Speaker 1: So I joked around with this next guest that he's
Speaker 1: the Dosekis guy, that the most interesting man in the world.
Speaker 1: He's only forty one years old, yet he has lived
Speaker 1: an extraordinary life. He has served as a Green Beret
Speaker 1: doing tours in Afghanistan in Iraq. Then he went on
Speaker 1: to the University of Texas to play on the football
Speaker 1: team as a walk on at age nine, while also
Speaker 1: serving in the National Guard at the same time. Then
Speaker 1: he went on to play in the NFL for the
Speaker 1: Seattle Seahawks. I mean, the guys accomplished so much, lived
Speaker 1: so many interesting lives, and then got into acting as well,
Speaker 1: which we'll get into in the conversation. And then he
Speaker 1: had this other interesting moment in his life. He wrote
Speaker 1: this open letter to Colin Kaepernick and the Army Times,
Speaker 1: which then led to Colin Kaepernick inviting him to fly
Speaker 1: out and have a conversation with him. It's also interesting
Speaker 1: what he's done after leaving the NFL, after retiring from
Speaker 1: the military. He started this incredible organization called Merging Vets
Speaker 1: and Players, and it marries these worlds that he's lived
Speaker 1: in kind of trying to find your purpose in life,
Speaker 1: and that's what this organization is geared to, and then
Speaker 1: of this incredible organization, he created a movie. It was
Speaker 1: his directional debut recently, this movie that is out called
Speaker 1: m v P. I'm telling you he has just lived
Speaker 1: such an interesting life, a life of purpose, doing so
Speaker 1: much for our country. Just a truly incredible and inspiring guy.
Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed this conversation with an ape boyar
Speaker 1: to me where I feel like you're the doset guy,
Speaker 1: the most interesting man in the world. You quite literally
Speaker 1: have one of the most interesting life stories. Green Bay
Speaker 1: College Football, NFL. Hollywan, Why do you think you've been
Speaker 1: able to navigate so many industries? I don't know how
Speaker 1: well I've been able to navigate them all, but I
Speaker 1: definitely have had a strong interests in all of them.
Speaker 1: And I mean to be completely honest. When I was
Speaker 1: when I was in my early twenties and made decision
Speaker 1: to join the military, before I've been doing football, before
Speaker 1: really pursuing film and television all that stuff, I didn't
Speaker 1: have a ton of confidence. I mean, those are things,
Speaker 1: but I wouldn't have actually genuinely attempted or believe that
Speaker 1: I could do without that time in the military. Um
Speaker 1: for various reasons. I mean it first of all, taught
Speaker 1: me how to how to work. That taught me how
Speaker 1: to uh communicate with people and sort of do my
Speaker 1: best to understand whether it's a culture or an industry
Speaker 1: or something that I don't really know anything about. Um.
Speaker 1: But but also it just developed confidence that you know,
Speaker 1: why not go try these things? Why not fully pursue them?
Speaker 1: I mean, life is short. Uh. If it's something that
Speaker 1: you're passionate about and interested in, like what are you doing? Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, not going after that? But I think that's
Speaker 1: I think that's crazy if you're if you were able
Speaker 1: to you know, if you have uh the access and
Speaker 1: an opportunity. Uh, who cares if you fail at the
Speaker 1: end of the day. Really, So those are things that
Speaker 1: that kind of lessons that I learned along the way
Speaker 1: and things that I didn't necessarily I mean I didn't
Speaker 1: know at twenty three before I signed on the doggline
Speaker 1: and took the oath, you know, to join the military. Well,
Speaker 1: and what's interesting is before you joined the military, you
Speaker 1: had moved out to Los Angeles, You're trying to get
Speaker 1: involved in show business. You get a call from your
Speaker 1: mom about nine eleven watching what was happening with the
Speaker 1: World Trade Center, and it seems like that's sort of
Speaker 1: changed the trajectory of your future. It made you look
Speaker 1: at the world a little bit differently, different career ambitions,
Speaker 1: sort of talk about how that changed the trajectory of
Speaker 1: your life. Yeah, I mean, I think nine eleven was
Speaker 1: such a defining moment for so many of us. And
Speaker 1: obviously that definition varies on who you talk to and
Speaker 1: and their relationship to that day. I was in I
Speaker 1: was living in Los Angeles at the time, far from
Speaker 1: New York, um, and far from really feeling connected to
Speaker 1: anything that was going on in the world outside of
Speaker 1: my bubble. Yeah. I grew up in the San Francisco
Speaker 1: Bay area. Um, my parents were really hard working people,
Speaker 1: you know. They they believe the first two in their
Speaker 1: families to to finish college, and um, you know, my
Speaker 1: my mother getting PhD at UC Berkeley in an engineering
Speaker 1: field that was that was definitely mostly male dominated. And
Speaker 1: um my dad was a race horse, vetinarian and Golden
Speaker 1: gate fields out there and just really really hard working people.
Speaker 1: And for whatever reason, I mean, you know, we all
Speaker 1: rebel in some way. My rebellion of choice was just
Speaker 1: too uh, you know, not work hard to sort of
Speaker 1: like I think I had a lot of talent um
Speaker 1: and you know, I always tested well, but I didn't
Speaker 1: do well in school, if that makes sense. I just didn't.
Speaker 1: I didn't. I didn't apply myself and I didn't I
Speaker 1: didn't do it was necessary. And also I didn't know
Speaker 1: what I wanted to do. I didn't even know what
Speaker 1: I was into. And after high school I moved to
Speaker 1: San Diego. I worked on a fishing boat for a while,
Speaker 1: and I enjoyed it because I was making my own way,
Speaker 1: kind of doing it my way. Um, but I didn't,
Speaker 1: you know, I wasn't really ready for college. I took
Speaker 1: some firefighting classes, was sort of interested in that, but
Speaker 1: not really. It was like, that's an honorable job. I'm nineteen,
Speaker 1: I'm a kid. I don't feel like I have an
Speaker 1: honorable bone in my body. I can't be a firefighter. Um.
Speaker 1: And so I just sort of turned away from that too,
Speaker 1: and then eventually found myself in Los Angeles, as he said,
Speaker 1: interested in in show business and film and television, like storytelling.
Speaker 1: It was something that I thought it was cool. It
Speaker 1: was like, man, I don't have a cool story myself,
Speaker 1: but if I could tell other people's stories, you know,
Speaker 1: how cool is that? And that's where that sort of
Speaker 1: initially came from. Um, and then happened. I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: I was. It was very early in the morning. I
Speaker 1: was living in this little, small apartment and I answered
Speaker 1: the phone and with my mom on the other line,
Speaker 1: and she's, you know, just telling me to turn the
Speaker 1: TV on. And I flipped it on, and you know,
Speaker 1: I saw what so many of us saw. One tower,
Speaker 1: I believe was already down, the other one was engulfed
Speaker 1: in flames, and it was just like what am I
Speaker 1: looking at? Kind of had a loss for words, like
Speaker 1: I feel like I am right now. Even every time
Speaker 1: I try to take myself back to that day and
Speaker 1: envision that, and I'm just sitting there watching it on
Speaker 1: a nineteen TV screen. I cannot imagine being there. Um,
Speaker 1: it was just this shock and like what the one
Speaker 1: of the first things that really hit me is like
Speaker 1: what are you doing with your life? Like? Who? What
Speaker 1: are you a part of? Do you even have a
Speaker 1: care in the world? I mean, do you like you're here?
Speaker 1: We're all here. I and I even believe that this
Speaker 1: at the time. Amazingly We're out here for some type
Speaker 1: of reason, but what is your reason? Like, what what
Speaker 1: are you doing? Look around, look at yourself and figure
Speaker 1: out where you can do something, uh, somewhat positive or impactful.
Speaker 1: And eventually that that uh, that took me overseas and
Speaker 1: doing some relief work after a couple of years of
Speaker 1: kind of just searching, you know, traveling is whenever I
Speaker 1: could work odd jobs, save my money up and then
Speaker 1: go back backing somewhere and just try to figure out
Speaker 1: where is my place in the world. And I ended
Speaker 1: up I was doing some relief work in the Darfur
Speaker 1: and it really changed my life. That trip and being
Speaker 1: around people that actolutely had nothing. But we're just so
Speaker 1: enamored with Americans and so grateful that someone would leave
Speaker 1: their country of relative safety as we have in the
Speaker 1: United States to go to Sudan and Chad and the
Speaker 1: dark of her and working a refugee camp, even though
Speaker 1: it was just for a short trip, but it you know,
Speaker 1: they were so grateful that And I wasn't doing anything special.
Speaker 1: I was just um helping pass out food rations, playing
Speaker 1: soccer with the kids, you know, assisting in the medical centers,
Speaker 1: like simple stuff. Anybody could have done. And it was
Speaker 1: towards the end of that trip that I got I
Speaker 1: got malaria, and this local family put me up and
Speaker 1: and and I'm lying on this cop they set up
Speaker 1: for me in this in this in their mud hut,
Speaker 1: and listening to the radio they put next to the
Speaker 1: cot and the Second Battle of Felujah was playing on
Speaker 1: the BBC network, And it was like a sign for me.
Speaker 1: It was just I don't know, I don't know if
Speaker 1: it was divine intervention or just luck or randomness that
Speaker 1: that this moment and where I was at physically and
Speaker 1: mentally kind of came together for this perfect which just
Speaker 1: like I had clarity of what I was to do
Speaker 1: next all of a sudden, and it was it was
Speaker 1: gonna was gonna join the military. So I came home
Speaker 1: and signed up, you know, and I went to a
Speaker 1: refugee camp when I in Rwanda. And you know, saying
Speaker 1: stuff like that really does shape the way you look
Speaker 1: at life, shape that you know, you come back to
Speaker 1: America and it just really changes the way you think
Speaker 1: and you just see life. You know, it creates a
Speaker 1: different prism in which you view the world. You know,
Speaker 1: So you talked about you know, you went then joined
Speaker 1: the military. When you came back to the United States,
Speaker 1: you went through the Army Special Forces eteen X ray program.
Speaker 1: Is that correct? And then so talk about that because
Speaker 1: my understanding is, you know, it took you went through
Speaker 1: about a year and a half for the Special Forces
Speaker 1: selection process, something that only handful handful of people were
Speaker 1: able to do. That must have been incredibly intense. Then
Speaker 1: do you remember that and then kind of going through
Speaker 1: that process yet you know it wasn't I mean, it
Speaker 1: was intense, and I think I think some of the
Speaker 1: more intense parts of it were just the fact that
Speaker 1: I was now, you know, in the military at all.
Speaker 1: I mean, to go from never really considering it genuinely, uh,
Speaker 1: that I would do this with my life, and feeling
Speaker 1: feeling pretty disconnected from that world, uh, and just not
Speaker 1: understanding what it would be like. And you know, you
Speaker 1: see what you see in movies and TV shows, and
Speaker 1: you hear what you hear, whether it's through the news
Speaker 1: or through you know, second hand third hand accounts, not
Speaker 1: not so much people that have been there, especially at
Speaker 1: that time. I mean, this was in two thousand and four, so, um,
Speaker 1: we've only been at war for a little over two years.
Speaker 1: Maybe into three years, and so I didn't I didn't
Speaker 1: know anybody that was on active duty that had been
Speaker 1: to Iraq Afghanistan, like I didn't know who to talk
Speaker 1: to you like to ask. I just didn't know much
Speaker 1: about it. But I just felt compelled to go do
Speaker 1: something and uh, you know, fight for those they can't
Speaker 1: fight for themselves, much like I experienced with those people
Speaker 1: and in the Darfur Um. Of course, during the military,
Speaker 1: quite different than volunteering at a refugee camp. Uh. So,
Speaker 1: I you know, I'd read about the Special Forces, the
Speaker 1: at Extray program as you mentioned, and I read about
Speaker 1: the Special Forces mission. The Green Berets motto was Dave
Speaker 1: press Alibert, which meant to free the oppressed, And you
Speaker 1: know that that sort of spoke to me like nothing
Speaker 1: else really did. Within the military construct, I was doing
Speaker 1: some research and just trying to figure out, like where
Speaker 1: what's going to be the right job for me, Like
Speaker 1: what is going to make the most sense um And
Speaker 1: beyond the idea of being in an elite unit such
Speaker 1: as that, um, it was the piece of the mission
Speaker 1: that the Special Forces in the Army, what they actually do.
Speaker 1: There was a humanitarian element to the job. Foreign Internal
Speaker 1: defense is what it's called. And essentially, I mean when
Speaker 1: you go over there to Iraq, Afghanistan, your your training, UM,
Speaker 1: you're often living with UM and fighting alongside host nationals
Speaker 1: so Afghans or Iraqis depending on where you are, and
Speaker 1: they in a sense become your brothers in arms as well.
Speaker 1: And it's UM. It's it's a very different experience than
Speaker 1: much of the military was a part of at the time.
Speaker 1: You know, over the year, the years, the two decades
Speaker 1: really of war, much of the military sort of adopted
Speaker 1: what the special forces were already doing, that we're working
Speaker 1: with partner forces UM. And eventually as that mission developed
Speaker 1: into a train advised assist mission, you know that they
Speaker 1: were they were doing a lot of what the special
Speaker 1: forces were doing from the very beginning, and the special
Speaker 1: forces had been doing since Vietnam really UM. But but
Speaker 1: that part of it really kind of sucked out to me, like,
Speaker 1: all right, well, if I'm in Iraq, if I'm gonna
Speaker 1: Afghanistan and I'm doing this job and I'm carrying out
Speaker 1: these orders and I'm I'm at war, uh, at least
Speaker 1: I'm doing so alongside the people that are going to
Speaker 1: be living there. The people that are trying to rebuild
Speaker 1: their own country as well, and that, UM, that was
Speaker 1: of interest to me because I was, like, I mean,
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, that was I think
Speaker 1: part of the ultimate goal, like instilling some pride in
Speaker 1: those in those people and trying to give them a
Speaker 1: fighting chance to defend their own country. Of course, as
Speaker 1: we all know now, that comes with a great amount
Speaker 1: of complication, and UM, it's certainly not an easy mission
Speaker 1: and the lack of resources and honestly, like just that
Speaker 1: the lack of um pride that a lot of them
Speaker 1: have much different than we do you have here in
Speaker 1: the States. It was just an extremely challenging mission, and UM,
Speaker 1: I definitely want everybody listening that was a part of
Speaker 1: that to understand, Um, feel like you did your best
Speaker 1: and we get everything that we could, but it was
Speaker 1: just one of those things that is so much of
Speaker 1: it is out of our hands and I don't want
Speaker 1: to devolved into that conversation necessarily, but um, you know,
Speaker 1: but I mean that was for me working alongside those
Speaker 1: people that that Special Forces mission really stuck out to
Speaker 1: me and really spoke to me, and that's, um, that
Speaker 1: was what I wanted to do. That was. It was
Speaker 1: like kind of special forces of bust for me, quick
Speaker 1: break more with Nate. Do you feel like doing all this,
Speaker 1: I have found my mission in life? Because you had
Speaker 1: previously talked about you know, kind of originally when you're
Speaker 1: a younger, a young man, not really you know, kind
Speaker 1: of feeling like you didn't know what your mission in
Speaker 1: life was and sort of just figuring that out. Did
Speaker 1: this just sort of solidify that this is my mission
Speaker 1: in life? I think definitely. At the time at least
Speaker 1: it was it was like, well, at least for now,
Speaker 1: I feel, um, I feel like I do have a
Speaker 1: specific mission, and I feel like you have a responsibility.
Speaker 1: I mean that's part of what I needed that I
Speaker 1: didn't know was I needed some responsibility beyond taking care
Speaker 1: of myself. I needed something to um to feel like
Speaker 1: I was building, uh, you know, with a team or
Speaker 1: or like a machine that I was an essential part of.
Speaker 1: And like if I wasn't there, if this cog called
Speaker 1: Nate was missing, the train went a run on time,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Like, I think that we
Speaker 1: all seek that, whether we know it or not. In
Speaker 1: some way, we want to feel like the matter and
Speaker 1: belong and all that stuff. I just didn't know that's
Speaker 1: what it was. And so at this time, you know,
Speaker 1: for the first time, really especially once I had the
Speaker 1: opportunity to go overseas and you're part of this twelve
Speaker 1: man team. Um. You know, there's a lot of responsibility
Speaker 1: on your shoulders. You've got the men on your left
Speaker 1: and right that you have to rely on, but they
Speaker 1: rely on you as well, UM. And you just felt
Speaker 1: that connection to something figured than yourself and that yet
Speaker 1: that strong sense of purpose, um, that I hadn't felt before.
Speaker 1: And you know, you developed this tightness with these people.
Speaker 1: I mean, I remember some of the conversations you have,
Speaker 1: for instance, on my first deployment to Iraq with people
Speaker 1: that I barely knew before we left, and you know,
Speaker 1: within weeks were sitting around the firepit up on the
Speaker 1: rooftop between missions and We're talking about We're sharing things
Speaker 1: I've never shared with anybody else before, about my you know,
Speaker 1: my my path, my future, my dreams, what uh what
Speaker 1: what I what I what I care about, why I'm here.
Speaker 1: I mean things that I'm much more open and vulnerable
Speaker 1: with today, willing to talk about with almost anybody. But
Speaker 1: you know at the time that was just not something
Speaker 1: I ever really did. You just feel this bond um
Speaker 1: that is unbreakable, not really and uh and it's crazy
Speaker 1: because some of these people even today, like I don't
Speaker 1: I won't talk to them for years and then we
Speaker 1: reconnect and it's like that, there's never that kind of
Speaker 1: small talk, awkward catchup. It's just like right back where
Speaker 1: we were, um, which is really really crazy. So so
Speaker 1: that was just, you know, that was something that I
Speaker 1: never really had before. I mean I thought, you know,
Speaker 1: I played sports growing up, and of course you've got
Speaker 1: your teams and all that, but even at the high
Speaker 1: school level, it's just very different. I mean, you're a
Speaker 1: high school kid too, UM, but there's just not that
Speaker 1: that level of connection and ending understanding that everything you
Speaker 1: do on a daily basis work wise too, it's life
Speaker 1: or death. Like the stakes are so high. I mean
Speaker 1: you have to execute, um. You got to do your
Speaker 1: job at the at the highest level in the in
Speaker 1: the most efficient way possible, UM, in the most creative
Speaker 1: way possible. At times as well, because of the lack
Speaker 1: of resources and UM, sometimes the mission that's ticketd to
Speaker 1: us isn't super clear, and we got to if we
Speaker 1: had to figure it out all those things. Uh, it's
Speaker 1: it's really interesting, um to just be around it and
Speaker 1: to um to have your your best friends also be
Speaker 1: your heroes and your mentors and stuff like that. Um,
Speaker 1: it was it was quite a unique experience. I mean,
Speaker 1: I can't imagine having that kind of responsibility on your
Speaker 1: shoulders at such a young age. I would imagine that
Speaker 1: just leads to an incredible amount of camaraderie with the
Speaker 1: people that you're serving alongside. And what's interesting is, you know,
Speaker 1: we'll get into this a little bit later in the conversation,
Speaker 1: but you know, and then you went on to go
Speaker 1: to the University of Texas. You walked on to the
Speaker 1: football team, and this will eventually kind of marry these
Speaker 1: different worlds that you've lived in, you know, a veteran
Speaker 1: as well as an athlete. But talk about walking onto
Speaker 1: the University of Texas. You went on to actually become
Speaker 1: a starting long snapper, but kind of talk about that
Speaker 1: journey and then when you got done with the military
Speaker 1: and then you know, turning to football. Yeah, that that was.
Speaker 1: It was definitely an interesting and interesting turn and one
Speaker 1: that I I struggled with and still do at times,
Speaker 1: you know, with some of the the guilt of sort
Speaker 1: of leaving UM, the military. I think a lot of
Speaker 1: a lot of service members, a lot of war fighters
Speaker 1: feel that, and that's why some of them can't leave,
Speaker 1: you know, some of them stay in for decades. A
Speaker 1: lot of it is like beyond them genuinely enjoying what
Speaker 1: they do or feeling that sense of purpose. It's the
Speaker 1: I can't leave these people behind, like I'm a part
Speaker 1: of this now, UM. And that includes the people also
Speaker 1: wearing camouflage that you're that you're brothers in arms with,
Speaker 1: but also the people overseas you know that you're meant
Speaker 1: to depend I think that that that's a tough one.
Speaker 1: And I was actually towards the end of a deployment
Speaker 1: were season. I was eight years old and trying to
Speaker 1: figure out what I was gonna do next, you know,
Speaker 1: with my life, and UM, I finally had this desire
Speaker 1: to go to college and and even bigger than that,
Speaker 1: even though it sounds smaller than that and more childish,
Speaker 1: I had this desire dream of playing football. I've actually
Speaker 1: never played. Growing up, I played baseball, I played basketball,
Speaker 1: I played pretty much every other sport you can imagine,
Speaker 1: but I never played football, and I regretted it because
Speaker 1: it was my favorite sport. You know, when I was
Speaker 1: real little, my mom didn't necessarily want me to play,
Speaker 1: and um and as I grew u and had that opportunity,
Speaker 1: even in middle school, I think I was just afraid
Speaker 1: that I would get cut or I'd ride the bench
Speaker 1: or whatever. You know, I put way too much stock
Speaker 1: in sports as a as a kid, Like it meant
Speaker 1: way too much to my life. Um, sort of my
Speaker 1: life revolved around it. And uh, and you know, it's
Speaker 1: it's at the end of the day, like sports are
Speaker 1: very important and a huge part of our culture. And
Speaker 1: you know, obviously we just had the World Cup and
Speaker 1: you could just you know, that's a worldwide thing as
Speaker 1: well on the way that that those events bring people together.
Speaker 1: But but also, um, yeah, I just I put way
Speaker 1: too much pressure on myself around that stuff. And now
Speaker 1: at this age, you know, I'm twenty about to turn
Speaker 1: twenty nine. Uh, I'm just like, you know, what just
Speaker 1: goes you weren't the youngest player. I was certainly No,
Speaker 1: I was, you know, I was I was the oldest.
Speaker 1: I was the oldest guy on the team. I was
Speaker 1: probably the oldest player in college football at the time,
Speaker 1: although I did see a story a couple of days
Speaker 1: ago there was a player that's I think he's thirty
Speaker 1: now that's uh playing He was playing at Buffalo. He
Speaker 1: was a main form of ABC and he's playing football Buffalo.
Speaker 1: I think it's a year though, but that's pretty cool.
Speaker 1: Um anyway, Yeah, so I just I was like, you know,
Speaker 1: I just go for it. So I I got out,
Speaker 1: I came off of active duty. He ended up reing
Speaker 1: listening in the National Guard. So I was still in
Speaker 1: the military while I was at Texas UM and did
Speaker 1: deploy a couple of times while in college even but
Speaker 1: you know, it was still making that transition back to
Speaker 1: civilian life the sense and um and going to college
Speaker 1: at twenty nine, it was a weird transition. And the
Speaker 1: other freshman or ten years younger than me. Um, and
Speaker 1: I'm walking around school with a backpack like everybody else,
Speaker 1: maybe a little bit of gray in my beard, but um,
Speaker 1: you know, feeling like, uh, some hope and promise and
Speaker 1: all those things that a lot of young people feel.
Speaker 1: That I first go to college, and uh, the bigger
Speaker 1: part of it, like I said, was football. I just
Speaker 1: wanted to play and it was fortunate enough to make
Speaker 1: the team when you went to try out and got
Speaker 1: on the squad, and you know, I was on. I
Speaker 1: was on the scout team for that first year, so
Speaker 1: just to practice on the practice team, and uh you know,
Speaker 1: I was was fortunate enough to be asked to run
Speaker 1: the team out of the tunnel with the American and
Speaker 1: flag kind of lead them out on every home game.
Speaker 1: But I wasn't playing. And then my sophomore year, I
Speaker 1: started long snapping just to find a way on the field.
Speaker 1: It's a pretty thankless job for those that don't know.
Speaker 1: You're the guy that hikes it between his legs for
Speaker 1: punts and field goals and extra points. But it's an
Speaker 1: important job. You gotta be consistent, you gotta be accurate,
Speaker 1: you've gotta be good at what you do. It's just thankless.
Speaker 1: You know, nobody, nobody cares until you do it wrong.
Speaker 1: And I had no problem with that. I've done plenty
Speaker 1: of thankless jobs in the military in the past. So
Speaker 1: I just wanted to find a way on the field
Speaker 1: of play, and this was my opportunity. So uh yeah,
Speaker 1: So I started for for three years in Texas UM
Speaker 1: and by the way, the long Horns played at night.
Speaker 1: I don't know if this will be running at the time,
Speaker 1: but hopefully they've already won by the time this comes out.
Speaker 1: Um in the Alamo Bowl against Washington. But but yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, it was just like I've never really did
Speaker 1: into Texas. I've never I just I wanted to play
Speaker 1: for the long Horns because it was, uh, sort of
Speaker 1: this led and dairy program. And I saw so many
Speaker 1: Longhorn flags and ball caps overseas when I was in
Speaker 1: Iraq among people in the Army. It was sort of
Speaker 1: felt like the Army's favorite team. So it just made
Speaker 1: sense for me, uh to try to go there and
Speaker 1: be a part of that. And uh and I loved it.
Speaker 1: I mean, I loved I love going to school in Austin.
Speaker 1: I loved the University of Texas is great, great great university,
Speaker 1: and um yeah, just getting the opportunity to play football
Speaker 1: and live out that dream it was really special. Quick
Speaker 1: commercial breaks stay with us. I feel like it's gotta
Speaker 1: hurt really bad to get tackled ivoished. It can't be good.
Speaker 1: Um yeah, yeah, I got run over quite a bit
Speaker 1: at practice, you know, I mean I was supposed to
Speaker 1: be doing the tackle lead Um, but the reality was,
Speaker 1: you know, these these young men were a lot bigger, stronger, faster,
Speaker 1: more athletic, just better at football than me. And so
Speaker 1: I was on the losing end of a lot of
Speaker 1: those collisions. I'll say that I can't, can't feel good.
Speaker 1: And then you went on to be in the NFL
Speaker 1: with the Seattle Seahawks. What was I mean for someone
Speaker 1: who obviously always kind of love football, had already always
Speaker 1: kind of had this dream that had been pretty cool
Speaker 1: to then have accomplished, you know, getting into the NFL
Speaker 1: as well. Yeah, it was. I mean, it was a
Speaker 1: dream dream come true. I think I think a lot
Speaker 1: of a lot of people, a lot of young people specifically.
Speaker 1: You know, that's just like when you're a kid, that's
Speaker 1: what you want to do. You want to play, you
Speaker 1: want to be a pro athlete. You know, you look
Speaker 1: up to these athletes, they're they're heroes to you. Um,
Speaker 1: And and that's that's what I wanted to do as
Speaker 1: a kid. Um. I think in college, when I was
Speaker 1: actually playing and doing that, I didn't think that that
Speaker 1: was an actual possibility. Um, until I got asked to
Speaker 1: playing the Senior All Star Game out in Charleston called
Speaker 1: the Medal of Honorable So it was hosted by the
Speaker 1: Medal of Honor Society. Uh. The game was only played
Speaker 1: for think two or three years, but it was at
Speaker 1: the Citadel. It was just really really unique opportunity to
Speaker 1: play one last game. UM. And it was just kind of,
Speaker 1: you know, for fun. It was it's not a bowl game,
Speaker 1: it's a it's they called the Senior All Star Games.
Speaker 1: And what was really important about that week though, were
Speaker 1: the practices because a bunch of NFL scouts We're coming
Speaker 1: to the practices and watching these players and evaluating talent.
Speaker 1: And um, I actually had four NFL team even though
Speaker 1: I just turned thirty four years old. I had four
Speaker 1: NFL teams meet with me and said they were actually
Speaker 1: interested and in me as a player, as a long snapper. Uh.
Speaker 1: And they all said kind of the same thing. Look,
Speaker 1: you're a little old, you're small, You're gonna have to
Speaker 1: put some weight on, but you're a good snapper and
Speaker 1: you know you should go for it. And so I did.
Speaker 1: And I kind of just spent the next four months
Speaker 1: putting on a bun to weight a game like thirty pounds.
Speaker 1: And it wasn't all a good weight, but it was
Speaker 1: necessary and uh, and I kind of just you know,
Speaker 1: I transitioned out of the military by that time at
Speaker 1: February that was the end of my military service, and
Speaker 1: I got signed with the Seahawks during the draft I
Speaker 1: think early May, um, and it was actually known as
Speaker 1: the greatest day in sports history at the time. It
Speaker 1: was kind of cool. It was the Kentucky Derby was
Speaker 1: that day. Manny Pacquiao employed Mayweather had an epic fight. Um.
Speaker 1: There were like Game seven's in the NBA and hockey
Speaker 1: playoffs and all that, And of course Nate were was
Speaker 1: signed to the Seahawks as an undrafted free agent, which
Speaker 1: for me was a big maybe not for everybody else. Yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 1: so it was a bit. Yeah. I took my dad
Speaker 1: to a Caps game before Christmas, and I literally had
Speaker 1: no idea that Edgin was so close to beating or
Speaker 1: getting to the I guess the second highest scoring goal
Speaker 1: and goal score and he got to eight oh two,
Speaker 1: which meant that now he's right behind Wayne Gretzky and
Speaker 1: ended up being like a hugely epic night. Like my
Speaker 1: dad was so stoked it was. I got super lucky
Speaker 1: that ended up playing such a big night. But I
Speaker 1: wanted to ask you before we get into m v
Speaker 1: P in the movie. So like, obviously, I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: preface it. Not a fan of Colin Kaepernick ever since
Speaker 1: he wore the socks depicting cops is pig. Just don't
Speaker 1: respect the dude. But you had written this open letter
Speaker 1: to him in the Army Times, which led to him
Speaker 1: then inviting you out for conversation kind of talk about
Speaker 1: the letter and then sort of what transpired after that.
Speaker 1: This was about a year later, so you know, I
Speaker 1: was with the Seahawks. Yeah, played in the h I
Speaker 1: was in O t A training camp. I got to
Speaker 1: play in one game in the preseason, and it was
Speaker 1: an amazing opportunity. You know, I once again to second college.
Speaker 1: I was asked to leave the team out of the
Speaker 1: tunnel with the American flag and then we're standing on
Speaker 1: the sideline before the game and the anthem starts playing.
Speaker 1: And for me, you know in college that the players
Speaker 1: are not on the field when they played the anthem
Speaker 1: of the stadium. Obviously, in the NFL it's very different.
Speaker 1: I think everybody who's watched this football at any level
Speaker 1: is aware now that's very aware now that the anthem
Speaker 1: has played on the sideline with the players. They're out
Speaker 1: there on the field. And when I started playing, you know,
Speaker 1: I found the tallest flag in the building. I put
Speaker 1: my hand in my heart, and as a song played,
Speaker 1: I started crying. I just was like thinking about, you know,
Speaker 1: friends of mine that were still serving men and women
Speaker 1: not all over the country, that we're still serving those
Speaker 1: that didn't make it back, including some some of those
Speaker 1: people that I that I knew, and those that were
Speaker 1: back home, but we're struggling with that transition, and all
Speaker 1: those things kind of ran through my head and I
Speaker 1: just was like I wanted people to feel what I
Speaker 1: was feeling out there on the field, like you know,
Speaker 1: hope and possibility, and I wanted people to chase their
Speaker 1: American dreams too, and um, it just was like a
Speaker 1: powerful moment for me. Fast forward to almost exactly a
Speaker 1: year later during the preseason, and you know, Colin Kaepernick
Speaker 1: is sitting on the bench during the anthem um in
Speaker 1: protests of police frutality, social racial and equality, social injustice,
Speaker 1: all of those things. And it's of course a very
Speaker 1: divisive time already and a divisive topic. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: we all know that, like everybody kind of has a
Speaker 1: different opinion and take on on that whole situation. And
Speaker 1: you know, I got reached out to by a bunch
Speaker 1: of news organizations and I think what they wanted me
Speaker 1: to do was maybe come on their show and debate
Speaker 1: the topic of anthem protests. And I understand why. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's a it's an interesting topic and there's a lot
Speaker 1: of opinions surrounding that and all that, and I just
Speaker 1: didn't want to be a part of that conversation because
Speaker 1: I had my own opinion, as everybody does about about
Speaker 1: you know, situations like that. But also, um, I tend
Speaker 1: to stay out of political discussions for the most part.
Speaker 1: You know, I kind of got my own opinions on
Speaker 1: my own person and you know, I believe what I
Speaker 1: believed on every topic, and I think everybody should do that.
Speaker 1: I think everybody should have their own genuine feeling an
Speaker 1: opinion and not feel pressured to believe one way or
Speaker 1: the other. Um. And you know, so I just said, no,
Speaker 1: I don't want to do that. In the Army Times,
Speaker 1: they kept hitting me up saying, hey, would you just
Speaker 1: write an article, an open letter, whatever you want to
Speaker 1: write op ed you know, and uh, and I said, okay, fine,
Speaker 1: all write something. So what I did is I just
Speaker 1: wrote an open letter to Colin Kaepernick as if it
Speaker 1: was if you know, I had him sitting in front
Speaker 1: of me in a few minutes to kind of share,
Speaker 1: share my my feelings on the matter and why I
Speaker 1: believe what I believe. And you know, I talked about
Speaker 1: the dark fur. I talked about my time they're uh
Speaker 1: and dealing with with that and seeing that type of
Speaker 1: oppression of people. I mean, three people have been murdered
Speaker 1: in this genocide and women and children are left as refugees,
Speaker 1: and you know, that's what this camp consisted of. But
Speaker 1: there's still there's still a level of hope there, and
Speaker 1: there's people trying to do everything they can to help
Speaker 1: the situation. And um, I think, you know. And then
Speaker 1: of course my time overseas and Iraqi and Afghanistan, and
Speaker 1: you know, working with Iraqis and Afghanis people with different opinions,
Speaker 1: different cultures and customs that I don't necessarily understand or
Speaker 1: even agree with, but I have to respect at some
Speaker 1: level and have to figure out a way to work together.
Speaker 1: And uh. And then I said, look, on this matter,
Speaker 1: you know, to me, This is why the the flag
Speaker 1: means so much to me in the anthem because of
Speaker 1: my experience, you know, my my connection to it. I
Speaker 1: carried a casket with my best friend in it, Drake
Speaker 1: in an American flag, right. Um. When I hear the anthem,
Speaker 1: as I did in that game, it just hits different
Speaker 1: from me because of my experience, you know, because of
Speaker 1: what I did. And uh, and it's a very sensitive
Speaker 1: and emotional and meaningful UM symbol. Those symbols are to
Speaker 1: a lot of people, and not only people that start
Speaker 1: in the military, but certainly a good amount of And
Speaker 1: I said, uh, you know, look at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, that's my experience, and that's why I feel
Speaker 1: the way the way that I feel. UM. And I
Speaker 1: understand how everybody feels that way, but I think that,
Speaker 1: you know, it's important to understand that. But but and
Speaker 1: I also said that, you know, I look forward to
Speaker 1: the day that you're inspired to stand again when the
Speaker 1: anthem plays, I'll be standing right there next to you. Um.
Speaker 1: And he actually read the open letters, as a lot
Speaker 1: of people did. The sports journalism world actually pushed it
Speaker 1: out quite a bit. It was became quite viral in
Speaker 1: the mettle matter twenty four hours and and Collins publicists
Speaker 1: reached out and said, hey, look, he's got a game tomorrow,
Speaker 1: but he wants to meet you down and Sandy Ago,
Speaker 1: where they played the Chargers in their final preseason game,
Speaker 1: and he wants to sit down and have a conversation
Speaker 1: with you. And I said, well, is there going to
Speaker 1: be like media around orning like that? And They're like,
Speaker 1: no, no no, no, it's nothing like that. He genuinely is
Speaker 1: inspired by the letter and he just wants to talk.
Speaker 1: So I go down to San Diego. We meet in
Speaker 1: the lobby at the team hotel alongside Eric Read, one
Speaker 1: of his teammates, and you know, we had a very
Speaker 1: very open conversation about this whole thing. I mean, honestly,
Speaker 1: it was like two guys sit in the locker room
Speaker 1: trying to understand one another who had different backgrounds and
Speaker 1: experiences and all these things. And you know, to be honest,
Speaker 1: he had to get He respected me. He had a
Speaker 1: lot of respect for for what I did in the
Speaker 1: military and um and all that. And I respected him
Speaker 1: as a player. I mean I was a huge forty
Speaker 1: nine years fan. I pulled for for Colin ever since
Speaker 1: he played at You know, University of Nevada Areno and
Speaker 1: went on to the fort which is my favorite team.
Speaker 1: Kind of brought us back from being an okay, not
Speaker 1: so great team, said the Super Bowl almost winning it.
Speaker 1: And so as a player, you know, I I looked
Speaker 1: up to him as an athlete, and now that I
Speaker 1: was kind of sitting down with him and hearing why
Speaker 1: he was doing what he was doing, I respected his
Speaker 1: opinions and and and reasons for what why he was
Speaker 1: doing what he was what he was doing. Of course,
Speaker 1: you know, sitting out during the anthem was tough for
Speaker 1: me because of how that makes me feel and how
Speaker 1: a lot of people, not just in the military, but
Speaker 1: just people in general, I feel. And you know, I
Speaker 1: just when he asked me point blank, you know, I
Speaker 1: didn't really give my opinion, Tilly asked, but he asked me, Um,
Speaker 1: you know, well, do you think there's another way I
Speaker 1: can protest that's not going to offend people in the military?
Speaker 1: And I said, no, no matter what you do, some
Speaker 1: people are going to be offended. I mean, this is
Speaker 1: something that's very sacred to a lot of people, and um,
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's when I look up at the
Speaker 1: stands during a football game. It's like I see people
Speaker 1: of all different races and backgrounds, and you know a
Speaker 1: lot of them are wearing the same jersey and they
Speaker 1: kind of put aside those differences for three hours to
Speaker 1: watch a football game, and it's like a uniting time
Speaker 1: for us. It's the only one of the only places
Speaker 1: that you know, in the first quarter you could spill
Speaker 1: beer and the guy sitting next to you and he's
Speaker 1: hugging you in the fourth quarter because your team scored
Speaker 1: the game winning touchdown, like that's a very special thing,
Speaker 1: you know. Um, And I mean he understood that, of course.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is the game that he you know,
Speaker 1: he played and um, and he said, well, you know,
Speaker 1: I just I want to find a way to not
Speaker 1: offend people in the military. You know. That was something
Speaker 1: that really mattered to him. And I was like, well,
Speaker 1: I respect that. I said, if you're asking my opinion,
Speaker 1: I think you know, sitting on the bench maybe isn't
Speaker 1: the most inspiring thing, kind of isolated by yourself. I
Speaker 1: think you need to be alongside your teammates whatever you do.
Speaker 1: I think that's important. It's important message for people in
Speaker 1: the country, like we don't always have to agree but
Speaker 1: sometimes we have to work together, you know, and we've
Speaker 1: got to put that stuff behind us and try to
Speaker 1: move forward as one. And calling agreed that that was important,
Speaker 1: and and uh, you know, the next part of the
Speaker 1: discussion was like, well, what what am I going to do?
Speaker 1: I mean, I committed to not standing. I said, I'm
Speaker 1: not going to stand until things change, you know, And
Speaker 1: that's something that it's important to Colin. And I said, well,
Speaker 1: you know, if you're not going to stand, I think
Speaker 1: the only other option that makes sense would be taken
Speaker 1: a knee. I mean, I don't see it personally as disrespectful,
Speaker 1: just the the idea of kneeling and if people take
Speaker 1: a need to pray and propose to their future spouse,
Speaker 1: and when a players hurt on the field and the
Speaker 1: football game, people taking me out of respect. And when
Speaker 1: I go to Arlington to visit my buddy Brad, I
Speaker 1: take a knee in front of you know, his his
Speaker 1: grave to pay respects um. So I think that that is,
Speaker 1: you know, I think it's a good adjustment personally. I
Speaker 1: think it shows that you're willing to um to change
Speaker 1: and and sort of find a middle ground here. And
Speaker 1: you know, and that was just kind of on a whim.
Speaker 1: I was asked a question and I answered, you know,
Speaker 1: what I thought was a good solution at the time,
Speaker 1: And of course it wasn't seen that way by a
Speaker 1: lot of people, and I totally respect that as well. Um,
Speaker 1: A lot of people were very very upset that, you know,
Speaker 1: he still wasn't you know, he wouldn't stand and um,
Speaker 1: and a lot of people were upset with me or
Speaker 1: even meeting with them and having a conversation and suggesting
Speaker 1: this kneeling. Kneeling was a terrible, terrible idea is still
Speaker 1: very disrespectful and all that, And I understand that, um,
Speaker 1: but I don't think a lot of people understand the
Speaker 1: full context of the of the conversation and of the
Speaker 1: moment um. You know, Colin and I were not we're
Speaker 1: not close, we haven't spoken a long time, UM, and
Speaker 1: you know, it was just that was really the only
Speaker 1: time we ever met based and face and the kneeling,
Speaker 1: you know, coming out of that is is interesting because
Speaker 1: it's kind of I mean, it's it was a global thing,
Speaker 1: you know, it really, Uh, even through this World Cup
Speaker 1: this year, there was there's teams out there that that
Speaker 1: that sort of take a moment of silence and taking
Speaker 1: thee out of respect. You know, it's it's a tough
Speaker 1: one and I'm sure there's a lot of people listening
Speaker 1: right now they are still very upset with me and
Speaker 1: making that suggestion. But it was just I was just
Speaker 1: trying to calm situation. I was trying to find a
Speaker 1: way for us to work together. I still am. I'm
Speaker 1: very dedicated to that of a human being. UM. I
Speaker 1: just want to see us move forward as a country
Speaker 1: and respect one another, even if we don't always agree
Speaker 1: now and I totally I think you've earned the right,
Speaker 1: having served our country as a green bread that they
Speaker 1: don't have your opinion on this obviously and have your perspective,
Speaker 1: I guess the way I've always looked at him, and
Speaker 1: I still do even after the conversation of you know,
Speaker 1: the context is you had mentioned previously of you know,
Speaker 1: people taking the knee. I view out of those those
Speaker 1: were out of respect, and I think what he was
Speaker 1: doing was not out of respect to the country in
Speaker 1: my opinion, And I just I have a hard time
Speaker 1: seeing how someone who had two parents who loved him
Speaker 1: worth tens of millions of dollars is somehow oppressed, so,
Speaker 1: you know, and I think a large part of you know, why,
Speaker 1: you know, there used to be a time where sports
Speaker 1: brought us together. Now it divides us among everything else,
Speaker 1: is in a large part because of him. So I just,
Speaker 1: I really, you know, I try to respect people of
Speaker 1: all sorts, but I just have a really hard time
Speaker 1: reaching any level of respect for that man. But I
Speaker 1: see your opinion, and you know, obviously have a great
Speaker 1: deal of respect for you and everything you've done to
Speaker 1: the country, and so, you know, I think you are
Speaker 1: fully fully you know, fully with respect to have your
Speaker 1: opinion um on the issue. But you know, I wanted
Speaker 1: to get into I don't want to spend too much
Speaker 1: time talking about someone I dislike, So we'll get into
Speaker 1: you know, so and then you know, after all this,
Speaker 1: so you know, we'll kind of skip a couple of
Speaker 1: steps because again, you literally have like the most interesting
Speaker 1: life story. Uh and I've done so many interesting things
Speaker 1: in your life. But you got into acting. You also
Speaker 1: did an NFL A Network series called Indivisible. But you
Speaker 1: also started this amazing organization called Merging fetes and players
Speaker 1: with Fox Sports, uh NFL insider J Glazer and and
Speaker 1: it's really cool because this organization has kind of combines
Speaker 1: these worlds that you've lived in, combines the world of
Speaker 1: a veteran who is sort of trying to figure out
Speaker 1: what's next after leaving the military, along with you know,
Speaker 1: NFL players that sort of have a similar experience and
Speaker 1: sort of figuring out what is next after their time
Speaker 1: in the NFL. You know, talk a little bit more
Speaker 1: about this organization, why you started it, and why it
Speaker 1: means so much to you. Yeah, I appreciate that least.
Speaker 1: You know, it's m v P. You know, it was
Speaker 1: really something that that that I kind of needed. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, it stands for merging Vets and players. We
Speaker 1: bring together combat vets and former professional athletes and help
Speaker 1: them find purpose and identity when they lose the uniform.
Speaker 1: And that's how I felt when I lost the uniform,
Speaker 1: and I lost both of these uniforms in the same year,
Speaker 1: as mentioned you in, I left the military, UM, and
Speaker 1: I left and football. You know, I was released, I
Speaker 1: was cut. It was over and not on my terms,
Speaker 1: and it was hard. You know, I was thirty four
Speaker 1: years old. I felt like I had a lot of
Speaker 1: life left to live and a lot of a lot
Speaker 1: left to give as well, considered going back in the military. UM,
Speaker 1: just trying to find my place. And Jay Glazer uh,
Speaker 1: who I've trained with to prepare for that opportunity in
Speaker 1: football with the Seahawks. UH. You know, he had this
Speaker 1: idea of like bringing these groups together, bringing athletes and
Speaker 1: vets together, you know, very similar, um storyline as far
Speaker 1: as your career ends at a pretty young age. You
Speaker 1: have to sacrifice quite a bit to be elite. Of course,
Speaker 1: we would ever compare war to playing sports or those
Speaker 1: are completely different things. The battlefield, the ball field. We
Speaker 1: always make that distinction very clear that those are not
Speaker 1: the same. But the locker rooms are similar. UM. The
Speaker 1: identity with the uniform UM, you know, and feeling as
Speaker 1: though you're part of something, having that mission and purpose
Speaker 1: UM and identity and losing it is a very similar
Speaker 1: struggle that both groups deal with. And it's tough. It's
Speaker 1: really tough. And and you know, talk about diversity the military,
Speaker 1: uh and and a sport and an NFL locker room
Speaker 1: some of the most diverse microposms in the country. Yet
Speaker 1: these people find a way to work together, you know,
Speaker 1: they find a way, um to put some of those
Speaker 1: things aside. And like see it through as a team,
Speaker 1: and you know, would be willing on a battlefield specifically,
Speaker 1: you know, willing to lay down your life for somebody
Speaker 1: that you don't even necessarily like or agree with, and
Speaker 1: you still do it. And that isn't only consist of
Speaker 1: the people that you're fighting alongside. That consists of almost
Speaker 1: every you know, every American back home, the people that
Speaker 1: you're fighting for. That's really unique. UM. And then losing
Speaker 1: that feeling as though, like this is it's so important
Speaker 1: what I do and what I'm atat, what I'm a
Speaker 1: part of, and so UM is so necessary and you
Speaker 1: know we have this full, full volunteer force. UM I am.
Speaker 1: I am a part of this powerful important UM community
Speaker 1: UH and tribe. And you know, I'd wear this American
Speaker 1: flag on my shoulder with a great amount of pride.
Speaker 1: And and then it's gone, you know, and you don't
Speaker 1: know where to go. And you know, we do a
Speaker 1: great job of training these people, preparing them for for
Speaker 1: for combat, preparing them to go do that. But what
Speaker 1: we haven't figured out and mastered is that transition. How
Speaker 1: are we preparing these people for the next phase? You know,
Speaker 1: how are we preparing these people when they lose the uniform, UM.
Speaker 1: And I understand that. You know, the goal and the
Speaker 1: idea is to keep people in. You know, they've got
Speaker 1: to focus on attention. We've got to focus on the
Speaker 1: mission at hand. It's hard to put a lot of
Speaker 1: energy into when these people transition out of that thing.
Speaker 1: And the same goes for sports. It's like our focus
Speaker 1: is to go win the super Bowl, you know, it's
Speaker 1: not to care for the guys that used to play
Speaker 1: for us, and so it becomes challenging. So that's why
Speaker 1: you need organizations if and we're not the only one.
Speaker 1: There's thousands of organizations and veteran service organizations specifically. They
Speaker 1: do a lot of great stuff, um, But it's up
Speaker 1: to us. It's up to us, as the American people too,
Speaker 1: UM to be there for them. And you know that's
Speaker 1: why we started MVP. We wanted to be there for
Speaker 1: these for these warriors. And uh, you know, most of
Speaker 1: our members are veterans, but there's a good amount of
Speaker 1: athletes too, and they don't a lot of them don't
Speaker 1: have those resources. And I to your point earlier, you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of them, not all of them, but a
Speaker 1: good amount of them get paid a lot of money, uh,
Speaker 1: to play a game, you know. And so that's a
Speaker 1: tough one for them as well, to even put themselves
Speaker 1: in the same sentence as someone who served in the military.
Speaker 1: But the reality is that not all of them have
Speaker 1: that story. Not all of them got to you got
Speaker 1: paid millions of dollars to play their support and most
Speaker 1: of them have such a great respect for the veterans
Speaker 1: and a lot of veterans from the military and good
Speaker 1: a man of respect for athletes. I mean, for me,
Speaker 1: it was a big escape when I was overseas watching football. Um.
Speaker 1: It kind of helped me turn things off and focus
Speaker 1: on something different outside of what I was dealing with
Speaker 1: it war and uh. And so the organization now, I mean,
Speaker 1: we were in eight cities across the country, um, you know,
Speaker 1: eight physical chapters, but we were also available to anybody
Speaker 1: anywhere in the country who qualifies for our program. It's
Speaker 1: absolutely free for these vets and athletes. UM Vets and
Speaker 1: Players dot org is the website, by the way. But
Speaker 1: two years ago we decided to make a movie kind
Speaker 1: of telling our story about how this started. It was
Speaker 1: in the middle of pandemic, you know, as you know,
Speaker 1: and everybody knows everything was shut down. Um, I was
Speaker 1: living in Los Angeles, which was completely you know, closed
Speaker 1: and locked up, and there was a lot of people,
Speaker 1: a lot of veterans um who were work in that
Speaker 1: industry that we're like, man, I just want to make something.
Speaker 1: I just want to I want to get back to work,
Speaker 1: I want to go and uh. And so I said, well,
Speaker 1: let's let's do it. Let's do it together. So we did,
Speaker 1: like most of them, to make this movie. First of all,
Speaker 1: we had very little money resources, but we had a
Speaker 1: lot of passion and people that knew how to to
Speaker 1: overcome obstacles, and most of the crew were veterans UM.
Speaker 1: Every veteran portrayed on screen in the MBK movie is
Speaker 1: played by an actual vet. You know, it's a scripted
Speaker 1: narrative film. It's not a documentary, but it feels like
Speaker 1: it because it's the real people playing themselves and a
Speaker 1: lot of these athletes as well, I mean half the
Speaker 1: half the crew from Fox NFL Sundays in the movie. Um,
Speaker 1: Michael Strahan, Howie Longed, Jade laser Um, so many others,
Speaker 1: you know, Tony Gonzalez and Randy Coutur to Hall of
Speaker 1: Fame elite athletes play themselves in the movie as well,
Speaker 1: and um, it's really it was really special to get
Speaker 1: it done. But it's it's about a marine who was
Speaker 1: living in a homeless shelter and an NFL player first
Speaker 1: year out of the league, and both of them are
Speaker 1: just lost, you know, can't figure out how to move forward,
Speaker 1: have have lost their identity and their team, their uniform.
Speaker 1: And they meet one another and realize that even though
Speaker 1: on paper we got nothing in common, we're going through
Speaker 1: the same stuff and they help each other through it.
Speaker 1: And really, uh M, this this tribe of vets and athletes,
Speaker 1: and that is the story of m DP. It's how
Speaker 1: we began. And I encourage everybody to go watch it.
Speaker 1: It's out, it's everywhere right now, streaming video on demand.
Speaker 1: Most people are watching on Amazon Prime, but you can
Speaker 1: watch it almost anywhere. Uh And you know, we really
Speaker 1: encourage you to watch that movie, to go check out
Speaker 1: m VP Emerging Bets and players through our website as well.
Speaker 1: That's some players dot Org and just support us in
Speaker 1: any way you can. And if you know that's and
Speaker 1: athletes that qualify for our program, send him our way.
Speaker 1: We'd love to connect them and uh, with our group
Speaker 1: and help them with that transition well. And I love
Speaker 1: what your organization does and with the movie Highlights as well,
Speaker 1: because it kind of goes back to when we started
Speaker 1: off the conversation of when you just moved to Los
Speaker 1: Angeles before you know, he joined the military, before you
Speaker 1: did all these things and really just trying to find
Speaker 1: your purpose in life. And so I think it's so
Speaker 1: important and what you're doing to try to bring purpose
Speaker 1: to people after you know, sort of thing these really
Speaker 1: huge careers and and kind of figuring out what's next
Speaker 1: or maybe feeling a little bit lost or feeling that
Speaker 1: they've kind of lost that purpose in life. So I
Speaker 1: think that's just so important. I appreciate that. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's that's a big thing. You know. Transitions are just
Speaker 1: tough for anybody, for any any human being, you know,
Speaker 1: especially when you do something at a high level and
Speaker 1: you feel like this is important. What I do every
Speaker 1: day is important, It matters, especially if you haven't felt
Speaker 1: that earlier in your life, and then you do feel it,
Speaker 1: and then you're you're back into trying to find something
Speaker 1: that makes you feel that same way. You know that
Speaker 1: you are making a difference and it's tough when you
Speaker 1: feel like you've peaked years old, which a lot of
Speaker 1: veterans and athletes feel. That's crazy. I mean, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of life left to live and no one should
Speaker 1: feel that way. You should feel as though you're just
Speaker 1: getting started, you know. But that's how a lot of
Speaker 1: these people feel like I'll never be great again and
Speaker 1: that I've already done, I've already reached the peak. There's
Speaker 1: just there's no more mountains of clime. And that's tough.
Speaker 1: And then that's a lot of the reason that you know,
Speaker 1: the veterans suic hight academic is is still a major
Speaker 1: issue a lot of these athletes as well. Um, not
Speaker 1: just you know, suicide, but uh, you know, the levels
Speaker 1: of sort of depression and disconnection and feeling like you
Speaker 1: don't belong and nobody cares about you anymore. Um, and
Speaker 1: you just you know, you were just a piece of
Speaker 1: equipment and now you're kind of tossed to the wayside.
Speaker 1: That's tough, you know. I mean, we're I think we're
Speaker 1: all that's an athletes. We all maybe at some level
Speaker 1: did feel like a piece of equipment that was utilized.
Speaker 1: But you know, equipment can be repurposed, and it's important
Speaker 1: that we do that all the time. You know, we
Speaker 1: repurpose military equipment into other things. Uh, and everybody loves that.
Speaker 1: But it's like people need to be repurposed as well. Uh.
Speaker 1: And we're all capable of it. It takes us wanting
Speaker 1: to take that step and make that change and and
Speaker 1: kind of move forward, but it also takes organizations and
Speaker 1: groups of people who have their back and let them
Speaker 1: know that this is available and that we got you. Uh.
Speaker 1: And you know, that's that's something that's that's extremely vital
Speaker 1: in this time, especially with the war ending last year
Speaker 1: and in the manner that it did. You know, it's
Speaker 1: really tough for a lot of people to feel bad
Speaker 1: from this twenty year war that what they did actually
Speaker 1: at the end of the day even did matter. You know,
Speaker 1: a lot of them feel like we did this for nothing.
Speaker 1: You know, my buddies died for nothing. And it's not true.
Speaker 1: It's not true, but it feels that way, and it
Speaker 1: can feel that way, and that's that's incredibly hard to
Speaker 1: come to grips with. But people need to understand these
Speaker 1: these bets and and need of these athletes that you know,
Speaker 1: what they did in their past. It's not who they are.
Speaker 1: Who they are as a person that overcame so much
Speaker 1: and survived so much to get back here and um,
Speaker 1: and there's still a lot left again and we need you.
Speaker 1: We need you to help lead this country, you know,
Speaker 1: back to where it needs to be. UM. It takes
Speaker 1: all of us, and I think especially these military better
Speaker 1: and especially these these people that for their lives on
Speaker 1: the line and sacrifice so much. Um, you're the ones
Speaker 1: that we need to step up here and uh and
Speaker 1: we want to look up to you and um and
Speaker 1: we need leaders and you are those people. Nate Boyer,
Speaker 1: you're only forty one. I think you found a lot
Speaker 1: of purpose in life. You have already done so many
Speaker 1: incredible things. Just deeply, deeply respect your service to the
Speaker 1: country and then what you're doing to just continue to
Speaker 1: help people who have also served. You're an awesome guy,
Speaker 1: incredible story. Everyone go out and watch m v P.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for joining the show. I really
Speaker 1: appreciate you giving us your time and sharing with us
Speaker 1: your story. Of course, so thanks for having me. It
Speaker 1: really means a lot that was neat lawyer. Everyone should
Speaker 1: go out watch the movie, show them some court obviously
Speaker 1: has done a lot for our country. Deeply respect the
Speaker 1: guy just also seems like a super nice guy. I
Speaker 1: want to thank you, guys at home for listening every
Speaker 1: Monday and Thursday, but you can listen throughout the week.
Speaker 1: I want to thank John cast you and my producer
Speaker 1: for putting the show together and all the hard work
Speaker 1: that he puts into it. Feel free to leave us
Speaker 1: a review, give us a rating on Apple Podcast. I
Speaker 1: love hearing from you and hearing your thoughts. I appreciate
Speaker 1: you guys listening. Take care,