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Speaker 1: It's interesting that men try to tell women what to do,

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Speaker 1: and men have not burked any of the creatures. Every

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Speaker 1: man came from a woman. Yet the man a woman

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Speaker 1: what to do. But I think about the resilient internal

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Speaker 1: nature of the women's makeup. You think about all the

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Speaker 1: sacrifices and things that they're doing for you and have

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Speaker 1: done for you. At the same time, they're navigating their

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Speaker 1: own internal disappointments, shortcomings, heartache and pains that they've had

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Speaker 1: to go through and dear while holding up a family,

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Speaker 1: a loved one, a spouse, a child.

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Speaker 2: We saw that in our moms and my grandma.

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Speaker 1: I think there's no metal of achievement that you can

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Speaker 1: really place in a higher honor that and haven't seen that.

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Speaker 3: Welcome to an army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney.

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Speaker 3: I'm a normal guy. I'm a husband, I'm a father,

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Speaker 3: I'm an entrepreneur, and I've been a football cut and

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Speaker 3: Inner City Memphis and the last part somehow well, it

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Speaker 3: led to an oscar for the film about one of

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Speaker 3: my teams.

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Speaker 4: That movie is called Undefeated. Guys. I believe our country's.

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Speaker 3: Problems will never be solved by a bunch of fancy

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Speaker 3: people and nice suits talking big words that nobody ever

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Speaker 3: uses on Cinon in Fox, but rather by an army

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Speaker 3: of normal folks. That's us, just you and me deciding, Hey,

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Speaker 3: you know what, maybe I can help. And today we

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Speaker 3: have another edition of our special series Supporting Greatness, where

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Speaker 3: we interview not so normal folks like micro and Medal

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Speaker 3: of Honor recipients, but instead of blowing smoke up their

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Speaker 3: dairyers together, we celebrate their own army of normal folks

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Speaker 3: that supported them and shaped their life. This time it's

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Speaker 3: with New Orleans Saints linebacker de Mario Davis, who spent

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Speaker 3: fourteen years in the NFL as one of its most

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Speaker 3: respected leaders both on and off the field. He's been

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Speaker 3: selected for the Pro Bowl twice, is a longtime team captain,

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Speaker 3: and has been named his team's nominee for the Walter

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Speaker 3: Peyton NFL Man of the Year Award three different times.

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Speaker 3: I just can't wait for you to meet this guy

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Speaker 3: tomorrow is the truth, and we'll introduce them to you

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Speaker 3: right after these brief messages from our generous sponsors. So,

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Speaker 3: your mom was a single mom and delivered you when

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Speaker 3: she was only sixteen years old, and she made the

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Speaker 3: heroic decision to have you, and your grandma made the

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Speaker 3: heroic decision to raise you while your mom finished school,

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Speaker 3: and neither of them got to have the normal mother

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Speaker 3: or grandmother relationship with you, did they.

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Speaker 1: So imagine this grandmother that has two different dynamics, like

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Speaker 1: she's having to be the enforcer on one hand, but

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Speaker 1: then she's teaching us everything about life and growing us

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Speaker 1: in our faith. I mean, she would have us downstairs

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Speaker 1: reading the Bible. But the impact that it had on

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Speaker 1: me was I saw her in such a light, you know,

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Speaker 1: for me, she was like an angel. But seeing her

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Speaker 1: in such a high regard and then the way that

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Speaker 1: she looked at me changed everything. She called me John,

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Speaker 1: so she gave me a different name. She never called

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Speaker 1: me to Mario. She called me John, and she called

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Speaker 1: me John. It was so impressible that everybody in the

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Speaker 1: neighborhood called me John. And she would always say, John,

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Speaker 1: you're special. Like when I will get in trouble, she

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Speaker 1: would say, John, you can't do that, You're special. And

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Speaker 1: she would always remind me if I did something great

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Speaker 1: and I show her, she was like, John, I told

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Speaker 1: you you were special. And those were her just stuck

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Speaker 1: to me, and it made me realize that my life

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Speaker 1: was set apart, that no matter what was going on

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Speaker 1: in my environment, that I was set apart for something different,

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Speaker 1: that I was made for something higher. Those words marked me,

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Speaker 1: and it really marked our connection. It was I know

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Speaker 1: I'm special. Maybe it's because you told me that, or

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Speaker 1: maybe because I sensed it myself, but I know that

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Speaker 1: you see me. And that endeared me to her greatly

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Speaker 1: and probably shifted how I looked at her. I mean,

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Speaker 1: for me, in terms of people, she's in an edge

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Speaker 1: line that it would take a whole lot of work

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Speaker 1: for someone else to kind of get into how I

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Speaker 1: viewed her and how I looked at her, And so

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Speaker 1: she really marked my life, I mean. And then as

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Speaker 1: a kid, I lived with my grandmother until I was

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Speaker 1: in the third grade. So you would, you know, think

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Speaker 1: about a kid kind of getting out of bed and

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Speaker 1: going to her room as a place of confidence safety,

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Speaker 1: and I would always see her in her room and

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Speaker 1: she'd be either reading her Bible on her knees praying,

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Speaker 1: and so I had a very vivid picture of what

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Speaker 1: faith look like.

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Speaker 2: At an early age. And you know, she marked me.

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Speaker 1: And then there was a transition period where I went

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Speaker 1: to live with my mother. That took some getting used

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Speaker 1: to because my mother operated very different than my grandmother.

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Speaker 1: In fact, me and my mom kind of butted his

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Speaker 1: a lot when I first moved in with her, and

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Speaker 1: I would actually go to my grandmother, and my grandmother

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Speaker 1: would kind of kind of pull us to our corners

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Speaker 1: and talk to my mom about how to raise me

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Speaker 1: and talk to me like, you know, you got to

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Speaker 1: work with your mom in this situation, and you have

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Speaker 1: to look out for her.

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Speaker 2: Now, my mom had me at an early age.

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Speaker 1: She was sixteen, so she was still finished high school,

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Speaker 1: and then she went off to finish college. And so

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Speaker 1: when she came back to get me, you have to

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Speaker 1: think that she's just trying to figure out her own

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Speaker 1: life on top of raising, you know, a young boy.

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Speaker 2: On her own.

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Speaker 1: She was just a kid too. Yeah, yeah, so she's

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Speaker 1: figuring it out. And so I like to think that

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Speaker 1: we kind of grew up together. And I think that

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Speaker 1: I began to admire about my mom was as I

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Speaker 1: got older, was the amount of sacrifices that she was

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Speaker 1: making in her own life to make sure that I

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Speaker 1: had everything that I needed. And she was always working

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Speaker 1: two to three jobs and always making sure that I

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Speaker 1: was in a good setup, whether I was staying at

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Speaker 1: the house with the neighbors or you know, going and

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Speaker 1: staying with my cousins. She was doing all that she

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Speaker 1: could to make all the ends meet so that I,

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Speaker 1: you know, never went without a meal, I never went

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Speaker 1: without shelter over my head, I never went without.

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Speaker 2: Clothes for school. I never had a lack of anything.

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Speaker 1: It was because she was She had set her life

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Speaker 1: to decide to make sure that I had everything that

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Speaker 1: I need, and I think that endeared me to her,

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Speaker 1: and that became so I kind of had this one

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Speaker 1: motivation for my grandmother, which was kind of like an

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Speaker 1: engine and motivating factor of like, man, I gotta go

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Speaker 1: do something big in life, or I'm supposed to do

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Speaker 1: something big in life. That's why Gorid created me. I'm special,

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Speaker 1: I'm set apart. And then it became this thing of man,

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Speaker 1: I've seen my mother make all these sacrifices and do these,

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Speaker 1: you know, put her life down so that I can

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Speaker 1: have what I need. And that kind of became a

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Speaker 1: motivational force of you know, as I built out my

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Speaker 1: dreams and what I wanted to do in.

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Speaker 2: Life, man, I want to do this for her.

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Speaker 1: I want to be able to take care of her

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Speaker 1: and make sure that she's set up and doesn't have

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Speaker 1: to struggle like this for us for the rest of

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Speaker 1: her life. And so that became a motivational factor. And

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Speaker 1: so those two people became the most endeared people to

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Speaker 1: me in the world, and I think that set me

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Speaker 1: on a trajectory towards where I'm ultimately at today.

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Speaker 3: My dad left on when I was young, and my

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Speaker 3: mom was married and divorced five times, And despite all

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Speaker 3: of the chaos that surrounded that and the trouble I

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Speaker 3: got myself into as a result of that, I always

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Speaker 3: watch my mom work every day, A cook dinner, I

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Speaker 3: played five different sports constantly, somehow trying to balance work

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Speaker 3: and getting me to school and get me fed and

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Speaker 3: get me in clothes and get me to practices and

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Speaker 3: picked up and everything. And so when I hear you

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Speaker 3: talk about your grandmother mother, I you know, I really

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Speaker 3: identify with that. I get it, and I mean I

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Speaker 3: hold her on a pedestal because I know how hard

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Speaker 3: she worked that despite everything surrounding her life that was chaotic,

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Speaker 3: she made sure I was good. And it sounds like

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Speaker 3: those ladies were the same for.

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Speaker 1: You, absolutely, man, I connect with what you're sharing and

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Speaker 1: identify with that. You know, just the strong positions and

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Speaker 1: natures of the women that I played parts in our lives.

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Speaker 2: You know.

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Speaker 1: I heard somebody say it's interesting that men try to

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Speaker 1: tell women what to do, and men have birthed any

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Speaker 1: of the creatures.

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Speaker 2: Every man came from a woman. Yet the man a

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Speaker 2: woman what to do.

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Speaker 1: But I think about the resilient internal nature of the

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Speaker 1: women's makeup because you think about all the sacrifices and

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Speaker 1: things that they're doing for you and have done for you.

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Speaker 1: At the same time, they're navigating their own internal disappointments,

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Speaker 1: you know, shortcomings, heartache and pains that they've had to

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Speaker 1: go through and deer while holding up a family, a

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Speaker 1: loved one, a spouse, a child. And you think about

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Speaker 1: that dynamic and you think about what we admire a

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Speaker 1: lot of times in men, especially like in sports, with

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Speaker 1: their internal makeup, their internal fortitude of how much they

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Speaker 1: can withstand and keep going and come out heroes on

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Speaker 1: the other side, where you just think about the roles

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Speaker 1: that ladies have to play in life. And I know,

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Speaker 1: you know, we saw that in our moms and my

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Speaker 1: grandma as well. So I think there's no metal of

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Speaker 1: achievement that you can really place in a higher honor

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Speaker 1: than having seen that and allowing that to shape you

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Speaker 1: and how you live and show up in society.

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Speaker 4: No doubt.

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Speaker 3: So first, folks along the way, grandmother and mom. We're

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Speaker 3: gonna get to a second question about that in a second.

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Speaker 3: But for our listeners, you grew up around Jackson, right, Jackson, Mississippi.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Brandon, Mississippi, you know, right outside of Jackson, right.

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Speaker 3: So the most important question I have for the entire

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Speaker 3: interview is did Old mis recruit you?

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Speaker 2: Man?

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Speaker 4: Because I don't I don't know. You didn't go to

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Speaker 4: Ole Miss right?

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Speaker 1: What?

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Speaker 2: What? What happened? Why?

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Speaker 3: You're supposed to be an old miss rubble guy and

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Speaker 3: you can see my hats, you know while I'm asking.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Interestingly enough, I didn't get recruited by Missisispi State

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Speaker 1: or Old Miss heavily. I think they inquire about me,

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Speaker 1: but ultimately the only one that pursued me heavy was

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Speaker 1: Southern miss.

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Speaker 3: And now a few messages from our general sponsors. But first,

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Speaker 3: we've launched our first six local service clubs around the

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Speaker 3: country at a time when only thirty three percent of

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Speaker 3: Americans are contributing in their community at the level that

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Speaker 3: they want to. The mission of these clubs is to

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Speaker 3: make more service easier for everyone. The first sex are

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Speaker 3: in my hometown Memphis, Alex's hometown Oxford, Wichita, Atlanta, the

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Speaker 3: Milwaukee area and it's called Ozak County, and North Duchess County,

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Speaker 3: which is New York. If you live in one of

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Speaker 3: these areas, visit the service club section of our site

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Speaker 3: normal folks dot us and get plugged in. And if

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Speaker 3: you don't live there and you a service club in

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Speaker 3: your area, email Alex.

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Speaker 4: Because these are the first six. These are the pilots,

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Speaker 4: but we're going to be.

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Speaker 3: Doing them more like other Army members that are launching

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Speaker 3: clubs in their communities later this year, including San Antonio, Lincoln, Nebraska, Huntsville, Alabama,

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Speaker 3: Lincoln County, Ohio, Lorraine County, Ohio. If you happen to

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Speaker 3: live in one of these following areas and are interested,

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Speaker 3: email Alex at Army at normal folks dot us and

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Speaker 3: he'll get you connected to them.

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Speaker 4: This is going to be fun.

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Speaker 3: We'll be right back.

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Speaker 2: I kind of got on a lot of people's radar

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Speaker 2: very late. Now this is there. I'm growing up, is

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Speaker 2: like really before you know, all.

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Speaker 1: These camps are having and all these different things, and

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Speaker 1: you know, I didn't have access to a lot of

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Speaker 1: those things. And I do think that they were sending

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Speaker 1: invites to camps and stuff, but they were sending it

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Speaker 1: to my coaches, and it never it never made it

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Speaker 1: into my hands. But I kind of got into I

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Speaker 1: kind of got in my own way in high school.

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Speaker 1: You know, my sophomore season, I was the only sophomore

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Speaker 1: on the team that started and was underclassmen to watch

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Speaker 1: and had a really big year let our team in

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Speaker 1: receiving yards and return yards, and would have been my

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Speaker 1: junior year to kind of take off and kind of

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Speaker 1: be the man in between that my spring year of

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Speaker 1: my sophomore year, I ended up getting expelled from school,

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Speaker 1: and I was fortunate that my coach end up letting

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Speaker 1: me back on the team. But I think what I

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Speaker 1: did was kind of create hesitation around my coaches and

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Speaker 1: wanting to promote me as a top player on the

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Speaker 1: team or a leader that other guys would follow, being

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Speaker 1: that I had such a shaky past, and I think

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Speaker 1: that kind of got in my way so I moved

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Speaker 1: away from being a guy that they really featured, though

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Speaker 1: really talented. I was used much less in an offensive role,

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Speaker 1: and then my senior year I ended up going to defense.

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Speaker 1: And I don't think I had created enough buzz going

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Speaker 1: into my senior year.

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Speaker 2: To really be able to be followed.

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Speaker 1: And I think, you know, they got on my recruiting

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Speaker 1: trail late, and it was just other missing Arkansas State.

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Speaker 3: Kind of a tongue in cheek thing because anybody's played

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Speaker 3: ten years in the league I know could have helped

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Speaker 3: Old Miss and I'm a big old Miss fan Old

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Speaker 3: Miss Grid. But it really is a segue to what

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Speaker 3: you just shared with us about getting expelled, And the

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Speaker 3: question is given how much your mother and grandmother meant

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Speaker 3: to you and the sacrifices you saw and their tutelage.

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Speaker 3: You kind of broke their heart in high school a

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Speaker 3: little bit, which you know, we're not here to beat

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Speaker 3: anybody up, but it's germane to where you are now

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Speaker 3: and what you're doing now for people to understand that

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Speaker 3: just because you grew up getting drugg to the church

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Speaker 3: and your grandmother doing everything she could, your mother doing

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Speaker 3: everything she could, the path that led you to where

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Speaker 3: you are right now was not an easy one, and

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Speaker 3: some of it was self inflicted, and that happened I

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Speaker 3: think in high school and at Arkansas State, where you

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Speaker 3: ultimately went. So would you share with us kind of

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Speaker 3: how you bounced around between letting your mother's and your

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Speaker 3: grandmother's love of you per make your soul verse the streets.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I think it became a real quest for identity of self.

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Speaker 1: And I think it's so important when you start to

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Speaker 1: create dreams that you don't just think about what you

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Speaker 1: want to become, you think about who you want to become.

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Speaker 1: Because I remember in the fourth grade when I first

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Speaker 1: kind of created a north star, my uncle asked me

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Speaker 1: what did I want to do in life? And I

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Speaker 1: was like, I want to go to the NFL. And

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Speaker 1: so that became my north star. It wasn't to be

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Speaker 1: this great person. It was just go to the NFL.

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Speaker 1: I feel like, if I get to the NFL and

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Speaker 1: I'm an NFL athlete, like that's everything that I want

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Speaker 1: to do in it. And though I knew what it

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Speaker 1: meant to be a good person and I knew who

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Speaker 1: God was, I never really had connected into a relationship

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Speaker 1: with that and so as I got older, I remember

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Speaker 1: the summer going into my ninth grade year, I'm hanging

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Speaker 1: with my older cousins, and you know, they're doing all

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Speaker 1: the things. They're you know, smoking weed, they're you know, drinking,

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Speaker 1: they're going to parties, going to clubs, chasing girls.

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Speaker 2: And so for me being a young man with.

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Speaker 1: Or born away to becoming a young man, you know,

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Speaker 1: living with just my mom and no other male figures

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Speaker 1: to give me directions, all my older cousins were the

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Speaker 1: male figures that I looked to. They were above me.

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Speaker 1: They were that next step. It's like, okay, well what's

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Speaker 1: the next step in society. They are it, and they

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Speaker 1: all played play sports, and they're going in the direction

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Speaker 1: I feel like.

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Speaker 2: I want to go.

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Speaker 1: And all my cousins were extremely talented. So they were

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Speaker 1: really good football players, and so I'm like, okay, well,

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Speaker 1: whatever they do, I need to do. And so that

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Speaker 1: next step became all those extracurricular things. They didn't show

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Speaker 1: me that it was the extra work that you put in.

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Speaker 1: They showed me this is what we do when we're

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Speaker 1: not playing football, you know, we're hanging out. And so

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Speaker 1: that's what I started to do. And I started to

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Speaker 1: model it. And my mindset has always been whatever I'm doing,

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna be the best at it.

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Speaker 4: So.

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Speaker 1: Which can go negative and positive positive, And so it's like,

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Speaker 1: if we drinking, I'm gonna drink the most to show

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Speaker 1: I got the highest tolerance. If we if we're chasing girls,

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Speaker 1: get the most girls. It's like, whatever we're doing, it's

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Speaker 1: a competition, and I'm gonna be the best at it.

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Speaker 1: And that's I think where I started to realize, like, man,

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Speaker 1: if you have influence, that influence can be used negatively

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Speaker 1: or positive. And I think my coaches recognized that. I

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Speaker 1: think my coaches saw that he has a lot of

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Speaker 1: influence and if we make him or promote him be

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Speaker 1: a leader of the team, it's gonna derail uh where

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Speaker 1: we're trying to go. And so I think that broke there.

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Speaker 1: That broke my mom and grandmother's heart. It was as

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Speaker 1: my grandmother kind of started to get sick, and you know,

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Speaker 1: I'm just my mom.

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Speaker 2: I can see my mom still.

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Speaker 1: Have you rememberance of like my mom getting getting sicker,

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Speaker 1: She's getting gray hairs all of a sudden, She's coughing

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Speaker 1: all the time.

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Speaker 2: And I think I was just worrying her sick.

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Speaker 1: You know, even before I got expelled from school, I

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Speaker 1: had dropped drugs around her.

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Speaker 2: She had drug testing me.

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Speaker 1: I lied to her and failed the drug test, and

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Speaker 1: it was just like what am I good? I think

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Speaker 1: she was trying her best to hold on to me,

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Speaker 1: but she's like and probably afraid, like I'm going to

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Speaker 1: lose my son to these streets, and it was it

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Speaker 1: was happening, and it was nothing that she could do.

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Speaker 1: I think it's very hard for a mom to raise

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Speaker 1: the sun on her own, especially when her son is

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Speaker 1: seeing male role models who are exact opposite of everything

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Speaker 1: that she's trying to teach. And so literally I'm taking

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Speaker 1: her through the ringer. I think she's saying stuff, all

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Speaker 1: the right things and trying to reaffirm me and who.

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Speaker 2: I am, and like why are you doing these things?

356
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Speaker 2: You are so much better than these things.

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Speaker 1: She always had a very positive spin on everything that

358
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Speaker 1: she told, but I feel like it was kind of

359
00:19:29,160 --> 00:19:31,840
Speaker 1: going in one air and out the other. Later I

360
00:19:31,920 --> 00:19:33,800
Speaker 1: realized that she was really planting a lot of seas

361
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Speaker 1: down deep, but it just wasn't resonating. It wasn't resonating

362
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Speaker 1: with my reality. And so you know, my grades started

363
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Speaker 1: to slip, and it really it really wasn't until once

364
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Speaker 1: I got expelled from school my sophomore year. I continued

365
00:19:47,960 --> 00:19:52,720
Speaker 1: on one moment during that summer going into my junior year,

366
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Speaker 1: I was out and we were breaking in some abandoned

367
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Speaker 1: houses and I kind of cut my arm and I

368
00:19:59,280 --> 00:20:02,080
Speaker 1: ended up in the house hospital, and I remember going

369
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Speaker 1: and wake my mom up, and she just kind of

370
00:20:03,680 --> 00:20:05,520
Speaker 1: looked like, I couldn't sleep. I knew you were doing

371
00:20:05,520 --> 00:20:07,440
Speaker 1: something you didn't have no business. So that's the kind

372
00:20:07,480 --> 00:20:10,320
Speaker 1: of mindset that she was under at that time. So

373
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Speaker 1: we go to the hospital and they're stitching me up

374
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Speaker 1: and the doctor just tells me, he's like, son, you

375
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Speaker 1: are so lucky, and it's not even connecting with me.

376
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Speaker 1: My life is moving so fast at the time, and

377
00:20:23,359 --> 00:20:25,520
Speaker 1: he was, and I was just I didn't even respond

378
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Speaker 1: to him. But at the same time that he said that,

379
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Speaker 1: God started talking to me. For the first time, I

380
00:20:29,480 --> 00:20:34,200
Speaker 1: heard God's audible voice. I don't have a concept of

381
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Speaker 1: All I've heard is people talk about hearing from God.

382
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Speaker 1: I never heard from God. I always wondered, like, what

383
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Speaker 1: are people talking about God talking? Like, what does it

384
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Speaker 1: sound like? It was the first time I heard an

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Speaker 1: audible voice from God, and I didn't have a real

386
00:20:45,440 --> 00:20:47,600
Speaker 1: relationship with him at the time, but it was like

387
00:20:47,640 --> 00:20:51,439
Speaker 1: that strike too. And you know, I'm kind of a

388
00:20:51,480 --> 00:20:54,439
Speaker 1: smart alec or you know, I always feel justified to

389
00:20:54,800 --> 00:20:56,640
Speaker 1: put my opinion on my saying. So I'm like, well,

390
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Speaker 1: what was strike one? And he was like, strike one

391
00:20:59,080 --> 00:21:02,280
Speaker 1: was you getting expelled from school? Strike two was you

392
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Speaker 1: almost lost your life? And I'm like, what, I almost

393
00:21:06,240 --> 00:21:08,080
Speaker 1: lost my life? What do you mean? And literally I

394
00:21:08,119 --> 00:21:12,639
Speaker 1: looked down and I realized that the market is on

395
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Speaker 1: my forearm, on the inside of my forearm, and literally

396
00:21:15,280 --> 00:21:18,080
Speaker 1: six inches down from that is what my wrist is

397
00:21:18,080 --> 00:21:20,359
Speaker 1: and the depth that it cut. If it would have

398
00:21:20,440 --> 00:21:23,040
Speaker 1: been down six inches, I would have lost my life.

399
00:21:23,600 --> 00:21:26,760
Speaker 1: And that's what the doctor was referring to that I

400
00:21:26,800 --> 00:21:30,360
Speaker 1: was so lucky, and that hit me like a ton

401
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Speaker 1: of bricks, because it was almost as if God was

402
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Speaker 1: saying strike three.

403
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Speaker 2: You're either going to be dead or in jail for

404
00:21:36,240 --> 00:21:36,879
Speaker 2: a long time.

405
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Speaker 1: And that moment changed the trajectory of my life from

406
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Speaker 1: a high school standpoint or up to that point, because

407
00:21:45,680 --> 00:21:49,400
Speaker 1: it literally scared me straight. So from that point on,

408
00:21:49,640 --> 00:21:52,240
Speaker 1: I didn't get in any trouble. I stopped all of

409
00:21:52,280 --> 00:21:54,320
Speaker 1: hanging out that my cousins had graduated, so I was

410
00:21:54,359 --> 00:21:58,359
Speaker 1: in school solo. But it cleared my head up. I

411
00:21:58,400 --> 00:22:01,280
Speaker 1: stopped the smoking. I literally went back to being an

412
00:22:01,280 --> 00:22:03,639
Speaker 1: A and B student, you know. Literally, I would go

413
00:22:03,640 --> 00:22:06,320
Speaker 1: to practice and go home. And that's when I started

414
00:22:06,840 --> 00:22:08,760
Speaker 1: to train after practice, because I didn't have any other

415
00:22:08,800 --> 00:22:09,560
Speaker 1: thing to do is either.

416
00:22:09,560 --> 00:22:12,240
Speaker 2: I went to football practice, I did extra workouts, and

417
00:22:12,280 --> 00:22:13,000
Speaker 2: then I went home.

418
00:22:13,760 --> 00:22:17,679
Speaker 1: And I think that was the birth of when I

419
00:22:17,720 --> 00:22:21,120
Speaker 1: started to do all the extra work that it would

420
00:22:21,200 --> 00:22:25,040
Speaker 1: take to be where I'm at today. And I ended

421
00:22:25,119 --> 00:22:27,480
Speaker 1: up getting a scholarship and going to Arkansas State, and

422
00:22:27,560 --> 00:22:32,200
Speaker 1: that literally was the beginning of the transformation.

423
00:22:36,359 --> 00:22:54,639
Speaker 4: We will be right back and your mom drops you

424
00:22:54,720 --> 00:22:55,760
Speaker 4: off at Darksas State.

425
00:22:56,240 --> 00:23:00,480
Speaker 3: But it feels like even though you did straighten up

426
00:23:00,560 --> 00:23:03,520
Speaker 3: that last year and a half, she still had a

427
00:23:03,600 --> 00:23:09,720
Speaker 3: sense of concern when she dropped you off. And we

428
00:23:09,800 --> 00:23:13,640
Speaker 3: are only are at strike too. So was her concern founded?

429
00:23:13,680 --> 00:23:15,600
Speaker 3: And how'd that all go?

430
00:23:17,000 --> 00:23:18,760
Speaker 2: I think she was rightfully concerned.

431
00:23:22,000 --> 00:23:27,440
Speaker 1: I had just been under the biggest amount of behavior modification.

432
00:23:27,680 --> 00:23:29,880
Speaker 1: I didn't realize it at the time. But there really

433
00:23:30,000 --> 00:23:33,440
Speaker 1: was no heart transformation. I just was scared straight. And

434
00:23:33,520 --> 00:23:36,720
Speaker 1: I think when you're behavior doing behavior modifications, only amount

435
00:23:36,760 --> 00:23:38,600
Speaker 1: of time before the real come back out.

436
00:23:39,160 --> 00:23:43,360
Speaker 2: And I found that out. So what switch was? I mean?

437
00:23:44,040 --> 00:23:46,160
Speaker 1: When I was at the high school, everything was comfortable

438
00:23:46,160 --> 00:23:48,399
Speaker 1: at this point, Like I was having success on the field,

439
00:23:48,440 --> 00:23:50,960
Speaker 1: I had me a girlfriend, I was back making good grades.

440
00:23:50,960 --> 00:23:53,560
Speaker 1: I kind of had everything under control. Well when I

441
00:23:53,600 --> 00:23:57,920
Speaker 1: got to college, it's like starting all over. I'm fourth

442
00:23:58,000 --> 00:24:01,239
Speaker 1: string on the depth chart. No one knows me, I

443
00:24:01,280 --> 00:24:05,840
Speaker 1: have no one around me. I don't have that respecting

444
00:24:05,880 --> 00:24:07,879
Speaker 1: clout that I had achieved in high school.

445
00:24:08,400 --> 00:24:09,879
Speaker 2: And so it's like a small fish.

446
00:24:09,920 --> 00:24:12,800
Speaker 1: It's like a small fish in a big pond all

447
00:24:12,800 --> 00:24:15,080
Speaker 1: of a sudden, and it's like, okay, well I have

448
00:24:15,240 --> 00:24:21,080
Speaker 1: to kind of re announce myself or reintroduce myself, and.

449
00:24:22,560 --> 00:24:24,640
Speaker 2: You know, I don't only know one way to kind

450
00:24:24,640 --> 00:24:25,280
Speaker 2: of do that.

451
00:24:25,600 --> 00:24:28,919
Speaker 1: And the way that I did that was kind of

452
00:24:28,960 --> 00:24:31,479
Speaker 1: proving that I was tough, proving that I could get girls,

453
00:24:31,480 --> 00:24:33,400
Speaker 1: proven that I had a hot tolerance when it came

454
00:24:33,440 --> 00:24:37,400
Speaker 1: to drugs and alcohol, kind of proving to be this

455
00:24:37,400 --> 00:24:42,200
Speaker 1: this macho tough guy, proved yeah, yeah, it was that,

456
00:24:42,280 --> 00:24:43,520
Speaker 1: and so it was like, Okay, well I got to

457
00:24:43,640 --> 00:24:47,880
Speaker 1: prove myself all over again, and I fell back into

458
00:24:48,000 --> 00:24:52,359
Speaker 1: a lot of those same patterns, and I kind of

459
00:24:52,359 --> 00:24:55,160
Speaker 1: fell into it kind of quickly, back in the drugs,

460
00:24:55,240 --> 00:24:57,400
Speaker 1: back in the party and back in the chasing girls,

461
00:24:57,760 --> 00:25:01,920
Speaker 1: all those different things and where school wasn't as important,

462
00:25:02,560 --> 00:25:05,399
Speaker 1: and it was it was really trying to prove it

463
00:25:05,440 --> 00:25:08,159
Speaker 1: to those guys in the locker room, because it's mind you,

464
00:25:08,200 --> 00:25:10,399
Speaker 1: my north star is just going to the NFL, and

465
00:25:10,440 --> 00:25:11,800
Speaker 1: so it's like, okay, well I got to gain the

466
00:25:11,880 --> 00:25:13,360
Speaker 1: respect of these guys in the locker room.

467
00:25:13,400 --> 00:25:15,439
Speaker 2: These are the people who I'm trying to prove myself to.

468
00:25:16,200 --> 00:25:22,159
Speaker 1: And as I'm going about that, you know what what

469
00:25:22,200 --> 00:25:24,679
Speaker 1: could have been seeing as tragedy strikes at the end

470
00:25:24,720 --> 00:25:28,680
Speaker 1: of my freshman year. I read shirted my first year,

471
00:25:28,680 --> 00:25:31,560
Speaker 1: and then that summer we're on campus and and and

472
00:25:31,560 --> 00:25:35,040
Speaker 1: and me and one of my teammates, uh going and

473
00:25:35,440 --> 00:25:40,800
Speaker 1: they're stealing groceries out of Walmart, and it was something

474
00:25:40,840 --> 00:25:43,160
Speaker 1: that you know, other players on the team was doing

475
00:25:44,240 --> 00:25:46,240
Speaker 1: and kind of had. It was when self checkout had

476
00:25:46,440 --> 00:25:48,919
Speaker 1: just came on, and we thought it was a pretty

477
00:25:48,920 --> 00:25:51,040
Speaker 1: good little trick to go in and you know, get

478
00:25:51,080 --> 00:25:54,199
Speaker 1: one hundred dollars worth of groceries and only pay for

479
00:25:54,240 --> 00:25:57,199
Speaker 1: twenty dollars, and you know, kind of go back to

480
00:25:57,200 --> 00:25:59,160
Speaker 1: that same mindset, the way that I was wired. Whatever

481
00:25:59,200 --> 00:26:02,120
Speaker 1: I'm doing, I'm gonna be the best at And it's like, Okay,

482
00:26:02,480 --> 00:26:03,760
Speaker 1: you guys have figured out a scheme.

483
00:26:03,800 --> 00:26:05,199
Speaker 2: I'm gonna show you how to master it.

484
00:26:06,040 --> 00:26:10,600
Speaker 1: And as that happened, me and one of my teammates

485
00:26:10,640 --> 00:26:14,760
Speaker 1: got busted and literally the police pulled us over as

486
00:26:14,800 --> 00:26:19,800
Speaker 1: we were pulling back into our college dorms, and it

487
00:26:19,880 --> 00:26:23,600
Speaker 1: looked like a big drug bust, and they have us

488
00:26:23,600 --> 00:26:26,720
Speaker 1: in handcuffs and sitting on the sidewalk and literally they're

489
00:26:26,760 --> 00:26:29,440
Speaker 1: taking all of the grocery bags out of the car

490
00:26:29,880 --> 00:26:31,400
Speaker 1: and putting them in the back of the police car.

491
00:26:32,359 --> 00:26:37,919
Speaker 2: And it was very embarrassing.

492
00:26:38,920 --> 00:26:41,439
Speaker 1: But I as I look back, I just think about

493
00:26:41,480 --> 00:26:45,359
Speaker 1: like the disconnect that was there, you know, as the

494
00:26:45,400 --> 00:26:48,760
Speaker 1: police pulled us over and he's like or Or stopped

495
00:26:48,800 --> 00:26:53,520
Speaker 1: us and was like, you guys stole those groceries. You're

496
00:26:53,840 --> 00:26:57,040
Speaker 1: you're about to get arrested. My mindset is like, wait,

497
00:26:57,119 --> 00:26:58,640
Speaker 1: we'll just take the groceries back.

498
00:27:02,880 --> 00:27:07,840
Speaker 2: Like it don't work like that, sir, And uh yeah,

499
00:27:07,960 --> 00:27:10,720
Speaker 2: so we had to go we had to go to court.

500
00:27:11,040 --> 00:27:15,840
Speaker 1: And uh, I mean just again the disassociation and disconnect

501
00:27:15,840 --> 00:27:17,320
Speaker 1: me and my me and my teammate are just kind

502
00:27:17,359 --> 00:27:20,080
Speaker 1: of sitting there laughing, like what if we get time?

503
00:27:20,200 --> 00:27:22,000
Speaker 1: Like what if they really lock us up? Not thinking

504
00:27:22,040 --> 00:27:23,840
Speaker 1: that they would. We're thinking, you know, this is low

505
00:27:23,920 --> 00:27:26,720
Speaker 1: level of fence. They're gonna give us community service, and

506
00:27:27,560 --> 00:27:29,800
Speaker 1: you know, they lock us in jail, they give us

507
00:27:29,800 --> 00:27:32,400
Speaker 1: they sentenced us to three days in jail and kind

508
00:27:32,400 --> 00:27:35,120
Speaker 1: of go through this whole list of you know, penalties,

509
00:27:35,240 --> 00:27:38,800
Speaker 1: you know, uh you know the payment kind of the

510
00:27:38,800 --> 00:27:42,000
Speaker 1: pay for release is gonna be the length of the probation.

511
00:27:42,400 --> 00:27:44,240
Speaker 1: And the only thing that stuck with me was three

512
00:27:44,320 --> 00:27:46,760
Speaker 1: days in jail. And I'm like wait, you know, kind

513
00:27:46,760 --> 00:27:48,400
Speaker 1: of the court room, my heart sank, and my mom

514
00:27:48,480 --> 00:27:52,000
Speaker 1: is in there of course crying because and there was

515
00:27:52,040 --> 00:27:54,560
Speaker 1: like this big gap between me and her in the courtroom.

516
00:27:54,680 --> 00:27:56,320
Speaker 1: It was just like it was it was. It was

517
00:27:56,359 --> 00:27:58,439
Speaker 1: an insurmountable gap. There was nothing that she could do,

518
00:27:58,600 --> 00:28:01,879
Speaker 1: like I'm going into the system. Probably her worst fear,

519
00:28:02,119 --> 00:28:04,720
Speaker 1: one of my worst fears, and it's like, man, this

520
00:28:04,800 --> 00:28:11,080
Speaker 1: is happening, and you know, everything just kind of all

521
00:28:11,119 --> 00:28:13,119
Speaker 1: the air kind of came out of the balloon. You know,

522
00:28:13,200 --> 00:28:17,240
Speaker 1: it's just like, man, what in the world is happening?

523
00:28:17,320 --> 00:28:20,520
Speaker 2: What what have you know? I've done?

524
00:28:20,920 --> 00:28:24,359
Speaker 1: And I'll kind of come back to this, But now

525
00:28:24,400 --> 00:28:26,840
Speaker 1: I know all these things about the criminal justice system.

526
00:28:27,359 --> 00:28:30,639
Speaker 1: Had I not been in a college football player like

527
00:28:30,720 --> 00:28:32,480
Speaker 1: that could have caused me to get lost in the

528
00:28:32,520 --> 00:28:36,720
Speaker 1: system and my life be completely different. Right, People go

529
00:28:36,760 --> 00:28:40,120
Speaker 1: to jail and literally will be waiting six seven months

530
00:28:40,640 --> 00:28:43,719
Speaker 1: for their for their trial, like they haven't even been

531
00:28:43,720 --> 00:28:46,000
Speaker 1: found guilty yet. They just kind of get lost in

532
00:28:46,040 --> 00:28:48,080
Speaker 1: the system six seven months. What that could do to

533
00:28:48,120 --> 00:28:51,440
Speaker 1: you psychologically if you were able to survive. But even

534
00:28:51,520 --> 00:28:53,000
Speaker 1: after you come out of that, if you found not

535
00:28:53,120 --> 00:28:55,560
Speaker 1: guilty and they release you, you've been in jail for

536
00:28:55,600 --> 00:28:58,360
Speaker 1: six seven months, what that could do to you psychologically

537
00:28:59,400 --> 00:29:01,640
Speaker 1: change trubjectory of your life. If I had to miss,

538
00:29:02,040 --> 00:29:04,200
Speaker 1: you know, six seven months and wouln't even play football,

539
00:29:04,200 --> 00:29:05,840
Speaker 1: would have chance rejected in my life. So now I

540
00:29:05,920 --> 00:29:08,720
Speaker 1: just understand the grace of God so much more, how

541
00:29:08,800 --> 00:29:13,160
Speaker 1: much I was sparing for but my team essentially bailed me.

542
00:29:13,200 --> 00:29:13,320
Speaker 3: Out.

543
00:29:13,360 --> 00:29:15,680
Speaker 1: I didn't have to stay right away. I was able

544
00:29:15,680 --> 00:29:17,080
Speaker 1: to get my sentence and I was able to do

545
00:29:17,160 --> 00:29:22,080
Speaker 1: my time. But while I was in there, God visited

546
00:29:22,080 --> 00:29:25,560
Speaker 1: me again. Remind you there was no real relationship with God.

547
00:29:25,720 --> 00:29:29,479
Speaker 1: So since that last, you know, scared straight moment, I

548
00:29:29,480 --> 00:29:31,600
Speaker 1: haven't heard from God or really talk to God. I

549
00:29:31,680 --> 00:29:33,800
Speaker 1: just was I would go to Bible study and do

550
00:29:33,840 --> 00:29:35,600
Speaker 1: all the things I thought were right, but it was real.

551
00:29:35,680 --> 00:29:37,040
Speaker 2: No, no, no real connection.

552
00:29:37,520 --> 00:29:39,920
Speaker 1: And so God visited me again, and you know, I'm

553
00:29:39,920 --> 00:29:43,200
Speaker 1: sitting there and scared for my life all these different things.

554
00:29:43,200 --> 00:29:46,720
Speaker 1: You're in a room with fifty beds. It's cold, the

555
00:29:46,760 --> 00:29:49,240
Speaker 1: blanket don't don't fit, the bed is hard. You got

556
00:29:49,240 --> 00:29:51,320
Speaker 1: this little bitty pillow that has no fluff in it,

557
00:29:52,480 --> 00:29:57,320
Speaker 1: your your your barefoot, and you know you kind of.

558
00:29:57,280 --> 00:29:59,960
Speaker 2: In this place where that filled the magic.

559
00:30:00,160 --> 00:30:03,479
Speaker 1: Fifty people, only seven showers, the showers out in the open,

560
00:30:04,280 --> 00:30:06,400
Speaker 1: and they bring you three meals a day, and they

561
00:30:06,400 --> 00:30:08,640
Speaker 1: want to let you outside for one hour. That was

562
00:30:08,680 --> 00:30:12,320
Speaker 1: what I was confined in and never had been around

563
00:30:12,360 --> 00:30:14,920
Speaker 1: anything like that, or you know, knew what to do

564
00:30:15,000 --> 00:30:19,520
Speaker 1: in that situation, and you're just thinking you could be bait,

565
00:30:19,760 --> 00:30:20,840
Speaker 1: you know, I'm a college student.

566
00:30:20,880 --> 00:30:21,840
Speaker 2: He's grown men in here.

567
00:30:22,040 --> 00:30:25,880
Speaker 1: So I'm sitting there and I'm just kind of trying

568
00:30:25,880 --> 00:30:28,760
Speaker 1: to go through different scenarios of survival in my mind.

569
00:30:28,800 --> 00:30:31,360
Speaker 2: If something was to take place and God visited.

570
00:30:31,040 --> 00:30:33,600
Speaker 1: Me again, I think on you know, after I've been

571
00:30:33,600 --> 00:30:38,520
Speaker 1: in there about twenty four hours, and he reminds me.

572
00:30:38,560 --> 00:30:41,440
Speaker 1: He was like, you remember our conversation. I told you

573
00:30:41,480 --> 00:30:44,480
Speaker 1: the next time that you got in trouble, you would

574
00:30:44,520 --> 00:30:47,720
Speaker 1: be in jail or dead. And go back to my

575
00:30:47,840 --> 00:30:52,480
Speaker 1: smartlan response, it was like, well, God, you said I'd

576
00:30:52,480 --> 00:30:56,000
Speaker 1: be in jail for a long time. And that was

577
00:30:56,040 --> 00:30:58,400
Speaker 1: the first time I really heard the term grace, and

578
00:30:58,440 --> 00:30:59,840
Speaker 1: he said, that's my grace.

579
00:31:00,480 --> 00:31:01,360
Speaker 2: And I know it was him.

580
00:31:01,360 --> 00:31:02,600
Speaker 1: I know it was the Holy Spirit because I don't

581
00:31:02,600 --> 00:31:06,600
Speaker 1: have a concept of what grace was, which is this

582
00:31:07,400 --> 00:31:10,720
Speaker 1: unmerited favor of God giving us what we don't deserve.

583
00:31:10,800 --> 00:31:14,200
Speaker 2: And he gave me. He gave me a shorter sentence, and.

584
00:31:15,880 --> 00:31:18,160
Speaker 1: I kind of came out of that that that was

585
00:31:18,200 --> 00:31:21,240
Speaker 1: wrestling geting my spirit, and so I started to have

586
00:31:21,320 --> 00:31:24,920
Speaker 1: these questions to really understand what was God's grace and

587
00:31:25,160 --> 00:31:28,880
Speaker 1: really having this understanding of and I have this goal

588
00:31:29,120 --> 00:31:30,720
Speaker 1: of where I want to get in life, which is

589
00:31:30,760 --> 00:31:33,920
Speaker 1: the NFL. But every time I take, you know, a

590
00:31:33,960 --> 00:31:36,680
Speaker 1: step forward, it's like three steps back. And this is

591
00:31:36,720 --> 00:31:38,800
Speaker 1: the first time where I'm starting to realize that it's

592
00:31:38,880 --> 00:31:41,720
Speaker 1: me taking the steps back. I'm not blaming like I

593
00:31:41,760 --> 00:31:44,880
Speaker 1: did in high school, my coach or you know, trying

594
00:31:44,920 --> 00:31:48,400
Speaker 1: to blame you know, somebody else for my shortcomings.

595
00:31:48,480 --> 00:31:50,080
Speaker 2: Just the first time I'm really looking at me.

596
00:31:51,000 --> 00:31:53,880
Speaker 1: And then I think that's what made way for my

597
00:31:54,000 --> 00:31:57,000
Speaker 1: chaplain to be situated where he was with where I

598
00:31:57,160 --> 00:32:01,080
Speaker 1: was in life, that that created space or the transformation

599
00:32:01,120 --> 00:32:02,000
Speaker 1: of oh we happened.

600
00:32:03,440 --> 00:32:10,920
Speaker 3: It's interesting that the sentence of three days on two levels.

601
00:32:11,080 --> 00:32:13,400
Speaker 3: One it's enough to scare the hell out of you,

602
00:32:13,640 --> 00:32:16,480
Speaker 3: but it's not long enough to ruin your life, So

603
00:32:16,760 --> 00:32:20,040
Speaker 3: that feels about right. The other thing that's interesting about

604
00:32:20,080 --> 00:32:23,920
Speaker 3: three days is I just think about the story of

605
00:32:23,920 --> 00:32:29,160
Speaker 3: the Crucifixion and the importance of those three days. Come on, man,

606
00:32:34,200 --> 00:32:37,080
Speaker 3: And that concludes part one of our conversation with the

607
00:32:37,120 --> 00:32:40,840
Speaker 3: Mario Davis. Trust me, don't miss part two. It's now

608
00:32:40,880 --> 00:32:45,000
Speaker 3: available to listen to. Together. Guys, we can change this country,

609
00:32:45,360 --> 00:32:46,400
Speaker 3: but it starts with you.

610
00:32:46,840 --> 00:32:47,760
Speaker 4: I'll see in Part two,