Speaker 1: Welcome to the NFL Legends Podcast, an NFL podcast for
Speaker 1: the players, by the players. Here's your host, fourteen year
Speaker 1: NFL veteran and Hall of Famer a Enius Williams. Hello,
Speaker 1: and welcome to the NFL Legends Podcast. I'm a Nius Williams.
Speaker 1: Today we have two extraordinary women who, in addition to
Speaker 1: being the wives of two NFL legends, have made an
Speaker 1: impact on the NFL community and their own local communities. First,
Speaker 1: we have a Toya burl Liston, whose husband probably pushed
Speaker 1: me off being a received the National Football League many times.
Speaker 1: All right, make sure you tell him that atorya wife
Speaker 1: of NFL legend and current broadcaster Nate Burleson. And we
Speaker 1: also have Tia Avril, whose husband Cliff Avril, spent ten
Speaker 1: season second NFL quarterbacks. Together they have created in Sidelines
Speaker 1: Are blog and a podcast of their own, which just
Speaker 1: kicked off the second season. Welcome, ladies, thank you. I'm
Speaker 1: just referring to we called the former players Legends. I'm
Speaker 1: just you guys started your own podcast. You going it
Speaker 1: to your second season. So how about I'm talking to
Speaker 1: some legendary ladies. How about that? Do that? All right?
Speaker 1: I want to start with your podcast. It's a lot
Speaker 1: of times people have ideas and they think about doing things.
Speaker 1: It's a whole nother thing to do it your podcast,
Speaker 1: which is fantastic because it showcases the balance between family,
Speaker 1: commitment and community that comes with being an NFL family.
Speaker 1: Here's my first question, what inspired you guys to start it?
Speaker 1: Ta so Atoya has served as my big sister since
Speaker 1: UM I officially started my NFL journey UM with Cliff
Speaker 1: in two thousand eleven, and I call her with just
Speaker 1: about any and everything, any question that is NFL related,
Speaker 1: like can you help me find a citer because you're
Speaker 1: in the city without family members and you know you
Speaker 1: need a little bit of help, or just filling the
Speaker 1: blank anything. And as we got going, we were like,
Speaker 1: if I'm asking this question, and I know a lot
Speaker 1: of other women are also asking um these same questions,
Speaker 1: and so then we are will started turning like, well
Speaker 1: maybe we need to start something to yeah, absolutely think
Speaker 1: about it. And they played in the NFL for eleven years,
Speaker 1: so I met a lot of different women and we
Speaker 1: all kind of went through the same things. We you know,
Speaker 1: we were always around each other, and so when they retired,
Speaker 1: I thought you know, I met some amazing women with
Speaker 1: these great voices, things that they want to discuss and
Speaker 1: talk about. It would be a idea to start a
Speaker 1: podcast and just get everyone to come together and connect
Speaker 1: to empower women and just discuss different topics that people
Speaker 1: may not know about they might find interesting. So T
Speaker 1: and I got together and I'm like, let's do it.
Speaker 1: She was like, let's do it. And that was it.
Speaker 1: We were off to the races. So what's your mission,
Speaker 1: what's your aiming point, what's your goal with this? Well,
Speaker 1: you know, my goal is just to give women a
Speaker 1: platform to be able to come on and discuss different
Speaker 1: topics or things that they may have going on. Um.
Speaker 1: I leave it open, and I want them to feel
Speaker 1: comfortable going somewhere where they feel like it's a safe haven.
Speaker 1: They can say whatever they want to say and there's
Speaker 1: no judgment. Um. And I want to actually have women
Speaker 1: on that are not just wives in the NFL, but
Speaker 1: also I want to talk about career with women in
Speaker 1: the NFL. You know, you have people in the offices
Speaker 1: that no one knows about. It'd be great too to
Speaker 1: put them out there and she let them share their
Speaker 1: stories how they got there. You know how long they
Speaker 1: loved football, how long they've watched and what made them
Speaker 1: decide to take the path of the NFL life. So
Speaker 1: a lot of women that I've met, I'd say, especially
Speaker 1: t and I talked about this too in Seattle. Uh,
Speaker 1: we're amazing women and they were so helpful and their
Speaker 1: careers were you know, helpful to us as women as wives,
Speaker 1: and so why not celebrating. Yeah, And I think there's
Speaker 1: also a misconception that because we are NFL wives excuse me,
Speaker 1: NFL wives, that we don't experience anything. And so when
Speaker 1: we get we started getting the questions like, well, what's
Speaker 1: it like to be an NFL wife, And it's like
Speaker 1: the same thing is like to be the wife of
Speaker 1: a banker, you know. Um, So it was good to
Speaker 1: kind of like show that we also struggle have similar
Speaker 1: issues and obstacles to face as other women, um, just
Speaker 1: from a different perspective. So, so, where do you guys
Speaker 1: see this going and how can otherwise connect or get
Speaker 1: involved with you guys? You know the skies and limit.
Speaker 1: We just hope to be able to reach everyone, to
Speaker 1: show women that are out there that there's a platform
Speaker 1: for us as well. Um, and as far as how
Speaker 1: they can reach us. Um. They can reach us via
Speaker 1: insidelines podcast dot com. Um. We also have our email
Speaker 1: which is inside Lines podcast at gmail dot com. And
Speaker 1: they can hit us up on social media as well
Speaker 1: insidelines podcasts. So few few are ways to get in
Speaker 1: touch with us. Yeah, it's like we're always looking to
Speaker 1: have other women on to share their stories, but then
Speaker 1: to also talk about what they're going on. So we've
Speaker 1: experienced the kind of like putting our all into our
Speaker 1: families and our husbands, and now we're in this phase
Speaker 1: of like rediscovering ourselves. And so everybody's journey is different.
Speaker 1: So it's pool would to listen to everybody's story, um,
Speaker 1: and to like just give inspiration um to the rest
Speaker 1: of the ladies. I want to talk about the extended
Speaker 1: NFL community with your ladies, which is very special and
Speaker 1: which most people don't pay attention to. Here's the first question.
Speaker 1: What circumstances led to YouTube meeting each other? You gonna
Speaker 1: take that to you. Yeah, we were both in Detroit.
Speaker 1: Our our husband's play played together in Detroit, UM and UM,
Speaker 1: I remember going to every year like once this season,
Speaker 1: right before the season begins, they have a women's conference
Speaker 1: where they call all the women in, whether their wives, girlfriends, whomever.
Speaker 1: You come in, you meet everyone, you get to know
Speaker 1: people in that specific team, that community. So it's Detroit
Speaker 1: Lions for us. And I saw Teas sitting over there
Speaker 1: and she had this new baby, and I remember that.
Speaker 1: I remember being a new mom and you know, trying
Speaker 1: to connect and not know anyone, and I just went
Speaker 1: over and introduced myself and I grabbed her baby. She
Speaker 1: probably that I was crazy I grabbed her baby. Not
Speaker 1: crazy at all, thankful, and I'm just started talking with
Speaker 1: her and getting to know her. And here we are,
Speaker 1: what ten years later? Yeah, So just a little bit
Speaker 1: more background. Um Cliff was drafted in two thousand and eight,
Speaker 1: but we had a long distance relationship up into two
Speaker 1: thousand and eleven when I gave birth to my son.
Speaker 1: And this was Cliff was in a holdout situation like
Speaker 1: all these things, but reported the day after I gave birth.
Speaker 1: So here I am, like the beginning of August, just
Speaker 1: a complete mess. And I get invited to this women's
Speaker 1: brunch and so she doesn't like which we talked about it,
Speaker 1: but I was a complete mess that day, scared I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be late, I don't know, baby, just like complete
Speaker 1: and utter mess. And when I sat down and she
Speaker 1: saw me and came over like I was like, you
Speaker 1: don't know. That was like a hug to me, you know,
Speaker 1: like I said, you in the city by yourself with
Speaker 1: this new baby. It was a mess. So she hasn't
Speaker 1: been able to me. Now, how do you find that connection? Toya?
Speaker 1: If you're in the room, I know you you're drawing
Speaker 1: with the baby. But how do you encourage even new
Speaker 1: NFL wives, current wives, how do they connect with the
Speaker 1: tia how you connect with the Toya's You know, we
Speaker 1: talked about this a little bit on our podcast. We
Speaker 1: talked about, you know, having the courage to go up
Speaker 1: to someone and introduce yourself um. And then as far
Speaker 1: as you know veteran wives, you know, them reaching out
Speaker 1: and saying, hey, you know, do you new anything, what
Speaker 1: do you need? What's going on? Um? And we even
Speaker 1: discussed a little bit about I think it's so important
Speaker 1: for teens to understand that everyone is new and so
Speaker 1: just to have like it would be great to have
Speaker 1: something for wives to look at and say, Okay, this
Speaker 1: is where I can find a doctor, this is where
Speaker 1: I could find sitters, you know, whatever it is that
Speaker 1: they needed, be nice to like reference something. Um. But
Speaker 1: it starts with just connecting with women and just friendships.
Speaker 1: I think that is so important because we're all in
Speaker 1: the same boat. You know, we're living in this city, Tia.
Speaker 1: You know that we need each other. That's what it's
Speaker 1: about for me at least, And I would say that's
Speaker 1: something that Toya taught me. It's just it's important to
Speaker 1: reach out and like just be more cognizant of what's
Speaker 1: going on around you because sometimes we can get so
Speaker 1: tunnel vision and you know, we're going to training camp,
Speaker 1: are going to whatever, and you see people, but again
Speaker 1: your tunnel vision, right. Um. But one thing of Toyo
Speaker 1: taught me, especially when I left Detroit and went to Seattle.
Speaker 1: When we came to Seattle, I was the old lady
Speaker 1: on the block. Now, so then it was me for
Speaker 1: you know, looking for the young ladies and bringing everybody together, um,
Speaker 1: welcoming everybody into our homes, are playing in social events, etcetera. Um.
Speaker 1: So connecting is important. Now. One thing, we know, you
Speaker 1: guys are now legends, your your husband's are retired. Right.
Speaker 1: It's difficult a lot of times to stay connected. How
Speaker 1: have you guys stay connected now that the careers in
Speaker 1: the NFL are over. Yeah, so we decided to make
Speaker 1: Seattle our home. UM. And so Cliff Is it took
Speaker 1: him a minute to like really settle into I'm retired.
Speaker 1: He used to go to the facility twice a two
Speaker 1: or three times a week. Was every game. I was like,
Speaker 1: you know, you were retired, right. So we've been connected
Speaker 1: with current players. A lot of farmer Seattle Seahawks also
Speaker 1: retired here. So it's been good because Cliff is also
Speaker 1: a seeker of knowledge, so he utilizes the NFL legends,
Speaker 1: like the NFL community and things like that, um more
Speaker 1: now than he did before. And so he's taken it
Speaker 1: back to the other players sharing and we, like you,
Speaker 1: we all just stay connected and stay involved with the
Speaker 1: team and the community out here. UM. I say, for me,
Speaker 1: you know, it's been interesting. My journey has been kind
Speaker 1: of crazy. I think about the eleven years we played
Speaker 1: and then we finally decided we're going to just stay
Speaker 1: in Seattle, but then we ended up moving to Arizona
Speaker 1: because Nate started with NFL Network and then after a
Speaker 1: year there, they were like okay, and I was excited
Speaker 1: about being in Arizona, Let's be clear, because that's home
Speaker 1: for me. And for me it was huge because I've
Speaker 1: always been either with Nate's family or a way. So
Speaker 1: to finally be home back in Arizona and the sunshine,
Speaker 1: I was like, cool, We're good retiring here. This is
Speaker 1: it is it? But then Nick Nate told me that
Speaker 1: NFL Network wanted him to move to New York to
Speaker 1: start Good Morning Football, and I was like, no, you
Speaker 1: go ahead, go, But we had this unspoken rule, actually
Speaker 1: it was a spoken role. We talked about it wherever,
Speaker 1: and it was wherever he went or wherever I went, like,
Speaker 1: we go together. So we move our family together because
Speaker 1: we wanted to keep that um close knit you know, connection,
Speaker 1: and I wanted Nate obviously to be around the kids
Speaker 1: and vice versa. So um it was for me. It's
Speaker 1: been hard in the sense that I don't get to
Speaker 1: see as many people like Utia, like when you're saying
Speaker 1: a lot of people retiring in Seattle. But I have
Speaker 1: my my girlfriends, like lifelong girlfriends that we have our
Speaker 1: group chats, we still talk, we still connect um. We
Speaker 1: try to get together at least once a year using
Speaker 1: around my birthday. I have like for my forty if
Speaker 1: we had what it was ten or twelve of us
Speaker 1: that all came together, different teams, different areas, and it's
Speaker 1: like we all knew each other because everyone was so amazing.
Speaker 1: These women are phenomenal, and I just that's exactly why
Speaker 1: I wanted to start the podcast in the first place.
Speaker 1: I just wish everybody could see the different type of
Speaker 1: women in the NFL, the different you know, some women work,
Speaker 1: some women don't work, some women have their own businesses.
Speaker 1: It's just there's so much variety and amazing women that
Speaker 1: I feel like has always kept me connected to them.
Speaker 1: Well what part of Arizona are you from? So, and
Speaker 1: if I have a funny story for you? No, yes,
Speaker 1: So I was raised in Chandler, Arizona. Really yes, but
Speaker 1: I was always in sports. My dad always had me
Speaker 1: in sports. So I played basketballronman track and um, I'll
Speaker 1: never forget. There was a kids it was a sports
Speaker 1: even and I always did this sports even every year.
Speaker 1: And they told me that someone was coming to speak,
Speaker 1: and in you walked, and I was probably at that
Speaker 1: time fourteen years old, and I listened to you speak,
Speaker 1: and you were so powerful and I really avoid you.
Speaker 1: And then fast forward I think it was two or
Speaker 1: three years later, I ended up working with UM at
Speaker 1: a it was a beauty salon and it was Vicky's
Speaker 1: beauty line and Auratuki and you walked in again. So
Speaker 1: I've met you on and off like throughout my life. Yeah.
Speaker 1: You's when I they told me that you know, you
Speaker 1: were going to lead us to this podcast. I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: I know exactly who he is. I'm excited to see.
Speaker 1: That's awesome. So do you know Cam Cam Jordan's Yes,
Speaker 1: I know Cam m exactly, y' y'all rocket and right exactly. Yes,
Speaker 1: all the work he's been doing is amazing as well. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: sofl failings see men like your husband's being active in
Speaker 1: their communities, but with that, they rarely ever see the
Speaker 1: great player and his family. Here's a question, however, your
Speaker 1: families made community commitment a team effort. So we UM
Speaker 1: started a family foundation UM in two thousand and fourteen,
Speaker 1: where we've been like extremely active in the city of Jacksonville,
Speaker 1: which is where where Cliff is from the city city
Speaker 1: of Seattle, but then also in Haiti. So Cliff's mom
Speaker 1: and dad are Haitian they were born in Haiti, came
Speaker 1: to the States and name Haighties and UM. When we
Speaker 1: got to Seattle, it had been brewing in Cliff's heart too.
Speaker 1: He really wanted to do something in Haiti. And we
Speaker 1: connected with UM, an organization called we by way of
Speaker 1: Marshawn because Marshaun had done some work with him in Africa.
Speaker 1: And we went down to Haiti adopted UM an orphanage UM,
Speaker 1: but also up to school and so we are like
Speaker 1: head first in the community there. UM we always bring
Speaker 1: family members back with us because one I am I
Speaker 1: cannot speak Creo. So Cliff's family, uh you know, we
Speaker 1: made a family event like and even his family members
Speaker 1: that are still in Haiti. They would drive the two
Speaker 1: hours to Hinge where the school is, to UM help
Speaker 1: UM physically build a school. And then also in the
Speaker 1: city of Seattle, we get our kids involved. So we
Speaker 1: adopted UM a local school here, low income school. And
Speaker 1: we do like mentoring groups, so we did back to
Speaker 1: school drives. We just UM did a driver and we
Speaker 1: gave the group the kids and our mentor and group
Speaker 1: computers for virtual learning. So we always try to make
Speaker 1: it a team effort that I think the one thing
Speaker 1: that's difficult is like having kids that are humble, and
Speaker 1: so my kids are young four and nine, but it's
Speaker 1: good to like take them with us when we go
Speaker 1: to do Christmas shopping with all these kids, and with
Speaker 1: us when we are like mentoring the kids at the school,
Speaker 1: just so they can see that there's another side, um
Speaker 1: to this life experience a toy. Describe how your work
Speaker 1: with Nate Uh, your work with't Neate to determine how
Speaker 1: to make the greatest impact possible in your community. How
Speaker 1: is that better? You know, I've always loved kids, and
Speaker 1: that's to me, that's huge, just giving back to the kids.
Speaker 1: Um My degree was an education, so um anything that
Speaker 1: has to do with kids is huge. So for me,
Speaker 1: we at the beginning of the year, we always do
Speaker 1: a backpack UM giveaway and so we and like Tia said,
Speaker 1: you bring your kids to that because you want them
Speaker 1: to see and understand. We always try to do things
Speaker 1: as far as speaking with kids. When we went back
Speaker 1: to Arizona, we always spoke the Arizona cheated as the
Speaker 1: track team that I was on um and Uh. We
Speaker 1: always try to basically teach these kids that there are
Speaker 1: so many options that you may not be aware of.
Speaker 1: But that's why people like you and he is or
Speaker 1: as we come along to give you you you know,
Speaker 1: just a different glips into something that you may not
Speaker 1: know about. Right. So, UM, that is so important to me.
Speaker 1: I told my kids it's so important to give back
Speaker 1: and they know that as far as giving to other
Speaker 1: kids and blessing other kids, it helps you to realize
Speaker 1: the lens is different everyone's eyes. I don't think you
Speaker 1: do that before, but um, in Detroit, you remember the
Speaker 1: coke giveaway that they had every year. These kids and
Speaker 1: not have colts, so you're giving coats to kids and
Speaker 1: my kids were right out there. You have to push
Speaker 1: them to get out there and meet other kids and
Speaker 1: see kids because kids don't know, they only know what
Speaker 1: they see, right, So you bring them along and just
Speaker 1: help others to feel empowered and feel encouraged. I feel
Speaker 1: like it's so important m HM when it comes to
Speaker 1: making a difference with inside lines. What are your ongoing goals?
Speaker 1: You know? Sorry, UM, I'm sorry, Yeah, ongoing goals would
Speaker 1: be UM, I definitely want to get more women on
Speaker 1: to do more panels. Um, there's it's great to have
Speaker 1: women on and to interview them to discuss things that
Speaker 1: go on in the NFL. But there's also like underlying
Speaker 1: issues that people need to discuss, whether it's mental illness,
Speaker 1: whe we've talked about, you know, women with postpartum depression,
Speaker 1: We've talked about so many different issues that people may
Speaker 1: not know about. And it actually, I don't want to
Speaker 1: say humanizes, but some people see the glitz and the
Speaker 1: glamour in the NFL, right, and they think that's all is.
Speaker 1: But when you have women on their speaking about real
Speaker 1: life issues, UM discussing things that they may you know,
Speaker 1: people may not know that's going on, it kind of
Speaker 1: helps you to be relatable and women will reach out
Speaker 1: and say, oh my gosh, I went through that same thing.
Speaker 1: I'm out alone. Thank you for sharing, thank you for
Speaker 1: your resources. So we want to be UM a place
Speaker 1: that people can speak out and most important, and we
Speaker 1: can share resources to help with it along the way
Speaker 1: as well. Absolutely, I think UM the main goal being
Speaker 1: storytellers UM, because the Toya's point is they see all
Speaker 1: the NFL players and they you know, they see Maid
Speaker 1: on TV and you know, doing all these things, and
Speaker 1: they just think that we don't have issues or obstacles
Speaker 1: and things like that. So even taking um, for example,
Speaker 1: the racial climate that we're in. We did a panel
Speaker 1: this preseason where we brought women from across the NFL
Speaker 1: and we just talked about things that we experienced, things
Speaker 1: that our kids experienced at school, being at school with
Speaker 1: predominantly um white kids, and just the mental and emotional
Speaker 1: trials that they experienced in that, or the notion of oh,
Speaker 1: because you have money that no nobody discriminates against you,
Speaker 1: or you don't have like those type of issues. So
Speaker 1: it's just been our goal is to just continue to
Speaker 1: be storytellers, to continue to humanize the US, the players,
Speaker 1: because especially with fantasy football, it's like you're just another
Speaker 1: token out there, you know. So I definitely want to
Speaker 1: be good storytellers. La. What did you enjoy most when
Speaker 1: your husband's were playing in the NFL? Oh, gosh, Um,
Speaker 1: so many things. Um, if I were to pick, well,
Speaker 1: obviously you enjoy game day, right, that's a given. The
Speaker 1: charities were amazing. I learned so much in the NFL
Speaker 1: with charity, you know, the different charity events that we
Speaker 1: went through. I went to that I didn't even know existed.
Speaker 1: That was amazing. Um. But I would say most importantly,
Speaker 1: which is the reason kind of why I decided to
Speaker 1: do this, he knows, is the women. Like the connectivity
Speaker 1: and the friendships that we made were so phenomenal. It
Speaker 1: was so amazing. And um, you know, it's just like
Speaker 1: you guys in the locker room, you have your teammates.
Speaker 1: You guys have your stories that you guys will never forget.
Speaker 1: You know, we have those same type of stories, um
Speaker 1: or whether we went to dinner, to a friend's house,
Speaker 1: we went to a concert. We have those same type
Speaker 1: of stories with our girls that will never forget. As well.
Speaker 1: What do you enjoy most now that your husband's are
Speaker 1: NFL legends, Well, I enjoy him actually being at home.
Speaker 1: So what we talked about, Toy and I talked about
Speaker 1: all the time is, you know, balancing kids is a lot.
Speaker 1: In balancing the household and things like that, it's a
Speaker 1: lot in general. And UM, I think sometimes the guys
Speaker 1: kind of feel like, well, you guys aren't working, so
Speaker 1: you should be okay, And it's like, okay, try you know,
Speaker 1: let's switch roles. Um. And so we've been able to
Speaker 1: do just that, and so Nowcliff is like, okay, let's
Speaker 1: schedule in some me time, I'm like, yes, you got
Speaker 1: like you have to do that. I've enjoyed him being home.
Speaker 1: But then also I told him when he retired, Um,
Speaker 1: it was one of one of the first times I
Speaker 1: was able to actually enjoy the game without being nervous
Speaker 1: until you know, to the clock expired. Um. So he's like,
Speaker 1: well you didn't enjoy it before. I'm like, it was
Speaker 1: a fun experience, but you're not being out out there
Speaker 1: on the field. It's like, I know you're gonna walk
Speaker 1: home with me and not end up in an ambulance,
Speaker 1: which has happened through time. Wow. Wow. Alright, final question,
Speaker 1: what is the one essential thing all families must have
Speaker 1: in order to thrive in the NFL. Okay, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: say something that's very cliche, but I'm gonna say communication,
Speaker 1: because I think a lot um of things breakdown. You
Speaker 1: kind of drop a few balls when you don't communicate.
Speaker 1: And then there's also this thing that women experience that's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: the guys are so stressed being at work all day
Speaker 1: every day. I don't want to burden him with whatever
Speaker 1: I'm experiencing at home. Um, And and that just starts
Speaker 1: to breathe like bitterness and just this heavy level of stress.
Speaker 1: But it's important that you communicate so everybody knows what's
Speaker 1: going on, and everybody you know, because he may give
Speaker 1: me a different perspective than what I was experiencing. So communication, Wow,
Speaker 1: what about you a toya? Well t took mine, but
Speaker 1: I'll give you another one. Um, something that Net and
Speaker 1: I did and we still continue to do, not just
Speaker 1: with ourselves but with our kids. But um, date night,
Speaker 1: Like we have date night every week. That is our
Speaker 1: time to come together, to connect, to talk about what's
Speaker 1: going on in each other's lives, to really spend time
Speaker 1: because when you're in the midst of the NFL and
Speaker 1: that life, everything is like this, right, and so sometimes
Speaker 1: you just need a minute to be grounded and look,
Speaker 1: you know your spouse in the eye and like talk
Speaker 1: to each other and you find something out like, oh
Speaker 1: that happened, I don't even know that you know, and
Speaker 1: vice versa, and say with the kids, we always try
Speaker 1: to figure out one thing to take them to do,
Speaker 1: to hang out with them, to ask them questions. Um.
Speaker 1: And it sounds crazy, but that one day can change
Speaker 1: the whole perspective of everything going. So, UM, I just
Speaker 1: I've always felt like that's important. I still do to
Speaker 1: this day, even post NFL because Nate's still crazy busiest.
Speaker 1: We definitely still have those those connectivity date nights, family
Speaker 1: nights so important. Yes, and date night goes on the
Speaker 1: calendar and it is not moved when family and friends
Speaker 1: come into town, right, because that's one thing too that
Speaker 1: can go to by the wayside um. So we have
Speaker 1: family and time is like, well, we still got day night,
Speaker 1: so you're all gonna have to figure it out tonight.
Speaker 1: All right. So here's a final question. What suggestion would
Speaker 1: you have for a legend's wife, our current uh player's
Speaker 1: wife who is going through challenges but need to be
Speaker 1: able to share with somebody discreetly. How would you direct
Speaker 1: that wife? Where would you direct them? I would say
Speaker 1: for us, Um, we we were blessed and we were
Speaker 1: in Detroit. We had Anne Wilson, who was uh the ladies,
Speaker 1: uh kind of the ladies, you know they have the
Speaker 1: different chats on each team. Where she was the husband
Speaker 1: of Dave Wilson. So every Tuesday she had Bible study
Speaker 1: and we would all come and we would listen to her.
Speaker 1: She listened to us. We would uh discuss whatever is
Speaker 1: going on, because you have these like minded women that
Speaker 1: can understand and relate to what you're saying. And Anne
Speaker 1: was always a great listening here. She gave a advice
Speaker 1: overlay across the board. So find someone that maybe that
Speaker 1: that the team has and I know some teams haven't,
Speaker 1: some teams don't, UM, but it's important to have that
Speaker 1: on every team. Just someone that you can relate to.
Speaker 1: TEA who do they have in Seattle when you were there? Um?
Speaker 1: And Seattle we have miss Brown whose wife excuse me,
Speaker 1: whose husband played on the very first Seattle Seahawks team. Um,
Speaker 1: and she has been a godsend. But I will also
Speaker 1: say too, which this is like a two step process.
Speaker 1: So one, the code amongst the women is that whatever
Speaker 1: is shared, whether it's in Bible study or at dinner brunch, whatever,
Speaker 1: the net stays within the group. Right, It's not used
Speaker 1: against you at a later day. It's not to be
Speaker 1: gossiped about or anything like that. So for the first
Speaker 1: thing would be to honor the code amongst the women.
Speaker 1: But I think that we kind of get into an
Speaker 1: issue of being too discreet, where you want to put
Speaker 1: on this rose colored lens like everything is together everything's okay,
Speaker 1: but it's in important to be vulnerable. It's important to
Speaker 1: make sure you have somebody like in Atoya, who I
Speaker 1: can go to a toy and tell her anything and
Speaker 1: she's gonna be like, Okay, well, we're gonna figure this out.
Speaker 1: And this is You're gonna move this, do this, call
Speaker 1: this person, whatever the case may be. And so we
Speaker 1: have to kind of move out of the phase of
Speaker 1: being like two discreet and um get into a space
Speaker 1: where we actually trust each other and can trust the stories,
Speaker 1: the obstacles to issues that we face, so then we
Speaker 1: can really be a force out here. Yeah, having that girlfriend,
Speaker 1: because that's so true, right, Like we could go to
Speaker 1: each other about whatever and one of us was gonna
Speaker 1: having that girlfriend is definitely important. Ladies, this has been
Speaker 1: an incredible podcast. Thanks so much for joining us once again.
Speaker 1: The podcast is called Insidelines and can be found at
Speaker 1: insidelines podcast dot com. Thanks for listening in. The best
Speaker 1: is yet to come. This has been the NFL Legends podcast.
Speaker 1: To provide feedback or request the topic for discussion, email
Speaker 1: us at NFL Legends at NFL dot com. Yeah,