big draft
Speaker 1: party at home without my people. So the Saints get
Speaker 1: on the clock. They're getting ready to draft. My phone
Speaker 1: has the rain yet, But I'm like, okay, Charles has
Speaker 1: told me that they told him they're gonna draft me.
Speaker 1: And with the thirteen pick, the Saints select tackle Jamal
Speaker 1: Brown from Oklahoma. So I'm like, oh god, so I'm
Speaker 1: over here and started sweating now because I don't know
Speaker 1: where I'm going. And then right after that, literally it
Speaker 1: seemed like it took thirty minutes because back then the
Speaker 1: draft process was so long and slow. Yeah, but I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm glad they spent that up for these kids now.
Speaker 1: But it after that, Coach Fox called me here like, man,
Speaker 1: we have a ton of teams that are trying to
Speaker 1: trade to try to get you, but we ain't doing it.
Speaker 1: We're gonna draft you. That's what's up. Yeah. I had
Speaker 1: a good, good draft to a good story. I was similar,
Speaker 1: didn't have a big part of though. Just at the crib,
Speaker 1: you know, phone rings, My stepmom gives me the phone.
Speaker 1: She's all like nervous, house got real quiet, and I'm
Speaker 1: just listening, like yes, yes, yes, And then Jerry Angelo
Speaker 1: was like, congratulations, we're taking you with our next pick.
Speaker 1: You're Chicago Beart and I just remember, like damn, and
Speaker 1: I didn't say nothing, and then it flashed on the
Speaker 1: TV everybody and then everybody went crazy, and I was like, dang,
Speaker 1: all that work paid off. The opportunities, the listening, graduating school,
Speaker 1: hard work from running pushing sleds, gassers, listening to all
Speaker 1: the people, the advice I took in like it it
Speaker 1: really uh and it's and it's crazy how you go
Speaker 1: through that in your head and then once the reality
Speaker 1: sit in and then now it's like not a real word.
Speaker 1: Now the real work begins. All that got you to shoot,
Speaker 1: Now you really gotta bust your butt to to really
Speaker 1: keep your job. And I think that we've had guys
Speaker 1: that have had those moments that are going in the
Speaker 1: first round and really felt like, hey, I've made it
Speaker 1: and just kind of forgot the things that they did
Speaker 1: to get them to that point. And you can see
Speaker 1: it they enjoyed the process too much. Yeah. Well, look, man,
Speaker 1: I appreciate you stopping body my favorite, my favorite people's Um.
Speaker 1: I don't like your shirt, but you as my guy
Speaker 1: and I love you for you know what don't you
Speaker 1: like about my shirt? Man? Because you're down too far?
Speaker 1: Like look look at that right there. If you're a
Speaker 1: fashion gurule, now I am a fashion group. I don't
Speaker 1: want to talk right now. Hey, I'm Peanut Tillman. This
Speaker 1: is Thomas Davis. I'm I need a hat because my
Speaker 1: hair I need a hair and cut. But I'm Peanut Tillman.
Speaker 1: This Thomas Davis. He's always messing with me. Uh. Two
Speaker 1: thousand thirteen Man in the year, two thousand and four
Speaker 1: team man in here. Two great guys, but I think
Speaker 1: he's better to me because he does way more and
Speaker 1: cooler things than I do. Thank you all for tuning in.
Speaker 1: I appreciate y'all, goodnight, appreciate thanks for joining us. On
Speaker 1: the NFL Players Podcast. Don't forget to subscribe and follow
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Speaker 1: stories and to connect with the NFL Players community.