February 22, 2022 • 40 mins
This week on The Blueprint Connect, host Louis Carr speaks with Howard Griffith, Former NFL athlete and Big Ten Network football analyst.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, I'm Louis Carr, host of the Blueprint Connect podcast.
The Blueprint Connect is an extension of the Blueprint Men's Summit,
where we have consistently given men a prescription for growth,
not just for themselves, but also for their families and
their community. During these podcasts, we will educate, motivate our
(00:21):
listeners about entrepreneurship, careers, finance, health and wellness and relationship.
And today I'm privileged to have our special guests, former
NFL player Big Ten Network analysts Howard Griffin. Welcome, Howard, Hey,
thanks for having me. How are you doing. I'm doing great, man,
(00:43):
What a privilege to have you, especially, uh you guys
having sort of closed up the college season. It was
a real exciting college season. So I'm looking forward to
talking to you about that and many other things. How
you reinvent yourself from the NFL to become a big
time sportscaster. So welcome to the Blueprint Connect podcasts. Right
(01:07):
looking forward to it. So, Howard tell us, how did
the season go for the Big Ten Network? Did it
kind of uh morph into what you guys thought some
four or five months ago that the teams that you
thought were gonna be on top, ended on top. How
did it go well? I think one of the things,
uh did we look at each and every year is
(01:30):
what are the story some of the storylines that are
gonna be out there. And one of the things that
happens we have Ohio State, and it's usually Ohio States
in the middle of everything, competing for national championships. But
this year was really exciting because Michigan took that next
step and was able to obviously win the Big Ten
and and go on to make the four team playoffs.
And what Jim Harball was able to do there this
(01:51):
year was was really outstanding. I think he reinvented himself
as far as the coaches concerned. We brought in some
new energy as far as the coordinators are concerned, as
far as coaches are concerned. And also one of the
stories that happened this year was that he ended up
taking a pay cut. Lord Manuel, who's done an unbelievable
job as an athletic director there in Michigan, asked them
(02:14):
to to to take a pay cut. He did so,
and he really ended up showing up and made big
things were able to happen for him. But when you
start to get past some of those big time programs,
the blue chip programs that we talked about Ohio State
in Michigan, Purdue had an unbelievable season. They really did
a great job knocking off you know, a couple of
top two teams UH this year, really going out and
(02:36):
competing really well. UH. And then there are some other
teams that they're starting to make their moves and get better.
Maryland with Mike Locksley is really doing a tremendous job
of starting to to really get the foundation built out
out east so that they're able to have a chance
to compete. And you know a lot of people were
talking about Iowa at the beginning of the season, and
(02:57):
you know, they were as high as number two in
the country for while before a lot of big ten
play and they started to lose a couple of games,
but they were able to reinvent themselves. But I think
the biggest part of this particular season was the fact
to have fans back in the stands and and to
see the students back excited to cheer on their team,
and and obviously you know some of the businesses that
(03:19):
that surround the university. For them to be back on
their feet and going in full steam ahead for them
to have an opportunity to continue to make money and
probably want to make up some of that revenue they
lost from the previous year. So, so, how would you
played for the University of Illinois prior to going into
the NFL. You made that transition from high school to college.
(03:44):
What was the biggest thing that you had to do
different during that transition, not just in sports, but also
in academics. I think the toughest thing for me was
on the academic side, because the reality is, had I
not played football, I wouldn't have had an opportunity to
go to the University of Illinois because I like to
(04:04):
say that, you know, I was not Uh, I wouldn't
been able to get in as far as a CT
scores are concerned, as part as Great Point is concerned.
But that didn't stop me. I still had the desire.
So what I needed to do was to be really
upfront and honest with myself and my professors that I
was meeting with that Hey, I'm gonna need smeil. You
(04:26):
know I'm here, I'm gonna get it done. I'm gonna
get the work done, but I'm gonna need extra help.
And I didn't wait until that last week before mid terms,
of the last week before finals to ask of that
additional help. And and that's one of the things to me,
really opening up and telling people that that's what I needed.
And I think a lot of times, UH young people
(04:48):
don't necessarily want to do that, and I don't think
it's always encumbered on the young person to do that.
I also think that the institutions that that bring in
student athletes that may not be normally at MISS go
into their into their universities, have an obligation to make
sure that those young people get through. That means supplying
them with all the resources, because the reality is, you know,
(05:11):
for you know, a black kid coming off the South
side of Chicago, you know, I don't have I didn't
have much in common with the general student body that
was at the University of Illinois at that particular time. Now,
there were a lot there was a huge push when
I first got there in my freshman class really from
Chicago St. Louis UH in Indianapolis, where there was a
(05:33):
huge push to get minorities into the school and and
particularly black males, and it was really successful. And I
think for me it was about being honest and understanding
that I was gonna need help and I was gonna
have to work hard if I was gonna be able
to compete, And that was the biggest thing, and that
helped me in the classroom and really helped me once
I got onto the football fice. So how when I
(05:56):
was a student athlete myself and in college, how do
you get that balance between sports, academics, partying, and all
the other social activities? Yeah, how do you get that balance?
Is that discipline? What? What is that? It is disciplined?
(06:19):
I mean you you really have to have discipline to
be able to do that, because you're not like the
other students that are on campus. Right they can start
classes at two thirty, where you need to have all
your classes out of the way by two thirty. If
you guys are having afternoon practices or in some places
like Northwestern it likes to practice first thing in the morning.
You know they're on the field at six am, so
(06:42):
obviously they can't be out late partying and doing those
such types of things. So I think you have to
really understand why you're there and what your ultimate goals are.
And I think one of the things is you have
to be able to write your information down, your goals down,
so you can see them understand them. Uh, so that
you know when you start to think about, Okay, well
I'm gonna go to this party, um, and you know
(07:04):
you have practice the next day, and you know you
need to be able to perform, and if you don't perform,
you're not gonna play. And if you don't play, you're
not gonna be able to achieve your goals of possibly,
you know, becoming an All conference player or going on
to play in the National Football League. So I think
ultimately it starts with being disciplined and understanding what you
need to do and where your priorities need to be
(07:26):
set for you to be able to attain some of
the goals that you want. So you you also had
the privilege of transitioning from college to the big league.
The NFL was the NFL always this vision, this goal
for you, or that you just get blessed with a
lot of talent and things kind of worked out and
(07:49):
you find yourself in the NFL. Well, you know, I
thought I had some talent, right, and but the reality
is that at the NFL level, those are all great players.
So in college I played the tailback position, and you know,
got the ball all the time. People would set their
defenses to stop me and that sort of thing. But
(08:11):
I was still when I transitioned to the pro game,
I wasn't as fast as some of the other guys
who were out there. I wasn't as quick. So I
had to go and redefine myself and become a fullback. Now,
nobody wants to play the fullback posisie because they never
get the ball. Nobody when they talk about how great
the run game is, it's the offensive line and the
(08:34):
running back. When they talk about how great the pass
game is, it's the wide receiver in the quarterback. So
they never really talked about that, uh fullback position. So
you know, I had a coach come to me and saying, hey, listen, um,
I think you got to try the fullback position, and
I think you can be successful doing it. And I said, okay,
But my what I wanted to do was have a
(08:56):
national career in the national football team, so I couldn't
be upper and say, well, you know, I'm just going
I'm gonna play full tail back and that's just going
to be what it is. I had to make that
transition and it was a tough pill to swallow, but
my desire to play and have a career outweighed, you know,
the the so called uh, you know, sacrifice that I
(09:19):
was gonna have to make, and and I really embraced it.
And I think it's really one of the things, uh
that allowed me to have a success in the NFL,
was to be able to embrace that change at that time,
UH and go on and continue to try to be
the best at that position that I could be. How
much did you weigh when the coach came and had
that conversation, because usually there's a different and weight class,
(09:42):
no doubt about it. UM. And that's interesting. UM. We
had a guy to play the Michigan draw a bunch.
He was six and probably forty five pounds. I was
probably five eleven two to twenty and so going back
to that draft process, you know, I was still not
(10:03):
big enough to quote unquote play the fullback position, so
I had to develop. So I wasn't very heavy at
the time. I was probably too twenty uh somewhere in there.
But I had an understanding of what defenses were were
like and where they were trying to go and how
they were trying to slow things down. So what ultimately
(10:23):
ended up happening is at the fullback position, I kind
of would read the defensive line and the offensive line
and linebackers as if I was the tailback carrying the
ball who was a few yards behind me. So that
gave me the ability to adjust, make this, make quick decisions,
and to be able to get up onto those linebackers
(10:44):
and sometimes whether it was a safety or whether it
was a defensive end, to be able to make some
of those adjustments. And that's ultimately, you know what what
led to it. And for me, it was always a transition, right,
having a transition talking about high school, college, college UH
to the NFL. My life has been full of transitions.
(11:04):
And again it was that desire to to want to
have that career which allowed me to go on and
make those transitions and and be successful at it. Now,
the funny part about it is I started out at
Mental Catholic from a hundred and the level and I
ended up transferring from there to pursue Julian because I
wanted to play for Dr J. W. Smith, who recently
(11:27):
passed UH. And the reason I wanted to transfer is
that the coach at Mendel said, Hey, Howard, why don't
you play sail back? Why don't you play fullback. We've
got a young guy that's coming up and we like
to have you guys both on the field at the
same time. In the arrogance that I had at that
time right didn't allow me to do that. So I'm like,
that's not what I'm doing. I'm getting ready transfer and
(11:51):
then I ended up going to Julian. But it was
it was funny how things came ultimately became full circle
for me. This is I wanted me to play the
fullback position at a high school where I didn't embrace it,
to getting to the National Football League and having to
be moved to the fullback position, but I embraced it.
And I just wonder, what if, what, what differences would
(12:11):
have made in my career earlier had I embraced embraced
that at mental cap So how that brings you to
this question? Uh, several months ago, I was had the
pleasure of talking to an olympian and asked him how
he was staying motivated through the pandemic to get through
practices and everything, and he said, one of the most
(12:32):
interesting things I've ever heard he said, Louis, I'm not motivated,
just discipline mm hmm. And it just I won't scream
because he said, if it was about motivation, I couldn't
get up seven days a week and work out twice
a day. It's about discipline. Talk about that and your
(12:55):
NFL career and you know, staying on the same such
a good one, that fullback and doing something that you
didn't want to do, but have you found a way
to do it. You know, it's funny when when we
talk about discipline, right, and it's the young person you
talked about discipline or you hear the word discipline, it
has negative connotations to it a lot of times for
(13:19):
young people when they think about it. Uh, as you're
starting to grow up, you understand that you know, you
have to be you have to be dedicated to to
what it is you're doing. Um and it's not just
you know, on the field, it's off the field the
decisions that you have to be able to make. And
and for me, you know, particularly once I got to
(13:39):
the NFL, UM it was about making a choice that
every Tuesday was an offer day, but I never took
the day off. That wasn't my off day. You know,
I was always in the in the facility watching film,
working out, and I would always get in there early.
And it was interesting because one of the things I
(14:02):
learned early in my career when I was on the
practice squad, so I wasn't on the regular roster. Uh,
when I was starting to make that transition. When I
was with the San Diego Chargers, you know, the players there,
I would say, man, we gotta get in early, the
first one in and the last one to leave. Now
the last one to leave sometimes because you were you
(14:22):
were still watching film. But it was also an opportunity
to fellowship with other players and kind of get to
know them a little bit better. But it's about making
choices when you're when you're having off daby, you really
wanted to be an off day. And by the time
we got to to Denver, it was interesting. I got
in there. If we won on on Sunday, well, we
(14:44):
didn't have to be back in the facility officially until Wednesday,
so you literally had Monday and Tuesday you were off.
But those we never take those days off. I mean,
the whole team would be there, most most of the
team that would be there on Mondays and tuesdays and
we're getting in the work that they needed to get
in and the film study and understanding you know that
(15:05):
next opponent, because that's the only edge you can get.
Um it's is to be in there and and be
figuring it out. And we've talked all the time. And
you can go on vacation. Yeah you're going on vacation
for a while, that's good. But but right now, this
is it's all about business. So you've got to maximize
what you're doing right now because the window for professional
(15:26):
athletes or even athletes period is a very finite amount
of time. And you never want to look back. At
least I didn't. I never wanted to look back and
have any regrets because you know it can end at
any moment. So you have to maximize each and every
day to put yourself in a position to be the
best player that you can be and not be the
(15:48):
weakest link on the team. Uh So that's part of it,
and that's the discipline that you have to have. And
I think he's right when you think about it, is
you gotta go when you know you've got to get
stuff done. You have to get it done. You can't,
you know, let other things get in the way, and
unfortunately family is part of that as well. Right, that's
a part of it, and you make sacrifices and you
(16:10):
have to make choices. But at the end of the day,
it's about maximizing your opportunities that you have and with
it just being a small window of your life playing
in the National Football League or even at the college level,
those sacrifices are well worked. We'll be right back with
(16:33):
more of my interview after this quick break. One more
question about the NFL. You played for a number of teams, Chargers, Broncos,
think Rams, Uh. How did you make that transition in cultures?
(16:57):
Because I look at sports teams like corporations, all right,
each corporation has a different culture. How did you sort
of make those quick transitions into a new culture. I
think one of the things that stood out for me
is is that once you get into the National Football League,
(17:17):
there's a whole different vibe that you have about yourself
and the way you look at the game, the way
you the way you take care of your body. For
the most part, you know, young people, they get in
there and all of a sudden, there's there's money at hand,
there's access you could do this that, and so early
in my career when I was with the Rams uh
(17:40):
And it's really interesting when I was there because we
ran the same exact offense that the Dallas Cowboys ran
with Emma Smith and Troy Aatemen and in urban UH
and we actually had the architect was the architect of
that offense, was our offensive coordinator. What was the difference? Right,
(18:00):
the Rams weren't winning games, Dallas was going to the
super Bowl. Well, the Rams, let's see from eight am
to eleven, it was what happened last night, from once
practice started to the end. Where are we going tonight?
Although we were in Anaheim, it was only the thirty
forty minute drive to l A. And that's what everybody
(18:24):
wanted to do. So the culture overall good good players,
really good players, but there was not a culture of
trying to go out and win each and every day.
And the problem is one person can't change that. And
there were a lot of young players there, so young
people wanted to do with young people. Undisciplined people wanted
(18:47):
to do go hang out in l A and do
all the traps of l A. At the time, but
then I saw that change as I got better asan athletes.
I'm matured as an a professional athlete that that you know,
you have to be able to to adapt and you
have to have great leadership. And we talked a little
bit about, you know, the leaders in the room. And
(19:10):
I tell young people all the time, or even when
I'm talking about the college game, the culture is set
by the person that's in the front of the room,
right what he or she expects the young people to do.
And that's not just going out and playing well and
practicing well. How are you conducting yourself? How do you
(19:30):
leave your locker room? That's always a great example of
how I want to you know, when I want to
look at the team and understand what they're doing, I
go look at the locker room and look at their
bathrooms and that tells me everything I need to know
about the culture of that organization, right Because to me,
by the time I got to Denver, the culture there
(19:53):
was the maintenance people wanted to be the very best
that they could be. The the landscaping crew wanted to
be the very best they can be. Everybody took pride
and everything they did and that started. You know, if
Mike Shanahan and Mr Bowen at the top, setting that
(20:15):
precedent and then it comes down. So the expectations are
set high. So it's not leaving, it's not leaving stuff
laying around. It's taking care of yourself. It's taken pride
in it. But you see that you have to try
to fit in and you have to try to ultimately, uh,
try to adapt, and in some situations you you try
(20:36):
to change the culture. But the way you change it
is the way you work. Right. I wasn't the first
one that was coming in on Tuesdays and working out.
But if I'm in there on Tuesday, you better believe
that my backups there on Tuesday because he wants to play.
You better believe the starter tailback is gonna be there
on Tuesday because he doesn't want to let anybody else down.
(20:58):
So it becomes in infectious. And that's what winning does,
and that's what having success does. It allows that culture
to be able to change. And I think sometimes we
throw the word culture around a lot, and that's one
of those buzzwords that we throw out there. But to me,
it's ultimately about the people making the decision that this
(21:22):
is the environment I want to be in. I want
to do what they're doing because they're doing things the
right way, and you may come from a place that
did it the opposite. But I think it's about getting
into the right system, into the right program, into the
right business opportunity that's gonna allow you to thrive and
be the very best. But a lot of that becomes
(21:43):
down to that individual wanting to buy in. That's what
it ultimately comes down to. So so how would you
you've had what what I would say is, uh, a
privileged sort of life. I mean, you you were a
special person in high school. You're a great athlete there.
Then you went on to college, you're a great athlete there,
(22:05):
and then you had this real special thing to be
to play in the NFL, and then you went to
do something else. You are a sports analyst, which, uh
it's not easy. How was that a vision or a
goal for you or how did that happen that you
(22:28):
make that transition? That is something that you know, I
really always wanted to do. I really did. I really
was excited about, you know, talking with the media and
one of the things even going back to high school
with Jim Rose here in Chicago, but come interview me
(22:49):
and do different things I really loved what they were doing.
I mean, professional living guys wearing suits, you know on television, Uh,
you know, telling us about what's going on in sports.
So what I did throughout my particularly once I got
to college, was I continue to to create those relationships
(23:13):
with the people that were coming in in an interview. Uh,
we'll come in and talk with the team. You have,
the beat reporters. You see, the same people that come
in you know, on a regular basis, particularly at the
NFL level. So it was having conversations with them, you know,
really talking with them about what their job entailed and
some of the things that they had to do. And
(23:33):
going back to college even you know, deciding to say, hey,
I need to take this internship and I come over
to the station a couple of times a week, you know,
I'll do whatever and then come on sure, you know,
and in a small town like Champagne at the time, uh,
you know the sports he would here, she would uh
conduct the interview, also have to take doing the whole thing.
(23:56):
I have to edit the tape once he got back
to the studio. So I got a chance to see
that entire process at the college level. When when I
had a chance to do it there, and then at
the pros it was just continuing, you know, to to
make those connections. Now when I was done playing, everyone
thinks that, okay, now you're gonna make all this money
(24:17):
being able to talk sports. And you know, I was
calling some football games for Colorado State at the time.
It was the Colorado Prush Arena football team, and they
were paying peanuts that actually wanted the shows. They gave
me a point out. All the gift card was how
they compensated me. But I knew that was what I
wanted to do, right because it was still in the game,
(24:40):
close to the game and at the time when you leave,
when when most athletes leave, that is not even close
the best thing that you do in life at that
moment when you leave the game, and so many of
us and I'm not exent from this. When you either game,
(25:01):
you want to you know, start a business. You want
to get into real estate, you want to do something
in the tech industry, you want to do all these
different opportunities that are out there because people say, hey, listen,
when you're done, give me a call and we can
work something out and we'll try to help you, you know,
get into this field or that. But what I found
was I really wasn't having a success I wanted because
(25:22):
I wasn't passionate about any of those things. The thing
that I was passionate about was talking about college and
pro football. And once I finally wrapped my mind around that,
that's when you know, my career really accelerated and I
started to have a lot of success. And it was
(25:43):
a tough one and it's a learning experience that you
can go through, but ultimately it comes down to you
finding what you want to be passionate about. In doing that,
and so many times, you know, as professional athletes were
trying to get as far away from the sport. It's
possible because that's who you are identified with. You're trying
(26:04):
to reinvent yourself and become something different. Some people have
some success at that, but of us don't have that
type of success necessarily uh so quickly. So the learning
curve is steep in some of those other arenas uh
and it takes time, but the learning curve was steeping
(26:24):
in the broadcasting industry as well, because you needed to
learn how to study, you need to learn how to communicate,
you needed to learn how to create relationships with coaches,
which some people kind of think that's an easy thing
to do, but it's not. And the reason it's tough
because you have to they have to trust you because
(26:45):
they're telling you things about their team and oh, by
the way, you're going to talk to their opponent in
a couple of hours. So there has to be a
lot of trust is there. And I was able to
do that. And for me, it was just being finding
what I was ultimately passionate about, and that was staying
around the game of football and and and really enjoy
(27:07):
enjoying being a part of it, and enjoying the process
of preparing each and every week. So, how there's certain
basic fundamentals that great athletes have that that that they've
learned to master. How did you use those fundamentals to
make that transition from sports into business of broadcasting. You know,
(27:33):
we we talked to a lot of athletes about you've
got that basic foundation of success. Talk about what some
of those fundamentals are and how you use them to transition.
I think one of the biggest things was I've never
been told what time I needed to come to work.
I never was told with time I needed to be
(27:54):
a practice because I was always there earth, So whatever
time me eadn't started, I didn't think about. I didn't
There wasn't a thought process for me because I was
gonna be there early enough where I was gonna do
what I needed to do that morning, whether it was workout,
whether it was get treatment, and then I'm already there,
(28:16):
so okay, we just move along with the rest of
the that So what's happened in the broadcasting side of
it as well, is like a typical Saturday for us,
I could easily, you know, we are the show doesn't
come on until was it nine am? But I'm there,
you know, sixty six third, So really nobody's telling us
(28:41):
when we needed to be there. You just get there
because you know, you need to prepare, you need to
settle down, at least for me, need to common nerves
and just go look over those last minute notes and
see if there's any changes. But to me, being first
into the building, it's one of the things that that
has really helped me really throughout my broadcast career because
(29:04):
when you're the first, one of the first people in
the building, you know what it's saying something, and and
that's really been something that I've always tried to tell
some of the people that are coming into the industry
that are leaving UH that are leading football at the time,
I mean that you gotta be first day the last
I mean, that's just the way it has to be
if you want to make a name for yourself. Because
(29:26):
the thing about sports in the broadcasting side is you're
not getting coached the way you're used to being coached.
You're not being mentored the way you're used to being
mentor where you run a play, you come off, you
get immediate feedback about what it is you did right,
what it is you did wrong. And what I noticed
(29:48):
in television is you don't that coach isn't there in
the in in the sports broadcasting side, It's really not there.
So what happens is if you come in and you're
not preparing and not doing anything, a producer will say, well,
I can't really work with him because he's not prepared,
and they just don't call you back. And that's one
(30:08):
of the hard transitions that guys have to understand. You
have to be self motivated, and again discipline comes back
into that. You need to be prepared, you need to
understand what your storylines or are going to be because
if you don't, you know, there's nobody there to say, hey,
hold on you you need to do things this way.
(30:29):
Now he was thinking this, but it's not. It's just
so different. We'll be right back with more of my
interview after this quick break. So Howard talk to the
(30:52):
athlete who is graduating college, this upcoming man. Yeah, let's
say he's really good, he's coming out as All American,
but he's trying to figure out what's next. He's not
going to the pros, but he's had a hell of
a college career. Give him some advice on how to
(31:17):
find what's next. That process, Yeah, it's it takes some
soul searching, it really does. Um. You know, we get
a chance to talk with For me, one of the
things I really love about my job is is that
I get a chance to to follow these a lot
of these players when they were in high school because
I really followed the recruiting process, so I kind of
(31:38):
know who these guys are, and then all of a
sudden they show up as pressure on campus. Then it
seems like with the blink of an eye, the career
is over and they're going in a different direction now.
And you know what's fun about watching that process is
seeing the maturity of them. Some go into coaching, some
going to broadcasting, but one of the things that ultimately
(32:00):
stands out is you have to know who you are
and you have to be committed to working at it
and being the best that you can be. I've seen
so many people, you know, want to get into the
broadcasting business, but not want to do any of the work.
I want to show up twenty minutes before the show
(32:21):
is supposed to air live uh, and think that that's okay,
and and they could be good, but they don't want
to put in the work because a lot of times
you see a thirty minute show, twenty two minutes of
content and they're like, shoot, that's easy. They're not doing
any work. It doesn't look hard. And then all of
a sudden they're placed in a situation like that and
(32:44):
you know they don't know how to handle it. So
so for me, it's about continuing to to be disciplined
and if this is truly what you want, truly the
passion and that you wanna that you want to turn
this into a career, you have to be that splin
about what you're doing. You have to have the great
respect for your colleagues, no matter whether they played or didn't,
(33:08):
because they can help you get through this process and
there's nothing worse then, you know, and this is general
when when you have people that they treat others as
if they are beneath you. And that's one of the
things that happens in sports broadcasting is producers sometimes will
(33:30):
not want to tell you what they need to say
because they can be intimidated by you. So I tell
them be humble, check your check your you goo at
the door and you come in and tell them, Hey,
if you need to tell me to do something, tell me,
just coach me. I want to be coached. That's most
people want to be coached. They want to they don't
want to go out and do the wrong thing. But sometimes,
(33:51):
particularly in the sports industry and television that you know,
people are intimidated by them and don't want to do that.
So a way of breaking that ice is is going
to that producer colleague, Hey, if I'm doing something wrong,
tell me, you know, coach me up. I want to
get better at this. This is what I want to do.
But but as I mentioned, you have to let the
(34:12):
people know around you that that's what you want to
do and turn it into a career, and and be
passionate about it and be consistent too, you know. And
the reality is this, right I told you, I think
it's a coupon, gift card or whatever to a restaurant.
Understand that that's what it's gonna be. Upfront. It's about
getting opportunity. So whether that's calling a high school game,
(34:34):
whether that's calling a a you get whatever it is.
You need to be able to get as many reps
as possible because there are only so many seats out there.
There are only so many seats at the table. So
if you want to be a part of a studio show,
it might take you a while because those seats don't
open up very often. And just be patient, but be
(34:55):
diligent and be intentional about what it is you want
to do it. So, how as we wind down here
the final question. We believe that every successful person has
had a way maker that has sort of helped them
find their blueprint the success. Who are some of the
(35:20):
way makers that have been in your life that helped
you map out that blueprint for success? You know you
mentioned earlier that you know the type of life I've
had the opportunity to to really leave, which is what's
really been blessed. And you know, to me, that started
out with my parents, right. Uh. They adopted me when
(35:44):
I was three, about two and a half of three, uh,
and they really instilled a lot of discipline of the
way things should be done. So I think it starts
with my dad. Uh. And then I was really fortunate
growing up playing Little League base ball, playing Junior Betty
basketball over on eighty third Street. And then you know,
(36:05):
I had a chance to to be coached by some
unbelievable coaches, Coach Bond uh, Coach Irving Uh in my
basketball days. And then when I got to college, being
around Dr j. W. Smith, right, you know, there were
so many even I think about my my college coaches,
my high school coaches Dr j. W. Smith, But even
(36:26):
in college, you know, being around uh John mckavic, who
one of the things he did for us is he says, listen, guys,
he would put us up in four and five star hotels.
Say listen, this is this is the way you you
want to be able to travel. These are some of
the things that you should want to be able to
attain for your family. I want to show you what
(36:46):
you can do and if you go out and do
the right thing. So for me, I've had so many
coaches that that are really uh giving me the opportunity
to massimize um my skills and what I wanted to do.
But for me, it was if I had to pick
one outside of my dad, it would be Dr. J. W. Smith.
(37:08):
And he was there for for every major decision that
I've made in my life, as far as going to
the college, I was gonna go to, uh, decisions to
to come to the Big Ten Network two decisions, and
whether or not I was gonna sign with the Denver Broncos.
He was always a part of that. And you know,
to me, one of the great things about coaches is
(37:30):
they have an opportunity to mold so many people, and
teachers are the same way. They have an opportunity to
really go out and show young people what they can do,
and they can help you achieve all the dreams that
you could possibly want to achieve. And that's one of
the things that that kind of led me to start
(37:52):
my own youth football program here. Uh. We were headed
for about ten years, but it was being a brown
young peoples on the outside of Chicago, and we really
didn't have a lot at the time I started it,
but it was about putting young people together and giving
them the best opportunity because I thought that's where things
were missing for them to be able to take that step, uh,
(38:13):
to go on to rether High School or figure out
how to go to college and the possibly go there
for free. But that was all really driven by Dr
Smith when he started the Grammar school program for Chicago
public schools, whether it was basketball, football, some of those
programs that I've always wanted to give back and to me,
(38:33):
those are some of the people, though my coaches that
I've had and I continue to talk about Dr Smith
because he was such a huge influence on my life.
And you know, we're talking about my high school football coach,
but still was a part of all the major decisions
that I've ever made in my life. And you know,
he was a big part of it along with my dad,
(38:54):
uh to show me, you know what I could achieve
what most people dream about. You know, I was able
to go out and achieve it, and those guys were
a huge part of who I've become. Well, Howard, we
we thank your Dad, and we thank Dr Smith for
being way makers and guiding you along to the blueprint
(39:18):
for success. And we appreciate you taking out the time
the day to be a part of us. And I'm
sure our listeners are gonna appreciate hearing from you, so
thank you so much, and UH continue to good work
and continue to be a way maker as you move
forth throughout the rest of your career. I appreciate that enjoyed,
didn't take care. Thank you one
Hi, I'm Louis Carr, host of the Blueprint Connect podcast.
The Blueprint Connect is an extension of the Blueprint Men's Summit,
where we have consistently given men a prescription for growth,
not just for themselves, but also for their families and
their community. During these podcasts, we will educate, motivate our
(00:21):
listeners about entrepreneurship, careers, finance, health and wellness and relationship.
And today I'm privileged to have our special guests, former
NFL player Big Ten Network analysts Howard Griffin. Welcome, Howard, Hey,
thanks for having me. How are you doing. I'm doing great, man,
(00:43):
What a privilege to have you, especially, uh you guys
having sort of closed up the college season. It was
a real exciting college season. So I'm looking forward to
talking to you about that and many other things. How
you reinvent yourself from the NFL to become a big
time sportscaster. So welcome to the Blueprint Connect podcasts. Right
(01:07):
looking forward to it. So, Howard tell us, how did
the season go for the Big Ten Network? Did it
kind of uh morph into what you guys thought some
four or five months ago that the teams that you
thought were gonna be on top, ended on top. How
did it go well? I think one of the things,
uh did we look at each and every year is
(01:30):
what are the story some of the storylines that are
gonna be out there. And one of the things that
happens we have Ohio State, and it's usually Ohio States
in the middle of everything, competing for national championships. But
this year was really exciting because Michigan took that next
step and was able to obviously win the Big Ten
and and go on to make the four team playoffs.
And what Jim Harball was able to do there this
(01:51):
year was was really outstanding. I think he reinvented himself
as far as the coaches concerned. We brought in some
new energy as far as the coordinators are concerned, as
far as coaches are concerned. And also one of the
stories that happened this year was that he ended up
taking a pay cut. Lord Manuel, who's done an unbelievable
job as an athletic director there in Michigan, asked them
(02:14):
to to to take a pay cut. He did so,
and he really ended up showing up and made big
things were able to happen for him. But when you
start to get past some of those big time programs,
the blue chip programs that we talked about Ohio State
in Michigan, Purdue had an unbelievable season. They really did
a great job knocking off you know, a couple of
top two teams UH this year, really going out and
(02:36):
competing really well. UH. And then there are some other
teams that they're starting to make their moves and get better.
Maryland with Mike Locksley is really doing a tremendous job
of starting to to really get the foundation built out
out east so that they're able to have a chance
to compete. And you know a lot of people were
talking about Iowa at the beginning of the season, and
(02:57):
you know, they were as high as number two in
the country for while before a lot of big ten
play and they started to lose a couple of games,
but they were able to reinvent themselves. But I think
the biggest part of this particular season was the fact
to have fans back in the stands and and to
see the students back excited to cheer on their team,
and and obviously you know some of the businesses that
(03:19):
that surround the university. For them to be back on
their feet and going in full steam ahead for them
to have an opportunity to continue to make money and
probably want to make up some of that revenue they
lost from the previous year. So, so, how would you
played for the University of Illinois prior to going into
the NFL. You made that transition from high school to college.
(03:44):
What was the biggest thing that you had to do
different during that transition, not just in sports, but also
in academics. I think the toughest thing for me was
on the academic side, because the reality is, had I
not played football, I wouldn't have had an opportunity to
go to the University of Illinois because I like to
(04:04):
say that, you know, I was not Uh, I wouldn't
been able to get in as far as a CT
scores are concerned, as part as Great Point is concerned.
But that didn't stop me. I still had the desire.
So what I needed to do was to be really
upfront and honest with myself and my professors that I
was meeting with that Hey, I'm gonna need smeil. You
(04:26):
know I'm here, I'm gonna get it done. I'm gonna
get the work done, but I'm gonna need extra help.
And I didn't wait until that last week before mid terms,
of the last week before finals to ask of that
additional help. And and that's one of the things to me,
really opening up and telling people that that's what I needed.
And I think a lot of times, UH young people
(04:48):
don't necessarily want to do that, and I don't think
it's always encumbered on the young person to do that.
I also think that the institutions that that bring in
student athletes that may not be normally at MISS go
into their into their universities, have an obligation to make
sure that those young people get through. That means supplying
them with all the resources, because the reality is, you know,
(05:11):
for you know, a black kid coming off the South
side of Chicago, you know, I don't have I didn't
have much in common with the general student body that
was at the University of Illinois at that particular time. Now,
there were a lot there was a huge push when
I first got there in my freshman class really from
Chicago St. Louis UH in Indianapolis, where there was a
(05:33):
huge push to get minorities into the school and and
particularly black males, and it was really successful. And I
think for me it was about being honest and understanding
that I was gonna need help and I was gonna
have to work hard if I was gonna be able
to compete, And that was the biggest thing, and that
helped me in the classroom and really helped me once
I got onto the football fice. So how when I
(05:56):
was a student athlete myself and in college, how do
you get that balance between sports, academics, partying, and all
the other social activities? Yeah, how do you get that balance?
Is that discipline? What? What is that? It is disciplined?
(06:19):
I mean you you really have to have discipline to
be able to do that, because you're not like the
other students that are on campus. Right they can start
classes at two thirty, where you need to have all
your classes out of the way by two thirty. If
you guys are having afternoon practices or in some places
like Northwestern it likes to practice first thing in the morning.
You know they're on the field at six am, so
(06:42):
obviously they can't be out late partying and doing those
such types of things. So I think you have to
really understand why you're there and what your ultimate goals are.
And I think one of the things is you have
to be able to write your information down, your goals down,
so you can see them understand them. Uh, so that
you know when you start to think about, Okay, well
I'm gonna go to this party, um, and you know
(07:04):
you have practice the next day, and you know you
need to be able to perform, and if you don't perform,
you're not gonna play. And if you don't play, you're
not gonna be able to achieve your goals of possibly,
you know, becoming an All conference player or going on
to play in the National Football League. So I think
ultimately it starts with being disciplined and understanding what you
need to do and where your priorities need to be
(07:26):
set for you to be able to attain some of
the goals that you want. So you you also had
the privilege of transitioning from college to the big league.
The NFL was the NFL always this vision, this goal
for you, or that you just get blessed with a
lot of talent and things kind of worked out and
(07:49):
you find yourself in the NFL. Well, you know, I
thought I had some talent, right, and but the reality
is that at the NFL level, those are all great players.
So in college I played the tailback position, and you know,
got the ball all the time. People would set their
defenses to stop me and that sort of thing. But
(08:11):
I was still when I transitioned to the pro game,
I wasn't as fast as some of the other guys
who were out there. I wasn't as quick. So I
had to go and redefine myself and become a fullback. Now,
nobody wants to play the fullback posisie because they never
get the ball. Nobody when they talk about how great
the run game is, it's the offensive line and the
(08:34):
running back. When they talk about how great the pass
game is, it's the wide receiver in the quarterback. So
they never really talked about that, uh fullback position. So
you know, I had a coach come to me and saying, hey, listen, um,
I think you got to try the fullback position, and
I think you can be successful doing it. And I said, okay,
But my what I wanted to do was have a
(08:56):
national career in the national football team, so I couldn't
be upper and say, well, you know, I'm just going
I'm gonna play full tail back and that's just going
to be what it is. I had to make that
transition and it was a tough pill to swallow, but
my desire to play and have a career outweighed, you know,
the the so called uh, you know, sacrifice that I
(09:19):
was gonna have to make, and and I really embraced it.
And I think it's really one of the things, uh
that allowed me to have a success in the NFL,
was to be able to embrace that change at that time,
UH and go on and continue to try to be
the best at that position that I could be. How
much did you weigh when the coach came and had
that conversation, because usually there's a different and weight class,
(09:42):
no doubt about it. UM. And that's interesting. UM. We
had a guy to play the Michigan draw a bunch.
He was six and probably forty five pounds. I was
probably five eleven two to twenty and so going back
to that draft process, you know, I was still not
(10:03):
big enough to quote unquote play the fullback position, so
I had to develop. So I wasn't very heavy at
the time. I was probably too twenty uh somewhere in there.
But I had an understanding of what defenses were were
like and where they were trying to go and how
they were trying to slow things down. So what ultimately
(10:23):
ended up happening is at the fullback position, I kind
of would read the defensive line and the offensive line
and linebackers as if I was the tailback carrying the
ball who was a few yards behind me. So that
gave me the ability to adjust, make this, make quick decisions,
and to be able to get up onto those linebackers
(10:44):
and sometimes whether it was a safety or whether it
was a defensive end, to be able to make some
of those adjustments. And that's ultimately, you know what what
led to it. And for me, it was always a transition, right,
having a transition talking about high school, college, college UH
to the NFL. My life has been full of transitions.
(11:04):
And again it was that desire to to want to
have that career which allowed me to go on and
make those transitions and and be successful at it. Now,
the funny part about it is I started out at
Mental Catholic from a hundred and the level and I
ended up transferring from there to pursue Julian because I
wanted to play for Dr J. W. Smith, who recently
(11:27):
passed UH. And the reason I wanted to transfer is
that the coach at Mendel said, Hey, Howard, why don't
you play sail back? Why don't you play fullback. We've
got a young guy that's coming up and we like
to have you guys both on the field at the
same time. In the arrogance that I had at that
time right didn't allow me to do that. So I'm like,
that's not what I'm doing. I'm getting ready transfer and
(11:51):
then I ended up going to Julian. But it was
it was funny how things came ultimately became full circle
for me. This is I wanted me to play the
fullback position at a high school where I didn't embrace it,
to getting to the National Football League and having to
be moved to the fullback position, but I embraced it.
And I just wonder, what if, what, what differences would
(12:11):
have made in my career earlier had I embraced embraced
that at mental cap So how that brings you to
this question? Uh, several months ago, I was had the
pleasure of talking to an olympian and asked him how
he was staying motivated through the pandemic to get through
practices and everything, and he said, one of the most
(12:32):
interesting things I've ever heard he said, Louis, I'm not motivated,
just discipline mm hmm. And it just I won't scream
because he said, if it was about motivation, I couldn't
get up seven days a week and work out twice
a day. It's about discipline. Talk about that and your
(12:55):
NFL career and you know, staying on the same such
a good one, that fullback and doing something that you
didn't want to do, but have you found a way
to do it. You know, it's funny when when we
talk about discipline, right, and it's the young person you
talked about discipline or you hear the word discipline, it
has negative connotations to it a lot of times for
(13:19):
young people when they think about it. Uh, as you're
starting to grow up, you understand that you know, you
have to be you have to be dedicated to to
what it is you're doing. Um and it's not just
you know, on the field, it's off the field the
decisions that you have to be able to make. And
and for me, you know, particularly once I got to
(13:39):
the NFL, UM it was about making a choice that
every Tuesday was an offer day, but I never took
the day off. That wasn't my off day. You know,
I was always in the in the facility watching film,
working out, and I would always get in there early.
And it was interesting because one of the things I
(14:02):
learned early in my career when I was on the
practice squad, so I wasn't on the regular roster. Uh,
when I was starting to make that transition. When I
was with the San Diego Chargers, you know, the players there,
I would say, man, we gotta get in early, the
first one in and the last one to leave. Now
the last one to leave sometimes because you were you
(14:22):
were still watching film. But it was also an opportunity
to fellowship with other players and kind of get to
know them a little bit better. But it's about making
choices when you're when you're having off daby, you really
wanted to be an off day. And by the time
we got to to Denver, it was interesting. I got
in there. If we won on on Sunday, well, we
(14:44):
didn't have to be back in the facility officially until Wednesday,
so you literally had Monday and Tuesday you were off.
But those we never take those days off. I mean,
the whole team would be there, most most of the
team that would be there on Mondays and tuesdays and
we're getting in the work that they needed to get
in and the film study and understanding you know that
(15:05):
next opponent, because that's the only edge you can get.
Um it's is to be in there and and be
figuring it out. And we've talked all the time. And
you can go on vacation. Yeah you're going on vacation
for a while, that's good. But but right now, this
is it's all about business. So you've got to maximize
what you're doing right now because the window for professional
(15:26):
athletes or even athletes period is a very finite amount
of time. And you never want to look back. At
least I didn't. I never wanted to look back and
have any regrets because you know it can end at
any moment. So you have to maximize each and every
day to put yourself in a position to be the
best player that you can be and not be the
(15:48):
weakest link on the team. Uh So that's part of it,
and that's the discipline that you have to have. And
I think he's right when you think about it, is
you gotta go when you know you've got to get
stuff done. You have to get it done. You can't,
you know, let other things get in the way, and
unfortunately family is part of that as well. Right, that's
a part of it, and you make sacrifices and you
(16:10):
have to make choices. But at the end of the day,
it's about maximizing your opportunities that you have and with
it just being a small window of your life playing
in the National Football League or even at the college level,
those sacrifices are well worked. We'll be right back with
(16:33):
more of my interview after this quick break. One more
question about the NFL. You played for a number of teams, Chargers, Broncos,
think Rams, Uh. How did you make that transition in cultures?
(16:57):
Because I look at sports teams like corporations, all right,
each corporation has a different culture. How did you sort
of make those quick transitions into a new culture. I
think one of the things that stood out for me
is is that once you get into the National Football League,
(17:17):
there's a whole different vibe that you have about yourself
and the way you look at the game, the way
you the way you take care of your body. For
the most part, you know, young people, they get in
there and all of a sudden, there's there's money at hand,
there's access you could do this that, and so early
in my career when I was with the Rams uh
(17:40):
And it's really interesting when I was there because we
ran the same exact offense that the Dallas Cowboys ran
with Emma Smith and Troy Aatemen and in urban UH
and we actually had the architect was the architect of
that offense, was our offensive coordinator. What was the difference? Right,
(18:00):
the Rams weren't winning games, Dallas was going to the
super Bowl. Well, the Rams, let's see from eight am
to eleven, it was what happened last night, from once
practice started to the end. Where are we going tonight?
Although we were in Anaheim, it was only the thirty
forty minute drive to l A. And that's what everybody
(18:24):
wanted to do. So the culture overall good good players,
really good players, but there was not a culture of
trying to go out and win each and every day.
And the problem is one person can't change that. And
there were a lot of young players there, so young
people wanted to do with young people. Undisciplined people wanted
(18:47):
to do go hang out in l A and do
all the traps of l A. At the time, but
then I saw that change as I got better asan athletes.
I'm matured as an a professional athlete that that you know,
you have to be able to to adapt and you
have to have great leadership. And we talked a little
bit about, you know, the leaders in the room. And
(19:10):
I tell young people all the time, or even when
I'm talking about the college game, the culture is set
by the person that's in the front of the room,
right what he or she expects the young people to do.
And that's not just going out and playing well and
practicing well. How are you conducting yourself? How do you
(19:30):
leave your locker room? That's always a great example of
how I want to you know, when I want to
look at the team and understand what they're doing, I
go look at the locker room and look at their
bathrooms and that tells me everything I need to know
about the culture of that organization, right Because to me,
by the time I got to Denver, the culture there
(19:53):
was the maintenance people wanted to be the very best
that they could be. The the landscaping crew wanted to
be the very best they can be. Everybody took pride
and everything they did and that started. You know, if
Mike Shanahan and Mr Bowen at the top, setting that
(20:15):
precedent and then it comes down. So the expectations are
set high. So it's not leaving, it's not leaving stuff
laying around. It's taking care of yourself. It's taken pride
in it. But you see that you have to try
to fit in and you have to try to ultimately, uh,
try to adapt, and in some situations you you try
(20:36):
to change the culture. But the way you change it
is the way you work. Right. I wasn't the first
one that was coming in on Tuesdays and working out.
But if I'm in there on Tuesday, you better believe
that my backups there on Tuesday because he wants to play.
You better believe the starter tailback is gonna be there
on Tuesday because he doesn't want to let anybody else down.
(20:58):
So it becomes in infectious. And that's what winning does,
and that's what having success does. It allows that culture
to be able to change. And I think sometimes we
throw the word culture around a lot, and that's one
of those buzzwords that we throw out there. But to me,
it's ultimately about the people making the decision that this
(21:22):
is the environment I want to be in. I want
to do what they're doing because they're doing things the
right way, and you may come from a place that
did it the opposite. But I think it's about getting
into the right system, into the right program, into the
right business opportunity that's gonna allow you to thrive and
be the very best. But a lot of that becomes
(21:43):
down to that individual wanting to buy in. That's what
it ultimately comes down to. So so how would you
you've had what what I would say is, uh, a
privileged sort of life. I mean, you you were a
special person in high school. You're a great athlete there.
Then you went on to college, you're a great athlete there,
(22:05):
and then you had this real special thing to be
to play in the NFL, and then you went to
do something else. You are a sports analyst, which, uh
it's not easy. How was that a vision or a
goal for you or how did that happen that you
(22:28):
make that transition? That is something that you know, I
really always wanted to do. I really did. I really
was excited about, you know, talking with the media and
one of the things even going back to high school
with Jim Rose here in Chicago, but come interview me
(22:49):
and do different things I really loved what they were doing.
I mean, professional living guys wearing suits, you know on television, Uh,
you know, telling us about what's going on in sports.
So what I did throughout my particularly once I got
to college, was I continue to to create those relationships
(23:13):
with the people that were coming in in an interview. Uh,
we'll come in and talk with the team. You have,
the beat reporters. You see, the same people that come
in you know, on a regular basis, particularly at the
NFL level. So it was having conversations with them, you know,
really talking with them about what their job entailed and
some of the things that they had to do. And
(23:33):
going back to college even you know, deciding to say, hey,
I need to take this internship and I come over
to the station a couple of times a week, you know,
I'll do whatever and then come on sure, you know,
and in a small town like Champagne at the time, uh,
you know the sports he would here, she would uh
conduct the interview, also have to take doing the whole thing.
(23:56):
I have to edit the tape once he got back
to the studio. So I got a chance to see
that entire process at the college level. When when I
had a chance to do it there, and then at
the pros it was just continuing, you know, to to
make those connections. Now when I was done playing, everyone
thinks that, okay, now you're gonna make all this money
(24:17):
being able to talk sports. And you know, I was
calling some football games for Colorado State at the time.
It was the Colorado Prush Arena football team, and they
were paying peanuts that actually wanted the shows. They gave
me a point out. All the gift card was how
they compensated me. But I knew that was what I
wanted to do, right because it was still in the game,
(24:40):
close to the game and at the time when you leave,
when when most athletes leave, that is not even close
the best thing that you do in life at that
moment when you leave the game, and so many of
us and I'm not exent from this. When you either game,
(25:01):
you want to you know, start a business. You want
to get into real estate, you want to do something
in the tech industry, you want to do all these
different opportunities that are out there because people say, hey, listen,
when you're done, give me a call and we can
work something out and we'll try to help you, you know,
get into this field or that. But what I found
was I really wasn't having a success I wanted because
(25:22):
I wasn't passionate about any of those things. The thing
that I was passionate about was talking about college and
pro football. And once I finally wrapped my mind around that,
that's when you know, my career really accelerated and I
started to have a lot of success. And it was
(25:43):
a tough one and it's a learning experience that you
can go through, but ultimately it comes down to you
finding what you want to be passionate about. In doing that,
and so many times, you know, as professional athletes were
trying to get as far away from the sport. It's
possible because that's who you are identified with. You're trying
(26:04):
to reinvent yourself and become something different. Some people have
some success at that, but of us don't have that
type of success necessarily uh so quickly. So the learning
curve is steep in some of those other arenas uh
and it takes time, but the learning curve was steeping
(26:24):
in the broadcasting industry as well, because you needed to
learn how to study, you need to learn how to communicate,
you needed to learn how to create relationships with coaches,
which some people kind of think that's an easy thing
to do, but it's not. And the reason it's tough
because you have to they have to trust you because
(26:45):
they're telling you things about their team and oh, by
the way, you're going to talk to their opponent in
a couple of hours. So there has to be a
lot of trust is there. And I was able to
do that. And for me, it was just being finding
what I was ultimately passionate about, and that was staying
around the game of football and and and really enjoy
(27:07):
enjoying being a part of it, and enjoying the process
of preparing each and every week. So, how there's certain
basic fundamentals that great athletes have that that that they've
learned to master. How did you use those fundamentals to
make that transition from sports into business of broadcasting. You know,
(27:33):
we we talked to a lot of athletes about you've
got that basic foundation of success. Talk about what some
of those fundamentals are and how you use them to transition.
I think one of the biggest things was I've never
been told what time I needed to come to work.
I never was told with time I needed to be
(27:54):
a practice because I was always there earth, So whatever
time me eadn't started, I didn't think about. I didn't
There wasn't a thought process for me because I was
gonna be there early enough where I was gonna do
what I needed to do that morning, whether it was workout,
whether it was get treatment, and then I'm already there,
(28:16):
so okay, we just move along with the rest of
the that So what's happened in the broadcasting side of
it as well, is like a typical Saturday for us,
I could easily, you know, we are the show doesn't
come on until was it nine am? But I'm there,
you know, sixty six third, So really nobody's telling us
(28:41):
when we needed to be there. You just get there
because you know, you need to prepare, you need to
settle down, at least for me, need to common nerves
and just go look over those last minute notes and
see if there's any changes. But to me, being first
into the building, it's one of the things that that
has really helped me really throughout my broadcast career because
(29:04):
when you're the first, one of the first people in
the building, you know what it's saying something, and and
that's really been something that I've always tried to tell
some of the people that are coming into the industry
that are leaving UH that are leading football at the time,
I mean that you gotta be first day the last
I mean, that's just the way it has to be
if you want to make a name for yourself. Because
(29:26):
the thing about sports in the broadcasting side is you're
not getting coached the way you're used to being coached.
You're not being mentored the way you're used to being
mentor where you run a play, you come off, you
get immediate feedback about what it is you did right,
what it is you did wrong. And what I noticed
(29:48):
in television is you don't that coach isn't there in
the in in the sports broadcasting side, It's really not there.
So what happens is if you come in and you're
not preparing and not doing anything, a producer will say, well,
I can't really work with him because he's not prepared,
and they just don't call you back. And that's one
(30:08):
of the hard transitions that guys have to understand. You
have to be self motivated, and again discipline comes back
into that. You need to be prepared, you need to
understand what your storylines or are going to be because
if you don't, you know, there's nobody there to say, hey,
hold on you you need to do things this way.
(30:29):
Now he was thinking this, but it's not. It's just
so different. We'll be right back with more of my
interview after this quick break. So Howard talk to the
(30:52):
athlete who is graduating college, this upcoming man. Yeah, let's
say he's really good, he's coming out as All American,
but he's trying to figure out what's next. He's not
going to the pros, but he's had a hell of
a college career. Give him some advice on how to
(31:17):
find what's next. That process, Yeah, it's it takes some
soul searching, it really does. Um. You know, we get
a chance to talk with For me, one of the
things I really love about my job is is that
I get a chance to to follow these a lot
of these players when they were in high school because
I really followed the recruiting process, so I kind of
(31:38):
know who these guys are, and then all of a
sudden they show up as pressure on campus. Then it
seems like with the blink of an eye, the career
is over and they're going in a different direction now.
And you know what's fun about watching that process is
seeing the maturity of them. Some go into coaching, some
going to broadcasting, but one of the things that ultimately
(32:00):
stands out is you have to know who you are
and you have to be committed to working at it
and being the best that you can be. I've seen
so many people, you know, want to get into the
broadcasting business, but not want to do any of the work.
I want to show up twenty minutes before the show
(32:21):
is supposed to air live uh, and think that that's okay,
and and they could be good, but they don't want
to put in the work because a lot of times
you see a thirty minute show, twenty two minutes of
content and they're like, shoot, that's easy. They're not doing
any work. It doesn't look hard. And then all of
a sudden they're placed in a situation like that and
(32:44):
you know they don't know how to handle it. So
so for me, it's about continuing to to be disciplined
and if this is truly what you want, truly the
passion and that you wanna that you want to turn
this into a career, you have to be that splin
about what you're doing. You have to have the great
respect for your colleagues, no matter whether they played or didn't,
(33:08):
because they can help you get through this process and
there's nothing worse then, you know, and this is general
when when you have people that they treat others as
if they are beneath you. And that's one of the
things that happens in sports broadcasting is producers sometimes will
(33:30):
not want to tell you what they need to say
because they can be intimidated by you. So I tell
them be humble, check your check your you goo at
the door and you come in and tell them, Hey,
if you need to tell me to do something, tell me,
just coach me. I want to be coached. That's most
people want to be coached. They want to they don't
want to go out and do the wrong thing. But sometimes,
(33:51):
particularly in the sports industry and television that you know,
people are intimidated by them and don't want to do that.
So a way of breaking that ice is is going
to that producer colleague, Hey, if I'm doing something wrong,
tell me, you know, coach me up. I want to
get better at this. This is what I want to do.
But but as I mentioned, you have to let the
(34:12):
people know around you that that's what you want to
do and turn it into a career, and and be
passionate about it and be consistent too, you know. And
the reality is this, right I told you, I think
it's a coupon, gift card or whatever to a restaurant.
Understand that that's what it's gonna be. Upfront. It's about
getting opportunity. So whether that's calling a high school game,
(34:34):
whether that's calling a a you get whatever it is.
You need to be able to get as many reps
as possible because there are only so many seats out there.
There are only so many seats at the table. So
if you want to be a part of a studio show,
it might take you a while because those seats don't
open up very often. And just be patient, but be
(34:55):
diligent and be intentional about what it is you want
to do it. So, how as we wind down here
the final question. We believe that every successful person has
had a way maker that has sort of helped them
find their blueprint the success. Who are some of the
(35:20):
way makers that have been in your life that helped
you map out that blueprint for success? You know you
mentioned earlier that you know the type of life I've
had the opportunity to to really leave, which is what's
really been blessed. And you know, to me, that started
out with my parents, right. Uh. They adopted me when
(35:44):
I was three, about two and a half of three, uh,
and they really instilled a lot of discipline of the
way things should be done. So I think it starts
with my dad. Uh. And then I was really fortunate
growing up playing Little League base ball, playing Junior Betty
basketball over on eighty third Street. And then you know,
(36:05):
I had a chance to to be coached by some
unbelievable coaches, Coach Bond uh, Coach Irving Uh in my
basketball days. And then when I got to college, being
around Dr j. W. Smith, right, you know, there were
so many even I think about my my college coaches,
my high school coaches Dr j. W. Smith, But even
(36:26):
in college, you know, being around uh John mckavic, who
one of the things he did for us is he says, listen, guys,
he would put us up in four and five star hotels.
Say listen, this is this is the way you you
want to be able to travel. These are some of
the things that you should want to be able to
attain for your family. I want to show you what
(36:46):
you can do and if you go out and do
the right thing. So for me, I've had so many
coaches that that are really uh giving me the opportunity
to massimize um my skills and what I wanted to do.
But for me, it was if I had to pick
one outside of my dad, it would be Dr. J. W. Smith.
(37:08):
And he was there for for every major decision that
I've made in my life, as far as going to
the college, I was gonna go to, uh, decisions to
to come to the Big Ten Network two decisions, and
whether or not I was gonna sign with the Denver Broncos.
He was always a part of that. And you know,
to me, one of the great things about coaches is
(37:30):
they have an opportunity to mold so many people, and
teachers are the same way. They have an opportunity to
really go out and show young people what they can do,
and they can help you achieve all the dreams that
you could possibly want to achieve. And that's one of
the things that that kind of led me to start
(37:52):
my own youth football program here. Uh. We were headed
for about ten years, but it was being a brown
young peoples on the outside of Chicago, and we really
didn't have a lot at the time I started it,
but it was about putting young people together and giving
them the best opportunity because I thought that's where things
were missing for them to be able to take that step, uh,
(38:13):
to go on to rether High School or figure out
how to go to college and the possibly go there
for free. But that was all really driven by Dr
Smith when he started the Grammar school program for Chicago
public schools, whether it was basketball, football, some of those
programs that I've always wanted to give back and to me,
(38:33):
those are some of the people, though my coaches that
I've had and I continue to talk about Dr Smith
because he was such a huge influence on my life.
And you know, we're talking about my high school football coach,
but still was a part of all the major decisions
that I've ever made in my life. And you know,
he was a big part of it along with my dad,
(38:54):
uh to show me, you know what I could achieve
what most people dream about. You know, I was able
to go out and achieve it, and those guys were
a huge part of who I've become. Well, Howard, we
we thank your Dad, and we thank Dr Smith for
being way makers and guiding you along to the blueprint
(39:18):
for success. And we appreciate you taking out the time
the day to be a part of us. And I'm
sure our listeners are gonna appreciate hearing from you, so
thank you so much, and UH continue to good work
and continue to be a way maker as you move
forth throughout the rest of your career. I appreciate that enjoyed,
didn't take care. Thank you one
Host
Louis Carr
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