Speaker 1: Welcome to the NFL Legends Podcast, an NFL podcast for
Speaker 1: the players, by the players. Here's your host, fourteen year
Speaker 1: NFL veteran and Hall of Famer A Nius Williams. Hello,
Speaker 1: and welcome to the NFL Legends Podcast. I'm a Nieus Williams.
Speaker 1: Today we're joined by Houston defensive end Whitney Merciless, who
Speaker 1: has midway through his ninth season with the Texans. Whitney
Speaker 1: is the founder of whitt Mercy, an organization that provides
Speaker 1: advocate services and support to families of children with disabilities
Speaker 1: and special needs. And he also has a new cooking show.
Speaker 1: That's Right, Football Players Do Cook is a cooking show
Speaker 1: on i G TV. Welcome Whitney, appreciate it, thanks for
Speaker 1: having me on here, and yeah, definitely looked throw down
Speaker 1: a little bit and kitchen to We're recording this before
Speaker 1: week eight of the season, and I want to talk
Speaker 1: about how this season a season like no other in
Speaker 1: NFL history. What are the challenges of COVID The first
Speaker 1: question with me, what adjustments you're and your family have
Speaker 1: had to make? Yeah, man, it's uh, it's been a
Speaker 1: learning year, Uh, with this whole pandemic and all that,
Speaker 1: so me and my family had to make some major adjustments.
Speaker 1: My parents are you know, in their fifties and sixties,
Speaker 1: so that's a very huge concern with covid um affecting
Speaker 1: the older population, so that I had to take that
Speaker 1: into account, especially going to practice and being around guys,
Speaker 1: and then you hear these flare ups of covid throughout
Speaker 1: the league. And also my my sister and her husband
Speaker 1: are down here and they just had their first firstborn,
Speaker 1: just knew born last year. She's one years old and
Speaker 1: all that, so I want to make sure that they're
Speaker 1: protected as well too, So stressing because I want to
Speaker 1: see my family, and I got to make sure that I,
Speaker 1: like my sisters, claimed from COVID before I even see them.
Speaker 1: And uh, you know, we have we understand the fact that,
Speaker 1: you know, being distanced in the time. It's okay. We
Speaker 1: love each other and all that. And then once things,
Speaker 1: once this thing gets corrected, we'll we'll be just fine.
Speaker 1: How's it all to your training and your game, prip Man.
Speaker 1: So uh let's go back to like March. I mean,
Speaker 1: so I had made a trip back from Chances did
Speaker 1: and then uh man, and that as soon as I
Speaker 1: made it back home. That's when Kovie hit and the
Speaker 1: lockdowns happened. So at that moment, because I didn't I
Speaker 1: was gonna head to Arizona to go training. Guess usually
Speaker 1: where I go train out every single year. So that
Speaker 1: got cut out because Arizona is another hot spot. So
Speaker 1: the training facility out there I got shut down quickly.
Speaker 1: So everything, I mean everything in Houston as well too,
Speaker 1: So I'm like, okay, what am I gonna do for training?
Speaker 1: And all that. Literally I was in the backyard and
Speaker 1: pushed up stood ups like old fashioned, well I had
Speaker 1: I had a propane tank get the back so even
Speaker 1: that hit some of some crutches, some abs, you know,
Speaker 1: curl that thing. Um you know. I mean, I'm using
Speaker 1: everything inside the house at that moment. And uh, by
Speaker 1: the grace of God, honestly, was like one of the
Speaker 1: guys you used to work in the Houston, Texas when
Speaker 1: he was around in my neighborhood and whatnot and was
Speaker 1: training some of some of the guys from the Texans
Speaker 1: and whatnot. So man just linked up with him then
Speaker 1: started working with him like privately, like out in the
Speaker 1: open field and stuff like that. Because no, there was
Speaker 1: no Gems open and whatnot. So we were just doing
Speaker 1: like positioned drills, just doing some conditioning and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: So I had to really just do that for a while,
Speaker 1: and that not until like non essential businesses could be
Speaker 1: back open, like gyms, so I found them to go
Speaker 1: work out at, but still couldn't really travel, you know,
Speaker 1: because the Arizona even though they kind of open back up,
Speaker 1: they shot right back down again. So it was really difficult. Also,
Speaker 1: people don't know. It's like, you know, the NFL was
Speaker 1: trying to uh, you know, put together a game plan
Speaker 1: with the union. Uh as far as okay, are we
Speaker 1: gonna have a season? Isn't gonna get pushed back? So
Speaker 1: guys really didn't know, all right, do I need to
Speaker 1: train this hard right now or do I should I
Speaker 1: like ease off and so that my body doesn't peak.
Speaker 1: So it was really hard to really gauge that during
Speaker 1: that time because we didn't really even know for months
Speaker 1: on end whether we were going to start on time
Speaker 1: or we were or we weren't gonna have a season.
Speaker 1: You know, thank you wouldn't. We may have missed the
Speaker 1: golden opportunity with the with the Legends community, because when
Speaker 1: you guys not having all your up to data medities
Speaker 1: and being at home. Just as you said, we could
Speaker 1: make you guys with some of the veeditans who didn't
Speaker 1: have all this, and they could have given you some
Speaker 1: regiment of some of the things they did man when
Speaker 1: they were at home. Right, all right, I could have
Speaker 1: taped man. Shoot, I should have hit up some of
Speaker 1: my guy. That's what I said. It did. Man, let's
Speaker 1: transition into the cookie show. Man. I'm still I'm still
Speaker 1: thinking about cooking man. Man, Man that plays ball, that
Speaker 1: could cook his own meal? Man, looking on, where's these
Speaker 1: with with that? Did that evolve from your new normal? Man? Yes,
Speaker 1: yes it really did. So me and my girl. My
Speaker 1: girl was at down here. She's from Chicago, so she
Speaker 1: was stuck down here with me. I had to deal
Speaker 1: with me for all the months, and so that was
Speaker 1: that was a whole thing to do. Man. Yeah, pretty much,
Speaker 1: we've just thrown down to the kitchen and all that.
Speaker 1: So I'm getting updates from a manager as far as
Speaker 1: like you know, went through the foundation, Like, okay, are
Speaker 1: events are being canceled so we're gonna have to say
Speaker 1: change it up? Stuff like that? And also how are
Speaker 1: partners Foundation partners doing stuff. So all the while like
Speaker 1: hearing about the families, what's going on with them as
Speaker 1: far as like you know, increasing domestic violence stuff like that.
Speaker 1: Also kids, you know, regressing back, you know from all
Speaker 1: the treatments and the therapies and stuff like that. So
Speaker 1: I kind of wanted to come up with something constructed
Speaker 1: because me and my girl, we were just thrown down
Speaker 1: in the kitchen like just about every single day. I
Speaker 1: probably packed on like a good COVID team or something
Speaker 1: like that. So so man, I said, I want to
Speaker 1: do something for the kids. And I was like, man,
Speaker 1: you know what, let me start this thing out and
Speaker 1: just do some simple dishes for you know, these kids
Speaker 1: to you know, make a pbn J sandwich or like
Speaker 1: a grill cheese sandwich from that man. Okay, So one
Speaker 1: day I did. And so one day I did like
Speaker 1: a pizza bagel. That was cool. Everybody was like, all right,
Speaker 1: all right, okay, okay, I'm gonna have to try that,
Speaker 1: you know, a nice easy light snack. So the next
Speaker 1: time I did it on Wednesday, Uh, it was a
Speaker 1: grill cheese sandwich. There was a lot of people who
Speaker 1: disagree with my cookie skill, with some real cheese, sam
Speaker 1: ConA tell you that right now. I got blasted for
Speaker 1: all the day, like, are you serious You're gonna put
Speaker 1: on some grill tee sandwich? Man, I thought you could,
Speaker 1: man at that moment. At that moment, I said, man,
Speaker 1: I'm done. All right, here we go. And I got
Speaker 1: pretty much the internet bully men pretty much, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: showing that I could actually cut, I could actually cook.
Speaker 1: I know my spices, I know my cuts and meat
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. So pretty much. Uh man, I
Speaker 1: forget the first one. I think I did, like something
Speaker 1: like pasta, um squidding pasta. I did that. I did duck.
Speaker 1: So it literally there was there was no there was
Speaker 1: no gray area. Literally and went from simple grill cheese
Speaker 1: sandwich straight up to duck and fog water. So you given,
Speaker 1: you given, you give a social media the credit for
Speaker 1: this passion that was birthed to you through some of
Speaker 1: the people that was hating doing it. Yeah. Man, So
Speaker 1: really I already had an innate, uh like thing in
Speaker 1: me where I just love to cook. Um. I was
Speaker 1: very curious always and stuff like that. So I had
Speaker 1: a lot of time during COVID in order to you know,
Speaker 1: really you know, try it out perfect some things and
Speaker 1: stuff like that and really try out things that I've
Speaker 1: seen over the number of years that I've into restaurants
Speaker 1: or see my mom doing the kitchen. It's already, it
Speaker 1: was definitely there already. I just got bullied by the
Speaker 1: internet or I and they all know who they are too.
Speaker 1: If we transition back to football Houston, the texts you
Speaker 1: guys are having the challenges season has been been fired?
Speaker 1: How have you been able to stay focused? Um? You
Speaker 1: know the courzy thing is uh like this change that's
Speaker 1: going on. And besides COVID with a coach being fired,
Speaker 1: this happened to me before in my career when I
Speaker 1: first got drafted to the juson Texans. I was with
Speaker 1: Kubiak for you about two years and then to the
Speaker 1: third team. Was a terrible year for us, and so
Speaker 1: he got fired at towards the end of the season
Speaker 1: and Way Phillips said took over as the interroom head coach,
Speaker 1: and so I I already went through that transition once before,
Speaker 1: and once it happened again this past year, I was like, oh, okay,
Speaker 1: I've been here before. I know what to do, I
Speaker 1: know what to expect, how to play these games and
Speaker 1: all that. Now. You know, what people don't see is
Speaker 1: how taxing it can be mentally, because there can be
Speaker 1: some instent well, there's instability, if you will, And that's
Speaker 1: no surprise to any to anybody, that's just that. Of course,
Speaker 1: you got to concentrate on the season and everything and guys,
Speaker 1: that's what guys are doing and just keeping the whole
Speaker 1: group together like this and just worrying about these games
Speaker 1: right now. You're not worry about the future. But the
Speaker 1: instability that's there is because you know, once a new
Speaker 1: person comes in, whether it's GM, like they find a GM,
Speaker 1: they find a head coach, then that culture, that previous
Speaker 1: culture that when everybody once knew is going to be
Speaker 1: you know, removed or you know, some people may stay,
Speaker 1: some people may leave. And also guys are in last
Speaker 1: years of the contracts and you know they were seeking
Speaker 1: to because they knew the culture uh that once here
Speaker 1: there and they don't know what's gonna happen next year.
Speaker 1: I am I gonna be let go stuff like that,
Speaker 1: you know, and a lot of guys, I mean, you
Speaker 1: tack that on with COVID, you tacked that on with
Speaker 1: like us going through the season, right now guys are
Speaker 1: mentally weighed down a hundred percent. So for me, I'm
Speaker 1: like I had that experience before, so I know how
Speaker 1: to keep my mind very focused and stay in the
Speaker 1: present moment and try to mentor a lot of the
Speaker 1: other guys who hasn't who haven't gone through it um
Speaker 1: in order to say, just stick together, don't think about
Speaker 1: too much about the future, just think about right now
Speaker 1: and try to stay in the present moment. Now, did
Speaker 1: you get opportunity to share with the entire team. Have
Speaker 1: you done an individual as relationship your prior experience going
Speaker 1: through a transition like this, Yeah, you know. The thing
Speaker 1: is I I think coaches have already addressed it. So
Speaker 1: as for me, I work better with talking to guys
Speaker 1: like individually or as like you know, a little groups here,
Speaker 1: a little group there, or whatnot, especially a lot of
Speaker 1: young guys, you know, some of them, like you know,
Speaker 1: they're better in settings where like it's more of like
Speaker 1: a one on one setting or or you know, maybe
Speaker 1: it's two year better and stuff like that, and we
Speaker 1: can all sit into like a little small group and
Speaker 1: just talk about you know, what they expect he she's
Speaker 1: are from here on out, and just draw from me
Speaker 1: is for whoever is willing to listen. So it's a
Speaker 1: it's that That's how I've been able to handle it.
Speaker 1: As far as teaching other guys. Let's talk about your
Speaker 1: foundation with mercy, sir. You've always been active in your communities.
Speaker 1: What drives you to be active in your community? You know,
Speaker 1: it really steps from my family, my mom especially because
Speaker 1: every time I like, it's me, my sister, and my brother.
Speaker 1: She always taught us that, you know, no matter what
Speaker 1: we got, you gotta at least give something back. And
Speaker 1: my parents are immigrants from Haiti, so she always like
Speaker 1: anything that she had, she would you know, she would
Speaker 1: send back to Haiti to some family. Um also any
Speaker 1: time in their friends who needed help. You know, over
Speaker 1: the years that I was growing up, she would help
Speaker 1: him out. She literally would take it the clothes off
Speaker 1: her back and just give it UH to anybody who's
Speaker 1: in need. So seeing that in her, cultivating that UH
Speaker 1: in all of us, that's why I'm so active in
Speaker 1: the community US. And then the day I'm blessed, regardless
Speaker 1: of a position, whether I made it to the NFL
Speaker 1: or not, I was blessed at the time I came
Speaker 1: into this world, So why not be able to be
Speaker 1: a blessing towards others? That's what that's all really what
Speaker 1: I want to be. It's just to be able to
Speaker 1: help that next person who needs help, whether it be mentally, spiritually,
Speaker 1: or monetarily. So there's a good question, why have you
Speaker 1: chosen children with disabilities as a focus of your foundation? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 1: worst shot start all right. It goes back to my
Speaker 1: family again, is they've always been in a health care
Speaker 1: field for a while. So my my father, my mother
Speaker 1: works in nursing homes when as nursing assistance when I
Speaker 1: was growing up, and then my sister went to it
Speaker 1: and went to school for medicine and she's general practitioner
Speaker 1: herself down here in Euston. So all the while, like
Speaker 1: she's in school, my parents are doing that at the
Speaker 1: nursing home. As I'm growing up, it was already in
Speaker 1: my blood. It's in my d and they had servitude
Speaker 1: and all that, and uh, you know, I just really
Speaker 1: empathize with people and really, uh you know, I think
Speaker 1: about people first before I think about myself. When I
Speaker 1: was growing up as well too, so it was already
Speaker 1: there and and it's been taught so when I got
Speaker 1: to college, I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do.
Speaker 1: I was in communications for a little bit, and then
Speaker 1: I got into community health. And community health there was
Speaker 1: a concentration which was disabilities and rehabilitation. So I was learning, uh,
Speaker 1: this book or reading this book throughout one of these classes.
Speaker 1: It was called ds M or a less like all
Speaker 1: the different disabilities and stuff like that, and uh, this
Speaker 1: class pretty much encompassed like, all right, how to structure
Speaker 1: somebody's home living, how to structure you know, the transportation
Speaker 1: if they're dead, you know, if they're just a you know,
Speaker 1: work environment, X y Z, if the list goes on.
Speaker 1: So I caught it really pretty much. That caught my eye.
Speaker 1: And after that I was like, man, yo, this is
Speaker 1: really interesting. I like this a lot. And so I
Speaker 1: wanted to before I went to the NFL, I started
Speaker 1: branching into pre met. I said I didn't want to.
Speaker 1: When I first got I said, I want to do nothing,
Speaker 1: nothing medicine at all. Nothing. And then like four years later,
Speaker 1: I'm trying to get trying to get in a premante
Speaker 1: crazy right, So then I get into the NFL, and man,
Speaker 1: it's a long story, but like yeah, this is the
Speaker 1: last part I promised. But but I get to the
Speaker 1: NFL and pretty much I started working with kids a lot,
Speaker 1: you know, whether it be like play sixty all that,
Speaker 1: and visiting a lot of kids in the hospital and
Speaker 1: just seeing really how stressful it is on the families
Speaker 1: monster monetarily, emotionally, physically all that. So that really tugged
Speaker 1: on my heart as well too, and I wanted to
Speaker 1: come up with foundations, but I didn't know exactly what
Speaker 1: I wanted to do, and I didn't want to just
Speaker 1: put slap something out there that I was gonna care about.
Speaker 1: So if I don't care about it, then any donor
Speaker 1: that's gonna give to it, then that's not building their
Speaker 1: trust in order to say I'm passionate about this and
Speaker 1: making sure it that your dollars are doing exactly what
Speaker 1: it does. So it took me about five years or
Speaker 1: four years, and when I was in illegal whatnot. So
Speaker 1: that's where in two that's sixteen, that's when I created
Speaker 1: with Mercy with my manager and UH put together with
Speaker 1: Mercy to UH to really help that the community. I
Speaker 1: just read like I love working with kids. Also just
Speaker 1: putting it together what I studied in uh college, and
Speaker 1: that's how it came to be. What does the main
Speaker 1: benefit in your life that comes from working with people
Speaker 1: who are either physically or developmentally disabled. Yeah, so you know,
Speaker 1: the most rewarding thing about it is and whether you're
Speaker 1: religious or not. And for me, I I am it
Speaker 1: teaches the basic, key basic principles in life as far
Speaker 1: as loving one another, no matter why how different with you,
Speaker 1: we may be being really patient with one another as
Speaker 1: well too, empathizing with one another and being there for
Speaker 1: one another as well too, and understanding that man, just
Speaker 1: truly how blessed we are too. Kind of some capacity,
Speaker 1: we all have a special special thing about us that
Speaker 1: guy gave us to impart on this world. And somebody
Speaker 1: with someone with disabilities or myself who's able body to
Speaker 1: be able to go out there and go play, we
Speaker 1: all have this innate gift in order to provide the world.
Speaker 1: And uh, I think that's one of the things that
Speaker 1: has been rewarding as far as working with individuals such
Speaker 1: as those, because that's something man, they got some of
Speaker 1: the most beautiful and greatest smiles ever. And I'm like,
Speaker 1: I may have crappy day at practice, um man, I
Speaker 1: just got cussed out by the coach about five coaches.
Speaker 1: Then I go work with uh some of the kids
Speaker 1: uh here in Houston, Uh some who I made like
Speaker 1: great friends over the last a couple of years. And
Speaker 1: I see they smile, and you know they really you know,
Speaker 1: they know if they have a disability and all that,
Speaker 1: but they don't let that get them down. They know
Speaker 1: they they're special. Man. At the end of the day,
Speaker 1: when I lay up see them and I interact with them, like, man,
Speaker 1: my day. Really it wasn't that bad. Now, how is
Speaker 1: your work in the kitchen tied to your foundation? Well,
Speaker 1: cooking in the kid cooking in the kitchen with developed
Speaker 1: into something a whole like into a whole different beast
Speaker 1: for sure. So recently we had a foundation event and
Speaker 1: usually this is called done with mercy, so you're done
Speaker 1: with me, Like pretty much we would set up the
Speaker 1: event at like some like some restaurant that I really
Speaker 1: wanted to go to, something like that, and we create
Speaker 1: a deal and have some of our biggest donors go there.
Speaker 1: So I couldn't do that, so we had to be
Speaker 1: very very creative and how we bring these donors on
Speaker 1: to at least raise some money for the kids this
Speaker 1: year or Whatnotuh, so we didn't take a loss or
Speaker 1: anything like that. So pretty much it was a great
Speaker 1: idea for in the kitchen will win on Wednesdays and
Speaker 1: take that and actually make it into a foundation event
Speaker 1: where I brought two chefs to cook with me and
Speaker 1: pretty much have the entire gre and pretty much I
Speaker 1: was sitting there just looking pretty I ain't go a
Speaker 1: lot to you, didn't you the challenge of the two cooks,
Speaker 1: nothing like that? Oh no, it wasn't. So they were there,
Speaker 1: they were providing it. So we provided a class like
Speaker 1: a class. So so pretty much it was like so
Speaker 1: this event had steak, potatoes and spinnach, right and the
Speaker 1: in your head you're like, man, that's just too simple.
Speaker 1: But the way the chef did it, I would have
Speaker 1: never been able to do it the way no, I
Speaker 1: mean the meat just melted in your mouth and had
Speaker 1: like this garlic sauce on top. I'm telling you, like
Speaker 1: he killed it. He killed it. And then we had
Speaker 1: a pastry chef come in and did like this very
Speaker 1: holiday cake and had like cinnamon start these ginger all
Speaker 1: within the cream frosting and stuff like that, and it
Speaker 1: was really good. It was light, it was fluffy, and
Speaker 1: it just tasted absolutely immaculate. So it was just pretty
Speaker 1: much basically a cooking class that everybody paid for or
Speaker 1: towards the foundation, and uh, we were close to we
Speaker 1: were close to our goal as far as fifty thou
Speaker 1: which is which is uh absolutely a blessing, especially coming
Speaker 1: out of COVID. Yeah, so that's that's pretty much how
Speaker 1: it started the foundation. Everybody had a great time. I
Speaker 1: was cracking jokes all day long. Come on, man, you
Speaker 1: got me hungary already, Man to make the trip to Houston. Man,
Speaker 1: check out? Good, good, that's all right. I want to
Speaker 1: close out. Let's talk about the mask you wear. Yeah,
Speaker 1: tell me what the mask is and who honors African
Speaker 1: America's with disabilities who were slain by police? The mask
Speaker 1: that I wear, Zoe, of course, we got it. So
Speaker 1: and this is this ties into a whole another well
Speaker 1: not a whole another thing, but like the same thing
Speaker 1: as far as how many responsibilities we all have, like
Speaker 1: on the profes on the athlete level, because COVID not
Speaker 1: understanding whether we're gonna, like, you know, play or not,
Speaker 1: then we have you know, our coach firing also voting
Speaker 1: stressing them for people to vote to get change done,
Speaker 1: and then also black lives matter. You know, there a
Speaker 1: lot of the uh uh you know, social injustices and
Speaker 1: stuff like that, and supporting that as well too, and
Speaker 1: having strategic plans individually and collect as a collective group.
Speaker 1: So there was a lot mentally this year. Uh, just
Speaker 1: go back to earlier. It's how you know, players are feeling.
Speaker 1: We needed to come up with playing like what we're
Speaker 1: gonna do for the first game with Kansas City. I
Speaker 1: mean it was gonna be us so and I'll get
Speaker 1: around about to how it came to be white. Why
Speaker 1: I wear those maps? So we were the first game,
Speaker 1: So there was a black national anthem, and then there
Speaker 1: was the national anthem as well. Now the thing is,
Speaker 1: we all know like it should be. Everybody should know
Speaker 1: wrong from wrong and right from right, and so as
Speaker 1: a collective group, we didn't want to stand for one
Speaker 1: day them and then not the other, so that we
Speaker 1: gave other people, like the entire country fuel. You know,
Speaker 1: why are you gonna stand for this anthem not this one?
Speaker 1: Oh you're not paytrioted because you're standing for a Black
Speaker 1: lives matter, the black a national anthem and not the
Speaker 1: national anthem, like, so both teams we collectively said, hey,
Speaker 1: we're gonna just stay inside the locker room and then
Speaker 1: we're gonna come out after afterwards, and then we're gonna
Speaker 1: take a moment of silence and delayed the game. Delay
Speaker 1: that has started and starting time of the game. We
Speaker 1: got into the production of the entire NFL game. Whatnot
Speaker 1: right for football to be back on our time? So
Speaker 1: we got boomed. So at that point, it's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: what do people and then like when we do that,
Speaker 1: what do people want? What is it? What is it?
Speaker 1: It's tough to say, and you're not gonna please everybody.
Speaker 1: We understand that. So just getting into why did it
Speaker 1: is because I wanted to continue Like now it's like
Speaker 1: it kind of got drowned out a little bit, and
Speaker 1: I'm the type of person when I start something, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna see it all the way through. So in order
Speaker 1: to say, I wanted to make this thing like seamless.
Speaker 1: So I didn't want to just keep on putting like
Speaker 1: random names and stuff like that and just like like
Speaker 1: supporting the cause, like a support support the cause, but
Speaker 1: it had to make sense, So I wanted to tie
Speaker 1: it into and so I sat there, I was like, man,
Speaker 1: how do I tie it into the foundation? There's gotta
Speaker 1: be some instances. So, like, I started doing some research,
Speaker 1: a lot of names and seeing if there's you know,
Speaker 1: a common common denominator in there as far as disabilities
Speaker 1: and long behold, there was so a lot of the
Speaker 1: Like one individual, different Tanner, who had a man she
Speaker 1: she was shot inside of her home because he was
Speaker 1: having a manic episode. Her sister wasn't there and all that.
Speaker 1: So reading about those stories and stuff like that, so
Speaker 1: it takes a certain special somebody to deal with those
Speaker 1: individuals and know exactly what they had, what they're going
Speaker 1: through in order to deal with them and calm them
Speaker 1: down instead of or having you know, the police trained
Speaker 1: even more uh in order to deal with those individuals
Speaker 1: or something into that matter. So why were these ask
Speaker 1: is because it's HIGs. It is these these individuals had disabilities,
Speaker 1: they had manic episodes, and the cops were calling on them,
Speaker 1: and the cops weren't equipped to handle set uh set individuals.
Speaker 1: The thing is, yes, I deal with children with disabilities,
Speaker 1: but when they grow up, people forget the fact that
Speaker 1: these people have disabilities. For a lifetime. Yeah exactly, because
Speaker 1: not just one time in their life and then oh yeah,
Speaker 1: we just forget about it. So again, So I wanted
Speaker 1: to represent these individuals, not only show these injustices that's
Speaker 1: that's been going on, because uh, there's been instances where
Speaker 1: you know, somebody after the fact, like I want to
Speaker 1: go murder about like ten, ten, fifteen people like in
Speaker 1: for example, in the church, arrest them peacefully and then
Speaker 1: gives them like water X y Z sass that are
Speaker 1: they okay and stuff like that. Now, these individuals, like
Speaker 1: you could have done the same thing. You could have
Speaker 1: disarmed them, not shoot them. You can have disarm them
Speaker 1: in a different way or whatnot, or called the proper
Speaker 1: people in order to handle these in vigils. So I
Speaker 1: wanted to represent them, um and to continue the mission
Speaker 1: of the foundation as well too. Sorry that was long winded,
Speaker 1: but you know, I know that it was well said
Speaker 1: and well thought out as well. I love how you
Speaker 1: consciously and conscientiously think about what you're doing and the
Speaker 1: best way to do it where it would work with
Speaker 1: your foundation but also with people that people would understand
Speaker 1: it and not be turned off. Thank you. I appreciate
Speaker 1: that it's a you've obviously taken a stand on matters
Speaker 1: that are important to you. How should players allegence move
Speaker 1: toward getting involved and what matters to them? What are
Speaker 1: some best practices and benefits of getting involved? First of all,
Speaker 1: like I've heard it numerous times with research research, be conscious,
Speaker 1: like you said, be conscious of what you and you
Speaker 1: know want to support and all that read into it.
Speaker 1: Don't take for like the you know, the headlines and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. Actually take the time to get actually
Speaker 1: dive into it and really understand it for yourself. Whether
Speaker 1: it's like you know, some headlines out there that just
Speaker 1: give some miserinformation. Just get the facts. And then after
Speaker 1: that once you once you get those facts, like use
Speaker 1: your platform in any way that you can, Like for me,
Speaker 1: I'm using the Foundation in order to push these missions,
Speaker 1: you know, using the NFL platform as well too. One
Speaker 1: of the biggest things right now is voting, so not
Speaker 1: only just the general election for the presidency, but also
Speaker 1: voting within our own state or you know for the
Speaker 1: letters legislative board or what not, UM seats, you know,
Speaker 1: the UH, your local mayor as well. To make sure
Speaker 1: those people online with your values and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: or they're just a good person out there to day
Speaker 1: and they're gonna take care of people, and so doing
Speaker 1: research as far as that goes, and understanding that those
Speaker 1: little small things can add up to a major thing,
Speaker 1: and not to bindly go into it, always being always
Speaker 1: be thoughtful of each of your actions outside. I want
Speaker 1: to tell you what one of the things I've noticed
Speaker 1: and many legends like myself, we are thrilled and we're
Speaker 1: so how would I say, we're so proud if that's
Speaker 1: the word that we use of you guys, the current
Speaker 1: generation using your platform, but using it conscientiously, thinking through
Speaker 1: what you're doing, why are you doing it right? And
Speaker 1: being able to use this opportunity to this window. You
Speaker 1: know it's short for some loan for others, but it's
Speaker 1: still a short window compared to our entire lives. So
Speaker 1: keep up the great work. Tell all that all your teammates,
Speaker 1: man A, Niss and the legends really appreciate the current
Speaker 1: generation of guys and we love you guys. Continue to
Speaker 1: grow the game. Whitney, this has been fantastic. This has
Speaker 1: been a great podcast. The work that you're doing is
Speaker 1: is just it's so amazing to me because you personally
Speaker 1: don't necessarily have anyone directly as a relative that has
Speaker 1: a disability. But yeah, God is so fit to give
Speaker 1: you a passion for those with disabilities. So it's I
Speaker 1: think of a young lady who was raising a child
Speaker 1: with disabilities and Whitney, my conversations with her really opened
Speaker 1: my eyes that I had no clue and most people
Speaker 1: wouldn't have. So keep up the great work with your foundation.
Speaker 1: Thanks for coming on, thanks for listening in. The best
Speaker 1: is yet to come. Appreciate the time this has been
Speaker 1: the NFL Legends podcast. To provide feedback or request the
Speaker 1: topic for discussion, email us at NFL Legends at nfl
Speaker 1: dot com.