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Speaker 1: Welcome to the NFL Legist podcast. I'm as Williams. I'm

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Speaker 1: hanging out with the small guy that makes me look

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Speaker 1: even smaller. His name is Delvin Tomlinson. All we're doing

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Speaker 1: is talking about building PCs, talking about finance, talking about

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Speaker 1: choosing the University of Alabama instead of Harvard. You might

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Speaker 1: want to listen in. Man, we're just getting into a

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Speaker 1: delve and already feel like a little guy sitting next

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Speaker 1: to you know, talk to us about as a current player, Um,

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Speaker 1: the first thing who chooses between the University Alabama and Harvard.

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Speaker 1: Tell us about that thought problems a nerd. But you

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Speaker 1: know if the qualities of a nerd man we don't

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Speaker 1: see blessed. I guess that's but um, yeah, you know,

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Speaker 1: just growing up, my mom always was focused on books.

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Speaker 1: You know, grades have to be good for me to

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Speaker 1: play sports, and football was almost all was my first sport.

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Speaker 1: But I knew if I didn't have good grades, I

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Speaker 1: couldn't play football. So your mom meant that, she meant,

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Speaker 1: she meant that. Yeah, So it was just like I

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Speaker 1: always wanted to make sure I had good grades, and

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Speaker 1: uh always was super competitive, so I always wanted to

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Speaker 1: be like one of the best players in the football field.

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Speaker 1: So it's just just get carried over. Tell everybody's listening.

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Speaker 1: When you're a great athlete, and obviously you've got to

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Speaker 1: be to be an NFL one percent of high school players,

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Speaker 1: what advantage does the intellectual athlete along with the physical,

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Speaker 1: physically gifted athlete. Half you understand the game. And when

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Speaker 1: you understand the game, it doesn't matter how good you are. Like,

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Speaker 1: if you understand the game, you have the potential to

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Speaker 1: be a lot better than the person who's just gifted.

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Speaker 1: But if you're gifted and you understand the game, you're smart.

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Speaker 1: And you pick up on things like as a defensive linement,

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Speaker 1: you get all different types of blocks and things like that.

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Speaker 1: You could see, okay, this the wild wile the wires

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Speaker 1: off the ball and he's looking down at me. It

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Speaker 1: might be a wham block. I can see things like that.

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Speaker 1: You pick up on the smaller trinkets Over the years

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Speaker 1: and just uh, pretty much football has becomes it's another

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Speaker 1: When you get to college, you learn that football is

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Speaker 1: another class, another class. It's another class. It's like it's

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Speaker 1: a classroom. When you're out there and um, you just

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Speaker 1: start to learn. You just learn and you just you

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Speaker 1: learn stuff, different things from different people. So you're when

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Speaker 1: you get to college in a whole vast pool is

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Speaker 1: just different types of people from different areas. You can

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Speaker 1: learn from everybody because everybody sees suff differently, and um

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Speaker 1: I'll just treated like it was another class for me.

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Speaker 1: De tackle. I say Aaron Donald, You say, uh, David Thomason,

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Speaker 1: But umah, Aaron Donald is He's a freaking nature. I

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Speaker 1: have super a lot of respect for him because he's

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Speaker 1: one of those people. You can't membic his game. You

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Speaker 1: can't know, you can't like, I can't go. It's just

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Speaker 1: like high school kid, if you could be super gifted,

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Speaker 1: but you can't turn on Aaron Donald. Fhim and look,

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Speaker 1: but I'm going the way Aaron Donald does because what

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Speaker 1: Aaron Donald does might not work for you. You have

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Speaker 1: to know yourself. That's the biggest thing to people just

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Speaker 1: want to be like someone else. But at the end

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Speaker 1: of the day, you're you. You have to make a

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Speaker 1: name for yourself and become and everybody has their own identity,

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Speaker 1: so you have to You can take what he does

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Speaker 1: and evolve it into what fits you. So that's a

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Speaker 1: that's the biggest thing McDonald Georgia end up signing with

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Speaker 1: Nick Saban. The Bulldog Nation didn't get you. I grew

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Speaker 1: up a U g A fan and wanted that I

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Speaker 1: had like all the U g A stuff as a kid,

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Speaker 1: a little helmet and everything when I played part but

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Speaker 1: I had I played for Georgia, and I was just like,

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Speaker 1: I'm going to U G I'm gonna be a dog

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Speaker 1: this and that, and they're just like, I don't know,

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Speaker 1: I just it didn't feel right for me. It just

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Speaker 1: didn't feel right I had. I just didn't share that

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Speaker 1: for those young athletes that may hear this podcast, because

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Speaker 1: one didn't feel right. Um, just like when I went there,

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Speaker 1: it was they showed me the school like they even

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Speaker 1: showed me like they showed me the academic athletics side,

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Speaker 1: just like the lockers, the football field, this and that.

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Speaker 1: And you know already told you I was a big

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Speaker 1: academic first. And I always just dreamed that I wanted

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Speaker 1: to be a U g A as a kid, and

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Speaker 1: I was like, I'm going there, I'm going there. But

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Speaker 1: when I went to the campus, it's just I didn't

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Speaker 1: get that feeling like I didn't feel at home. You know,

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Speaker 1: everybody wants to go to the big school just to

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Speaker 1: say I went to a big school. But h I

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Speaker 1: went to Alabama. Coach Saban already knew I want to

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Speaker 1: do something in business. So the first time I went

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Speaker 1: to Alabama didn't even go to the football facility. I

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Speaker 1: didn't even go to the football field and see Brian

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Speaker 1: didn't the stadium, Like I was on a golf car

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Speaker 1: going to the business school, meeting with teachers and talking

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Speaker 1: to him about the business program. So when did when

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Speaker 1: did the coach Saban find out that that's that was

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Speaker 1: your more to operand that that was when coach a

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Speaker 1: Smart came to my high school and just talked to

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Speaker 1: me for the first time. I was like, you know, Georgia,

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Speaker 1: he recruited me, and um, already I told him, like,

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Speaker 1: academics is big for me. And I was either thinking

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Speaker 1: about engineering a business, but I love that and Alabama

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Speaker 1: had a great business school, so I was like, if

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Speaker 1: I come there, I want to meet with the business teachers.

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Speaker 1: I was just messing around and see if they actually

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Speaker 1: do it. And when I went down to no football stuff,

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Speaker 1: probably like three hours just talking about the academic side

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Speaker 1: of the school. So I felt like when I just

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Speaker 1: going there. I just felt like, Okay, they're serious about

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Speaker 1: their student athletes. So it was when they put that

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Speaker 1: student in from the athlete, just like it's supposed to

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Speaker 1: be because one day you have to hang up your cleats,

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Speaker 1: and I just felt I got that much more respect

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Speaker 1: from him. You always hear about the five star, you

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Speaker 1: always always win, but you don't always hear what you

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Speaker 1: just shared that academic that culture is also excellent, sound

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Speaker 1: like give you an opportunity as relates to academically as well.

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Speaker 1: Most definitely can you talk about that. I'm just being

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Speaker 1: there at Alabama. I remember you have position meetings with

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Speaker 1: your just your position coach one on one and he'd

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Speaker 1: be like you, so, what's what's what's this grade? So

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Speaker 1: one on one position coach asking you about asking you

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Speaker 1: about your grades, and we had like a little point system.

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Speaker 1: You get too many points like too many lates to

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Speaker 1: class or you missed the class us or uh, you're

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Speaker 1: just not doing good like in the class like uh

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Speaker 1: might just get a text and but or you have

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Speaker 1: a meeting and knowing what coach saving, that's when you

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Speaker 1: get scared if you had have you ever had one

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Speaker 1: of those meetings had one because I had too many

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Speaker 1: points I think at one time. Okay, so you you

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Speaker 1: walk in, what happened and um, he just pretty much

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Speaker 1: sits you down, But like, so what's going on? Like, uh,

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Speaker 1: just talking? He started talking about your classes while you

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Speaker 1: got points. Uh, because you get your points down by

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Speaker 1: making like a's on quizzes or tests. So if you

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Speaker 1: get like a hundred on the test or something or

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Speaker 1: a nineties something, they take points down if your point system,

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Speaker 1: and um, he's just say so I wish your game

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Speaker 1: planning to get these points off. He has sit down

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Speaker 1: and talk to you about different classes of classes you're

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Speaker 1: struggling with and make sure they set up extra tutoring

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Speaker 1: for you and stuff like that. So it's like, just

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Speaker 1: never excuse not to graduate. Especially I know that Alabama,

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Speaker 1: like coach saving pride himself on like having a lot

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Speaker 1: of student athletes graduate. So pretty much almost everybody that

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Speaker 1: comes through that get a degree and feel like if

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Speaker 1: somebody leaves early, they always come back and get it.

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Speaker 1: So pretty much, again, you came there to get a

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Speaker 1: degree and then play football, so at the end of

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Speaker 1: the day, you have to get their degree at some point.

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Speaker 1: So a guy that plays for Nick Saban, coach say,

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Speaker 1: but I want to make sure I put respect on

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Speaker 1: it for a young man that's played for Nick Saban,

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Speaker 1: tell us through your eyes as a player, Why is

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Speaker 1: this program then consistently with competitive excellence? Because everybody that

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Speaker 1: comes in you knows that the process works. It's all

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Speaker 1: like he always says, all about the process. It's not

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Speaker 1: gonna happen overnight. You don't win national championships at the

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Speaker 1: national Championship game. You win those in the spring around

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Speaker 1: was doing an indoor in February. So it's just, um,

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Speaker 1: it's the process. Everybody comes in. Make sure like the

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Speaker 1: older guys, make sure that the younger guys know that

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Speaker 1: you can't just do what you want. We have a

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Speaker 1: way of doing things around here, and you have to

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Speaker 1: do it this way or you can't be here like this,

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Speaker 1: point blank. Yeah. Just everybody who comes in buys in you.

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Speaker 1: When you buy in as a group, a collective group,

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Speaker 1: it's hard to be beat because you're ground together. You

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Speaker 1: have blood, sweat and tears on the field together, you

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Speaker 1: go through injuries together, you come back and work out

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Speaker 1: together and after practice and things like that, and you

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Speaker 1: keep going through that process day after day after day

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Speaker 1: with each other. The games get easy. The practice is

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Speaker 1: a hard part. So Saturday, that's what I like to say, right,

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Speaker 1: I like saying in case of college football, all Saturday

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Speaker 1: game is more people watching what you do every day. Right.

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Speaker 1: And then sometimes you guys, yeah and Alabama, if you

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Speaker 1: play good at the first half, you you get the

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Speaker 1: second half off and you get the rest of your legs. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: game days half of off day. So that's how you

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Speaker 1: gotta say it when you go there, because when you know,

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Speaker 1: when we put those paths onto that practice field, we're

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Speaker 1: working no matter what. There's no off day or no

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Speaker 1: easy day. It's it's a work day. So you many

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Speaker 1: tell me when y'all went into some of these games,

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Speaker 1: y'all had unspoken incentive that we're gonna play so good

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Speaker 1: in the first half that we're gonna take it off.

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Speaker 1: We'll have all for the second half. Man, And simply

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Speaker 1: because we had cent of one year. And the thing

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Speaker 1: is when the twos and threes get in, they have

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Speaker 1: to play just like us. He doesn't want any drop.

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Speaker 1: And I remember one year we was up like fifties

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Speaker 1: something to like three, and the twos and threes went there.

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Speaker 1: So Okay, we're gonna still over here and just relax.

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Speaker 1: I think like half a quarter went by then that

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Speaker 1: they allowed because we had the team on the twenty

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Speaker 1: yards Russian and then they went in and broke like

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Speaker 1: a forty or five yard run, and coach Saban's like

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Speaker 1: yelling at everybody and pretty much made the ones get

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Speaker 1: back in. Hey, we're all like stiff and cold and man,

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Speaker 1: we just gonna turn out. And then we were like,

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Speaker 1: we can't even think like that anymore, because when you

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Speaker 1: start thinking like we're gonna play a half and we're done,

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Speaker 1: that's when you don't get trained for four whole quarters.

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Speaker 1: And we learned that the hard way. And then yeah,

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Speaker 1: we just started saying that no matter how many players

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Speaker 1: it takes who we're gonna get the job done. So

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Speaker 1: you major in finance. I have a degree in the county.

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Speaker 1: So we have yeah here right, so you have finance,

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Speaker 1: and then you built a PC? What what we're talking about?

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Speaker 1: What are you doing? Um? Like I told you I was,

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Speaker 1: I'm a nerd. Um yeah, um always. I'm a big

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Speaker 1: video game and I love video games. Been there since

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Speaker 1: I was a kid. My mom used to beat me

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Speaker 1: in two kid more to combat on. My mom picked

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Speaker 1: me in the video games when I was young, and

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Speaker 1: she used to like building me in the video games.

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Speaker 1: That's a big video gamer now. Bet in Quarantine last year,

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Speaker 1: I was like, I always talked about want to build

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Speaker 1: a PC. I want to build a PC. And then

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Speaker 1: I was just like, this is the perfect time to

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Speaker 1: build a game in PC. I just got all the

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Speaker 1: parts and then one night I just stayed up and

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Speaker 1: taught myself all the parts and put it together. And yourself, yeah,

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Speaker 1: seven hours later, one night and one night quarantine doing Quarantine,

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Speaker 1: you were productive pretty much. I took a loan seven hours,

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Speaker 1: I tell you. Yeah, when I was a kid, she

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Speaker 1: didn't planned that. See the just video game and then

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Speaker 1: the video games also like a good stretch relief before

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Speaker 1: me I used to be stretched outing in class in

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Speaker 1: school and football. Just go play some video games and

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Speaker 1: then just reset. Already, Colin Marie, I think just one

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Speaker 1: I think he wanted. Uh. I think it was the Madden.

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Speaker 1: Would you beat him? I'm not a mad guy. You're

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Speaker 1: not mad. I don't like Madden simply because, like as

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Speaker 1: as I said, before you learn the game, I might

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Speaker 1: call a play on mad and the person does the

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Speaker 1: complete Obviously, I'm like, that's not what I call realistically

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Speaker 1: that that's not going to happen. And then you know

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Speaker 1: people on the game and be like, I don't know

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Speaker 1: if that person is going to do that. So it's

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Speaker 1: just like different things about Madden. Uh Like if when

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Speaker 1: you see Day comes back, I'm definitely found that enough

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Speaker 1: for you to play Mad now with challenge your integrity? Yes,

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Speaker 1: all right, so you've you've you've designed a PC. Al right,

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Speaker 1: put that check, you finance, put that check, defensive tack,

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Speaker 1: put that check. So how would you identify yourself? How

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Speaker 1: do you see yourself? You see yourself as an artist,

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Speaker 1: a gamer, finance guy, deef as a cackle, all of it. Um, Like,

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Speaker 1: my I remember my high school coaches to always call

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Speaker 1: me to the renaissance man. Yeah, just whever you pit

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Speaker 1: his mind till you can end up doing it. So

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Speaker 1: I just feel like if I'm interested interested in something,

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Speaker 1: I just pursue it and get it done as fast

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Speaker 1: as possible. So how does seeing yourself like this a

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Speaker 1: renaissance man? Does that help? Would you say that helps

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Speaker 1: you be successful? Knowing it's not just football? What would

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Speaker 1: you say when you have a better understanding of life

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Speaker 1: off the field. It helps you on the field, yes,

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Speaker 1: because it helps you not take any reps for granted.

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Speaker 1: Like you know, when you're playing ball, you know you're

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Speaker 1: just playing ball. You have you live in your life

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Speaker 1: that um when you know that, like say tomorrow maybe

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Speaker 1: be my last player I could play it. I'm not

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Speaker 1: gonna take this place for granted. I'm going to cherish

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Speaker 1: every single player I get on the field. And I

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Speaker 1: just feel like that's how you have to be in

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Speaker 1: the NFL, because like it's not for long for a reason,

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Speaker 1: and a lot of cases where people don't see a

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Speaker 1: lot of people say how I'm retiring this and that

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Speaker 1: a lot of people don't get to say when they're retiring,

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Speaker 1: somebody else is telling you when you're going to retire.

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Speaker 1: So if somebody were to tell me I had to

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Speaker 1: retire tomorrow, I want to be I want to say

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Speaker 1: I don't regret what I did on the field. I

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Speaker 1: left it out on the field when I could leave

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Speaker 1: it on the field. When did you gather that mindset

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Speaker 1: like this? Every player I know guys say it, but

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Speaker 1: it's a whole another thing to actually feel that, like

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Speaker 1: this could be my last place. When did that happen

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Speaker 1: to me? I would have to say college in Alabama

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Speaker 1: because I end up tearing my A c L, my

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Speaker 1: second a c L in college. Second I told the

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Speaker 1: first one coming into Alabama, and then I told my

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Speaker 1: second one, like after my second year of Alabama, just

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Speaker 1: after I got back on the field. It was just

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Speaker 1: like I enjoyed playing football with my with my boys

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Speaker 1: and stuff. So I just like, you know, I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: enjoy every rep I get out here with him, because

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Speaker 1: like the NFL wasn't guaranteed, like very few people make it,

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Speaker 1: so that wasn't even the main focus. I want to

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Speaker 1: just as long as I enjoyed myself out there, I

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Speaker 1: felt like I was gonna make it because I know

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna put everything into it. So as long as

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Speaker 1: that's interest. As long as you enjoyed yourself, when did

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Speaker 1: you start enjoying it when you realize it could go fast? Um?

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Speaker 1: I always enjoyed, enjoyed it. But it's just I feel

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Speaker 1: like it was just on a whole different level. I

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Speaker 1: thought I came up those A c L injuries. You

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Speaker 1: know when you're hurt and you watching football and you're

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Speaker 1: like I was supposed to be out there, that like

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Speaker 1: it makes you want to work so much harder. And

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Speaker 1: then I know, I realized all the work I was

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Speaker 1: pinning into it, and like in the all season and

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Speaker 1: things like they get back on the field. I was like,

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Speaker 1: you know what, I'm gonna enjoy every single rap up

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Speaker 1: out here because I never know. I never know when

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Speaker 1: I'm not gonna be out here again, or I've felt

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Speaker 1: when I wasn't able to be out here, So I

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Speaker 1: don't want to feel that feeling to be like, oh

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Speaker 1: I could have did more, I could have did this,

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Speaker 1: not to get hurt things like that. So I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: enjoy every single set that here. No regret, no regret,

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Speaker 1: no regret. By the way, that's one of the reasons

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Speaker 1: I am so glad I gave it everything I had

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Speaker 1: because now at fifty three, you look back, there's no

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Speaker 1: regrets exactly. That's what I hear you doing. That's outstanding, Delva.

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Speaker 1: As we close it out here here, a few oddities.

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Speaker 1: What's your favorite New York oddity? What tell me about

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Speaker 1: New York? What's what's it like being that you're from

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Speaker 1: Mike Donald. It was a shock when I first got

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Speaker 1: up there, because I know when I was The first

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Speaker 1: day was shocking, was the first shock that cold, how

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Speaker 1: cold it was cold it was in the wind like

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Speaker 1: it was like it'll be cold some days and be like, okay,

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Speaker 1: it's cold, and then it's twenty miles wind and the

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Speaker 1: wind just goes like. I had a hoodie on because

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Speaker 1: I ain't to buy a big coat yard, so I

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Speaker 1: had a hoodie and the wind just cut straight through

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Speaker 1: my hoodie and the wind. I was just like, okay,

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Speaker 1: I can't do this. I don't know how I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: make it. I'm gonna die here. I'm gonna freeze. That

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Speaker 1: you've you've you've killed the fallacy that the Big Man

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Speaker 1: loves cold weather. That's do like cold weather. But the

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Speaker 1: thing is when the wind gets to blows a whole

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Speaker 1: different beat stuff there. But I feel like I got

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Speaker 1: used to it because I remember my rookie year. It

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Speaker 1: was going into the week seventeen last week and I

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Speaker 1: think it was like ten to eight degrees or something

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Speaker 1: like that, and I remember snacks and JPP he was like, uh,

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Speaker 1: I was like, we're wearing sleeves or what because you

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Speaker 1: know you got a vestans And as they turned to

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Speaker 1: Olivia Vernon was like, what we're doing, ov, And he

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Speaker 1: was like, now we're gonna finish the year like we started.

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Speaker 1: Then we started a year it was like eighty seven

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Speaker 1: eighty degrees outside, so they were like, no sleeves, and

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Speaker 1: I'm sitting there like, oh man, it's gonna be a

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Speaker 1: long night. And then we couldn't wear sleeves at night,

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Speaker 1: and I felt like I matured a lot as a

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Speaker 1: young man out there in the cold and past. Like

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Speaker 1: now when this cold out saw in the game, I

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Speaker 1: don't wear any sleeves. I'm used to it now. But

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Speaker 1: when I first got in my rookie year, we eight

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Speaker 1: was the coldest game I ever played in, and then

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Speaker 1: every week after that was the coldest game I ever

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Speaker 1: played in. It. So here's a question, are you where

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Speaker 1: are you living in Jersey? Are you're in New York, Jersey?

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Speaker 1: You're in Jersey? Got you, Delvin? This has been amazing, man,

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Speaker 1: Thank you, And great job with the work that you

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Speaker 1: guys are doing. Man, it's always great when I talked

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Speaker 1: to current players and have that mindset. I grew up

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Speaker 1: in New Orleans with two older brothers, my dad's first

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Speaker 1: college graduate. On both sides of the family. So I

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Speaker 1: started playing football my junior year at Southern walked on.

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Speaker 1: So football was never our focus, like kind of like

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Speaker 1: my mom talked to you, and if you're gonna play ball,

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Speaker 1: you gotta get the grades. And that's what my dad

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Speaker 1: mom did for us. So it's just great to hear

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Speaker 1: these young legends information. So thank you for being with us.

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Speaker 1: Man problem, Thank you. This has been the NFL Legends podcast.

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Speaker 1: To provide feedback or request the topic for discussion, email

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Speaker 1: us at NFL Legends at NFL dot com. Eight