Speaker 1: What's Good Command is Family. Brian Cople Junior here and
Speaker 1: this is the Next Man Up Podcast. Our Next Man
Speaker 1: Up is Jeremy Reeves, a guy with an amazing story.
Speaker 1: We talk about perseverance, we talk about family, talk about faith,
Speaker 1: and we talk about overcoming insurmountable odds. You do not
Speaker 1: want to miss this one. It's definitely a tear jerker.
Speaker 1: Make sure you have your tissues ready, Ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 1: This is the Next Man Up Podcast. What's Good Command
Speaker 1: This Family? This is another episode of Next Man Up.
Speaker 1: I'm Brian Coper Junr. With a very very special guess.
Speaker 1: It's only episode two, man, so you get to be
Speaker 1: my second guest. It's pretty cool, man, it's cold in here.
Speaker 1: Man comfortable, it's my god safety ex pro bowler Jeremy Reeves. Jeremy,
Speaker 1: how you doing to day?
Speaker 2: Brother?
Speaker 1: Oh man, I'm blessed man, I'm so glad you are here.
Speaker 1: Preparing for this interview, I realized, like man, me and
Speaker 1: his brother have like a lot in common, a lot
Speaker 1: of things to talk about. And you know, Next Man Up.
Speaker 1: For those of y'all that don't know, this is only
Speaker 1: our second episode. Next Man Up is a chance for
Speaker 1: us to see the man behind ain't the helmet, get
Speaker 1: to know you more as a person, not so much exit,
Speaker 1: and knows more about what makes you the man that
Speaker 1: you are. But before we get into all of that
Speaker 1: background stuff, we do got to talk about it. Maybe
Speaker 1: we two and one, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: We three didn't go the.
Speaker 1: Way we planned, however, still a winning team. How are
Speaker 1: you feeling right now at this point of season going
Speaker 1: in the week four?
Speaker 2: Uh, you know, optimistic, but at the same time, you
Speaker 2: know you're you're kind of frustrated at how last week went.
Speaker 2: You know, the competitor and me never wants games to
Speaker 2: go like that. You know, that's frustrating as an athlete
Speaker 2: somebody that wants to win. You know, I hate losing,
Speaker 2: you know, I hate the feeling of what losing is like.
Speaker 2: And I hate going through that week off of a loss.
Speaker 2: It sucks and like, you know, you think about all
Speaker 2: the plays throughout the throughout the game that could have
Speaker 2: went differently, or that you could have made, or you
Speaker 2: know that should have been better, and so just trying
Speaker 2: to work through that. That's like the worst part of
Speaker 2: like the loss, because you know, you left some food
Speaker 2: out there on the table. So but then at the
Speaker 2: same time, you gotta have a short memory. You know,
Speaker 2: we're going into a new week. You know, God bless
Speaker 2: us with another day, hopefully blesses with another one, and
Speaker 2: you know that leads up to Sundays. So you gotta
Speaker 2: have that short mindset mentality and you know, work till
Speaker 2: the next week, and you.
Speaker 1: Talk about that mentality knowing that, hey man, there's another game.
Speaker 1: You had that because you're a veteran man, you've been
Speaker 1: here and done this before. But this is a team,
Speaker 1: especially the secondary, of a lot of young guys. So
Speaker 1: what is that conversation after the first loss of this
Speaker 1: season to those young guys and saying, hey, all right,
Speaker 1: we got to move forward. Like what as a veteran
Speaker 1: have you been able to do to help them kind
Speaker 1: of move past this?
Speaker 2: Laws just kind of, you know, teach them the game
Speaker 2: how I kind of how I know it. You know,
Speaker 2: I've played a lot of football here, you know, whether
Speaker 2: it was special teams or on defense, and so I've
Speaker 2: kind of seen my mix of everything, and so just
Speaker 2: kind of teach them, you know, like, all right, this
Speaker 2: is something you can learn from, but you can't harp
Speaker 2: on it and dwell on it, because at the end
Speaker 2: of the day, teams scout and they self scout, so
Speaker 2: you know, we're gonna get the same things that they
Speaker 2: think are the weakness of certain defenses, and they're going
Speaker 2: to try to exploit that. And on special teams, you know,
Speaker 2: if they see a weakness and rush or if they
Speaker 2: can set up a return, look, they're going to set
Speaker 2: up certain things to do that. If they saw that
Speaker 2: it was, you know, a weakness for us. So those
Speaker 2: are things that you just gotta harp on. But at
Speaker 2: the same time, like you got to be getting ready
Speaker 2: for the next opponent, So you don't dwell on the past.
Speaker 2: It's over. He can't do nothing about it. You fix
Speaker 2: what needs to be fixing, you move forward.
Speaker 1: And as a better answer your sixty year right, six
Speaker 1: six years, I mean you've kind of seen it all
Speaker 1: at this point, right, How it's going into this season
Speaker 1: different than every other season you've gone into Personally, Yeah, personally.
Speaker 2: Yes, sir man, I just you know, I I'm not
Speaker 2: on edge, you know, for me personally in my career,
Speaker 2: it's always been like, all right, I'm fighting for like
Speaker 2: a chance to be on a roster, right, I've been
Speaker 2: a practice squad guy for I don't know how many years.
Speaker 2: It's felt like it was forever, So like I just
Speaker 2: kind of went through that mental gymnastics of like I
Speaker 2: have to be perfect because I have to do everything
Speaker 2: to stay here. Right, But now last year, after the
Speaker 2: year I did last year, now it's just about letting
Speaker 2: it loosen, having fun. Man. There's no uptightness or tense
Speaker 2: about me. You know, I'm just to play football and
Speaker 2: I'm here to do it at a high level. You know,
Speaker 2: last year was a glimpse of what I can be,
Speaker 2: and this year is just really letting it go.
Speaker 1: And we're excited to see you let it go. Man,
Speaker 1: We're excited to see what you're gonna bring this season.
Speaker 1: But like I said before, this isn't much about the
Speaker 1: X and o's. It's about talking about the man behind
Speaker 1: the helmet, right. So I want to take it back
Speaker 1: to your hometown.
Speaker 2: Right it's coll of Florida. Yeah.
Speaker 1: What does Pencacola, Florida mean to you?
Speaker 2: In your own words? Love? You know what I mean.
Speaker 2: That's the best way I can describe it. Man. That's
Speaker 2: a place that you know, it surrounds you with love
Speaker 2: when you need it, you know. And my trials and
Speaker 2: tribulations and when I've went through in my life of
Speaker 2: you know, the football aspect of it and the personal
Speaker 2: side of life. You know, the city's embraced me and
Speaker 2: they've loved me, and they continue to give me that
Speaker 2: love even when things weren't going the way I wanted
Speaker 2: it to. And when things did, you know, it was
Speaker 2: the same love. So it's you're gonna get the same
Speaker 2: consistency no matter what you know, good or bad. They're
Speaker 2: gonna be there for you. They're gonna rock with you,
Speaker 2: and they're gonna have you back regardless. So man, it's
Speaker 2: a it's a blessing to be from a it's like
Speaker 2: that where it's just just tight knit and and everybody's
Speaker 2: really pulling for the for the guys to win. Everybody
Speaker 2: wants to see each other win. Man, it's a lot
Speaker 2: of guys from Pensacola. They're in the league. You know,
Speaker 2: you got Martin Emerson in Cleveland, you got Alex Otherwood
Speaker 2: in Chicago. It's it's about Michael Carter and the Jets,
Speaker 2: you know. So it's it's a it's a ton of guys. Now,
Speaker 2: Witherspoon just got drafted to Seattle. So it's a lot
Speaker 2: of guys. You know that the city's pulling forward and
Speaker 2: you know they want you to win. You know that's
Speaker 2: because it's a sense of pride behind that for that place.
Speaker 2: And so I mean, it's beautiful, man, It's it's a
Speaker 2: lot of love.
Speaker 1: You talk about that love. But the guys you just named,
Speaker 1: you nameing some real dogs like you're named some guys
Speaker 1: that got a chip on their shoulder come into the
Speaker 1: league improving a point? What about Pensacola makes y'all like
Speaker 1: that and breeze these dogs that is coming into the NFL.
Speaker 2: Man, it's only the mentality there is, and I mean
Speaker 2: it's it's it's crazy, but it's true. It's like, I mean,
Speaker 2: I grew up in the military home and then my parents.
Speaker 2: I was blessed to have both parents and my life.
Speaker 2: But the reality was my parents couldn't afford to go
Speaker 2: to college for me, to put me into college, you know.
Speaker 2: So the mentality was, if I don't make it in football,
Speaker 2: I don't know how to get school. I don't know
Speaker 2: how I'm going to get another chance out of second education.
Speaker 2: And so the mentality was that I have to make
Speaker 2: it like this because if I don't, I don't know
Speaker 2: what's next. So there was no for most of those. Actually,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna say every one of those guys that I
Speaker 2: just named, there was no plan bow. You know, every
Speaker 2: you know, you hear it from a young age. You
Speaker 2: hear teachers, you hear from coaches. You know you gotta
Speaker 2: have a plan, but you gotta have something to fall
Speaker 2: back on. That was there was no plan B. This
Speaker 2: is a play A that was playing. Gotta work because
Speaker 2: if it don't work, then I don't know what's next.
Speaker 2: You know, you get to that when you get there.
Speaker 2: But right now that's the focus, is just that, And
Speaker 2: I can say that for all of those guys out
Speaker 2: are there, they just they understood, you know that if
Speaker 2: I don't do this this way, then I don't know
Speaker 2: how it's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: And having that understanding and mentioning that you grew up
Speaker 1: in the military family, first, all shout out to your parents,
Speaker 1: thank them for the service. And a man, I also
Speaker 1: grew up military.
Speaker 2: That's what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: The things we have, the comments, and it's funny because
Speaker 1: like almost all my friends other than the ones I
Speaker 1: grew up with in military homes don't really get what
Speaker 1: that means when you say I grew up in a
Speaker 1: military family.
Speaker 2: They know about, you know, the service.
Speaker 1: They know about the accolades and you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: the uniforms and things like that. They don't really know
Speaker 1: what goes into growing up in a military household with
Speaker 1: two parents that have military mindsets, right, speak on that
Speaker 1: a little bit, and also like how that played a
Speaker 1: part in who you are today.
Speaker 2: You know, it was so my parents when they were
Speaker 2: out of the military, well when I was born, my
Speaker 2: parents were out, but my father went from the military.
Speaker 2: He went from the army straight into law enforcement, so
Speaker 2: he became a police officer. So it was very structured,
Speaker 2: you know, like day to day life was very regimented.
Speaker 2: It was you know, you wake up, I woke up.
Speaker 2: I woke up at the same time every day. You know.
Speaker 2: I had school start at seven forty five. I had
Speaker 2: to be up. We lived. I lived in Cantonment, which
Speaker 2: is right outside pens Cola, so it was probably like
Speaker 2: a thirty minute drive of school, so you got to
Speaker 2: get up at least at six thirty.
Speaker 1: At least that was like the latest you can push it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so six am. I'm going from from there, I
Speaker 2: wake up, I make my bed, I go into the bathroom,
Speaker 2: brush my teeth, wash my face. From there, I go
Speaker 2: into the kitchen, I make my lunch. And my dad
Speaker 2: used to have these two coins. We used to do these, uh,
Speaker 2: these little breakfast sandwiches. My dad before he went to
Speaker 2: work or if he was working late at night, he
Speaker 2: would put the sandwich from the freezer in the fridge
Speaker 2: with a thaw. That way, in the morning time I
Speaker 2: could just put it in the microwave and it would
Speaker 2: be ready to go. So I go in there, I
Speaker 2: put that in the microwave and make the lunch. Then
Speaker 2: I'd come back, I get dressed, I'd eat, and then
Speaker 2: I'd grab my lunch and I was out the door,
Speaker 2: like and it was like that every day, right, and
Speaker 2: so like when my dad came back home from work
Speaker 2: and my mom, did you know, the first thing they
Speaker 2: did was check to see the bed was made. So
Speaker 2: my dad would get off at different times depending on
Speaker 2: what shift he worked. My mom she worked, you know,
Speaker 2: a regular nine to five, So like they would usually
Speaker 2: get home before I did because I had practice or
Speaker 2: a baseball practice or football practice. After school. So I
Speaker 2: was getting home at like six, so like they are
Speaker 2: already home, they've already seen it, so I wouldn't. I
Speaker 2: would get a text if something was right, right, like
Speaker 2: the bad gotta be like no wrinkles, it got to
Speaker 2: be tight, right, like the sheets can't have any Like. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it was very old, right, It's very It was very regimented.
Speaker 2: But at the same time, like as a twenty seven
Speaker 2: year old man, now like that shaped how I am
Speaker 2: now as far as like how I go about my
Speaker 2: business personally and professionally, you know, So like it made
Speaker 2: me regimented, and you know, what I do on my
Speaker 2: off days. And then it made me bled into like
Speaker 2: what I do when I'm at the facility, what time
Speaker 2: I'm waking up, How am I taking care of my body?
Speaker 2: What am I doing? What's my routine? So but I'm
Speaker 2: thankful for it. I hated it then. It sucks. It
Speaker 2: was terrible then, but like it paid off when I
Speaker 2: got older.
Speaker 1: And you talk about the things it did for you,
Speaker 1: the way it benefited you as a man as a
Speaker 1: football player. But there's got to be those moments where
Speaker 1: you're like talking to your kids, right, they didn't grow
Speaker 1: up like that they didn't have military backgrounds. It just
Speaker 1: grew up as just normal everyday civilians. Is there anything
Speaker 1: you hear where you're like, dang, that sounds good or man,
Speaker 1: I wish I would have had that as a child,
Speaker 1: because you know, I was in such a strict household.
Speaker 2: I mean I would say yes and no. As much
Speaker 2: as strict as my parents were, there was a level
Speaker 2: of trust, right So like as I became a young adult,
Speaker 2: my parents the least became looser. And so as I
Speaker 2: grew up, you know, they allowed me the freedom to
Speaker 2: do things and be a young kid, you know, make
Speaker 2: mistakes and fall and learn how to get back up
Speaker 2: because at the end of the day, you know, my parents,
Speaker 2: our parents aren't going to be here forever. One day.
Speaker 2: You gotta learn how to walk on you on two feet,
Speaker 2: and so just as much as they had that tight
Speaker 2: at least they also let me learn how to become
Speaker 2: my own man. And it taught me something that you know,
Speaker 2: some people didn't get out of early age. You know,
Speaker 2: some people learn it later in life. You know, I
Speaker 2: was able to, you know, learn self discipline, you know,
Speaker 2: and mature at a much sooner rate than a lot
Speaker 2: of sometimes my parents because just of that growing up
Speaker 2: in that structure that I had, it taught me things
Speaker 2: about myself that I you know, learned that I could
Speaker 2: play in my day to day.
Speaker 1: And it's evident hearing you speak how big your parents
Speaker 1: were in your life, how much of a role they played,
Speaker 1: and especially your mother. I know that you guys have
Speaker 1: a very very close relationship. November twenty twenty one, you know,
Speaker 1: things kind of took a turn. Do you want to
Speaker 1: talk about that a little bit? What happened and what
Speaker 1: you speak on it, and you know how it affected you.
Speaker 2: You know, it's I can tell you exactly how that
Speaker 2: day is. It's like sometimes people go through traumatic experiences
Speaker 2: and they have like a mental block of that experience,
Speaker 2: but like mine is vivid. Like I can remember I
Speaker 2: was we had just got off of practice. We were
Speaker 2: going out to play Vegas that week, and I remember
Speaker 2: my sister called me in Call of Duty. I had
Speaker 2: a monitor I have. It's kind of wild, the traumatic
Speaker 2: It's wild what trauma does. So like I was playing
Speaker 2: Call of Duty and I remember my sister called and
Speaker 2: I was sitting in the stool and she told me,
Speaker 2: you know, Mom's unresponsive, and uh, you know, my first
Speaker 2: reaction was, like my mom's okay, she could be okay,
Speaker 2: Like I see my mother battle everything, you know, as
Speaker 2: like a child, Like there's just mentality in this thought
Speaker 2: process of like our parents are like super superhumans, right,
Speaker 2: they suffer in silence, and you know, and as a child,
Speaker 2: you never know everything that your parents go through. Right,
Speaker 2: That's the part of being a parent is like you
Speaker 2: deal with things on your own, and you don't you
Speaker 2: don't want to bring that on your child, put that
Speaker 2: on your child. So my mother was very strong woman,
Speaker 2: and so you know, it turned out that she wasn't okay,
Speaker 2: you know, and I just remember, you know, briefly, you know,
Speaker 2: I kind of just lost it in the moment. You know,
Speaker 2: that's I'm not hundred miles away from home, you know,
Speaker 2: and I just wanted to be there, Like in that moment,
Speaker 2: I wanted to be with my family, with you know,
Speaker 2: my mother. You know, A part of me thought there
Speaker 2: was something I could do to stop that, you know,
Speaker 2: there's something I could prevent, some way I could prevent
Speaker 2: that from happening, you know, And I think at the
Speaker 2: end of the day, it was just that was just
Speaker 2: her time, you know. I think God had told her
Speaker 2: that she served the purpose and it was time to
Speaker 2: come home, and there was comfort in that, you know.
Speaker 2: But you know, in that moment, you don't think of that.
Speaker 2: You know, it's kind of blotchy. I remembered in spurts
Speaker 2: like what I did and what happened, you know. But
Speaker 2: you know, I never played that PlayStation again. I sold
Speaker 2: it and I sold that monitor. I don't touch it anymore,
Speaker 2: you know. It's just that I don't know what it
Speaker 2: was about it, but I just wouldn't touch it, you know.
Speaker 2: And so that was part of that trauma, that kind
Speaker 2: of I just I didn't want to relive. I didn't
Speaker 2: want to go through it. And I remember flying home,
Speaker 2: and that was probably the hardest part of that whole thing,
Speaker 2: was going home. I remember being on the plane and
Speaker 2: I remember being so close, feeling like I was so
Speaker 2: close up in the air, but being like so far
Speaker 2: away at the same time because I knew what I
Speaker 2: was going home too. And that was hard. That was
Speaker 2: tough because at that time in my life it seemed
Speaker 2: like nothing was going right for me, right like the
Speaker 2: year before in twenty twenty, like it was COVID and
Speaker 2: I ended up coming in and playing defensively on football
Speaker 2: side of it, and I was playing well, and like
Speaker 2: I got to start against Dallas, and I balled out
Speaker 2: against Dallas and I had a great game and ended
Speaker 2: up starting the rest of the year and play well
Speaker 2: and played in the playoffs against Tom Brady. And so
Speaker 2: from the football side of it, I felt like I
Speaker 2: had got over that hump that I had been facing
Speaker 2: for four years, you know, like that man, he's just
Speaker 2: a guy we could plug in here and there. I'm like, nah,
Speaker 2: like I finally showed that, like I'm more than and
Speaker 2: what I got labeled as, you know, maybe to the public.
Speaker 2: And so from that point forward, when I get to
Speaker 2: twenty twenty one and I'm cut again and I'm right
Speaker 2: back to square one. After I finished on such a
Speaker 2: hot note, I'm like, what more can I do? Like
Speaker 2: what more do I have to do to show that,
Speaker 2: like I belong here? I know I belong here, But
Speaker 2: what more do I have to prove? I'm not proving
Speaker 2: anything to me? I notice, right, last year wasn't a
Speaker 2: shock to me, Like I knew to who. I knew
Speaker 2: who who I was, Like I knew I said it.
Speaker 2: You give me a full seventeen, I'm gonna show you
Speaker 2: what I can do, you know, and like I got that,
Speaker 2: and so it was just going through that right back
Speaker 2: over again where I'm cutting. I'm just fighting for my
Speaker 2: life again, and it's just like I don't know what
Speaker 2: tomorrow is gonna bring, and then you get that on
Speaker 2: top of it. It was it was hard, man, It
Speaker 2: was a lot of you know, that was really the
Speaker 2: first time in my life where like not emotional person.
Speaker 2: I'm very introverted, Like I don't express my feelings a lot.
Speaker 2: I think that just comes with being a man, right,
Speaker 2: you know, there's that stigma of like men, you're not
Speaker 2: supposed to be you're supposed to be tough and you're
Speaker 2: not supposed to be vulnerable. And like I grew up
Speaker 2: like that because my dad's like that, you know, militant,
Speaker 2: you know. So it's very like you deal with it internally.
Speaker 2: And that was the first time I didn't internalize things,
Speaker 2: you know, I just kind of let my feelings out there,
Speaker 2: how I was feeling and what I was going through
Speaker 2: mentally and emotionally. And you know, I can just say
Speaker 2: like I had a village. It took a village, you know,
Speaker 2: and I had a village that really just helped me.
Speaker 2: There was a lot of days where I cried, a
Speaker 2: lot of days where I was sad, and I was
Speaker 2: angry and I was frustrated. You know, you can even
Speaker 2: throw it in depressed in there, but you know I
Speaker 2: had a village of people that you know, really got
Speaker 2: me out of that tough time.
Speaker 1: You talk about that moment where you let you release, right,
Speaker 1: you let your emotions go. And it's something admittedly, like
Speaker 1: you said, it's not something you really doing. Like you said,
Speaker 1: it's a man thing. It's only a man thing. It's
Speaker 1: a black man thing where our dad's teachers. Hey listen,
Speaker 1: nobody gonna cry for you, nobody gonna feel bad for you.
Speaker 1: This life is tough. Suck it up and shake it off. Right.
Speaker 1: So when you have that moment where you say, okay,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna let loose like this is too much?
Speaker 2: Yeah, what did that do for you?
Speaker 1: Man? Did that teach you okay, it's okay to release
Speaker 1: this emotion? Did it just feel good or did it
Speaker 1: just add to everything that you were already going through?
Speaker 2: Nah? Man it it honestly was the best reliever I've
Speaker 2: ever had. And I say that because I don't even
Speaker 2: think in the moment I was really crying or or
Speaker 2: emotional about just that. I think all the emotion that
Speaker 2: was let go was everything that I felt that I
Speaker 2: just never said or handled or addressed. You know, it
Speaker 2: took me to become twenty five years old to really realize,
Speaker 2: like all the things that I was going through and
Speaker 2: I just never addressed. You know, it goes back to
Speaker 2: the story you hear where you hear you have a
Speaker 2: boy and a girl, right and as a girl when
Speaker 2: she's a child, and a boy when they're a child,
Speaker 2: when the girl falls off the bike, you know, the
Speaker 2: parents say, you know, it's okay to cry, you know,
Speaker 2: it's all right, let it out. And then as a boy,
Speaker 2: you know, when you fall off that bike, you know,
Speaker 2: big boys on cross suck it up, you know, get
Speaker 2: right back to it. And so that's the mentality that
Speaker 2: I had and I carried that my entire life. So
Speaker 2: like going undrafted, you know, breaking my back in high school,
Speaker 2: you know, losing friends that I've lost, you know that
Speaker 2: I've seen, you know, whether that was going to jail
Speaker 2: or being killed, losing family members. That was something that
Speaker 2: when that happened, all of that came out at one time,
Speaker 2: every bit of it. Like it wasn't just my mother,
Speaker 2: like that was the root of it. But I think
Speaker 2: all the pain that I kind of felt and internalized
Speaker 2: all came out, man, And it was just was like
Speaker 2: a weight off my shoulder, man. And I just remember.
Speaker 2: One of the greatest things I remember is like my
Speaker 2: mother used to always tell me, you know, you never
Speaker 2: questioned God and what He's doing. And I remember when
Speaker 2: she when I got to know she passed, like I
Speaker 2: was like like why, you know, you know, I think
Speaker 2: the human side of us always asks why why does
Speaker 2: this happened? You know. I try to be a good man.
Speaker 2: I try to do things right away. I try to
Speaker 2: treat people well, you know. And it's just like you
Speaker 2: keep knocking me down when I'm getting back up and
Speaker 2: I'm fighting, but it's like, I don't like what am
Speaker 2: I fighting for? If you're just gonna knock me down again,
Speaker 2: you know, you're gonna take something that was so dear
Speaker 2: to me. And you know, I questioned that and that
Speaker 2: was where my flesh was weak, you know, and I
Speaker 2: had to you know, get that strength from my back
Speaker 2: in my spirit, and that came from other people you know,
Speaker 2: came from teammates, It came from you know, coaches, It
Speaker 2: came from teachers that I've had, It came from family members, friends,
Speaker 2: you know. Like, man like, I didn't get through that
Speaker 2: by myself, and I didn't have the year I had
Speaker 2: last year by myself. You know, it was it was
Speaker 2: a collective, man was It was a collective.
Speaker 1: And you know, you talk about not being able to
Speaker 1: really express yourself, and in that moment, you felt good,
Speaker 1: You felt released everything that you have been holding up
Speaker 1: and dealing with. You were able to let go. You know,
Speaker 1: not a lot of times, especially as a man, as
Speaker 1: an NFL player, right you this big tough dude, do
Speaker 1: people go about asking you like, hey you okay today?
Speaker 2: Man?
Speaker 1: Are you doing good? So like, not only do I
Speaker 1: want to ask you how are you right now? But
Speaker 1: what have you done to find ways to be able
Speaker 1: to now express yourself? Have you been able to get
Speaker 1: more comfortable after that?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I mean one thing, so like the biggest thing
Speaker 2: that I did post my mother passing, it was like
Speaker 2: I went to therapy. Yeah, and I started talking to
Speaker 2: a therapist and I got over that stigma of like,
Speaker 2: you know, you don't need to go talk to a therapist,
Speaker 2: Like therapyst is associated with crazy people, right, like people
Speaker 2: that have mental illness. That's the stigma, Right, that's the stigma. Like,
Speaker 2: that's the stigma, and it's far from that. You know,
Speaker 2: people that need an outlet. Right. It's hard to go
Speaker 2: to people where you think it's a bias to talk
Speaker 2: about things, and you know, especially in this industry that
Speaker 2: we're in, Like it's hard as a man to go
Speaker 2: to another man in his business and be like, yo,
Speaker 2: like I'm hurting, right, I'm hurting. I can't tell you
Speaker 2: exactly why I'm hurting, but I'm hurting because you have
Speaker 2: days like that. And the best thing that I did
Speaker 2: was go talk to somebody that had no bias. They
Speaker 2: didn't know me, they didn't know me from Adam, right,
Speaker 2: and they just listen. You know, a lot of times
Speaker 2: we get caught up and wanted to respond to people,
Speaker 2: and a lot of people just want you to listen,
Speaker 2: like they just need a ear, right. And so I
Speaker 2: got that and I was able to just let my
Speaker 2: heart go on things that you know, were on me,
Speaker 2: you know, and that changed like the trajectory of how
Speaker 2: I go about expressing now, Like me and my girlfriend.
Speaker 2: Now we're very transparent about how we communicate with each other,
Speaker 2: and like, if something's bothered me five years ago, I
Speaker 2: would have never said anything about it. I would have
Speaker 2: dealt with it internally and then kind of just moved
Speaker 2: on from it. But in reality, I was never getting
Speaker 2: over it. It was just kind of compartmentalized. And then
Speaker 2: it gets to a point where now it's just like
Speaker 2: it's too big of an issue. So I got to
Speaker 2: point out things will bother me, you know, you talk
Speaker 2: about them, you know, and you express that if I'm sad,
Speaker 2: like I'm sad, you know, and I don't really want
Speaker 2: to talk. If I need some time, I say that.
Speaker 2: But like that's where I've gotten to the point now
Speaker 2: where it's just helped me just basic human communication, you know,
Speaker 2: because at the end of the day, you know, men
Speaker 2: or women, you're not supposed to go through things alone,
Speaker 2: right like you weren't created to be alone. That's why
Speaker 2: you know, he was created from Adam, you know, you know,
Speaker 2: you built for relationship. Nobody was meant to be alone.
Speaker 2: And so when I really realized that, you know, I
Speaker 2: started you know, leaning on people, and that's okay, you know,
Speaker 2: that's what we're here for. Because the day we all
Speaker 2: brothers and sisters, you know, under the one true person.
Speaker 2: So amen, at the end of the day, that's what
Speaker 2: we That's what I did, and you know it's helped
Speaker 2: me tremendously, you know. And so now you know, I
Speaker 2: have my days. Any human does. Anybody that goes through things,
Speaker 2: they have their days. And so but I know what
Speaker 2: those days. I don't go through them by myself, and
Speaker 2: I don't have to go through them by myself. You know,
Speaker 2: I got people that you know are there, and.
Speaker 1: That support system is everything. You talk about your family,
Speaker 1: you know, all the people that were there for you,
Speaker 1: your faith, but also you have a team behind you, right,
Speaker 1: you have coaches, we have this team, we have Washington here,
Speaker 1: this fan base. What was that like having your teammates
Speaker 1: just rally behind you, having coach rivera be you know,
Speaker 1: almost like another father figure to you within all of that.
Speaker 1: Talk about that a little bit and with having that
Speaker 1: team aspect of the support, how that helped you get through?
Speaker 2: Oh man, it was it was beautiful. Man. I remember
Speaker 2: you know, the first two people I saw, you know,
Speaker 2: because this is this is how crazy I'm wired. I
Speaker 2: found out the next day. I found out that night
Speaker 2: that my mother had passed the way I'm wired. I
Speaker 2: woke up the next day and tried to go to work.
Speaker 2: I try to go to I try to go to work,
Speaker 2: and I just remember I couldn't do it. And I
Speaker 2: remember the first two people I saw outside of that
Speaker 2: were Kendall and Danny. They came to my house, you know,
Speaker 2: and they just sat with me. They ain't talk much,
Speaker 2: they just sat with me because I ain't have much
Speaker 2: to say, and they just sat with me. And you know,
Speaker 2: that was just that presence of like them being there,
Speaker 2: and you know, that family environment of them just you know,
Speaker 2: embracing me. And even the fans man, like, dude, man,
Speaker 2: it's been They don't get enough credit for like what's
Speaker 2: happened with me, but like I will tell you personally,
Speaker 2: like man, like I paid attention a lot to what's
Speaker 2: been said by those fans, and well they have a
Speaker 2: lot of days where I didn't know if I was
Speaker 2: really good enough to do what I'm doing, Like they
Speaker 2: kept me going. So like it's been loved. Man, it's
Speaker 2: been beautiful, and I'm super grateful. I'm blessed, you know,
Speaker 2: just to have been blessed with, you know, the people
Speaker 2: that have been put in my life. Man, that's awesome
Speaker 2: to hear.
Speaker 1: Man, And I mean your story. You know, practice squad,
Speaker 1: on a team, practice squad, on the team, practice quad,
Speaker 1: on the team, dealing with all of that, right while
Speaker 1: still going through life things that you had mentioned, right,
Speaker 1: losing your mother and all that, and then to get
Speaker 1: to a moment like last year where you get named
Speaker 1: to the Pro Bowl. You have that moment, very very
Speaker 1: emotional video where you know, coach Ron tells.
Speaker 2: You, hey, man, you did it.
Speaker 1: You made it. Now only did you make it, but
Speaker 1: you deserved it. Tell us about that moment because you
Speaker 1: overcome an emotion. Just talk to us about that. Walkers
Speaker 1: through that.
Speaker 2: That was like you said, it was emotional, man, Like
Speaker 2: that was the said. There's a video on my Instagram.
Speaker 2: I said in twenty nineteen in an interview that I
Speaker 2: was going to go to Pro Bowl. Wow. Until that
Speaker 2: nineteen I was on prize squad that year. I didn't
Speaker 2: even play like that. And then you fast forward a
Speaker 2: few years ago or to last year, and here I
Speaker 2: am in the Pro Bowl. So it just goes to
Speaker 2: show man that like I knew who I was going
Speaker 2: to be before anybody else did, right, you know, like
Speaker 2: when God says you got to walk the path that's narrow,
Speaker 2: like you gotta walk it, and whatever path that might be,
Speaker 2: that's that's your path. You gotta walk it. I did,
Speaker 2: you know, And sometimes I might have waivered it. I
Speaker 2: might have stumbled and even fel but like I got
Speaker 2: back up and kept walking it. And it just goes
Speaker 2: to show man that like it starts with you first.
Speaker 2: And so just having all that and then in that
Speaker 2: moment him telling me that it was just it was emotional, man,
Speaker 2: because it was like I've been told know so many times, right,
Speaker 2: I failed so many times, and like in failure, I
Speaker 2: found like good and I found something to like keep
Speaker 2: me going and that was it, you know, And that
Speaker 2: was That's that moment that like the most gratifying thing
Speaker 2: that I've experienced in football. Was like, yeah, man, like
Speaker 2: you overcame like God looking at like I told you,
Speaker 2: I told you just keep walking, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 2: Like that's what it was for me. And just thinking
Speaker 2: to my mother in that moment as well, and just
Speaker 2: you know everything that she used to say, you know,
Speaker 2: she used to text me even when I was on
Speaker 2: the mother is just thing. They know when they don't,
Speaker 2: they know it's something wrong. Even when you don't say
Speaker 2: nothing that she did and she takes She used to
Speaker 2: text me all the time, just you know what God
Speaker 2: has for you, no man can stop. And that's all
Speaker 2: she would say. And it was true, you know, And
Speaker 2: so I just the emotion of that and you know
Speaker 2: everything that I've been through, it just you let it go. Man,
Speaker 2: It's okay to feel I was feeling in that moment.
Speaker 1: And as we rap, you mentioned your mom and you
Speaker 1: know she wasn't around for to share that moment with you.
Speaker 1: But what do you think she would have told you
Speaker 1: in that moment if you could have called her right
Speaker 1: after that, what do you think she would have said
Speaker 1: to you?
Speaker 2: Uh, that's kind of crazy. I ain't never I've never
Speaker 2: been asked that before.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: I think she would have just said, you know, I'm
Speaker 2: proud of you and that I always knew this was
Speaker 2: going to be you know what you would do, you know,
Speaker 2: and that God's been with you the whole time, and
Speaker 2: uh yeah, yeah, yeah, I think she would definitely just
Speaker 2: say she was proud of me and that she loved me.
Speaker 2: You know that's so she was.
Speaker 1: We have no doubt about that. Man. Well let me
Speaker 1: tell you, man, your command is family. We're proud of you. Man,
Speaker 1: We're happy to see what you got going. We got
Speaker 1: Philly week four. Baby, it's coming up, right, you got
Speaker 1: ties to Philly because that was your first team. Really, right,
Speaker 1: what do you feel about this matchup? It's a divisional match?
Speaker 1: What makes this kind of game? It's a little more
Speaker 1: important than all the other games. I know, it means
Speaker 1: a little something more to you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was the first one that I got cut.
Speaker 2: So it's always personal, man, I mean every game that
Speaker 2: I play is personally. I went and drafted, so thirty
Speaker 2: two teams didn't think I was good enough to you know,
Speaker 2: be drafted. So in the in the back of my mind,
Speaker 2: like it's personal with everybody, but this is where I started.
Speaker 2: This is where I started at. So there's always that
Speaker 2: chip on my shoulder. There's always that feeling of like
Speaker 2: it should have kept me. Yeah, should you know? And
Speaker 2: so I always going to this mentality in this game.
Speaker 2: With that mentality, you know, I'm pissed off, and I
Speaker 2: think everybody, especially after last week, it's pissed off, bad
Speaker 2: tasting their mouth. I know, I got one, you know,
Speaker 2: and so you just got to use that and funnel
Speaker 2: that energy in the right direction, you know. And that's
Speaker 2: just going out there and doing our job at a
Speaker 2: high level of every play, you know, not trying to
Speaker 2: do too much, and just being who you are, being
Speaker 2: a player you.
Speaker 1: Are, Jeremy. Man, we can't wait to see what you
Speaker 1: do weekfore, we can't wait to see what you do
Speaker 1: for the rest of your career. Man, what a great story.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for being candid with us, man,
Speaker 1: being open with us, talking to us about things that
Speaker 1: I know aren't always hard to talk about. But that's
Speaker 1: the beauty of this podcast, right Next Man Up is
Speaker 1: being able to hear those stories. And I think that
Speaker 1: we all know you a little better now, and I
Speaker 1: hope you feel good being able to talk about that.
Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen of Brian Coble Junr here with Jeremy Reeves,
Speaker 1: our guy, my brother Man. This is Next Man Up
Speaker 1: Podcast and until next time, we'll be back with more
Speaker 1: of your favorite commanded players. Jeremy, thank you so much
Speaker 1: for your time, Brother, appreciate it.
Speaker 2: You guys.
Speaker 1: Command this family. If you love this we have way
Speaker 1: more for you. Not only do we have a ton
Speaker 1: of podcasts for you to check out on our YouTube page,
Speaker 1: but this Sunday we will be behind Enemy Lives. We
Speaker 1: will be out in Philly for Command Center Game Day Lives,
Speaker 1: so make sure you tune in what we will be
Speaker 1: on the field in Philly giving you everything you need
Speaker 1: to know about your Week four matchup against the Philadelphia Eagles.
Speaker 1: Beat us there, don't meet us there