August 31, 2023 • 32 mins
ESPN Senior NFL Insider Adam Schefter calls the show while driving to the airport — a perfect glimpse into a day in the life of America's foremost football news-breaker. He takes Darren and Donny back to the beginning, explaining how he stumbled into his renowned journalism career by accident after a series of rejections. Darren is curious about how Schefter deals with pressure, and Donny gives Adam the space to honor Joe Maio, his wife's former husband who tragically died on 9/11 and is the subject of his The Man I Never Met memoir. Before jetting off (literally), Adam defines what "comeback" means to him.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Come Back Stories is a production I've Inflection Network and iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Welcome back, everyone to another episode of come Back Stories.
I'm one of your co hosts. My name is Darren Waller.
I'm joined by my friend, my guy, my brother, Donnie Starkins. Donnie,
how you doing, man?
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Feeling great, man, Solwa's a good day when we get
to jump on the pod.
Speaker 4 (00:23):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
I'm super excited about the guests that we have on today,
a man whose name is a household name as far
as in the NFL world, you don't see any breaking
news happen without this man's name attached to it most times.
But we're excited to show a human side of the
man everybody knows is Adam Schefter.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
Adam.
Speaker 5 (00:42):
Welcome to the show, man, Darren, Donnie, nice to be
with you, and Darren, let me be one of the
last to officially welcome you to the New York, New
Jersey area. But nice to see you in our neck
of the woods here. And I hope it turns out
to be a tremendous chapter in what has been a
great career for you so far.
Speaker 4 (00:59):
Oh Man, thank you so much.
Speaker 5 (01:01):
Man.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
It's a blessing to hear that from you.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
I mean, I've known you for a little while now
got to connect with you a little bit and connect
with your daughter, and to be able to connect with her.
It's just just really cool moments. Man, So grateful for
your time and you willing to come on and talk
to us.
Speaker 5 (01:17):
Well, it is my honor. You were incredibly kind to
my daughter Dylan for a show that she does for
Nickelodeon each week, Slime Time. And again, my interactions with
you have been great. I have great respect for everything
that you've done and everything that you've been through and
all that you do for people. So anytime you call,
anytime you message, you know, I'm there for you.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
Man, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
But we love to dive right in and we want
to know as we paint the picture of your story,
like was what was growing up like for you? Where'd
you grow up? What was the environment like? What was
the environment inside of you?
Speaker 4 (01:48):
Like? Take us through that.
Speaker 5 (01:50):
Oh, well, growing up? You know, I grew up in
a middle class neighborhood on Long Island, the south shore
of Long Island, right by Jones Beach, a place called
Belmore JFK or Belmore was the name of the city,
but Bellore JFK was the name of the high school.
High school that produced, amongst other luminaries, Amy Fisher, who
(02:12):
shot Joy Butterfoogo's wife in the face, Steve Levy, the
great ESPN sports anchor, Michael Coors, the fashion designer, amongst
many of the people that went to our high school.
And you know, I grew up as a guy that
loved sports. I watched everything. I loved reading the newspaper.
(02:33):
I loved reading the newspaper and finding little pieces of
information to tell my father when he got home from work. Oh, Dad,
you're not gonna believe this. The Knicks might trade for
this guy. Oh the Yankees might sign this guy. Oh
the Jets are gonna hire this coach. Like I love
that stuff. I never thought I could make a living
doing it. Honestly, I thought, Okay, I'm going to go
(02:56):
to law school or business school. You know, my parents
had a five and dime type store on Long Island.
Maybe I'd worked there. And I went to the University
of Michigan and in September nineteen eighty five, is a freshman,
I wanted to get into this fraternity and I didn't
get in. And when I didn't get in, I'm like, well,
I got to do something to keep busy. So I
(03:18):
went down to the football office to see if they
needed somebody to pick up jockstraps and hand out water bottles,
and they didn't need anybody. And so went to the
basketball office to see if they needed somebody, and they
didn't need anybody. And so when I got rejected from
the fraternity, the football office and the basketball office like, well,
I don't even know what I'm gonna do. You know what,
let me volunteer for the student newspaper. And literally that's
(03:44):
how this started. And if the fraternity had ended an
imitation to me that freshman year, there were about fifty
guys going out for about ten spots. I think I
would have been very happy just being in the fraternity,
being one of the guys hanging out with the ladies.
Like I never would have gone to the newspaper, and
(04:04):
I never would have gone to this business. It would
have been something that would have been beyond my wildest dreams.
And so this was born at a rejection. This was
born out of people telling you no. And what I've
come to learn is there are a lot of people
in a lot of walks of life every time somebody
tells you no, that just creates an opportunity for you
(04:26):
somewhere else, and it's up to you to take advantage
of that. Now. I never would have known that as
an eighteen year old freshman at the University of Michigan
in December of nineteen eighty five. But you learned these
things over time, and then you work hard to make
the most of it. And that, to answer your question
in a roundabout way, is basically the start of this
(04:49):
and kind of where I came from growing up in
belmore Long Island, going to school at Michigan, and winding
up doing this.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
It sounds very clear that you had a dream from
the start and ended up living that dream out. And
you talked about some rejection along the way that could
have easily deterred you from wanting to achieve your goal.
Was there was there any thing like growing up, like
(05:16):
when you were in school, that that you had struggles
with that early on could have deterred you, Like for me,
it was I dealt with like not being black enough,
insecurities of just kind of who I was on the inside.
Was there any type of pain or confusion that you
dealt with as a as a young man.
Speaker 5 (05:36):
Well, you know, honestly, you mentioned a dream like you
know I had. I didn't have a dream like this
was this is so far beyond my dreams, you know.
And I think back to my childhood and you know,
my grandfather who I was very close with, you know,
he told me that I was making a mistake going
to college, that I should just come to work for
(05:57):
the family business. And you know, it was a case
where again, this is so far beyond anything that I
could have imagined. You know. The adversity that that happens
along the way is all the rejection that comes your
way and trying to pivot from that and figure out
(06:20):
what you could do. Like I didn't go to Michigan
with the goal to work for the student newspaper. That
wasn't what I set out to do. It just kind
of happened. And even then I spent a couple of years,
you know, on the student newspaper. Like wait, wait, there
are people that do this for a living. I had
no idea, Like I thought, it'll sound strange, but I's
(06:41):
that these were jobs that other people did, like that
you weren't good enough for them, so that other people
would do them. And what I came to realize is
that people can do anything they want if they set
their mind to it. You know, if they want to
become the President of the United States, go work to
make that happen. You want to become a center or
(07:01):
a congress person, go make work to make that. You
want to make it to the NFL very hard. Some
people are kindacholetically blessed, like myself, but you work hard
and you do your best. I actually now think, in hindsight,
knowing what I know, that had the Michigan football team
or basketball team giving me a job back in the day,
(07:24):
I think that I might have made my way in
that particular field. I don't know what I would have done,
whether it would have been as as a great equipment manager,
somebody that was a director of operation. I have no idea.
But I was placed to the newspaper by accident, through default,
and then just tried to make the most of it.
(07:46):
And so when you asked for the setbacks, and you know,
the opposite, like it was all that like. I had
so many rejection letters when I was trying to get
a full time job at a Michigan It took me
two years to get a job, and I always tell
people there was a bar on the Michigan campus called
Dominic's that would give you a drink for every rejection
letter you had. I tell people, I forget about a drink.
(08:08):
I could have owned the bar if I wanted. That's
how the projection letter I had.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
I appreciate you painting that perspective and just how you
grew up. And I'm going back to where you would
read your those little like the possible transactions, like if
that's where your eye went to. I was thinking back
to where my eye went and it was always like
statistics and the you know, the top ten batting leaders.
(08:33):
I was at college baseball player, so I was fascinated
with the newspaper, but it was more around standings and statistics.
But yours was actually in these possibilities of transactions. Looking back,
like where do you think that came from? And that
that was where your focus was.
Speaker 5 (08:49):
Well, I did love sports, I mean there's no doubt
about that. Like I used to watch and listen to
every pitch of every Yankees game, you know, I'd watch
all the football games. I mean I was I was
a sports junkie. That that's where it came from I
couldn't get enough sports as a kid, but you to
(09:11):
read the newspaper. I don't know, It's just something that
I loved it. It transported me to a world that
I really got a lot out of that that it
just I don't know what it was, you know, I
it was something. Everybody's got hobbies, everybody's got days, everybody's
(09:31):
got something they love. Some people love music, some people
love movies. I love sports. So the more I could
immerse myself in that world, whether it was reading the
newspaper or watching TV or listening to the radio, the
more I would do and the happier I was. So
that that's all that that was, and it again turned
(09:51):
out to be my professional calling, though I had no
idea that that would be the case.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
That's so cool that you painted that picture, because you know,
and you said, transported you to a world of possibility.
And it's almost like the possibility was the possibility of
the trade or the transaction that was going to happen.
And for many people, I think they have this gift.
They have these passions when they're younger, and as they
(10:18):
get older, they lose those passions because society says we
need to do this, We need to be this job
title to be successful, and oftentimes it's parents and it's
the upbringing that says you need to go be a doctor,
you need to go be a lawyer, and then we
forget and we lose our gifts, and many people get
to the top of the ladder and they end up
realizing that they're leaning up against the wrong wall. They
(10:41):
have all the success, but they're miserable. And it's just
so cool that it's the setbacks and the rejections that
actually led you to this point, because it is all
about perspective and how it's not the actual event that happens,
it's the meaning that we attached to it. And I'm
so grateful that you were able to I was able
to hear that story, and others are going to be
able to hear that that is what led you to
(11:04):
what you get to do today. It's just really cool
to hear.
Speaker 5 (11:07):
Well, you know, here's the thing. I never considered myself
overly intelligent or articulate or gifted in anyone area. But
the one thing that I was I was driven, and
I was ambitious and I was determined, like I wanted
to be a sports reporter in the worst way. Once
(11:28):
I got a taste of it, like it mattered so
much to me that at the age of twenty three,
I'm sending applications all across the country and wherever a
newspaper called to offer me a job, whether it was
South Dakota or Georgia or Louisiana, I was gonna go,
Like it didn't matter. I was leaving my family, I
was leaving my friends. I was going wherever they offered
(11:50):
me a job, And it just happened to be that
it was Denver, Colorado. They called and offered me a job,
and I flew out there at the age of twenty three,
really didn't know very many people at all, and started
a new life where I began writing for the Rocky
Mountain News, which is now basically out of business, and
their assignment to me was as a general assignment reporter,
(12:12):
and I got to do a lot of stuff with
the University of Colorado and the Denver Broncos and again,
more accidents, more craziness. Right when Colorado was awarded a
baseball team, a Major League Baseball franchise in the early
nineteen nineties, I went to the newspaper and begged them
(12:33):
to let me cover the Colorado Rockies, and they hired
this experienced baseball writer by the name of Tracy ringles Bey,
who was a legendary baseball writer, and he wanted to
cover the beat, and he wanted to bring in one
of the people that he knew as an established baseball
writer named Jack Eckin, And so there was no room.
So I couldn't cover the baseball team. I couldn't do
(12:53):
what I wanted. I was forced forced to stick on
the football beat and cover the Broncos. And so I
covered the Broncos there for almost sixteen years. And I
tell people I went to the University of Michigan undergrad,
I went to Northwestern Grad School, and then I got
my masters in football from the Denver Broncos. Because I
(13:14):
just hung around that building for almost sixteen years, dealing
with the players, the coaches, the front office people, and
you learned what was acceptable and what wasn't, and what
worked and what didn't, and what people were good with
and what they were and you know, I was I'm
grateful to the time that the Rocky Mountain News and
the Denver Post gave me being around the NFL, and
(13:37):
again like I said, didn't sit out to do it,
was stuck doing it, and it led to where it did.
All this is pretty accidental.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
This is this is amazing because I feel like what
you're saying is as long as you have a love
and a hunger for your craft and the process of
that craft, as opposed to the results or where you
may end up or a job being exactly the way
that you wanted, doors are going to open for you.
Like you just showed up with passion, like I love
(14:05):
to do this. I'll do this wherever it takes me,
whatever the role is, whatever they're paying me, I'll take
it as opposed to having demands or thinking like oh
I got to make this much or I need to
be riding here, I need to be But you're showing
up and these opportunities just happen to fall in your
lap because the love and the passion is there. And
I feel like a lot of people may have that backwards,
(14:27):
like in the year like twenty twenty three, they want
things to be great when the time that they show up,
as opposed to allowing the process to take time, allowing
me to develop, allowing situations in doors to open for
me at the perfect time that they should, and my
skills and my character will be developed enough for me
to succeed in these roles that come.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
But people don't necessarily get that.
Speaker 5 (14:51):
Well, you know, Jarren, think about your NFL journey and
your just a unique journey, right, But you think about it, right.
You didn't come into the league right away and light
the league on fire. Right, It didn't happen. And there
aren't a lot of people that just step in and
dominate their profession right away. It takes time, it takes training,
(15:12):
it takes work, right, Like, so I spent sixteen years
in Denver learning how to be around a football team,
you know, becoming a newsman, and that's the education. And
by the way, the way I felt was if I
had covered the Denver Broncos for the Rocky Mountain News
and then the Denver Post for the rest of my career,
(15:33):
I was good with that. Like, I loved it. It
was great. Now it evolved into a job eventually at
NFL Network for five years, which led to a job
at ESPN, where I've been since two thousand and nine.
So it's over almost fourteen years now. It feels like
a lifetime. So I think The point is is that
(15:54):
people might have an idea of what they think they
want to do, but the idea is just to do
good work with whatever it is that you're doing, give
people your all and let's see where it goes. You
don't know where it's going to go. Like people may
sit out to become a doctor and may become I
don't know, like a medical expert on TV. Things happen.
(16:17):
You can't lock yourself in. You just have to work hard,
do good work, and then you see where that goes.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
Adam, how do you?
Speaker 5 (16:23):
So?
Speaker 3 (16:24):
I wanted to I know we have a limited amount
of time and maybe we'll have to get you back
on for a round two, but with and one of
the things I wanted to do acknowledge you for is
beyond like being you know, ahead of the game and
breaking the news, is just there's a way that you
your communication style and how clearly you articulate things, and
that obviously comes with just being in the work for
(16:46):
so long that you've been doing, but so one I
wanted to acknowledge you for that because as I watch
you on TV or hear you, I'm like, he's so
clear and concise on the things that he's saying like
he knows what he's talking about. But I also just
wanted to ask you, like with with the hustle and
the bustle and how hard you grind, how do you
find balance? And what does balance look like for you
(17:08):
in your life today?
Speaker 5 (17:09):
Well, first and foremost, thank you for the con words,
And I would say this that you know, I think
that being in newspapers trained me to think efficiently and
train me to think in a way not to be
worthy and to her bos. So you're always thinking you know, what, where, when, how, why?
(17:29):
Like bam in a fentence, and that training to write
a strong lead in a short amount of time became
so ingrained in my thinking from all the writing that
all I do now is I'm just doing it in
a verbal way on television. So when a text comes
in that Darren Waller's traded to the New York Giants,
(17:51):
I can quickly just formulate that in my mind and
be like moments ago, the Las Vegas Raiders trade Darn
Waller the New York Giants for a third rem whatever
it was, and it just my brain has been trained
and wired that way from newspapers. Now, as for the balance,
my brain isn't wired as well as it should be.
(18:11):
I think, I think everybody in any line of work
struggles with that to a certain extent. You do the
best you can, but you can't dine in all areas
all the time. If you give more time to your
professional career, there's no way that your personal career can't
suffer some If you give all your time to your
personal life, there's no way to your professional career. The
(18:33):
trick is to find that balance, and it's different for everybody.
Some people five for different things. Everybody's got different goals
in life. It's all about what makes you happy. I
know that, you know, it's important for me to be
around my family and my daughter, my son, my five
dogs that we have. You know, I love that. But
(18:57):
it's also there are times when work is busy, and
you know, I have a friend who's very successful. I
was with him this week and telling me about how
his wife was really getting on him for not being
present at all times. And I'm like, oh, I've heard
that many times. You know, many times, And I'll bet
you that we are hardly in the minority of people
(19:17):
who have heard that. People who are passionate, dedicated, committed
to their jobs probably carry it with them a lot
of the time. And so while you're sitting there having
dinner with a boyfriend or a girlfriend a spouse, now
you're thinking, have I gotta check on this, or what's
going on with that? Or how am I going to
(19:37):
handle the situation? And that's just natural because that's what
it takes sometimes, and so people don't always love that,
but reality is your brain's all over the place. I
try my best to have a balanced life, and I
think I often do, but I'm sure that sometimes I
(19:58):
fall short, just because that's the way it is, right, Like,
you just can't be all things to all peop people
at all times. It is very hard to do that
in all areas.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
That's a fact, man.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
I'm interested how since that you've grown such a large
profile and following and everybody knows who you are and
everybody can tweet at you or comment on your posts, Like,
was there what was it like adjusting to that? Was
there a lot of pressures you're putting on yourself? Was
(20:31):
there anxiety to perform? What kind of things were you
dealing with when things kind of blew beyond your wildest dreams?
Speaker 5 (20:39):
Yeah? I do think it's an adjustment. It's a blessing
and it's a burden. It's both right, and I think,
much like when you're a professional athlete, Darren, you just
have to just do the best job you can focus
on that and try your best to tune out the noise, right,
And so I think I think I'm pretty good at it.
(21:00):
I'm probably not perfect at it. I rare read comments.
I really just try to avoid it. Of course, I'm
human every now and then. You know, you see some things,
some things you're proud of, some things bother you because
you're human, But overall, you know, I know, you know
(21:23):
the work that I put in, I know the level
of fairness I try to have, and people don't understand
always know everything that goes into every situation, and so
you just do the best you can. I've done this
job now for thirty three years. Thirty three years, and
(21:45):
the job has changed quite a bit over that time,
from the time when I was a newspaper reporter and
the news cycle was really twenty four hours. You know,
the stories would run the newspaper and then they show
up and you look and then there wouldn't be stories
again until the newspaper showed up on your doorstep the
next day, and now you know, the news cycle is
less than twenty four Just anytime you post on Twitter
(22:07):
or Instagram or threads or whatever it may be, it's
just everything is faster, quicker, more sudden, more people scrutinizing everything.
It's it's a tougher, more critical world where people, you know,
everybody's a critic and everybody has something to say. And
(22:31):
you know, I wish we lived in a world that
was a little bit more positive and a little less negative,
but this is how it is. Right Like, people are
going to rip the New York Giants if they don't win,
and they're going to praise them when they do it.
It's just it's kind of how it goes. That's the
world we live in.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
Can you tell us a little bit? I know we've
got a limited amount of time again, and I think
an important part of your story is the story of
Joseph Myo And for those that don't know that story,
can you can you let us in and let the
listeners in a little bit about that.
Speaker 5 (23:02):
Yeah, my wife always married to a man by the
name of Joe Mayo and they obviously he lost his
life on nine to eleven. He worked for Canter Fitzgerald
and he was one of three thousand plus people who
perished that day. And it was a day, you know,
the most memorable day in my lifetime, the most memorable
(23:24):
day in a lot of people's lifetimes. And it's hard
to imagine. I shudder to think that there would be
a day that would be more memorable than that day.
I hope it never occurs. You know, my wife when
she lost her husband, she had a one year old son.
They just bought a house a month before he died,
and she was left to raise their son, Devin, on
(23:48):
her own. And I married Sharry about six years later,
and I moved into the house that her and Joseph bought,
and I helped raise the son that her and Joseph
helped raise, and I basically stepped into his life. And
so I don't know. In the fifteenth anniversary of nine
(24:11):
to eleven, ESPN had asked me to do a piece,
or I had asked on the tenth anniversary. I think
it was I volunteer at ESPN. I'm like, hey, if
you want to do a piece, I would do a
piece on my wife late husband and they're like, yeah,
I don't know, We'll say. You know, nobody expressed any
great interest in it. I got it, you know, Like
I said, there are a lot of families that were
(24:32):
impacted that day. For some reason, on the fifteenth anniversary,
one of the ESPN producers came through me was like,
I think we'd like to do that on Joe my
great Now. I didn't even know what form it would take,
and I worked with a producer at ESPN, Dominique, who
did a great job, and we put together a story
that was on Joe. And what was amazing was you're upset,
(24:54):
and right when I got upset, my phone blew up
and it was like all kinds of people from all
walks of life, entertainment, politics, people were touched and moved
by Joe's story, which you can just google it, you know,
Adam Shefter or Joe Mayo's story on ESPN. And so
somebody said, well, you should write a book about it,
and I was like, yeah, I don't know want to
write a book. But I did write a book. I
(25:16):
enlisted the help of a guy that I knew, a
great writer from Sports Illustrated, Michael Rosenberg, who went to
the University of Michigan, and Michael helped me through it
and we called the Demand I never met a memoir
and it was a book about Joe and me stepping
into his life. And that's basically the story. You know, listen,
(25:37):
Like I said, you know that event was enormous to everybody.
It feels felt even more enormous on the East Coast.
I was living in Denver when it happened. But you know,
my parents' best friend perish that day. I had fraternity
brothers to perish that day. My wife lest her husband
that day. The people that I call in law has
(25:57):
lost their son that day. You know, it's hard to
be from the East Coast and not know somebody who
lost somebody that day who was impacted. And it's just
a way to honor and remember and let people know
a little bit about the life of Joe Mayo. And
(26:18):
like I said, there were a lot of people, great
people who tragedy lost their lives that day.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
What do you think you learned about yourself in that
process of building your marriage? But also you know, stepping
into the place that she felt like her previous husband
was in, like you served and helped care for a
son that wasn't yours. Like, what do you feel like
you learned the most or grew in the most through
that season.
Speaker 5 (26:45):
I think we're learning all the time, to be honest,
you know, it's not a simple easy thing. I learned
at that time that I think that marriage comes along
with a lot, but when you tack on the added circumstances, uh,
there's even more layers to it. And so it's hard.
(27:12):
And and like I said, you know, I said in
the book like that, we still have pictures of Joe
that hang in our house. You know, it was his house.
We live in that house, and I've just tried to
honor him and respect him and tried to look out
(27:32):
for his family, to do my part to look out
for the people that he loved the most. It's, uh,
you know, it's it's it's a very strange thing. Like
I said, I'm not the only one who's lived this
kind of life and stepped into these set of circumstances.
I have other people that have done the same. I
(27:56):
can't tell you specific what did I learn. I learned
it it's not always easy. I learned it's hard. I
learned you can't replace that person. I learned that person
lives on even though they're God. I learned that you
can't be that person, and all you can do is
the best you can. I mean, like, I don't know
(28:18):
all these little petty little things that I learned, I
don't know what they amount to, but you know, you
just you know, it's such a sad thing, you know,
to Today's the is the anniversary of Joe's parents, and uh,
(28:40):
you know, I texted them this morning to wish them
a happy Eniwver. And you know, our family is unique
because our kids have three sets of grandparents. They have
Joe's parents and my wife's parents and my parents, and
I have two sets of in laws. I consider them
in laws, and so it's there's a lot of unusual
family structures in the world we live in today, and
(29:01):
that's our version of our unusual Fisch structure.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
There's a beautiful lesson of selflessness in that, because I
feel like a lot of men may want a situation
that is perfectly suitable to them, or something that you
know they would dream of. But here you are being
presented with a beautiful situation with a beautiful woman and
an amazing marriage with some extra things attached to it.
(29:29):
And essentially you have a choice of like, you know,
this isn't what I intended on, but I can. I
can still show up and focus on the beauty and
gratitude of the situation. And I feel like you've done
that your entire life, through your your journey as a
reporter too, and it just spills over and these lessons
that we learned just there's no boundaries to where they
can go in our life. They are character and who
(29:51):
we are and who we're growing into. It goes into
everything that we do. And it's cool to see you
have such a such an angle and a perspective on
that situation and you willing to share that with people.
Speaker 4 (30:06):
Man, I think that's beautiful.
Speaker 5 (30:08):
Well, I appreciate that. It's like I say, it's everybody's
got a story, and that just happens to be our story.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Maybe you can take us out, Adam and just share
with us. Like when you hear the word come back,
what does that mean to you?
Speaker 5 (30:23):
It means everybody in any walk of life is going
to have setbacks, no matter who you are, no matter
what you do, And every single person's gonna have a setback,
and every person is gonna have a chance to repeatedly
come back because there are enough bad days in this
world you get a chance to come back from them.
(30:44):
There's enough rejection this world, you get a chance to
come back from that. There is enough negativity and setbacks
that everybody continually has the chance to come back from something.
And it's up to them to choose whether they want
to do that and how fast they want to put
it into motion. They just want to accept it and
(31:07):
be defeated and crushed by it. And the people who
have shown the brightest, like Darren and I'm sure you Donnie,
they've taken those setbacks and they've pushed ahead, and they
pushed forward. They pushed through the setbacks so that they
could have the type of glorious comebacks that deserve to
be highlighted.
Speaker 4 (31:29):
That's so well said, man. Thank you for your time.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
I know you got to run and catch a flight,
and you've been so gracious to carve out this window
of time first man. So we really appreciate you, and
I'm looking forward to seeing you around this season and
everywhere you travel. Everywhere you go, man, I just hope
it's safe travels and wish you nothing but peace and success.
Speaker 5 (31:48):
Well, thank you guys. I appreciate it. Donnie, thank you
for having me. Darren, thank you. Hey, I'm in the
New York area. Darren, you need anything, you can make
a call.
Speaker 4 (31:55):
Here, Yes, sir, we'll do man. Thank you, Adam, appreciate
your time.
Speaker 5 (31:59):
Thank you guys. Have a great day.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
And I just want to thank everybody for joining us
for another episode of come Back Stories as well. Hope
you keep downloading us wherever you get podcasts. Tell your friends,
tell your relatives, tell them to keep coming back because
we're going to keep coming back. You know us in
our DNA and check us out on Inflection Network on
YouTube as well, and we will catch you guys next week.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
Comeback Stories is a production of Inflection Network and iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Come Back Stories is a production I've Inflection Network and iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Welcome back, everyone to another episode of come Back Stories.
I'm one of your co hosts. My name is Darren Waller.
I'm joined by my friend, my guy, my brother, Donnie Starkins. Donnie,
how you doing, man?
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Feeling great, man, Solwa's a good day when we get
to jump on the pod.
Speaker 4 (00:23):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
I'm super excited about the guests that we have on today,
a man whose name is a household name as far
as in the NFL world, you don't see any breaking
news happen without this man's name attached to it most times.
But we're excited to show a human side of the
man everybody knows is Adam Schefter.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
Adam.
Speaker 5 (00:42):
Welcome to the show, man, Darren, Donnie, nice to be
with you, and Darren, let me be one of the
last to officially welcome you to the New York, New
Jersey area. But nice to see you in our neck
of the woods here. And I hope it turns out
to be a tremendous chapter in what has been a
great career for you so far.
Speaker 4 (00:59):
Oh Man, thank you so much.
Speaker 5 (01:01):
Man.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
It's a blessing to hear that from you.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
I mean, I've known you for a little while now
got to connect with you a little bit and connect
with your daughter, and to be able to connect with her.
It's just just really cool moments. Man, So grateful for
your time and you willing to come on and talk
to us.
Speaker 5 (01:17):
Well, it is my honor. You were incredibly kind to
my daughter Dylan for a show that she does for
Nickelodeon each week, Slime Time. And again, my interactions with
you have been great. I have great respect for everything
that you've done and everything that you've been through and
all that you do for people. So anytime you call,
anytime you message, you know, I'm there for you.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
Man, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
But we love to dive right in and we want
to know as we paint the picture of your story,
like was what was growing up like for you? Where'd
you grow up? What was the environment like? What was
the environment inside of you?
Speaker 4 (01:48):
Like? Take us through that.
Speaker 5 (01:50):
Oh, well, growing up? You know, I grew up in
a middle class neighborhood on Long Island, the south shore
of Long Island, right by Jones Beach, a place called
Belmore JFK or Belmore was the name of the city,
but Bellore JFK was the name of the high school.
High school that produced, amongst other luminaries, Amy Fisher, who
(02:12):
shot Joy Butterfoogo's wife in the face, Steve Levy, the
great ESPN sports anchor, Michael Coors, the fashion designer, amongst
many of the people that went to our high school.
And you know, I grew up as a guy that
loved sports. I watched everything. I loved reading the newspaper.
(02:33):
I loved reading the newspaper and finding little pieces of
information to tell my father when he got home from work. Oh, Dad,
you're not gonna believe this. The Knicks might trade for
this guy. Oh the Yankees might sign this guy. Oh
the Jets are gonna hire this coach. Like I love
that stuff. I never thought I could make a living
doing it. Honestly, I thought, Okay, I'm going to go
(02:56):
to law school or business school. You know, my parents
had a five and dime type store on Long Island.
Maybe I'd worked there. And I went to the University
of Michigan and in September nineteen eighty five, is a freshman,
I wanted to get into this fraternity and I didn't
get in. And when I didn't get in, I'm like, well,
I got to do something to keep busy. So I
(03:18):
went down to the football office to see if they
needed somebody to pick up jockstraps and hand out water bottles,
and they didn't need anybody. And so went to the
basketball office to see if they needed somebody, and they
didn't need anybody. And so when I got rejected from
the fraternity, the football office and the basketball office like, well,
I don't even know what I'm gonna do. You know what,
let me volunteer for the student newspaper. And literally that's
(03:44):
how this started. And if the fraternity had ended an
imitation to me that freshman year, there were about fifty
guys going out for about ten spots. I think I
would have been very happy just being in the fraternity,
being one of the guys hanging out with the ladies.
Like I never would have gone to the newspaper, and
(04:04):
I never would have gone to this business. It would
have been something that would have been beyond my wildest dreams.
And so this was born at a rejection. This was
born out of people telling you no. And what I've
come to learn is there are a lot of people
in a lot of walks of life every time somebody
tells you no, that just creates an opportunity for you
(04:26):
somewhere else, and it's up to you to take advantage
of that. Now. I never would have known that as
an eighteen year old freshman at the University of Michigan
in December of nineteen eighty five. But you learned these
things over time, and then you work hard to make
the most of it. And that, to answer your question
in a roundabout way, is basically the start of this
(04:49):
and kind of where I came from growing up in
belmore Long Island, going to school at Michigan, and winding
up doing this.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
It sounds very clear that you had a dream from
the start and ended up living that dream out. And
you talked about some rejection along the way that could
have easily deterred you from wanting to achieve your goal.
Was there was there any thing like growing up, like
(05:16):
when you were in school, that that you had struggles
with that early on could have deterred you, Like for me,
it was I dealt with like not being black enough,
insecurities of just kind of who I was on the inside.
Was there any type of pain or confusion that you
dealt with as a as a young man.
Speaker 5 (05:36):
Well, you know, honestly, you mentioned a dream like you
know I had. I didn't have a dream like this
was this is so far beyond my dreams, you know.
And I think back to my childhood and you know,
my grandfather who I was very close with, you know,
he told me that I was making a mistake going
to college, that I should just come to work for
(05:57):
the family business. And you know, it was a case
where again, this is so far beyond anything that I
could have imagined. You know. The adversity that that happens
along the way is all the rejection that comes your
way and trying to pivot from that and figure out
(06:20):
what you could do. Like I didn't go to Michigan
with the goal to work for the student newspaper. That
wasn't what I set out to do. It just kind
of happened. And even then I spent a couple of years,
you know, on the student newspaper. Like wait, wait, there
are people that do this for a living. I had
no idea, Like I thought, it'll sound strange, but I's
(06:41):
that these were jobs that other people did, like that
you weren't good enough for them, so that other people
would do them. And what I came to realize is
that people can do anything they want if they set
their mind to it. You know, if they want to
become the President of the United States, go work to
make that happen. You want to become a center or
(07:01):
a congress person, go make work to make that. You
want to make it to the NFL very hard. Some
people are kindacholetically blessed, like myself, but you work hard
and you do your best. I actually now think, in hindsight,
knowing what I know, that had the Michigan football team
or basketball team giving me a job back in the day,
(07:24):
I think that I might have made my way in
that particular field. I don't know what I would have done,
whether it would have been as as a great equipment manager,
somebody that was a director of operation. I have no idea.
But I was placed to the newspaper by accident, through default,
and then just tried to make the most of it.
(07:46):
And so when you asked for the setbacks, and you know,
the opposite, like it was all that like. I had
so many rejection letters when I was trying to get
a full time job at a Michigan It took me
two years to get a job, and I always tell
people there was a bar on the Michigan campus called
Dominic's that would give you a drink for every rejection
letter you had. I tell people, I forget about a drink.
(08:08):
I could have owned the bar if I wanted. That's
how the projection letter I had.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
I appreciate you painting that perspective and just how you
grew up. And I'm going back to where you would
read your those little like the possible transactions, like if
that's where your eye went to. I was thinking back
to where my eye went and it was always like
statistics and the you know, the top ten batting leaders.
(08:33):
I was at college baseball player, so I was fascinated
with the newspaper, but it was more around standings and statistics.
But yours was actually in these possibilities of transactions. Looking back,
like where do you think that came from? And that
that was where your focus was.
Speaker 5 (08:49):
Well, I did love sports, I mean there's no doubt
about that. Like I used to watch and listen to
every pitch of every Yankees game, you know, I'd watch
all the football games. I mean I was I was
a sports junkie. That that's where it came from I
couldn't get enough sports as a kid, but you to
(09:11):
read the newspaper. I don't know, It's just something that
I loved it. It transported me to a world that
I really got a lot out of that that it
just I don't know what it was, you know, I
it was something. Everybody's got hobbies, everybody's got days, everybody's
(09:31):
got something they love. Some people love music, some people
love movies. I love sports. So the more I could
immerse myself in that world, whether it was reading the
newspaper or watching TV or listening to the radio, the
more I would do and the happier I was. So
that that's all that that was, and it again turned
(09:51):
out to be my professional calling, though I had no
idea that that would be the case.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
That's so cool that you painted that picture, because you know,
and you said, transported you to a world of possibility.
And it's almost like the possibility was the possibility of
the trade or the transaction that was going to happen.
And for many people, I think they have this gift.
They have these passions when they're younger, and as they
(10:18):
get older, they lose those passions because society says we
need to do this, We need to be this job
title to be successful, and oftentimes it's parents and it's
the upbringing that says you need to go be a doctor,
you need to go be a lawyer, and then we
forget and we lose our gifts, and many people get
to the top of the ladder and they end up
realizing that they're leaning up against the wrong wall. They
(10:41):
have all the success, but they're miserable. And it's just
so cool that it's the setbacks and the rejections that
actually led you to this point, because it is all
about perspective and how it's not the actual event that happens,
it's the meaning that we attached to it. And I'm
so grateful that you were able to I was able
to hear that story, and others are going to be
able to hear that that is what led you to
(11:04):
what you get to do today. It's just really cool
to hear.
Speaker 5 (11:07):
Well, you know, here's the thing. I never considered myself
overly intelligent or articulate or gifted in anyone area. But
the one thing that I was I was driven, and
I was ambitious and I was determined, like I wanted
to be a sports reporter in the worst way. Once
(11:28):
I got a taste of it, like it mattered so
much to me that at the age of twenty three,
I'm sending applications all across the country and wherever a
newspaper called to offer me a job, whether it was
South Dakota or Georgia or Louisiana, I was gonna go,
Like it didn't matter. I was leaving my family, I
was leaving my friends. I was going wherever they offered
(11:50):
me a job, And it just happened to be that
it was Denver, Colorado. They called and offered me a job,
and I flew out there at the age of twenty three,
really didn't know very many people at all, and started
a new life where I began writing for the Rocky
Mountain News, which is now basically out of business, and
their assignment to me was as a general assignment reporter,
(12:12):
and I got to do a lot of stuff with
the University of Colorado and the Denver Broncos and again,
more accidents, more craziness. Right when Colorado was awarded a
baseball team, a Major League Baseball franchise in the early
nineteen nineties, I went to the newspaper and begged them
(12:33):
to let me cover the Colorado Rockies, and they hired
this experienced baseball writer by the name of Tracy ringles Bey,
who was a legendary baseball writer, and he wanted to
cover the beat, and he wanted to bring in one
of the people that he knew as an established baseball
writer named Jack Eckin, And so there was no room.
So I couldn't cover the baseball team. I couldn't do
(12:53):
what I wanted. I was forced forced to stick on
the football beat and cover the Broncos. And so I
covered the Broncos there for almost sixteen years. And I
tell people I went to the University of Michigan undergrad,
I went to Northwestern Grad School, and then I got
my masters in football from the Denver Broncos. Because I
(13:14):
just hung around that building for almost sixteen years, dealing
with the players, the coaches, the front office people, and
you learned what was acceptable and what wasn't, and what
worked and what didn't, and what people were good with
and what they were and you know, I was I'm
grateful to the time that the Rocky Mountain News and
the Denver Post gave me being around the NFL, and
(13:37):
again like I said, didn't sit out to do it,
was stuck doing it, and it led to where it did.
All this is pretty accidental.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
This is this is amazing because I feel like what
you're saying is as long as you have a love
and a hunger for your craft and the process of
that craft, as opposed to the results or where you
may end up or a job being exactly the way
that you wanted, doors are going to open for you.
Like you just showed up with passion, like I love
(14:05):
to do this. I'll do this wherever it takes me,
whatever the role is, whatever they're paying me, I'll take
it as opposed to having demands or thinking like oh
I got to make this much or I need to
be riding here, I need to be But you're showing
up and these opportunities just happen to fall in your
lap because the love and the passion is there. And
I feel like a lot of people may have that backwards,
(14:27):
like in the year like twenty twenty three, they want
things to be great when the time that they show up,
as opposed to allowing the process to take time, allowing
me to develop, allowing situations in doors to open for
me at the perfect time that they should, and my
skills and my character will be developed enough for me
to succeed in these roles that come.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
But people don't necessarily get that.
Speaker 5 (14:51):
Well, you know, Jarren, think about your NFL journey and
your just a unique journey, right, But you think about it, right.
You didn't come into the league right away and light
the league on fire. Right, It didn't happen. And there
aren't a lot of people that just step in and
dominate their profession right away. It takes time, it takes training,
(15:12):
it takes work, right, Like, so I spent sixteen years
in Denver learning how to be around a football team,
you know, becoming a newsman, and that's the education. And
by the way, the way I felt was if I
had covered the Denver Broncos for the Rocky Mountain News
and then the Denver Post for the rest of my career,
(15:33):
I was good with that. Like, I loved it. It
was great. Now it evolved into a job eventually at
NFL Network for five years, which led to a job
at ESPN, where I've been since two thousand and nine.
So it's over almost fourteen years now. It feels like
a lifetime. So I think The point is is that
(15:54):
people might have an idea of what they think they
want to do, but the idea is just to do
good work with whatever it is that you're doing, give
people your all and let's see where it goes. You
don't know where it's going to go. Like people may
sit out to become a doctor and may become I
don't know, like a medical expert on TV. Things happen.
(16:17):
You can't lock yourself in. You just have to work hard,
do good work, and then you see where that goes.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
Adam, how do you?
Speaker 5 (16:23):
So?
Speaker 3 (16:24):
I wanted to I know we have a limited amount
of time and maybe we'll have to get you back
on for a round two, but with and one of
the things I wanted to do acknowledge you for is
beyond like being you know, ahead of the game and
breaking the news, is just there's a way that you
your communication style and how clearly you articulate things, and
that obviously comes with just being in the work for
(16:46):
so long that you've been doing, but so one I
wanted to acknowledge you for that because as I watch
you on TV or hear you, I'm like, he's so
clear and concise on the things that he's saying like
he knows what he's talking about. But I also just
wanted to ask you, like with with the hustle and
the bustle and how hard you grind, how do you
find balance? And what does balance look like for you
(17:08):
in your life today?
Speaker 5 (17:09):
Well, first and foremost, thank you for the con words,
And I would say this that you know, I think
that being in newspapers trained me to think efficiently and
train me to think in a way not to be
worthy and to her bos. So you're always thinking you know, what, where, when, how, why?
(17:29):
Like bam in a fentence, and that training to write
a strong lead in a short amount of time became
so ingrained in my thinking from all the writing that
all I do now is I'm just doing it in
a verbal way on television. So when a text comes
in that Darren Waller's traded to the New York Giants,
(17:51):
I can quickly just formulate that in my mind and
be like moments ago, the Las Vegas Raiders trade Darn
Waller the New York Giants for a third rem whatever
it was, and it just my brain has been trained
and wired that way from newspapers. Now, as for the balance,
my brain isn't wired as well as it should be.
(18:11):
I think, I think everybody in any line of work
struggles with that to a certain extent. You do the
best you can, but you can't dine in all areas
all the time. If you give more time to your
professional career, there's no way that your personal career can't
suffer some If you give all your time to your
personal life, there's no way to your professional career. The
(18:33):
trick is to find that balance, and it's different for everybody.
Some people five for different things. Everybody's got different goals
in life. It's all about what makes you happy. I
know that, you know, it's important for me to be
around my family and my daughter, my son, my five
dogs that we have. You know, I love that. But
(18:57):
it's also there are times when work is busy, and
you know, I have a friend who's very successful. I
was with him this week and telling me about how
his wife was really getting on him for not being
present at all times. And I'm like, oh, I've heard
that many times. You know, many times, And I'll bet
you that we are hardly in the minority of people
(19:17):
who have heard that. People who are passionate, dedicated, committed
to their jobs probably carry it with them a lot
of the time. And so while you're sitting there having
dinner with a boyfriend or a girlfriend a spouse, now
you're thinking, have I gotta check on this, or what's
going on with that? Or how am I going to
(19:37):
handle the situation? And that's just natural because that's what
it takes sometimes, and so people don't always love that,
but reality is your brain's all over the place. I
try my best to have a balanced life, and I
think I often do, but I'm sure that sometimes I
(19:58):
fall short, just because that's the way it is, right, Like,
you just can't be all things to all peop people
at all times. It is very hard to do that
in all areas.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
That's a fact, man.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
I'm interested how since that you've grown such a large
profile and following and everybody knows who you are and
everybody can tweet at you or comment on your posts, Like,
was there what was it like adjusting to that? Was
there a lot of pressures you're putting on yourself? Was
(20:31):
there anxiety to perform? What kind of things were you
dealing with when things kind of blew beyond your wildest dreams?
Speaker 5 (20:39):
Yeah? I do think it's an adjustment. It's a blessing
and it's a burden. It's both right, and I think,
much like when you're a professional athlete, Darren, you just
have to just do the best job you can focus
on that and try your best to tune out the noise, right,
And so I think I think I'm pretty good at it.
(21:00):
I'm probably not perfect at it. I rare read comments.
I really just try to avoid it. Of course, I'm
human every now and then. You know, you see some things,
some things you're proud of, some things bother you because
you're human, But overall, you know, I know, you know
(21:23):
the work that I put in, I know the level
of fairness I try to have, and people don't understand
always know everything that goes into every situation, and so
you just do the best you can. I've done this
job now for thirty three years. Thirty three years, and
(21:45):
the job has changed quite a bit over that time,
from the time when I was a newspaper reporter and
the news cycle was really twenty four hours. You know,
the stories would run the newspaper and then they show
up and you look and then there wouldn't be stories
again until the newspaper showed up on your doorstep the
next day, and now you know, the news cycle is
less than twenty four Just anytime you post on Twitter
(22:07):
or Instagram or threads or whatever it may be, it's
just everything is faster, quicker, more sudden, more people scrutinizing everything.
It's it's a tougher, more critical world where people, you know,
everybody's a critic and everybody has something to say. And
(22:31):
you know, I wish we lived in a world that
was a little bit more positive and a little less negative,
but this is how it is. Right Like, people are
going to rip the New York Giants if they don't win,
and they're going to praise them when they do it.
It's just it's kind of how it goes. That's the
world we live in.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
Can you tell us a little bit? I know we've
got a limited amount of time again, and I think
an important part of your story is the story of
Joseph Myo And for those that don't know that story,
can you can you let us in and let the
listeners in a little bit about that.
Speaker 5 (23:02):
Yeah, my wife always married to a man by the
name of Joe Mayo and they obviously he lost his
life on nine to eleven. He worked for Canter Fitzgerald
and he was one of three thousand plus people who
perished that day. And it was a day, you know,
the most memorable day in my lifetime, the most memorable
(23:24):
day in a lot of people's lifetimes. And it's hard
to imagine. I shudder to think that there would be
a day that would be more memorable than that day.
I hope it never occurs. You know, my wife when
she lost her husband, she had a one year old son.
They just bought a house a month before he died,
and she was left to raise their son, Devin, on
(23:48):
her own. And I married Sharry about six years later,
and I moved into the house that her and Joseph bought,
and I helped raise the son that her and Joseph
helped raise, and I basically stepped into his life. And
so I don't know. In the fifteenth anniversary of nine
(24:11):
to eleven, ESPN had asked me to do a piece,
or I had asked on the tenth anniversary. I think
it was I volunteer at ESPN. I'm like, hey, if
you want to do a piece, I would do a
piece on my wife late husband and they're like, yeah,
I don't know, We'll say. You know, nobody expressed any
great interest in it. I got it, you know, Like
I said, there are a lot of families that were
(24:32):
impacted that day. For some reason, on the fifteenth anniversary,
one of the ESPN producers came through me was like,
I think we'd like to do that on Joe my
great Now. I didn't even know what form it would take,
and I worked with a producer at ESPN, Dominique, who
did a great job, and we put together a story
that was on Joe. And what was amazing was you're upset,
(24:54):
and right when I got upset, my phone blew up
and it was like all kinds of people from all
walks of life, entertainment, politics, people were touched and moved
by Joe's story, which you can just google it, you know,
Adam Shefter or Joe Mayo's story on ESPN. And so
somebody said, well, you should write a book about it,
and I was like, yeah, I don't know want to
write a book. But I did write a book. I
(25:16):
enlisted the help of a guy that I knew, a
great writer from Sports Illustrated, Michael Rosenberg, who went to
the University of Michigan, and Michael helped me through it
and we called the Demand I never met a memoir
and it was a book about Joe and me stepping
into his life. And that's basically the story. You know, listen,
(25:37):
Like I said, you know that event was enormous to everybody.
It feels felt even more enormous on the East Coast.
I was living in Denver when it happened. But you know,
my parents' best friend perish that day. I had fraternity
brothers to perish that day. My wife lest her husband
that day. The people that I call in law has
(25:57):
lost their son that day. You know, it's hard to
be from the East Coast and not know somebody who
lost somebody that day who was impacted. And it's just
a way to honor and remember and let people know
a little bit about the life of Joe Mayo. And
(26:18):
like I said, there were a lot of people, great
people who tragedy lost their lives that day.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
What do you think you learned about yourself in that
process of building your marriage? But also you know, stepping
into the place that she felt like her previous husband
was in, like you served and helped care for a
son that wasn't yours. Like, what do you feel like
you learned the most or grew in the most through
that season.
Speaker 5 (26:45):
I think we're learning all the time, to be honest,
you know, it's not a simple easy thing. I learned
at that time that I think that marriage comes along
with a lot, but when you tack on the added circumstances, uh,
there's even more layers to it. And so it's hard.
(27:12):
And and like I said, you know, I said in
the book like that, we still have pictures of Joe
that hang in our house. You know, it was his house.
We live in that house, and I've just tried to
honor him and respect him and tried to look out
(27:32):
for his family, to do my part to look out
for the people that he loved the most. It's, uh,
you know, it's it's it's a very strange thing. Like
I said, I'm not the only one who's lived this
kind of life and stepped into these set of circumstances.
I have other people that have done the same. I
(27:56):
can't tell you specific what did I learn. I learned
it it's not always easy. I learned it's hard. I
learned you can't replace that person. I learned that person
lives on even though they're God. I learned that you
can't be that person, and all you can do is
the best you can. I mean, like, I don't know
(28:18):
all these little petty little things that I learned, I
don't know what they amount to, but you know, you
just you know, it's such a sad thing, you know,
to Today's the is the anniversary of Joe's parents, and uh,
(28:40):
you know, I texted them this morning to wish them
a happy Eniwver. And you know, our family is unique
because our kids have three sets of grandparents. They have
Joe's parents and my wife's parents and my parents, and
I have two sets of in laws. I consider them
in laws, and so it's there's a lot of unusual
family structures in the world we live in today, and
(29:01):
that's our version of our unusual Fisch structure.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
There's a beautiful lesson of selflessness in that, because I
feel like a lot of men may want a situation
that is perfectly suitable to them, or something that you
know they would dream of. But here you are being
presented with a beautiful situation with a beautiful woman and
an amazing marriage with some extra things attached to it.
(29:29):
And essentially you have a choice of like, you know,
this isn't what I intended on, but I can. I
can still show up and focus on the beauty and
gratitude of the situation. And I feel like you've done
that your entire life, through your your journey as a
reporter too, and it just spills over and these lessons
that we learned just there's no boundaries to where they
can go in our life. They are character and who
(29:51):
we are and who we're growing into. It goes into
everything that we do. And it's cool to see you
have such a such an angle and a perspective on
that situation and you willing to share that with people.
Speaker 4 (30:06):
Man, I think that's beautiful.
Speaker 5 (30:08):
Well, I appreciate that. It's like I say, it's everybody's
got a story, and that just happens to be our story.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Maybe you can take us out, Adam and just share
with us. Like when you hear the word come back,
what does that mean to you?
Speaker 5 (30:23):
It means everybody in any walk of life is going
to have setbacks, no matter who you are, no matter
what you do, And every single person's gonna have a setback,
and every person is gonna have a chance to repeatedly
come back because there are enough bad days in this
world you get a chance to come back from them.
(30:44):
There's enough rejection this world, you get a chance to
come back from that. There is enough negativity and setbacks
that everybody continually has the chance to come back from something.
And it's up to them to choose whether they want
to do that and how fast they want to put
it into motion. They just want to accept it and
(31:07):
be defeated and crushed by it. And the people who
have shown the brightest, like Darren and I'm sure you Donnie,
they've taken those setbacks and they've pushed ahead, and they
pushed forward. They pushed through the setbacks so that they
could have the type of glorious comebacks that deserve to
be highlighted.
Speaker 4 (31:29):
That's so well said, man. Thank you for your time.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
I know you got to run and catch a flight,
and you've been so gracious to carve out this window
of time first man. So we really appreciate you, and
I'm looking forward to seeing you around this season and
everywhere you travel. Everywhere you go, man, I just hope
it's safe travels and wish you nothing but peace and success.
Speaker 5 (31:48):
Well, thank you guys. I appreciate it. Donnie, thank you
for having me. Darren, thank you. Hey, I'm in the
New York area. Darren, you need anything, you can make
a call.
Speaker 4 (31:55):
Here, Yes, sir, we'll do man. Thank you, Adam, appreciate
your time.
Speaker 5 (31:59):
Thank you guys. Have a great day.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
And I just want to thank everybody for joining us
for another episode of come Back Stories as well. Hope
you keep downloading us wherever you get podcasts. Tell your friends,
tell your relatives, tell them to keep coming back because
we're going to keep coming back. You know us in
our DNA and check us out on Inflection Network on
YouTube as well, and we will catch you guys next week.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
Comeback Stories is a production of Inflection Network and iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Hosts And Creators
Eric Balchunas
Donny Starkins
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