Family is family, and LaVar Arrington and Shawne Merriman are just that. These two guys go way back and give you a small taste of how a mentorship turned into friendship. Is LaVar still mentoring to this day? What about coaching? Arrington talks about the guys that helped him to be the pro on and off the field. A special shout out to Marco Coleman. With Simone Biles in the news, the guys also discuss mental health versus mental strength. And, who ended up wrecking LaVar's Ferrari 360 Modena?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Are you ready for this? Sean Merriman A one a
hand effect. Boom boom, boom, out go the lights. This
is Lights Out with Sean Merriman. What's up? Guys? Were
back again with another lights out podcast for me Sean Merriman,
And today we got UM. Somebody who I call family, right. UM.
I've had a bunch of guys, even really close friends,
(00:24):
people I've played against, people I played with UM, or
some people to just watch me play over the years.
But this one, I'm happy to you know, call this
guy's family. UM. Someone who mentored me as a kid
when I was in high school. UM, LaVar Arrington from
the former Washington football team when he got drafted by
by the team, and I was at Frederick Ducklan's High
(00:47):
school and up a Marlborough, Maryland. I convinced LaVar's younger
brother to come and play high school basketball with me.
And that's how LaVar and I relationship started. Uh. With
somebody who I've always looked up to it and and
look that as a mentor and one of the reasons
why I started off early. I give him a lot
of credit because I got a chance to be around
another pro and seen the lifestyle, found out how to
(01:09):
work and replay books and watch film and just how
to go about my everyday life. Uh this is at
at the age of sixteen seventeen, So LaVar engine, what
what's what's going on? Mann? Bro? Are you are you coolding?
Are you coaching right now? Too? Right? All right? So
I'm taking the year off because I have kids that
(01:31):
where I would coach, they went I coached them last year,
so they can't follow me. So I'm gonna take I'm
taking the year off, which it's mad Mass freshman year,
so I'm just watching him and and watching and the guys,
and then when we get back to the the other
kids their senior year, I'm gonna come back on the sideline. So, so,
(01:52):
how how has that been? Because you you've always you've
always kind of, you know, took guys in your wing,
me being one of them, you know, as a as
a kid and stuff like that. Man, But you really
just kind of got into the coaching aspect as far
as I knew you when I was growing up, and
you kind of took me under your wing, it was
more of like a mentorship. When when did that? When
did the whole culture thing come around? Man I had
(02:15):
I had mentor for so long it had morphed than
to training. So now I was using training to to
like be the catalyst of me being able to mentor guys.
And I was pretty good at it. So once I
realized that I was pretty good at teaching, it was
like kind of the next step for me to prove
(02:35):
to myself for add to my resume, was how good
would I be able to take um the skills that
I use and and training to coaching because training is
a lot different than coaching as well, you know. And
so I I actually got pulled into coaching by Antonio
Pierce to Long Beach Polly, which was really cool because
(02:56):
you go into a scenario where it's such a rich
culture in tradition to to that program, and I coach linebackers.
I assisted Claiborne on on as as a defense coordinator
with with the defense schemes. But you know, when I
was sitting in the meetings and and like just kind
of getting into it as like man, like I started
(03:18):
I started saying to myself, It's like I could call
this offense or set this offensive situation up better, Like
they think that if you played one side of the
ball then you don't know the other side right, and
and and so it's kind of funny because being good
at playing defense was because I was really good at
playing offense. And I just applied what I did on
(03:38):
defense to the understanding of how I played, you know,
and thought on offense, you know what I mean. So
it kind of went from schematically, it's like, man, I'm
limiting myself. I would like to go build a program.
So I was like, I'm gonna fight to try to
get a job, and and and the school I ended
up going to, I got a head coaching job and
there's a small private school and past dina Um got
(04:02):
my opportunity. And when I got my opportunity, we we
won six games my first year and went to the playoffs.
We hosted a home playoff game, so we were good
enough to host a home game. We lost, we got
our heads beat in um, but it was a successful season.
And then we came back my second year and we
(04:24):
we had the same like the same exact season almost
as six seven when when win season and we made
it to the playoffs again. Literally, Sean, I was playing
with two three lineman and like nineteen kids, how small
our team was it was like not even a lot
of kids. So I was like making chicken soup out
(04:45):
of chicken, you know what. And and so this last
year I had a couple of really really good, good
young men that were aging and we had to abbreviate
it year and we went undefeated at one h the
league championships. So I've since set step down because the
numbers in the participation weren't good enough, the support from
the school wasn't good enough, um to build the program. So,
(05:08):
you know, my son is going into high school and
the kids that had came and followed me to Marion
after to come there, they needed to go to a
better a better situation. So that's where we're at currently.
But coaching, it just it just kind of happened. Who
So I never asked you this, but because you've been
mentoring so many of these kids, and so many of
(05:29):
a lot of these kids actually came around and became
something like big you know has produced who was some
of the guys because you played with some of the
people who I watched growing up, like you get you
played with Bruce Smith on instead um God, who else,
dion Y, Daryl Green, Champ, Bailey who was one of
(05:51):
the guys like that, because you've been told so many
people like when you came in the locker room that
you that kind of like grabbed you up. And I
remember me walking in the locker room. It was Lt.
Lorenz O'Neill um, you know at the time, roaming open
that just you know, just came over to um and
you know, Jamal Williams, Randall, Goffrey, Donnie Edwards. So I
walked in the locker room full of guys who were
(06:12):
in the league ten pluge years. And so who was
that for you when on your team? Yeah, don't come
good name. Uh. When I came into the league, probably
probably prime. But I would say Marco Coleman was probably
the one that had the biggest influence on me in
terms of just how I handle things as as you know, bro,
(06:34):
he was a o G by the time I had
came in and he definitely his locker. They put me
next to his locker. Um. He has always you know,
to some gum, calm down, like to some gum that
that was his thing. Like like I'd be like so
tightly wound up, I'd be breathing all hard, you like,
just to get a here and take this piece of
gum to the gun, bro like relax uh. And he
(06:56):
was a o g off the field too, So I
learned a lot about how to handle things um off
the field, A lot of a lot of things I did. Um.
I learned to do it in the house. Don't don't
go anywhere, Um I did you and and in so
many ways with with early just how my home was,
(07:16):
just the environment that was there from things in my
house like Marco, and you know, it's half fun out
your crib. Be safe, um secure and and and really
position yourself where you don't have to have any regrets
about you know, the times that you're having. That was
one of the quickest lessons that I learned when I
got to the league. But I say Sean Barber was
(07:39):
was a pretty good He was a dope friend. I
want to say he was a mentor. We were just
we were like brothers and and how close we were
um when when I got in I learned a lot
from him, um organically. But I would say Marco Coleman
was probably the one that had the biggest influence on
me in terms of just how I handle things. As
(08:00):
you know, bro, why are you smiling that Fox Sports
Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation.
Catch all of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot
com and within the I Heart Radio app search f
s R to listen live. Because I want to end up,
because you know what, I want to ask you something
about about Barbara with the card? Good? Is it cool?
(08:25):
I know about that. You don't know about everything. So
he he borrowed my He borrowed my three sixty Medina.
I was out of town. He borrowed my three sixty Medina, wrefted,
wrecked my car. I never knew. So you know, I
was around, but I wasn't like around when it happened.
But I think I might have been around Stephen Davis.
(08:47):
So what it was something was one of the guys
I was around, and I was a kid, I think
I was. I was, I was young. I was like
pri sixteen and seventeen at the time. And so I
heard he had, uh, Barbara bar at your car. So
that's true, that's one to happen. Yeah, he borrowed the car,
(09:09):
drove it, I believed to Richmond, Virginia. But we were
this tight night. We were tight enough where he could
go get my keys and knew where my keys were
and take my car. So he drove the car to Richmond.
I think on his way back he rapped. Honestly, I
(09:29):
kept it. It's when you brought up his name. I
wanted to ask that story because I was. I was
young then, and man, that's crazy, that's crazy. There's no
way in here. You're a lot better than me, because
there's no there's no way in hell I would have.
We was tight. You and listen, you were you were
around me, so you know how I was like, I
(09:50):
just you know, if you was in my circle, I
loved you. We was. It is what it is, like,
I just take it our face value. Now, if he
was somebody different, it was somebody different, it would have
been some smoke, you know, you know, big drain that
might have been up in there. Lad That dude yoked
up for me while I pointed out him and touched
him on his chest and told him, what's gonna happen
(10:11):
to you right now? But something? So it was like
I was more happy he was. He was okay, more
so than anything else, Like you all right, you know, now,
get my car fixed, you know what I mean? And
we went from there. But yeah, that's the true story, dude.
I I always um, I always wanted to ask you.
It's funny. It's funny you said that. But when you
brought his name up by the first thing, I started
thinking about what. Um let me let me ask because
(10:32):
we you know, a couple of minute. I want to
ask you something about the wholesome one bittles things because
I tweeted something the other day, UM about you know,
mental mental health, which I don't know about you all, man,
but I you know when I retired, especially when you
do it from an injury, because you it's crazy, man,
how are you know kind of stories and paths and
matched up in a lot of different ways because of
(10:56):
the injuries and and and having coming off the highs
of highs and being in known as the best of
what you do, then get injured and not not really
kind of finding your way again. For me, when I retired,
that first year or two was kind of rough, and
I had plenty of things lined up to do. It's
just I felt like I had more and I was
never able to get to do that more. And that
(11:16):
was that was me personally. So you know that the
whole depression things, they're the anxiety, the stress, and you know,
just everything. But I tweeted something the other day about
someone vials about um, you know, mental health is important,
but so was mental toughness. So you know, to me,
it wasn't a big thing. I looked and it got
(11:37):
retweeted like thirteen thousand times or something, or like thirteen
thousand times, retweeted thirty three thousand times, and you know,
I had a bunch of negative ass comments, And for me,
I don't I don't really care. You know, we we
come from a different cloth where we're not sitting around
worrying about what a damn with. Nobody's saying that We're
gonna say what we say. Um, your opinion, and everybody
(11:59):
got to respect that, you know. And I've come from
a side of respect somebody else opinion, even if I
don't believe in what they're saying. UM. But I feel
like personally that if I wasn't mentally tough, I wouldn't
have I wouldn't have been We couldn't be doing this
right because I wouldn't have been here. You know, I
wouldn't have been in a position to even continue on
because you know, so many things happened to all of us.
(12:21):
Everybody got their own different story, whether it's injury or
something happened to you as a kid, or something that
we all deal with. But I just simply made the
statement of being mentally mental health. Obviously it's very important
because you know, I'm a big hot yoga I meditate
and do stuff. Even now when I go and do
my man boxing and stuff, it's still a form of
(12:43):
meditation for me, period. So I believe in mental health.
It's a very important thing. But also I'm not gonna
let anybody use that as a crutch. And I see
that nowadays, in my opinion, I'm seeing a lot of
that being used as a crutch as opposed to somebody saying,
you know what, I'm just having a tough time right now.
This is life. This like this happens in life. Man.
What what do you What do you feel about that?
(13:04):
I think there's a fine line that that is that
exists there between the whole idea of having mental toughness
versus understanding what the mental health and the value of
the mental health is um and someone bows's case, I
feel like the fact that she had to come out
and be the one that was having the conversation about
(13:26):
it was incorrect, right. It just tells you how far
behind people are in terms of understanding how serious mental
health is. It's not more so because when you think
about mental toughness, mental toughness is more so you digging
deep and finding a way to continue on. It would
be more comparable to say, imagine if you had to
(13:49):
play a game with a fully ruptured Achilles tendon or
a fully fully ruptured a c L you know what
I mean, like like have the mental toughness to get
up and go back out there and finish the game.
That to me is the equivalent of mental health. So
for her to be in a situation where she had
to pull herself out, for her to have to give
(14:12):
the explanation, it just continues to show that we're not
We're still not to the place or where we need
to be to understand how exactly to approach mental health.
You can You can have uh, five six different people
come out there if she breaks her arm or breaks
(14:33):
her leg while she's competing, and they'll check her physically
and they'll cart her off, and everybody will have closure
on her not competing because you were able to visually
see why she can't compete, and that's been like the
age old argument with with mental health is you can't
see mental health. You can see it when it's not there,
(14:54):
when it's not present by the way people do things,
but you can't see it in in general. Like think
about with Junior, Like you know, you wouldn't be able
to see that he was dealing with things emotionally and
mental health wise because he was too dope of a dude,
like you're too busy admuring do but he's sitting there
(15:15):
and all of the mental health injuries that he had
that probably needed like surgery, you never address it. All
the injuries that you sustained during your career. You were
able to get the physical aspect of your body together,
but they never addressed your mental They never they never
(15:35):
did a diagnostic uh deal or did mental rehab on you.
And if somebody approached us to do it, it's so
foreign to us. We look at it like I'm not crazy,
I don't need mental health assistance. I'm I'm good, I
feel strong, I'm getting my body back together. But now
(15:55):
I think that things are changing in a way where
the conversation has to be had that if you can
spend millions of dollars on a training facility for lifting
weights or a training facility for physical rehab. Why can't
you put millions of dollars and and and you know
(16:16):
commitment into the mental health rehab as well. You should
be able to go in there, and you should be
able to do the same type of exercises that get
you physically ready to go. You should be able to
go to a place that mentally gets you ready to
go as well. It's like we're where we're we are
patched up, we are fixed, and we are put back
on the field, and the only time that the mental
(16:38):
health issues become real issues is once we're retired. So
now those mental health issues come out and it's like
we were never getting them fixed. It's like compiling a
whole bunch of physical injuries through the years and never
addressing them. You know, there should have been support in
terms of how simone vows was withdrawn, how it was
(17:01):
handled was what made it kind of it comes down
to interpretation, Like when we hear athletes say it's up
to us to create an interpretation and have an opinion
of it. But if a trainer would have came out
and said like, look, this is what's going on. She
has to deal with this data that will give you
an update, and just like how they're doing sports on
(17:23):
anything else, we'll give you an update as it unfolds.
We got to do some evaluating data that will reevaluate
it and then we'll get back to you. That's really
how it should have been handled, honestly speaking. But the
fact that we don't, we don't pay attention to it
the way that we need to. It played out, in
my opinion, from the jump, it played out the wrong
way a far man. I appreciate you man for just
(17:45):
stopping in real quick and then, um my god, one
of one of these days we gotta we we gotta
do a long hour just on just all this man,
just in general. Um, because I do think I do
think there's a direct correlation with a lot of this stuff.
And obviously, you know we we talk all the time,
but maybe getting an opportunity to share some of this
information with with people out here, and you know, you
(18:06):
don't know who's listening, who's gonna help, We're gonna make
a difference. Man, It's coming. The time is coming. We
just gotta keep grinding. It's gonna happen. Yeah, harding bro.
Love you, they appreciate it, Love you too. What all right?
Thanks guys listening to another lights our podcast and me
Sean Merrimon and uh, that was that was awesome and
I honestly we we could have probably went another forty
(18:29):
five minutes to an hour, um, but we had a
lot of stuff to cover. H the bars. Uh. You know,
he's been a great mentor they on listening now, a
great coach um, and his work ethic has always been undeniable.
So thank you guys for listening in to another lights
Out podcast. Me Sean Merimon and we'll be back again soon.
Are you ready for this? Sean Merriman A one a
hand effect. Boom boom, boom, out go the lights. This
is Lights Out with Sean Merriman. What's up? Guys? Were
back again with another lights out podcast for me Sean Merriman,
And today we got UM. Somebody who I call family, right. UM.
I've had a bunch of guys, even really close friends,
(00:24):
people I've played against, people I played with UM, or
some people to just watch me play over the years.
But this one, I'm happy to you know, call this
guy's family. UM. Someone who mentored me as a kid
when I was in high school. UM, LaVar Arrington from
the former Washington football team when he got drafted by
by the team, and I was at Frederick Ducklan's High
(00:47):
school and up a Marlborough, Maryland. I convinced LaVar's younger
brother to come and play high school basketball with me.
And that's how LaVar and I relationship started. Uh. With
somebody who I've always looked up to it and and
look that as a mentor and one of the reasons
why I started off early. I give him a lot
of credit because I got a chance to be around
another pro and seen the lifestyle, found out how to
(01:09):
work and replay books and watch film and just how
to go about my everyday life. Uh this is at
at the age of sixteen seventeen, So LaVar engine, what
what's what's going on? Mann? Bro? Are you are you coolding?
Are you coaching right now? Too? Right? All right? So
I'm taking the year off because I have kids that
(01:31):
where I would coach, they went I coached them last year,
so they can't follow me. So I'm gonna take I'm
taking the year off, which it's mad Mass freshman year,
so I'm just watching him and and watching and the guys,
and then when we get back to the the other
kids their senior year, I'm gonna come back on the sideline. So, so,
(01:52):
how how has that been? Because you you've always you've
always kind of, you know, took guys in your wing,
me being one of them, you know, as a as
a kid and stuff like that. Man, But you really
just kind of got into the coaching aspect as far
as I knew you when I was growing up, and
you kind of took me under your wing, it was
more of like a mentorship. When when did that? When
did the whole culture thing come around? Man I had
(02:15):
I had mentor for so long it had morphed than
to training. So now I was using training to to
like be the catalyst of me being able to mentor guys.
And I was pretty good at it. So once I
realized that I was pretty good at teaching, it was
like kind of the next step for me to prove
(02:35):
to myself for add to my resume, was how good
would I be able to take um the skills that
I use and and training to coaching because training is
a lot different than coaching as well, you know. And
so I I actually got pulled into coaching by Antonio
Pierce to Long Beach Polly, which was really cool because
(02:56):
you go into a scenario where it's such a rich
culture in tradition to to that program, and I coach linebackers.
I assisted Claiborne on on as as a defense coordinator
with with the defense schemes. But you know, when I
was sitting in the meetings and and like just kind
of getting into it as like man, like I started
(03:18):
I started saying to myself, It's like I could call
this offense or set this offensive situation up better, Like
they think that if you played one side of the
ball then you don't know the other side right, and
and and so it's kind of funny because being good
at playing defense was because I was really good at
playing offense. And I just applied what I did on
(03:38):
defense to the understanding of how I played, you know,
and thought on offense, you know what I mean. So
it kind of went from schematically, it's like, man, I'm
limiting myself. I would like to go build a program.
So I was like, I'm gonna fight to try to
get a job, and and and the school I ended
up going to, I got a head coaching job and
there's a small private school and past dina Um got
(04:02):
my opportunity. And when I got my opportunity, we we
won six games my first year and went to the playoffs.
We hosted a home playoff game, so we were good
enough to host a home game. We lost, we got
our heads beat in um, but it was a successful season.
And then we came back my second year and we
(04:24):
we had the same like the same exact season almost
as six seven when when win season and we made
it to the playoffs again. Literally, Sean, I was playing
with two three lineman and like nineteen kids, how small
our team was it was like not even a lot
of kids. So I was like making chicken soup out
(04:45):
of chicken, you know what. And and so this last
year I had a couple of really really good, good
young men that were aging and we had to abbreviate
it year and we went undefeated at one h the
league championships. So I've since set step down because the
numbers in the participation weren't good enough, the support from
the school wasn't good enough, um to build the program. So,
(05:08):
you know, my son is going into high school and
the kids that had came and followed me to Marion
after to come there, they needed to go to a
better a better situation. So that's where we're at currently.
But coaching, it just it just kind of happened. Who
So I never asked you this, but because you've been
mentoring so many of these kids, and so many of
(05:29):
a lot of these kids actually came around and became
something like big you know has produced who was some
of the guys because you played with some of the
people who I watched growing up, like you get you
played with Bruce Smith on instead um God, who else,
dion Y, Daryl Green, Champ, Bailey who was one of
(05:51):
the guys like that, because you've been told so many
people like when you came in the locker room that
you that kind of like grabbed you up. And I
remember me walking in the locker room. It was Lt.
Lorenz O'Neill um, you know at the time, roaming open
that just you know, just came over to um and
you know, Jamal Williams, Randall, Goffrey, Donnie Edwards. So I
walked in the locker room full of guys who were
(06:12):
in the league ten pluge years. And so who was
that for you when on your team? Yeah, don't come
good name. Uh. When I came into the league, probably
probably prime. But I would say Marco Coleman was probably
the one that had the biggest influence on me in
terms of just how I handle things as as you know, bro,
(06:34):
he was a o G by the time I had
came in and he definitely his locker. They put me
next to his locker. Um. He has always you know,
to some gum, calm down, like to some gum that
that was his thing. Like like I'd be like so
tightly wound up, I'd be breathing all hard, you like,
just to get a here and take this piece of
gum to the gun, bro like relax uh. And he
(06:56):
was a o g off the field too, So I
learned a lot about how to handle things um off
the field, A lot of a lot of things I did. Um.
I learned to do it in the house. Don't don't
go anywhere, Um I did you and and in so
many ways with with early just how my home was,
(07:16):
just the environment that was there from things in my
house like Marco, and you know, it's half fun out
your crib. Be safe, um secure and and and really
position yourself where you don't have to have any regrets
about you know, the times that you're having. That was
one of the quickest lessons that I learned when I
got to the league. But I say Sean Barber was
(07:39):
was a pretty good He was a dope friend. I
want to say he was a mentor. We were just
we were like brothers and and how close we were
um when when I got in I learned a lot
from him, um organically. But I would say Marco Coleman
was probably the one that had the biggest influence on
me in terms of just how I handle things. As
(08:00):
you know, bro, why are you smiling that Fox Sports
Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation.
Catch all of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot
com and within the I Heart Radio app search f
s R to listen live. Because I want to end up,
because you know what, I want to ask you something
about about Barbara with the card? Good? Is it cool?
(08:25):
I know about that. You don't know about everything. So
he he borrowed my He borrowed my three sixty Medina.
I was out of town. He borrowed my three sixty Medina, wrefted,
wrecked my car. I never knew. So you know, I
was around, but I wasn't like around when it happened.
But I think I might have been around Stephen Davis.
(08:47):
So what it was something was one of the guys
I was around, and I was a kid, I think
I was. I was, I was young. I was like
pri sixteen and seventeen at the time. And so I
heard he had, uh, Barbara bar at your car. So
that's true, that's one to happen. Yeah, he borrowed the car,
(09:09):
drove it, I believed to Richmond, Virginia. But we were
this tight night. We were tight enough where he could
go get my keys and knew where my keys were
and take my car. So he drove the car to Richmond.
I think on his way back he rapped. Honestly, I
(09:29):
kept it. It's when you brought up his name. I
wanted to ask that story because I was. I was
young then, and man, that's crazy, that's crazy. There's no
way in here. You're a lot better than me, because
there's no there's no way in hell I would have.
We was tight. You and listen, you were you were
around me, so you know how I was like, I
(09:50):
just you know, if you was in my circle, I
loved you. We was. It is what it is, like,
I just take it our face value. Now, if he
was somebody different, it was somebody different, it would have
been some smoke, you know, you know, big drain that
might have been up in there. Lad That dude yoked
up for me while I pointed out him and touched
him on his chest and told him, what's gonna happen
(10:11):
to you right now? But something? So it was like
I was more happy he was. He was okay, more
so than anything else, Like you all right, you know, now,
get my car fixed, you know what I mean? And
we went from there. But yeah, that's the true story, dude.
I I always um, I always wanted to ask you.
It's funny. It's funny you said that. But when you
brought his name up by the first thing, I started
thinking about what. Um let me let me ask because
(10:32):
we you know, a couple of minute. I want to
ask you something about the wholesome one bittles things because
I tweeted something the other day, UM about you know,
mental mental health, which I don't know about you all, man,
but I you know when I retired, especially when you
do it from an injury, because you it's crazy, man,
how are you know kind of stories and paths and
matched up in a lot of different ways because of
(10:56):
the injuries and and and having coming off the highs
of highs and being in known as the best of
what you do, then get injured and not not really
kind of finding your way again. For me, when I retired,
that first year or two was kind of rough, and
I had plenty of things lined up to do. It's
just I felt like I had more and I was
never able to get to do that more. And that
(11:16):
was that was me personally. So you know that the
whole depression things, they're the anxiety, the stress, and you know,
just everything. But I tweeted something the other day about
someone vials about um, you know, mental health is important,
but so was mental toughness. So you know, to me,
it wasn't a big thing. I looked and it got
(11:37):
retweeted like thirteen thousand times or something, or like thirteen
thousand times, retweeted thirty three thousand times, and you know,
I had a bunch of negative ass comments, And for me,
I don't I don't really care. You know, we we
come from a different cloth where we're not sitting around
worrying about what a damn with. Nobody's saying that We're
gonna say what we say. Um, your opinion, and everybody
(11:59):
got to respect that, you know. And I've come from
a side of respect somebody else opinion, even if I
don't believe in what they're saying. UM. But I feel
like personally that if I wasn't mentally tough, I wouldn't
have I wouldn't have been We couldn't be doing this
right because I wouldn't have been here. You know, I
wouldn't have been in a position to even continue on
because you know, so many things happened to all of us.
(12:21):
Everybody got their own different story, whether it's injury or
something happened to you as a kid, or something that
we all deal with. But I just simply made the
statement of being mentally mental health. Obviously it's very important
because you know, I'm a big hot yoga I meditate
and do stuff. Even now when I go and do
my man boxing and stuff, it's still a form of
(12:43):
meditation for me, period. So I believe in mental health.
It's a very important thing. But also I'm not gonna
let anybody use that as a crutch. And I see
that nowadays, in my opinion, I'm seeing a lot of
that being used as a crutch as opposed to somebody saying,
you know what, I'm just having a tough time right now.
This is life. This like this happens in life. Man.
What what do you What do you feel about that?
(13:04):
I think there's a fine line that that is that
exists there between the whole idea of having mental toughness
versus understanding what the mental health and the value of
the mental health is um and someone bows's case, I
feel like the fact that she had to come out
and be the one that was having the conversation about
(13:26):
it was incorrect, right. It just tells you how far
behind people are in terms of understanding how serious mental
health is. It's not more so because when you think
about mental toughness, mental toughness is more so you digging
deep and finding a way to continue on. It would
be more comparable to say, imagine if you had to
(13:49):
play a game with a fully ruptured Achilles tendon or
a fully fully ruptured a c L you know what
I mean, like like have the mental toughness to get
up and go back out there and finish the game.
That to me is the equivalent of mental health. So
for her to be in a situation where she had
to pull herself out, for her to have to give
(14:12):
the explanation, it just continues to show that we're not
We're still not to the place or where we need
to be to understand how exactly to approach mental health.
You can You can have uh, five six different people
come out there if she breaks her arm or breaks
(14:33):
her leg while she's competing, and they'll check her physically
and they'll cart her off, and everybody will have closure
on her not competing because you were able to visually
see why she can't compete, and that's been like the
age old argument with with mental health is you can't
see mental health. You can see it when it's not there,
(14:54):
when it's not present by the way people do things,
but you can't see it in in general. Like think
about with Junior, Like you know, you wouldn't be able
to see that he was dealing with things emotionally and
mental health wise because he was too dope of a dude,
like you're too busy admuring do but he's sitting there
(15:15):
and all of the mental health injuries that he had
that probably needed like surgery, you never address it. All
the injuries that you sustained during your career. You were
able to get the physical aspect of your body together,
but they never addressed your mental They never they never
(15:35):
did a diagnostic uh deal or did mental rehab on you.
And if somebody approached us to do it, it's so
foreign to us. We look at it like I'm not crazy,
I don't need mental health assistance. I'm I'm good, I
feel strong, I'm getting my body back together. But now
(15:55):
I think that things are changing in a way where
the conversation has to be had that if you can
spend millions of dollars on a training facility for lifting
weights or a training facility for physical rehab. Why can't
you put millions of dollars and and and you know
(16:16):
commitment into the mental health rehab as well. You should
be able to go in there, and you should be
able to do the same type of exercises that get
you physically ready to go. You should be able to
go to a place that mentally gets you ready to
go as well. It's like we're where we're we are
patched up, we are fixed, and we are put back
on the field, and the only time that the mental
(16:38):
health issues become real issues is once we're retired. So
now those mental health issues come out and it's like
we were never getting them fixed. It's like compiling a
whole bunch of physical injuries through the years and never
addressing them. You know, there should have been support in
terms of how simone vows was withdrawn, how it was
(17:01):
handled was what made it kind of it comes down
to interpretation, Like when we hear athletes say it's up
to us to create an interpretation and have an opinion
of it. But if a trainer would have came out
and said like, look, this is what's going on. She
has to deal with this data that will give you
an update, and just like how they're doing sports on
(17:23):
anything else, we'll give you an update as it unfolds.
We got to do some evaluating data that will reevaluate
it and then we'll get back to you. That's really
how it should have been handled, honestly speaking. But the
fact that we don't, we don't pay attention to it
the way that we need to. It played out, in
my opinion, from the jump, it played out the wrong
way a far man. I appreciate you man for just
(17:45):
stopping in real quick and then, um my god, one
of one of these days we gotta we we gotta
do a long hour just on just all this man,
just in general. Um, because I do think I do
think there's a direct correlation with a lot of this stuff.
And obviously, you know we we talk all the time,
but maybe getting an opportunity to share some of this
information with with people out here, and you know, you
(18:06):
don't know who's listening, who's gonna help, We're gonna make
a difference. Man, It's coming. The time is coming. We
just gotta keep grinding. It's gonna happen. Yeah, harding bro.
Love you, they appreciate it, Love you too. What all right?
Thanks guys listening to another lights our podcast and me
Sean Merrimon and uh, that was that was awesome and
I honestly we we could have probably went another forty
(18:29):
five minutes to an hour, um, but we had a
lot of stuff to cover. H the bars. Uh. You know,
he's been a great mentor they on listening now, a
great coach um, and his work ethic has always been undeniable.
So thank you guys for listening in to another lights
Out podcast. Me Sean Merimon and we'll be back again soon.
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