September 12, 2025 • 37 mins
For Shop Talk, Coach Bill is joined by his son Max to talk about the day that he flatlined, their full-circle moment that's about to take place, and their friend who asked Max, "Is it well with your soul?"
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Everybody's spilled Courtney with an army of normal folks and
it's shop Talk number sixty nine.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Welcome into the shop. How you doing, Alex?
Speaker 3 (00:11):
I am doing great.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
You brought somebody with you to the shop today.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
It's bring your kid to work today.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
It's bringing you bring my kid to work. Oh yeah,
usually it's my kids here, that's right.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Yeah? Who is You?
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Got a grown man in the room?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
And see him?
Speaker 1 (00:24):
He's over there behind some books. What's his name? I
think it's Max? Is it Maxweller? Does he have a
full name?
Speaker 4 (00:31):
Like, my name is Max. I go by Max, but
it's Maxwell Courtney, It's Max. My mother gets me.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Didn't call on you yet? You go away to.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
It's my fourth child, my second son, Max Courtney.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Hey Max, what's up?
Speaker 4 (00:45):
What's up? Dad? What's up?
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Your best work to date?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Yeah, well, Lisa.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
I'd have to agree with that. I'd have to.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Agree Lisa did most of the heavy lifting.
Speaker 5 (00:55):
Actually, I heard of Jim Gaffigan clip on that this week.
What is it about, like men's country? You shouldn't having kids? Yes,
it's like yeah, the girls like got morning sickness and
they're carrying it in. Then they breastfeed and it's like
we contribute for all five seconds, and it's something that
we think about one hundred percent of the day.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
I think it's thoughtful. I mean, we're very thoughtful people. Okay,
shop Talks at number sixty nine, y'all is kind of
a weird one, but I think you will all find
a great deal of.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Interest in it.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
This Friday, in four hours or so from now, Max
will be on the sideline of the Evangelical Christian School
Eagles football team because he coaches with them, and I
will be on the other sideline of the Middle College
Bulldogs because we actually play against one another.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
And if that isn't enough, the uh, one.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Of the last times Max and I were on this
very field, one of the more traumatic things to ever
happen in both of our lives happened on that So
it's kind of a full circle moment, which I think
has some lessons to it. So Shop Talk number sixty
nine is me and Max coaching against each other, coming
(02:14):
full circle in our lives. Right after these brief messages
from our general sponsors.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
All right, welcome back here by shop Talk number sixty nine.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Me and Max.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
What's up, dude?
Speaker 4 (02:38):
What's up?
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Dad? Y'all are going to beat us. You know that, right?
Speaker 5 (02:43):
Geezer, Your players, your players know you're saying this.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Well, I mean you know they're Let's be honest, we're
a very small, single a public school with not even
a tenth of the resources that a very dice middle
sized private school that Max coaches at has tons of resources,
beautiful fields, facilities, lots of coaches.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
And Max Courtney. Well, and how many of y'all suit up?
Speaker 4 (03:13):
What seventy sixty? We're sixty strong.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
But I mean, you know, if we're thirty eight black.
Speaker 5 (03:19):
Last year somebody posted this on Facebook. I was curious
that the number was right, like you middle college only
had like I think they said, like four or six
players or four or six something.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
I don't know how many players last year, twenty that
twenty six last year? We got thirty eight this year.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
That it also likes to slow the game down and
run a lot of eleven and twelve. So if he
slows the game down and he can figure out how
to take a lead into halftime, there might be a game.
But if he can't get out of the first core,
then yeah, we'll probably right.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Clearly, if there were odds makers E see us would
probably be about a twenty point five, wouldn't you agree?
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Seriously?
Speaker 4 (03:55):
Yeah, seventeen, I'd play sixteen and a half.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Yeah. So anyway, here it is.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
I coached my kid his whole life, brought him up,
taught him how to be a good young man and
a good football coach, and now he's going to use
all that to beat his dad's.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Friends in tonight.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Have you guys ever coached together.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Yeah, Actually, I've helped him out when he was a
defensive coordinator at Saint Benedict, I just helped him a little.
And then when I coached down at Ole Miss and
the charity ball, he coached with me and helped me
down there. So we've coached together kind of, but never
really for a full official year. But hopefully one day
that'll happen. That'd be fun. But today we're coaching against
(04:34):
each other. That's interesting, that's great, and I hope they
take it easy on dad and his small group of
kids just trying to play a little football.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
But here's the real twist of events.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
On this very field that we'll be playing on tonight,
which is the CS home field, the first game I
ever coached on that field because I once coached for ECS,
the very team that Max coaches for now, and we're
about to play against I want coach free CS. When
(05:11):
Max played for them and we were playing briercrest Our
very first game, and Max running around doing what he does,
and he got hurt. And Max is one that has
never really stayed dumb long. Even when he's hurt. He'll
(05:32):
whine a lot on the sideline, but he never likes
to do it on the field. And he got hurt,
and I could tell he was hurt because of how
slow he got up, and he never gets up slow
when he played, and he trotted off the sideline and
he could see in his face he was hurting, and
like a play later, he grabs his helmet. He starts
(05:53):
to run back on the field and the team doc said, no,
he's out.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
I need to look get him longer.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
And probably six or seven plays later they came and said, listen,
Mix's ribs are bruised.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
He's in a lot of playing. He can't really.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Put much weight on that side of his body. We're
taking a helmet. He's done, which is frustrating one as
a dad, you don't want your kid hurt. But two
as a coach, mix started on both sides of the ball,
and he was free safety and Brocrest threw a lot.
We really needed him in the game, and he was
(06:31):
out and I kind of looked at him over my
shoulder when they told me that, and he was in pain,
you could tell, but he was also pissed because he
wanted to go play. He didn't want to sit on
the sideline. He was both hurting and frustrated, and I thought, well,
that's okay. Then a few plays later, maybe five minutes,
(06:52):
not much longer, the guy came back. The team doc
came back and he said, Bill, listen. He said, they're bruised,
but just had'm an abundance of caution. I really think
instead of waiting after the game to get a Max raid,
we had to take him now.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
And I'm like, wow.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
They said, it's just a lot of pain and a
lot of swelling pretty quickly, and I don't think anything's wrong,
but I'm telling you, I want him to go on
to the hospital now, just in case. And so I'm
coaching a football game and Lisa's where she's always seated
with Molly and Will, Max's older brother and sister. And
(07:33):
they tell Lisa Max gag of the hospital, and so
they load Max up and leave, and halftime happens. We
come back out for the third quarter. Max is gone,
and to be honest with you, my brain's on football.
I think my kid's got bruised, maybe a broken ribe,
which is really sucking. Obviously I'm thinking about it. But
(07:56):
third quarter had just started and the team doc comes
to me with the trainer and with the assistant principal
of the school, which was weird.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
They say, Bill, you got to go, and I'm like,
what do you mean? I got to go to the
football game going on out here?
Speaker 1 (08:14):
They said you got to go because Max is on
a helicopter and I said, why is Max on a helicopter?
He said, they're flying them to the Region one Medical Center,
the only TROME unit of its south and that's all
I heard. And I said, what does that mean? And
they said, he's in trouble. And for the first time
(08:34):
in thirty three years, I left the sideline during a
football game. I ran to the locker room, got my
keys and hauled ass and literally it was thirty minute drive.
It's a long way to the trauma center, and I
was driving a million miles an hour, couldn't get anybody
on the cell phone, had no idea what was going on,
(08:57):
And I just pulled up to the curb outside the
Hospelpital with my flashers on, and literally Lisa was arriving,
or actually Lisa and the kids had just gotten there,
right in front of me, and they're walking down the sidewalk,
actually kind of running down the sidewalk, and I got
out and she just hugged me and she started bawling,
(09:17):
and I'm still not sure what's going on. And as
that's happening, a helicopter was landing on the top of
the hospital and Molly is bawling and says, that smacks
there he is, there, he is. And it took still
(09:38):
some time before I was finally taken into the hospital
and sat down and told what was really going on,
and then of course the kids, Will and Lisa was inconsolable.
But Molly and Will told me what happened in the
first hospital they took next to, which is Baptist Hospital,
and what happened on the way, And I think I'll
(10:01):
let Max tell that part of the story because I
wasn't there, and obviously you were.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
Once I left the field, Mom was wading in the
parking lot of the school by the football field, and
I got in and we were going down down the
road and Mom unfortunately missed a left hand turn. Otherwise
I would have been to the No, no, this is
all true. It gets worse. And had that not happened,
(10:29):
I would have been in the hospital in about ten minutes,
and all of that probably would not have happened. But
Mom was nervous, so she kept driving straight and we
took a big, big loop, and part of that loop
was on the highway, and in Tennessee on the weekends
they do a lot of roadwork because there's not supposed
to be as many drivers. But we hit a huge
(10:51):
traffic jam, and Mom kept on trying to weave and
out of traffic to get there. But we sat on
the highway for probably twenty minutes.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
And as this is going, you're starting into something. Yeah,
I got you.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
And then while we were weaving in and out and
trying to get to the hospital is when I kind
of started, you know, losing consciousness, and you know, I
just turned to my mom. I said, Mom, you know,
we gotta we gotta hurry. Something's not right. Uh. And
by this point, the football game, all of that, you know,
(11:24):
my friends, the girlfriends and all that, none of that mattered.
I had, you know, I knew, I knew it was very,
very serious. And we eventually got got out of the
traffic jam and we pulled into Baptistee and I walked
into the to the straight up to the desk and
I said, hey, I'm Max. I'm from ECS. I think
the school called. And the lady was pretty nonchalant. She
(11:46):
was like, yeah, yeah, it's okay, just go sit down.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
And by that time Mom and Molly and Will and
Maggie had had come in and then taking a seat.
So I went over to sitting next to them, and
it w wasn't five seconds later where I I felt,
you know, hey, you know something, something's bad about to happen.
So I got up out of my chair and I
walked over to the lady and I said, ma'am, you know,
(12:10):
I'm really in a lot of pain and something's not right.
And it was it was very shortly after that when
I collapse.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
So they put him in a wheelchair outside in the
in the waiting room, said we're busy, just sit.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
There and Uh.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Will looks over and Will's describes Max as gray and
he collapses and they they scream at the lady behind
the desk who brings a nurse in. A nurse comes
out and says, oh my gosh. And they roll them
in to a room and uh, they put him on
(12:49):
the table and they put vitals on them, the you know,
the machine, and uh.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
He was flatlined. He was gone.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Will describes it as the nurse literally said, oh shit,
hits a button and blue lights start flashing everywhere, and
in a matter of moments, there's ten people in the
room and they're resuscitating Max. They're feeling them full of blood,
they're filling full of plasma. Lisa passes out, Will starts
(13:27):
getting shaky. Max does come conscious briefly, and I think
you asked Molly to pray with you.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Didn't you.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
Yeah, once they got me stabilized, so to say, at Baptiste's,
and once I woke up at Baptiste I never lost
consciousness again until I went into surgery. But yeah, I
woke up. And the weird caveat of the story is
everyone always asked me what did you see? What did
you see? What did you see? And it's like nothing,
(13:58):
there is nothing.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
We'll be right back.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
And I've told you Dad. But you know, it was
very weird. It was very calm, it was very peaceful.
And the easiest way to describe it was that I
was that I knew, I knew I was gone. I
didn't you know know what that looks like. I didn't
know what that was. I just knew that, you know.
I don't want to say I knew that I had died,
because that's so dramatic, but I knew I was not
(14:39):
not there anymore. And yes, when I woke up, I
looked at Molly and I said, Molly, what the world
just happened? And she said, you just died? And I said,
will you please pray? And that's when Molly and I
started praying. And then like two minutes after that, the
operations person from the hospital came in and Will had
to sign off on me getting on a.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Helicopter because Lisa was still in there, because Mom, she was.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
Passed out in the hallway.
Speaker 5 (15:07):
Yeah, when you told the story before I did, you
didn't mention that Lisa part.
Speaker 4 (15:11):
Yeah, she passed out painted and then uh, Will, at
the time, I was seventeen, so Will was eighteen. That's
why he can sign them.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
Uh and then yeah, and then we I woke up.
Molly and I were praying and the hospital guy came
in and said, you know, we can't handle this. We're
gonna airlift you. And then uh, Mom, Maggie, Will and
Molly all piled up and they left, and then the uh,
the nurses and everything got me, you know, squared away
to go on the helicopter. Uh. And I'll never forget
(15:43):
the lady, the flight nurse, she just you know, it
was very very professional, very calming, and she strapped me
up and got me loaded onto the helicopter and she
just asked me, she said, baby knows, there is there
anything I can do for you? Is anything wrong? I
just said, you know, I'm in a still in a
whole bunch of pain. Still, I haven't gotten any medicine.
So she she hooks me up on an IV, got
(16:04):
me squared away, and you know, I'll never forget that.
That three minute helicopter ride.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
It was.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
It was unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
It was pretty cool, pretty cool cool. It was pretty cool. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Yeah, adds insurance cover this free helicopter.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
So Max lands on the helicopter. We still haven't seen him.
Lisa and I are pulled into this kind of weird
room and in the trauma center, and they tell us
the surgeon's going to be in to explain briefly, and
(16:40):
evidently they'd done it seems like it was five seconds,
but it must have been thirty minutes. But they'd evidently
done a lot of X rays and imaging on them
at some place, and the surgeon comes in.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
Well, I got to so when they when we landed,
I went into shock trauma and the what do you
call it when a woman's pregnant and ultrasound. This ultrasound
lady came and she put the gel you know, on
on my chest inside and she was gonna do an ultrasound,
and she took the ultrasound scanning machine or whatever and
(17:15):
poked me in the side. And this second she poked me,
I grabbed her and like pushed her off of me,
and uh, because it hurts so bad. It hurts so bad.
And then she she kind of looked across the room
at a doctor and like nodded her head. And then
it was a minute later I went to get a
cat scan, and then after the cat scan, is when
they wheeled me into that triage room, which is where
(17:36):
you and Mom were waiting. And then that's when five
minutes later doctor Mack showed up.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
All right.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
So while all that's going on, Lisa and I are
just sitting around, and incomes the surgeon. And this guy's
gray headed, bearded, got kind of spiky hair, he's got
on rex bacs, he sleeved in tattoos from his wrist
up to his shoulders. He's probably fifty five years old.
(18:02):
He's got a watch tied to.
Speaker 4 (18:04):
His drawstring, a Rolex tied to his draw.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
String, and he's wearing as many girl changs as mister
T does. And I'm like, okay, well Max is going
to die. They run out of surgeons and they just
got some guy of the motor pool to fix them.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
I mean, it's like, what is this guy ends up?
Speaker 1 (18:20):
This guy's name is doctor Magnatty from Manhattan, moved he
moved to Memphis to be a level one trauma surgeon.
And he says, your son's spleen has exploded. He's got
at least two broken ribs, one of his lungs has collapsed,
(18:42):
and he is in very serious condition. But I'm going
to save his life. And he turns and walks out,
and as he's walking out, Lisa says, can we see him?
And he said, sure, come on, And that's what Max's
talking about. When he was rolled in, we were there.
We got to touch him, love him, hug him, kiss him,
(19:03):
tell him we loved him for about thirty seconds and
he was gone. And Max's body, at that time, at
his age in size, had the equivalent of whatever however
much blood is in a unit.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
He had six units.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
His body volume was six units of blood, and they
transfused over fifteen units into him. He had enough blood
to bleed out four lifetimes because his spleen exploded and
all of the blood in his body was pooling in
his gut. And doctor Magnotty took out ninety five percent
(19:46):
of his spleen and pumped up his lungs and.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Couldn't do much for his ribs. And Max lived and
then stayed a weak in intensive care, and then spent
five days in intensive care, and then literally.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
A week after that, walked out of the hospital very
gingerly with bags full of pain meds and everything else.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
And my son's life was saved, yep.
Speaker 4 (20:20):
And I showed up to the next game that Friday.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Week later he did.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
He showed up on the sideline to the next game.
So the point to all of that story is three things.
It's a worn out old adage, but guys, everybody listened
to me. Take it from a dad you never know.
(20:45):
Tell him you love him, and kiss him and hold
him every single night, no matter how frustrated you are,
no matter how long your day's been, no matter what
you're up against. You know, my son was running up
and down the sidelines, one of the most healthy kids
you've ever seen, playing football, and literally twenty four hours
(21:10):
later he had tubes in his nose and in his
gut and all over him and couldn't even lift his
head up in a hospital but and flatlined. So the
truth is life is short. You never know, and you
never know when your time's coming and when it's not.
(21:31):
So those that are closest to you and you love
you need to always remember that it really could be
the last time you ever see him. Don't take the
time you have with those you love for granted. Second
thing is I believe in the power of prayer, and
(21:54):
there was a lot of prayer around Max that day
and that night and from himself off and I am
unbelievably and thankful to my Lord that my son is
still with us. And then the third thing is tonight
will be a weird night for me. I'm going to
(22:16):
take a football team that I've worked with since March
and try to take them out there and beat a
team that my kid once went to school for. My
kid is coaching against me on the sideline, and many
of the coaches on the ECS sideline I've coached with
both at e CS and at St. George's, and it
will be weird coaching against my friends, although I'm going
(22:40):
to coach as hard as I can to beat their
ass because that's what I want to do. Although we
are a seventeen to twenty point underdog, We're going to
do as best we can. But the weirdest thing is
the first time I ever coached on that very field
was the very night we're talking about, and now we
come full circle these years later, and my son and
(23:03):
I are going to be on that same field again
tonight coaching against each other. So the third thing is
you never know how life will come full circle and
what it'll bring you. But tonight will be full of
(23:23):
gut riching memories, but really happy celebrations that it started
the way it did and will end tonight.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
The way it is.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
So full of gratitude for the game of football, full
of thanks for my son's life, and full of excitement
for tonight because for me, it is a full circle
moment with my son who I once lost almost on
that very field.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
So it's a lot to reflect on it.
Speaker 4 (23:56):
What about you, dude, Yeah, I mean I think I
think you know from your perspective, that's that was probably
a scary night. There's probably a lot that you know,
you learned from.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (24:10):
You know, one thing that you know we've talked about
in private, and I'll share it today is I think
you know the irony in it and for everyone else
who's listening to understand the true full circle. I was
very difficult when I, you know, came up. Uh didn't
didn't listen? Well, UH did did pretty much whatever the hell?
(24:31):
Whatever the hell. I felt like I made a lot
of poor decisions. But I was not easy by by
any means. And Dad and I were, you know, although
I was playing at e c S and he was
coaching at e c S. In a lot of ways.
We are on very different sidelines that night.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (24:50):
And you know, as as you know, time wears on
and and you know, people grow mature. We we have
ended up spiritual and morally on the same sideline, even
though he is at middle college and I'm at ECS.
In my mind, it's more like a two hundred and
(25:10):
seventy degree turn because once the full circle happens, Dad
and I will will be on the same sideline physically,
emotionally and spiritually.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
We'll be right back. It's kind of cool. That's beautiful, Max.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
That's more beautiful than anything you said.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Yeah, I mean you always whence kids would be better
than you. So there you have it.
Speaker 5 (25:46):
Well, I'm sure you were partially inspired to coach because
your dad.
Speaker 4 (25:50):
Yes, absolutely. I mean, you know, if if you don't
play football, you can't you can't possibly understand. But a
common struggle bonds people, and and football is a very
tough sport. It's a hard sport. It hurts. There's a
lot of mental game in there that people just don't realize.
And I had the opportunity to learn from Dad, from
(26:11):
men like David Carter and Ben Todd.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Just guys who currently coach at ECS that I coached
with at Saint George's.
Speaker 4 (26:18):
Ironically an unbelievable amount of football wealth that I picked
up and that I know. And I was a defensive
coordinator for a small private school here in Memphis in
twenty twenty two. We weren't any good, didn't do anything
worth talking about. But the fact that I was twenty
two years old and was able to coordinate a four
(26:39):
to three with multiple fronts is straight up a reflection
of how good of a coach those guys at Saint
George's were. They've just they've bestowed them upon me the
game when what I've had to learn over the last
couple of years and in my absence from twenty twenty
two to twenty you know, was at twenty twenty five
(26:59):
now is one how much I missed the game and
how much I needed the game in my life. You know,
there's an old adage around the game that if you
let it, you know, football can save your life. And
it's you know, Dad and I will will make jokes
all the time, you know, whether it's in business or something.
Let's say someone makes a good play, you know I'll
look at him and say that that that you know,
(27:19):
that guy did a really good job set in the
edge there or something like that. There's just so much
in football that can be translated to life. And you
know Dad said it before. I think he said in
his book. But if you can if you can run
and operate a football team, you can run and operate
a business, you can run and operate a family. You
can you know, run an operate a community, a church.
Anything that's fruitful really is rooted in football.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
Yep, I'd had a fourth and a fifth thing. Give
blood go.
Speaker 5 (27:47):
That's where max here, That's where Maxi's story came up.
Before we were talking about blood a little bit, we
did a longer.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Person what's up? Maybe you've listened to this, but do
you know.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
There's almost its own most impossibility that a human being
on the face of the planet will not need blood
at some point or another in their life. If you
have cancer, you gotta have blood. Once you're older and
need little surgeries, you got to have blood. God forbids
something like what happened to you. You need blood. So
(28:18):
one hundred percent of people on the face of planet,
by the time they die, will have needed blood, and
certainly everyone close to them will have needed blood. Do
you know what percent of the public gives blood?
Speaker 4 (28:34):
I'd say seven percent.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
That's a double it's three wow. One hundred percent of
the people on the face of planet are going to
need blood, yet only three percent give it, which means
that ninety seven percent of the people, as it pertains
to their need for blood, are mootures.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
Though about only forty eligible. The eligible numbers are below
the population.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
I can give the ninety seven percent.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
They don't even get checked to see if they're eligible
or not.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
But the point is of.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
Forty is still not good.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
We talk about an army and normal folks doing what
you can do. Giving blood or plateless is something the
vast majority of us can do, and most of us
don't even try, although we or someone we dearly love
that is very close to us is absolutely with one
hundred percent certainty and probability going to need blood.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
So we take, but we don't give. That's selfish.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
So point four give blood because if somebody had not
given blood, my son wouldn't.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
Be here talking to me today because he would have
bled out.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
Guess to gave blood last week?
Speaker 2 (29:43):
You did?
Speaker 3 (29:43):
You did this guy?
Speaker 4 (29:45):
For you?
Speaker 3 (29:46):
John Normanoy there you get. I was always afraid of needles.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
But John John Norman Max's is one of our listeners
who is now been a guest because he's given.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
Plasmover one hundred and sixty times.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (30:01):
Yeah, And it's so cool because like you sit in
a chair for ninety minutes and you can save three
people's lives, and like he can be on his phone
doing it.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
Literally, it's not that hard.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
Ninety minutes of plasma saves three people's lives within a week.
Speaker 4 (30:13):
When I was when I was nineteen and super poor
and in school, Uh, my roommate and Buddy Gray Clark
and I yeah, we damn here, we damn near did
it for beer money. I don't know why we didn't followed.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Well Number five.
Speaker 5 (30:30):
Actually, I just saw this on social media this week.
Have you guys heard of the halo effect? No, So
it's like two people who are dressed uh differently, like
if they have the same credentials, Like if somebody's dressed better,
they're trusted more despite having the same credentials. Cody Sanchez
actually was talking about this recently too, that.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Like people must really not trust me at all.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
I was going to say you're trying to get down
to wear a collared shirt, we're going.
Speaker 3 (30:54):
To talk about your magnatty guy.
Speaker 5 (30:55):
So actually, Cody Sanchez said the other day something like
women who wear makeup make like twenty to thirty percent
more or two. But this guy was making the point that, look,
if you have two qualified surgeons the exact same credentials,
you actually want the guy who looks like you're magnety
guy because he's got through more shit to get there.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
Ironically enough, that is true.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
His father hung sheet rock and wallpaper in Manhattan, and
they grew up very blue collar New Jersey folks, and
he worked his ass off to get where he was
and is now one of the most respected, foremost thought
about trauma surgeons on the face of the planet, and
we got lucky to have him.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
He since moved to Phoenix.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
But to wrap this story up, that all happened Max's
junior year, and he rehabbed and ended up playing baseball
later that spring. Although he wasn't full speed, he played,
and then by a senior he was ready to go again.
And Max's got a scar from his navel up to
(31:56):
his chest.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
I mean they cut him wide.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
Over and of course Max said, I don't want the
last time I ever stepped on a football field to
be that night. I want to play again, much to
Lisa's chagrin, who wasn't having it anyway. Max stayed very
close to doctor Macnaughty, as did our entire family because
we see him as the man that gave us our
(32:20):
sunback and Max played football again. And the very first
game that Max played, while I coached on the sideline
coaching my kid his senior year and Lisa in the
stands about to throw up all over herself. The person
that joined her to calm her was the same guy
(32:45):
that convinced her it was okay. And doctor Magnatty took
the day off that Friday night and sat with Lisa
in the stands as Max played his first football game
and celebrated my son playing football and kept my wife
from losing her mind. And we have since become very
close friends with the whole Magnaughty family because he is
not only a surgeon and not only a doctor, but
(33:08):
he's a good man to do something like that.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
Just another member of an army in almost folks.
Speaker 4 (33:14):
I have one more and it goes along with the
what was your first lesson.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
The first thing I got from this was never always
I love you before, because you never know.
Speaker 4 (33:27):
So that the night that I was hurt, and this
was surgery night. Uh, and this was this is also
a pretty good one, Alex. She may not even know this,
but my defensive coordinator's name was Brandon Tucker. He's one
of the most knowledgeable and godly men I've ever met
in my entire life.
Speaker 5 (33:45):
He showed up in one of our episodes. Did you
really you must not listen to the podcast. I don't know,
I don't showed up in the Briarcress episode.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
Yeah, we did a upsote of Briercrest and actually in
the class of people were in viewing was his son,
who is a heck of a quarterback.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
I think he just thumped y'all a few weeks ago.
Speaker 4 (34:03):
Get there.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
Yeah, and then coach Tucker showed up. I actually talked
to him yesterday.
Speaker 4 (34:10):
So Coach Tucker, he was.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
At that time, was coaching Max at ECS and he
and I were coaching defense together.
Speaker 4 (34:20):
Yes, so he was. He was the defensive balls. He
was my defensive coach, and he was actually the last
person to come in my room the night that I
was hurt and most people where you know, Hey, Max,
you know you're gonna get better, You're gonna get back
out there. You know things are going to be good.
You know, try and encourage me. Blah blah blah. And
Coach Tucker he came in and you know, he wasn't reserved,
(34:41):
but he was very cautious, I would say. And he
just looked at me and he said, Max. He said,
I've known you for you know, a couple of months,
but you know this is a terrible thing, but I
just have to ask you some And I said, yes, sir,
what is it? And he said, is it well with
your soul? And that question has has suck with me
(35:02):
for I mean every single day since I think about
that question, and my my soul at the time was
not well. And I credit him in that question for
for changing the course of my life because that thought,
that question had never entered my mind. And to this
day I keep up with Coach Tucker. Like I said,
(35:22):
He's the most knowledgeable and godly man that I've ever met.
And it was my dad just said three weeks ago.
The last time E. C. S Had played Briar Crest
was when I got hurt. And we resumed the series
this year and Coach Tucker was the defensive coordinator at
Briar Crest this year, so that also came full circa
(35:42):
line coach. He's the line coach, but coach and now
he's at he's at Briar Crest. So the moral of
that whole full circle moment is if you know, if
it's not, you know, you have to ask yourself, is
it well with your soul?
Speaker 2 (36:00):
Because you never know, because you never know.
Speaker 3 (36:02):
Man, you're well spoken, Max. I'm glad we did appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
Out Let them have a podcast. I can go give
them a podcast.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
Podcast with your kids would be a lot of fun.
Speaker 4 (36:09):
I guess we need to get the six together and duke.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
It out, all right, guys, So that's it Shop Talk
number sixty nine.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
Make sure you hug them at night.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
Make sure it's well with your soul, because you really
never know, and life will throw you twist and turns
and always also sometimes come back full circle. And for
me and my kid and my family at about four nights,
we will complete one of life's full circles. If you
like this episode, please rate and view it, subscribe to
(36:45):
the podcast. You can help me mail me anytime at
Bill at normal folks dot us. If you have any
ideas for guests for them Army and Normal Folks, or
ideas for shop Talk, please email me.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
I will respond. We'll take them up.
Speaker 3 (36:58):
Sign up to join the Army in Normal Folks though US.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
That's right, and until next time, do what you can,
do what you can. That's Shop Talk number sixty nine.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
We'll see you next week.
Everybody's spilled Courtney with an army of normal folks and
it's shop Talk number sixty nine.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Welcome into the shop. How you doing, Alex?
Speaker 3 (00:11):
I am doing great.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
You brought somebody with you to the shop today.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
It's bring your kid to work today.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
It's bringing you bring my kid to work. Oh yeah,
usually it's my kids here, that's right.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Yeah? Who is You?
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Got a grown man in the room?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
And see him?
Speaker 1 (00:24):
He's over there behind some books. What's his name? I
think it's Max? Is it Maxweller? Does he have a
full name?
Speaker 4 (00:31):
Like, my name is Max. I go by Max, but
it's Maxwell Courtney, It's Max. My mother gets me.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Didn't call on you yet? You go away to.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
It's my fourth child, my second son, Max Courtney.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Hey Max, what's up?
Speaker 4 (00:45):
What's up? Dad? What's up?
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Your best work to date?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Yeah, well, Lisa.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
I'd have to agree with that. I'd have to.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Agree Lisa did most of the heavy lifting.
Speaker 5 (00:55):
Actually, I heard of Jim Gaffigan clip on that this week.
What is it about, like men's country? You shouldn't having kids? Yes,
it's like yeah, the girls like got morning sickness and
they're carrying it in. Then they breastfeed and it's like
we contribute for all five seconds, and it's something that
we think about one hundred percent of the day.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
I think it's thoughtful. I mean, we're very thoughtful people. Okay,
shop Talks at number sixty nine, y'all is kind of
a weird one, but I think you will all find
a great deal of.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Interest in it.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
This Friday, in four hours or so from now, Max
will be on the sideline of the Evangelical Christian School
Eagles football team because he coaches with them, and I
will be on the other sideline of the Middle College
Bulldogs because we actually play against one another.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
And if that isn't enough, the uh, one.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Of the last times Max and I were on this
very field, one of the more traumatic things to ever
happen in both of our lives happened on that So
it's kind of a full circle moment, which I think
has some lessons to it. So Shop Talk number sixty
nine is me and Max coaching against each other, coming
(02:14):
full circle in our lives. Right after these brief messages
from our general sponsors.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
All right, welcome back here by shop Talk number sixty nine.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Me and Max.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
What's up, dude?
Speaker 4 (02:38):
What's up?
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Dad? Y'all are going to beat us. You know that, right?
Speaker 5 (02:43):
Geezer, Your players, your players know you're saying this.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Well, I mean you know they're Let's be honest, we're
a very small, single a public school with not even
a tenth of the resources that a very dice middle
sized private school that Max coaches at has tons of resources,
beautiful fields, facilities, lots of coaches.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
And Max Courtney. Well, and how many of y'all suit up?
Speaker 4 (03:13):
What seventy sixty? We're sixty strong.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
But I mean, you know, if we're thirty eight black.
Speaker 5 (03:19):
Last year somebody posted this on Facebook. I was curious
that the number was right, like you middle college only
had like I think they said, like four or six
players or four or six something.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
I don't know how many players last year, twenty that
twenty six last year? We got thirty eight this year.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
That it also likes to slow the game down and
run a lot of eleven and twelve. So if he
slows the game down and he can figure out how
to take a lead into halftime, there might be a game.
But if he can't get out of the first core,
then yeah, we'll probably right.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Clearly, if there were odds makers E see us would
probably be about a twenty point five, wouldn't you agree?
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Seriously?
Speaker 4 (03:55):
Yeah, seventeen, I'd play sixteen and a half.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Yeah. So anyway, here it is.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
I coached my kid his whole life, brought him up,
taught him how to be a good young man and
a good football coach, and now he's going to use
all that to beat his dad's.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Friends in tonight.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Have you guys ever coached together.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Yeah, Actually, I've helped him out when he was a
defensive coordinator at Saint Benedict, I just helped him a little.
And then when I coached down at Ole Miss and
the charity ball, he coached with me and helped me
down there. So we've coached together kind of, but never
really for a full official year. But hopefully one day
that'll happen. That'd be fun. But today we're coaching against
(04:34):
each other. That's interesting, that's great, and I hope they
take it easy on dad and his small group of
kids just trying to play a little football.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
But here's the real twist of events.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
On this very field that we'll be playing on tonight,
which is the CS home field, the first game I
ever coached on that field because I once coached for ECS,
the very team that Max coaches for now, and we're
about to play against I want coach free CS. When
(05:11):
Max played for them and we were playing briercrest Our
very first game, and Max running around doing what he does,
and he got hurt. And Max is one that has
never really stayed dumb long. Even when he's hurt. He'll
(05:32):
whine a lot on the sideline, but he never likes
to do it on the field. And he got hurt,
and I could tell he was hurt because of how
slow he got up, and he never gets up slow
when he played, and he trotted off the sideline and
he could see in his face he was hurting, and
like a play later, he grabs his helmet. He starts
(05:53):
to run back on the field and the team doc said, no,
he's out.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
I need to look get him longer.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
And probably six or seven plays later they came and said, listen,
Mix's ribs are bruised.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
He's in a lot of playing. He can't really.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Put much weight on that side of his body. We're
taking a helmet. He's done, which is frustrating one as
a dad, you don't want your kid hurt. But two
as a coach, mix started on both sides of the ball,
and he was free safety and Brocrest threw a lot.
We really needed him in the game, and he was
(06:31):
out and I kind of looked at him over my
shoulder when they told me that, and he was in pain,
you could tell, but he was also pissed because he
wanted to go play. He didn't want to sit on
the sideline. He was both hurting and frustrated, and I thought, well,
that's okay. Then a few plays later, maybe five minutes,
(06:52):
not much longer, the guy came back. The team doc
came back and he said, Bill, listen. He said, they're bruised,
but just had'm an abundance of caution. I really think
instead of waiting after the game to get a Max raid,
we had to take him now.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
And I'm like, wow.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
They said, it's just a lot of pain and a
lot of swelling pretty quickly, and I don't think anything's wrong,
but I'm telling you, I want him to go on
to the hospital now, just in case. And so I'm
coaching a football game and Lisa's where she's always seated
with Molly and Will, Max's older brother and sister. And
(07:33):
they tell Lisa Max gag of the hospital, and so
they load Max up and leave, and halftime happens. We
come back out for the third quarter. Max is gone,
and to be honest with you, my brain's on football.
I think my kid's got bruised, maybe a broken ribe,
which is really sucking. Obviously I'm thinking about it. But
(07:56):
third quarter had just started and the team doc comes
to me with the trainer and with the assistant principal
of the school, which was weird.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
They say, Bill, you got to go, and I'm like,
what do you mean? I got to go to the
football game going on out here?
Speaker 1 (08:14):
They said you got to go because Max is on
a helicopter and I said, why is Max on a helicopter?
He said, they're flying them to the Region one Medical Center,
the only TROME unit of its south and that's all
I heard. And I said, what does that mean? And
they said, he's in trouble. And for the first time
(08:34):
in thirty three years, I left the sideline during a
football game. I ran to the locker room, got my
keys and hauled ass and literally it was thirty minute drive.
It's a long way to the trauma center, and I
was driving a million miles an hour, couldn't get anybody
on the cell phone, had no idea what was going on,
(08:57):
And I just pulled up to the curb outside the
Hospelpital with my flashers on, and literally Lisa was arriving,
or actually Lisa and the kids had just gotten there,
right in front of me, and they're walking down the sidewalk,
actually kind of running down the sidewalk, and I got
out and she just hugged me and she started bawling,
(09:17):
and I'm still not sure what's going on. And as
that's happening, a helicopter was landing on the top of
the hospital and Molly is bawling and says, that smacks
there he is, there, he is. And it took still
(09:38):
some time before I was finally taken into the hospital
and sat down and told what was really going on,
and then of course the kids, Will and Lisa was inconsolable.
But Molly and Will told me what happened in the
first hospital they took next to, which is Baptist Hospital,
and what happened on the way, And I think I'll
(10:01):
let Max tell that part of the story because I
wasn't there, and obviously you were.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
Once I left the field, Mom was wading in the
parking lot of the school by the football field, and
I got in and we were going down down the
road and Mom unfortunately missed a left hand turn. Otherwise
I would have been to the No, no, this is
all true. It gets worse. And had that not happened,
(10:29):
I would have been in the hospital in about ten minutes,
and all of that probably would not have happened. But
Mom was nervous, so she kept driving straight and we
took a big, big loop, and part of that loop
was on the highway, and in Tennessee on the weekends
they do a lot of roadwork because there's not supposed
to be as many drivers. But we hit a huge
(10:51):
traffic jam, and Mom kept on trying to weave and
out of traffic to get there. But we sat on
the highway for probably twenty minutes.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
And as this is going, you're starting into something. Yeah,
I got you.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
And then while we were weaving in and out and
trying to get to the hospital is when I kind
of started, you know, losing consciousness, and you know, I
just turned to my mom. I said, Mom, you know,
we gotta we gotta hurry. Something's not right. Uh. And
by this point, the football game, all of that, you know,
(11:24):
my friends, the girlfriends and all that, none of that mattered.
I had, you know, I knew, I knew it was very,
very serious. And we eventually got got out of the
traffic jam and we pulled into Baptistee and I walked
into the to the straight up to the desk and
I said, hey, I'm Max. I'm from ECS. I think
the school called. And the lady was pretty nonchalant. She
(11:46):
was like, yeah, yeah, it's okay, just go sit down.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
And by that time Mom and Molly and Will and
Maggie had had come in and then taking a seat.
So I went over to sitting next to them, and
it w wasn't five seconds later where I I felt,
you know, hey, you know something, something's bad about to happen.
So I got up out of my chair and I
walked over to the lady and I said, ma'am, you know,
(12:10):
I'm really in a lot of pain and something's not right.
And it was it was very shortly after that when
I collapse.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
So they put him in a wheelchair outside in the
in the waiting room, said we're busy, just sit.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
There and Uh.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Will looks over and Will's describes Max as gray and
he collapses and they they scream at the lady behind
the desk who brings a nurse in. A nurse comes
out and says, oh my gosh. And they roll them
in to a room and uh, they put him on
(12:49):
the table and they put vitals on them, the you know,
the machine, and uh.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
He was flatlined. He was gone.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Will describes it as the nurse literally said, oh shit,
hits a button and blue lights start flashing everywhere, and
in a matter of moments, there's ten people in the
room and they're resuscitating Max. They're feeling them full of blood,
they're filling full of plasma. Lisa passes out, Will starts
(13:27):
getting shaky. Max does come conscious briefly, and I think
you asked Molly to pray with you.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Didn't you.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
Yeah, once they got me stabilized, so to say, at Baptiste's,
and once I woke up at Baptiste I never lost
consciousness again until I went into surgery. But yeah, I
woke up. And the weird caveat of the story is
everyone always asked me what did you see? What did
you see? What did you see? And it's like nothing,
(13:58):
there is nothing.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
We'll be right back.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
And I've told you Dad. But you know, it was
very weird. It was very calm, it was very peaceful.
And the easiest way to describe it was that I
was that I knew, I knew I was gone. I
didn't you know know what that looks like. I didn't
know what that was. I just knew that, you know.
I don't want to say I knew that I had died,
because that's so dramatic, but I knew I was not
(14:39):
not there anymore. And yes, when I woke up, I
looked at Molly and I said, Molly, what the world
just happened? And she said, you just died? And I said,
will you please pray? And that's when Molly and I
started praying. And then like two minutes after that, the
operations person from the hospital came in and Will had
to sign off on me getting on a.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Helicopter because Lisa was still in there, because Mom, she was.
Speaker 4 (15:05):
Passed out in the hallway.
Speaker 5 (15:07):
Yeah, when you told the story before I did, you
didn't mention that Lisa part.
Speaker 4 (15:11):
Yeah, she passed out painted and then uh, Will, at
the time, I was seventeen, so Will was eighteen. That's
why he can sign them.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
Uh and then yeah, and then we I woke up.
Molly and I were praying and the hospital guy came
in and said, you know, we can't handle this. We're
gonna airlift you. And then uh, Mom, Maggie, Will and
Molly all piled up and they left, and then the uh,
the nurses and everything got me, you know, squared away
to go on the helicopter. Uh. And I'll never forget
(15:43):
the lady, the flight nurse, she just you know, it
was very very professional, very calming, and she strapped me
up and got me loaded onto the helicopter and she
just asked me, she said, baby knows, there is there
anything I can do for you? Is anything wrong? I
just said, you know, I'm in a still in a
whole bunch of pain. Still, I haven't gotten any medicine.
So she she hooks me up on an IV, got
(16:04):
me squared away, and you know, I'll never forget that.
That three minute helicopter ride.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
It was.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
It was unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
It was pretty cool, pretty cool cool. It was pretty cool. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Yeah, adds insurance cover this free helicopter.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
So Max lands on the helicopter. We still haven't seen him.
Lisa and I are pulled into this kind of weird
room and in the trauma center, and they tell us
the surgeon's going to be in to explain briefly, and
(16:40):
evidently they'd done it seems like it was five seconds,
but it must have been thirty minutes. But they'd evidently
done a lot of X rays and imaging on them
at some place, and the surgeon comes in.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
Well, I got to so when they when we landed,
I went into shock trauma and the what do you
call it when a woman's pregnant and ultrasound. This ultrasound
lady came and she put the gel you know, on
on my chest inside and she was gonna do an ultrasound,
and she took the ultrasound scanning machine or whatever and
(17:15):
poked me in the side. And this second she poked me,
I grabbed her and like pushed her off of me,
and uh, because it hurts so bad. It hurts so bad.
And then she she kind of looked across the room
at a doctor and like nodded her head. And then
it was a minute later I went to get a
cat scan, and then after the cat scan, is when
they wheeled me into that triage room, which is where
(17:36):
you and Mom were waiting. And then that's when five
minutes later doctor Mack showed up.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
All right.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
So while all that's going on, Lisa and I are
just sitting around, and incomes the surgeon. And this guy's
gray headed, bearded, got kind of spiky hair, he's got
on rex bacs, he sleeved in tattoos from his wrist
up to his shoulders. He's probably fifty five years old.
(18:02):
He's got a watch tied to.
Speaker 4 (18:04):
His drawstring, a Rolex tied to his draw.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
String, and he's wearing as many girl changs as mister
T does. And I'm like, okay, well Max is going
to die. They run out of surgeons and they just
got some guy of the motor pool to fix them.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
I mean, it's like, what is this guy ends up?
Speaker 1 (18:20):
This guy's name is doctor Magnatty from Manhattan, moved he
moved to Memphis to be a level one trauma surgeon.
And he says, your son's spleen has exploded. He's got
at least two broken ribs, one of his lungs has collapsed,
(18:42):
and he is in very serious condition. But I'm going
to save his life. And he turns and walks out,
and as he's walking out, Lisa says, can we see him?
And he said, sure, come on, And that's what Max's
talking about. When he was rolled in, we were there.
We got to touch him, love him, hug him, kiss him,
(19:03):
tell him we loved him for about thirty seconds and
he was gone. And Max's body, at that time, at
his age in size, had the equivalent of whatever however
much blood is in a unit.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
He had six units.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
His body volume was six units of blood, and they
transfused over fifteen units into him. He had enough blood
to bleed out four lifetimes because his spleen exploded and
all of the blood in his body was pooling in
his gut. And doctor Magnotty took out ninety five percent
(19:46):
of his spleen and pumped up his lungs and.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Couldn't do much for his ribs. And Max lived and
then stayed a weak in intensive care, and then spent
five days in intensive care, and then literally.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
A week after that, walked out of the hospital very
gingerly with bags full of pain meds and everything else.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
And my son's life was saved, yep.
Speaker 4 (20:20):
And I showed up to the next game that Friday.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Week later he did.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
He showed up on the sideline to the next game.
So the point to all of that story is three things.
It's a worn out old adage, but guys, everybody listened
to me. Take it from a dad you never know.
(20:45):
Tell him you love him, and kiss him and hold
him every single night, no matter how frustrated you are,
no matter how long your day's been, no matter what
you're up against. You know, my son was running up
and down the sidelines, one of the most healthy kids
you've ever seen, playing football, and literally twenty four hours
(21:10):
later he had tubes in his nose and in his
gut and all over him and couldn't even lift his
head up in a hospital but and flatlined. So the
truth is life is short. You never know, and you
never know when your time's coming and when it's not.
(21:31):
So those that are closest to you and you love
you need to always remember that it really could be
the last time you ever see him. Don't take the
time you have with those you love for granted. Second
thing is I believe in the power of prayer, and
(21:54):
there was a lot of prayer around Max that day
and that night and from himself off and I am
unbelievably and thankful to my Lord that my son is
still with us. And then the third thing is tonight
will be a weird night for me. I'm going to
(22:16):
take a football team that I've worked with since March
and try to take them out there and beat a
team that my kid once went to school for. My
kid is coaching against me on the sideline, and many
of the coaches on the ECS sideline I've coached with
both at e CS and at St. George's, and it
will be weird coaching against my friends, although I'm going
(22:40):
to coach as hard as I can to beat their
ass because that's what I want to do. Although we
are a seventeen to twenty point underdog, We're going to
do as best we can. But the weirdest thing is
the first time I ever coached on that very field
was the very night we're talking about, and now we
come full circle these years later, and my son and
(23:03):
I are going to be on that same field again
tonight coaching against each other. So the third thing is
you never know how life will come full circle and
what it'll bring you. But tonight will be full of
(23:23):
gut riching memories, but really happy celebrations that it started
the way it did and will end tonight.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
The way it is.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
So full of gratitude for the game of football, full
of thanks for my son's life, and full of excitement
for tonight because for me, it is a full circle
moment with my son who I once lost almost on
that very field.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
So it's a lot to reflect on it.
Speaker 4 (23:56):
What about you, dude, Yeah, I mean I think I
think you know from your perspective, that's that was probably
a scary night. There's probably a lot that you know,
you learned from.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (24:10):
You know, one thing that you know we've talked about
in private, and I'll share it today is I think
you know the irony in it and for everyone else
who's listening to understand the true full circle. I was
very difficult when I, you know, came up. Uh didn't
didn't listen? Well, UH did did pretty much whatever the hell?
(24:31):
Whatever the hell. I felt like I made a lot
of poor decisions. But I was not easy by by
any means. And Dad and I were, you know, although
I was playing at e c S and he was
coaching at e c S. In a lot of ways.
We are on very different sidelines that night.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (24:50):
And you know, as as you know, time wears on
and and you know, people grow mature. We we have
ended up spiritual and morally on the same sideline, even
though he is at middle college and I'm at ECS.
In my mind, it's more like a two hundred and
(25:10):
seventy degree turn because once the full circle happens, Dad
and I will will be on the same sideline physically,
emotionally and spiritually.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
We'll be right back. It's kind of cool. That's beautiful, Max.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
That's more beautiful than anything you said.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Yeah, I mean you always whence kids would be better
than you. So there you have it.
Speaker 5 (25:46):
Well, I'm sure you were partially inspired to coach because
your dad.
Speaker 4 (25:50):
Yes, absolutely. I mean, you know, if if you don't
play football, you can't you can't possibly understand. But a
common struggle bonds people, and and football is a very
tough sport. It's a hard sport. It hurts. There's a
lot of mental game in there that people just don't realize.
And I had the opportunity to learn from Dad, from
(26:11):
men like David Carter and Ben Todd.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Just guys who currently coach at ECS that I coached
with at Saint George's.
Speaker 4 (26:18):
Ironically an unbelievable amount of football wealth that I picked
up and that I know. And I was a defensive
coordinator for a small private school here in Memphis in
twenty twenty two. We weren't any good, didn't do anything
worth talking about. But the fact that I was twenty
two years old and was able to coordinate a four
(26:39):
to three with multiple fronts is straight up a reflection
of how good of a coach those guys at Saint
George's were. They've just they've bestowed them upon me the
game when what I've had to learn over the last
couple of years and in my absence from twenty twenty
two to twenty you know, was at twenty twenty five
(26:59):
now is one how much I missed the game and
how much I needed the game in my life. You know,
there's an old adage around the game that if you
let it, you know, football can save your life. And
it's you know, Dad and I will will make jokes
all the time, you know, whether it's in business or something.
Let's say someone makes a good play, you know I'll
look at him and say that that that you know,
(27:19):
that guy did a really good job set in the
edge there or something like that. There's just so much
in football that can be translated to life. And you
know Dad said it before. I think he said in
his book. But if you can if you can run
and operate a football team, you can run and operate
a business, you can run and operate a family. You
can you know, run an operate a community, a church.
Anything that's fruitful really is rooted in football.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
Yep, I'd had a fourth and a fifth thing. Give
blood go.
Speaker 5 (27:47):
That's where max here, That's where Maxi's story came up.
Before we were talking about blood a little bit, we
did a longer.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Person what's up? Maybe you've listened to this, but do
you know.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
There's almost its own most impossibility that a human being
on the face of the planet will not need blood
at some point or another in their life. If you
have cancer, you gotta have blood. Once you're older and
need little surgeries, you got to have blood. God forbids
something like what happened to you. You need blood. So
(28:18):
one hundred percent of people on the face of planet,
by the time they die, will have needed blood, and
certainly everyone close to them will have needed blood. Do
you know what percent of the public gives blood?
Speaker 4 (28:34):
I'd say seven percent.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
That's a double it's three wow. One hundred percent of
the people on the face of planet are going to
need blood, yet only three percent give it, which means
that ninety seven percent of the people, as it pertains
to their need for blood, are mootures.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
Though about only forty eligible. The eligible numbers are below
the population.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
I can give the ninety seven percent.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
They don't even get checked to see if they're eligible
or not.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
But the point is of.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
Forty is still not good.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
We talk about an army and normal folks doing what
you can do. Giving blood or plateless is something the
vast majority of us can do, and most of us
don't even try, although we or someone we dearly love
that is very close to us is absolutely with one
hundred percent certainty and probability going to need blood.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
So we take, but we don't give. That's selfish.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
So point four give blood because if somebody had not
given blood, my son wouldn't.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
Be here talking to me today because he would have
bled out.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
Guess to gave blood last week?
Speaker 2 (29:43):
You did?
Speaker 3 (29:43):
You did this guy?
Speaker 4 (29:45):
For you?
Speaker 3 (29:46):
John Normanoy there you get. I was always afraid of needles.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
But John John Norman Max's is one of our listeners
who is now been a guest because he's given.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
Plasmover one hundred and sixty times.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (30:01):
Yeah, And it's so cool because like you sit in
a chair for ninety minutes and you can save three
people's lives, and like he can be on his phone
doing it.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
Literally, it's not that hard.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
Ninety minutes of plasma saves three people's lives within a week.
Speaker 4 (30:13):
When I was when I was nineteen and super poor
and in school, Uh, my roommate and Buddy Gray Clark
and I yeah, we damn here, we damn near did
it for beer money. I don't know why we didn't followed.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Well Number five.
Speaker 5 (30:30):
Actually, I just saw this on social media this week.
Have you guys heard of the halo effect? No, So
it's like two people who are dressed uh differently, like
if they have the same credentials, Like if somebody's dressed better,
they're trusted more despite having the same credentials. Cody Sanchez
actually was talking about this recently too, that.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Like people must really not trust me at all.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
I was going to say you're trying to get down
to wear a collared shirt, we're going.
Speaker 3 (30:54):
To talk about your magnatty guy.
Speaker 5 (30:55):
So actually, Cody Sanchez said the other day something like
women who wear makeup make like twenty to thirty percent
more or two. But this guy was making the point that, look,
if you have two qualified surgeons the exact same credentials,
you actually want the guy who looks like you're magnety
guy because he's got through more shit to get there.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
Ironically enough, that is true.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
His father hung sheet rock and wallpaper in Manhattan, and
they grew up very blue collar New Jersey folks, and
he worked his ass off to get where he was
and is now one of the most respected, foremost thought
about trauma surgeons on the face of the planet, and
we got lucky to have him.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
He since moved to Phoenix.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
But to wrap this story up, that all happened Max's
junior year, and he rehabbed and ended up playing baseball
later that spring. Although he wasn't full speed, he played,
and then by a senior he was ready to go again.
And Max's got a scar from his navel up to
(31:56):
his chest.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
I mean they cut him wide.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
Over and of course Max said, I don't want the
last time I ever stepped on a football field to
be that night. I want to play again, much to
Lisa's chagrin, who wasn't having it anyway. Max stayed very
close to doctor Macnaughty, as did our entire family because
we see him as the man that gave us our
(32:20):
sunback and Max played football again. And the very first
game that Max played, while I coached on the sideline
coaching my kid his senior year and Lisa in the
stands about to throw up all over herself. The person
that joined her to calm her was the same guy
(32:45):
that convinced her it was okay. And doctor Magnatty took
the day off that Friday night and sat with Lisa
in the stands as Max played his first football game
and celebrated my son playing football and kept my wife
from losing her mind. And we have since become very
close friends with the whole Magnaughty family because he is
not only a surgeon and not only a doctor, but
(33:08):
he's a good man to do something like that.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
Just another member of an army in almost folks.
Speaker 4 (33:14):
I have one more and it goes along with the
what was your first lesson.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
The first thing I got from this was never always
I love you before, because you never know.
Speaker 4 (33:27):
So that the night that I was hurt, and this
was surgery night. Uh, and this was this is also
a pretty good one, Alex. She may not even know this,
but my defensive coordinator's name was Brandon Tucker. He's one
of the most knowledgeable and godly men I've ever met
in my entire life.
Speaker 5 (33:45):
He showed up in one of our episodes. Did you
really you must not listen to the podcast. I don't know,
I don't showed up in the Briarcress episode.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
Yeah, we did a upsote of Briercrest and actually in
the class of people were in viewing was his son,
who is a heck of a quarterback.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
I think he just thumped y'all a few weeks ago.
Speaker 4 (34:03):
Get there.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
Yeah, and then coach Tucker showed up. I actually talked
to him yesterday.
Speaker 4 (34:10):
So Coach Tucker, he was.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
At that time, was coaching Max at ECS and he
and I were coaching defense together.
Speaker 4 (34:20):
Yes, so he was. He was the defensive balls. He
was my defensive coach, and he was actually the last
person to come in my room the night that I
was hurt and most people where you know, Hey, Max,
you know you're gonna get better, You're gonna get back
out there. You know things are going to be good.
You know, try and encourage me. Blah blah blah. And
Coach Tucker he came in and you know, he wasn't reserved,
(34:41):
but he was very cautious, I would say. And he
just looked at me and he said, Max. He said,
I've known you for you know, a couple of months,
but you know this is a terrible thing, but I
just have to ask you some And I said, yes, sir,
what is it? And he said, is it well with
your soul? And that question has has suck with me
(35:02):
for I mean every single day since I think about
that question, and my my soul at the time was
not well. And I credit him in that question for
for changing the course of my life because that thought,
that question had never entered my mind. And to this
day I keep up with Coach Tucker. Like I said,
(35:22):
He's the most knowledgeable and godly man that I've ever met.
And it was my dad just said three weeks ago.
The last time E. C. S Had played Briar Crest
was when I got hurt. And we resumed the series
this year and Coach Tucker was the defensive coordinator at
Briar Crest this year, so that also came full circa
(35:42):
line coach. He's the line coach, but coach and now
he's at he's at Briar Crest. So the moral of
that whole full circle moment is if you know, if
it's not, you know, you have to ask yourself, is
it well with your soul?
Speaker 2 (36:00):
Because you never know, because you never know.
Speaker 3 (36:02):
Man, you're well spoken, Max. I'm glad we did appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
Out Let them have a podcast. I can go give
them a podcast.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
Podcast with your kids would be a lot of fun.
Speaker 4 (36:09):
I guess we need to get the six together and duke.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
It out, all right, guys, So that's it Shop Talk
number sixty nine.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
Make sure you hug them at night.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
Make sure it's well with your soul, because you really
never know, and life will throw you twist and turns
and always also sometimes come back full circle. And for
me and my kid and my family at about four nights,
we will complete one of life's full circles. If you
like this episode, please rate and view it, subscribe to
(36:45):
the podcast. You can help me mail me anytime at
Bill at normal folks dot us. If you have any
ideas for guests for them Army and Normal Folks, or
ideas for shop Talk, please email me.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
I will respond. We'll take them up.
Speaker 3 (36:58):
Sign up to join the Army in Normal Folks though US.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
That's right, and until next time, do what you can,
do what you can. That's Shop Talk number sixty nine.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
We'll see you next week.
Host
Bill Courtney
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