Speaker 1: This is Reggie Kelly kicking in with my boys Peanut
Speaker 1: and Roman on NFL Players Second Act Podcast.
Speaker 2: Thank you for tuning in to the NFL Players Second
Speaker 2: Act Podcast. I'm Peanut to Himan and with me as
Speaker 2: always my guy rooman Rebbi Harper.
Speaker 3: He calls me, he calls me now because he had
Speaker 3: a taste of my my delicious rabbis and uh.
Speaker 4: By far, the best steak I've ever had in my life.
Speaker 4: I kid you not, but we'll get a little bit more.
Speaker 3: Let me let's thank all of our listeners and viewers
Speaker 3: out there and let them know where we are.
Speaker 4: Peanut.
Speaker 3: That is the iHeart Radio Studios right here in Atlanta,
Speaker 3: a town. Yeah, so we're in Atlanta this week. Uh,
Speaker 3: it's fun, it's going. We got a lot of different
Speaker 3: guests coming in. Let's let's jump right into our first one.
Speaker 3: All right, this first one, it's a goodie.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 2: This gentleman was a same around pick like the two
Speaker 2: of us. Forty second overall absolutely class ninety nine. Played
Speaker 2: thirteen seasons with the Bengals and the Falcons. After football,
Speaker 2: he got into the food business. Uh. He is the
Speaker 2: founder of Kivan Foods, Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to
Speaker 2: the show, mister Reggie Killer.
Speaker 5: And by the way, you got it right the first time.
Speaker 5: Most people butchers that butcher.
Speaker 2: So what's the.
Speaker 1: Worst Cayvan Cavan, whatever the case may be, but Kyvin Foods.
Speaker 5: You hit it right on the now the first, cool,
Speaker 5: cool good. That's a professional research.
Speaker 2: If you look at my notes, I have it like
Speaker 2: the way I have it. I have the phonetic form,
Speaker 2: so I wouldn't mess it up myself, somorr.
Speaker 5: I wanted to make.
Speaker 3: Sure because I didn't write it that way I would
Speaker 3: have had I would have the van park.
Speaker 4: But that's why Peanuts the real professional around here.
Speaker 1: Well, I feel naked up here. You you have notes,
Speaker 1: You have notes. I have nothing. So I'm hoping I
Speaker 1: can hope my weight here, hoping I can hold my own.
Speaker 4: Now, you're going to answer everything truthful. You you're an
Speaker 4: expert on yourself.
Speaker 5: Let's get it.
Speaker 4: Let's jump off into it though.
Speaker 3: How do you feel A recent accomplishment about yourself is
Speaker 3: that you were named in twenty twenty.
Speaker 4: Three and SEC football legend. How did that feel?
Speaker 5: Well?
Speaker 1: It felt absolutely great. My athletic director Assissippi State gave
Speaker 1: me a call Zach Selma, who is doing it excellent?
Speaker 3: Yes, he's doing an outstanding john.
Speaker 1: You know, he has a great pedigree, come from a
Speaker 1: football family, and just a great guy overall. He knows
Speaker 1: the business inside and out. So he gave me a
Speaker 1: personal call to let me know that I had received
Speaker 1: such a great honor, and he told me he would
Speaker 1: be there to support me. If there's anything that I needed,
Speaker 1: he would definitely be there. And so he gave me
Speaker 1: the call, and quite honest with you, day surpassed all
Speaker 1: of my expectations.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 1: I was with some of the greats. Hall of Famer
Speaker 1: Patrick Willis. Yeah, was still Chase Kaufman, Andre Smith, along
Speaker 1: with so many other graatce like Shane Matthews as well.
Speaker 1: And man, they laid it out, I mean, first class everything.
Speaker 1: They put us up at the Hyatt Regency and they
Speaker 1: treated us like kings. And I had the opportunity to
Speaker 1: celebrate with my wife and with my son who's a
Speaker 1: football fanatic, so he saw somebody greats as well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was a great experience, a great weekend.
Speaker 5: Guys.
Speaker 4: Hey tell me this though.
Speaker 3: I got one more follow up is like, did you
Speaker 3: ever feel that you know when you get an honor,
Speaker 3: so so much further after you've done hanging it up, right,
Speaker 3: do you feel a little bit forgotten And all of
Speaker 3: a sudden you get that call and you're like.
Speaker 4: Man, I'm not forgotten about They do remember.
Speaker 5: Me, you know.
Speaker 1: Man, I actually felt extremely grateful because you know, I
Speaker 1: grew up next door to my grandmother, right, yeah, and
Speaker 1: my grandmother always told me anytime somebody does something good
Speaker 1: for you, be appreciative and say thank you absolutely regards
Speaker 1: if it's in the short term or the long term.
Speaker 1: So whenever I got that call, I was just like, man,
Speaker 1: I'm extremely grateful that they thought enough of me, they
Speaker 1: thought enough of my game, what I did on the football,
Speaker 1: feel my body at work, if you will, and they
Speaker 1: decided to select me to this great honor. So because
Speaker 1: of it, man, I didn't feel slighted as if, like, man,
Speaker 1: it took a lot own time. I was like, well,
Speaker 1: it came right on time, right, and I'm extremely the great.
Speaker 2: So it's an SEC legend, right or a football legend?
Speaker 2: Is that equivalent to like a Hall of Fame just
Speaker 2: in the SEC conference? Is that is that kind of
Speaker 2: what's the equivalent?
Speaker 4: Bro?
Speaker 5: Don't give us a spill onint Man.
Speaker 3: So I would say yes in the short terms, because
Speaker 3: the college football has its own Hall of Fame and
Speaker 3: to only you can only be elected to the College
Speaker 3: Football Hall of Fame if you're an ap All American.
Speaker 3: So for a lot of players who are not selected
Speaker 3: to be All American, but we're still truly great at
Speaker 3: their own school or within the SEC, it's another way
Speaker 3: to honor those guys. And I think the ads in
Speaker 3: the SEC do a great job of really trying to,
Speaker 3: you know, find two comb things of their own university
Speaker 3: so they can be represented there. And it's a great
Speaker 3: time for a place like Mississippi State to say, hey,
Speaker 3: we still got some greats out there have not been
Speaker 3: honored with these things.
Speaker 4: So shout out to Reggie for being that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, getting coming from Missippi State. We need some type
Speaker 5: of positive.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, I know you're got to get on it.
Speaker 4: I just think they don't have enough yet.
Speaker 5: Yeah that's a key word. Yeah, Yeah, it's coming down
Speaker 5: the road.
Speaker 4: I agree. So I want to transition.
Speaker 2: You make it to the league in ninety nine, what
Speaker 2: was that welcome to the NFL moment?
Speaker 4: I know we all play, we're all second round picks.
Speaker 2: And you know, we all had that that time where
Speaker 2: we got to hit or something happened in the league
Speaker 2: and we were like, damn, this this is the league.
Speaker 4: I'm with the big boys. Now, yeah, what was that
Speaker 4: moment for you?
Speaker 1: But it happened in training camp, right, I'm not sure
Speaker 1: you guys remember Jesse the hammer? Yeah, yep, yeah, the hammer.
Speaker 1: Though let's less than the hammer, that's the opportitive word
Speaker 1: right now. And so during training camp, you know, I
Speaker 1: was I was known as a blocker, you know, that
Speaker 1: was my fortaeled guy that works extremely hard, a guy
Speaker 1: is going to play through the whistle, a guy that's
Speaker 1: extremely extremely physical. So that's what I brought to the table.
Speaker 1: And I'm quite sure that the veterans did their homework
Speaker 1: and they didn't want to be a statistic, right, especially
Speaker 1: from a rookie coming in. And so I was having
Speaker 1: excellent training camp my rookie year, getting out the folks
Speaker 1: until I met the Hammer. And the Hammer his reputation
Speaker 1: suits him, and so I was blocking the play and
Speaker 1: blocking down. I'm on a gap style play, blockdown on
Speaker 1: the hammer, and he absolutely laid me out. I had
Speaker 1: never in my life experienced that type of hit. That
Speaker 1: type of pain and that type of embarrassment to the
Speaker 1: point where all the veterans and welcome to the NFL,
Speaker 1: rook Welcome to the NFL. And that was what he
Speaker 1: was known for, physical play. But as I continued to
Speaker 1: practice and continue to play, you know in the NFL,
Speaker 1: I saw man, you know, I just can't rely on
Speaker 1: my skill set. I can't just rely on my physical attributes.
Speaker 1: I really have to study the game. I really have
Speaker 1: to do a good job of just pruning my skill
Speaker 1: set and understand, it's all about angles, it's all about leverage,
Speaker 1: it's all about footwork, it's all about having your hands
Speaker 1: in the right position. And if I do that, and
Speaker 1: I do that at a consistent level, then I can
Speaker 1: play on the same level as these guys. I be
Speaker 1: the one welcome in the rookies to the NFL and
Speaker 1: then letting the wood on those guys. So that was
Speaker 1: my welcome to the NFL moment. And guys like Chuck Smith,
Speaker 1: guys like Jesse Tuggle, they taught me how to be
Speaker 1: a pro, taught me how to get out the people.
Speaker 1: They should tell me, don't have a problem taking a
Speaker 1: man's heart, do not have a problem taking that heart,
Speaker 1: because if you do that early and often, it gives
Speaker 1: you a better chance to succeed on this level.
Speaker 2: Like that, do you think we've kind of lost a
Speaker 2: little bit of that, like trying to take a know
Speaker 2: the man's heart. Like when I went to Carolina TD
Speaker 2: Thomas Davis, he would say, we got to take them
Speaker 2: to a dark place they don't want to beat, a
Speaker 2: place they don't want to go. And I was like, hell, yeah,
Speaker 2: that's how I think. That's that's that peanut punch mentality
Speaker 2: right there. I'm trying to take you to a dark place.
Speaker 4: Did you just name drop? No? I did not thank you.
Speaker 1: I thank you, but it's okay, you can do that.
Speaker 2: I don't have a question, guys, y'all cracking them right now.
Speaker 2: I just I appreciate. I appreciate like.
Speaker 4: The old dror.
Speaker 5: Older mentality. I love that.
Speaker 4: What did you learn from that play? Too?
Speaker 5: Like?
Speaker 4: What did you do wrong? If you could go back?
Speaker 1: I was out of control and I kind of alluded
Speaker 1: to it when I said my footwork was here, there, everywhere.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you just thought you could just go here so
Speaker 4: I could just go hit him?
Speaker 5: All right, he's already jest.
Speaker 1: It was about five six five, I had like no leverage,
Speaker 1: you know, no leverage, out of control, no leverage in
Speaker 1: my hands. Was all over the place, and they showed me, Rook,
Speaker 1: you know when you come up against me, you better
Speaker 1: have your act together. Yeah, you got to have every
Speaker 1: facet of your game on point. And that's how it
Speaker 1: is when you plan all the greats in the NFL.
Speaker 1: After that episode, Terrence Mathis came up to me. You know,
Speaker 1: Terrence Mathis mister Atlanta falcon.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 1: He was one of the first NFL Riot receivers doing
Speaker 1: this time to catch over one hundred passes. And in
Speaker 1: today's game that that's that everybody's doing it. But back
Speaker 1: then that was something to be seen. And so Terrence
Speaker 1: came to me after I got knocked on my bud
Speaker 1: and he said, listen to me, ro if you do
Speaker 1: the little things right, the big things will fall. And listen, man,
Speaker 1: whatever that means. I just got knocked on my butt here, bro,
Speaker 1: I'm embarrassed. I'm really not thinking about them, thinking about retaliation.
Speaker 1: That's really what I was thinking about. Didn't know that
Speaker 1: what he was telling me. If you won't to be
Speaker 1: great and if you want to play on that type
Speaker 1: of a level, you're gonna have to do the little
Speaker 1: things right. So he knew I wasn't really listening to
Speaker 1: him at that point, but he came back with me
Speaker 1: with great patience. That's really all the great you know
Speaker 1: a veterans do who are trying to leave the game
Speaker 1: better than they found it. He said, Now listen to me,
Speaker 1: young phelly, if you do the little things right, the
Speaker 1: big things would automatically occur. Basically, well, he was telling me,
Speaker 1: in order for you to truly succeed on a high level,
Speaker 1: at a consistent level, those who really do it, they
Speaker 1: do it because they do the small things that those
Speaker 1: who don't succeed never do. Success is always been wrapped
Speaker 1: up and doing the small, minute, streightiest, tedious details that
Speaker 1: those who felt are either too lazy to do yeah
Speaker 1: or make excuses why they can't do it. And so
Speaker 1: he was telling me, don't be lazy, don't make excuses,
Speaker 1: do the work, and if you do that, you'll be
Speaker 1: on the other side of that for many, many years.
Speaker 1: And that really transformed my life as an NFL tight end.
Speaker 1: From that point on, I was on the Endcline ended
Speaker 1: up playing thirteen years Like you guys, played a long
Speaker 1: time in the NFL as well.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so two thousand and left. I don't want to
Speaker 4: go to two thousand and eleven.
Speaker 5: Twenty eleven, can't wait. That was a lockout, yere Uh huh,
Speaker 5: you were a rap.
Speaker 2: It didn't affect me that much. And we were talking
Speaker 2: about this earlier. Roome was affected by the lockout. And
Speaker 2: we'll let you answer that question in a little bit,
Speaker 2: thank you. My question is how was it being a
Speaker 2: part of those negotiations, you know, a part of the
Speaker 2: CBA and being in there, like negotiating with players, owner
Speaker 2: like everyone all involved, right, Like, we'll explain that process
Speaker 2: and what that was like.
Speaker 1: Well, I would say just based on our regulation, it
Speaker 1: was very intense. Yeah, extremely intense because one side that
Speaker 1: wanted one thing, meaning the owners, but we as players
Speaker 1: needed need to get some some of the things that
Speaker 1: we needed and done. And we weren't just working and
Speaker 1: negotiating on behalf of us current players. We were negotiating
Speaker 1: on behalf of the past players, the current players in
Speaker 1: the future players. We were actually looking out for the
Speaker 1: best interests of our guys. You know, anytime you negotiating
Speaker 1: the contract doesn't matter if it's an individual contract or
Speaker 1: you're negotiating for the sake of the overall good of everybody,
Speaker 1: the collective group. You want to make sure that you
Speaker 1: do what's in the best interest, not of self, but
Speaker 1: of others. And so it got pretty intense. But what
Speaker 1: we told all the players listen, we know that you
Speaker 1: guys want to be on the football field plan, we
Speaker 1: know that you want to make your salaries. And there
Speaker 1: were a lot of things that were thrown back and forth.
Speaker 1: Then when you guys not going to play, you guys
Speaker 1: are not going to get paid, and so so oftentimes
Speaker 1: when money is put in the picture, it could bring
Speaker 1: some fear. Oh yeah, right, it can add pressure to guys,
Speaker 1: especially the livelihoods in their pockets. But we told them, listen,
Speaker 1: we can't cave in. Listen, this is bigger than us.
Speaker 1: It's bigger than the current players. We have to do
Speaker 1: what's best for the future and also our guys who
Speaker 1: paid the way for us. And so you had, you know,
Speaker 1: a little bit of bickering here and there, a little
Speaker 1: bit of arguments here and there, but by the same token,
Speaker 1: we came together as one unit. Say, in regardless if
Speaker 1: we see things differently or not, we have to do
Speaker 1: what's best, and I'm extremely proud that we stuck to
Speaker 1: our guns. We saw it through and pretty much that
Speaker 1: I'm not mistaken, maybe eighty five I would say probably
Speaker 1: about ninety percent of the stuff that we negotiated, we
Speaker 1: got it pretty much exactly the way that we wanted. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we had to give a little bit and take a
Speaker 1: little bit. That's part of negotiations as well. But the
Speaker 1: thing that I would always say about that group of
Speaker 1: guys is that we did at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: we stuck together. We were not going to be denied,
Speaker 1: we were not going to be pushed up. We said, hey,
Speaker 1: we're going to do this thing. And I'm extremely pleased
Speaker 1: and proud of the guys who stepped up and had
Speaker 1: that type of leadership to do so. And there were
Speaker 1: some owners, gonna be honest with there were some owners
Speaker 1: who were on our side also. I'm not going to
Speaker 1: name the names, but there was some owners who reached
Speaker 1: out to us and said, you guys are doing it
Speaker 1: the right way, and we'll appreciate you guys doing it
Speaker 1: the right way, and that's anything that you guys need
Speaker 1: from us. You know, we'll do our best too to
Speaker 1: relate that information to make sure that we get it done.
Speaker 2: Now were their owners and were owners and players in
Speaker 2: one massive room or like one big room, and it
Speaker 2: was just like back and forth. Was it just the
Speaker 2: mediator kind of mediating between owners and players.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it was more so the mediator.
Speaker 1: And there were times where where some select guys did meet,
Speaker 1: you know, with Roger Goodell. They did meet with him
Speaker 1: and try to, you know, to get things hashed out
Speaker 1: because they really didn't know if we were really get
Speaker 1: the job done and get the deal done in time
Speaker 1: for the NFL season. But you know, guys felt some
Speaker 1: kind of way about it that I'll be honest with you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: guys felt some kind of way. And you know how
Speaker 1: it is with us. You know, if you feel a
Speaker 1: little bit disrespected, sometimes you handle it. Sometimes you handle
Speaker 1: it the wrong way. Sometimes you handle it the right way.
Speaker 1: But I think for the most part, even though we
Speaker 1: didn't agree with with the owners, we didn't agree with
Speaker 1: their stands, we knew our value, We knew our worth.
Speaker 1: And my mama always told me that there will always
Speaker 1: be someone who doesn't see your value. There will always
Speaker 1: be someone who doesn't see your worth. Never let that
Speaker 1: someone be you, and I think that we had that mentality.
Speaker 1: We know what we bring to the game of football
Speaker 1: as far as the economics, we know what we bring
Speaker 1: as well to the ownership, and we want to make
Speaker 1: sure that we're properly compensated. We want to make sure
Speaker 1: that we get the benefits that we all due, for
Speaker 1: the older guys, for the future guys, and also for
Speaker 1: the president guys as well.
Speaker 3: You mentioned a couple different things and about knowing your
Speaker 3: value and being disappointed and this, that and the other.
Speaker 4: I was one of those guys.
Speaker 3: So when the lockout happened, and maybe you can give
Speaker 3: me a little bit of advice to make me feel better.
Speaker 2: Now, he's so salty right about this before you walked in,
Speaker 2: and he was that dude.
Speaker 4: I'll explain why.
Speaker 3: Two thousand and nine I went, we won a Super Bowl,
Speaker 3: I went to my first Pro Bowl.
Speaker 4: I was I was deemed to become a free agent.
Speaker 4: The lockout happened.
Speaker 3: I was not at six years I was at year four,
Speaker 3: so still very young and supposed to get my money.
Speaker 3: I could not get my money for two years because he.
Speaker 4: Was the one.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, and it was just everybody if you were outside
Speaker 3: of this the NFL owners. We can agree or disagree
Speaker 3: whether the colludeed not to do anything or not, but
Speaker 3: smart on their part because they're business people. But the
Speaker 3: fact of the matter is, I know you guys were
Speaker 3: in there beating it down the table and all these
Speaker 3: other things, but for players like me, that was just like,
Speaker 3: what the crap is going on? I don't understand enough
Speaker 3: at this point in my career. I don't understand enough
Speaker 3: in life. Besides, I just want my money, absolutely, and
Speaker 3: if I don't get this deal now, that also kicks
Speaker 3: it down the road two more years when I do
Speaker 3: get my deal, and it's not about getting a deal,
Speaker 3: it's about getting that next deal after that, and they're
Speaker 3: getting back at the negotiating table. Could you maybe help
Speaker 3: soothe me in my pain on this whole breakdown of
Speaker 3: what went down and how you guys understood that the
Speaker 3: guys that were in the limbo or in the gray area,
Speaker 3: this whole collective group of guys, and how you guys
Speaker 3: probably felt bad for us, but we still had to
Speaker 3: do what you had to do.
Speaker 5: It's a greater good man.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I was sorry.
Speaker 5: I think being that hit it right on the head.
Speaker 1: We just we were looking at what is the greater
Speaker 1: good for the overall league, for all the players who
Speaker 1: had gone before us, to the current players, and also
Speaker 1: for the young guys who are going to come in
Speaker 1: the league that didn't know much about the business aspect
Speaker 1: as far as the money, the economics, and that whole deal.
Speaker 1: We wanted to make sure that we set in our
Speaker 1: mindset the standard. And I think one of the biggest
Speaker 1: things that I took away from it is that we
Speaker 1: want to be as one as a unit. We want
Speaker 1: to show the owners. We wanted to show the world,
Speaker 1: regardless if they criticized us or not, that we were
Speaker 1: going to stand together as a brotherhood, you know, functioning
Speaker 1: together to get this job done. I feel like so
Speaker 1: many times people may look at us as just athletes.
Speaker 5: Athletes.
Speaker 1: They're just an athlete, just an athlete. No, we're much
Speaker 1: bigger than been an athlete. Oftentimes tells people tell people that,
Speaker 1: you know, me playing football, that's just simply what I do.
Speaker 1: A man of God is who I am. My identity
Speaker 1: is not wrapped up in just football. I'm much more
Speaker 1: than that. I'm a businessman. I understand numbers, I understand
Speaker 1: the economics, I understand government, I understand politics the whole
Speaker 1: nine yards. I try to make sure that I'm properly
Speaker 1: educated and that so I can go into a room
Speaker 1: and have conversations on anything. I can go into a
Speaker 1: room and fight for what's right because I understand exactly
Speaker 1: the dynamics behind that complex situation. And so for me,
Speaker 1: you know, my whole thing was my teammates elected me,
Speaker 1: you know, as a rep to speak on their behalf.
Speaker 1: And if I was just speaking on my behalf, that's
Speaker 1: one thing. But when they elected me to speak on
Speaker 1: their half of the entire league in the future of
Speaker 1: the league, I had to do, in my opinion, what
Speaker 1: was best for the collective group, which mean if I
Speaker 1: didn't get what I wanted, that's fine as long as
Speaker 1: it served the greater cause. And so that was our mentality.
Speaker 1: And we knew that we was going to get some pushback,
Speaker 1: you know, there's always some pushback. But at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, I thought the negotiation went extremely well
Speaker 1: and we got a lot of things that we had
Speaker 1: set out to get.
Speaker 4: I would agree with you on the overall. I just
Speaker 4: need to get that off myself.
Speaker 3: For somebody that was in the room, so absolutely absolutely,
Speaker 3: because I was I was part of that group that
Speaker 3: like it was a few of us that like, man,
Speaker 3: we're supposed to get super broke off right now, and
Speaker 3: we did not, And so.
Speaker 5: It turned out really well for you.
Speaker 2: You know, I would have got that fifty. You are
Speaker 2: complaining a little bit, You're.
Speaker 3: Right, But I will say one of the best things
Speaker 3: that you guys did was look out for the past player.
Speaker 3: Before that CBA, they had not been looked after like you.
Speaker 4: Like that.
Speaker 3: Twenty eleven CBA set everything else differently on the trajectory
Speaker 3: of our former players and what we're able to now
Speaker 3: get absolutely as we are past players and becoming that
Speaker 3: that that pot. And so in twenty eleven we set
Speaker 3: the standard of always looking back and pulling forward and
Speaker 3: they will continue to do that going forward because of
Speaker 3: the standards that you guys set in that groom.
Speaker 4: So great job.
Speaker 5: Appreciate that, man, appreciate that.
Speaker 2: We'll be right back after a quick break. I want
Speaker 2: to talk post football, your second act. So you get
Speaker 2: out of you get out of football, and that transition
Speaker 2: you go from the grid iron to the cast stars.
Speaker 5: There it is there.
Speaker 2: It is this man, this man from the grid iron
Speaker 2: to the cast on. So how was that transition smooth?
Speaker 5: So for it?
Speaker 4: Because I know Roman I. We we talked about this
Speaker 4: all the time.
Speaker 1: And could you say that one more time? I just
Speaker 1: like the sound of that. Go ahead one more time,
Speaker 1: give it to me.
Speaker 2: From the gridiron to the cast. So professional, Yeah, you
Speaker 2: know football, it's something I did. It's not who I am,
Speaker 2: you know it is, I'm a professional. But no, seriously,
Speaker 2: like your your transition was like what I what I
Speaker 2: assume and you can maybe you can help me understand
Speaker 2: that it seemed like it was smooth. Why do you
Speaker 2: think that transition was so smooth once you got out
Speaker 2: of football? Because I know Roman I we've talked and
Speaker 2: kind of what this podcast is about. It's just about
Speaker 2: talking to you know, former players and how they get
Speaker 2: into their second act and how they transition. Some do
Speaker 2: it well, so struggle a little bit, some maybe so much. Yeah,
Speaker 2: there's no blueprint. It's all kind of custom to the player.
Speaker 2: So why was yours so smooth?
Speaker 1: You think, yeah, it was actually a smooth transition. But
Speaker 1: I learned that even before I became anrepreneur. Again my
Speaker 1: rookie year, Terrence Mathis took me under his wing right,
Speaker 1: and again I always shout out T Matt. And by
Speaker 1: the way, T Matt is the head coach football coach
Speaker 1: at Morehouse now, so I want everybody to support him.
Speaker 1: But but T Matt, you know, he would always give
Speaker 1: me nuggets, just nuggets. Man, you gotta leave the game.
Speaker 4: Bet.
Speaker 1: Then you found it, man, nuggets, how to be a
Speaker 1: professional on and off the field. And he told me,
Speaker 1: you know, you're gonna have to prepare for life after
Speaker 1: football one day, ruck. I know you may not want
Speaker 1: to hear that. You may think you're going to play forever,
Speaker 1: but you got to prepare, you know, for life after football.
Speaker 1: And you got to do the little things right. And
Speaker 1: if you do the little things right, of course, the
Speaker 1: big things will always follow you. So he gave me
Speaker 1: a blueprint to say, hey, play the game of football,
Speaker 1: Enjoy the game of football. Take what you can take
Speaker 1: from the game of football. But when it's over, then
Speaker 1: what that's when life really hits. And if you don't
Speaker 1: have a plan, you can plan to fail. What's the phrase?
Speaker 1: If you fail to plan, you might as well plan
Speaker 1: fail to fail. And he told me that in so
Speaker 1: many different instances, so that once I actually finished playing football, well,
Speaker 1: to be honest, with you, guys. I started to business
Speaker 1: while I was still an active player. During the off seasons,
Speaker 1: I would go and research, I mean research how to
Speaker 1: start a food company. I would research all the intricate
Speaker 1: details about the economics, about the marketing, about the sales,
Speaker 1: about the manufacturing, about supply chain, about R and D.
Speaker 1: What's R and D R and D research and development.
Speaker 1: So for every product you got to research, you got
Speaker 1: to develop it. It has to meet certain standard standards,
Speaker 1: certain protocols. You can't just put any kind of product
Speaker 1: on the market unless it's absolutely approved and it's up
Speaker 1: to standard. It's commercialized, so to speak. So you may
Speaker 1: go in with a recipe, but once you get commercialized,
Speaker 1: that a recipe is called a formula, right, And so
Speaker 1: I had to learn all of those intricate details about
Speaker 1: the food and beverage industry, to the point that once
Speaker 1: I finally retired, I had already started a business. My
Speaker 1: business was already running smoothly. And if you guys don't mind,
Speaker 1: I could tell you really what really was kind of
Speaker 1: like that moment where it's kind of like trailblazes, where
Speaker 1: my company just started to really catch on fire. And
Speaker 1: this is not everybody's story. Every entrepreneur has their own story.
Speaker 1: But shucks, I had only been in business for about
Speaker 1: three months, guys, three months. I knew hardly anything about
Speaker 1: the food industry itself for the stuff that I had researched,
Speaker 1: and so I said, well, this is what I'm gonna do.
Speaker 1: I'm going to start off extremely small. I'm an error
Speaker 1: on the side of caution. I'm gonna get me a
Speaker 1: probably a couple mom and pop retailers to take my
Speaker 1: products so that I can, you know, learn the business
Speaker 1: and if I kind of fail, well I can fail
Speaker 1: with from a small scale perspective. Well, within three months,
Speaker 1: I took the plunge on reaching out to Walmart, reaching
Speaker 1: out to Walmart stores and to see if they were,
Speaker 1: you know, scheduling me with me. And to my surprise,
Speaker 1: when I reached out to him a week later, they
Speaker 1: responded back wanting to schedule a meeting for me to
Speaker 1: present my product.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I had one of those moments. I'm like, because if
Speaker 1: you understand the industry, that doesn't happen right to get
Speaker 1: an opportunity to meet with a Walmart or a krow
Speaker 1: Ger or Target stores, to meet with stores like that,
Speaker 1: only being in business for three months, They're not really
Speaker 1: going to give you the time of day because you
Speaker 1: don't have the numbers, you don't have the sales, and
Speaker 1: you probably don't have the experience. But anyway, this regional
Speaker 1: merchandise will reached back out to me and said, let's
Speaker 1: schedule this meeting. And so went in to meet with him.
Speaker 1: And when the meeting was over, he kind of leaned in,
Speaker 1: looked at me across the table and say, you know what,
Speaker 1: that's something about you. I'm gonna give you a shot.
Speaker 1: What he said, yeah, that's something about you. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: give you a shot. Here I am like saying, well.
Speaker 1: He then said there was something about my products, which
Speaker 1: we got good products. Product was on fire. He didn't
Speaker 1: say shucks, we like yourselves. And I had only did
Speaker 1: business with two or three mom and pop retailers, nothing
Speaker 1: on the scale of Walmart. He never said anything about sales,
Speaker 1: but he said that's something about you. What I failed
Speaker 1: to tell you, guys, was about a month before I
Speaker 1: had that meeting, I traveled to multiple Walmart stores and
Speaker 1: multiple states, and each Walmart merchandis is a lot different.
Speaker 1: They have different products. I was up and down every
Speaker 1: last hour in those Walmart stores, looking at my compared
Speaker 1: to brands, looking at their nutritional panels, their ingredient decks,
Speaker 1: they're packaging, they're pricing. I would buy those products, and
Speaker 1: before I got to the car good I was tasting
Speaker 1: the products, not using the spoon or fork or anything,
Speaker 1: no meants, just tasting the product just to get an
Speaker 1: analysis of what are they doing to get on the
Speaker 1: shelves and what do I have to do to compete
Speaker 1: against those particular brands. And I would walk around the
Speaker 1: stores and walk around the stores and get all all
Speaker 1: the information that I could, to the point where when
Speaker 1: I actually met with that merchandiser, he knew I couldn't
Speaker 1: have got that information just searching the Well, yeah, he
Speaker 1: knew I couldn't have gotten all of that information just
Speaker 1: by looking on the internet. He knew I had to
Speaker 1: actively travel from one state to the next, multiple stores
Speaker 1: within that state, because I was telling them stuff that
Speaker 1: was in one store that wasn't in the other store.
Speaker 1: I was telling them the workers, you know, the culture,
Speaker 1: all of that stuff. To the point he said, if
Speaker 1: he could do that in this short period of time,
Speaker 1: imagine what he can do in the long run, and
Speaker 1: so I learned a couple of things from that particular me.
Speaker 1: First thing, you don't get a second chance to make
Speaker 1: a first impression. When you get your opportunity, you better
Speaker 1: kick the door in. The Next thing is people do
Speaker 1: business with people they like. It's not necessarily what you know,
Speaker 1: it's who you know. To finish that story off, when
Speaker 1: I left that meeting, he gave me a deal to
Speaker 1: do busines with Walmart stores. Only being in for three months,
Speaker 1: he reached out to two of his other buddies that
Speaker 1: are merchandises as well, and because he liked me and
Speaker 1: because I knew him, he reached out to him. And
Speaker 1: then they gave me an opportunity to put my products
Speaker 1: in their stores as well, simply because they knew him
Speaker 1: and simply because I knew him. And the rest is history.
Speaker 1: So you know, when you get your opportunities, you got
Speaker 1: to make sure that you're a likable person, especially in
Speaker 1: this type of business, and you got to make sure
Speaker 1: that you take full advantage of every opportunity that you have.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Regie, man, you give me a whole bunch of
Speaker 3: nuggets over your dat I'm just taking notes because like
Speaker 3: this stuff, I'm telling my kids. It's just it's just impressive, right,
Speaker 3: And everybody needs to hear that people do business with
Speaker 3: people they like. Yeah, that's a that's a gold mine.
Speaker 3: You don't get a second chance at a first impression.
Speaker 3: Everybody needs to hear that you got a good brand. Yeah,
Speaker 3: great brand. I want to know this, though, what made
Speaker 3: you get into the food business. That's the one thing
Speaker 3: you didn't tell it.
Speaker 5: I'm greedy.
Speaker 1: I'm greedy, man, Okay, you got all these products this,
Speaker 1: you have this game plan.
Speaker 3: First of all, the fact that you went to all
Speaker 3: these different walmarts. You're behind enemy lines and tasting everything, like,
Speaker 3: that's amazing grind. And they don't even know that. That
Speaker 3: guy was like, man, bump this. He knew that, he
Speaker 3: knew the thing. He's like, you bet on the jockey,
Speaker 3: not the whole. Absolutely, I'm not betting on the barbecue.
Speaker 3: This off whatever, I ain't worried. I bet on this guy.
Speaker 3: This guy is different. So what made you get into
Speaker 3: food though? Like, what what what made you go there? Uh?
Speaker 1: Well, like I said, I'm greedy, but but the truth
Speaker 1: be told, it wasn't really something that I want to do.
Speaker 1: Fellas during the off seasons, I used to throw free
Speaker 1: football camps for the kids in my hometown, Aberdeen, Mississippi.
Speaker 1: And I used to reward the kids who exemplified great
Speaker 1: academic excellence.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 1: I want the kids to understand when you do good,
Speaker 1: you can expect good. Hard work pays off. And so
Speaker 1: I used to throw some of these free football camps.
Speaker 1: I had my teammates come out and and and really
Speaker 1: speak life into the kids. But I didn't want the
Speaker 1: kids just to see athletes and think that okay, and
Speaker 1: only the only way that I could be a success
Speaker 1: is to be an athlete.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 1: I brought in professionals. I brought in business people. I
Speaker 1: brought in blue collar workers who were successful, just to
Speaker 1: see kids seeing people who model success and how that looked.
Speaker 1: And the kids absolutely enjoyed the football camps. And after
Speaker 1: the camps were over, and for that matter, after any event,
Speaker 1: the Mississippi bro you're gonna have some good food.
Speaker 5: Based, Yeah, you're gonna have some eats for you.
Speaker 1: And so my family and my wife's family cooked for
Speaker 1: all the volunteers. And I tell you, my teammates couldn't
Speaker 1: stop raving about our family recipes. Some of them really
Speaker 1: had never been to the sip to Mississippi, and so
Speaker 1: they didn't really know how we get down, you know.
Speaker 1: And so they were raving and raving to the point
Speaker 1: where one of my teammates right talked my wife, Sheila,
Speaker 1: and said, you know, you guys really need to do
Speaker 1: something with these family recipes. And my wife came to
Speaker 1: me as as they normally do, and she gave me
Speaker 1: a little arm rub, and I said, oh boy, well
Speaker 1: we're going with this. And she said, you know, babe,
Speaker 1: I really think we need to take Nicole's idea and
Speaker 1: we need to run with it. We need to take
Speaker 1: our family recipes and start a business. And Chucks, man,
Speaker 1: that wasn't something I wanted to do. You know, I'll
Speaker 1: be honest with you. I wanted once I finally retired,
Speaker 1: I wanted to work either in the NFL front office.
Speaker 1: I took a trip up to New York, met with
Speaker 1: Ray Anderson, I met with Ron Hill at the time,
Speaker 1: Troy Vincent. I talked with them guys about the next step.
Speaker 1: I talked to coach Marvin Lewis. He said, man, rech
Speaker 1: we need you in a position of leadership like that,
Speaker 1: not necessarily being a coach, but being in the front office,
Speaker 1: and you have a lot to bring and give to
Speaker 1: the NFL. And so that's really where my head was at, honestly.
Speaker 1: And so but my wife she had other plans. And
Speaker 1: my wife, now we were high school sweethearts, so we
Speaker 1: had been together for a minute. I remember I had
Speaker 1: told her, you know, hey, you know when we get married,
Speaker 1: you know, we need to start our own business together.
Speaker 1: You know, we need to be entrepreneurs. You know, I
Speaker 1: was just trying to be slick, you know, cool with it, smoothie,
Speaker 1: get you in trouble every time.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, for getting nothing.
Speaker 5: It ain't forgot nothing.
Speaker 1: And so all these years, almost two decades later, she
Speaker 1: remembered it, and one, you know, one of the girls
Speaker 1: put that in their ear. I think you guys need
Speaker 1: to take your family recipes to market. It was just
Speaker 1: like a light bulb hit in. Regardless of whatever excuses
Speaker 1: I made, she wasn't gonna let me. No excuses was
Speaker 1: going to be good enough. And she said, no, I
Speaker 1: think we need to do this, and lo and behold,
Speaker 1: I told her, well, we're gonna do it now. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be all in. And she's always been detailed,
Speaker 1: she's always been gold you know, driven, and that's her
Speaker 1: reputation and I'm the same way. And so that's when,
Speaker 1: like when the off season hit, bro I'm talking about,
Speaker 1: I'm up to two and three o'clock at night, research research, research, research,
Speaker 1: and traveling, traveling, asking people and food and beverage industry
Speaker 1: about what do I need to do? How do I
Speaker 1: need to start this company? What should I do to
Speaker 1: be very competitive? Because you can have a great product,
Speaker 1: but if you don't know how to market it and
Speaker 1: you don't know the demographics to market it too, you're
Speaker 1: not going to succeed. So I learned all that information
Speaker 1: from those people, and they ended up helping us to
Speaker 1: start this bill. They didn't end up helping us, but
Speaker 1: they gave us some of the resources we need as
Speaker 1: far as information and some experience to help us start
Speaker 1: this business. And so what ended up happening this long
Speaker 1: story short, no, I'm telling it long No you good,
Speaker 1: long story. Short end up happening. We end up starting
Speaker 1: the food business. We named it after our kids. My
Speaker 1: daughter's name is Kyla, son's name is Cavin, combined the
Speaker 1: two to come up with Kaivin, and we desire to
Speaker 1: leave a lasting legacy a tangible legacy to our kids.
Speaker 1: And if they want to work the business, great, If
Speaker 1: they don't want to work the business, great, But we
Speaker 1: want to give them a head stared art in life
Speaker 1: so they can be their own bosses if they choose
Speaker 1: to do so. And so that's our plan, and that's
Speaker 1: really having foods got going, man.
Speaker 4: So what's one of the best things that you all saw? Like,
Speaker 4: what's what's the hottest item? They're all good, man, Okay,
Speaker 4: let me really like this.
Speaker 5: How many kids you got?
Speaker 4: I have four?
Speaker 5: Many kids?
Speaker 1: You got four? You got four kids. I kind of
Speaker 1: like in this food coming into like my babies. Okay, well,
Speaker 1: you know when people ask like what is your favorite?
Speaker 5: Your favorite kids?
Speaker 4: We both got favorites. There's no way I have a favorite.
Speaker 4: I have, you know, the youngest, you pops favorite? Everybody
Speaker 4: know that. Oh no, a second man, that's my dog.
Speaker 2: Okay, this is our trustee. This is my assistant right here.
Speaker 2: This is my assistant, Thomas Warner. That's my intern, y'all.
Speaker 4: That's the mild saucer.
Speaker 1: I'm a wimp man when it comes to to heat,
Speaker 1: like everybody else, y'all got y'all got a recipe?
Speaker 2: That's a family recipe. Black black people got the family
Speaker 2: sauce of recipes.
Speaker 1: But you know, you know it's it's a little bit
Speaker 1: of this and a little bit of that, and then boilai,
Speaker 1: you got yourself a masterpiece. So I grew up in
Speaker 1: a family of cooks, not chefs, and so you know,
Speaker 1: we have a little bit of this, a little bit
Speaker 1: of that, a little bit of this, a little bit
Speaker 1: of that, little taste of that's in boom.
Speaker 5: You got yourself a mass speech. So man, we got.
Speaker 1: Salsa, apple butters, salad dressings, barbecue, sauce, is seasoning, it's
Speaker 1: the whole nine.
Speaker 3: First of all, you guys have a huge influence in
Speaker 3: the state of North Carolina where I live. So I'm
Speaker 3: gonna make sure I go scoop up something that.
Speaker 5: Is actually thought I was playing. Thought I was playing.
Speaker 5: I thought.
Speaker 4: It is good. It is sweet.
Speaker 5: That's fact, it's good.
Speaker 4: It is good.
Speaker 5: What do y'all taste wrong?
Speaker 4: What?
Speaker 5: What do you taste? What did you taste when you
Speaker 5: taste of that?
Speaker 3: It's a little bit of sweetness. But but it's like, uh,
Speaker 3: it's called a little tang to it. I think that's
Speaker 3: the apple in it. A little bit I'm not a
Speaker 3: I don't eat fruit, but I will eat fruit flavored
Speaker 3: or things with fruit flavor.
Speaker 5: You ain't fruit. I don't at.
Speaker 4: This about me.
Speaker 5: All right?
Speaker 4: This is good though, and uh I saw that.
Speaker 3: As you guys are going down the list, I would
Speaker 3: love to also see this sweet potato barbecue sauce.
Speaker 5: Do we have any sweet potato barbecue sauce in the house.
Speaker 3: I've never even heard of this, but for me and
Speaker 3: my family being from Alabama, you give me some barbecue
Speaker 3: sauce and you got sweet potatoes, and I ain't got
Speaker 3: to separate them.
Speaker 4: I can just have them all at one time. Boy,
Speaker 4: I'm in I don't even know what that's It sounds crazy.
Speaker 1: Listen, listen, listen. The man made a request, and we
Speaker 1: like to answer requests around here. Baby, he wanted sweet potato,
Speaker 1: and we gave him sweet potatoes. You got to open
Speaker 1: it up, man, Shake it up for him, Shake it
Speaker 1: up for him, shake it up.
Speaker 4: Take this up all the time. We do not.
Speaker 2: So I'm in Chicago, How can I do? I just
Speaker 2: gotta go to the website to order this? Or are
Speaker 2: you in the Midwest? Are y'all in the Midwes?
Speaker 1: Yes, we are so we service a number of retailers
Speaker 1: across the country. Let's first start, let's say from an
Speaker 1: e commerce platform. We service every Amazon Fresh fulfillment center nationwide.
Speaker 1: So for those who don't understand what Amazon Fresh, it's
Speaker 1: a platform under the Amazon brand, and it's just an
Speaker 1: online grocery store. So if you order off our products
Speaker 1: off of Amazon Fresh, they're delivered to you in grocery
Speaker 1: bags within two hours. So it's not like your tradition
Speaker 1: of Amazon where you got to order then a couple
Speaker 1: of days you receive your ordering boxes.
Speaker 4: I got you.
Speaker 1: So we service every Amazon Fresh fulfillment center nationwide. You
Speaker 1: can find our products on our website. We service select
Speaker 1: target retailers, food line retailers, and one of our greatest
Speaker 1: passions is we do a lot of food service stuff.
Speaker 1: So we service restaurants, hotels like the Height, Regency, Hilton, colleges, hospitals,
Speaker 1: the whole nine.
Speaker 4: You know, your story has been amazing, uh and clearly
Speaker 4: you're doing great things.
Speaker 1: I mean, really, you gotta hit that sweep talking about
Speaker 1: you got to hit it, I'm gonna hit that.
Speaker 5: You need to take it to the head too, broke it.
Speaker 4: Ever, I have never just.
Speaker 2: It's like, hold about it, like this is just normal
Speaker 2: behavior it is. It seems okay, I'll say it, it seems fat.
Speaker 2: But that's how you got to get the taste for it.
Speaker 3: I want to know this, though, if you have one,
Speaker 3: what has been your biggest challenge, like in this industry,
Speaker 3: like getting into it, what you've figured out since you've
Speaker 3: been in it. Tell me like one of the biggest
Speaker 3: challenges you've had to get over.
Speaker 1: That's an absolutely great question, and especially for for entrepreneurs
Speaker 1: and looking to start a business up.
Speaker 5: Quite often.
Speaker 1: I've done a few panel sessions me and Brian Scott
Speaker 1: with Atlanta Falcons sponsored by Truant Banking. We get an
Speaker 1: opportunity to sit in front of small business owners to
Speaker 1: talk to him about the importance of being detail, being
Speaker 1: intentional and having a great plan. And so I'm quite often, Oh,
Speaker 1: he's about.
Speaker 5: To take it. Go ahead, baby, for this to the head.
Speaker 5: Tap him up, man, tap them up.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna do it too, do it a love one.
Speaker 2: I ain't never done this. So I got cheers, I
Speaker 2: got honey apple cheers, I got steep and Tao the
Speaker 2: barbecue sauce.
Speaker 4: We take it to the head.
Speaker 5: Cheers, there it is. M hm, talk to me.
Speaker 4: It's good. I wish I had some wings. That is good.
Speaker 1: Now you get the true flavor profile without it being
Speaker 1: masked with a meat or vegetables or anything. You gotta
Speaker 1: take it to the head.
Speaker 4: So you just got to take it to the head.
Speaker 4: That's the best way to do.
Speaker 1: So, like whenever I do whenever I do product samplings,
Speaker 1: whenever I have meets in front of executive chefs, a
Speaker 1: lot of times they don't want to taste the product
Speaker 1: when incident can junction with a meat, let's say, for instance,
Speaker 1: or chip. They want to see the actual true flavor
Speaker 1: profile of the product. They want to taste every ingredient
Speaker 1: if you will, and that particular product. So a lot
Speaker 1: of times we don't match it up with some chips
Speaker 1: or or meats until after they get the initial taste
Speaker 1: profiles of the product. So yeah, that's how we do
Speaker 1: it in the food industry. That's how we get down.
Speaker 5: Man.
Speaker 4: I didn't know that either.
Speaker 2: I just figured you did that. I just figured that
Speaker 2: was just like alcohol or lime or something. You just
Speaker 2: take it to the head. Not barbecue.
Speaker 5: SA.
Speaker 1: First time food is over here, man, So what did
Speaker 1: you think about the sweet potato because a lot of
Speaker 1: people listen, this is what I normally get, right when
Speaker 1: you talk about a sweet potato barbecue stuff. We also
Speaker 1: have a sweet potato vinaigrette salad dressing. But my usual
Speaker 1: reaction is from people like sweet potatoes, come on, man, nah,
Speaker 1: or it's man. I love sweet potatoes, right, And so
Speaker 1: normally when somebody says I love.
Speaker 5: It, they're eager to taste it.
Speaker 1: And only when somebody says I don't like it, they're
Speaker 1: so pessimistic about it to the point where they really
Speaker 1: want to taste it just because they see they want
Speaker 1: to see what it really tastes like. And so either way, normally,
Speaker 1: when I present that product, I normally have people because
Speaker 1: you really can't taste the sweet potatoes too.
Speaker 3: That was what I was going to tell you, that
Speaker 3: I really didn't taste the sweet I thought it tastes
Speaker 3: like barbecue.
Speaker 5: Tastes like barbecue sauce.
Speaker 1: But you got all the healthy ingredients and all the
Speaker 1: nutrients not ingredients, but the nutrients and vitems that come
Speaker 1: from a sweet potato is actually in this sweet potato
Speaker 1: barbecue sauce. That's why moms really like it. That's why
Speaker 1: I really like it because I don't have any of
Speaker 1: that junk as far as synthetic ingredients, non gmo, gluten free,
Speaker 1: know how, fruit toast, corn syrup, and then when you
Speaker 1: add that to the flavor profile and the nutritional ingredients,
Speaker 1: you can't go wrong.
Speaker 5: Man.
Speaker 1: The only way you can go wrong is if you
Speaker 1: don't have any skills on the grill. Yes, and that's
Speaker 1: for another conversation. The sweet potato, barbecue sauce and the ribbot.
Speaker 3: So I'll do the ribbis on the side. I do
Speaker 3: chicken wings really well too. I'll break out my green
Speaker 3: egg for you.
Speaker 5: You can't put the barbecue sauce on the ribes, so
Speaker 5: you can't put it on.
Speaker 4: I agree, I would. He just wants he just I
Speaker 4: just don't.
Speaker 5: I need to know.
Speaker 1: How do you prepare to ribes? I know we're getting
Speaker 1: off of course a little bit, but how do you
Speaker 1: prepare the rivites?
Speaker 5: Man? Talk to me.
Speaker 4: I got I got some ingredients.
Speaker 5: It's a secret.
Speaker 2: I'd have been to a lot of restaurants. I didn't
Speaker 2: had a lot of Michelin. And I'm gonna get wrong.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna give me his credit. I'm making my dog's credit.
Speaker 2: He it is the greatest steak I've ever had in
Speaker 2: my life.
Speaker 5: Give me, just give me the highlight, like what is
Speaker 5: makes it?
Speaker 2: Seasoning, the slavery, like each each bite was like damn,
Speaker 2: I taste that. And that morning I woke up, I
Speaker 2: just I just ate.
Speaker 4: This was.
Speaker 2: This is a couple of months ago. This is this
Speaker 2: is from the summertime. You can you can ask everybody
Speaker 2: else on on that. He cooked force and it was.
Speaker 2: He invited us to his cribby cut and he was like, yo,
Speaker 2: you know just what I learned.
Speaker 4: I learned how to do this that and whatever.
Speaker 2: And he's taking his fingers and he's sprinkling the spices
Speaker 2: and he's doing it. You know, got the herbs and
Speaker 2: everything and he's sprinkling everything, doing this, doing his thing.
Speaker 2: And he was likey you know, he cut one up
Speaker 2: and he gave it to all of you know, the
Speaker 2: cruise staff, the fellas. He gave us a piece of
Speaker 2: was like okay, ye that is good, you know whatever.
Speaker 2: And then it all came out and then we ate
Speaker 2: and I was like, yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, this is nice.
Speaker 3: He won't go the next day and just ate by cold,
Speaker 3: just like that, just.
Speaker 4: Off the bone, cave man style. It was it was.
Speaker 2: It was that good. I give my props. I normally
Speaker 2: don't give his props. Hey, he did his thing on
Speaker 2: that he read. Got you dog next time.
Speaker 4: We'll be right back.
Speaker 2: My question for you is you are a successful gentleman, business, football, college, life,
Speaker 2: You've done well Mount Rushmore. Who would be on your
Speaker 2: Mount Rushmore of helping you get to where you've gotten
Speaker 2: in life? And it could be anybody, any group of people.
Speaker 2: Four you get four, I would say my dad, Okay,
Speaker 2: my mother?
Speaker 4: Why Mom's and pops?
Speaker 1: Well, you know my dad and mom they were extremely
Speaker 1: instrumental in my life. And I would just say, honestly,
Speaker 1: when you think about just a community, I grew up
Speaker 1: in a tight knit community, let me say that. And
Speaker 1: so you never become a success by your own merit
Speaker 1: and by your own work, as a number of people
Speaker 1: who help prune you, help developed you, who've disciplined you,
Speaker 1: who've given you directions so as you can reach that
Speaker 1: trajectory in life, that incline in life that they already
Speaker 1: knew that you could reach. And so I had a
Speaker 1: really tight knit community that poured in me how to
Speaker 1: handle myself as a young man. You know, once they
Speaker 1: pushed me off into the world, and my parents were
Speaker 1: number one on that list.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: My dad always taught me to pray like everything depends
Speaker 1: on God, which it does, and to work like everything
Speaker 1: depends on you. But faith without works is that. My
Speaker 1: dad was always instrumental, and hard work pays off side,
Speaker 1: even if you don't have the most talent like somebody else.
Speaker 1: What they say about hard work, it's Trump's talent all day, right,
Speaker 1: And so my dad was very instrumental, teaching me the
Speaker 1: fastest of working my butt off, trusting in the Lord,
Speaker 1: and if you do that, good things normally going to
Speaker 1: come your way. My mother, on the other hand, you know,
Speaker 1: my mother was tough too. Now, she was extremely tough.
Speaker 1: She's the one who told me about values. Always know
Speaker 1: your work, Always know your value because there's always going
Speaker 1: to be someone who doesn't see it. Never let it
Speaker 1: be you. But one of the greatest things she also
Speaker 1: told me is to have some standards, and the standards
Speaker 1: are never to be shifted. She told me that when
Speaker 1: I was a kid. So she said, it doesn't matter
Speaker 1: if you go off to the NFL, it doesn't matter
Speaker 1: if you're an entrepreneur. It doesn't matter how much money
Speaker 1: you make. You need to present yourself from how you dress,
Speaker 1: from how you talk, from how you act, from how
Speaker 1: you do business, from how you do your job. You
Speaker 1: need to handle yourself with some standards at all times.
Speaker 1: And she would finish with this, the standards are not
Speaker 1: to be shifted, Reggie. Even if our society shift their standards,
Speaker 1: yours should never shift because you're called to be a
Speaker 1: catalys a catalyst in this world and your calls to
Speaker 1: make a difference and the only way you're going to
Speaker 1: do that is if you're different. And so they keep
Speaker 1: me to that standard even to this day, check Man.
Speaker 1: I oftentimes would go take my mama out to go,
Speaker 1: you know, get something to eat, and before I enter
Speaker 1: her house, she's looking me up and down to make
Speaker 1: sure I'm dressed right. I mean she's looking at age
Speaker 1: you're wearing that you need to go back home and change.
Speaker 1: She's that type of mother. Everything has to be bam
Speaker 1: bam bam. And she believed that when you present yourself
Speaker 1: the right way, when you carry yourself the right way,
Speaker 1: you influence others to do the same. You know, we
Speaker 1: all love to dunstandard saying right there, that's true, that
Speaker 1: is true. In every fast So I think that you know,
Speaker 1: just like that Walmart merchandise, and when you present good,
Speaker 1: some good's gonna happen. When you sacrifice good, something good's
Speaker 1: gonna happen. When you do the small things right, something
Speaker 1: good's gonna happen. When you extremely detail, good things happen.
Speaker 1: But the thing is, are you willing to do that?
Speaker 1: Just like you guys. I'm extremely proud of you guys.
Speaker 1: A few months back, by a year or so ago,
Speaker 1: I went up flipped to New York and did a
Speaker 1: set with Nate Burlison and Gail King on CBS Deals
Speaker 1: so nice, and had an opportunity to talk with Nate,
Speaker 1: you know, before and then after that set. It was funny,
Speaker 1: man to see how Nate was on set about ten
Speaker 1: to fifteen minutes before you. Nobody else was. Yeah, we
Speaker 1: know the phrase in the NFL right to be on
Speaker 1: time is to be late, but to be but to
Speaker 1: be early, it's to be on time. Still carry that mantra,
Speaker 1: still carried that lifestyle. He was there early, he was
Speaker 1: there afterwards, you know, talking to him, and I'll just
Speaker 1: tell him how proud I am that he didn't let
Speaker 1: anybody put a box around him.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 1: Quite often people tend to put boxes around us, thinking
Speaker 1: that we're only athletes. That's all that, that's all we
Speaker 1: can do. But man, we got so many gifts and talents.
Speaker 1: But we got to nurture them things. Man, we got
Speaker 1: to develop those things, and we got to lean on
Speaker 1: each other to sharpen those gifts and talents and take
Speaker 1: them and use them, use those talents, man, to be
Speaker 1: whatever the Good Lord has called us to be.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so that's two you give me, give me two
Speaker 2: more on your mount Rushmore. You got mom and dad.
Speaker 5: Oh, and I got to put my wife on that too, man.
Speaker 5: Real talk.
Speaker 1: When I first started dating my wife, I didn't know
Speaker 1: we were dating because I wouldn't dating material. To be
Speaker 1: quite honest with you, I had never kept a girlfriend
Speaker 1: for no more than two weeks. Yeah, at the time,
Speaker 1: I was just not that type of guy that wants
Speaker 1: to settled down with one woman and one girl, especially
Speaker 1: in high school.
Speaker 5: And you know how it is.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And so when I was when I was in
Speaker 1: high school, my wife and I we were like best
Speaker 1: of friends. I mean, she was like one of the fellas,
Speaker 1: and she can hang with the fellas. She was very articulate,
Speaker 1: all ab student, and even if the fellas would climb around,
Speaker 1: she could climb right around with us, so she could
Speaker 1: hold her own.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I wasn't used to that coming from girls, you know,
Speaker 1: I was used to that. And so we were cool
Speaker 1: for for quite some time, for maybe a year or so,
Speaker 1: and then you know, the question came up, said, well,
Speaker 1: why don't we, you know, take this to the next level.
Speaker 1: And of course I didn't want to do it because
Speaker 1: I knew if I did it, I was probably gonna
Speaker 1: mess it up like I always do. But I said
Speaker 1: to myself, shucks, well, if I don't data, it's going
Speaker 1: to get awkward. If I do DATA and I messed
Speaker 1: things up, it's still going to be awkward. So I
Speaker 1: just took my chance and started dating. And that's the
Speaker 1: best thing I could have ever done. A great wife.
Speaker 1: She always encouraged me, always supports men, always there for me.
Speaker 1: I couldn't asked for a better partner. And the thing
Speaker 1: I like about is that we're best friends. We're friends
Speaker 1: before we started dating, we're friends before we are a
Speaker 1: married couple, and everything that we do, we do it
Speaker 1: as friends. And that's why when she came to me
Speaker 1: about this food business. She knew well listening, I know
Speaker 1: your man or your were you always when you say
Speaker 1: you're gonna do something, you always stick to it and
Speaker 1: do it.
Speaker 5: And so she.
Speaker 1: Knew by me telling that some years ago when we
Speaker 1: were friends, when we were dating, she knew that I
Speaker 1: would stick to it. So's she's a type of woman
Speaker 1: that's gonna always keep me accountable. She's a type of
Speaker 1: woman regardless if I'm six foot five and she's five
Speaker 1: foot she's still gonna stand her ground and say, hey, no,
Speaker 1: if you say you're gonna do it, do it all right.
Speaker 1: You need to make sure that you're different. No, I
Speaker 1: don't care what anybody says. You need to fight for
Speaker 1: your dreams, Regie. And so whenever you have that type
Speaker 1: of support, it makes it makes it easy to come home,
Speaker 1: It makes.
Speaker 5: It easy to to.
Speaker 1: Be able to confide and my wife. And so she's
Speaker 1: definitely definitely instrumental in my life. And I think the
Speaker 1: fourth one will be the fourth one in my life.
Speaker 1: I have a number of coaches. Man, I would hate
Speaker 1: to leave anybody out. Man, Can I just stay with three?
Speaker 5: Can I do three? I gotta do one.
Speaker 4: That's a standard. That's the standard one more it's a
Speaker 4: good call.
Speaker 1: That's a good call, I would say. The other person
Speaker 1: would be my grandmother, my grandmother. I grew up next
Speaker 1: door to her, and so grandmother used to always take
Speaker 1: me fishing. She used to always spoil me. Even times
Speaker 1: when my dad wanted to whip me. All I had
Speaker 1: to do is run next door to my grandmother and
Speaker 1: hide behind her, and she would tell my dad leave
Speaker 1: me alone, leave me alone. And that was old school
Speaker 1: because those old school grandmother they didn't play, especially about
Speaker 1: their grandkids. And so she would always love on me.
Speaker 1: I would always go to church with us well, she
Speaker 1: would always cook for me, and she was that quiet,
Speaker 1: sweet spirit that I needed in my life life, especially
Speaker 1: when I was a rowdy young teenager. I could always
Speaker 1: lean on my grandmother and laid my head in her lap,
Speaker 1: and she was always there for me. So my grandmother
Speaker 1: caught you passed some years ago, but she was the
Speaker 1: matriarch of our family and everything. She was somewhat the
Speaker 1: center of our family.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and she.
Speaker 1: Left a great legacy behind. And before I passed, she
Speaker 1: had the opportunity to know that I did, you know,
Speaker 1: reached the goal of playing in the NFL and trying
Speaker 1: to be productive. So those for my dad, mom, my wife,
Speaker 1: and of course my granny.
Speaker 3: Oh great, man, that's a great one. Well, Reggie Man,
Speaker 3: we're gonna get you up out of here. Man, dude,
Speaker 3: I appreciate you blessing us with your time of the food.
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm taking the sweet potato barbers. We got
Speaker 3: some brain taking everything. We got some great one liners
Speaker 3: from you, some great nuggets, and even you even brought
Speaker 3: out the best.
Speaker 4: And Peanut Man from the grid Iron to the to.
Speaker 5: The cast down to the cast I like you.
Speaker 3: That like that all right, man, listen, thank all of
Speaker 3: our listeners and viewers out there wherever you listen to
Speaker 3: your podcasts at make sure you give us a review,
Speaker 3: a follow, a couple of comments, write review, do all
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Speaker 4: Whether it's the.
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Speaker 3: That's all that's new for us too. That's all hey man,
Speaker 3: we're advancing, we're growing up the things we all thank you.
Speaker 5: Man.
Speaker 4: Tell a friend to tell a friend to do what
Speaker 4: Peanut tell a friend a man, Get us out of here.
Speaker 2: Hey, Peanut, mister Kelly, that's wrong. NFL Players Taken X podcast.
Speaker 4: We are y'all,