Speaker 1: Welcome to the NFL Legends Podcast, an NFL podcast for
Speaker 1: the players, by the players. Here is your host, fourteen
Speaker 1: year NFL veteran and Hall of Famer Anius Williams. Welcome
Speaker 1: back to the Legends Podcast. I am a Nius Williams.
Speaker 1: We're here. What Michael Vick talking about his fight against
Speaker 1: recipivism listening. You know, we're gonna we're gonna provide jobs,
Speaker 1: you know, through our housing program. As we build houses
Speaker 1: for inmates to live in, We're gonna hire the fellas
Speaker 1: to come in and do the wealth in the compentry,
Speaker 1: to do the painting, you know. So we're gonna create
Speaker 1: this massive platform. You know, and while you know men
Speaker 1: and women are in concrated, they can look forward to something.
Speaker 1: You know, they have to work at it, you know,
Speaker 1: it's it would being Center Bates. But if they qualify,
Speaker 1: if they do everything they need to do, then they
Speaker 1: can come to be a success story in their own right.
Speaker 1: So I think that's very important just for the next generation.
Speaker 1: We're also gonna have a youth program, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: where we speak at detentions and and try to catch
Speaker 1: the kids earlier before they become a problem and try
Speaker 1: to help stay them and write direction. And you know,
Speaker 1: like I said, it's it's not about me anymore. It's
Speaker 1: about helping others. You know, my kids got to grow
Speaker 1: up in this world that you know, at times can
Speaker 1: be very intricate, and um, you know, we asked ourselves
Speaker 1: like why, you know, why does this happen? And why
Speaker 1: does that happen? You think some people are crazy? You know,
Speaker 1: it's just sometimes they just don't have no guidance. And uh,
Speaker 1: I want to educate as many people as I can.
Speaker 1: I'm want to help as many people as I can,
Speaker 1: but I can't do it by myself. I needed help
Speaker 1: with others. And if I can affect you know, a
Speaker 1: hundreds of people a year, two hundred people a year
Speaker 1: to give them an opportunity in life, and I can
Speaker 1: do that over a lifetime and that's program to continue
Speaker 1: to carry on. So it's just something that I'm so
Speaker 1: excited about. Man. I just feel like this would be
Speaker 1: my greatest accomplishment in life if I can pull it off.
Speaker 1: And uh, I feel like I'm having the right conversations
Speaker 1: with the right people who believe in it, who understand it,
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, when it's all sitting done, there's
Speaker 1: so many people will be able to say, you know,
Speaker 1: I contributed to something so great. I think we can
Speaker 1: all be proud about it. Michael, When when we're players
Speaker 1: and even current players, my dad makes a statement, he says,
Speaker 1: son is not what people don't know that hurt them,
Speaker 1: it's what they do know. That's not true. When you
Speaker 1: were playing, did you ever have the thought, man, the
Speaker 1: league doesn't really care about us. Are once the teams
Speaker 1: are finished, they don't care. And then you go through
Speaker 1: your challenge and you talked about the support coach Tony Dungeon,
Speaker 1: You talked about Commissioner Roger Goodell's involvement, You talked about
Speaker 1: the teams that also gave you another opportunity. Was that
Speaker 1: a surprise to you, how well supported you were, Michael,
Speaker 1: It wasn't a surprise. It was a surprise of Roger.
Speaker 1: But they will not be honest about this because I
Speaker 1: looked him in his face in a lot about what
Speaker 1: I've been involved in. Um, you know, one because I
Speaker 1: had so much respect to him, and two because I
Speaker 1: was scared. Um then I was young at the time.
Speaker 1: Three But you know, when I came home and I
Speaker 1: had an opportunity to recreate the narrative and and talk
Speaker 1: to um Roger and show him that I was different
Speaker 1: than I'm mature. You know, now, I just need an opportunity.
Speaker 1: That's pretty much at all I was asking for. And
Speaker 1: you know, with most people, they just don't have anyone
Speaker 1: that they can turn to it and you know, say, look,
Speaker 1: this just be a crutch for me. Just help me out,
Speaker 1: Just give me one shot. You know that shot never
Speaker 1: comes um. And you know, of course they can't go
Speaker 1: out and create it. UM. But I felt like the
Speaker 1: league really supported me when I came when I came back,
Speaker 1: and for whatever reason, you don't thank God. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a lot of guys, maybe eight percent of them
Speaker 1: who retired from the league. Their career is over and
Speaker 1: they just they don't have anything to do, they don't
Speaker 1: have anything to fall back on. I think the league
Speaker 1: does a great job of creating of the programs that
Speaker 1: they have getting us ready to transition out of the NFL.
Speaker 1: But do everybody take that serious? No? You know, do
Speaker 1: we feel like sometimes it's just passing time? Yeah, somebody
Speaker 1: be honest. But those are the things that we really
Speaker 1: have prepare attention to because it's there force you know,
Speaker 1: we don't always get a coach like Andy Reid, who
Speaker 1: two years later after I retired, invited me to come
Speaker 1: do a coaching internship with the Kansas City teach. So
Speaker 1: that was another opportunity I would have had if I
Speaker 1: hadn't had an opportunity to go and work for Fox
Speaker 1: as an analysts. Um. So yeah, everybody don't get those opportunities. Man,
Speaker 1: That's why you got to create your own. When you
Speaker 1: have your own platform, you guys need to be educating
Speaker 1: themselves and thinking, you know, continue is from now, twenty
Speaker 1: years from now, you know, not about you know what's
Speaker 1: happening right there in the short term. Form Were you
Speaker 1: surprised by the falconswa Arthur blinks support even though you
Speaker 1: were no longer playing with the team. Was that a
Speaker 1: surprise to you how much he really came out to support. No,
Speaker 1: it wasn't a surprise because one thing I know about
Speaker 1: Arthur Blinker is that he loves me as as a
Speaker 1: man and as a person. Knew than anything, he loved
Speaker 1: you know, my family, you know, you know, probably my
Speaker 1: wife wanted he you know, he loved me because he
Speaker 1: respect you know, the respect my wife and what we've
Speaker 1: been through and he's been there, you know, every step
Speaker 1: of the way, and so it didn't surprise me where
Speaker 1: he he flew in and brought me my favorite dinner
Speaker 1: from my favorite restaurant, you know, you know stony. Really
Speaker 1: I didn't uh out in Georgia, man, So yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean I was just thankful. And I didn't have a
Speaker 1: dime in my pocket. I had nothing, I had no money.
Speaker 1: I was in ain't grubcy, you know. Of course I
Speaker 1: wanted to say, Mr blank, can I borrow a hundred
Speaker 1: thousand dollars please? I need it. I don't have anything.
Speaker 1: But you know, regardless of what I was going through,
Speaker 1: I always believe in myself, and they knew that I
Speaker 1: would come out on the other side better. It was
Speaker 1: just a test, you know. And uh, you know what's
Speaker 1: going back to my prison reform program. It's about trust,
Speaker 1: you know. Can I trust you? Can I trust you
Speaker 1: to go through the proper steps to go through all
Speaker 1: the classes and curriculums they passed to qualify, and we
Speaker 1: come out. We'll be a crunch for you for a year.
Speaker 1: We'll help you out transportation, housing, you know. Can you
Speaker 1: stay the course and and not have an excuse at
Speaker 1: the very end. You know, that's what it's all about.
Speaker 1: So sometimes you got to give people an opportunity, you
Speaker 1: got to mons from and make sure that they fall
Speaker 1: in line with what they say that they're gonna commit to.
Speaker 1: And I believe in that as a as an In
Speaker 1: central part of the NFL Letings podcast, it's about our guests,
Speaker 1: our guests journey. You've experienced being in concerated. Can can
Speaker 1: you touch and share with us? What was your experience
Speaker 1: like being in prison? Uh? Yeah, I break it down. Um,
Speaker 1: the first month, it was just a lot of pain.
Speaker 1: You think about everything, man, you know, you worked so
Speaker 1: hard for in your life. You think about all the
Speaker 1: people that you let down and you hurt um that
Speaker 1: you may have lied to, and then you look at
Speaker 1: your surroundings and say, okay, well it led to this,
Speaker 1: and then you know, it's just this like outpour of
Speaker 1: feelings and emotions and you know a lot of a
Speaker 1: lot of tears, a lot of crying and for a
Speaker 1: person of you know my statue, Yeah, yeah, I grew
Speaker 1: up in you know, public housing and it was rough,
Speaker 1: but I never had to sell drugs, are doing anything
Speaker 1: to put myself in a vulnerable situation. Where I went
Speaker 1: to prison. So I didn't know what prison life was like.
Speaker 1: I didn't think it was for me. I never thought
Speaker 1: it was for me. So I'm looking at myself in
Speaker 1: a place where it's just unforbidden territory. You know, it's
Speaker 1: like being in the dungeon, you know, when and when
Speaker 1: you when you walk out that dungeon doors like a castle.
Speaker 1: I'm like, man, I just had everything I wanted in life,
Speaker 1: and now I'm here confined with you know, I was
Speaker 1: in entirely taken finding by myself, so that made it harder.
Speaker 1: You know, it wasn't in the interaction with anyone, UM
Speaker 1: the whole time, you know, the first sixty days until
Speaker 1: I finally went to leaven Work prison camp, which was
Speaker 1: more so for me. Um, But it's still you know,
Speaker 1: you're locked up with a lot of people and it's
Speaker 1: just you know, too many men together every day. I
Speaker 1: just say that, like it's just too much. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: you gotta find ways to entertain you know, yourself, and
Speaker 1: block out the world because that can drive me crazy.
Speaker 1: So I learned to play chess, I learned to play
Speaker 1: all types of card games. I learned to play dominoes.
Speaker 1: UM found ways. I just spend more time playing chess
Speaker 1: than anything. Once I learned, um, and there was the
Speaker 1: way to just kind of help me, see you, to
Speaker 1: think critically every day, keep my mind off the world
Speaker 1: and you know, but but it's tough, it's not it's
Speaker 1: not the easiest thing to do. Um. You know, as
Speaker 1: a man, you we can handle it. But it's just
Speaker 1: having to deal with knowing that it's freedom on the
Speaker 1: other side, which drives you crazy. And um, depending on
Speaker 1: what you did and make it worse. You see what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, Like, whatever you did to put yourself in
Speaker 1: that situation to be in prison makes it worse. So
Speaker 1: I did what I did. I'm like, wow, I could
Speaker 1: have totally avoided that and the gate that in my life.
Speaker 1: I'm here and and I gotta deal with it. And
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure every other man and there goes through
Speaker 1: that door. They should, right, um, if they have some
Speaker 1: type of pride. So it's really weird. It's very weird.
Speaker 1: So while they're were you just Michael or were you
Speaker 1: Michael Vick, depending depending on who walked in the door.
Speaker 1: So you know, like do people coming and going? Um,
Speaker 1: So when you're from in our friends walked in their
Speaker 1: funny story, you know, walking I walk in around lunchtime
Speaker 1: and like it's like one of the worst parts of
Speaker 1: the day. It's like a frenzy in in in the
Speaker 1: child halls what they call it, and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: walking in. But it's packed on both sides and it's
Speaker 1: really excgregated. It's white side into black side. It's black
Speaker 1: sad is full. You know, I gotta you know, I
Speaker 1: wanted to sell the white side. You know, I don't
Speaker 1: see color, you know, I wouldn't And I could just
Speaker 1: see people whispering. You know, I don't know what they're whispering.
Speaker 1: I don't know what they're saying. Well he want to
Speaker 1: set with them or I just didn't care. I just
Speaker 1: needed to see, you know, it's my first day and
Speaker 1: I'm a little nervous and this thousand people in the
Speaker 1: you know, in one area, and I'm like, but I
Speaker 1: feel like they were just looking at me as Michael Vick.
Speaker 1: And you know, if I was just a normal you know,
Speaker 1: it's the average inmate, you know, without a name and
Speaker 1: just I probably have felt even more comfortable. I was
Speaker 1: uncomfortable because now everybody's like there years and size and
Speaker 1: me up. You know what it is not the biggest
Speaker 1: guy in six ft two pounds. That's Sam. Hey, guys whispering.
Speaker 1: I thought he was bigger than that. How you doing that?
Speaker 1: And he was that that side. I'm good, I'm good.
Speaker 1: You know, Mike Vick up and him Mike Vick the
Speaker 1: football player. And then as guys came, you know, and
Speaker 1: got to know me, I became Mike. And then you know,
Speaker 1: as I got to know them, you know, as you know,
Speaker 1: so everybody came in looking at me like wow, it's
Speaker 1: Mike Vick, and then they got to know me, it
Speaker 1: was like, that's that's just Mike, you know, just like us.
Speaker 1: And I respected that. I appreciated that part of it too,
Speaker 1: because you know, I wasn't I wasn't Mike Victor football
Speaker 1: playing and I was Mike Victor. Man. Wow, I want
Speaker 1: to move to your just just a system, and you
Speaker 1: have some work that you've done with it in Kansas City.
Speaker 1: You've also partnered with the City of Atlanta, the Mayor's office,
Speaker 1: and George's Department of Corrections to make an impact against recidivism. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I talk about the p A T program and its
Speaker 1: primary focus, but the focus is the youth reform mentorship
Speaker 1: program you know, to helping juvenile delinquents. You know, that's
Speaker 1: gonna be you know a lot of work and will
Speaker 1: be you know, financially supporting formally and conservating men and women,
Speaker 1: a rental assistance and purchasing properties for families in addition
Speaker 1: to the partying with with private companies to help carry
Speaker 1: out out objectives. I think that's gonna be extremely important.
Speaker 1: So those you know programs that already exist to reacy
Speaker 1: grant some months also to ever see you know, whatever
Speaker 1: help from us that they may need. Um, we don't
Speaker 1: want to reinvent the weather what they are already doing.
Speaker 1: We just want to kind of fall in line. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, using you know, like I said, the local agencies,
Speaker 1: state referrals, you know, the prison boroughs to help us
Speaker 1: out a lot in the transitional programs. But I plan
Speaker 1: on this program, you know, starting out in Atlanta. UM,
Speaker 1: if you're starting to Landing and Virginia my hometown where
Speaker 1: I've been. UM, and that direct connection with a prison
Speaker 1: woar and and and the prison counselor who's kind of
Speaker 1: helping me put the program together and telling me exactly
Speaker 1: what's needed. UM, that's how I found out about the
Speaker 1: house and the transportation part and uh, you know, just
Speaker 1: still crazy. You know, this whole program where it's it's
Speaker 1: a lot of moving parts, and yes we have to
Speaker 1: scale it down, um, but I'm excited with where we
Speaker 1: at right now because you know, I just know, like
Speaker 1: I said, man, it's nothing better than helping people and
Speaker 1: the people who don't have an opportunity. And look, as
Speaker 1: long as you know the crames and I'm gonna be honest,
Speaker 1: like the crimes just getting be crazy at what they committed.
Speaker 1: You know, it's people who just need a second chance
Speaker 1: because you know they might have had you an notterication
Speaker 1: with somebody or the you know, it might have been
Speaker 1: shot lifting or quarter to als for whatever reason. You
Speaker 1: know that. I don't mean they don't deserve a second chance,
Speaker 1: you know. I think it's up to the prison systems
Speaker 1: to evaluate these people and make sure that these people
Speaker 1: are you know, consciously aware of what they what they
Speaker 1: did and how to prevent it moving forward, and not
Speaker 1: that someone is better out there from on the other side.
Speaker 1: So to be able to do this, I just continue
Speaker 1: to tell everybody is to be one of the greatest
Speaker 1: accomplishments that I ever be involved in. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: as we pull this off, so you know, and it's
Speaker 1: not about me. I think that's what makes it even
Speaker 1: more special. As we wind down, I want to highlight
Speaker 1: a couple of things that I know you've been doing
Speaker 1: your efforts to get back at a player level. Talk
Speaker 1: about being a mentor to younger players. Why is this
Speaker 1: so important to you? Yeah, I look at this next
Speaker 1: generation of quarterbacks, man, you know, they're all just so special. Man.
Speaker 1: They you know, it's it's a mixed bag. They all
Speaker 1: look different. You know, some look the same, some something different,
Speaker 1: but you know they have that ultimate respect for you know,
Speaker 1: the ones that came before, and they let it be
Speaker 1: known and they're not afraid to say it. And it's
Speaker 1: showing in the game and showing in the growth of
Speaker 1: the game. Like Lamar has a coach that coach league
Speaker 1: in Philadelphia. When I came back the year I bought
Speaker 1: I wanted to comeback player of the Year. His name
Speaker 1: is James Urban and James had me in Philadelphia and
Speaker 1: he got Lamar in Baltimore and he you know, he
Speaker 1: we talked about Lament and before he even stepped on
Speaker 1: the field, and he just told me about all his
Speaker 1: qualities and how he is the person. And I just
Speaker 1: listening and you're like, you've got all the qualities that
Speaker 1: you have. And man, Lamar has spoke a lot when
Speaker 1: he was in college. You know, we used to have
Speaker 1: long conversations. Um. Yeah, we used to have long conversations
Speaker 1: just about the game. And he was asking the questions
Speaker 1: and like, well we'll just talked for a long time.
Speaker 1: He was going through trying to pick an agent and
Speaker 1: what he should do, and people were trying to you know,
Speaker 1: so that whole little and I'm just using that as
Speaker 1: an example. But Lamar listened to everything that I said,
Speaker 1: and I didn't have to say anything. I don't have
Speaker 1: to anything else tol him. Now, you know, he's a
Speaker 1: growing young man and he has to go through his experiences.
Speaker 1: The only thing I never wanted these guys to do
Speaker 1: was you know, screw up their opportunity. Like I used
Speaker 1: myself as an example because I had the greatest platform,
Speaker 1: and then you know, I felt I failed from grace.
Speaker 1: You know, so nothing's more important than your family and
Speaker 1: what you work so hard to become in your life,
Speaker 1: and those guys being you know, faces of franchises and
Speaker 1: quarterbacks in the National Football League. You know, every man
Speaker 1: can't say that. You know, it's only it's only about realistically.
Speaker 1: Maybe in the history of the sport, make five six
Speaker 1: thousand people say they ever lined up behind the senate
Speaker 1: in the National Football League. That might be on a
Speaker 1: little bit on the hut side, but you know that
Speaker 1: means a lot, and cherish that and don't take it
Speaker 1: for granted. This is a great opportunity. So I try
Speaker 1: to mentor them as much as I can on what
Speaker 1: not to do, because I can always praise him on
Speaker 1: what they're doing right. You know, if I see something wrong,
Speaker 1: then maybe if I can say something without them, you know,
Speaker 1: taking it with a form of disrespect, then you know
Speaker 1: it's signed up a great young man. As we close
Speaker 1: it out, one of the things that we've had guest
Speaker 1: speakers to the podcast, let's talk about their commitment to
Speaker 1: community service as a legacy building. And I would say,
Speaker 1: for you, why is that important? I believe in. I
Speaker 1: just believe an opportunity. I just believe that people don't
Speaker 1: get it. Some people just don't care. I can go
Speaker 1: back home in the city of newper News, where I'm
Speaker 1: from and I can see a lot of people that
Speaker 1: you know, just need a little help, you know, they
Speaker 1: just needed a little bit um. You know, when I
Speaker 1: got so much and I got a lot, and I
Speaker 1: looked at these people and I'm like, if we can
Speaker 1: just help implement um you know, the Boys and Girls
Speaker 1: Club direct centers down here, refurbish them. And I did
Speaker 1: one last year while took the Boys and Girls Club
Speaker 1: where I grew up, and I just you know, refurbished
Speaker 1: the whole thing, you know, put computer labs in there,
Speaker 1: and put a game room and there, just made a
Speaker 1: place where kids can come and just get off the street.
Speaker 1: You know. I know how important that was to me.
Speaker 1: And I did it, and I did it last year
Speaker 1: with the help of you know, Fox and a couple
Speaker 1: of responses, and that felt really good. And when I
Speaker 1: did that, I was like, you know, I want to
Speaker 1: do more, but I wanted to do more with a purpose,
Speaker 1: you know, a bigger purpose, because I know adults, men
Speaker 1: and women can help the kids that they're raising, the
Speaker 1: kids in the community, you know, generations to come spread
Speaker 1: the word. But I just like that. I just like
Speaker 1: to help people. Man. And uh. After doing so many
Speaker 1: football camps and meeting so many kids and watching them
Speaker 1: grow up and go off to college, have an impact
Speaker 1: in their life, and you know, being able to do
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving giveaways and Christmas drive toy drives and still have
Speaker 1: people come up to me and say, I appreciate it
Speaker 1: when you did that. You know, years ago you gave
Speaker 1: me my first bike and I gave me this, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, man, that's really cool. I want to continue
Speaker 1: to do that for the next twenty thirty years and
Speaker 1: as long as I wanted earth, That's what I always do.
Speaker 1: You know, it's not about me anymore. I do my part,
Speaker 1: you know, God to bless me if I could bless others,
Speaker 1: and that's ah. You know that's the longest short over
Speaker 1: the needs, you know, helping out the community is trying
Speaker 1: to rebuild, help people. Well, we're looking forward to seeing
Speaker 1: the continued work that you're doing to confront the recidivism
Speaker 1: and to continue to inspire change. Michael, this has been
Speaker 1: an amazing the podcast. Thank you so much for joining us,
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening in, and the best is yet to come.
Speaker 1: You can't said they're better. Thank you, and ladies, I
Speaker 1: appreciate you. Man. You won't respect all right, this has
Speaker 1: been the NFL Legends podcast. To provide feedback or request
Speaker 1: the topic for discussion, email us at NFL Legends at
Speaker 1: nfl dot com.