Speaker 1: Welcome to the NFL Players Podcast. I'm as Williams. I'm
Speaker 1: joined today by Stephon Marvis. I'm excited because can you
Speaker 1: say signa with me? Not only the resources that are
Speaker 1: available to legends and current players Drew Signer, but also
Speaker 1: the story of the disappointed expectations, guiney, counseling, coming into manhood.
Speaker 1: All of those things have covered with Stefan's story. Let's
Speaker 1: listen in Well, I just want to tell you step
Speaker 1: On that you've made me feel a lot more wiser
Speaker 1: when you told me that your dad came to these
Speaker 1: Southern University on a recruiting trip and I hosted him
Speaker 1: while playing the Southern man. I feel like I have
Speaker 1: to I'm not older, I'm wiser. How about that, he
Speaker 1: said him in this story at least twice a year.
Speaker 1: So when I told him that you was gonna be
Speaker 1: hosting the podcast, like, he was just so overjoyed. Tell
Speaker 1: them telling the story, telling a story that that I
Speaker 1: met him, any hosted me, see if you remember, So
Speaker 1: take me through your interfol experience from leaving Penn State
Speaker 1: and the recent that you had uh International Football League. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so absolutely prod and Penn State talked to of course
Speaker 1: a good amount of teams that led to the waiting
Speaker 1: period of being drafted or not drafted, talking to actually
Speaker 1: three teams including New England doing a draft that I
Speaker 1: thought I was gonna be picked up at me and
Speaker 1: round picks. Well later that didn't come about. Uh. Spoke
Speaker 1: with of course my agent and trying to identify was
Speaker 1: the best possible place where I can make the team
Speaker 1: with that being New Wingland and him knowing Bill having
Speaker 1: a good relationship with Mr belichat UH, we end up
Speaker 1: deciding to go to New England. So, I want to
Speaker 1: say maybe three four days later, I ended up flying
Speaker 1: out to to Foxborough. We had rookie minicamp, did pretty well.
Speaker 1: Next thing, you know was regular mini camp and O
Speaker 1: t A. So I got to learn behind the key
Speaker 1: to leave at the time Rosalie Darling Uh, that was
Speaker 1: in my dB room as well as Devin reporting cool.
Speaker 1: Absolutely just love and try to pick his brain every
Speaker 1: every day being around Tom graded even though a short
Speaker 1: period of time. What what did you see? What are
Speaker 1: some trades you saw the Tom that you know goes
Speaker 1: into why he's had such a career that he's had.
Speaker 1: Tom is a pro in all aspects, the way he trained,
Speaker 1: the way he prepares like Tom is just a pro.
Speaker 1: I saw that first hand. I remember my first time
Speaker 1: coming to New England, like he was, as I mentioned
Speaker 1: already in the Wait for But he was just he
Speaker 1: was just prepared. He's prepared, and he's he can adapt
Speaker 1: to Belichick likes to change things on the fly and practice.
Speaker 1: So we could be in team meetings talk about how
Speaker 1: we going, you know, stop this or how are we
Speaker 1: going to disguise this concept and three minutes say that
Speaker 1: we get the team practice and maybe Thomas killing us boom,
Speaker 1: Let's try a different way. But Tom is able to
Speaker 1: adapt and prepare for anything. So I was very confident
Speaker 1: going into training camp. I already knew what to expect.
Speaker 1: I was sort of adapting to the Patreon way and
Speaker 1: end up having a really good early party. Camp messed
Speaker 1: up my hands in the first time I got healthy.
Speaker 1: My very first game, it was against the Giants. It
Speaker 1: was a play Outland did maybe two million times covering
Speaker 1: the point punishing ship. I gotta cut back under the
Speaker 1: devil team told my hamster, and I just knew it's
Speaker 1: weird because I knew it was over for me. Like
Speaker 1: I knew. It was a picture that my dad sent
Speaker 1: me three weeks ago. He sent me physic three weeks ago,
Speaker 1: and it was on NFL network and he just took
Speaker 1: a picture of that play and me on the sideline
Speaker 1: when they showed it. But you can just see it
Speaker 1: in my face that I knew like that was my
Speaker 1: last plan. So I still I still kept hoping. Of
Speaker 1: course I had to get healthy. That's sick some time
Speaker 1: that played apart mentally and physically. I just couldn't never
Speaker 1: get over the physical barrow. I think it was more
Speaker 1: so just it was mental. Did you know I go
Speaker 1: an attempt to play in the cfilm When did you
Speaker 1: decided to call in your career? Yep. So I originally
Speaker 1: didn't want to go to the CFL. I fought my
Speaker 1: agent on this. I still find my agent on this.
Speaker 1: Every time we talked. We got a good relationship. I
Speaker 1: just thought that I was an NFL player. So coming
Speaker 1: from the NFL and ben in you know, NFL locker
Speaker 1: room and performing in practice, you know that you should
Speaker 1: be there. I just felt like the CFL was was
Speaker 1: kind of beneath me. So my preparation going to the
Speaker 1: NFL wasn't the same as my preparation going to the CFL.
Speaker 1: I knew it was over because I asked him to
Speaker 1: release me. I just don't want to pay foot. I
Speaker 1: didn't want want them be in a CFIL and that
Speaker 1: was just a part of I wasn't the man yet.
Speaker 1: I felt entitled. Going from D one, a big time
Speaker 1: D one school, to New England to the CFL, I
Speaker 1: caught entitled, so I asked them to release me. How
Speaker 1: did you come to terms with the fact that your
Speaker 1: NFL experience was not going to meet your own expectations.
Speaker 1: It took me a while, so growing up, you know
Speaker 1: that was my way out of football. Ass As you
Speaker 1: may playing this game from six years old, you have dreams.
Speaker 1: As for Rachels, my favorite player at that point of
Speaker 1: time was Emma Smith. I wanted to have a career
Speaker 1: like Emma Smith, but I also watch guys like you
Speaker 1: and he is both Wishon's broad and Broad and Charles
Speaker 1: Wudson Dion of course, so I wanted to emulate my
Speaker 1: game after you guys, and also achieved the amount of
Speaker 1: success that you guys have put in as well. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Little did I know that you know that thirteen year
Speaker 1: career that I dreamed of, and me being financial stable
Speaker 1: and being able to provide and do everything I didn't
Speaker 1: dreamed of at the early age that it would end
Speaker 1: in six months, So me coming to terms with it,
Speaker 1: I didn't come to terms until I became a man.
Speaker 1: Even though I was already twenty three years old during
Speaker 1: that time my career, I still wasn't a man yet.
Speaker 1: I was still I still identified myself as a football player,
Speaker 1: step the football player. I wasn't stuff on, but I didn't.
Speaker 1: I didn't come to terms until I seek help, until
Speaker 1: I went through, you know, the obstacles of being a
Speaker 1: dark zone and danger zone. So it it took me
Speaker 1: almost three years after me being released, three years after
Speaker 1: my first NFL game, to come to terms with the
Speaker 1: fact that hey, this is this is real, like this
Speaker 1: is this is what it is. So it took some time.
Speaker 1: Now you said something, you said when you became a man?
Speaker 1: What what do you mean? So when you for me,
Speaker 1: I thought I knew everything. Not that I couldn't be
Speaker 1: coach or or taught, that's not the case at all,
Speaker 1: but having the literally the world on your shoulders, trying
Speaker 1: to make it for everyone else, trying to be able
Speaker 1: in a position to financially, um being a position to
Speaker 1: financially make everyone else happy, make sure they don't have
Speaker 1: to work. It was a lot mentally, and of course
Speaker 1: that mental aspect played a part of my my physical
Speaker 1: traits of me being injured. So what I mean by
Speaker 1: being a man is I was depressed. I went through
Speaker 1: suicidal thoughts. I was depressed for almost almost two years.
Speaker 1: I went through suicidal thoughts for six months, and every
Speaker 1: day during those six months I thought about a different
Speaker 1: way of trying to kill myself. Right, So doing them
Speaker 1: doing those six months to thought process is who's gonna
Speaker 1: temp my frienal? These are things that's coming to my head?
Speaker 1: Who's gonna be at my criner room? Are they gonna
Speaker 1: miss me? Am I going to have a big funeral?
Speaker 1: Like just those type of thoughts, deep thoughts. So month
Speaker 1: I was able to say it again, were you alone
Speaker 1: than anybody? Did you ever want? I wasn't alone. I
Speaker 1: was alone. When I wasn't alone, I didn't see to help.
Speaker 1: I had help. I have my dad, who that's my everything.
Speaker 1: He doesn't raised me since I was the infant, So
Speaker 1: I had help, but I didn't know how to seek it.
Speaker 1: So At that point in time, mental health wasn't I
Speaker 1: wouldn't say it wasn't as big. A lot of people
Speaker 1: didn't come out about it like the guys do now
Speaker 1: in the Kevin Loves of the world. It wasn't being
Speaker 1: spoken about. So my dad, actually he's the He's one
Speaker 1: of the reasons for me seeking help. He's one of
Speaker 1: the reasons. Yeah. So I remember we had this program
Speaker 1: with the NFL Players Engagement. This is right after maybe
Speaker 1: six months after I got released from the wind Man
Speaker 1: and we're going on this trip, right we're head of
Speaker 1: the Claytland. I remember this day. So I'm not so
Speaker 1: what I said or what I did, but my dad
Speaker 1: was with me and he said, you're okay, like you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, schedule a counselor. At that point
Speaker 1: of time, I'm like, I'm good, Like I'm fine. I
Speaker 1: don't need it. I don't need a shrink. That's a
Speaker 1: week bick. That's what weak people. That's what I said.
Speaker 1: That was my thought process at that point in time.
Speaker 1: I'm strong, I guess, you know. I felt like you know,
Speaker 1: men wasn't supposed to cry. They had to handle their
Speaker 1: own issues. They didn't seek anything. I felt like that
Speaker 1: wasn't being a part of a man. So I ended
Speaker 1: up seeking help through Troy Benstin. Troy Benstin and my
Speaker 1: dad are really tight. They talked almost every day. He
Speaker 1: just saw me just transpired, going in a direction that
Speaker 1: I wasn't that wasn't needed, and that direction was I
Speaker 1: was lashing out, not physically, but more so emotionally. It
Speaker 1: was times where I could be sleep and I was
Speaker 1: like wake up, just swinging like I was really in
Speaker 1: just like a dark place. Around that time too, my
Speaker 1: birth momstar started coming around. I haven't seen her, I
Speaker 1: haven't talked to her, and now she just now coming around.
Speaker 1: So I was just lashing out as so many things.
Speaker 1: I didn't know how to cope. I grew up. I
Speaker 1: came up on the time where social media medea was
Speaker 1: just now starting to be be huge, right to Twitter, Instagram,
Speaker 1: and people don't know like the current players, the players
Speaker 1: that recently transition off the game. We look at, you know,
Speaker 1: how many lights we have when we're playing versus how
Speaker 1: many lights we have when we don't when we're not playing,
Speaker 1: Like you can see those signs where they paid go
Speaker 1: from being open to now become a private social media
Speaker 1: for me, that was I was doing things where I
Speaker 1: knew I was done, but I'm still posting a little
Speaker 1: videos like I'm working out just to get the love
Speaker 1: from those fans, to get people that I haven't even met,
Speaker 1: just to get that approval. So social media played a
Speaker 1: huge part for me as far as just my my depression.
Speaker 1: I was able to seek help through Troy. Troy got
Speaker 1: me in place with my account manager. Now as sting
Speaker 1: that her name is Balie Featherston. I've probably don't remember
Speaker 1: this conversation, but we met a Georgia attack. I was
Speaker 1: on the camp where, uh my football academy Prime example,
Speaker 1: took a few kids to Georgia Tech for a camp.
Speaker 1: So I end up meeting Valerie through Troy introduced me
Speaker 1: men her talk for about a good hour and a
Speaker 1: half about everything, where I come from, what I want
Speaker 1: to do, what happened with my injury, how was Bill
Speaker 1: better check like everything. I'm not sure how she kind
Speaker 1: of felt it, but she asked me, how how was
Speaker 1: that doing mentally right? And now you know, I told
Speaker 1: her because I wasn't seeking I wasn't seeking help at
Speaker 1: that point in time. Yeah, I'm okay, I'm okay, I'm
Speaker 1: I'm fine. I'm good, you know, because at that point
Speaker 1: in time, I'm thinking me seeing a counselor or especially
Speaker 1: in that field that's just being looked at us a week.
Speaker 1: I'm not a weak person. So she said, well, just
Speaker 1: in case you do need it, here's my number, give me,
Speaker 1: give me a call, and I'm gonna give you the
Speaker 1: number to the NFL player a counciling in the system.
Speaker 1: So ended up leaving Georgia Tech. I want to say
Speaker 1: that was a Sunday. That Monday, I end up calling
Speaker 1: a dedicated number yet set up. I was situated, and
Speaker 1: that was my my first time seeking help. You've been
Speaker 1: a man, simply man, you hope with yourself and got
Speaker 1: to help you you needed. Is that how you're described
Speaker 1: being a name? I would definitely say so. I would
Speaker 1: say it improved my communications. I was able to talk
Speaker 1: to my birth mom. I wasn't lashing out as much.
Speaker 1: My interpersonal skills got a little bit better. I had
Speaker 1: the awareness of, you know, just greater self acceptance and
Speaker 1: self esteem, better expression and management of just my emotions
Speaker 1: in general. All right, So I wouldn't say I was
Speaker 1: relieved right away from my depressions and my suicidal thoughts.
Speaker 1: Of course it took some time, but me just seeking
Speaker 1: help or you know, constantly visiting my council at that
Speaker 1: point in time. It helped me tremendously and made me
Speaker 1: a better father. Um. I had my son my freshman
Speaker 1: year of college, and I mean, you played college football.
Speaker 1: It's I don't you don't have that relationship. You just
Speaker 1: you just his dad. You're not the father, right, So
Speaker 1: I really think everything do happen for a reason. Mean,
Speaker 1: Andrew happen for a reason. Me being a better dad,
Speaker 1: me being a better friend. Uh fell the stuff. I
Speaker 1: was still playing, the relationship I have with my son
Speaker 1: now and my mom passed away. But me bridging that guy,
Speaker 1: us bridging that guy, it would never happen. Yeah, step on.
Speaker 1: One of the things you have more than just your expectations,
Speaker 1: but has a long career. Your birth mom. You know
Speaker 1: you mentioned that. How does she find you? You're in
Speaker 1: the middle of this transition that you weren't expecting and
Speaker 1: your birth mom shows up. Yeah, I mean I guess
Speaker 1: it wasn't hard. I have siblings I kept in contact with,
Speaker 1: not as much, but I kept in contact with. Um.
Speaker 1: They know how I felt, don't give her my number.
Speaker 1: That's just where I was. I don't. She wasn't there.
Speaker 1: She wasn't with me when I was practicing, she wasn't
Speaker 1: with me when I graduated. There's no point in her
Speaker 1: showing up now, and in retrospect, I was really I
Speaker 1: was really hurting because I wanted her to be at
Speaker 1: every event. I wanted her to, you know, being my
Speaker 1: son's life at that point in time, like I needed her.
Speaker 1: I just didn't know how to tell her her that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she she came. She came back into my life that
Speaker 1: week I got released. The week I got released, she
Speaker 1: reached out to me. I just asked me how I
Speaker 1: was doing. She was proud of me, and I think
Speaker 1: I gave a pretty good answer. I didn't last off yet,
Speaker 1: but I felt myself, as I mentioned, just hitting transpiring
Speaker 1: downward when she reached out to me on her birthday.
Speaker 1: So she called me on her birthday and she I
Speaker 1: don't know why she said this, but she said, so,
Speaker 1: I'm a little disappointed in you. I said why because
Speaker 1: you didn't get me nothing for my birthday. Right, So
Speaker 1: I'm thinking at this point in time, because you know,
Speaker 1: you think I have money I supposed to get you
Speaker 1: something out there. You know, I haven't seen you in
Speaker 1: what twenty years apparently, So I end up writing I
Speaker 1: ended up texting her back and I said, look up
Speaker 1: the word disappointment, and that's what you are in my life.
Speaker 1: And that conversation no kind of just laying me down
Speaker 1: a path where I was just fighting demons. As I
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier, like I'm sleep, I'm waking up. I'm seeing
Speaker 1: like things that I'm afraid of, like and I'm fighting
Speaker 1: them in my sleep. I wake up, I'm yelling. Right,
Speaker 1: So your story is typically just the opposite of the
Speaker 1: conversations I have with most legends. It's using their their fathers. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're after their life for a long time. You're the
Speaker 1: first that I've experienced to have this experience with your mother.
Speaker 1: That's pretty interesting, right it is. I mean I grew
Speaker 1: up I always thought I didn't need it. So my
Speaker 1: dad had my step mom, who I called my mom.
Speaker 1: That's my mom, right, So whenever my birth mom didn't
Speaker 1: come around, I just didn't know. I didn't win end scepter.
Speaker 1: It's a it's a it's it's a weird situation. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna tell you how God work. So I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: move forward a little bit. But we ended up somewhat
Speaker 1: bridging out God. I end up coming to Atlanta. It
Speaker 1: says how it's his Mother's Day. So she come down
Speaker 1: for Mother's Day, and she just opened up to the
Speaker 1: reason why she wasn't there, why she had my siblings,
Speaker 1: there's everything right, So she's like crying to me. And
Speaker 1: at that point in time, I'm still seeking my counseling
Speaker 1: sessions for depression and anxiety. But I didn't know that
Speaker 1: her opening up to me like that would also be
Speaker 1: you know, counseling in itself, right, So we ended up
Speaker 1: hugging it out, both of us, and tears. Uh felt
Speaker 1: the I just felt so relieved. Six months later, she
Speaker 1: passes away from a brain interist. So the doctor said
Speaker 1: her aneurysm was so big that she should have passed
Speaker 1: away three years ago. Man, I don't even want to
Speaker 1: transition because this is so so before I transition to
Speaker 1: signal your experienced there. It's something like you had a
Speaker 1: need for Mom that you have been suppressing, a ward
Speaker 1: not even aware of. Yes, sir, I would say so man,
Speaker 1: talking about signal signal work in life, resons. Yeah. So,
Speaker 1: as I mentioned, Valerie introduced me to the program, I
Speaker 1: got connected, I saw help. So my first my first
Speaker 1: session actually uh seeking the counselor, I said, I was
Speaker 1: quired for forty five minutes. I didn't say nothing my
Speaker 1: first my first session, so I was just thinking, like
Speaker 1: what the hell am I doing here? Like I don't
Speaker 1: I don't need this, I'm fine. My second session, I
Speaker 1: was quiet for forty five minutes. I remember this vivily.
Speaker 1: She ended up writing on on this on this board,
Speaker 1: while are you so angry? And I came back to
Speaker 1: that third session, she just said, you don't have to talk.
Speaker 1: I just want you to write. You know three reasons
Speaker 1: why you're angry. So I wrote down. I said, I'm
Speaker 1: angry because I'm here, I'm angry because you don't understand,
Speaker 1: and I'm angry because I let everyone down. She she mentioned,
Speaker 1: she said, Ryan, why do you think I don't understand?
Speaker 1: I said, because you wasn't you're not you never you
Speaker 1: didn't play this game. I want to talk to someone
Speaker 1: who played, who understand where I'm coming from, who had
Speaker 1: the same dreams aspirations of me, who know exactly the
Speaker 1: shoes that I meant, I say, it's no possible way
Speaker 1: that you can help me if you didn't walk through
Speaker 1: my shoes. Who did you think you had let down?
Speaker 1: You said? You told her I let so many people down?
Speaker 1: Who did you think you had let down? And just
Speaker 1: my family in general. I talked about, you know, just
Speaker 1: having these dreams, like I mentioned watching you, you know,
Speaker 1: coming up playing with you on mad and here my
Speaker 1: dad talked about, you know, has a recruiting trip with
Speaker 1: a Kniss ironically, but having these dreams and aspirations and
Speaker 1: goals of getting my dad at the house, paying off
Speaker 1: his car, not not seeing him work again, helping my
Speaker 1: great grandmother, helping my siblings. Just I just felt like
Speaker 1: I let every one down, even my son. It was
Speaker 1: times where my son, for a long time, it would
Speaker 1: be like, so, when's your next game? And I didn't
Speaker 1: know how to tell him that I don't play no more,
Speaker 1: and stuff on being in the counseling sessions and with
Speaker 1: the first concession for five minutes of silence, what made
Speaker 1: you come back? There was no judgment. I felt comfortable.
Speaker 1: I felt comfortable sitting in silence, no judgment necessary, no
Speaker 1: judgment passed. She allowed me to beat myself within those
Speaker 1: forty five minutes. She didn't allow me to She didn't
Speaker 1: force me to speak, forced me to do lessons that
Speaker 1: she had written down or pre playing. She just sat
Speaker 1: there with me. So that next session was very was
Speaker 1: very very helpful. Of course we discussed that, but she
Speaker 1: it was needed her the way her, the way she
Speaker 1: her sessions went. She just allowed me to be me.
Speaker 1: She let me be quiet when I wanted to be quiet.
Speaker 1: I pride in the sessions. Didn't think I would. I
Speaker 1: probably cried every session other than the first two. Like
Speaker 1: she was just amazing and getting me to open up
Speaker 1: and see things and allowing me to see the world
Speaker 1: just differently. And she told me, she that you know
Speaker 1: you are more than what you're giving yourself up. You
Speaker 1: are more than just a football player. Cliche, but it's true.
Speaker 1: You are more than a football player. I told her
Speaker 1: at that point in time, I said, I can't even
Speaker 1: identify who step one is as a football player, and
Speaker 1: I'm introducing myself and who Stefan is as a man
Speaker 1: in general. Every conversation that I have at that point
Speaker 1: in time was hey, my name is Steph wars. I
Speaker 1: pay for New England Patriots or Hey, my name is
Speaker 1: Steph Wars. I went to Penn State. I'm a former
Speaker 1: NFL player. That's all I could give you. So she
Speaker 1: allowed me to open up and identify exactly who step
Speaker 1: On Morris is and not just stepped a football player.
Speaker 1: So going back to the signal work work like resources program,
Speaker 1: I utilized that. That's before I even got the signal,
Speaker 1: So little did I know Valerie would then become my
Speaker 1: account manager for the program. Um. I was able to
Speaker 1: bridge that gap from being a former player and seeing
Speaker 1: what it looked like versus now been in a corporate
Speaker 1: setting and then trying to identify how du you know
Speaker 1: we job utilization on? How do we connect with these players?
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, what made you fall it? Make the call?
Speaker 1: Valerie her words? Or did she follow back up with you?
Speaker 1: She didn't follow up. She was just genuine. She didn't
Speaker 1: know me. I mean, it was an introduction, but she
Speaker 1: spoke to me as if she cared mhm. And my
Speaker 1: dad didn't make me because he mentioned about counseling to
Speaker 1: his words, I mean, I struggled it off. But speaking
Speaker 1: to Valerie like O her thank you to this day,
Speaker 1: like she made me go see help. So if you
Speaker 1: got a chance to talk to all the NFL rookies,
Speaker 1: including the draft picks. You were undrafted, but to all
Speaker 1: the rookies, what would be your elevator speech to them?
Speaker 1: That's who are not alone? I would silt off at that.
Speaker 1: You are not alone? And what I mean by that is,
Speaker 1: we as humans have an expiration day, right, we don't
Speaker 1: know when it's gonna found. We also have an expiration
Speaker 1: day of football that sometimes will be lucky enough, we
Speaker 1: can go out on our own own terms. But the
Speaker 1: majority of the time that's not the case. So you're
Speaker 1: not alone in the process of when that time comes.
Speaker 1: Don't be afraid to, you know, seek help, open up,
Speaker 1: be vulnerable. So sitting to help you so much going
Speaker 1: through that council, you just you decided to make it
Speaker 1: a career. Tell us about that. Yes, so, Troy invention
Speaker 1: is a huge mentor mind. Uh, he wanted at first,
Speaker 1: he wanted to see me, you know, put some work in.
Speaker 1: So I was going on job interviews and everything and
Speaker 1: just your typical sales position door to door, and every
Speaker 1: conversation that I had at that point in time was so,
Speaker 1: what experiences did you have tell me about yourself? And
Speaker 1: I kept giving them the same manser, which I would
Speaker 1: get angry. Which helped me with my counseling sessions. Was
Speaker 1: I told you I have no other experiences, but no
Speaker 1: other jobs. This is me New England, Penn State. And
Speaker 1: I was just getting so frustrated because I just felt
Speaker 1: like I'm not gonna never get a job. But at
Speaker 1: that point in time, he just wanted to see me
Speaker 1: get off my butt and just work towards something. I
Speaker 1: didn't even know he had, you know, signal and playing.
Speaker 1: I didn't know my conversation with Valerie year later would
Speaker 1: lead to hurt me and my manager. Yeah, so coming
Speaker 1: coming to signa UM it's it's been five years now,
Speaker 1: a little over five. It's been amazing. It's been awesome.
Speaker 1: It allows me to connect with not only current players,
Speaker 1: performing players, just letting them know they're not alone. I'm here.
Speaker 1: I've been able to participate in events like the Player
Speaker 1: Care Foundation that's in communities event and run into you know,
Speaker 1: just your John DA and open up to him about
Speaker 1: you know what I went through. All right, I ask
Speaker 1: you step forward, who what would you say to rookies?
Speaker 1: Now I've asking you what would what would you say?
Speaker 1: To the high school freshman. Awesome. So I actually have
Speaker 1: a actually have a program called Prime Example that my
Speaker 1: dad started back in oh eight, um training mentoring just
Speaker 1: high school kids as well as as well as youse kids.
Speaker 1: I actually bought that program out to Atlanta. I started
Speaker 1: about two years ago. Kids get excited when they see
Speaker 1: a former player or someone that you know they played with,
Speaker 1: them mad and someone that they can google. But I
Speaker 1: identify myself. Hey, hey that's not me. Yes, I played.
Speaker 1: I played this game. But I have a job. I
Speaker 1: have a day to day job, which is okay. I'm
Speaker 1: in a I'm in a corporate office, I'm in a cue.
Speaker 1: I went from seeing my name tag on the locker
Speaker 1: to my name tag on the cube. That's okay. But
Speaker 1: I always tell them, tell my middle school and high
Speaker 1: school kids, I want you to find something you enjoy
Speaker 1: outside of football. So the reason why I think guys
Speaker 1: transition is a little bumpy, it's because we we don't know.
Speaker 1: We don't know what we like. We've been playing this game,
Speaker 1: and we've been utilizing this game for you know, financial
Speaker 1: reasons and just to make it. We can't identify if
Speaker 1: you like to, you know, maybe want to be a
Speaker 1: chef or be a lawyer. That's not the things that
Speaker 1: I was brought up or raised. So talking to my
Speaker 1: younger kids, I have them, you know, before they even
Speaker 1: stopped the program, what you want to be? You get
Speaker 1: the same answer. I want to go to the league.
Speaker 1: I want to go to the league. I want to
Speaker 1: go to Alabama. You may get one that may say
Speaker 1: I want to be an engineer. After I'm done playing, right,
Speaker 1: then I have my talk with them. I bring out
Speaker 1: certain guys that I don't play with, male or females
Speaker 1: that has that I see doing great things in the community.
Speaker 1: And it may be a lawyer or maybe a counselor,
Speaker 1: and maybe a teacher. Come out and talk to the kids.
Speaker 1: Let him know what you do while you love it,
Speaker 1: while you like it. Then I have my kids. Uh,
Speaker 1: come come to me the next day or the next session,
Speaker 1: whether you want to be right down, tell me why
Speaker 1: I wanted us to league. I want to be a doctor.
Speaker 1: Why you want to be a doctor because I want
Speaker 1: to help people, that's the typical answer. Or you know, well,
Speaker 1: I want to be a lawyer because I saw my
Speaker 1: brother or sister, you know, get ten or fifteen years
Speaker 1: and they didn't have a good lawyer, So how are
Speaker 1: you going to work towards those steps? How you want
Speaker 1: to do it? So they don't even know that this
Speaker 1: lesson I'm giving them is helping them identify the degree
Speaker 1: that they may want to obtain, right, Right, So that's
Speaker 1: that's how I talked to my kids. Is there any
Speaker 1: programs anything available through signal that Legends you're noticing not
Speaker 1: taking advantage of that? They should? Anything you want me
Speaker 1: talking about now, work life resources program? That's that's that's
Speaker 1: the point. We want to drive utilization and it's not
Speaker 1: just for Legends, but it's also for everyone. Right, So
Speaker 1: you got your your careers, you got your Legends, and
Speaker 1: you got you know, your household members. You know what
Speaker 1: I mean by household members. So your wife can utilize
Speaker 1: or your daughter can utilize this, you know this program
Speaker 1: as well. If they're you know, struggling with anything, how
Speaker 1: can they find out about work life resource? They can
Speaker 1: go to the Legends Community Act, or they can call
Speaker 1: our dedicated sicking the number, dedicated work Life Resources number,
Speaker 1: so it's it's out there. It's also melions that's generated.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure when maybe quarterly about the work life
Speaker 1: resources program. But this program has been helpful and it's
Speaker 1: been out here for a while. Wasn't just what you
Speaker 1: went through is the resilience and you walking through it.
Speaker 1: God gives us the grace to do it, but we
Speaker 1: have to put into work, and you did it and
Speaker 1: are doing it. Thank you so much for being on
Speaker 1: the NFL Player's podcast and invested yesterday. Yeah, thank you
Speaker 1: so much. Thank you. To provide feedback or request a
Speaker 1: topic for discussion, email us at NFL Legends at NFL
Speaker 1: dot com. Yah