December 5, 2023 • 50 mins
Joshua Richey grew up on the streets of Oklahoma surrounded by gangs, drugs and alcohol but he had speed, talent, and a focus on getting out and set his sights on the NFL.Tune in as he shares his journey with Jacob & Ashley on Episode 26 of The Good Stuff podcast.
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Twitter: @TheJoshuaRichey
TikTok: @thejoshuarichey
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Welcome to the Good Stuff. I'm Jacob Chick and I'm
joined by my co host and wife, Ashley Shick.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Jake is a third generation combat Marine and I'm a
gold Star granddaughter. We work together to serve military veterans,
first responders, frontline healthcare workers, and their families with mental
and emotional wellness through traditional and non traditional therapy. At
One Tribe Foundation.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
We believe everyone has a story to tell, not only
about the peaks, but also the valleys they've been through
to get them to where they are today.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Each week, we invite a guest to tell us their story,
to share with us the lessons they've learned that shaped
who they are and what they're doing to pay it
forward and give back.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Our mission with this show is to dig deep into
our guest journey so that we can celebrate the hope
and inspiration their story.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Has to offer.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Thrilled you're joining.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Us again, Welcome to the Good Stuff.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
We are so excited about today's episode. Our friend Joshua
Ritchie is a mindset coach and motivational speaker. He's a
former professional football player and works with merging veterans and players.
It's an organization that focuses on bringing veterans and former
professional sports players together.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Joshua is here to tell his story of survival, how
he survived street violence as a child, how he survived
the shooting as a young man, how he survived the
death of his dream of making it in the NFL,
and how he survived the devastation of a severe gambling addiction.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
And now he's here with us as a living, breathing
example of what it means to thrive.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
This is truly my brother from another mother, and his
story is raw strap in It's about the get ball beat.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
I am so excited to dive into this conversation. This
is one like we've never had here on the good stuff.
Joshua Richie, thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Thank you for inviting me. I'm excited.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Hey, we're honored to have you.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
This is going to be.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
A great perspective food for people. Let's do it.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Tell us about where you came from and what your
childhood was like.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
I was born and raised in Aerina, Oklahoma, little country
town about fifteen twenty miles west of Oklahoma City. And
my mom she was amazing, still is amazing to this day.
But six weeks before she had me. A month before
her vacation pay, she was fired due to racism, and
my mom didn't know what to do. She was struggling,
(02:36):
I'm about to have a child. What do I do? Yeah,
she became stressed in me and the womb. I received
that and my mom was severely stressed. Wasn't going to
have any money, what she was going to do? She
was about to have a baby. Yep, So now she's stressed.
I'm stressed. So I developed asthma from that seizures. So
all these things were happening to me, was going on
(02:57):
with me because of my mom was stressed because of
what was going on out side, and I received it
on the inside. And so that's how it started in
the womb.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
So you're here by the grace of God absolutely, So
tell us about your upbringing. What was it like growing
up in that home?
Speaker 3 (03:16):
It was definitely a challenge. No father present at all. Ever,
my mom was doing the best she could to bring
me and my sister up and some things that she
had to do to sacrifice her life. And she told me,
she said, son, I never wanted to be on welfare,
never wanted to do that. I wanted to work for
my money. But she was forced to be on wearefare
(03:37):
because she was fired. And when she got on the welfare,
now it seemed like life was happening to us and
not for us. Sometimes she would have to do things
that she didn't want to do, and sometime we got
to the point where she said, son, you know, I
just had to sell myself because I wanted to provide
for my children. And I would see she never knew
(03:59):
that I was noticing this stuff, but I used to
see like old rich white man coming into the house
and boom, they relieve I would see this and taking
that on in that whole process, not having a father,
not having a male figure in the household, not teaching
me how to become a man and what it looks
(04:20):
like to be a man. My mom did the best
she could try to raise me. She taught me streets.
He wanted me to learn streets. Who wanted me to
be a PhD In streets? She did that. Yeah, And
that's the one thing she said, You're gonna low streets.
You're gonna know how to live, survive, You're gonna know
how to thrive. You're gonna know how to be the
best person you can.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Be what does that mean. She taught you how to
know streets.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
So she would bring me out to the block. We
called it the block in the hood. She would bring
me out to the block. She would let me see
the violence. She would let me see the drugs and alcohol.
She would let me see all of that. And she
showed me and she said, well, if you in this situation, son,
this is what is gonna happen. If you're over here
in this situation, this is gonna happen. If you're here,
this is gonna happen. So I got to see drugs,
I got to see alcohol, I got to see prostitution,
(05:03):
I got to see gains, violence, I got to see
all that. So at three years old, I was here
by a car. My mom was having a rum and
cell and my ball went out in the street and
I ran out there in the street to get my
ball and booming car hits me. Now the police comes
and the police and my mom take me to the hospital.
At this point, my mom was like, diah forms, you
didn't know what was going on. And the doctor had
(05:26):
put me in like freezing ice water. My grandma was
there was like the think's going on? What is this.
She snatches me out of the ice water. They take
me to Oklahoma City to a specialist. The specialist was
discovered that I had seizures from the car from the
car hitting me, and he gave me fema barbatah. But
if you're aware of what fema barbatah does, it slows
(05:47):
your brain down. And so my mom was noticing changes
in me and she took me off of it. And
the doctor said, never tell a junkie that your son
is on fema barbaitah. My mom was like what she said,
because I junk it would probably kill you for it.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
And so my mom was like, that's it, it's over,
no more of that. Yeah, So she took me off
of it. I was a special A class from second
grade through the twelfth grade. So I thought I was dumb.
I thought it was stupid. I didn't think I was smart,
had low self esteem, I was insecure, didn't love myself,
didn't like me.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
So that was a life that I lived. No father.
My mom was emotionally sometimes abusive to me and my
sister mentally abusive. She whooped us, we got whoopings, all
those things. I thought it were good. I thought I'd
come out great, but not knowing what it was doing
to my subconscious. In my mindset, I was suppressing a
(06:44):
lot of feelings. So then I would go to school
and I would act it out. I'm doing quotation marks.
I would act out. But it wasn't a behavior problem.
It was a relationship problem. And when I realized that
and my mom started to open up tell me things,
I knew exactly what it.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Was, even at a young age.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Even at a young age, so at seven years old,
almost drowning the pool. The guy was dunking me, I thought,
and then when you go to the pool, the older
guys to dunk you.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Oh yeah, horse playing, yeah, playing chicken.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
But I told him, I said I can't swim. He
thought I was just playing. I didn't want to be dunked,
and he dunked me. So one of my friends run
up the stairs and go get my mom, and my
mom would come yelling down the thing you be able
to get my baby out of that water. To this day,
I have no understanding, no recollection of what happened. How
long I was in the water, I don't have no clue.
But as my mom was doing that, his mom came
(07:38):
out she said, baby gidding. I'm sorry, but I can't
do anything with him. He killed his toward sister, same
exact way.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Wow, he drowned.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Her drownder, same exact way, same thing, And so my
mom was like WHOA. Three weeks before that, my mom
picked us up from my grandmother's house and o'c clomb City.
We're going to the gas station and my mama was
inside the store. Me and my sister was in that window.
We're seven years old. We're in the window, we're looking
for her and waiting on her, and a guy just
(08:11):
comes and blows the guy's brains down. We see the
brains just come. So my mama's in the door in
the class light, waving us get down, get down. I'm
trying to pull my sister down now at this point,
she's not trying to come down, but I'm down on
the floor now and I'm trying to pull my sister down.
I'm trying to get her down, and all I can
just think of, like, man, what is this guy gonna
(08:33):
do to my mom? So my mama's just like here
in the head, like stuck and just looking and the
god walks by does nothing. Then we leave, We go
to the back to our house, and soon as we
get to there, a lady comes running down the street.
It's a guy dead at the store. She had killed
her husband. Wow, my mama's boyfriend's cousin. So this is
(08:57):
all in the spin. This is what I'm seeing at
seven years old.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
The stories that you've told us in a few minutes
we've been talking. Maybe one of those will happen to
someone in their lifetime.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
And you've just.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Told of the first formative years of your life. You've
already been through this much. That was an everyday occurrence
in the environment you grew up in.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Yes, And at age nine, my sister had came into
my room and said, get up, get up. I'm like,
I'm sleep. I just got home school. I'm sleep. Like,
leave me alone. No, I'm not getting she said, no,
wake up, wake up. It's something red in the kitchen,
Like leave me alone, please, I don't care. She's like, no,
get up, I get up. Boom, it's a fire in
the kitchen. So now I gotta go fill up a
(09:40):
whole thing with water. And I threw it on the
fire in the fire to say night. I did it
again and it got bigger. Warning I said they'd be
one more time. I'm gonna do it one more time.
We gotta go filled it up again. I threw it
on it and this just boom popped me and my
sister said we got to go. We ran out. So
we lost everything nine years old, all our stuff, animals.
(10:02):
We had hundreds of stuff animals in My aunt Miami
used to give us because she's just drive eighteen willers
and lost clothes everything at nine. So childhood was challenging.
I tell people a lot that my childhood experiences, all
the things that I've experienced, it taught me a valuable lesson.
(10:23):
But I had to learn when I got older. But
in those times I didn't understand. I just suppressed my feelings,
my emotions. I suppressed it all. I didn't know I
was doing that. And in my culture, you don't talk
about therapy. You don't talk about counseling anxiety. You better
get up. You better get up, boy, you better, you
better adjust yourself off. Don't let that little boy look
(10:43):
at you crying. You're a man. Never let somebody see
you crying. This is what I was taught. So nothing
was going to FaZe me if I got hurt. I'm
back up on my feet. That's how I grew up.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Where did you find connection even at a young age.
Was it on a field to play? Was it playing football, baseball? Basketball?
Did you have any connection outside of your mom and
your sister, your aunt?
Speaker 3 (11:14):
That's a great question. I had my grandmother, So both
of my grandmas died when I was fourteen, and then
my grandma died. She died when I was eleven, I
mean twenty eleven. Then I had my memo too, So
I had a foundation of women, you know, really comfort me,
not only my mom, but my grandmother's, my aunts, and
I had that connection. But for me it was I think,
Jake is the field. So when I got on the
(11:36):
baseball diamond, I was a whole different animal. When I
got on the diamond, I thought that was gonna be
my deal. And so when I got on the baseball diamond,
I was ready. And then when I got on the
football field, I was really ready because I ran fast.
I was the fastest in my county. Nobody could nobody
can out rub me. So that's what I think. That's
what the connection was for me. That I knew I
was fashioned baseball. They caught me flash so I was
(12:01):
an act called flash.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
I just you know, because I'm thinking it back to
my childhood and where I really the only outlet I
had was playing football, and know I had that outlet
of releasing all that stuff that I was suppressing. You know,
I was more of the hitter as opposed to the
hit tee. But it was something where I could leave
(12:24):
there and just for a minute, I felt peace, you know,
regardless of knowing where I was going back to, like,
I felt peace. And look, I applaud you for your
openness and your willingness to say yah, my culture we
don't do that. We don't talk about it. I guess
what it wasn't just in your culture. It's crazy because pride.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
And ego will kill you aste.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
And it's one of those things where you know, we
tell our sons, if you got to say something, say something,
I'll never judge us on our job. Yes, talk to
us please, And we can't help what we don't know.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
With the education that your mom gave you, of the
streets that was so important for her to show you,
where did that take you?
Speaker 3 (13:11):
It took me and it led me to now me
and my brother we started our little game and so
we become leaders of a game. And in our whole
perspective on that was that we never had fathers growing up.
The older guys used to come to our games to
watch us. They supported us, the older guys, so the
older ones in the hood, they would come to our
(13:31):
games and support us. And my brother and I we decided, Okay,
this is what we wanted to do, and we wanted
to be different than any other game because we were
athletes and we wanted to develop an organization that was
going to be like we're going to wear our clothes,
we're going to wear our big chains, and but we
were going to be excited about it. But also when
(13:51):
we left our city in Arena, now we go to
Oklahoma City, that's when violence happens. That's when fights and
the violence and the guns and all that stuff became
a part of life. But that's not how we wanted
it to be. We just wanted to represent our colors,
represent who we were, and just be us the athletes.
(14:12):
But we go to Kloma City because we probably beat
them on the football field, we beat them on the
baseball diamond. Whatever. They didn't like us small town, they
knew where we're from. They knew we're gonna fight hard,
We're gonna play hard. They knew that. Now when we
go to Oklahoma City, that's what it was. So my
mom her teaching me that and me seeing tons of
game violence and sometimes I'll be walking down the street
in my city and broad daylight. We got enemy over
(14:34):
here that's shooting and we got the duck and like,
oh my goodness, this iseem like they're shooting a look,
we can peer peer, we can hear the bullets flying.
It's like, oh this broad daylight. I was always alert.
I knew every exit, my mama taught me. I knew
every exit, and I knew eskate route for everybody immediately
and I would never see it with my back to
the door. None of those things. So that's what those
things she taught me, and I still use them today
(14:57):
because it was valuable. And she told me different ways
in different routes, and we had sound language that we
would do, we had different words that we would say.
So we created this me and my mom. She created
these different things in me to show me, like this
is what is going to be necessary for you to
live the life you want to live. Growing up like
that is it can be challenging, but at the same time,
(15:19):
it was like, okay, what do you do? Because that's
all we knew is that.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
It's hard for me to sit here. I mean because
you know, I sit here and try to think that
was your reality. Yes, always on edge, always having to
check the door, always having to know your environment. Did
you ever get in trouble like when you would go
to Oklahoma City or things got gnarley? Was there ever
any trouble.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
In our hood and in our environment? So if you
look at my grandpa was a killer and he was
a known killer, it's just what he was. So the
name was respected, and then we have other people in
our community was really respected that had bodies as well
in our community. But Oklahoma City they don't know who
my grandpa was. I don't even dank who your grandpa is.
Your uncles got bodies or your uncles did this, and
(16:04):
I don't give a thing about that. They want to
see your heart beating, check you out, well, who are you?
And so that what was going on when we went
to Talkoma City, So it was fights and all these
different things. So for me it was I never drank
alcohol ever in my life, so I was always alert,
so my prefund the cortex was always pretty solid, so
my decision making was there. And I was standing not
(16:24):
on the dance floor, but I would be up high
and I'll be watching like our little homies down on
the floor doing what they do. And if I see
me got a little out of hand, I would, you know,
come down and kind of check and let people know that,
you know, I'm kind of leading this side. I'm looking
for their leader and whatever there are, and we can
talk about it, or we can just let them go.
(16:46):
However y'all want to do it. One time, men, their
leader got kicked out and we were walking out. I'm like, man,
what do you want to do? Like you know where
we're from, Like what do you want to do? He's like, man,
I'm not even talking to you, so sorry. That's cool.
So he goes and gets in the car. Some girl
picks him up in the car and he comes by
me in the car and fast as a forty cal
(17:07):
at me. I say, what are you gonna do with that?
And he's looking at me, say what are you gonna
do with it? He's just showing it and waving it.
So I hit him up, disrespected.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Him, boom, What does that mean?
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Well, I just do it. Whatever his game is, I said,
a killer to it. So I hit him up and
I say, you know what it is on mine? And
I just looked at him in his eye and they
just rolled off and then he starts shooting in the
air once he got on the highway. Coward. I knew
that at that time that a lot of these cats
are cowards and they really don't want to fight, they
(17:42):
really don't want to shoot, they really want to do
any of that. But this was happening day there, every weekend.
Then we went to Oklahoma City. Something like that was
going to happen. But we just never got arrested or
anything like that happened. So we just never got any trouble.
I guess it was a drilling rush that we wanted
to go to Oklahoma City and we wanted to you know,
todd the girls and go to the club. And I
did that. My brother didn't do that, but I did that.
(18:04):
He stayed and he sold drugs and we supposed to sold drugs,
but he wanted to make money.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
What kind of drugs did you sell?
Speaker 3 (18:10):
We sold crack and we sold the wheed. We learned
how to do it, and my brother was telling me.
He said, may you remember when we were going to
Houston and we wanted to go to Houston for spring
break and we needed money. I'm like, yeah, I remember that.
He said, you remember I made a thousand and I
think you had eight fifty and we made that like
in a day and a half. I was like, dang,
I remember that. That was crazy. So he just told
(18:32):
me this the other day and I'm like, wow, yes,
I remember that, And that right there started it all.
I mean I was shooting dice on the block on
the corner probably I was twelve thirteen years old. It
was like gambling and drugs and all that was part
of our nature.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Did you ever partake in the drugs?
Speaker 3 (18:46):
No? I never did any drugs either. Never never did
any drugs, never smoked the sit We had, never popped
any pill, never smoke any weed or any of that.
But I used to roll my brother's blumps for him.
I did that. So no alcohol, no drugs, none of that.
I never did any of those things. I haven't said
a cuss right now in twenty three.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
Years, Kay, you knew you were doing wrong right by
selling drugs and doing all that right. Was there something
telling you, like, you know you're doing wrong by selling
the drugs and all that, it's fast money. Why go
get a job when we can make almost two grand
in less than two days? Right? Yes, But does something
tell you not to get involved in smoking the weed,
(19:23):
smoking crack? Did you just subconsciously almost know? I know
I'm doing wrong, but I could get really caught up
if I start doing these things.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
So my mom is she's a magician. She says, son,
do as I say, not as I do. And that
was part of the teaching. This part of the education
is watching what it was doing, what drugs were doing
to the older people in the community, what alcohol was
doing to the people in the community. That was part
of my education. That was part of the streets. She
was teaching me. If you get caught up in these
(19:55):
drugs by using them, caught up in alcohol using it,
it will affect your behavior, It will affect your mindset,
it will affect who you become. And so I never
wanted to participate in any of those things because I
used to see what it was doing to the people,
my friends, my mom, what it did to them, and
(20:17):
I was like, I don't want any part of that.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
It brings a whole different perspectives of seeing is bleeding
absolutely so.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Then gambling. You mentioned rolling dice, shoot shooting dice, shooting ice.
I'm so white girl, preppy younce. So shooting dice, tell
me about that? What did that lead to?
Speaker 3 (20:36):
Yes, I mean, shoot dice was definitely part of the culture.
It was something that we did. We started being fun.
At first. It was just a hobby. We could do it,
and I became real good at it. And when you
become real good at it, now people don't want to
They don't want to play you anymore. They don't want
to shoot you anymore. So it's like, okay, what do
you do? And it was this one particular guy we
should shoot dice life. He was like he sold a
(20:59):
lot of joy and he had a lot of money
all the time. And he would come and I would
break him in my mama's house. My mama would watch it.
I would break him. I would probably get, you know,
four or five thousand dollars from me. He had that
type of money all the time, and it was like,
whoa cool? Now it becomes fun. All the gambling it
starts to becomes fun. Then it become a like a habit,
and now the habit develops is like it's a job now,
(21:22):
and the job is like, okay, more and more and more.
I need that dope, I mean fixed, I got a habit.
I got it. I need more and more and more.
It's just like a drug adds an alcoholic. They need more.
And when you alert the nucleus combas it says, look
that tasted good, I need more of that, sending it
up to the prefund of cortex with the decisions gonna
be made, and there you go. It's more. And now
(21:43):
the casino starts to be involved. Now Las Vegas starts
to be involved, because we don't have craps in Oklahoma
at that time. Now they do. I don't even do
it anymore. It could have been a good thing. Yeah,
I don't know, but yeah, so Las Vegas and crabs
and going to casino playing poker and learning that game.
It costs a lot of money to learn that because
(22:03):
nobody teaches you. You gotta gotta have a little balls
a little bit.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
And yeah, yeah, I've played lots of poker in Monday too.
It's crazy how I have similarities.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
You'll have a lot of parallels.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
Yeah, what would you say that the game being gave
you that you didn't otherwise have.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
That's a powerful question, amazing question. I'm glad you asked
it so it can be broken down because because I
thought about it all day. So, yeah, you said it
hit the nail on the on the head right there.
When you're talking about the brotherhood and loyal tea and
commitment and dedication to each other, and you think about blood,
(22:46):
sweating tears together thinking about and you're talking about that
none of us not having fathers and us just being
who we are together as a brotherhood as a that
foundation and setting that loyalty, commitment and dedication to one
another that we're going to do this for our brother
no matter what.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
How much of this lifestyle stuck with you as you
went on to play sports.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
Yeah, so it was. It's always been there since I
was younger, So just I mean being in the street
and understanding those that lifestyle sports was just right there
with it. So my mom, it was like almost contradictory.
I didn't understand it then as a child, but I
get it now, and I tell I was like, you
were condradicting yourself, So you were teaching me streets. But
then you forced me to play someone went to fall
(23:29):
spring baseball to get me off the streets, Like like,
when that comes, what is that? How does that work?
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Mom?
Speaker 3 (23:35):
Around, I'm like, okay, cool. So yeah, so we laugh
about that now, But that's what it was doing. I
mean in sports, I became more aware and more focused
and in baseball, but I got burned out because I
played someone on a false spring. Yes, and my mom
was this coach a call and say it's just unavailable. Yes,
he is available, and I'm like, mam, I just played.
(23:57):
I'm done. I'm tired. I don't want to do that anymore.
Are you going he's coming to get you? You're going?
Am I gonna tell my mom?
Speaker 1 (24:04):
No?
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Heg No. I could hit in the mouth, No way. So,
I mean my mom was pretty solid too. She wanted
those slouch and she was a street walker. So no
way in the world I was gonna tell my mom
was yeah. And so that's what happened with me is sports.
I became really I started to really be more focused,
(24:25):
but I didn't work because I was gifted, and that
was a problem. I didn't have to work at it.
I was just gifted and I would go out and
run routes here and there, and catch the football here
and there and throw the baseball here and there. But
I didn't work like I should have worked, and it
damaged a lot of a lot of things. And I
didn't have any support. Again, I didn't have a father.
So my teammates they had dads and they had all that.
(24:47):
But I didn't understand what it was doing to me
until later because I was just suppressed it. I didn't
have a father. I didn't care about that. I wasn't
gonna talk about it. I wasn't gonna do any of that.
But I had my mom. I had my grandma, so
I had my aunts. That's all I needed. That's all
I cared for. That's all I knew. That's what it
was going to do. I was recruited by Oklahoma State
in a ton of other Division Wants schools, but I
(25:09):
didn't have any grades. My grades and I remember, I'm
especially a class. I'm saying grade to the twelfth grade,
and now my grades are terrible. I don't care for school.
Some teachers said I would never mount to anything. Some
teachers said I'll be dead in prison. I'm like, WHOA,
But I also had teachers that loved me and nurtured
me and cared for me. They knew this guy was
going to be here one day, but I just had
to get through the weeds first and discover who I
(25:31):
am today. So when opportunities came, and then now I
go to junior college and I'm playing in junior college. Cool.
I get a scholarship, go to junior college, which is great,
and I go to Division two and I've been played
Division two for three years from one to oh four?
Did that? My junior year we went one in eleven?
Oh tough. My senior year we went oh and twelve. Oh.
(25:54):
Do you think that I have a shot to go
into the NFL? Absolutely not. I'm in playing. Yeah, Like,
what the heck? This was the whole thing. I wanted
to buy a house for my mom, my grandma's, I
want to get my mom out the hood. I want
to do all these different things. And now that's not
gonna happen. So now I'm like fierce. I'm like, I
don't give a dang forget football. Now I'm like forget it.
So two thousand and five, I took the whole year off,
(26:16):
and my issers like dude, you gotta do something. You
gotta go play a Reena ball. You got like, I'm
way too good for that. I'm not doing that. If
I can't get a shot first into the lead, I'm
not doing it. It's just dumb. And I took the
whole two thousand and five off, and.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
I was bitter, were you still gang banging?
Speaker 3 (26:32):
I was still out there. I wasn't banging as hard
as I did, but I was still obviously affiliated. It
was I'll still hit you up. Yeah, yeah, I was
still hit you up, but I wasn't really just banging
hard like that. And I never really banged hard. I
wore my colors and I represented wherever was from, and
that's really what I did. But I was still definitely affiliated.
(26:55):
So that was two thousand and five and I took
that off. And then the Esperados, the Dallas Deesperados, the Areenity.
They had a tryout at the old AT and T
Stadium or the old Dallas Cowboys Stadium, and I signed
up and I said, okay, my agent was like here,
two thousand and six, minute took a year off, let's
(27:15):
go and try this, right, I'm like, all right, cool,
I'm hold on myself. I'm gonna do it. I would
and killed that work out and demolished it, and every
coach there ran to me after I ran my forty.
They were like, man, where are you from? Who's your agent?
What school did you go to? I'm like, oh my goodness,
what the heck is this? What's going on? Yeah, I'm
like doing so I told him, and this is where
everything was going on. I was like, okay, cool. So
now after the forty, now we go run routes on air. Cool.
(27:39):
Then the DB's come that we running one on once.
The head coach that's Dallas Desperados, he was right there,
and the Marcus where was there also when first I
first met the markets where and I was running routes.
I was doing what I was doing. It was probably
two hundred of his receivers. And I had a girl
in the stance. She can verify everything I'm saying. And
(28:00):
it's crazy. She was in the stand.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Susy, you had a little extra motivations.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
I did. I did it.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
I did.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
You're right, Jake, I did. I did so. Yeah, I
had to do it. How to do? And so I'm
running these routes. It's two hundred of US receivers. Every
hour he was cutting people. Wow, so every hour you
were getting cut. Here, call a huddle and bring everybody
in the huddle. He's like, well, number such and setting
such and sudding such, certing says that, thank you so
(28:26):
much for participating.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
We're out.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
Yeah, I gotta go. And now it gets all the
way down to ten. I'm still there. And so this
dude is like, can anybody hold two fifty two? That
was my number? Can anybody hold two fifty two? Because
he is killing all day. I said, coach, matter of fact,
I'm gonna tell her route. I'm a run and I'm
gonna see what's gonna happen. That's what I did. I said,
I'm gonna run a post. This is what's gonna happen.
(28:48):
He was like, hold on two fifty two. So you're
gonna tell him to route? You do run. I'm like, yeah,
let's do it. I'm trying to make the squad. Yeah, yeah,
I just I ran a poe boom de molister dB.
He was like, he just told you what he was running.
And yeah, So we got all the way down. I
was a number one receiver at that camp that time,
(29:10):
and somehow they lost all my times. They didn't know
who I was for whatever reason, and so I talked
to the Marcus Races like, dude, you're gonna be up
here with me. I'm like, that's what I'm trying to
get to. I'm trying to be a cowboy, like that's
what I'm trying to do my favorite team. And so
I was talking to him and that's the first time
I ever even met the guy. Knew who the guy
(29:30):
was and I didn't even know who he was, and
Boom was right there. But that's what happened. They lost everything.
So there was Arena two coach there and he got
my information. He wanted me to come to his squad
and at Marillo, Texas, and that's what I did about
myself again. And I went there and I played a
few games there. He put me on IR for whatever reason,
(29:52):
and my agent was like, dude, you hurt. I'm like, no,
I'm not hurt. Like what you talking me? He said?
Why are you are hard in It's like I don't know.
It means injurest what the heck? I have no idea.
So I go talk to coach. I'm like, dude, why
am I he's like, oh, well, I got to humble you.
And you know what this dude told me. He said,
you're not supposed to be in this league. In my head,
(30:14):
I'm like duh. And he said, you think you're manchho,
you think you like t o to real owens. I'm like, coach,
I don't even talk. I don't do that. That's not me.
He's like, I put your or to humble you. I said, okay.
So I went to talk to my agent. I said, look,
he's got to cut me, release me something. This is ridiculous.
(30:34):
I'm not going to do this. This is dumb. So
he ended up finally releases me, and then I go
and work out in Streetport Bosa City Streetport Louisiana.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
That's where Jake's from.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
Oh look at their battle wings went down.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
There.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
Went to a workout two days, a two day workout.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
I have been in Jill and.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
A minute, casinos Andreport City. It is a still gambling.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
I was. I was all over boats, all over them.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
I just one in particular I've been banned from for life,
which one is that I'm not even okay cool.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
I don't even want to say to one. I like
because it might be that.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
So you're absolutely right, Yeah, it's the same one than
you're thinking.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
I guarantee it is, yep, yep, it is. I guarantee yes, what.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
You are talking.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
I definitely was still gatherling there. End up making that
team first day, Boom said, met me at the office
and you're on the squad. So Boom, I get on
the squad do that. End up playing that season and
I'm like, I didn't really get the ball that much.
And I'm like, so every week he was coming to me.
He was like, man, Richie, my bag, Man, I gotta
get your ball. I gotta get your ball. Every single week.
This was happening every week. I'm like, yeah, coach is cool.
(31:44):
I'm like, I'm here, coach, let's get it. Every week. Nothing. Nothing.
I finally ended the season, I go back to Oklahoma.
I'm like, I'm done. I said, I'm not leaving, say
to Ogahoma again. We had to ring the team in Oklahomaself,
I'm done, I'm not gonna do it. So my agent
was like, dude, we got this opportunity and see I'm like,
here we go again. I said, I'm not leaving Oklahoma.
(32:04):
I'm not gonna do that. That's dumb. I have a
ton of hate in my heart now, a ton of
resentment in my heart. And I'm like, I just motion
to come back. Yeah see, I'm like, man, this is ridiculous.
And so this is two thousand and seven, and I said,
I told my dad. I said, I'm gonna play here
in Oklahoma. I don't care. I'm gonna I'm gonna stay here.
He said, well, this is a good opportunity. It's a
(32:24):
good deal. These guys that really want you, they play
the game, they know the game. They get it. I said, like, cool,
I signed in the week. If it's still there in
the week I signed, He said, all right, I tell
him he was still there in the week. So guess
what I signed. So I'm now I'm excited. I said, Okay, cool,
I go to Seattle Side whatever. Cool, Cool, I get
(32:45):
to go. I get to go again. I'm gonna tumble
myself again. I'm gonna see what's gonna happen. And now
in two thousand and seven, so we play in the spring. Yeah,
I think it's the spring summer and in the fall.
So I'm coaching high school football now at Mama Matter.
I grew up in my city and there, you know,
some coach of high school football. I'm excited about it.
And that's just what I do. Me and my friends.
(33:07):
We go to Bricktown, enjoin Bricktown. No need to have
a gun or any of that stuff because we're in Bricktown.
Police crazy in Bricktown. That tough, Like, no, we don't
need that. So we're going to get some chicks and
that's this is what we're gonna do, and we're gonna
move on bout our business. So I ended up meeting
a girl there, and what do you know, we kind
of hit it often. So I told the girl, said, like,
we're goinna go this concert, I'm gonna hit you out.
(33:29):
And so he forty was doing a concert in Oklahoma
City at the club. So we go to the concert,
me and my boy. We go inside the concert. The
forties not there yet, and but he's on the way
the police escorting men. Of course they put him over
in boomboo bo. So now now escorty men. So he's
coming on in now, So it's cool. So he gets there.
We're in the club probably about fifteen twenty minutes and
(33:50):
here he comes and he's like rocking it concerts. Are
we leaving, We get in the cars. When we're going
to the house, it's like four point thirty in the morning.
Now like, I'm tired. I got this chick waiting. She's
trying to come and get I'm like, oh, my goodness,
let's get back to the town. She's on the way.
And as we pulled to the stoplight, a car behind us,
I guess, jumps behind us, and one of the homies says, man,
(34:10):
that just car has jumped behind us, real quick, crazy.
The first thing to come to me, I'm like, you scared.
We're not scared. We're from Areada. We're not scared of
anything or anybody. And so now I raise up because
I'm all the way in the seat. I'm like, lo,
now I raise up. I'm looking in my riv because
I'm on the passenger side, and I kind of ease
over to the review to see what was going on behind.
(34:33):
So now I'm like, oh, Now, as we turn into
the close lane, that car turns into the far lane.
I can hear him bickering. I'm tired. It's fourth thirty
in the morning. I hear him bickering. So I'm like,
so I start hitting him up, boom boom. Before I
knew it, the dude on the passenger side is on
top of the car. The dude in the back you know,
(34:56):
he's raising out of the car. You know how you
sit on the door, He's raising out of the car.
The dude in the back seat was like, slow down,
I'm about to let these before I can. Before he
gets let these dudes have it. The dude was already shooting,
and then both of them was like And for me,
I knew if the waist up, I wasn't gonna get hit.
I was gonna live. So I had ducked in the
(35:16):
back seat and I turned and as I was turning,
then I was exposed. My lower half was exposed. And
so when I get now, I don't know what happened
on Black album we had wrecked. When I wake up,
I told the homie, I said, man, hey, my leg
is burning. It's like, what do you mean, Ross, I'm like,
(35:40):
my leg is burning. I don't know, I can't move it.
I said, man, check my leg. He said, man, you good? Ross.
I said, nah, bro, check my hip. He said, you laking.
I said, ah me here. Once I wake up from
all that, the fireman is at the door. Now, he said,
I gotta get you out of here. I was like,
I can't get out. I've been shot. He said, I no,
I gotta get you out of here because you just
hit this pole. And if I don't get you out
(36:01):
of here, gonna get eletrocuted. I said, get me out
of here then, and now we're going to the hospital. Now.
I'm terrified Sean Taylor just got killed because it's just
like I think about a month or months before he
got shot in the leg and he got he died,
and I'm like I was thinking about that in an ambulance.
I'm like, I'm asking to do it. I'm like, man,
am I gonna die?
Speaker 2 (36:18):
My good?
Speaker 3 (36:18):
He's like, man, you're in shock right now. And then
he said I just passed out and I didn't wake
back up until I got into the hospital. And I
got in the hospital, what woke me up was my mom.
She was yelling all the way at the other end
of all. They wouldn't let her in because it's games.
And I was like, is that my mom? The nurse
was like, I don't know something. Later, I said, that's
my mom. Let her in. She's like, oh, you see,
(36:39):
I'm like, let her in or she's coming. Let her
in or she's coming for sure. How do you want
to do it. You can be peaceful or it can
be calm, but let her in nice. Yeah, And so
my mom called me. She's like, oh my god, son
is so good to say. I'm like, Mom, is so
good to see you. And by that same time, the
detective came. He's like, are you miss rich And I'm like, yes, sir.
(37:00):
He said, you're lucky to be alive. I said, no,
I'm not lucky to be alive. From God son, God
and my father like what you're talking about, I'm not
lucky to be alive. He said. Eleven bullets hit your door.
He said, wow, So two of them hit me and
one is still lifted me today and right before, like
I just signed that contract a couple of weeks prior,
(37:20):
and you know what am I going to do now?
So now I hook up with my training. He's my uncle.
He called him my uncle. He's a hard nose, white guy, solid,
it's crazy and he could pull out of here. And
my uncle with like best friends and I called him
Mark said uncle, Mark man, that's a guy shot. He said,
what the heck? Come to the house. I'm like him
and his brother are freaking crazy, like Uncle Dan, Uncle Marka.
(37:42):
I'm like, man, what the heck? What happened? So they
giving me the whole third degree and they're furious. I'm like, yeah,
I know me too. So he changed me, gets me right,
gets me going, and I'm now able to move a
little bit, and I'm good. I feel like the bullet
made me faster. I don't know, it's pretty crazy, like
it's more explosive, like it was crazy. I'm like, what
(38:05):
the heck. So he's like, man, I think that bully
made you faster. Like I'm like no, I like feel great,
and I couldn't even walk for a minute. And it's like,
all of a sudden, I'm jumping on like forty inch
boxes and I'm just running like crazy. And now I
get to the season. I'm playing the season now, the
first four games coaching throwing the ball. So now I'm
going back. I'm like that resentment is there. I'm like,
(38:26):
this is why didn't want to come. I'm like, this
is ridiculous. I told my agent. I was like, this
is exactly why they want to come. But an approached
you play sixteen games Yea, there's twelve more games left
and Joshua Richie has forty four touchdowns, one hundred and
forty eight catches, one nine hundred and seventy yards receiving
twelve games. Because I broke every record on the team,
(38:48):
every team record, and I bot multiple records in the league.
I was ready to rock and roll.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
No kidding, just got shot.
Speaker 3 (38:54):
My mama's in prison. What am I going to do?
So every week I'm sending her clips. I'm crying, I'm
in tears. I'm sending her clips, in spying her and
she's in prison, sending her pictures and sending her news
clippings of everything I'm doing. Every single week. Every week,
I was scoring five touchdowns every single game. I had
a purpose, had a vision, I had a goal. I
was trying to get to the league. And that's what
(39:15):
I was doing. So do all that. My mom went
to prison. Boom, She's in prison, locked in, locked up,
And I'm still I'm just out here. I mean way
in Seattle, on from Oklahoma, way and Seattle. My mom's
in prison in Oklahoma. All I can do is center clips.
That's all I can do. Now. After that, I go
to Arena one. Now, so that was Arena two. I
go to Arena one and two thousand and yeah, so
(39:38):
seven eight Arena one. I'm playing in there in two
thousand and nine to leave folds. So I'm like, man,
you gotta be kidding me. Here we are again, Like
what the hell? This is crazy? So now I'm really
hating the game. Now it's really come back. Now the
resentment is really there. And for me, it was like, okay,
so I'm done. I'm gonna start a family, I'm gonna
(39:59):
have some kids, and this is what's gonna happen. I
don't even give it an yep, it's over. So what
I get a call? Of course, a freaking quarterback. A
freaking quarterback you call it said, dude, you're not in
the lead hit. I'm like, no, freaking the AFL just photed,
Like what the heck? He hung up on me, So
I'm tripping. Then the phone rings and he's like, hold on,
(40:23):
is this Joshua Rich. I'm like yes, sir. He's like, well,
this is such and such and jac just gave me
a number to call. You say, you're looking for an agent,
You're trying to get to the lead. I'm like yes, absolutely.
So this dude hangs up on me, and so now
an agent calls. He's like, dude, I just got a call. Said,
you're trying to get to the lead. You're six y three,
you're like one ninety, and you run extremely fast and
(40:44):
you catch the ball extremely good. And what's up? I said,
what's up?
Speaker 1 (40:49):
Tell me?
Speaker 3 (40:51):
You tell me. I don't know, like you tell me
what's up. So he's like, okay, well I didn't made
five calls already. I said, cool, let's do it. I'm
excited about it. I'm like, I'm geeked. I'm like, oh man,
this is what I've been waiting on. He puts me
on the phone. He calls you tried to call it
Tampa Bay. He calls Jacksonville. Neither one of them answer.
Then he calls the Jets. The Jets answer. So the
(41:12):
Jets was like, we've seen the film. We like him.
He's big, let's go, so just give me an opportunity.
I'm there for like a week I think eight days
some with the Jets, and the Jets was like at
that time, I think I was twenty seven. The Jets
was like, well, we want to draft two young guys.
We want to send you to a camp in CFL
and we won't bring you back in the.
Speaker 2 (41:31):
Training camp Canada.
Speaker 3 (41:32):
Yeah, yeah, Canada. I'm like, the heck, But I did
get it was there. I said, okay, humble myself. I
didn't really bring onto the resentment anymore. But now I
get to this camp in the CFL. It was the
wrong team. So it's not the team that I'm supposed
to be in. It's not the team that I'm supposed
to be act somehow, I'm like, come on, man. So
my agent had all these different people. He had some
(41:54):
receivers in the draft, he got drafted like second third round.
He got all these players, and I'm like, the world,
can you send me to the wrong place? And the
Jets is this is what they're doing, this is their farm.
So now I really don't give it two craps about
football anymore. I hate the game. I don't even know
that agent's name. I don't even know the coach's name,
(42:16):
the general manager from the Jets, I don't know the
dude from the freaking Canada. I don't even tried to
think of their names. And remember, I can't even do it.
I had so much hatred toward the game so much.
I despise a football game. I hated it. I didn't
care to see it, didn't care to watch it, didn't
care to If anybody talked about it, I would move,
I would leave. I didn't care. I hated it that much.
I'm like, I feel like you really took that from it.
(42:38):
But then when I look back at it today, I say, well,
if you would have really grind, if you were really
put that work in, if you really would took some
steps differently before all that, then you probably would have
got the shot that you wanted. But I believe that
I didn't work. And I also if I did hit
(42:59):
the lead, I was going to furnish my hood and
bring more drugs. I knew that was going to happen.
Just gotta be real. Wow, I knew I was going
to do that. God was like, Nah, we're not going
to do that.
Speaker 2 (43:13):
That was life happening for you.
Speaker 3 (43:15):
Yeah, that was life having it for me. That was
life having them for me. Absolutely, actually, one hundred thousand
percent correct.
Speaker 1 (43:21):
I dig your ownership because like you know, damn good
and well, like you're a domin doesn't with that story,
that was that close, right, you know that? And but
the fact that you own it, that's what makes you
who you are today, because there's a lot of people
(43:42):
that want there's a lot of people still pointing fingers.
Speaker 2 (43:53):
So your football career was over, But did surviving that shooting?
Did that make you rethink your street life?
Speaker 3 (44:00):
Absolutely on, hundred percent, And I'm glad you asked that.
When I got shot, I took my flag down out
of the window and I walked to my mom. I said, Mom,
I'm done. She said, what do you mean. I said,
I'm done with the whole gang life. Done. I don't
want any part of it anymore. She broke down bawling.
(44:21):
She's like, oh my gosh. I didn't think this time
would ever come. So I said, Mom, I'm going to
go buy a blue shirt now, and she bowed even harder.
She's like, oh my gosh, is this my son? I'm
like absolutely.
Speaker 1 (44:36):
So when you finish up football, where football finishes with you,
however you want to look at it, Yeah, that's what
it was. And then you lose that outlet you find
yourself in the depths of gambling. Where does that lead?
Speaker 3 (44:52):
I had foul Chapter seven bankruptcy, lost in everything. When
I was on my couch at home. I was severely depressed, broken,
had no relationship with my kids, had no relationship with
their mother. We were going at each other's throats and
court back and forth for years, like we were just
doing it, and I was broken. I remembering on that
(45:14):
couch with tears coming down my face in the fetal position,
curled up, balling just like a baby. Had no electricity,
had to take freezing coat showers. The only thing that
I could focus on was like the bugs that were
hitting my window. And then my neighbor had that little
bug light that would get the bugs, and I was
(45:36):
hearing that. Then I would sit up and I would
just be in a meditative state. Tears would just be falling,
and all I can do is just be with me.
I made a decision that moment. I said I'm done.
This is over stopping this, and I made that commitment
to myself that I'm gonna get through this. I would
go take a freezing coach shower and I would breathe
(45:58):
in that shower, in the shower to get warm. I
didn't know what was going on. I don't know why
was that happening. So the more I did it, I
got comfortable and I would take like four or five
showers a day because I had no ELECTRICI so I
had no running hot water. That's all I could do
is take freezing cold showers. Then I moved things around.
I moved my couch around. I moved my chairs around.
I moved my TV around. I move my kitchen table around,
(46:21):
my chairs around. I just moved everything around. And I
started taking different routes home. And I was working for
the school system at that time. I was getting paid
once a month, but I had payday loans. I was
some severe debt every month, and I didn't know what
to do, didn't know who to turn to, didn't know
what was going on. I was broken. I was lost,
(46:41):
like nothing, disgusted.
Speaker 2 (46:45):
But then you made a decision.
Speaker 3 (46:47):
But I made a decision, and a decision has to
be made within zero to ten seconds. Anything after that,
in my opinion, it's kneel and void. It doesn't sniper
gonna work. Now it's been eight years. I haven't touched
some dice nor been at a casino in eight years.
Because I made that decision that I was going to
(47:08):
bet on me in that moment. That's what I did.
I bet on me, and I changed everything. Now I
got the relationship with my kids, got a relationship with
the mother. Life is great, beautiful.
Speaker 1 (47:19):
Well done, well done, and congratulations bro.
Speaker 2 (47:23):
And thank you for sharing this story.
Speaker 3 (47:26):
Absolutely And I'm just grateful for who I am today
and where I'm at today. And my three things that
I live by in my life is self love, healing,
and forgiveness. Those are the three things that got me
to where I'm at today. Amen. I believe healing is
a lifetime commitment. It's just never You're never going to
be fully healed. It's a lifetime commitment. I believe that
(47:46):
every day you got to heal something, every day you
got to get there. I'm pretty sure related, Yes we are.
I'm almost positive, yes, yes. And so those are the
three things I live by. And you see my life
the all the forgiveness I had to do. When I
look at my life today, that's where I'm surrounded by
his self love, healing, and forgiveness. And those are the
three things. And the caveats is courage, bravery, and boldness.
(48:11):
I had to have enough courage to face that. Then
I had to be brave enough to walk through it.
Even on the fire was hot, I still had to
walk through it, be bold enough to take a risk
and bet on me.
Speaker 2 (48:22):
That is the good stuff right there. Joshua Richie, thank
you so much for telling your story. What an unbelievable,
crazy roller coaster of a story. But truly thank you
for digging deep and telling us all that.
Speaker 3 (48:35):
Thank you for having me. Yeah, you showed up today.
I'll tell you what.
Speaker 1 (48:38):
When I walked in this room, you know, I came
from a meeting where I was like, I was really
missing war because I was like, I don't have an
outlet that is good enough right now for how I'm feeling.
God knew all I needed was you, bro. Yeah, that's it,
So thank you. I appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (48:58):
Thank you for being you with.
Speaker 1 (49:00):
Conviction and being the leader in the inspiration that you are.
We're related. You're probably gonna know all the things that
I want to say. You already know, yes, and so
your family to me forever, and I appreciate you, and
I appreciate your grindness absolutely and humility. So don't stop.
Speaker 3 (49:20):
No, never, good never. I appreciate you too, Jake. We're
definitely brothers, no doubt about it now. Actually we're sisters
and brothers.
Speaker 2 (49:27):
That's right, I'll take it anyone I'm.
Speaker 1 (49:31):
Related to by defaults she's related to. It's one of
those things like I do the blood in for you.
Speaker 2 (49:38):
I think that was a gang thing, but I don't know, don't.
Speaker 3 (49:45):
Man. Thank you, Yes, absolutely, you welcome.
Speaker 1 (49:50):
Man. I'm so glad I won't spoke at that MVP game.
I know I could tell just by looking at Joshua.
I was like he and I your same cloth.
Speaker 2 (49:58):
Absolutely great energy, A motivator.
Speaker 1 (50:01):
Yeah, his scars are honest, absolutely no, no wonder he is
who he is. He is a motivator and inspirator and.
Speaker 3 (50:10):
A driver through and through.
Speaker 2 (50:12):
Thank you so much for listening. If this episode touched
you today, please share it and be part of making
someone else's day better.
Speaker 1 (50:18):
Put on your badass caps and go be great today.
And remember you can't do epic stuff without epic people.
Thank you for listening to the good Stuff. The Good
Stuff is executive produced by Ashley Schick, Jacob Schick, Leah
Pictures and q Code Media, Hosted by Ashley Shick and
Jacob Shik, Produced by Nick Cassolini and Ryan Counts House
Welcome to the Good Stuff. I'm Jacob Chick and I'm
joined by my co host and wife, Ashley Shick.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Jake is a third generation combat Marine and I'm a
gold Star granddaughter. We work together to serve military veterans,
first responders, frontline healthcare workers, and their families with mental
and emotional wellness through traditional and non traditional therapy. At
One Tribe Foundation.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
We believe everyone has a story to tell, not only
about the peaks, but also the valleys they've been through
to get them to where they are today.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Each week, we invite a guest to tell us their story,
to share with us the lessons they've learned that shaped
who they are and what they're doing to pay it
forward and give back.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Our mission with this show is to dig deep into
our guest journey so that we can celebrate the hope
and inspiration their story.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Has to offer.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Thrilled you're joining.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Us again, Welcome to the Good Stuff.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
We are so excited about today's episode. Our friend Joshua
Ritchie is a mindset coach and motivational speaker. He's a
former professional football player and works with merging veterans and players.
It's an organization that focuses on bringing veterans and former
professional sports players together.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Joshua is here to tell his story of survival, how
he survived street violence as a child, how he survived
the shooting as a young man, how he survived the
death of his dream of making it in the NFL,
and how he survived the devastation of a severe gambling addiction.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
And now he's here with us as a living, breathing
example of what it means to thrive.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
This is truly my brother from another mother, and his
story is raw strap in It's about the get ball beat.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
I am so excited to dive into this conversation. This
is one like we've never had here on the good stuff.
Joshua Richie, thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Thank you for inviting me. I'm excited.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Hey, we're honored to have you.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
This is going to be.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
A great perspective food for people. Let's do it.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Tell us about where you came from and what your
childhood was like.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
I was born and raised in Aerina, Oklahoma, little country
town about fifteen twenty miles west of Oklahoma City. And
my mom she was amazing, still is amazing to this day.
But six weeks before she had me. A month before
her vacation pay, she was fired due to racism, and
my mom didn't know what to do. She was struggling,
(02:36):
I'm about to have a child. What do I do? Yeah,
she became stressed in me and the womb. I received
that and my mom was severely stressed. Wasn't going to
have any money, what she was going to do? She
was about to have a baby. Yep, So now she's stressed.
I'm stressed. So I developed asthma from that seizures. So
all these things were happening to me, was going on
(02:57):
with me because of my mom was stressed because of
what was going on out side, and I received it
on the inside. And so that's how it started in
the womb.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
So you're here by the grace of God absolutely, So
tell us about your upbringing. What was it like growing
up in that home?
Speaker 3 (03:16):
It was definitely a challenge. No father present at all. Ever,
my mom was doing the best she could to bring
me and my sister up and some things that she
had to do to sacrifice her life. And she told me,
she said, son, I never wanted to be on welfare,
never wanted to do that. I wanted to work for
my money. But she was forced to be on wearefare
(03:37):
because she was fired. And when she got on the welfare,
now it seemed like life was happening to us and
not for us. Sometimes she would have to do things
that she didn't want to do, and sometime we got
to the point where she said, son, you know, I
just had to sell myself because I wanted to provide
for my children. And I would see she never knew
(03:59):
that I was noticing this stuff, but I used to
see like old rich white man coming into the house
and boom, they relieve I would see this and taking
that on in that whole process, not having a father,
not having a male figure in the household, not teaching
me how to become a man and what it looks
(04:20):
like to be a man. My mom did the best
she could try to raise me. She taught me streets.
He wanted me to learn streets. Who wanted me to
be a PhD In streets? She did that. Yeah, And
that's the one thing she said, You're gonna low streets.
You're gonna know how to live, survive, You're gonna know
how to thrive. You're gonna know how to be the
best person you can.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Be what does that mean. She taught you how to
know streets.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
So she would bring me out to the block. We
called it the block in the hood. She would bring
me out to the block. She would let me see
the violence. She would let me see the drugs and alcohol.
She would let me see all of that. And she
showed me and she said, well, if you in this situation, son,
this is what is gonna happen. If you're over here
in this situation, this is gonna happen. If you're here,
this is gonna happen. So I got to see drugs,
I got to see alcohol, I got to see prostitution,
(05:03):
I got to see gains, violence, I got to see
all that. So at three years old, I was here
by a car. My mom was having a rum and
cell and my ball went out in the street and
I ran out there in the street to get my
ball and booming car hits me. Now the police comes
and the police and my mom take me to the hospital.
At this point, my mom was like, diah forms, you
didn't know what was going on. And the doctor had
(05:26):
put me in like freezing ice water. My grandma was
there was like the think's going on? What is this.
She snatches me out of the ice water. They take
me to Oklahoma City to a specialist. The specialist was
discovered that I had seizures from the car from the
car hitting me, and he gave me fema barbatah. But
if you're aware of what fema barbatah does, it slows
(05:47):
your brain down. And so my mom was noticing changes
in me and she took me off of it. And
the doctor said, never tell a junkie that your son
is on fema barbaitah. My mom was like what she said,
because I junk it would probably kill you for it.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
And so my mom was like, that's it, it's over,
no more of that. Yeah, So she took me off
of it. I was a special A class from second
grade through the twelfth grade. So I thought I was dumb.
I thought it was stupid. I didn't think I was smart,
had low self esteem, I was insecure, didn't love myself,
didn't like me.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
So that was a life that I lived. No father.
My mom was emotionally sometimes abusive to me and my
sister mentally abusive. She whooped us, we got whoopings, all
those things. I thought it were good. I thought I'd
come out great, but not knowing what it was doing
to my subconscious. In my mindset, I was suppressing a
(06:44):
lot of feelings. So then I would go to school
and I would act it out. I'm doing quotation marks.
I would act out. But it wasn't a behavior problem.
It was a relationship problem. And when I realized that
and my mom started to open up tell me things,
I knew exactly what it.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Was, even at a young age.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Even at a young age, so at seven years old,
almost drowning the pool. The guy was dunking me, I thought,
and then when you go to the pool, the older
guys to dunk you.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Oh yeah, horse playing, yeah, playing chicken.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
But I told him, I said I can't swim. He
thought I was just playing. I didn't want to be dunked,
and he dunked me. So one of my friends run
up the stairs and go get my mom, and my
mom would come yelling down the thing you be able
to get my baby out of that water. To this day,
I have no understanding, no recollection of what happened. How
long I was in the water, I don't have no clue.
But as my mom was doing that, his mom came
(07:38):
out she said, baby gidding. I'm sorry, but I can't
do anything with him. He killed his toward sister, same
exact way.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Wow, he drowned.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Her drownder, same exact way, same thing, And so my
mom was like WHOA. Three weeks before that, my mom
picked us up from my grandmother's house and o'c clomb City.
We're going to the gas station and my mama was
inside the store. Me and my sister was in that window.
We're seven years old. We're in the window, we're looking
for her and waiting on her, and a guy just
(08:11):
comes and blows the guy's brains down. We see the
brains just come. So my mama's in the door in
the class light, waving us get down, get down. I'm
trying to pull my sister down now at this point,
she's not trying to come down, but I'm down on
the floor now and I'm trying to pull my sister down.
I'm trying to get her down, and all I can
just think of, like, man, what is this guy gonna
(08:33):
do to my mom? So my mama's just like here
in the head, like stuck and just looking and the
god walks by does nothing. Then we leave, We go
to the back to our house, and soon as we
get to there, a lady comes running down the street.
It's a guy dead at the store. She had killed
her husband. Wow, my mama's boyfriend's cousin. So this is
(08:57):
all in the spin. This is what I'm seeing at
seven years old.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
The stories that you've told us in a few minutes
we've been talking. Maybe one of those will happen to
someone in their lifetime.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
And you've just.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Told of the first formative years of your life. You've
already been through this much. That was an everyday occurrence
in the environment you grew up in.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Yes, And at age nine, my sister had came into
my room and said, get up, get up. I'm like,
I'm sleep. I just got home school. I'm sleep. Like,
leave me alone. No, I'm not getting she said, no,
wake up, wake up. It's something red in the kitchen,
Like leave me alone, please, I don't care. She's like, no,
get up, I get up. Boom, it's a fire in
the kitchen. So now I gotta go fill up a
(09:40):
whole thing with water. And I threw it on the
fire in the fire to say night. I did it
again and it got bigger. Warning I said they'd be
one more time. I'm gonna do it one more time.
We gotta go filled it up again. I threw it
on it and this just boom popped me and my
sister said we got to go. We ran out. So
we lost everything nine years old, all our stuff, animals.
(10:02):
We had hundreds of stuff animals in My aunt Miami
used to give us because she's just drive eighteen willers
and lost clothes everything at nine. So childhood was challenging.
I tell people a lot that my childhood experiences, all
the things that I've experienced, it taught me a valuable lesson.
(10:23):
But I had to learn when I got older. But
in those times I didn't understand. I just suppressed my feelings,
my emotions. I suppressed it all. I didn't know I
was doing that. And in my culture, you don't talk
about therapy. You don't talk about counseling anxiety. You better
get up. You better get up, boy, you better, you
better adjust yourself off. Don't let that little boy look
(10:43):
at you crying. You're a man. Never let somebody see
you crying. This is what I was taught. So nothing
was going to FaZe me if I got hurt. I'm
back up on my feet. That's how I grew up.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Where did you find connection even at a young age.
Was it on a field to play? Was it playing football, baseball? Basketball?
Did you have any connection outside of your mom and
your sister, your aunt?
Speaker 3 (11:14):
That's a great question. I had my grandmother, So both
of my grandmas died when I was fourteen, and then
my grandma died. She died when I was eleven, I
mean twenty eleven. Then I had my memo too, So
I had a foundation of women, you know, really comfort me,
not only my mom, but my grandmother's, my aunts, and
I had that connection. But for me it was I think,
Jake is the field. So when I got on the
(11:36):
baseball diamond, I was a whole different animal. When I
got on the diamond, I thought that was gonna be
my deal. And so when I got on the baseball diamond,
I was ready. And then when I got on the
football field, I was really ready because I ran fast.
I was the fastest in my county. Nobody could nobody
can out rub me. So that's what I think. That's
what the connection was for me. That I knew I
was fashioned baseball. They caught me flash so I was
(12:01):
an act called flash.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
I just you know, because I'm thinking it back to
my childhood and where I really the only outlet I
had was playing football, and know I had that outlet
of releasing all that stuff that I was suppressing. You know,
I was more of the hitter as opposed to the
hit tee. But it was something where I could leave
(12:24):
there and just for a minute, I felt peace, you know,
regardless of knowing where I was going back to, like,
I felt peace. And look, I applaud you for your
openness and your willingness to say yah, my culture we
don't do that. We don't talk about it. I guess
what it wasn't just in your culture. It's crazy because pride.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
And ego will kill you aste.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
And it's one of those things where you know, we
tell our sons, if you got to say something, say something,
I'll never judge us on our job. Yes, talk to
us please, And we can't help what we don't know.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
With the education that your mom gave you, of the
streets that was so important for her to show you,
where did that take you?
Speaker 3 (13:11):
It took me and it led me to now me
and my brother we started our little game and so
we become leaders of a game. And in our whole
perspective on that was that we never had fathers growing up.
The older guys used to come to our games to
watch us. They supported us, the older guys, so the
older ones in the hood, they would come to our
(13:31):
games and support us. And my brother and I we decided, Okay,
this is what we wanted to do, and we wanted
to be different than any other game because we were
athletes and we wanted to develop an organization that was
going to be like we're going to wear our clothes,
we're going to wear our big chains, and but we
were going to be excited about it. But also when
(13:51):
we left our city in Arena, now we go to
Oklahoma City, that's when violence happens. That's when fights and
the violence and the guns and all that stuff became
a part of life. But that's not how we wanted
it to be. We just wanted to represent our colors,
represent who we were, and just be us the athletes.
(14:12):
But we go to Kloma City because we probably beat
them on the football field, we beat them on the
baseball diamond. Whatever. They didn't like us small town, they
knew where we're from. They knew we're gonna fight hard,
We're gonna play hard. They knew that. Now when we
go to Oklahoma City, that's what it was. So my
mom her teaching me that and me seeing tons of
game violence and sometimes I'll be walking down the street
in my city and broad daylight. We got enemy over
(14:34):
here that's shooting and we got the duck and like,
oh my goodness, this iseem like they're shooting a look,
we can peer peer, we can hear the bullets flying.
It's like, oh this broad daylight. I was always alert.
I knew every exit, my mama taught me. I knew
every exit, and I knew eskate route for everybody immediately
and I would never see it with my back to
the door. None of those things. So that's what those
things she taught me, and I still use them today
(14:57):
because it was valuable. And she told me different ways
in different routes, and we had sound language that we
would do, we had different words that we would say.
So we created this me and my mom. She created
these different things in me to show me, like this
is what is going to be necessary for you to
live the life you want to live. Growing up like
that is it can be challenging, but at the same time,
(15:19):
it was like, okay, what do you do? Because that's
all we knew is that.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
It's hard for me to sit here. I mean because
you know, I sit here and try to think that
was your reality. Yes, always on edge, always having to
check the door, always having to know your environment. Did
you ever get in trouble like when you would go
to Oklahoma City or things got gnarley? Was there ever
any trouble.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
In our hood and in our environment? So if you
look at my grandpa was a killer and he was
a known killer, it's just what he was. So the
name was respected, and then we have other people in
our community was really respected that had bodies as well
in our community. But Oklahoma City they don't know who
my grandpa was. I don't even dank who your grandpa is.
Your uncles got bodies or your uncles did this, and
(16:04):
I don't give a thing about that. They want to
see your heart beating, check you out, well, who are you?
And so that what was going on when we went
to Talkoma City, So it was fights and all these
different things. So for me it was I never drank
alcohol ever in my life, so I was always alert,
so my prefund the cortex was always pretty solid, so
my decision making was there. And I was standing not
(16:24):
on the dance floor, but I would be up high
and I'll be watching like our little homies down on
the floor doing what they do. And if I see
me got a little out of hand, I would, you know,
come down and kind of check and let people know that,
you know, I'm kind of leading this side. I'm looking
for their leader and whatever there are, and we can
talk about it, or we can just let them go.
(16:46):
However y'all want to do it. One time, men, their
leader got kicked out and we were walking out. I'm like, man,
what do you want to do? Like you know where
we're from, Like what do you want to do? He's like, man,
I'm not even talking to you, so sorry. That's cool.
So he goes and gets in the car. Some girl
picks him up in the car and he comes by
me in the car and fast as a forty cal
(17:07):
at me. I say, what are you gonna do with that?
And he's looking at me, say what are you gonna
do with it? He's just showing it and waving it.
So I hit him up, disrespected.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Him, boom, What does that mean?
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Well, I just do it. Whatever his game is, I said,
a killer to it. So I hit him up and
I say, you know what it is on mine? And
I just looked at him in his eye and they
just rolled off and then he starts shooting in the
air once he got on the highway. Coward. I knew
that at that time that a lot of these cats
are cowards and they really don't want to fight, they
(17:42):
really don't want to shoot, they really want to do
any of that. But this was happening day there, every weekend.
Then we went to Oklahoma City. Something like that was
going to happen. But we just never got arrested or
anything like that happened. So we just never got any trouble.
I guess it was a drilling rush that we wanted
to go to Oklahoma City and we wanted to you know,
todd the girls and go to the club. And I
did that. My brother didn't do that, but I did that.
(18:04):
He stayed and he sold drugs and we supposed to sold drugs,
but he wanted to make money.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
What kind of drugs did you sell?
Speaker 3 (18:10):
We sold crack and we sold the wheed. We learned
how to do it, and my brother was telling me.
He said, may you remember when we were going to
Houston and we wanted to go to Houston for spring
break and we needed money. I'm like, yeah, I remember that.
He said, you remember I made a thousand and I
think you had eight fifty and we made that like
in a day and a half. I was like, dang,
I remember that. That was crazy. So he just told
(18:32):
me this the other day and I'm like, wow, yes,
I remember that, And that right there started it all.
I mean I was shooting dice on the block on
the corner probably I was twelve thirteen years old. It
was like gambling and drugs and all that was part
of our nature.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Did you ever partake in the drugs?
Speaker 3 (18:46):
No? I never did any drugs either. Never never did
any drugs, never smoked the sit We had, never popped
any pill, never smoke any weed or any of that.
But I used to roll my brother's blumps for him.
I did that. So no alcohol, no drugs, none of that.
I never did any of those things. I haven't said
a cuss right now in twenty three.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
Years, Kay, you knew you were doing wrong right by
selling drugs and doing all that right. Was there something
telling you, like, you know you're doing wrong by selling
the drugs and all that, it's fast money. Why go
get a job when we can make almost two grand
in less than two days? Right? Yes, But does something
tell you not to get involved in smoking the weed,
(19:23):
smoking crack? Did you just subconsciously almost know? I know
I'm doing wrong, but I could get really caught up
if I start doing these things.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
So my mom is she's a magician. She says, son,
do as I say, not as I do. And that
was part of the teaching. This part of the education
is watching what it was doing, what drugs were doing
to the older people in the community, what alcohol was
doing to the people in the community. That was part
of my education. That was part of the streets. She
was teaching me. If you get caught up in these
(19:55):
drugs by using them, caught up in alcohol using it,
it will affect your behavior, It will affect your mindset,
it will affect who you become. And so I never
wanted to participate in any of those things because I
used to see what it was doing to the people,
my friends, my mom, what it did to them, and
(20:17):
I was like, I don't want any part of that.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
It brings a whole different perspectives of seeing is bleeding
absolutely so.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Then gambling. You mentioned rolling dice, shoot shooting dice, shooting ice.
I'm so white girl, preppy younce. So shooting dice, tell
me about that? What did that lead to?
Speaker 3 (20:36):
Yes, I mean, shoot dice was definitely part of the culture.
It was something that we did. We started being fun.
At first. It was just a hobby. We could do it,
and I became real good at it. And when you
become real good at it, now people don't want to
They don't want to play you anymore. They don't want
to shoot you anymore. So it's like, okay, what do
you do? And it was this one particular guy we
should shoot dice life. He was like he sold a
(20:59):
lot of joy and he had a lot of money
all the time. And he would come and I would
break him in my mama's house. My mama would watch it.
I would break him. I would probably get, you know,
four or five thousand dollars from me. He had that
type of money all the time, and it was like,
whoa cool? Now it becomes fun. All the gambling it
starts to becomes fun. Then it become a like a habit,
and now the habit develops is like it's a job now,
(21:22):
and the job is like, okay, more and more and more.
I need that dope, I mean fixed, I got a habit.
I got it. I need more and more and more.
It's just like a drug adds an alcoholic. They need more.
And when you alert the nucleus combas it says, look
that tasted good, I need more of that, sending it
up to the prefund of cortex with the decisions gonna
be made, and there you go. It's more. And now
(21:43):
the casino starts to be involved. Now Las Vegas starts
to be involved, because we don't have craps in Oklahoma
at that time. Now they do. I don't even do
it anymore. It could have been a good thing. Yeah,
I don't know, but yeah, so Las Vegas and crabs
and going to casino playing poker and learning that game.
It costs a lot of money to learn that because
(22:03):
nobody teaches you. You gotta gotta have a little balls
a little bit.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
And yeah, yeah, I've played lots of poker in Monday too.
It's crazy how I have similarities.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
You'll have a lot of parallels.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
Yeah, what would you say that the game being gave
you that you didn't otherwise have.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
That's a powerful question, amazing question. I'm glad you asked
it so it can be broken down because because I
thought about it all day. So, yeah, you said it
hit the nail on the on the head right there.
When you're talking about the brotherhood and loyal tea and
commitment and dedication to each other, and you think about blood,
(22:46):
sweating tears together thinking about and you're talking about that
none of us not having fathers and us just being
who we are together as a brotherhood as a that
foundation and setting that loyalty, commitment and dedication to one
another that we're going to do this for our brother
no matter what.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
How much of this lifestyle stuck with you as you
went on to play sports.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
Yeah, so it was. It's always been there since I
was younger, So just I mean being in the street
and understanding those that lifestyle sports was just right there
with it. So my mom, it was like almost contradictory.
I didn't understand it then as a child, but I
get it now, and I tell I was like, you
were condradicting yourself, So you were teaching me streets. But
then you forced me to play someone went to fall
(23:29):
spring baseball to get me off the streets, Like like,
when that comes, what is that? How does that work?
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Mom?
Speaker 3 (23:35):
Around, I'm like, okay, cool. So yeah, so we laugh
about that now, But that's what it was doing. I
mean in sports, I became more aware and more focused
and in baseball, but I got burned out because I
played someone on a false spring. Yes, and my mom
was this coach a call and say it's just unavailable. Yes,
he is available, and I'm like, mam, I just played.
(23:57):
I'm done. I'm tired. I don't want to do that anymore.
Are you going he's coming to get you? You're going?
Am I gonna tell my mom?
Speaker 1 (24:04):
No?
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Heg No. I could hit in the mouth, No way. So,
I mean my mom was pretty solid too. She wanted
those slouch and she was a street walker. So no
way in the world I was gonna tell my mom
was yeah. And so that's what happened with me is sports.
I became really I started to really be more focused,
(24:25):
but I didn't work because I was gifted, and that
was a problem. I didn't have to work at it.
I was just gifted and I would go out and
run routes here and there, and catch the football here
and there and throw the baseball here and there. But
I didn't work like I should have worked, and it
damaged a lot of a lot of things. And I
didn't have any support. Again, I didn't have a father.
So my teammates they had dads and they had all that.
(24:47):
But I didn't understand what it was doing to me
until later because I was just suppressed it. I didn't
have a father. I didn't care about that. I wasn't
gonna talk about it. I wasn't gonna do any of that.
But I had my mom. I had my grandma, so
I had my aunts. That's all I needed. That's all
I cared for. That's all I knew. That's what it
was going to do. I was recruited by Oklahoma State
in a ton of other Division Wants schools, but I
(25:09):
didn't have any grades. My grades and I remember, I'm
especially a class. I'm saying grade to the twelfth grade,
and now my grades are terrible. I don't care for school.
Some teachers said I would never mount to anything. Some
teachers said I'll be dead in prison. I'm like, WHOA,
But I also had teachers that loved me and nurtured
me and cared for me. They knew this guy was
going to be here one day, but I just had
to get through the weeds first and discover who I
(25:31):
am today. So when opportunities came, and then now I
go to junior college and I'm playing in junior college. Cool.
I get a scholarship, go to junior college, which is great,
and I go to Division two and I've been played
Division two for three years from one to oh four?
Did that? My junior year we went one in eleven?
Oh tough. My senior year we went oh and twelve. Oh.
(25:54):
Do you think that I have a shot to go
into the NFL? Absolutely not. I'm in playing. Yeah, Like,
what the heck? This was the whole thing. I wanted
to buy a house for my mom, my grandma's, I
want to get my mom out the hood. I want
to do all these different things. And now that's not
gonna happen. So now I'm like fierce. I'm like, I
don't give a dang forget football. Now I'm like forget it.
So two thousand and five, I took the whole year off,
(26:16):
and my issers like dude, you gotta do something. You
gotta go play a Reena ball. You got like, I'm
way too good for that. I'm not doing that. If
I can't get a shot first into the lead, I'm
not doing it. It's just dumb. And I took the
whole two thousand and five off, and.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
I was bitter, were you still gang banging?
Speaker 3 (26:32):
I was still out there. I wasn't banging as hard
as I did, but I was still obviously affiliated. It
was I'll still hit you up. Yeah, yeah, I was
still hit you up, but I wasn't really just banging
hard like that. And I never really banged hard. I
wore my colors and I represented wherever was from, and
that's really what I did. But I was still definitely affiliated.
(26:55):
So that was two thousand and five and I took
that off. And then the Esperados, the Dallas Deesperados, the Areenity.
They had a tryout at the old AT and T
Stadium or the old Dallas Cowboys Stadium, and I signed
up and I said, okay, my agent was like here,
two thousand and six, minute took a year off, let's
(27:15):
go and try this, right, I'm like, all right, cool,
I'm hold on myself. I'm gonna do it. I would
and killed that work out and demolished it, and every
coach there ran to me after I ran my forty.
They were like, man, where are you from? Who's your agent?
What school did you go to? I'm like, oh my goodness,
what the heck is this? What's going on? Yeah, I'm
like doing so I told him, and this is where
everything was going on. I was like, okay, cool. So
now after the forty, now we go run routes on air. Cool.
(27:39):
Then the DB's come that we running one on once.
The head coach that's Dallas Desperados, he was right there,
and the Marcus where was there also when first I
first met the markets where and I was running routes.
I was doing what I was doing. It was probably
two hundred of his receivers. And I had a girl
in the stance. She can verify everything I'm saying. And
(28:00):
it's crazy. She was in the stand.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Susy, you had a little extra motivations.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
I did. I did it.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
I did.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
You're right, Jake, I did. I did so. Yeah, I
had to do it. How to do? And so I'm
running these routes. It's two hundred of US receivers. Every
hour he was cutting people. Wow, so every hour you
were getting cut. Here, call a huddle and bring everybody
in the huddle. He's like, well, number such and setting
such and sudding such, certing says that, thank you so
(28:26):
much for participating.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
We're out.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
Yeah, I gotta go. And now it gets all the
way down to ten. I'm still there. And so this
dude is like, can anybody hold two fifty two? That
was my number? Can anybody hold two fifty two? Because
he is killing all day. I said, coach, matter of fact,
I'm gonna tell her route. I'm a run and I'm
gonna see what's gonna happen. That's what I did. I said,
I'm gonna run a post. This is what's gonna happen.
(28:48):
He was like, hold on two fifty two. So you're
gonna tell him to route? You do run. I'm like, yeah,
let's do it. I'm trying to make the squad. Yeah, yeah,
I just I ran a poe boom de molister dB.
He was like, he just told you what he was running.
And yeah, So we got all the way down. I
was a number one receiver at that camp that time,
(29:10):
and somehow they lost all my times. They didn't know
who I was for whatever reason, and so I talked
to the Marcus Races like, dude, you're gonna be up
here with me. I'm like, that's what I'm trying to
get to. I'm trying to be a cowboy, like that's
what I'm trying to do my favorite team. And so
I was talking to him and that's the first time
I ever even met the guy. Knew who the guy
(29:30):
was and I didn't even know who he was, and
Boom was right there. But that's what happened. They lost everything.
So there was Arena two coach there and he got
my information. He wanted me to come to his squad
and at Marillo, Texas, and that's what I did about
myself again. And I went there and I played a
few games there. He put me on IR for whatever reason,
(29:52):
and my agent was like, dude, you hurt. I'm like, no,
I'm not hurt. Like what you talking me? He said?
Why are you are hard in It's like I don't know.
It means injurest what the heck? I have no idea.
So I go talk to coach. I'm like, dude, why
am I he's like, oh, well, I got to humble you.
And you know what this dude told me. He said,
you're not supposed to be in this league. In my head,
(30:14):
I'm like duh. And he said, you think you're manchho,
you think you like t o to real owens. I'm like, coach,
I don't even talk. I don't do that. That's not me.
He's like, I put your or to humble you. I said, okay.
So I went to talk to my agent. I said, look,
he's got to cut me, release me something. This is ridiculous.
(30:34):
I'm not going to do this. This is dumb. So
he ended up finally releases me, and then I go
and work out in Streetport Bosa City Streetport Louisiana.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
That's where Jake's from.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
Oh look at their battle wings went down.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
There.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
Went to a workout two days, a two day workout.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
I have been in Jill and.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
A minute, casinos Andreport City. It is a still gambling.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
I was. I was all over boats, all over them.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
I just one in particular I've been banned from for life,
which one is that I'm not even okay cool.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
I don't even want to say to one. I like
because it might be that.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
So you're absolutely right, Yeah, it's the same one than
you're thinking.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
I guarantee it is, yep, yep, it is. I guarantee yes, what.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
You are talking.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
I definitely was still gatherling there. End up making that
team first day, Boom said, met me at the office
and you're on the squad. So Boom, I get on
the squad do that. End up playing that season and
I'm like, I didn't really get the ball that much.
And I'm like, so every week he was coming to me.
He was like, man, Richie, my bag, Man, I gotta
get your ball. I gotta get your ball. Every single week.
This was happening every week. I'm like, yeah, coach is cool.
(31:44):
I'm like, I'm here, coach, let's get it. Every week. Nothing. Nothing.
I finally ended the season, I go back to Oklahoma.
I'm like, I'm done. I said, I'm not leaving, say
to Ogahoma again. We had to ring the team in Oklahomaself,
I'm done, I'm not gonna do it. So my agent
was like, dude, we got this opportunity and see I'm like,
here we go again. I said, I'm not leaving Oklahoma.
(32:04):
I'm not gonna do that. That's dumb. I have a
ton of hate in my heart now, a ton of
resentment in my heart. And I'm like, I just motion
to come back. Yeah see, I'm like, man, this is ridiculous.
And so this is two thousand and seven, and I said,
I told my dad. I said, I'm gonna play here
in Oklahoma. I don't care. I'm gonna I'm gonna stay here.
He said, well, this is a good opportunity. It's a
(32:24):
good deal. These guys that really want you, they play
the game, they know the game. They get it. I said, like, cool,
I signed in the week. If it's still there in
the week I signed, He said, all right, I tell
him he was still there in the week. So guess
what I signed. So I'm now I'm excited. I said, Okay, cool,
I go to Seattle Side whatever. Cool, Cool, I get
(32:45):
to go. I get to go again. I'm gonna tumble
myself again. I'm gonna see what's gonna happen. And now
in two thousand and seven, so we play in the spring. Yeah,
I think it's the spring summer and in the fall.
So I'm coaching high school football now at Mama Matter.
I grew up in my city and there, you know,
some coach of high school football. I'm excited about it.
And that's just what I do. Me and my friends.
(33:07):
We go to Bricktown, enjoin Bricktown. No need to have
a gun or any of that stuff because we're in Bricktown.
Police crazy in Bricktown. That tough, Like, no, we don't
need that. So we're going to get some chicks and
that's this is what we're gonna do, and we're gonna
move on bout our business. So I ended up meeting
a girl there, and what do you know, we kind
of hit it often. So I told the girl, said, like,
we're goinna go this concert, I'm gonna hit you out.
(33:29):
And so he forty was doing a concert in Oklahoma
City at the club. So we go to the concert,
me and my boy. We go inside the concert. The
forties not there yet, and but he's on the way
the police escorting men. Of course they put him over
in boomboo bo. So now now escorty men. So he's
coming on in now, So it's cool. So he gets there.
We're in the club probably about fifteen twenty minutes and
(33:50):
here he comes and he's like rocking it concerts. Are
we leaving, We get in the cars. When we're going
to the house, it's like four point thirty in the morning.
Now like, I'm tired. I got this chick waiting. She's
trying to come and get I'm like, oh, my goodness,
let's get back to the town. She's on the way.
And as we pulled to the stoplight, a car behind us,
I guess, jumps behind us, and one of the homies says, man,
(34:10):
that just car has jumped behind us, real quick, crazy.
The first thing to come to me, I'm like, you scared.
We're not scared. We're from Areada. We're not scared of
anything or anybody. And so now I raise up because
I'm all the way in the seat. I'm like, lo,
now I raise up. I'm looking in my riv because
I'm on the passenger side, and I kind of ease
over to the review to see what was going on behind.
(34:33):
So now I'm like, oh, Now, as we turn into
the close lane, that car turns into the far lane.
I can hear him bickering. I'm tired. It's fourth thirty
in the morning. I hear him bickering. So I'm like,
so I start hitting him up, boom boom. Before I
knew it, the dude on the passenger side is on
top of the car. The dude in the back you know,
(34:56):
he's raising out of the car. You know how you
sit on the door, He's raising out of the car.
The dude in the back seat was like, slow down,
I'm about to let these before I can. Before he
gets let these dudes have it. The dude was already shooting,
and then both of them was like And for me,
I knew if the waist up, I wasn't gonna get hit.
I was gonna live. So I had ducked in the
(35:16):
back seat and I turned and as I was turning,
then I was exposed. My lower half was exposed. And
so when I get now, I don't know what happened
on Black album we had wrecked. When I wake up,
I told the homie, I said, man, hey, my leg
is burning. It's like, what do you mean, Ross, I'm like,
(35:40):
my leg is burning. I don't know, I can't move it.
I said, man, check my leg. He said, man, you good? Ross.
I said, nah, bro, check my hip. He said, you laking.
I said, ah me here. Once I wake up from
all that, the fireman is at the door. Now, he said,
I gotta get you out of here. I was like,
I can't get out. I've been shot. He said, I no,
I gotta get you out of here because you just
hit this pole. And if I don't get you out
(36:01):
of here, gonna get eletrocuted. I said, get me out
of here then, and now we're going to the hospital. Now.
I'm terrified Sean Taylor just got killed because it's just
like I think about a month or months before he
got shot in the leg and he got he died,
and I'm like I was thinking about that in an ambulance.
I'm like, I'm asking to do it. I'm like, man,
am I gonna die?
Speaker 2 (36:18):
My good?
Speaker 3 (36:18):
He's like, man, you're in shock right now. And then
he said I just passed out and I didn't wake
back up until I got into the hospital. And I
got in the hospital, what woke me up was my mom.
She was yelling all the way at the other end
of all. They wouldn't let her in because it's games.
And I was like, is that my mom? The nurse
was like, I don't know something. Later, I said, that's
my mom. Let her in. She's like, oh, you see,
(36:39):
I'm like, let her in or she's coming. Let her
in or she's coming for sure. How do you want
to do it. You can be peaceful or it can
be calm, but let her in nice. Yeah, And so
my mom called me. She's like, oh my god, son
is so good to say. I'm like, Mom, is so
good to see you. And by that same time, the
detective came. He's like, are you miss rich And I'm like, yes, sir.
(37:00):
He said, you're lucky to be alive. I said, no,
I'm not lucky to be alive. From God son, God
and my father like what you're talking about, I'm not
lucky to be alive. He said. Eleven bullets hit your door.
He said, wow, So two of them hit me and
one is still lifted me today and right before, like
I just signed that contract a couple of weeks prior,
(37:20):
and you know what am I going to do now?
So now I hook up with my training. He's my uncle.
He called him my uncle. He's a hard nose, white guy, solid,
it's crazy and he could pull out of here. And
my uncle with like best friends and I called him
Mark said uncle, Mark man, that's a guy shot. He said,
what the heck? Come to the house. I'm like him
and his brother are freaking crazy, like Uncle Dan, Uncle Marka.
(37:42):
I'm like, man, what the heck? What happened? So they
giving me the whole third degree and they're furious. I'm like, yeah,
I know me too. So he changed me, gets me right,
gets me going, and I'm now able to move a
little bit, and I'm good. I feel like the bullet
made me faster. I don't know, it's pretty crazy, like
it's more explosive, like it was crazy. I'm like, what
(38:05):
the heck. So he's like, man, I think that bully
made you faster. Like I'm like no, I like feel great,
and I couldn't even walk for a minute. And it's like,
all of a sudden, I'm jumping on like forty inch
boxes and I'm just running like crazy. And now I
get to the season. I'm playing the season now, the
first four games coaching throwing the ball. So now I'm
going back. I'm like that resentment is there. I'm like,
(38:26):
this is why didn't want to come. I'm like, this
is ridiculous. I told my agent. I was like, this
is exactly why they want to come. But an approached
you play sixteen games Yea, there's twelve more games left
and Joshua Richie has forty four touchdowns, one hundred and
forty eight catches, one nine hundred and seventy yards receiving
twelve games. Because I broke every record on the team,
(38:48):
every team record, and I bot multiple records in the league.
I was ready to rock and roll.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
No kidding, just got shot.
Speaker 3 (38:54):
My mama's in prison. What am I going to do?
So every week I'm sending her clips. I'm crying, I'm
in tears. I'm sending her clips, in spying her and
she's in prison, sending her pictures and sending her news
clippings of everything I'm doing. Every single week. Every week,
I was scoring five touchdowns every single game. I had
a purpose, had a vision, I had a goal. I
was trying to get to the league. And that's what
(39:15):
I was doing. So do all that. My mom went
to prison. Boom, She's in prison, locked in, locked up,
And I'm still I'm just out here. I mean way
in Seattle, on from Oklahoma, way and Seattle. My mom's
in prison in Oklahoma. All I can do is center clips.
That's all I can do. Now. After that, I go
to Arena one. Now, so that was Arena two. I
go to Arena one and two thousand and yeah, so
(39:38):
seven eight Arena one. I'm playing in there in two
thousand and nine to leave folds. So I'm like, man,
you gotta be kidding me. Here we are again, Like
what the hell? This is crazy? So now I'm really
hating the game. Now it's really come back. Now the
resentment is really there. And for me, it was like, okay,
so I'm done. I'm gonna start a family, I'm gonna
(39:59):
have some kids, and this is what's gonna happen. I
don't even give it an yep, it's over. So what
I get a call? Of course, a freaking quarterback. A
freaking quarterback you call it said, dude, you're not in
the lead hit. I'm like, no, freaking the AFL just photed,
Like what the heck? He hung up on me, So
I'm tripping. Then the phone rings and he's like, hold on,
(40:23):
is this Joshua Rich. I'm like yes, sir. He's like, well,
this is such and such and jac just gave me
a number to call. You say, you're looking for an agent,
You're trying to get to the lead. I'm like yes, absolutely.
So this dude hangs up on me, and so now
an agent calls. He's like, dude, I just got a call. Said,
you're trying to get to the lead. You're six y three,
you're like one ninety, and you run extremely fast and
(40:44):
you catch the ball extremely good. And what's up? I said,
what's up?
Speaker 1 (40:49):
Tell me?
Speaker 3 (40:51):
You tell me. I don't know, like you tell me
what's up. So he's like, okay, well I didn't made
five calls already. I said, cool, let's do it. I'm
excited about it. I'm like, I'm geeked. I'm like, oh man,
this is what I've been waiting on. He puts me
on the phone. He calls you tried to call it
Tampa Bay. He calls Jacksonville. Neither one of them answer.
Then he calls the Jets. The Jets answer. So the
(41:12):
Jets was like, we've seen the film. We like him.
He's big, let's go, so just give me an opportunity.
I'm there for like a week I think eight days
some with the Jets, and the Jets was like at
that time, I think I was twenty seven. The Jets
was like, well, we want to draft two young guys.
We want to send you to a camp in CFL
and we won't bring you back in the.
Speaker 2 (41:31):
Training camp Canada.
Speaker 3 (41:32):
Yeah, yeah, Canada. I'm like, the heck, But I did
get it was there. I said, okay, humble myself. I
didn't really bring onto the resentment anymore. But now I
get to this camp in the CFL. It was the
wrong team. So it's not the team that I'm supposed
to be in. It's not the team that I'm supposed
to be act somehow, I'm like, come on, man. So
my agent had all these different people. He had some
(41:54):
receivers in the draft, he got drafted like second third round.
He got all these players, and I'm like, the world,
can you send me to the wrong place? And the
Jets is this is what they're doing, this is their farm.
So now I really don't give it two craps about
football anymore. I hate the game. I don't even know
that agent's name. I don't even know the coach's name,
(42:16):
the general manager from the Jets, I don't know the
dude from the freaking Canada. I don't even tried to
think of their names. And remember, I can't even do it.
I had so much hatred toward the game so much.
I despise a football game. I hated it. I didn't
care to see it, didn't care to watch it, didn't
care to If anybody talked about it, I would move,
I would leave. I didn't care. I hated it that much.
I'm like, I feel like you really took that from it.
(42:38):
But then when I look back at it today, I say, well,
if you would have really grind, if you were really
put that work in, if you really would took some
steps differently before all that, then you probably would have
got the shot that you wanted. But I believe that
I didn't work. And I also if I did hit
(42:59):
the lead, I was going to furnish my hood and
bring more drugs. I knew that was going to happen.
Just gotta be real. Wow, I knew I was going
to do that. God was like, Nah, we're not going
to do that.
Speaker 2 (43:13):
That was life happening for you.
Speaker 3 (43:15):
Yeah, that was life having it for me. That was
life having them for me. Absolutely, actually, one hundred thousand
percent correct.
Speaker 1 (43:21):
I dig your ownership because like you know, damn good
and well, like you're a domin doesn't with that story,
that was that close, right, you know that? And but
the fact that you own it, that's what makes you
who you are today, because there's a lot of people
(43:42):
that want there's a lot of people still pointing fingers.
Speaker 2 (43:53):
So your football career was over, But did surviving that shooting?
Did that make you rethink your street life?
Speaker 3 (44:00):
Absolutely on, hundred percent, And I'm glad you asked that.
When I got shot, I took my flag down out
of the window and I walked to my mom. I said, Mom,
I'm done. She said, what do you mean. I said,
I'm done with the whole gang life. Done. I don't
want any part of it anymore. She broke down bawling.
(44:21):
She's like, oh my gosh. I didn't think this time
would ever come. So I said, Mom, I'm going to
go buy a blue shirt now, and she bowed even harder.
She's like, oh my gosh, is this my son? I'm
like absolutely.
Speaker 1 (44:36):
So when you finish up football, where football finishes with you,
however you want to look at it, Yeah, that's what
it was. And then you lose that outlet you find
yourself in the depths of gambling. Where does that lead?
Speaker 3 (44:52):
I had foul Chapter seven bankruptcy, lost in everything. When
I was on my couch at home. I was severely depressed, broken,
had no relationship with my kids, had no relationship with
their mother. We were going at each other's throats and
court back and forth for years, like we were just
doing it, and I was broken. I remembering on that
(45:14):
couch with tears coming down my face in the fetal position,
curled up, balling just like a baby. Had no electricity,
had to take freezing coat showers. The only thing that
I could focus on was like the bugs that were
hitting my window. And then my neighbor had that little
bug light that would get the bugs, and I was
(45:36):
hearing that. Then I would sit up and I would
just be in a meditative state. Tears would just be falling,
and all I can do is just be with me.
I made a decision that moment. I said I'm done.
This is over stopping this, and I made that commitment
to myself that I'm gonna get through this. I would
go take a freezing coach shower and I would breathe
(45:58):
in that shower, in the shower to get warm. I
didn't know what was going on. I don't know why
was that happening. So the more I did it, I
got comfortable and I would take like four or five
showers a day because I had no ELECTRICI so I
had no running hot water. That's all I could do
is take freezing cold showers. Then I moved things around.
I moved my couch around. I moved my chairs around.
I moved my TV around. I move my kitchen table around,
(46:21):
my chairs around. I just moved everything around. And I
started taking different routes home. And I was working for
the school system at that time. I was getting paid
once a month, but I had payday loans. I was
some severe debt every month, and I didn't know what
to do, didn't know who to turn to, didn't know
what was going on. I was broken. I was lost,
(46:41):
like nothing, disgusted.
Speaker 2 (46:45):
But then you made a decision.
Speaker 3 (46:47):
But I made a decision, and a decision has to
be made within zero to ten seconds. Anything after that,
in my opinion, it's kneel and void. It doesn't sniper
gonna work. Now it's been eight years. I haven't touched
some dice nor been at a casino in eight years.
Because I made that decision that I was going to
(47:08):
bet on me in that moment. That's what I did.
I bet on me, and I changed everything. Now I
got the relationship with my kids, got a relationship with
the mother. Life is great, beautiful.
Speaker 1 (47:19):
Well done, well done, and congratulations bro.
Speaker 2 (47:23):
And thank you for sharing this story.
Speaker 3 (47:26):
Absolutely And I'm just grateful for who I am today
and where I'm at today. And my three things that
I live by in my life is self love, healing,
and forgiveness. Those are the three things that got me
to where I'm at today. Amen. I believe healing is
a lifetime commitment. It's just never You're never going to
be fully healed. It's a lifetime commitment. I believe that
(47:46):
every day you got to heal something, every day you
got to get there. I'm pretty sure related, Yes we are.
I'm almost positive, yes, yes. And so those are the
three things I live by. And you see my life
the all the forgiveness I had to do. When I
look at my life today, that's where I'm surrounded by
his self love, healing, and forgiveness. And those are the
three things. And the caveats is courage, bravery, and boldness.
(48:11):
I had to have enough courage to face that. Then
I had to be brave enough to walk through it.
Even on the fire was hot, I still had to
walk through it, be bold enough to take a risk
and bet on me.
Speaker 2 (48:22):
That is the good stuff right there. Joshua Richie, thank
you so much for telling your story. What an unbelievable,
crazy roller coaster of a story. But truly thank you
for digging deep and telling us all that.
Speaker 3 (48:35):
Thank you for having me. Yeah, you showed up today.
I'll tell you what.
Speaker 1 (48:38):
When I walked in this room, you know, I came
from a meeting where I was like, I was really
missing war because I was like, I don't have an
outlet that is good enough right now for how I'm feeling.
God knew all I needed was you, bro. Yeah, that's it,
So thank you. I appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (48:58):
Thank you for being you with.
Speaker 1 (49:00):
Conviction and being the leader in the inspiration that you are.
We're related. You're probably gonna know all the things that
I want to say. You already know, yes, and so
your family to me forever, and I appreciate you, and
I appreciate your grindness absolutely and humility. So don't stop.
Speaker 3 (49:20):
No, never, good never. I appreciate you too, Jake. We're
definitely brothers, no doubt about it now. Actually we're sisters
and brothers.
Speaker 2 (49:27):
That's right, I'll take it anyone I'm.
Speaker 1 (49:31):
Related to by defaults she's related to. It's one of
those things like I do the blood in for you.
Speaker 2 (49:38):
I think that was a gang thing, but I don't know, don't.
Speaker 3 (49:45):
Man. Thank you, Yes, absolutely, you welcome.
Speaker 1 (49:50):
Man. I'm so glad I won't spoke at that MVP game.
I know I could tell just by looking at Joshua.
I was like he and I your same cloth.
Speaker 2 (49:58):
Absolutely great energy, A motivator.
Speaker 1 (50:01):
Yeah, his scars are honest, absolutely no, no wonder he is
who he is. He is a motivator and inspirator and.
Speaker 3 (50:10):
A driver through and through.
Speaker 2 (50:12):
Thank you so much for listening. If this episode touched
you today, please share it and be part of making
someone else's day better.
Speaker 1 (50:18):
Put on your badass caps and go be great today.
And remember you can't do epic stuff without epic people.
Thank you for listening to the good Stuff. The Good
Stuff is executive produced by Ashley Schick, Jacob Schick, Leah
Pictures and q Code Media, Hosted by Ashley Shick and
Jacob Shik, Produced by Nick Cassolini and Ryan Counts House
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