October 5, 2020 • 60 mins
Have you ever wanted to date a professional athlete? Would you like some tips and advice straight from a knowledgeable source on the best way to make it happen?
NFL Running Back and Dancing with the Stars Champion Rashad Jennings reveals a few tips and tricks on this very topic.
Plus, how sexy is it that Rashad can cha cha?
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is How Men Think with Brooks and Gavin to
Grab and I heard radio podcasts. Welcome to another episode
of How Men Think. My name is Brooks like and
this is the show where we dive into the mind
of a man and really trying to uncover and discover
what's going on inside the brains of the men in
your life. And so today we're gonna have a really
(00:21):
interesting discussion. Is something I'm super passionate about and I'm
currently going through. We're gonna have a discussion about elevating
to success and in a pivot in life, changing a
transitionary trajectory of your life into something new, which a
lot of people are thinking about right now in the
time of COVID. Should I change my career paths? Should
I change my relationship? Should I make a big pivot
(00:41):
in life? And so I have a special guest coming
on to co host the next hour with me. I
love it, love it, love it when I bring on
a professional athlete because he's a brother, we can speak
the same language. He was a running back in the
NFL for the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Oakland Raiders, and the
New York Giants. Recently tired, he is an author on
(01:02):
a couple accounts will get into that. He's an entrepreneur,
he's a philanthropist, he's on TV. He's a man of
many hats. Welcome to the show, Mr Rasha Jennings. How
are you, buddy? I appreciate it, man, I'm you know,
I was listening to your role things off. Also, I
sound like a cool dude, right, Hey, I know, I know, dude,
I love I say this every episode of We Bring On,
(01:23):
we bring on some amazing guests that are multitalented, like
super multitalented and so, um, I love that you're a
professional athlete. But then I love what you've done since
that in your You've become an author, You've written your
own book, and now you've written a children's book. Um,
you're very involved philanthropically with service, with your time. You
are also, I forgot to mention this a mirror ball champion,
(01:48):
a mirrorble like you want dancing with the stars. So
I love that. Just the hats that you wear, brother,
it's inspiring to me. I appreciate that. Man. Yeah, that's uh,
the mirror ball one, all of the all of all
of the fortunate, humble accomplishment thus far, definitely. Uh, I've
been kind of all out of left field for me. Man,
(02:08):
I've just kind of had my head down with a
smile on my face, working for dreams and goals. And
it's cool to see it wasn't started passed so far.
So I love that. I want to really dive into
the mirror ball thing because I we want to get
back to that because Dancing the Stars is back on
and Emma is a great friend of mine. Um, But
I want to start right there with what you said.
You've always had your head down chasing your dreams and
(02:29):
your goals. And I love your story about even about
your your first football game. I think it was where
four other running backs were hurt and you've got a
chance to play and there happened to be a scout there.
Can you can you take us back to the start
of what what became an amazing football career. But how
you you when I look at you and read your
(02:50):
story with shot, Um, you have overcome obstacle your entire life.
You are an extraordinary, extraordinarily resilient person who is become
obstacle your entire life. Um, can you tell us that
story about the first football game and sort of a
lucky break for you. Yeah. Man, So that's funny. Every
time I tell the story, I chuckle throughout it all. Um,
(03:12):
because it's a true story. I got none fabricated about
it at all. But I was a fifth string running
back in high school football. Um, it's overweight, chubbing kid glasses.
Asma had a point six g p A at one
point in time. And Um, when I say I was
fifth string, I mean literally I was the fifth string
running back so much to the point I never played either. Um.
(03:34):
I used to come out, you know when we break
the white tape, go on the sideline and you know,
kick off. I would go on and I would take
the I would take my pads out of my thigh pads.
No thought pass, remove the thought pass, remove the knee pass,
removed the hit pass, remove the butt pass. And inside
of those little soccers, those little holes, stuff in like
eminem candy. You know, I would stuff in sprites and
(03:55):
all kinds of stuff. But I know I didn't play,
and I know I had front Road take us to
a great game. But the last game we're playing against,
last game of the season, we're playing against a high
school rival where the Jepson Force Cavaliers were playing against
the Brookville Bees and it is sold out because it's
one of high school rivals last game of the season,
and also Brookville they beat us, they go to the playoffs.
(04:18):
We're done. So it's like our super Bowl is a
big game. We want to knock them out. And um,
you know, there was a Tennessee Scott there to watch.
Our started running back. His name is Quincy Freeman, is
really good and uh a long story short. Started game off,
We get the ball, go out first play. I started
running back, gets hurt, and I got a buddy of mine.
His name is Brandon what we call him speedy, Right,
(04:41):
he didn't earn his name at all. Okay, he didn't play,
so I me and him. He's like the friend that
just is always overly excited for people, and so when
he saw the start of getting hurt, he was shaking.
He's like, hey, man, they're gonna play you today. They're
gonna play you. And I'm sitting over here. I'm like, man,
get off, me go back to eat my eminem's watching
(05:02):
the game. Second string goes out a couple of players,
he gets hurt, you know, so speak again like, yeah,
they might actually play you like making it off. You
know they ain't gonna play me go back to eat
my candy. Third string goes out, he gets hurt, right,
So then they put back in the starter because then
he taped up his ankle. He got ankle injury. He
go back out, he gets hurt again. So then now
(05:23):
they're down to the fourth running back, and you know,
four plays later he gets hurt, right, So you know
it's down to me. Right, Speedy's lost his mind. You know,
he's over here doing back flips and stuff and and
the and the coach Kansas sideline. He catches eye contact
with me, he looks away, he grabs a wide receiver
(05:44):
and puts him in at running back instead of me. Right, So,
like part of me is mad because I'm like, this
is my opportunity. The other part it's like I ain't
going out there getting hurt, Like I don't know why
everybody's getting hurt. Sure enough, he gets hurt, have no
choice but to put me in, right, and I go
out there, red hands from Eminem's and like I picked
up the wrong helmet and it was just all bad.
(06:07):
But first play for the yard touchdown? Come on, yeah, man,
he couldn't tell me nothing. I came back from the sideline,
I chest bumped speedy. You know, he falls and after afterwards, Um,
they put me back in on offense. Later I scored
another touchdown. Similar situation on defense. Guys are getting hurt
left and right. They put me in on defense. First play,
(06:29):
I sacked the quarterback he fund bolt. I picked it
up and scored another thirty yard touchdown. And I sealed
the game with a pick six for the win. And
so I'll scored four touchdowns, all right. I played fourteen
total plays. And that Tennessee scout that came to watch
the starting running back came up to me after the
(06:49):
game and he said, you know, ra Shoe, Um, I
came to watch the starting running back, but I couldn't
help but to notice you. I didn't even see your
name on the roster. And I was like, yeah, that
sound about right. And he said, well, how are your grades?
And I looked up at him and I said, we're sir.
I have a point six and he was like, how
(07:10):
the hell you got a point six? You gotta try
to do that, but that like he he looked at me,
he said, Rasha, you have potential. Get your grades right.
You might play at the collegiate level. For the first
time in my life, somebody saw something in me outside
of family. Yeah, they're gonna encourage me no matter what.
(07:30):
Long story short man, I transferred high schools, I repeated
my junior year. I took nine homeschool classes, nine summer
school classes. Um, and I rededicated myself. I never looked back.
I stopped making excuses, I stopped blaming people. I started
taking the ownership of responsibility over everything I did and
the rest of the history from there, dude, And then
(07:51):
you're drafted twenty three overall to the Jacksonville Jaguar's first
round pick, and then you play in the NFL for
how many seasons? Nine seasons? Eight eight seasons? Eight seasons?
Is amazing, dude. Do you ever just look at that
day and just there's something greater going on there? Like
that's if that isn't divine intervention, I have no idea
(08:13):
what it was like. Five guys get a hurt ahead
of you, guys on defense get hurt, and you happen
to just step into this role. Do you ever think
about what your life might have been like if it
didn't if that day didn't occur, and so much that
I wrote a book that became a New York Time
bestseller about it. Um, side of the if in life
(08:33):
and uh to play on words spell out the world
life if it's in the middle, And you know, I
kind of just talked about all my major moments. But yeah,
for myself, that never happened. Um, there's no telling. You know,
I know I would have. You know, from the opportunity
I did have in place, I would have graduated high school. Um,
(08:55):
I would have probably have ventured to be a marriage
counselor with us desired to doing a lot of years
in my life. I'm actually got my master's UM in
it now and getting licensed soon. Good for you, buddy. Yeah,
but I know I wouldn't be on this platform that
I have currently today. Not a chance you most likely
(09:15):
would you say you most likely wouldn't have made the
NFL if that day didn't happen. Not a chance, No way.
I don't think that would have happened. I don't think
I would have been for to suit an opportunity of
a fresh start. Um. You know, I wouldn't have had
a clean slate. I would have I would have been
and I would have had the willow and the demeanor
(09:39):
that I've built about my name in a school and
coaches and teachers that I couldn't start over with. So
I had a fresh start and I took advantage of it. Um.
I've always said that you can never underestimate the power
of one person believing in you. When I when I
think of you, you mentioned your parents and people before,
(09:59):
I think my mom, I think of my dad, my brother,
and my sister. Their belief in me just drove me
so far and was so important to me. But what
about the belief that this gentleman the scout had in you.
How did that single interaction with him just saying I
see you, you could play collegiate ball. Um? What did
that just do to you individually? As far as changing
(10:22):
your habits, your behaviors, your character. It made me look
at future. Um, you know, because my desires were all
to accomplish things and years to come. I didn't really
have a lot of desires or dream accomplished in the moment.
They were always in the future. So when I was encouraged,
(10:45):
I saw future differently. And um, you know that's why
I tried. I tried to inspire kids to see you
down the road. Um seeing today it's kind of tough
sometimes not just into death, any any any normal to
um So for me, man, when the scout saw and
he's coming from a validated position, it's not somebody and
(11:08):
that's working at sevent eleven, Sandy, you can do it
one day. It's somebody validated position that does it for
a living that saw something in me, and um, it
encouraged me and let me know that it's a possibility.
I love that. I also, I was having a discussion
with a friend the other day about positive affirmation and how,
especially in sports, we would get told so much about
(11:29):
what we did wrong. Right. You'd get told what you
did wrong, you messed up this play, blah blah blah.
In in life, in career, people get told what they
do wrong, but very rarely do people get told what
they do right. And that positive affirmation is so powerful
and people then because they received that positive feedback, it
encourages them to do that thing more. And so whether
(11:51):
you're a business owner, whether you're a coach, whether you're
a parent, any sort of positive affirmation that you could
give somebody, um in like just in your case, you're
right here, rashot is. It can be absolutely life changing.
You know, a short little conversation would be absolutely life changing.
So I love that you then took that grabbed the reins,
and it turned yourself into an eight year NFL pro
(12:15):
um What do you think was your biggest key to
success in that journey? Man? The biggest? Uh so many,
But I would say for my my eight year tender
in the league, um I truly learned. And I tell
people there's a difference between an NFL player in a
pro athlete. Um I learned how to become a pro. Ah.
(12:41):
Your NFL athlete is a guy that has bookoo amounts
of talent that where was above their um class, beyond
their time, and could get away with uh lack of
daisical because as it just talent, they're just gonna show up,
(13:02):
get an A A on the test, don't study. And but
once you get to the big leagues, everybody was the
man before they got there, right like in high school.
Everybody that's the man goes to college and then all
of those men are there and then who whoever is
the man of college goes to the NFL and all
(13:22):
of those like so it's no more hiding man, everybody
is really good. Yeah, we we know all those stories
to get over it. So it's um. Then if you
get hurt, having to take care of your body, you know,
understanding the playbook, handling media off the field, you know,
finances are there. It's like becoming an adult very quickly. Um.
(13:44):
Was something that I was fortunate enough to have family
around me, UM and some loving brothers that that kind
of put me in my place. Um in in college
so I could be prepared for it. But also I
learned how to stay um tunnel vision, you know. Um.
I my my Plan B was to accomplish Plan A, right,
(14:08):
like I'm super focused individual. I gotta plan and c
but I'm a very focused individual. UM, and I was
able to stay out of trouble like just the little things. Man.
I'm I've never drink alcohol day in my life. UM.
You know, I never smoked. You know, I didn't get
arrested and get caught up with some crazy stuff. Um.
You know I got my fair share of speeding tickets.
(14:29):
I'm no saint. I'm not you know what I mean
saying I'm perfect by any amazing, but I do recognize
when I go I have nine nephews that I have
these conversations with Uncle Shot, what did you do? Because often,
because they're younger than me, they see the red carpet
side of Uncle Shot. They didn't see what I had
(14:49):
to do to get to the red car Sharing that
with him is important. By the way, you're a you're
running back. You like to go fast man, So the
ticket again, but heavy foot, babe, I get it. I
love what you talked about there about learning to become
a pro, because I believe I think in the NFL,
(15:09):
the the uh average careers fan, I think is three
years somewhere around three years in the NHL, and you
played eight, so he played almost three times. The average
to the length of the average career the NHL is
five years, and I was thirteen years in the NHL.
Um And one of the things I learned too was
to become what we phrased was a consummate professional. And
(15:32):
when you see, you know, like when I say that word,
that term consummate professional, you probably think of guys that
you played with. You're like, yeah, this guy he ate right,
he slept right, he thought right, he connected with teammates,
He was an integral human being. He showed up. He
had passion, he had dedication, he had resilience injuries he
would rebound from. He was a team guy. You think
(15:53):
of the consummate professional, and that was one of the
things that I learned to the same thing in hockey.
There's guys that were just better, they were just graced
with amazing talent. But then when you get to that
level to repeat year after year after year, it takes
more than just amazing talent. And it's what you do.
It's your behaviors of the character of who you are
as a human being that keep you there. It's your resilience.
(16:16):
It's your willingness to study the playbook or to pre study,
to pre video the upcoming games, to video watch video
from previous games, to rest, to recovery. Like you said,
you didn't have bad habits of drinking or smoking. Diet
is on point. So many things keep you there to
performance um And then I want to touch on one
other thing that I think professional athletes are able to
(16:40):
do that maybe separates them from the masses a little bit.
You said it yourself, you were able to be tunnel
vision and singular focused. How does that how if you
can make that understandable and digestible for our How men
think community that a lot of people are pulled in
multidirections and not stay laser focused in one way to
(17:02):
elevate to extreme success. How were you able to do that? Well,
there's many ways to do it. I I mean, I
could tuck your head off about this particular topic, but
I mean I throw one out there that's uncommonly said.
Um there, anger, right, Anger is a strong, strong emotion
(17:32):
and it creates a lot of blood flow. M hm um.
Now what you do with that anger is up to you,
all right. But you know anger is a nice pre workout. Yeah, yeah,
I get you after that workout. That's so what I
(17:52):
was I've been able to do throughout my life is
channel anger. M you. Anger towards an individu truel, anger
towards something that happened you earlier in life. What's what's
the anger towards? Yeah? Any and everything. Man. I've taken
anger out on a relationship with my father before, uh,
with with relationships with teachers before. And you're talking you're
(18:14):
taking knees onto the field or into the weight room
and performance. Yeah, absolutely absolutely. I take some of the
anger I have in generated to stay up at night
and write you know what I mean, that's fuel for
me because it's I've recognized for me that is strong,
right and and but if you need to learn how
to channel it the right way. Right and so channeling
(18:36):
anger is a great motivation, um, because we all have
it and and a lot of times we try to
run from our angers, right, I don't want to deal
with it. But for me, I've recognized no, no, no, no,
I want that fuel that use it, right. I think
that's yeah, And I think that can that if you
can control that, because I think that can be very
(18:57):
destructive too if you if you just let that run
all over you. Um. But I also believe that if
you can control that and harness it, which you said
you were able to, You were able to have a
strong enough mind to control it, harness it and direct
it in a positive way that I think it can create.
Like you said, it's a great pre workout. It can
create enough emotion within you to drive you to suit
(19:20):
two levels and depths that maybe you weren't able to
achieve just on your own, when you actually use that
as a source of motivation, source it. I tried to
do it yesterday in my workout since I've been out
of since I've been retired from hockey. I don't have
a lot of anger. Somebody didn't just kick my ass
last night, you know, So I don't have a lot
of anger in my life. Life is pretty good. But
(19:41):
I tried to like go back is snap back into
that competitive, intense athlete mindset of trying to beat somebody,
and it just made me a little more gritty, little
more uh fired up in my workout, and I felt
good doing that again. Now I don't want to live there.
I don't want that to be my only source of
of motivation, but it is like it is a powerful
(20:05):
tool to access from time to time right now, absolutely absolutely,
And then I mean for me, like like there's levels
to it. Right Um, anger is one way which I
used the channel. Um some some some fuel, that's the gas.
But you know when we started talking about the oil
of the car, you know, now that's different. You know
what else did you use as motivation? What were other
(20:25):
ways that you stayed highly motivated during eight years in
the NFL. I'm my future man. I would always think
about my kids that I don't have today, and I
live with death on my mind a lot, not in
at and it's very happy to talk about death right
it's it's and not a not a morbid way. But
I really do keep it on mind a lot that
(20:47):
because I want to be a leader for into my
family from the grade, and the only way for me
to do that is to be cognitive and very present, intentional,
um with what I do while I'm on this side
of the earth, From generational wealth, from writing a will,
a proper way, uh, you know, all the things that
encompass of what it looks like to be a leader
(21:09):
from the grade. I think about that, and you know
that kind of keeps me humble and and and and
I think about again, I don't have children, and so
I think about the fact that I'm thirty five right now,
and I want to be able to tell my kids, Hey,
you know, I remember this moment when I was twenty five.
I was thinking about you when I did X one
(21:30):
and Z. I'm thirty five. I'm having this. I'm having
a zoom call right now and I actually brought you
guys up of reason why I'm still motivated today. I
want to show this like these are the things that
keeps me going of waking up, excited to grasp like
in the twelve odd whatever hours that I'm up. Um,
(21:50):
who can I motivate? How can I be motivated? You know?
How can I be a better person for my community? Um?
Where the quality levels is just like a It's like
a scale of vitamins, right, um? And every year I
get I get my blood drawn to see where my
levels are. And you know, for me waking up, I
(22:11):
checked my attitude levels as well. Yeah I love that. Yeah,
you know I can and enjoy I gotta put it
in there. So um, true balance in life, man, I
I consider myself somebody that always is trying to find
poise and balance. I mean, I mean, I mean that
to the fullest from if if you if a Democrat
(22:33):
argument with me, they're gonna think I'm a Republican. And
for republican argument women, they're gonna think I'm a democrat.
I'm a true independent. So like I'm so even killed balanced.
I'm a logical thinker and all aspects of my life,
I love it. I love it. Dude. How about this
This is a question for you because I'm thirty seven,
I'm two years older than you. We are both athletes
but retired athletes when we I don't have kids either,
(22:57):
when we have kids, they won't know us as a
professional athlete, right like they won't be in the in
the football stadium with your at practice with you. You
played with guys that had their kids in the locker
room and stuff, and that's so cool. But our kids,
when we have kids, hopefully we both do, won't know
us as that. That will be memories that we share
(23:19):
with them and show them, but they won't know us
as that. They're gonna know you as an author or
as a an actor or a TV host, whatever you're
currently doing. Does that Do you ever think about that
that my kids aren't gonna be able to watch me play.
They aren't gonna be I'm not gonna be able to
take him to the stadium. Yeah, no, I've thought about
that before into touch on what you have mentioned about
(23:41):
watching guys come in with their sons or their daughters.
And you know, I even think about, man, if I
was a kid trying to soap all listening, well, what
how are you thinking? You know, how much of it
or how big of life would my dad be if
he if my dad was currently playing in the NFL?
Thing um to a kid's mind. Good gracious. So, but
(24:03):
now I think about that, about how how cool it
is though that I will have to hang on to
the moments of videotapes and the stories. Um, and I'm
excited that they won't have to grow up in the
um height of the nfl US. I think that could
(24:25):
be difficult. I watched my nephews go up in it
when I was in my prime, and they're in high school,
and even how much attention they would receive just because
of what their uncle was doing. Yeah, Um, it's cool,
but you don't receive a lot of attention because Hey,
I saw your uncle's new book out. Yeah, you know
what I mean. I'm I'm I'm excited to instantly come
(24:50):
off as a door to my car. So cool man,
that's what I want to be to him. Um, I
think I think it's gonna be cool. One thing about
that is your kids are going to know you as
so you're you're gonna have some other quote unquote profession
when you have kids, and you're going to be in
a shining example for them of somebody who can live
(25:11):
multiple lives, that you are multitalented, that you elevated to
the best of the best in football, and now you
transitions and now you've elevated in this other arena on life,
and then maybe there's another one you elevate to another
arena in life. I think that's wonderful. I think that
that's just so inspiring to a kid to see that
that dad can be successful in whatever he does. So
(25:31):
it's not just about what he's doing, it's about the
characteristics of dad. So I think that's so cool. Let's
talk about the artists, the or the author's side of you. Um,
let's talk about the two books you've written, because I
love how you've segued from athletes into an author. Can
you tell us about the two books you've written? Yeah, sure,
so again tapping back into the first book, UM, the
(25:53):
If and Life, which became a New York Time bestseller.
I had no idea that that was in the mix. Um.
I don't even know how they evaluate which one has
become the New York Times bestseller, but when they I
got that call, I was floored. Um, But I wrote,
thanks man. I appreciate that so much. And when I
have people come up to me, you know, it's there's
(26:15):
still people come up to me periodically either because of football,
then print I left there, or because of dancing with
the stars. People want to get to that in a second. Yeah,
or or or or you know, writing books, or I
saw you doing catfish, or you know I've seen you
on a good Morning America. Whatever. Anybody has seen me.
You know, they come up to say something or ask
(26:37):
for an autograph. But I tell you, it's nothing more
rewarding between if I had to pick which one touches
me more to sign or have a kid come up
to me and say, hey, can autograph my jersey? Autographed
this book? The book wins everything every time because the book, well,
(26:58):
football is a is a piece of me. Like the
book I really gave a lot of me. Wow, And
that's my life versus a chapter. You know, football is
just the chapter of my life, and my book encompasses
(27:20):
all of me. So like watching a kid get excited
and say he's motivated to read my book or has
read it and has touched them, and the emails I
get from parents, um, it makes me stay up at
night and continue to think, how can I connect to
this world more by by print? Dude? Every time I
(27:40):
talked to you, I get so inspired by you because
the last time we saw each other was at Lewis
Houses event um, and we chatted afterwards, and I asked
you about your transition from the NFL to afterlife, and
you gave me a really cool storage. Remember what you
said that night, no, which I can't recall it right now.
You said, Uh, you said you looked at your NFL
(28:01):
career like you were a young kid who was at
the bar and you knew the bouncer was going to
throw you out in just a matter of attack. So
so you're like, I enjoyed every second. I knew it
wasn't gonna last forever, and I knew at some point
I'd get kicked out of this place, but I was
gonna love it until I did. Um. And that kind
of care freeness about about your career is something that
(28:23):
I've always I remember that story and I've always tried
to bring with me and tried to apply to my
life because letting go of my career has had a
little more constraint on me. It's been harder for me
to let go of it. And you, you're an inspiration
for me for seamlessly transitioning into life after sport and
into other other endeavors, and so hearing that that football
(28:46):
is just a part of you, but the book and
what you're doing is like your whole life is just
inspiring for me to hear. Can you talk a little
bit about the children's book? Yes, the children's book again,
because I grew up with a red acomprehensive deficit. I
struggled academically and I didn't enjoy reading. And one of
the reasons why I didn't enjoy reading is because of struggle, right,
(29:11):
which actually it's it, this is uh, this is very well.
I come back to it because it is a very
deep thought that I like had a whole revelation about
like four years ago. That's kind of cool. I think
that inspire some people that may struggle academically or just
even in general life. But the reason why I want
(29:31):
to write kids books is because a lot of young
males don't enjoy reading. You know, you'd rather play a
video game, go outside, run around. But statistically speaking, the
percentage of kids that have the ability to read above
a third grade level um are less likely to become incarcerated. Rely, Yes,
(29:55):
So I wanted to catch kids at a young level
and give them material that they can actually get lost
in and so for myself as a writer, you know,
I understand this idea of things becoming very addictive, and
they have an addiction inside of food. Right, chips are
one of the prime ways that science have proven addiction
(30:16):
between the amount of carbohydrates, fat, and sodium. The combination
makes things addictive. Why you can't have one ship truly? Um,
there's neurological. I want to have it, and so I've
tried my hardest two for these kids to write in
such a way that's addictive to what is going to
(30:37):
happen next. I have to know before I go to sleep. Like,
that's the type of energy that's in these books. Because
if you're gonna be addicted, be addicted something that's good.
I love that, man. I love the intention and the
encoded energy you're putting into this. Like it's not just
I want to write a children's book for kids to read.
It's of kids who have a third grade reading level,
(30:58):
are higher, are less likely to be incarcerated. Like there's
such an encoded energy and a purpose into this. Um,
you're a deep dude, man. Every time I talk to you,
I discovered more and more. You're really thoughtful guy. No, man,
and so what one of the things talking about being thoughtful,
you might appreciate this or you know, just take a
(31:19):
seat on it for a second, because I wanted to.
I struggled reading right, And I realized I struggled reading
because I didn't respect my voice. When I read at
my best, it was because I was pretending to sound
like a teacher. I was pretending to sound like somebody
(31:41):
I respected. You know, we can read a book and
narrating somebody else's voice. M whenever I pretend to be
another person reading, I would read, well, why because I'm
hearing them because I respected them. I never really respected
my own voice, so I ran from it when I
heard it, and I struggled listening and listening to it.
(32:03):
And the same thing when I was younger with my opinions. Right,
if I hear somebody else's opinion that I respect, I
take it and run. But if I hear my own voice,
hear my own opinion about myself, I don't really know
if I can do it. I don't know if I
could because I really struggle respecting my own voice. So
over time. You know, when some people say I have
(32:24):
a voice, it totally resonates with me differently because the
more I begin to respect the sound that I have,
I totally became a better reader. Dude, we should do
a whole another episode on that about trusting yourself because
so many of us trust other people almost implicitly. You know,
we have good friends, we have people in our lives,
(32:45):
in our circles that we look up to and almost
hang on their words and really trust them, but have
very little trust in ourselves. It's a very common thing
going on in the world. Um, But that would be
a whole another I think podcast, but an interesting topic
to uncover. I want to now talk about Dancing with
(33:08):
the Stars. You are You are a Mirror Ball champion
dancing with the Stars bad. I'm so I'm so jealous
of you, um because Emma, Emma is a great friend
and a wonderful human being. Uh and right and Sasha too,
I love them both. Um. Can you tell me about
(33:29):
why you wanted to go on Dancing with the Stars.
So it's such a highlight in my life, man, like
wouldn't wouldn't a whirl? You smile about it every time
I ask you about it. You instantly smile, like almost
a bigger smile than asking you about the NFL, right
it is? It really is. I have no idea. The
NFL at least had a desire and I worked really
(33:49):
hard at like it was a whole plan of hope.
And this came out of clear blue sky Dancing with
the stars. What So what I do every offseason, I
will say that I'm an auder to deck. I'm addicted
to learning. I just love learning new things, and so
every off season I will pick up a new art
or craft. Um. The first off season, I picked up
the guitar, learn how to play it until the point
(34:12):
I could get in the studio John Mayer's the reason
why I picked up a guitar. Um. Then the next
off season, I learned a bunch of magic tricks right
so of them I love it. It's never a dull
party with me and uh so, Then the next off
season I picked up poetry, archery, Olympic style fencing. Every
(34:33):
single off season I picked up something new. And this
last offseason I was at one of my buddy Shouldn't dig.
They're having a whole little party and hanging out, barbecueing,
and I was in the house and there was this
commercial that came on and some people was moving across
the screen really good, and they were dancing. I was like, Yo,
that is dope. What in the world are they doing.
(34:54):
One of my buddies she's actually a dancer, and she
knew what they were doing, so she said, oh, that's
a chat chat. I said. She said, that's ballroom dancing.
So what the heck is ballroom dance? And she said
you should really check it out. I said, kind that
teached me to do that? They said, yeah, sure, I said,
(35:14):
you know what, That's what I'm gonna learn this offseason.
I'm gonna go figure out some ballroom dancing. Right. So
I'm in for a lot of Del Florida train every
day from eight am to buy like one pm, and
then I have the rest of the evening all and
uh So, one day, all sweating, yoked up, just finished
working out, when I google the local ballroom studio, the
(35:34):
nearest ballroom studios where I was staying, and I go in,
open the door, ding, I got a tank top on,
like just girly dude coming in and everybody's all daintily
and yeah, ballroom And I'm like, what the heck is this?
And the lady this told you how much I knew nothing.
The ladyships. He can we help you? And I said,
(35:56):
I said, yeah, I'm looking for the chat like it's
a person. And she you know, yes, we can teach
you how to jot you. Oh yeah, yeah, that's that's
what I was looking looking for. And she she laughed,
and she pulled me to the desk and she said,
with you like some privates or are you okay with
(36:16):
open floors? Had definitely gotta be private. I don't want
anybody see anything. She said, well, we don't have any
availability until two weeks from today. I said, sure, no problem,
I'll be back in two weeks. A week from that day,
Danced with the Stars called come on. Never got a
chance to go to that ballroom studio. And what makes
this funny? I never got a chance to go to
(36:36):
the ballroom studio. The first dance on Dance with the
Stars I learned wasn't When I won that lady called
me and said that I was supposed to learn from them.
He said, what just had learned? And she's looking on
TV seeing me win the shows. So it was it
(36:58):
was a time, but no man, I enjoyed it. Um.
I learned so much about myself. Um, I'm a true
hopeful romantic, so I enjoy the connectivity that I understand
the dance provides, you know. And also I cannot wait
to release a book that I have about how much
relationships in ballroom dance merge um man. It was just
(37:21):
such a highlight. I can't And and then when we
went on tour and if you would have told me
at the age of fifteen, one day you're gonna be
selling out arenas for dancing, you know, I felt it's
so cool. But you know what, I I also like,
really admi owned respective vote for that is one, you
had the courage to go to a totally different arena. One.
I love the fact that you learn a new skill
(37:42):
every offseason. That's amazing. That's just like I hope people
just absorbed that like a sponge because that's incredible too.
You had the courage to go into a totally different
arena and try something you've never done before. But then
I also remember when you won. I think they announced
that you and Emma headlogged I think three hundred and
twenty four hours of practice during that season. It was
(38:03):
it was some astronomical number that was almost twice as
much as any other competitor there um, which just goes
to show that you'll be successful in whatever you do
because there's underlying characteristics present within you as a human
being that will come out and can come out in
any different avenue of life or any different career that
you pursue. So myself watching that witnessing that is super
(38:26):
inspiring and I would go on that show in a
heartbeat because I think it's a beautiful art and I
would so love to learn to dance. Dude, if if
they has definitely doing it, it's it's life changing. Man.
I had a great experience. Emma helped that. Uh that
that the whole notion of you know, one wanting to
(38:46):
learn how to dance, and you know you create, you create,
So I created from friendships from the show, and you know,
as a whole new audience, I got to let people
know who I am as a person, not just the
jersey I where, but with the neatest bar And you
probably understand this man like coming from sports and you know,
playing like true American gladiator sports man amongst hitting each
(39:09):
other and then parlaying it into one of the most
gentle arts ballroom dance like Polar opposes you built the
run through human beings, and I have to figure out
where to place this cost and stand on. Yeah, it's crazy.
(39:29):
It's being your head back and just underneath all that
kind of stuff. Yeah. But what's super cool about it too,
is like you have a rhythm. You have a rhythm
and athletic rhythm of running, of agility, of jumping, of
of squatting, of weightlifting. That's a whole different rhythm. But
rhythm and dance. Moving your body is in dance is
(39:50):
a completely different language, just because like we're athletes, we
know how to move our bodies through space. But the
thing I love about it is like that captivates M
is then interpreting the music and having that rhythm come
through your body. And when I dance, I just feel
so awkward. I'm like, God, why do I feel so
out of rhythm? I'm an athlete, I moved my body.
How my body feels like it's moving really weird. That's hilarious, man.
(40:16):
I'm sure you would kill it though, I know you
would if I was partnered with M. I yeah, because Emma,
I think can I think am I can make magic
out of anybody. She made me a little better than
I am dude, I love it. It was so fun
to watch you because you crushed that season. Um, we're
gonna get We're gonna take a quick break, my man,
and then we're gonna come back with some listener questions
for professional athletes. So some of these were shot. I'm
(40:38):
sure you've been asked. Other ones are community submit some
interesting questions. So other ones I don't know if you've
ever been asked these questions. We'll be right back more
after the break back from break, we have our outstanding engineer,
slash producer, slash man of all trades and that's my
(41:00):
stash in the business. Mr Easton Allen with us, and
he's gonna fire some some of the how men think
listener questions rapid fire two Rashad and I uh. We
are two professional athletes and we're gonna answer your questions
as best we can. Let's see where we get. Yeah,
what do we got? Eastern? Thank you for that introduction, Bricks.
I appreciated our first question, where can you meet a
(41:22):
professional athlete and have a chance but not be mistaken
for a groupie chance? Chance? Well, hey, look I'm gonna
say like like I think you can meet a professional
athlete anywhere. Um nowadays, UM, I would say for myself
where you would find me at? You will find me
at a lot of foundational events. Um, You'll you'll find
(41:46):
me from time to time just at a great sushi
restaurant you know. Uh that those type of places you're
gonna find me. Yeah, you will find me too often
in the club. And if you find me in the club,
I'm in the VFP section anyway, so I gotta know
some my those money. But into the approach simple, You'll
be surprised. A lot of a professional athlete is just
(42:08):
an athlete, and the athletes just a human. Most people
like simplicity. Just come up, have a genuine conversation, uh
and see where you see where it goes from there,
you probably have a chance more thing, you know, ask
him to choteya. I'm whearing the chart. Um. I love
what you said there, dude. Um, yeah, because the foundational
(42:31):
one for sure, that's a great place to meet somebody.
And then sushi. I would I would? I echo with
that as well. So I'm gonna just accept for Shawn's
answers as mine. I would I would, I would. I
know she can't answer, but I would like her to
answer this, Where does a professional athlete go to find
a genuine girl? Here we go? Oh another you gotta
(42:52):
you gotta go to like yoga class or like a
coffee shop. I found out that the kils section and
hope foods or where the best women are. M M,
there you go. Okay, alright, kale section, that's where we
gotta hang. Uh. Next question, is it a no go
if he or she has dated or slept with someone
else on the team. Yeah, that's a that's a that's
(43:14):
almost a no fly zone. That's a tough one. Yeah. Me, personally,
I lose all interests if if a dude has talked
to a girl in any way shape form Capa's that's
just me though. I don't know what it is about it,
So for me, it's it's all limits. I have a team.
I played with one guy who married a girl that
used to date one of our teammates. So it does happen. Yeah,
(43:39):
for sure, they have and they have kids. Now. Yeah,
it's a personal deal. If if if you have any
interest in me, yeah, you better you can't have talk
to somebody I know. Alright. Next one, between training and
practice and everything like that, how much time can you
actually devote to a relation ship? Um. My answer of
(44:05):
that when when I was like between the age of
twenty and thirty, I was consumed as a professional athlete,
Like every every ounce of energy I had, every decision
I made was toward my sport. I was, and I
did that to myself. I fully where that I was consumed.
It was each sleep, rest, train, rinse, wash, repeat. It
was if like my rest was important, so I wasn't
going out on date nights. My diet was important, so
(44:27):
I wasn't just eating everything and what it was just
I was dialed in as an athlete. I fully admit
I did not have a lot of time to date
when I was twenty to thirty, and after that I
wanted more fulfillment in my life and started getting a
little more balanced in my personal life. Yeah, and that second,
that is it can be. It depends on the person, right,
Like you can't have box and went after. I know
(44:48):
some people that don't eat right and don't sleep right
and that you know, and still don't have time for
a relationship. So but I would say for myself, I
was I was. I was tonal vision. Um, you know,
I was married to my dream and uh before before anybody,
and so I gave a lot of effort to it.
It is it is time assuming if you you know,
(45:09):
if you're eating right, you know now you can't have
the QC date night eating your brown Sharon and Shandon
dessert as much because you focus and now you know
that could make her feel like she's not important. So
if it's not the right I wouldn't say right person. Uh,
if it's not the right timing. If if two people
really just don't understand where each other are at in
life and know their limits, it could be tough. I
(45:31):
don't want to say that's every professional athlete, though, I
don't want to like scare people off. That's just how
I approached it, and maybe that's how we shot approach it.
But I played with many, many, many guys that were married,
a lot of guys that were married young and and
their partners were a huge part of their lives and
a huge part of their careers as well. That was
just my path. Mhm. Absolutely, would either of you consider
(45:51):
dating someone who isn't famous? Absolutely? Yeah, I probably uh
would prefer to be honest with you, um to to
be with somebody that's not famous, Um, you know, but
that's me I think, And there's no right and right. Hey,
you fall in love with what you fall in love with.
(46:12):
I'm not saying that I would never, but instantly, if
somebody put on paper, would you want to dad a
celebrity or non celebrity, I would say non celebrity. And
uh here here's another like lifestyle one. What about here?
Is it true that athletes only date girls that are
super fit? No? I say no, My my ex wasn't.
(46:37):
So no, I'm not. I think, uh, now you're I
think you're Most humans are attracted to people that are fit.
Don't get me wrong, like hello, you know what I mean.
But no, so as far as the as far as
a commitment to someone, um, you know you want somebody
that is I think more so active than this figurative
(47:01):
model sort of speak. I think that is very important
to be with somebody that is an active individual. I
would echo that. Um, the question was super fit. So
to be real picky, here the question said super fit.
I don't think every athlete dates somebody who is super fit,
but um, to be honest, both at moost athletes will
(47:24):
date somebody who is is Like Rishad said active looks
after themselves, cares for themselves. Well, is a healthy, active,
fit person. Is it more attractive if the girl is
interested in sports? I don't think so. Yeah. I would
(47:46):
say what's attractive is the willingness, right, So, like I
actually what I actually enjoy somebody that doesn't understand the
game of football. It's like, it's hilarious to watch them
trying to figure it out. Yeah, so it it's the
willingness to sit there and wait, he did what I
thought that was? I thought that was a foul, Like,
(48:08):
that's hilarious, right to try to figure watch her figure
it out in the same thing for me to her,
Like I don't know anything about probably some of the
stuff she may bring to the table, but she probably
would love the fact that I'm willing to figure out
what narrow polish is the best. So it's the willingness
that is what it's attractive. I ain't really worried if
(48:28):
you know everybody's stats their names more than me, that
ain't attractive. Uh. Yeah, I actually liked because I was
so focused on my career, I actually liked and preferred
somebody that didn't have any idea about the sport because
I could get away from the sport. Whereas I have
teammates who had wives that were like, what did the
coach say in the locker room after the game? What
(48:49):
it like? And I was like, Wow, how could you
be that invested everywhere? Like I needed to get away
from it. I needed to be all in when I
was there, and then in a relationship get away from it.
And I actually preferred some that didn't have a real
in depth knowledge or background on the sport. All right,
all right, this is an interesting one. Are As an athlete,
(49:11):
are you easily tempted to be unfaithful? I would say
that is just you can take out the word athlete
and just say as a human. You know, um, I
see more. I've seen more doctors. I've seen more doctors
(49:36):
in places they shouldn't be at then athletes. All right,
so it's not just an athlete thing, it's it's truly
a human thing in it. Are you tempted? Yes? Who?
Everybody is always tempted. The tempt is revelatant, and it's
about are you going to respond, you know, to to
these tempts. But to answer the question, yeah, everybody's tempted,
(49:59):
you know, Yeah, I would agree with that I think,
um more is kind of more temptation kind of comes
your way. You're as an athlete, you're a young guy,
you are very successful, very driven. Um you probably have
a few bucks in your wallet. Um, you have some
sort of fame or notoriety, some sort of communal importance
(50:20):
quote unquote. Um. So that that there's just more. Probably
you'll probably get approached more than maybe just the other
guy from town. Um. So then, but it's just like
Rashad said, then it's you know, how do you handle it?
Do you just you know, um say hey, it's great,
nice to me. Do you have a nice day and
be cordial and polite with a human being? Because you
can still do that, that's completely fine. Or do you
(50:43):
do you cross boundaries? It's just who you are as
a human being. But I think to answer the question, yes,
you probably are more tempted just because of what comes
with being an athlete. Rashot, are you open to dating
right now? Dating? I don't know how about this? Who
(51:03):
would be your dream date? Uh, that's a good one,
that's a really good one. I mean that wouldn't be,
this would not be. This isn't answering the question, But
this was not this is not my dream day. But
like just to give some kind of like ideas of
you know myself, I grew up Jennifer Lopez is my
(51:24):
childhood crush, you know what I mean? Um, but like
my ideal date of a person. So I enjoy going
out on days. This is a very true thing about me.
When I was in uh, when I was in New York,
when I would go out on different dates all the time,
Like it was a point where I think I went
out on a different date, like every four or five days,
somebody different, and and but this is this is why, um,
(51:49):
how I look at dating, right you they didn't get
to know somebody cool, nothing wrong with I think you
get to know somebody all the time. We get annoy
each other right now, you just don't quote it anything
of the setting. But I would try to find somebody
that had some type of skill or profession that they
did and we would go out on the date. Right
(52:11):
Like to give no names to anybody, but I would
take somebody that was a professional golf a golfer out.
I don't know nothing about golf. You spent thirty years
to professional to make this to profession, so you know,
a lot about golf. I know a lot about football.
Let's exchange lives of information. I'll take it. Who's a gardener? Man?
We had one of the greatest dates. We went out
and and and uh and uh in a park and
(52:34):
she was explaining every plant and how it was made
and what is it doing an atmosphere. And I'm like,
this is amazing. You're giving me life. I never would
let me explain some of my life. Like, so I
date all the time. There's, um, what you just touched
on your There's a couple of things I remember hearing
things that are afrodisiacs. Natural afrodisiacs. Two people, uh, and
(53:00):
who of the things? Are watching somebody perform their mastery,
whatever it is that they do. You're a football watching
you perform at the highest level as a football player
is something that is an aphrodisiact to person, to somebody, Um,
it could be the same as this lady who's a
gardener watching her guard do her thing something that that
is her mastery, her art form. Watching somebody perform their
(53:22):
art form is an aphrodisiac And the other one is
watching somebody perform a charitable act that is very much
an aphrodisiact to somebody as well. So, um, anyway, I
just wanted to share that with the community. There you go,
Eastern rapid fire questions. Let's go all right? These are
these are when it comes to women, it's kind of
(53:43):
like an either or thing. So this first thing that
comes to mind sneakers or stilettos. Stilettos are so sexy.
Makeup or no makeup? I don't like how to makeup?
Can I go very little makeup? If I had to choose,
I go no makeup or very little makeup, not makeup. Yeah,
(54:07):
either way, they only don't make me no difference. Whatever
makes it ain't too much either, all right, athlete or
non athlete? Athletic you gotta be athletic. Athletic is fun? Active,
active or athletic? Yeah, somebody? Because I want to do
athletic things in my life. I want to climb hills,
(54:28):
I want to climb mountains, I want to go on
adventures like and so if somebody isn't isn't able, or
doesn't want to come on that, that's difficult for me.
Right needs to communicate all day long or goes a
week without talking, you know, I'm gonna take I'm gonna
take the uh uh untrodden road and say communicate all
(54:53):
the time. I would do it. I would I echo
that I'm okay with talking my head off. Cooking or cleaning.
We have to choose one. I'm gonna have to say cooking.
If I might have to pick between between these two,
it's tough. If I have to cooking, cooking is cooking
(55:17):
is a thing for me? Definitely? I agree with some shot. Yeah.
I am happy to happy to be to clean everything.
If one of the like my love languages is just
give me food. Please, just give me healthy food, cook
for me, and I'm a happy man. And so I
will happily clean all the dishes everything, just like when
somebody cooks for me. That is a love language. Yeah,
(55:39):
a dog person or dog person all day. No casts
allowed in the house. There was hair with cats. Much
looking for a cat. A cat has too many personalities.
You have to earn their trust, you have to earn
their love. And if there's already one person, I'm trying
to earn all that from. I don't have time for two.
I need that's just happy to see me every time
(56:00):
I see him. I'm not trying to earn no cats,
trust this. Next one's coffee or Cosmo? I don't get it.
What's cosmo? It calls my apolitan. I'm guessing. Like drink,
you know, like whichever. Yeah, I don't. I don't drink.
(56:23):
I don't drink either. I don't drink coffee. So it's
not like I want to share a coffee and I
don't drink a Cosmo cosin palitin like for shot, I
don't drink. So um, Yeah, I don't know. Next question, Yeah,
I don't drink either. I don't know what that means.
Um horror movie or action comedy, action comedy all day.
It depends on the move. Man. I I love a
(56:45):
good horror movie, I really really really do. So what's
the best one you've seen lately? Man, I haven't seen
a good one lately. Like it's um, I mean the
last one I saw what was the summer um summer you?
I mean I had that seeing a solid horror mov
in a while. So if y'all got any please have
It's it's not so much a horror movie, but have
(57:06):
you seen the movie? It's probably this like scariest movie
I've ever seen because it's based on a true story.
Have you seen the movie The Fourth Kind? No? Oh,
look up the watch. Here you go. You got a
new movie to watch. Just have somebody in the house
the rest of the night, because you're gonna have nightmares
when you watch it. It's based up in Alaska, and
it's based on some alien encounters. And there's like different
(57:29):
types of alien encounters. In the fourth it's like seeing
an alien talking to an alien whatever. The Fourth Kind
is like abduction by an alien. And so that's what
this movie is about. And it's got real life video,
it's got real life audio included in the movie. It's
called The Fourth Kind. It's will Scare Them. Okay, So man,
(57:54):
I know you can find it somewhere. But it's called
The Fourth Kind. It's probably on Netflix or Amazon Prime
somewhere like that. I'm gonna check it out, all right.
We got one more strict vegan or dunkin Donuts regular vegan. Yeah,
if I had to pick between them two, I'm going
to Duncan Donuts Regular. That might lead to a bad
(58:17):
life trajectory. Yeah. Yeah, it's not a good it's not
a good thing. Rashad, my brother. I appreciate you taking
the time for us. Um, dude, where can where can
people find you? Where do you hang out on social media? Yeah?
So my name Rasha Janis. I'm at Dennis on every
social media platform, UM, Twitter and Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn everything
(58:39):
is just my name? Which one do you spend the
most time on? Uh? Instagram and LinkedIn? Right on? Love brother?
And then where can people find the the new Kids book?
What's it called? And where can people find it? Yeah?
So you can Actually, I would say for just go
to rashais dot com. That's where everything will fun know
you um to anything directly, but just go to shots
(59:00):
dot com. Everything I've ever done, um or for sell
or I'm about you will get to know me on
a different level. Um. And you can find ways to
support and also you can find ways that I can
help you. Guys. I'm always tell people I don't have
all the answers. There's nothing special about me. Is just
a position I'm in. It's very unique. It's my job
to be a magnifying glass when I when I find
(59:21):
opportunities to do so. So I'm always looking for more
people in the community to help me. Help you. Brother,
You are a special person. There is a tome special
about you. You're integral, you are resilient, you're intelligent, you
are driven, You're kind. I love your heart, brother, Thank
you so much for taking the time, buddy. Our audience
appreciate it. Appreciates it. I appreciate it. Um and uh,
(59:44):
next time I see it, we're gonna do with jo job.
Let's let's do it, man, Let's do it. Thanks for shot,
best brother. I can't wait to see against soon, Buddy.
Everybody else, thank you for listening till next week. Take
care of one another, love one another, and we'll see you.
Back here for another episode of How Man Think
This is How Men Think with Brooks and Gavin to
Grab and I heard radio podcasts. Welcome to another episode
of How Men Think. My name is Brooks like and
this is the show where we dive into the mind
of a man and really trying to uncover and discover
what's going on inside the brains of the men in
your life. And so today we're gonna have a really
(00:21):
interesting discussion. Is something I'm super passionate about and I'm
currently going through. We're gonna have a discussion about elevating
to success and in a pivot in life, changing a
transitionary trajectory of your life into something new, which a
lot of people are thinking about right now in the
time of COVID. Should I change my career paths? Should
I change my relationship? Should I make a big pivot
(00:41):
in life? And so I have a special guest coming
on to co host the next hour with me. I
love it, love it, love it when I bring on
a professional athlete because he's a brother, we can speak
the same language. He was a running back in the
NFL for the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Oakland Raiders, and the
New York Giants. Recently tired, he is an author on
(01:02):
a couple accounts will get into that. He's an entrepreneur,
he's a philanthropist, he's on TV. He's a man of
many hats. Welcome to the show, Mr Rasha Jennings. How
are you, buddy? I appreciate it, man, I'm you know,
I was listening to your role things off. Also, I
sound like a cool dude, right, Hey, I know, I know, dude,
I love I say this every episode of We Bring On,
(01:23):
we bring on some amazing guests that are multitalented, like
super multitalented and so, um, I love that you're a
professional athlete. But then I love what you've done since
that in your You've become an author, You've written your
own book, and now you've written a children's book. Um,
you're very involved philanthropically with service, with your time. You
are also, I forgot to mention this a mirror ball champion,
(01:48):
a mirrorble like you want dancing with the stars. So
I love that. Just the hats that you wear, brother,
it's inspiring to me. I appreciate that. Man. Yeah, that's uh,
the mirror ball one, all of the all of all
of the fortunate, humble accomplishment thus far, definitely. Uh, I've
been kind of all out of left field for me. Man,
(02:08):
I've just kind of had my head down with a
smile on my face, working for dreams and goals. And
it's cool to see it wasn't started passed so far.
So I love that. I want to really dive into
the mirror ball thing because I we want to get
back to that because Dancing the Stars is back on
and Emma is a great friend of mine. Um, But
I want to start right there with what you said.
You've always had your head down chasing your dreams and
(02:29):
your goals. And I love your story about even about
your your first football game. I think it was where
four other running backs were hurt and you've got a
chance to play and there happened to be a scout there.
Can you can you take us back to the start
of what what became an amazing football career. But how
you you when I look at you and read your
(02:50):
story with shot, Um, you have overcome obstacle your entire life.
You are an extraordinary, extraordinarily resilient person who is become
obstacle your entire life. Um, can you tell us that
story about the first football game and sort of a
lucky break for you. Yeah. Man, So that's funny. Every
time I tell the story, I chuckle throughout it all. Um,
(03:12):
because it's a true story. I got none fabricated about
it at all. But I was a fifth string running
back in high school football. Um, it's overweight, chubbing kid glasses.
Asma had a point six g p A at one
point in time. And Um, when I say I was
fifth string, I mean literally I was the fifth string
running back so much to the point I never played either. Um.
(03:34):
I used to come out, you know when we break
the white tape, go on the sideline and you know,
kick off. I would go on and I would take
the I would take my pads out of my thigh pads.
No thought pass, remove the thought pass, remove the knee pass,
removed the hit pass, remove the butt pass. And inside
of those little soccers, those little holes, stuff in like
eminem candy. You know, I would stuff in sprites and
(03:55):
all kinds of stuff. But I know I didn't play,
and I know I had front Road take us to
a great game. But the last game we're playing against,
last game of the season, we're playing against a high
school rival where the Jepson Force Cavaliers were playing against
the Brookville Bees and it is sold out because it's
one of high school rivals last game of the season,
and also Brookville they beat us, they go to the playoffs.
(04:18):
We're done. So it's like our super Bowl is a
big game. We want to knock them out. And um,
you know, there was a Tennessee Scott there to watch.
Our started running back. His name is Quincy Freeman, is
really good and uh a long story short. Started game off,
We get the ball, go out first play. I started
running back, gets hurt, and I got a buddy of mine.
His name is Brandon what we call him speedy, Right,
(04:41):
he didn't earn his name at all. Okay, he didn't play,
so I me and him. He's like the friend that
just is always overly excited for people, and so when
he saw the start of getting hurt, he was shaking.
He's like, hey, man, they're gonna play you today. They're
gonna play you. And I'm sitting over here. I'm like, man,
get off, me go back to eat my eminem's watching
(05:02):
the game. Second string goes out a couple of players,
he gets hurt, you know, so speak again like, yeah,
they might actually play you like making it off. You
know they ain't gonna play me go back to eat
my candy. Third string goes out, he gets hurt, right,
So then they put back in the starter because then
he taped up his ankle. He got ankle injury. He
go back out, he gets hurt again. So then now
(05:23):
they're down to the fourth running back, and you know,
four plays later he gets hurt, right, So you know
it's down to me. Right, Speedy's lost his mind. You know,
he's over here doing back flips and stuff and and
the and the coach Kansas sideline. He catches eye contact
with me, he looks away, he grabs a wide receiver
(05:44):
and puts him in at running back instead of me. Right, So,
like part of me is mad because I'm like, this
is my opportunity. The other part it's like I ain't
going out there getting hurt, Like I don't know why
everybody's getting hurt. Sure enough, he gets hurt, have no
choice but to put me in, right, and I go
out there, red hands from Eminem's and like I picked
up the wrong helmet and it was just all bad.
(06:07):
But first play for the yard touchdown? Come on, yeah, man,
he couldn't tell me nothing. I came back from the sideline,
I chest bumped speedy. You know, he falls and after afterwards, Um,
they put me back in on offense. Later I scored
another touchdown. Similar situation on defense. Guys are getting hurt
left and right. They put me in on defense. First play,
(06:29):
I sacked the quarterback he fund bolt. I picked it
up and scored another thirty yard touchdown. And I sealed
the game with a pick six for the win. And
so I'll scored four touchdowns, all right. I played fourteen
total plays. And that Tennessee scout that came to watch
the starting running back came up to me after the
(06:49):
game and he said, you know, ra Shoe, Um, I
came to watch the starting running back, but I couldn't
help but to notice you. I didn't even see your
name on the roster. And I was like, yeah, that
sound about right. And he said, well, how are your grades?
And I looked up at him and I said, we're sir.
I have a point six and he was like, how
(07:10):
the hell you got a point six? You gotta try
to do that, but that like he he looked at me,
he said, Rasha, you have potential. Get your grades right.
You might play at the collegiate level. For the first
time in my life, somebody saw something in me outside
of family. Yeah, they're gonna encourage me no matter what.
(07:30):
Long story short man, I transferred high schools, I repeated
my junior year. I took nine homeschool classes, nine summer
school classes. Um, and I rededicated myself. I never looked back.
I stopped making excuses, I stopped blaming people. I started
taking the ownership of responsibility over everything I did and
the rest of the history from there, dude, And then
(07:51):
you're drafted twenty three overall to the Jacksonville Jaguar's first
round pick, and then you play in the NFL for
how many seasons? Nine seasons? Eight eight seasons? Eight seasons?
Is amazing, dude. Do you ever just look at that
day and just there's something greater going on there? Like
that's if that isn't divine intervention, I have no idea
(08:13):
what it was like. Five guys get a hurt ahead
of you, guys on defense get hurt, and you happen
to just step into this role. Do you ever think
about what your life might have been like if it
didn't if that day didn't occur, and so much that
I wrote a book that became a New York Time
bestseller about it. Um, side of the if in life
(08:33):
and uh to play on words spell out the world
life if it's in the middle, And you know, I
kind of just talked about all my major moments. But yeah,
for myself, that never happened. Um, there's no telling. You know,
I know I would have. You know, from the opportunity
I did have in place, I would have graduated high school. Um,
(08:55):
I would have probably have ventured to be a marriage
counselor with us desired to doing a lot of years
in my life. I'm actually got my master's UM in
it now and getting licensed soon. Good for you, buddy. Yeah,
but I know I wouldn't be on this platform that
I have currently today. Not a chance you most likely
(09:15):
would you say you most likely wouldn't have made the
NFL if that day didn't happen. Not a chance, No way.
I don't think that would have happened. I don't think
I would have been for to suit an opportunity of
a fresh start. Um. You know, I wouldn't have had
a clean slate. I would have I would have been
and I would have had the willow and the demeanor
(09:39):
that I've built about my name in a school and
coaches and teachers that I couldn't start over with. So
I had a fresh start and I took advantage of it. Um.
I've always said that you can never underestimate the power
of one person believing in you. When I when I
think of you, you mentioned your parents and people before,
(09:59):
I think my mom, I think of my dad, my brother,
and my sister. Their belief in me just drove me
so far and was so important to me. But what
about the belief that this gentleman the scout had in you.
How did that single interaction with him just saying I
see you, you could play collegiate ball. Um? What did
that just do to you individually? As far as changing
(10:22):
your habits, your behaviors, your character. It made me look
at future. Um, you know, because my desires were all
to accomplish things and years to come. I didn't really
have a lot of desires or dream accomplished in the moment.
They were always in the future. So when I was encouraged,
(10:45):
I saw future differently. And um, you know that's why
I tried. I tried to inspire kids to see you
down the road. Um seeing today it's kind of tough
sometimes not just into death, any any any normal to
um So for me, man, when the scout saw and
he's coming from a validated position, it's not somebody and
(11:08):
that's working at sevent eleven, Sandy, you can do it
one day. It's somebody validated position that does it for
a living that saw something in me, and um, it
encouraged me and let me know that it's a possibility.
I love that. I also, I was having a discussion
with a friend the other day about positive affirmation and how,
especially in sports, we would get told so much about
(11:29):
what we did wrong. Right. You'd get told what you
did wrong, you messed up this play, blah blah blah.
In in life, in career, people get told what they
do wrong, but very rarely do people get told what
they do right. And that positive affirmation is so powerful
and people then because they received that positive feedback, it
encourages them to do that thing more. And so whether
(11:51):
you're a business owner, whether you're a coach, whether you're
a parent, any sort of positive affirmation that you could
give somebody, um in like just in your case, you're
right here, rashot is. It can be absolutely life changing.
You know, a short little conversation would be absolutely life changing.
So I love that you then took that grabbed the reins,
and it turned yourself into an eight year NFL pro
(12:15):
um What do you think was your biggest key to
success in that journey? Man? The biggest? Uh so many,
But I would say for my my eight year tender
in the league, um I truly learned. And I tell
people there's a difference between an NFL player in a
pro athlete. Um I learned how to become a pro. Ah.
(12:41):
Your NFL athlete is a guy that has bookoo amounts
of talent that where was above their um class, beyond
their time, and could get away with uh lack of
daisical because as it just talent, they're just gonna show up,
(13:02):
get an A A on the test, don't study. And but
once you get to the big leagues, everybody was the
man before they got there, right like in high school.
Everybody that's the man goes to college and then all
of those men are there and then who whoever is
the man of college goes to the NFL and all
(13:22):
of those like so it's no more hiding man, everybody
is really good. Yeah, we we know all those stories
to get over it. So it's um. Then if you
get hurt, having to take care of your body, you know,
understanding the playbook, handling media off the field, you know,
finances are there. It's like becoming an adult very quickly. Um.
(13:44):
Was something that I was fortunate enough to have family
around me, UM and some loving brothers that that kind
of put me in my place. Um in in college
so I could be prepared for it. But also I
learned how to stay um tunnel vision, you know. Um.
I my my Plan B was to accomplish Plan A, right,
(14:08):
like I'm super focused individual. I gotta plan and c
but I'm a very focused individual. UM, and I was
able to stay out of trouble like just the little things. Man.
I'm I've never drink alcohol day in my life. UM.
You know, I never smoked. You know, I didn't get
arrested and get caught up with some crazy stuff. Um.
You know I got my fair share of speeding tickets.
(14:29):
I'm no saint. I'm not you know what I mean
saying I'm perfect by any amazing, but I do recognize
when I go I have nine nephews that I have
these conversations with Uncle Shot, what did you do? Because often,
because they're younger than me, they see the red carpet
side of Uncle Shot. They didn't see what I had
(14:49):
to do to get to the red car Sharing that
with him is important. By the way, you're a you're
running back. You like to go fast man, So the
ticket again, but heavy foot, babe, I get it. I
love what you talked about there about learning to become
a pro, because I believe I think in the NFL,
(15:09):
the the uh average careers fan, I think is three
years somewhere around three years in the NHL, and you
played eight, so he played almost three times. The average
to the length of the average career the NHL is
five years, and I was thirteen years in the NHL.
Um And one of the things I learned too was
to become what we phrased was a consummate professional. And
(15:32):
when you see, you know, like when I say that word,
that term consummate professional, you probably think of guys that
you played with. You're like, yeah, this guy he ate right,
he slept right, he thought right, he connected with teammates,
He was an integral human being. He showed up. He
had passion, he had dedication, he had resilience injuries he
would rebound from. He was a team guy. You think
(15:53):
of the consummate professional, and that was one of the
things that I learned to the same thing in hockey.
There's guys that were just better, they were just graced
with amazing talent. But then when you get to that
level to repeat year after year after year, it takes
more than just amazing talent. And it's what you do.
It's your behaviors of the character of who you are
as a human being that keep you there. It's your resilience.
(16:16):
It's your willingness to study the playbook or to pre study,
to pre video the upcoming games, to video watch video
from previous games, to rest, to recovery. Like you said,
you didn't have bad habits of drinking or smoking. Diet
is on point. So many things keep you there to
performance um And then I want to touch on one
other thing that I think professional athletes are able to
(16:40):
do that maybe separates them from the masses a little bit.
You said it yourself, you were able to be tunnel
vision and singular focused. How does that how if you
can make that understandable and digestible for our How men
think community that a lot of people are pulled in
multidirections and not stay laser focused in one way to
(17:02):
elevate to extreme success. How were you able to do that? Well,
there's many ways to do it. I I mean, I
could tuck your head off about this particular topic, but
I mean I throw one out there that's uncommonly said.
Um there, anger, right, Anger is a strong, strong emotion
(17:32):
and it creates a lot of blood flow. M hm um.
Now what you do with that anger is up to you,
all right. But you know anger is a nice pre workout. Yeah, yeah,
I get you after that workout. That's so what I
(17:52):
was I've been able to do throughout my life is
channel anger. M you. Anger towards an individu truel, anger
towards something that happened you earlier in life. What's what's
the anger towards? Yeah? Any and everything. Man. I've taken
anger out on a relationship with my father before, uh,
with with relationships with teachers before. And you're talking you're
(18:14):
taking knees onto the field or into the weight room
and performance. Yeah, absolutely absolutely. I take some of the
anger I have in generated to stay up at night
and write you know what I mean, that's fuel for
me because it's I've recognized for me that is strong,
right and and but if you need to learn how
to channel it the right way. Right and so channeling
(18:36):
anger is a great motivation, um, because we all have
it and and a lot of times we try to
run from our angers, right, I don't want to deal
with it. But for me, I've recognized no, no, no, no,
I want that fuel that use it, right. I think
that's yeah, And I think that can that if you
can control that, because I think that can be very
(18:57):
destructive too if you if you just let that run
all over you. Um. But I also believe that if
you can control that and harness it, which you said
you were able to, You were able to have a
strong enough mind to control it, harness it and direct
it in a positive way that I think it can create.
Like you said, it's a great pre workout. It can
create enough emotion within you to drive you to suit
(19:20):
two levels and depths that maybe you weren't able to
achieve just on your own, when you actually use that
as a source of motivation, source it. I tried to
do it yesterday in my workout since I've been out
of since I've been retired from hockey. I don't have
a lot of anger. Somebody didn't just kick my ass
last night, you know, So I don't have a lot
of anger in my life. Life is pretty good. But
(19:41):
I tried to like go back is snap back into
that competitive, intense athlete mindset of trying to beat somebody,
and it just made me a little more gritty, little
more uh fired up in my workout, and I felt
good doing that again. Now I don't want to live there.
I don't want that to be my only source of
of motivation, but it is like it is a powerful
(20:05):
tool to access from time to time right now, absolutely absolutely,
And then I mean for me, like like there's levels
to it. Right Um, anger is one way which I
used the channel. Um some some some fuel, that's the gas.
But you know when we started talking about the oil
of the car, you know, now that's different. You know
what else did you use as motivation? What were other
(20:25):
ways that you stayed highly motivated during eight years in
the NFL. I'm my future man. I would always think
about my kids that I don't have today, and I
live with death on my mind a lot, not in
at and it's very happy to talk about death right
it's it's and not a not a morbid way. But
I really do keep it on mind a lot that
(20:47):
because I want to be a leader for into my
family from the grade, and the only way for me
to do that is to be cognitive and very present, intentional,
um with what I do while I'm on this side
of the earth, From generational wealth, from writing a will,
a proper way, uh, you know, all the things that
encompass of what it looks like to be a leader
(21:09):
from the grade. I think about that, and you know
that kind of keeps me humble and and and and
I think about again, I don't have children, and so
I think about the fact that I'm thirty five right now,
and I want to be able to tell my kids, Hey,
you know, I remember this moment when I was twenty five.
I was thinking about you when I did X one
(21:30):
and Z. I'm thirty five. I'm having this. I'm having
a zoom call right now and I actually brought you
guys up of reason why I'm still motivated today. I
want to show this like these are the things that
keeps me going of waking up, excited to grasp like
in the twelve odd whatever hours that I'm up. Um,
(21:50):
who can I motivate? How can I be motivated? You know?
How can I be a better person for my community? Um?
Where the quality levels is just like a It's like
a scale of vitamins, right, um? And every year I
get I get my blood drawn to see where my
levels are. And you know, for me waking up, I
(22:11):
checked my attitude levels as well. Yeah I love that. Yeah,
you know I can and enjoy I gotta put it
in there. So um, true balance in life, man, I
I consider myself somebody that always is trying to find
poise and balance. I mean, I mean, I mean that
to the fullest from if if you if a Democrat
(22:33):
argument with me, they're gonna think I'm a Republican. And
for republican argument women, they're gonna think I'm a democrat.
I'm a true independent. So like I'm so even killed balanced.
I'm a logical thinker and all aspects of my life,
I love it. I love it. Dude. How about this
This is a question for you because I'm thirty seven,
I'm two years older than you. We are both athletes
but retired athletes when we I don't have kids either,
(22:57):
when we have kids, they won't know us as a
professional athlete, right like they won't be in the in
the football stadium with your at practice with you. You
played with guys that had their kids in the locker
room and stuff, and that's so cool. But our kids,
when we have kids, hopefully we both do, won't know
us as that. That will be memories that we share
(23:19):
with them and show them, but they won't know us
as that. They're gonna know you as an author or
as a an actor or a TV host, whatever you're
currently doing. Does that Do you ever think about that
that my kids aren't gonna be able to watch me play.
They aren't gonna be I'm not gonna be able to
take him to the stadium. Yeah, no, I've thought about
that before into touch on what you have mentioned about
(23:41):
watching guys come in with their sons or their daughters.
And you know, I even think about, man, if I
was a kid trying to soap all listening, well, what
how are you thinking? You know, how much of it
or how big of life would my dad be if
he if my dad was currently playing in the NFL?
Thing um to a kid's mind. Good gracious. So, but
(24:03):
now I think about that, about how how cool it
is though that I will have to hang on to
the moments of videotapes and the stories. Um, and I'm
excited that they won't have to grow up in the
um height of the nfl US. I think that could
(24:25):
be difficult. I watched my nephews go up in it
when I was in my prime, and they're in high school,
and even how much attention they would receive just because
of what their uncle was doing. Yeah, Um, it's cool,
but you don't receive a lot of attention because Hey,
I saw your uncle's new book out. Yeah, you know
what I mean. I'm I'm I'm excited to instantly come
(24:50):
off as a door to my car. So cool man,
that's what I want to be to him. Um, I
think I think it's gonna be cool. One thing about
that is your kids are going to know you as
so you're you're gonna have some other quote unquote profession
when you have kids, and you're going to be in
a shining example for them of somebody who can live
(25:11):
multiple lives, that you are multitalented, that you elevated to
the best of the best in football, and now you
transitions and now you've elevated in this other arena on life,
and then maybe there's another one you elevate to another
arena in life. I think that's wonderful. I think that
that's just so inspiring to a kid to see that
that dad can be successful in whatever he does. So
(25:31):
it's not just about what he's doing, it's about the
characteristics of dad. So I think that's so cool. Let's
talk about the artists, the or the author's side of you. Um,
let's talk about the two books you've written, because I
love how you've segued from athletes into an author. Can
you tell us about the two books you've written? Yeah, sure,
so again tapping back into the first book, UM, the
(25:53):
If and Life, which became a New York Time bestseller.
I had no idea that that was in the mix. Um.
I don't even know how they evaluate which one has
become the New York Times bestseller, but when they I
got that call, I was floored. Um, But I wrote,
thanks man. I appreciate that so much. And when I
have people come up to me, you know, it's there's
(26:15):
still people come up to me periodically either because of football,
then print I left there, or because of dancing with
the stars. People want to get to that in a second. Yeah,
or or or or you know, writing books, or I
saw you doing catfish, or you know I've seen you
on a good Morning America. Whatever. Anybody has seen me.
You know, they come up to say something or ask
(26:37):
for an autograph. But I tell you, it's nothing more
rewarding between if I had to pick which one touches
me more to sign or have a kid come up
to me and say, hey, can autograph my jersey? Autographed
this book? The book wins everything every time because the book, well,
(26:58):
football is a is a piece of me. Like the
book I really gave a lot of me. Wow, And
that's my life versus a chapter. You know, football is
just the chapter of my life, and my book encompasses
(27:20):
all of me. So like watching a kid get excited
and say he's motivated to read my book or has
read it and has touched them, and the emails I
get from parents, um, it makes me stay up at
night and continue to think, how can I connect to
this world more by by print? Dude? Every time I
(27:40):
talked to you, I get so inspired by you because
the last time we saw each other was at Lewis
Houses event um, and we chatted afterwards, and I asked
you about your transition from the NFL to afterlife, and
you gave me a really cool storage. Remember what you
said that night, no, which I can't recall it right now.
You said, Uh, you said you looked at your NFL
(28:01):
career like you were a young kid who was at
the bar and you knew the bouncer was going to
throw you out in just a matter of attack. So
so you're like, I enjoyed every second. I knew it
wasn't gonna last forever, and I knew at some point
I'd get kicked out of this place, but I was
gonna love it until I did. Um. And that kind
of care freeness about about your career is something that
(28:23):
I've always I remember that story and I've always tried
to bring with me and tried to apply to my
life because letting go of my career has had a
little more constraint on me. It's been harder for me
to let go of it. And you, you're an inspiration
for me for seamlessly transitioning into life after sport and
into other other endeavors, and so hearing that that football
(28:46):
is just a part of you, but the book and
what you're doing is like your whole life is just
inspiring for me to hear. Can you talk a little
bit about the children's book? Yes, the children's book again,
because I grew up with a red acomprehensive deficit. I
struggled academically and I didn't enjoy reading. And one of
the reasons why I didn't enjoy reading is because of struggle, right,
(29:11):
which actually it's it, this is uh, this is very well.
I come back to it because it is a very
deep thought that I like had a whole revelation about
like four years ago. That's kind of cool. I think
that inspire some people that may struggle academically or just
even in general life. But the reason why I want
(29:31):
to write kids books is because a lot of young
males don't enjoy reading. You know, you'd rather play a
video game, go outside, run around. But statistically speaking, the
percentage of kids that have the ability to read above
a third grade level um are less likely to become incarcerated. Rely, Yes,
(29:55):
So I wanted to catch kids at a young level
and give them material that they can actually get lost
in and so for myself as a writer, you know,
I understand this idea of things becoming very addictive, and
they have an addiction inside of food. Right, chips are
one of the prime ways that science have proven addiction
(30:16):
between the amount of carbohydrates, fat, and sodium. The combination
makes things addictive. Why you can't have one ship truly? Um,
there's neurological. I want to have it, and so I've
tried my hardest two for these kids to write in
such a way that's addictive to what is going to
(30:37):
happen next. I have to know before I go to sleep. Like,
that's the type of energy that's in these books. Because
if you're gonna be addicted, be addicted something that's good.
I love that, man. I love the intention and the
encoded energy you're putting into this. Like it's not just
I want to write a children's book for kids to read.
It's of kids who have a third grade reading level,
(30:58):
are higher, are less likely to be incarcerated. Like there's
such an encoded energy and a purpose into this. Um,
you're a deep dude, man. Every time I talk to you,
I discovered more and more. You're really thoughtful guy. No, man,
and so what one of the things talking about being thoughtful,
you might appreciate this or you know, just take a
(31:19):
seat on it for a second, because I wanted to.
I struggled reading right, And I realized I struggled reading
because I didn't respect my voice. When I read at
my best, it was because I was pretending to sound
like a teacher. I was pretending to sound like somebody
(31:41):
I respected. You know, we can read a book and
narrating somebody else's voice. M whenever I pretend to be
another person reading, I would read, well, why because I'm
hearing them because I respected them. I never really respected
my own voice, so I ran from it when I
heard it, and I struggled listening and listening to it.
(32:03):
And the same thing when I was younger with my opinions. Right,
if I hear somebody else's opinion that I respect, I
take it and run. But if I hear my own voice,
hear my own opinion about myself, I don't really know
if I can do it. I don't know if I
could because I really struggle respecting my own voice. So
over time. You know, when some people say I have
(32:24):
a voice, it totally resonates with me differently because the
more I begin to respect the sound that I have,
I totally became a better reader. Dude, we should do
a whole another episode on that about trusting yourself because
so many of us trust other people almost implicitly. You know,
we have good friends, we have people in our lives,
(32:45):
in our circles that we look up to and almost
hang on their words and really trust them, but have
very little trust in ourselves. It's a very common thing
going on in the world. Um, But that would be
a whole another I think podcast, but an interesting topic
to uncover. I want to now talk about Dancing with
(33:08):
the Stars. You are You are a Mirror Ball champion
dancing with the Stars bad. I'm so I'm so jealous
of you, um because Emma, Emma is a great friend
and a wonderful human being. Uh and right and Sasha too,
I love them both. Um. Can you tell me about
(33:29):
why you wanted to go on Dancing with the Stars.
So it's such a highlight in my life, man, like
wouldn't wouldn't a whirl? You smile about it every time
I ask you about it. You instantly smile, like almost
a bigger smile than asking you about the NFL, right
it is? It really is. I have no idea. The
NFL at least had a desire and I worked really
(33:49):
hard at like it was a whole plan of hope.
And this came out of clear blue sky Dancing with
the stars. What So what I do every offseason, I
will say that I'm an auder to deck. I'm addicted
to learning. I just love learning new things, and so
every off season I will pick up a new art
or craft. Um. The first off season, I picked up
the guitar, learn how to play it until the point
(34:12):
I could get in the studio John Mayer's the reason
why I picked up a guitar. Um. Then the next
off season, I learned a bunch of magic tricks right
so of them I love it. It's never a dull
party with me and uh so, Then the next off
season I picked up poetry, archery, Olympic style fencing. Every
(34:33):
single off season I picked up something new. And this
last offseason I was at one of my buddy Shouldn't dig.
They're having a whole little party and hanging out, barbecueing,
and I was in the house and there was this
commercial that came on and some people was moving across
the screen really good, and they were dancing. I was like, Yo,
that is dope. What in the world are they doing.
(34:54):
One of my buddies she's actually a dancer, and she
knew what they were doing, so she said, oh, that's
a chat chat. I said. She said, that's ballroom dancing.
So what the heck is ballroom dance? And she said
you should really check it out. I said, kind that
teached me to do that? They said, yeah, sure, I said,
(35:14):
you know what, That's what I'm gonna learn this offseason.
I'm gonna go figure out some ballroom dancing. Right. So
I'm in for a lot of Del Florida train every
day from eight am to buy like one pm, and
then I have the rest of the evening all and
uh So, one day, all sweating, yoked up, just finished
working out, when I google the local ballroom studio, the
(35:34):
nearest ballroom studios where I was staying, and I go in,
open the door, ding, I got a tank top on,
like just girly dude coming in and everybody's all daintily
and yeah, ballroom And I'm like, what the heck is this?
And the lady this told you how much I knew nothing.
The ladyships. He can we help you? And I said,
(35:56):
I said, yeah, I'm looking for the chat like it's
a person. And she you know, yes, we can teach
you how to jot you. Oh yeah, yeah, that's that's
what I was looking looking for. And she she laughed,
and she pulled me to the desk and she said,
with you like some privates or are you okay with
(36:16):
open floors? Had definitely gotta be private. I don't want
anybody see anything. She said, well, we don't have any
availability until two weeks from today. I said, sure, no problem,
I'll be back in two weeks. A week from that day,
Danced with the Stars called come on. Never got a
chance to go to that ballroom studio. And what makes
this funny? I never got a chance to go to
(36:36):
the ballroom studio. The first dance on Dance with the
Stars I learned wasn't When I won that lady called
me and said that I was supposed to learn from them.
He said, what just had learned? And she's looking on
TV seeing me win the shows. So it was it
(36:58):
was a time, but no man, I enjoyed it. Um.
I learned so much about myself. Um, I'm a true
hopeful romantic, so I enjoy the connectivity that I understand
the dance provides, you know. And also I cannot wait
to release a book that I have about how much
relationships in ballroom dance merge um man. It was just
(37:21):
such a highlight. I can't And and then when we
went on tour and if you would have told me
at the age of fifteen, one day you're gonna be
selling out arenas for dancing, you know, I felt it's
so cool. But you know what, I I also like,
really admi owned respective vote for that is one, you
had the courage to go to a totally different arena. One.
I love the fact that you learn a new skill
(37:42):
every offseason. That's amazing. That's just like I hope people
just absorbed that like a sponge because that's incredible too.
You had the courage to go into a totally different
arena and try something you've never done before. But then
I also remember when you won. I think they announced
that you and Emma headlogged I think three hundred and
twenty four hours of practice during that season. It was
(38:03):
it was some astronomical number that was almost twice as
much as any other competitor there um, which just goes
to show that you'll be successful in whatever you do
because there's underlying characteristics present within you as a human
being that will come out and can come out in
any different avenue of life or any different career that
you pursue. So myself watching that witnessing that is super
(38:26):
inspiring and I would go on that show in a
heartbeat because I think it's a beautiful art and I
would so love to learn to dance. Dude, if if
they has definitely doing it, it's it's life changing. Man.
I had a great experience. Emma helped that. Uh that
that the whole notion of you know, one wanting to
(38:46):
learn how to dance, and you know you create, you create,
So I created from friendships from the show, and you know,
as a whole new audience, I got to let people
know who I am as a person, not just the
jersey I where, but with the neatest bar And you
probably understand this man like coming from sports and you know,
playing like true American gladiator sports man amongst hitting each
(39:09):
other and then parlaying it into one of the most
gentle arts ballroom dance like Polar opposes you built the
run through human beings, and I have to figure out
where to place this cost and stand on. Yeah, it's crazy.
(39:29):
It's being your head back and just underneath all that
kind of stuff. Yeah. But what's super cool about it too,
is like you have a rhythm. You have a rhythm
and athletic rhythm of running, of agility, of jumping, of
of squatting, of weightlifting. That's a whole different rhythm. But
rhythm and dance. Moving your body is in dance is
(39:50):
a completely different language, just because like we're athletes, we
know how to move our bodies through space. But the
thing I love about it is like that captivates M
is then interpreting the music and having that rhythm come
through your body. And when I dance, I just feel
so awkward. I'm like, God, why do I feel so
out of rhythm? I'm an athlete, I moved my body.
How my body feels like it's moving really weird. That's hilarious, man.
(40:16):
I'm sure you would kill it though, I know you
would if I was partnered with M. I yeah, because Emma,
I think can I think am I can make magic
out of anybody. She made me a little better than
I am dude, I love it. It was so fun
to watch you because you crushed that season. Um, we're
gonna get We're gonna take a quick break, my man,
and then we're gonna come back with some listener questions
for professional athletes. So some of these were shot. I'm
(40:38):
sure you've been asked. Other ones are community submit some
interesting questions. So other ones I don't know if you've
ever been asked these questions. We'll be right back more
after the break back from break, we have our outstanding engineer,
slash producer, slash man of all trades and that's my
(41:00):
stash in the business. Mr Easton Allen with us, and
he's gonna fire some some of the how men think
listener questions rapid fire two Rashad and I uh. We
are two professional athletes and we're gonna answer your questions
as best we can. Let's see where we get. Yeah,
what do we got? Eastern? Thank you for that introduction, Bricks.
I appreciated our first question, where can you meet a
(41:22):
professional athlete and have a chance but not be mistaken
for a groupie chance? Chance? Well, hey, look I'm gonna
say like like I think you can meet a professional
athlete anywhere. Um nowadays, UM, I would say for myself
where you would find me at? You will find me
at a lot of foundational events. Um, You'll you'll find
(41:46):
me from time to time just at a great sushi
restaurant you know. Uh that those type of places you're
gonna find me. Yeah, you will find me too often
in the club. And if you find me in the club,
I'm in the VFP section anyway, so I gotta know
some my those money. But into the approach simple, You'll
be surprised. A lot of a professional athlete is just
(42:08):
an athlete, and the athletes just a human. Most people
like simplicity. Just come up, have a genuine conversation, uh
and see where you see where it goes from there,
you probably have a chance more thing, you know, ask
him to choteya. I'm whearing the chart. Um. I love
what you said there, dude. Um, yeah, because the foundational
(42:31):
one for sure, that's a great place to meet somebody.
And then sushi. I would I would? I echo with
that as well. So I'm gonna just accept for Shawn's
answers as mine. I would I would, I would. I
know she can't answer, but I would like her to
answer this, Where does a professional athlete go to find
a genuine girl? Here we go? Oh another you gotta
(42:52):
you gotta go to like yoga class or like a
coffee shop. I found out that the kils section and
hope foods or where the best women are. M M,
there you go. Okay, alright, kale section, that's where we
gotta hang. Uh. Next question, is it a no go
if he or she has dated or slept with someone
else on the team. Yeah, that's a that's a that's
(43:14):
almost a no fly zone. That's a tough one. Yeah. Me, personally,
I lose all interests if if a dude has talked
to a girl in any way shape form Capa's that's
just me though. I don't know what it is about it,
So for me, it's it's all limits. I have a team.
I played with one guy who married a girl that
used to date one of our teammates. So it does happen. Yeah,
(43:39):
for sure, they have and they have kids. Now. Yeah,
it's a personal deal. If if if you have any
interest in me, yeah, you better you can't have talk
to somebody I know. Alright. Next one, between training and
practice and everything like that, how much time can you
actually devote to a relation ship? Um. My answer of
(44:05):
that when when I was like between the age of
twenty and thirty, I was consumed as a professional athlete,
Like every every ounce of energy I had, every decision
I made was toward my sport. I was, and I
did that to myself. I fully where that I was consumed.
It was each sleep, rest, train, rinse, wash, repeat. It
was if like my rest was important, so I wasn't
going out on date nights. My diet was important, so
(44:27):
I wasn't just eating everything and what it was just
I was dialed in as an athlete. I fully admit
I did not have a lot of time to date
when I was twenty to thirty, and after that I
wanted more fulfillment in my life and started getting a
little more balanced in my personal life. Yeah, and that second,
that is it can be. It depends on the person, right,
Like you can't have box and went after. I know
(44:48):
some people that don't eat right and don't sleep right
and that you know, and still don't have time for
a relationship. So but I would say for myself, I
was I was. I was tonal vision. Um, you know,
I was married to my dream and uh before before anybody,
and so I gave a lot of effort to it.
It is it is time assuming if you you know,
(45:09):
if you're eating right, you know now you can't have
the QC date night eating your brown Sharon and Shandon
dessert as much because you focus and now you know
that could make her feel like she's not important. So
if it's not the right I wouldn't say right person. Uh,
if it's not the right timing. If if two people
really just don't understand where each other are at in
life and know their limits, it could be tough. I
(45:31):
don't want to say that's every professional athlete, though, I
don't want to like scare people off. That's just how
I approached it, and maybe that's how we shot approach it.
But I played with many, many, many guys that were married,
a lot of guys that were married young and and
their partners were a huge part of their lives and
a huge part of their careers as well. That was
just my path. Mhm. Absolutely, would either of you consider
(45:51):
dating someone who isn't famous? Absolutely? Yeah, I probably uh
would prefer to be honest with you, um to to
be with somebody that's not famous, Um, you know, but
that's me I think, And there's no right and right. Hey,
you fall in love with what you fall in love with.
(46:12):
I'm not saying that I would never, but instantly, if
somebody put on paper, would you want to dad a
celebrity or non celebrity, I would say non celebrity. And
uh here here's another like lifestyle one. What about here?
Is it true that athletes only date girls that are
super fit? No? I say no, My my ex wasn't.
(46:37):
So no, I'm not. I think, uh, now you're I
think you're Most humans are attracted to people that are fit.
Don't get me wrong, like hello, you know what I mean.
But no, so as far as the as far as
a commitment to someone, um, you know you want somebody
that is I think more so active than this figurative
(47:01):
model sort of speak. I think that is very important
to be with somebody that is an active individual. I
would echo that. Um, the question was super fit. So
to be real picky, here the question said super fit.
I don't think every athlete dates somebody who is super fit,
but um, to be honest, both at moost athletes will
(47:24):
date somebody who is is Like Rishad said active looks
after themselves, cares for themselves. Well, is a healthy, active,
fit person. Is it more attractive if the girl is
interested in sports? I don't think so. Yeah. I would
(47:46):
say what's attractive is the willingness, right, So, like I
actually what I actually enjoy somebody that doesn't understand the
game of football. It's like, it's hilarious to watch them
trying to figure it out. Yeah, so it it's the
willingness to sit there and wait, he did what I
thought that was? I thought that was a foul, Like,
(48:08):
that's hilarious, right to try to figure watch her figure
it out in the same thing for me to her,
Like I don't know anything about probably some of the
stuff she may bring to the table, but she probably
would love the fact that I'm willing to figure out
what narrow polish is the best. So it's the willingness
that is what it's attractive. I ain't really worried if
(48:28):
you know everybody's stats their names more than me, that
ain't attractive. Uh. Yeah, I actually liked because I was
so focused on my career, I actually liked and preferred
somebody that didn't have any idea about the sport because
I could get away from the sport. Whereas I have
teammates who had wives that were like, what did the
coach say in the locker room after the game? What
(48:49):
it like? And I was like, Wow, how could you
be that invested everywhere? Like I needed to get away
from it. I needed to be all in when I
was there, and then in a relationship get away from it.
And I actually preferred some that didn't have a real
in depth knowledge or background on the sport. All right,
all right, this is an interesting one. Are As an athlete,
(49:11):
are you easily tempted to be unfaithful? I would say
that is just you can take out the word athlete
and just say as a human. You know, um, I
see more. I've seen more doctors. I've seen more doctors
(49:36):
in places they shouldn't be at then athletes. All right,
so it's not just an athlete thing, it's it's truly
a human thing in it. Are you tempted? Yes? Who?
Everybody is always tempted. The tempt is revelatant, and it's
about are you going to respond, you know, to to
these tempts. But to answer the question, yeah, everybody's tempted,
(49:59):
you know, Yeah, I would agree with that I think,
um more is kind of more temptation kind of comes
your way. You're as an athlete, you're a young guy,
you are very successful, very driven. Um you probably have
a few bucks in your wallet. Um, you have some
sort of fame or notoriety, some sort of communal importance
(50:20):
quote unquote. Um. So that that there's just more. Probably
you'll probably get approached more than maybe just the other
guy from town. Um. So then, but it's just like
Rashad said, then it's you know, how do you handle it?
Do you just you know, um say hey, it's great,
nice to me. Do you have a nice day and
be cordial and polite with a human being? Because you
can still do that, that's completely fine. Or do you
(50:43):
do you cross boundaries? It's just who you are as
a human being. But I think to answer the question, yes,
you probably are more tempted just because of what comes
with being an athlete. Rashot, are you open to dating
right now? Dating? I don't know how about this? Who
(51:03):
would be your dream date? Uh, that's a good one,
that's a really good one. I mean that wouldn't be,
this would not be. This isn't answering the question, But
this was not this is not my dream day. But
like just to give some kind of like ideas of
you know myself, I grew up Jennifer Lopez is my
(51:24):
childhood crush, you know what I mean? Um, but like
my ideal date of a person. So I enjoy going
out on days. This is a very true thing about me.
When I was in uh, when I was in New York,
when I would go out on different dates all the time,
Like it was a point where I think I went
out on a different date, like every four or five days,
somebody different, and and but this is this is why, um,
(51:49):
how I look at dating, right you they didn't get
to know somebody cool, nothing wrong with I think you
get to know somebody all the time. We get annoy
each other right now, you just don't quote it anything
of the setting. But I would try to find somebody
that had some type of skill or profession that they
did and we would go out on the date. Right
(52:11):
Like to give no names to anybody, but I would
take somebody that was a professional golf a golfer out.
I don't know nothing about golf. You spent thirty years
to professional to make this to profession, so you know,
a lot about golf. I know a lot about football.
Let's exchange lives of information. I'll take it. Who's a gardener? Man?
We had one of the greatest dates. We went out
and and and uh and uh in a park and
(52:34):
she was explaining every plant and how it was made
and what is it doing an atmosphere. And I'm like,
this is amazing. You're giving me life. I never would
let me explain some of my life. Like, so I
date all the time. There's, um, what you just touched
on your There's a couple of things I remember hearing
things that are afrodisiacs. Natural afrodisiacs. Two people, uh, and
(53:00):
who of the things? Are watching somebody perform their mastery,
whatever it is that they do. You're a football watching
you perform at the highest level as a football player
is something that is an aphrodisiact to person, to somebody, Um,
it could be the same as this lady who's a
gardener watching her guard do her thing something that that
is her mastery, her art form. Watching somebody perform their
(53:22):
art form is an aphrodisiac And the other one is
watching somebody perform a charitable act that is very much
an aphrodisiact to somebody as well. So, um, anyway, I
just wanted to share that with the community. There you go,
Eastern rapid fire questions. Let's go all right? These are
these are when it comes to women, it's kind of
(53:43):
like an either or thing. So this first thing that
comes to mind sneakers or stilettos. Stilettos are so sexy.
Makeup or no makeup? I don't like how to makeup?
Can I go very little makeup? If I had to choose,
I go no makeup or very little makeup, not makeup. Yeah,
(54:07):
either way, they only don't make me no difference. Whatever
makes it ain't too much either, all right, athlete or
non athlete? Athletic you gotta be athletic. Athletic is fun? Active,
active or athletic? Yeah, somebody? Because I want to do
athletic things in my life. I want to climb hills,
(54:28):
I want to climb mountains, I want to go on
adventures like and so if somebody isn't isn't able, or
doesn't want to come on that, that's difficult for me.
Right needs to communicate all day long or goes a
week without talking, you know, I'm gonna take I'm gonna
take the uh uh untrodden road and say communicate all
(54:53):
the time. I would do it. I would I echo
that I'm okay with talking my head off. Cooking or cleaning.
We have to choose one. I'm gonna have to say cooking.
If I might have to pick between between these two,
it's tough. If I have to cooking, cooking is cooking
(55:17):
is a thing for me? Definitely? I agree with some shot. Yeah.
I am happy to happy to be to clean everything.
If one of the like my love languages is just
give me food. Please, just give me healthy food, cook
for me, and I'm a happy man. And so I
will happily clean all the dishes everything, just like when
somebody cooks for me. That is a love language. Yeah,
(55:39):
a dog person or dog person all day. No casts
allowed in the house. There was hair with cats. Much
looking for a cat. A cat has too many personalities.
You have to earn their trust, you have to earn
their love. And if there's already one person, I'm trying
to earn all that from. I don't have time for two.
I need that's just happy to see me every time
(56:00):
I see him. I'm not trying to earn no cats,
trust this. Next one's coffee or Cosmo? I don't get it.
What's cosmo? It calls my apolitan. I'm guessing. Like drink,
you know, like whichever. Yeah, I don't. I don't drink.
(56:23):
I don't drink either. I don't drink coffee. So it's
not like I want to share a coffee and I
don't drink a Cosmo cosin palitin like for shot, I
don't drink. So um, Yeah, I don't know. Next question, Yeah,
I don't drink either. I don't know what that means.
Um horror movie or action comedy, action comedy all day.
It depends on the move. Man. I I love a
(56:45):
good horror movie, I really really really do. So what's
the best one you've seen lately? Man, I haven't seen
a good one lately. Like it's um, I mean the
last one I saw what was the summer um summer you?
I mean I had that seeing a solid horror mov
in a while. So if y'all got any please have
It's it's not so much a horror movie, but have
(57:06):
you seen the movie? It's probably this like scariest movie
I've ever seen because it's based on a true story.
Have you seen the movie The Fourth Kind? No? Oh,
look up the watch. Here you go. You got a
new movie to watch. Just have somebody in the house
the rest of the night, because you're gonna have nightmares
when you watch it. It's based up in Alaska, and
it's based on some alien encounters. And there's like different
(57:29):
types of alien encounters. In the fourth it's like seeing
an alien talking to an alien whatever. The Fourth Kind
is like abduction by an alien. And so that's what
this movie is about. And it's got real life video,
it's got real life audio included in the movie. It's
called The Fourth Kind. It's will Scare Them. Okay, So man,
(57:54):
I know you can find it somewhere. But it's called
The Fourth Kind. It's probably on Netflix or Amazon Prime
somewhere like that. I'm gonna check it out, all right.
We got one more strict vegan or dunkin Donuts regular vegan. Yeah,
if I had to pick between them two, I'm going
to Duncan Donuts Regular. That might lead to a bad
(58:17):
life trajectory. Yeah. Yeah, it's not a good it's not
a good thing. Rashad, my brother. I appreciate you taking
the time for us. Um, dude, where can where can
people find you? Where do you hang out on social media? Yeah?
So my name Rasha Janis. I'm at Dennis on every
social media platform, UM, Twitter and Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn everything
(58:39):
is just my name? Which one do you spend the
most time on? Uh? Instagram and LinkedIn? Right on? Love brother?
And then where can people find the the new Kids book?
What's it called? And where can people find it? Yeah?
So you can Actually, I would say for just go
to rashais dot com. That's where everything will fun know
you um to anything directly, but just go to shots
(59:00):
dot com. Everything I've ever done, um or for sell
or I'm about you will get to know me on
a different level. Um. And you can find ways to
support and also you can find ways that I can
help you. Guys. I'm always tell people I don't have
all the answers. There's nothing special about me. Is just
a position I'm in. It's very unique. It's my job
to be a magnifying glass when I when I find
(59:21):
opportunities to do so. So I'm always looking for more
people in the community to help me. Help you. Brother,
You are a special person. There is a tome special
about you. You're integral, you are resilient, you're intelligent, you
are driven, You're kind. I love your heart, brother, Thank
you so much for taking the time, buddy. Our audience
appreciate it. Appreciates it. I appreciate it. Um and uh,
(59:44):
next time I see it, we're gonna do with jo job.
Let's let's do it, man, Let's do it. Thanks for shot,
best brother. I can't wait to see against soon, Buddy.
Everybody else, thank you for listening till next week. Take
care of one another, love one another, and we'll see you.
Back here for another episode of How Man Think
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