On the latest NFL Players: Second Acts podcast, Peanut and Roman are joined by 15-year NFL veteran, and one of the most respected players during his career, Lorenzo Alexander. During a candid conversation, Lorenzo shares his journey as an undrafted rookie who flew across the country with cleats in a carry-on for a chance to play in the league, and how that tenacity helped him stick for 15 years. Lorenzo is known as a man of faith, and he shares how the death of Sean Taylor sparked his spiritual journey. Lorenzo and Peanut talk about the experience of being Walter Payton Man of the Year nominees, and Lorenzo talks about his passion for flag football.
0:00 – start of the show
1:05 – start of Lorenzo Alexander interview
2:17 – Lorenzo on turning 40
3:08 – Lorenzo on the struggles of trying to make it in the NFL as an undrafted free agent
8:07 – Lorenzo on being a Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee
12:17 – Lorenzo on Joe Gibbs’ influence on his fitness journey during his career
16:45 – Lorenzo on the impact of Sean Taylor’s death on his life
19:38 – Lorenzo on being a mentor to current players
24:00 – Lorenzo on the growth of flag football
30:47 – Lorenzo on his first NFL sack
32:23 – Lorenzo on his welcome to the NFL moment
34:35 – Lorenzo on his personal Mount Rushmore
**NOTE: Time codes are approximate
The NFL Players: Second Acts podcast is a production of the NFL in partnership with iHeart Radio.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
What's going on.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
I'm Peanut, just my guy Rome, and this is the
NFL Player Second Acts Podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
I actually called you Rome this time. I shouldn't. I
should have called you up. No, No, it's good.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
I'm romant. Thank you.
Speaker 4 (00:15):
Can just keep it going this today.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
This is the past that's gonna preside over my funeral
right here.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
I like the past or outfits you got going on.
I am dressed. You know, we're in New York, so
you can't see like I'm walking the street. You can't
see his pants right now. I'm not gonna show him either.
Speaker 4 (00:31):
So anyways, look, anywhere you listen to your podcast, at
first and foremost, we always want to thank you for
our listeners, our viewers. Tell a friend to tell a
friend to tell a friend. Give us a rating of
review five stars. I'm telling you, I'm not asking you
five stars. And wherever you listen to your podcast, where
it's Apple Podcast or iHeart Music Radio, please give us
(00:54):
a link here follow let's do that. Peanut, who is
our guest today, an oldie but a goody.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
I gotta read his resume because it's like fifteen years
worth of It's a lot.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
It's a lot. It's a lot. It's a lot of Yeah,
let me just get to it.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Undrafted in two thousand and five, went to col went
to Carolina in five. He's made two Pro Bowls, was
the defensive MVP in twenty sixteen. Got him a car
out of that.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
It's sure he pretty taxes on that. Okay. He was
the second team All throw in twenty sixteen.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Was the Buffalo Bill's Walter Payton Man of the Year
of recipient or nomine three times. His nickname is one
Man Game because he is heart and knows playing his
versatility and now he's doing amazing things with his foundation
through aces with the flag, football ladies and gentlemen. The
most interesting man in the world, Lorenzo.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Alexander appreciate that, fir Let's appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
I like the cow you got the I like the shirt.
I got that same shirt, the cow and everything.
Speaker 5 (02:01):
It's a little customing, you know. I was in Buffalo
for a while. That's what New Area is. So I
got some people over there that kind of make me
one of a kind hat. So that's what I got
to realize. New Era is out of Buffalo. Yeah you
just turned forty.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Yeah, Yeah, I.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Was life man.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
I saw your Instagram post too, and I just got
to be honest. Your birthday post to yourself a beautiful wife,
amazing family.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
With the interception, Bro, you ain't had to do that.
You did not. First of all, it's a great break.
Great break came right in the middle, hesitate. I picked
that thing off.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
The old man quarterback definitely was staring at down right
boom picked it off.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Was then you had to.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Drag the last yards. Then you spun on him.
Speaker 5 (02:40):
To let me just I like really enjoyed playing those
type of games because I'm technically a big man at heart.
So when I came out, I was throwing the fifteen
pounds of detach get into that. Oh yeah, so we
can talk about that. So anytime I get to be
athletic and play dB, I'm going all out and giving
you everything because Brian was my favorite player, yeah, as
(03:01):
he was everybody else.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
So, like you said, you went undrafted out of college
out of Cal. You were six to one, three hundred
and fifteen pounds over three hundred pounds coming out of Cale.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
You you don't.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
I didn't even realize you played defensive tackle. Looking up
your value and stuff, and so internally you know, you
don't get drafted. You thought you were going to be
a mid round guy. You don't get that call. Why
do you not stop? What says?
Speaker 6 (03:26):
You know what?
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Because you can take it here.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Right, Yeah?
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Why do you not stop?
Speaker 5 (03:30):
Initially you still say, well, I'm good, Right, they don't
know what they're talking about. So you know, you get
out there, you work out. You know, I was in Carolina,
as we mentioned, I had some good mentors down there.
I was down there with Julius Peppers, Bricks and Prison Buckner,
Mike Rutger.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Yeah. So it's just a really good that's what I mean.
Speaker 5 (03:49):
Yeah, So that's one of the reasons why I picked
to go there as an undrafted guy. Let me learn
from these guys that was playing a four to three,
had just come off of maybe a Super Bowl berth
either that year the year prior, so, just a really
good organization.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
And so get down there.
Speaker 5 (04:02):
They had drafted another guy to Ellison and Jovon Hay
might have been the.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Other d lineman in our draft class. And you know,
you practicing and you can see that, you know, I
can do what.
Speaker 5 (04:13):
They do, right, I can sit in here, maybe not
what Pep does, but yeah, yeah, maybe not what he
can do, but everybody else, Okay, I can see myself
in them and maybe playing, you know, and how they play.
And then you hear people are coaches talking, and then
you learn about some of the things that are out
of your control as a football player. A guy going
(04:35):
down another position, or we drafted this guy, so we
want to give him a shot. You're you're you're only
six to one. You know things I can't I can't change.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
But you're a good football player.
Speaker 5 (04:46):
And so going through some of that stuff being cut
being released, I guess ultimately I knew that I could
play because I was out there with those boys playing
and making plays. And then I also had my mom
and my uncle that were really the foundation, because at
one point after I got away from Carolina did think
about quitting because that flying back and forth when you
are or sogent.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
So we were East Coast guy.
Speaker 5 (05:06):
If you go on like I was in Cali, right,
and then fly out to Baltimore, flyout to Minnesota just
for workout, and I get signed and I'm a col dude,
I'm like, man, I'm about to go yeah, my masters
or something. I'm not doing this. This is not my life.
So but they, you know, encouraged me to keep going.
And then I got actually got really lucky when I
got to Washington, had to work out with them, and
(05:27):
they actually chose another guy doing the workout, but he
pulled his hamstring and I got on that way and
never looked back there ever since.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
So what did you really learn? What did that teach you?
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Though?
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Going from from team, because I know we we literally
talked about that.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
I was like, man, he went from team to team
and to go and living in this hotel.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
It's really tough that four fifty fifth guy on the
rocks where it's like that.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
But PETERA, No, I ran one forty. That was like
coming out.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
You running, I got different coaches looking at you for
just a couple of minutes and you have to go
through this process over and over and over again. But
then yeah, but not only that, but didn't get told no,
right and so real as the whether like really, we're
on your mind, your your confidence because you got to
be confident to play ball, and so how does that
how do you continue to do that?
Speaker 1 (06:16):
How do you continue to grind?
Speaker 4 (06:17):
And also I also read a story that you you
kept a pair of cleats like did you really just.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Just in the bag all the time.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
You just never know.
Speaker 5 (06:25):
But but when I look back at I actually had
a boy that was we had a frat house, that's
what I called when I was in Washington, Burrow Toler.
He would come in, they would switch between him and
another guy off of the lineman every week. Yeah, he
would leave, then he'll come right back and he'd be
like we had like the third guy in our in
our apartment because we were sharing an apartment, you know,
trying to save money back then. So for me, it's
(06:48):
it's crazy. I look back, my journey as far as
being on that kind of circuit really wasn't that long. Yeah,
it have been like five weeks where I was like
really just coming off the couch to see if I
can get on the team. And I was able to
catch on with Washington, you know, you know, by God's grace.
But I think that's really what it was. I had
great mentorship at different every place that I was at,
(07:10):
you know, whether it was London Fletcher when I was
when I was in Washington, or Brinson Buckton when I
was in Carolina. Those guys really showed me what hard
work looked like. I was in I was in in
Baltimore for like three or four days and saw Ray
Lewis like up close personal, right, I'm like, oh, this
is why this dude is great.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
This is work ethic, right, you get to get around greatness.
Speaker 5 (07:30):
And so for me, it was a great learning experience
because I saw where I wasn't working, where my shortcomings were,
where I thought I was doing something, but like, man,
you ain't working if you want to be on this
level and hold down this type of job and you know,
deal with all the pressures. But it mainly came down
to me understanding I only can control what I can control,
and I can't worry about all the other stuff because
I used to get migraine headaches and be stressing and
(07:52):
over stuff that I can't even do nothing about. Right,
So I just had some real good wisdom for some
older guys kind of telling me how to you know,
let some of that stuff go as.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Best you can.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Yeah, So I think the three of us we have
been truly blessed with having long careers. And I think
we all know that the NFL is it's you're here
today and you're gone tomorrow, and it's it's super quickly.
And I've had some great moments. I know you've had
some great moments. You have some great times. Fifteen years,
that's a long time, bro, Like, what was what was
(08:24):
one of your proudest moments of your career?
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Wow?
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Out of fifteen years, I.
Speaker 5 (08:31):
Mean there's a ton I would say to Walter, Payton
is probably the one that stands out amongst the you
know the rest.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Because you get the signey on your jersey.
Speaker 5 (08:39):
I never I never actually won the award. I'll tell
you a little funny story my last year.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
You know.
Speaker 5 (08:44):
No, typically they give it to guys on their way
out or later in the year, right, they want.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
To see some masturbation.
Speaker 5 (08:49):
My my, my star was never as bright as some
other guys. I was kind of right there, always like
a high end, blue collar guy.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
But we were at the I think it was in Miami.
Speaker 5 (09:00):
Asked you in twenty nineteen, were sitting there they had
this was the first time they actually had acted.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Because you want it, right, I have.
Speaker 5 (09:05):
One, Yeah, asked me like, hey, you know what would
you say? Give you Let's talk about a couple of
speeches where you're gonna be sitting. Make sure that you're
in your seat, right, and so you know, it's like
two or three other guys. They're doing that with the finalists.
And then they opened it up and said, this man
comes from humble beginnings, and me and my wife kind
of get ready to kind out so you can stand
up when they say your name.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Claius Campbell, I said, oh.
Speaker 5 (09:28):
You know, just kind of just shut down inside. But
Clay's is a great guy as well.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
There.
Speaker 5 (09:32):
But that was kind of like funny as far as
me because I had been a nominee four times prior
to that.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
That was my fifth time and I was retiring. It
was the first round pick with no I think it
was the second round.
Speaker 5 (09:44):
But Claire I never knew he was went to Miami,
but I didn't know Clayis was he was homeless when
he grew up.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Oh I didn't know that, right, Yeah, humble beginning.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
It was like, oh man, that's real right there.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
I didn't have to deal with that.
Speaker 5 (10:02):
Right, So it was just that that kind of stuff,
But that I think just being around those guys, I've
gotten to know a lot of them, play with a
lot of guys. Thomas Davis is another guy played who
was actually the same draft class in Carolina.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Or same rookie class drafted.
Speaker 5 (10:15):
So yeah, right, so just a lot of those different guys.
It's definitely not yeah, so just different guys like that
throughout my career. London that wanted one year as well,
Larry Fitzgerald. So I've been fortunate to play with a
(10:37):
lot of these dudes and get to know them and
who they are and how impactful they are in the
locker room and then more importantly in the community. And
coming from Oakland single mom, you know, my dad, my
uncle stepped in. So to be able to give back
to the community that way and be recognized by your teammates,
it was the coolest thing because every locker room I
was ever in, our teammates voted for that guy. So
recognized by them because they gonna tell you the truth
(10:59):
and you know, as far as you are what.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
You're doing, and so to be recognized by then, it
was really cool.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
The award has come a long way. Yeah, I know
sinces winning it when I want it. Back in thirteen,
I was a Bears nominee a couple of times.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
And what they've tried to do with the award and
the money that they've.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
Raised, Oh yeah, like they've they significant.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
It's significant.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
It's significant from when I did it to when TT
when TD Thomas Davis when he wanted, like compared to
what it is right now, like they are doing some
amazing even just to.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
Be nominated about your team is a significant amount of
money to your foundation.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
And so they didn't used to do that.
Speaker 5 (11:37):
It was like ten grand I think maybe early maybe
even when you wanted, they didn't even do They didn't
even do that. Like earlier on I would get like
a ten thousand dollars stipend, which is great money get
back at all the event. Yeah, and then by the
end it was like up to fifty thousand because you
were split it with the local nighted Way and then
the greater would get five hundred thousand and his crazy.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Yeah, it's like life change, right of people.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
And just so people know, like the player doesn't get
that money, that money goes toward the players foundation.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
That's where to make sure we don't know.
Speaker 4 (12:11):
So Lorenzo Man, so I didn't really recognize all of
the hoops and the things that you went through in
your career early right to get where you are, Like
I didn't realize you were d Lineman, a d tackle
I only recognized you when you were doing like the
Special Teams you were balling out in Washington, and then
later on in Buffalo when you were really the starting outside.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
I thought that was what who you were your whole career.
Speaker 4 (12:38):
I have to share this. As I looked up more
and more stuff on you. Is that so as you
started to trim down? All right, you're in Washington, Shanahan's
got you playing offensive line, tight end, fullback, and d lineman.
At times you're mostly a special teams guy, and they're like, okay,
we're going to three four, we need you to get down.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
You're like, okay, whatever it takes. One man, gag, I
got it right. Fred Smooth, by the way, give a
shout to friend Smoke. He gave me that nickname.
Speaker 4 (13:07):
One of the funniest, one of the funniest people I've
ever met in my life. I forget Friend Smooth's his
rap album he released one time, Oh my God, anyways,
but every Friend Smooth could do.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
That's my boys. And then all of a sudden, but
one round you got on P ninety X. That is
the most taboo thing I've ever heard. But like, that's
what you did.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
That was even I can't remember his name.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
They had the dark hair due but the fact that
implemented some of that into like your workout to just
get down.
Speaker 5 (13:40):
Yeah, the cycling, Yeah, I mean I did some like
mm a kind of grappling because we had a guy
they used to do something. They had a gym and
guys with an Eddie Mason out in Virginia, and so
I would do all those things. But to your point,
and actually started with Joe Gibbs. Man, you're talking about
old school football coach and mostly young cats don't even
(14:00):
understand what football used to be like in the in
the early you know, nineties, two thousands, and Joe Gibbs
goes all the way back to setties.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
You're right, So just a different mindset of dude.
Speaker 5 (14:13):
And so like my hardest days were like probably with
Joe Gibbs, and that's really what I think my foundation
football wise got said. As far as the league, you know,
Paddy practices on Fridays, hit him right in the chin,
live drills. I mean, it's just just different crazy yeah,
old school said, but during that time, it's really where
it came. Where I was on practice squad and I
(14:33):
tell people that was my hardest years because I literally
took every single rep that you possibly could take in practice,
so offensive look, defensive looks.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
I did not come out.
Speaker 5 (14:45):
I got what is this my man rock cart right, like, man,
this is how we work here. I'm like, man, this
is crazy, but that's really how they saw me, right,
how they saw Yeah, well he's a good golf.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (14:57):
It really really showed them that I could multi dimensional.
I could play some offensive line and hold my own
with some of the starters, and then be on special team.
Even though I was big, I was coming down. I
could understand the concepts. I was always chasing Danny Smith around.
Hey man, put me on something, because you know, for
young guys and you get that special teams coach to
put you out there, show out you can at least
kind of maybe secure. He'll stand on the table for you.
(15:19):
So it started being in the wedge. And then I
remember one game, Oh yeah, I'll.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
Tell you football.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
So for for here, on kick return, you get like
the four biggest guys they would lot like this grid
the wall, and then if you were the I guess
on kickoff your job was just to run down, split
the wedge.
Speaker 4 (15:45):
Hit the guy in the chin, right exactly. Sometime the
two would have so many on the wedge guys.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
Right once in a while to come down to try
to stay. I couldn't wait for that guy, like you
don't see him, I don't see you.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
I see you being buss Yeah, y'all was crazy.
Speaker 5 (16:03):
Yeah, so doing that and then eventually it's transition. I
was two ninety five running down on kickoff at the
three and running through.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
The wedg definitely right, yeah, definitely hitting it.
Speaker 5 (16:13):
So just see evolved over time, and so as they
saw me do multiple things, Shannon had eventually got there,
saw me covering on kicks and felt like I could
play in space. And so over those maybe three to
four years, I would just lose like ten to fifteen
pounds p ninety X. When I got married, I stopped drinking,
riding by just a ton of different things, cross training
(16:34):
that really helped me lose that weight incrementally over over
my last or my maybe my last three four years
in Washington.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
All right, and you know, as you were going through
all of that, I want to get to one thing
that's kind of serious, and I thought it was very vital.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
I'm a man of faith, and.
Speaker 4 (16:47):
So could you maybe just share with the listeners and
the viewers. All right, how you spoke about when after
Sean Taylor's death, how it really changed you. It's like,
you know what, I'm at this point, I'm giving my life.
You really focused, and.
Speaker 5 (17:02):
So we already had guys that were kind of working
on me. You know, you think about James Thrash and
Antoine Rando Leo, another body that's more my age, Kendrick Ghoston.
Just just a lot of good brothers, men of faith
that were not only talking in the locker room about it,
you know, in their bibles, but were living it out
when you would go out or go over to the
houses with their families. There's something different about them. U
(17:24):
passor Brett Fuller was our team chaplain had already kind
of been talking to me going to chapels, and when
Sean passed, I think that thing just kind of just
kicked me over the edge because we were the same
age and you look up, you know, when you playing ball,
you feel like, Okay, I'm invincible, can't nothing stop me
and do whatever I want to do. And that really,
I mean knocked everybody kind of back a little bit.
(17:47):
As far as you know, a guy that was here
one day and not there the next day.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
You're great, right, great? Oh yeah great.
Speaker 5 (17:55):
And it was actually as a man was making a
lot of strides from a maturity standpoint, had just had
his daughter, my wife now is really close with, was
really close with his fiance Jackie, and just getting to
know their family a little bit. But just seeing that
that process and then he couldn't finish it right to
really become great on and off the field and become
(18:15):
the man that he wanted.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
To be was just abruptly stopped.
Speaker 5 (18:19):
And so you know, I already had that working for me,
and as far as like where I was leaning to
as far as people around me and not feeling out
playing ball, making money, but I was feeling empty and
I didn't know what that was. And just watching those
guys and then seeing Sean pass really pushed me towards
Christ and giving my life up and really trying to
(18:40):
pursue them every day since then, back in two thousand
and eight, So you know, obviously that's a life walk.
You're never there, but definitely trying to continue to cultivate
myself right, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, discipline,
trying to make sure I am breathing living those things
every day, not only for myself, my wife and my kids,
and then my community.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
I'm gonna hit that one more time. How many of
those games, there's a lot of it.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
Sometimes you forget a couple, hold on, hold.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
On past them, missed.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
I think you missed a couple.
Speaker 5 (19:16):
Love, joy's, peace, patience, faithfulness, gentleness, and discipline, own mind.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
Think seven right, Yeah, okay, I'm good. I'm good, all right.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
But like, but since so, I know when I retired
certain coaches or whatever, Like, hey, can you can you
talk to a player?
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Talk to this player, just mentor ask them a couple
of questions. And I have I feel like we have
a wealth of knowledge about the game of football, and I.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Kind of know that's something you're doing right now, you know,
mentoring other other players because you have so much knowledge
about what you did right, what you did wrong, and
the people that helped you along that way when you
first started. So can you talk about how just kind
of what you're doing now and and and mentoring some
of these these athletes.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (20:11):
So the cool thing about when you play a long time,
you just play with a ton of guys, guys you
forget about man Man, I played with you like damn
man or you have at least, you know, one degree
of separational you have a connection point and so you know,
obviously the later on my career being that mental in
the locker room and helping guys, young guys come in
or even some venteran guys that sometimes trying to figure
out what life is all about was something that was
(20:32):
always on my heart as far as serving, you know,
the men in our locker room. So transitioning out having
been part of the nfl PAS Executive Committee and sitting
on the board as a rep multiple times, it was
like almost like a seamless transition to now work with
gods as they transition out and having built building a
relationship relationship with Tracy Perlman over the years being part
(20:54):
of the Man in a Year because that's one of
her initiatives that she works over as well. Had a
couple of conversations and went to the to welcome legends.
Welcome like when you retired, they bring you in. Mine
was kind of weird because right after it was right
after COVID. It was supposed to being twenty twenty, but
it got pushed back. But one end was talking to
her and Laura, and it was like, man, you need
to be a community coordinator, Like yeah, cool, Because I
(21:16):
was always trying to see if I wanted to be
a PA player director, one of those guys that come
in to help you like figure out the business. But
this really, you know, kind of fit what I wanted
to do as far as having time with the family,
but more important to be able to impact the guys
because this is where a lot of guys struggle at.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
And fall through the cracks.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Yeah, And because it's hard. I mean it's hard for anybody.
Speaker 5 (21:38):
I mean most people go through transition, right, but you
can still maybe find a job that you were in
or it feels that you love to do. I mean,
it ain't nowhere else. You're gonna go play ball at
a high level. I mean, you can go out to
the park like I do on Thanksgiving, right, have a
couple of I INT's, you know, a couple of tds.
You know pick six is maybe hit a guy on accident, you.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
Know what I mean. You can do that, but it
ain't it ain't it ain't the same. Right you don't
have that.
Speaker 5 (22:03):
You don't have the community, the locker room, that feel
and so being a part of a guy's journey and
just really helping them understand that they are equipped to
do anything that they want to do in life. And
I think a lot of guys are stopped by fear
and anxiety and that gap of I don't know because
I haven't done it, not realizing that the game has
cultivated a lot of things in them that are transferable
(22:25):
to anything you want to do. Just a lot of
guys just don't see it, right, And that's just how
we've been conditioned since we were whatever age you started
playing sports. That being accountable, being disciplined, being humble, or culturable,
you know, excellent has been just around that sport and
you haven't had to really applied in other areas. And
(22:48):
so I went back and got my masters in life
coaching to maybe help guys, you know, kind of see
some of that stuff a little bit differently because a
lot of us just reframing, helping them see it from
a different perspective, right, that you can still be impactful
in life because that's what you were on the football field.
You're part of a team, going out there doing your
job at a high level. Having camaraderie, you can build
that in other spaces. It's gonna feel a little different,
(23:09):
it's gonna look different, but you can still serve and
have a purpose driven life in another area without ball Man.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
That's beautiful, and we need more people like you saying
that to other guys as they're starting to transition. That's
we've done some of these other interviews the last couple
of days, like same conversation, right, and it's all the time,
and there is no perfect answer for it either and
so and so it really figured this out.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Hearing it more and more about every different person or.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
God makes me feel like, you know, I think we
really are serving more people and more people need to
continue to hear this because this is a true a
true feeling, a true statement, and it's understood by all
of us, not just a few of us right who
actually struggle or go through certain things or might not
be figuring it all out. So I appreciate that we're
gonna take a short break and we'll be back in
a minute. And now I want to ask you another
(24:01):
thing about something you're very passionate about, and that's your
foundations with ACES and how you have partnered up with
the NFL and the flag football and how big it's going.
I've seen the flag football league in my area here
in Charlotte, North Carolina, and how it's blowing up. I'm
signing my son up. He's gonna play next year. Uh
so we're gonna see how this thing goes.
Speaker 5 (24:21):
He's seven, Okay, man, you want to fly him out
to Phoenix every weekend?
Speaker 3 (24:26):
You know what I mean. He's always you don't get
coached up now coaching all Now.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
That's what I want.
Speaker 4 (24:36):
And so it's funny because you know, I'm always like,
all right, when am I gonna let him play? And
growing up, we were not told like flag football has
any type of it was not play.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
Yeah, that was like it's not even All you're.
Speaker 4 (24:57):
Doing is making himself And now seeing the benefits of
flag football, I want to let you talk about most
of them, but I see it because you learn how
to play in space.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Yeah, a lot of the things that.
Speaker 4 (25:08):
We do in practice every day, which is learn how
to play the game of football without the contact to
keep us healthy. It's another way to learn the angles,
the way the ball moves plays, concepts.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
Please jump said you just said everything you said, You're
gonna leave it for me. That's everything right, there's still.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
A little bit of meat on that.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
Yes, it's a great space to be in. I have
two boys.
Speaker 5 (25:29):
I actually have a daughter as well as a freshman
that's playing high school flag football.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
I hope my wife is that right? Because the sport
now end on what state you're in.
Speaker 5 (25:39):
It's a high school like ours is an Arizona Athletic Commission,
and they have it in some nai schools have scholarships
already out.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
There, some free money.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
Yeah, and so in a couple of years we hopefully
some of these d ones, right, you know secs. Why
wouldn't they do? You know the women give you a
video game? Right? Yeah, So it's that's a growing sport.
Speaker 5 (25:59):
So I I've loved being in it, understanding all of
the ramification that comes from playing a collision sport like football. Right,
the concussions, especially when we played the first and even
probably towards the end of my career, because I was
already conditioned. You've running back out there after you've seen
some black spots, it didn't matter smelling salts. No, I'm good,
don't come check me. Where's my helmet at? You know,
(26:21):
I'm about to go right back out there.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
And so right, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, right, yeah,
all that stuff that you kind of you know, kind
of remember. So you can get back out there.
Speaker 5 (26:33):
To be able to protect my son but still allow
him to play a game that he saw me play,
as well as my daughter be coming to the locker room.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
That's one thing people are gonna let your son play.
Speaker 5 (26:40):
I say, yeah, I'm just gonna push it down the
road because I didn't pay until high school, so to
your point, and I think that's allowed me to play fifteen.
I don't know how many did you get in I
got thirteen, eleven. Yeah, I don't know if I could
have played. And I'm still mad at Joe Gibbs because
I think he took a couple of years off my
career early early.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
That hard.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
If I've had more football earlier year, right, I.
Speaker 5 (27:04):
Don't know if I would have played fifteen, because it
it just gets hard on the back end. So but
just saving your body so that you don't have to
deal with some of it, even like the soft tissue
injuries in addition to the head or the concussions that
you want to kind of limit because football. I tell
my son all the time, he's nipping at me every day.
He's thirteen, he's going into the seventh grade.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
I want to play. I want to play.
Speaker 5 (27:25):
I'm gonnalet him play next year, so he has a
little one year before high school, eighth grade.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
Yeah, I'm gonna give just to give him a little
feel for it, so you're not getting knocked around. But
it's a hard game.
Speaker 5 (27:36):
It's not like I kind of like it. I'm gonna
get out there and play like baseball basketball. So I'm
trying to save me from himself because he really doesn't know,
and he can playing working out with me.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
He's he's like, it's one hundred degrees.
Speaker 5 (27:47):
I'm like, you're gonna be having helm and the shoulder
pass in this in another year, so you're not gonna
be complaining the right.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
So just s get him to understand.
Speaker 5 (27:55):
But the flag football has allowed him to kind of
play it, be a part of it, and then learn
all those concepts you was talking about. We're just gonna
be beneficial, you know, planning space, avoid of evading people,
trying to pull your flag, moving your feet, hand out, coordination,
I mean, just all the things outside of the contact.
The only thing that's different, obviously is five on five
(28:16):
and so as a coach, I have to start teaching
principles of this is what it actually is gonna look like, right,
versus five on five. But you can still do all
the man on man and man and cover two concepts
and cover three concepts with five on five.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
You just have to be a little creative.
Speaker 5 (28:31):
And so it's gotten him to understand, so it'll at
least have some type of experience and knowledge of have
being out there, and so it's been beneficial. I mean,
and it's really grown and it's a lot of fun.
It's very competitive, but I think it's huge.
Speaker 4 (28:44):
Football is the one sport that in America you can
start late and still be great.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
At it if you got the size of the ability,
like we can find a spot.
Speaker 5 (28:53):
Oh yeah yeah yeah, and the mentality right because it's
not as skillful as like baseball.
Speaker 4 (28:59):
Shout out to your son. I saw my instagram hit
that opposite field home run to lead.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
Yeah I appreciate that. Yeah yeah that's Cooperstown you know.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Yeah yeah, pretty big time as well.
Speaker 4 (29:07):
So yeah, just gotta be cool as the father seeing
your son shining anything.
Speaker 3 (29:11):
He's way better than I ever was just way better.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
And uh, it's really cool. To.
Speaker 4 (29:15):
You know, I started playing football in fourth grade, and
so you can guys, like you said, you started in
high school and you hear these stories and I didn't
know it because I started so young. He started eighth grade,
and you guys still played and played longer than I did.
So it's it's still you. It's more than one way
to skin a cat. So I think that's really cool.
Just continue to share that and encouraging more parents and families.
Speaker 5 (29:37):
But if I don't want a championship, I probably wouldn't
have played fifteen.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
I was chasing championship. Both of y'all got rings, don't y'all?
Are you missed? You missed it?
Speaker 5 (29:46):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (29:46):
I thought you Oh, I know you got one. I
know I thought you had one too, though, Look right,
I don't have you know what I'm saying. Both I
didn't even I thought you want to?
Speaker 5 (30:03):
Yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, I've never been to one. I
don't think I've ever been out of the first round
of playoffs, you know. So it's just a different grind
over here.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
You know.
Speaker 6 (30:16):
Soon as you said that, I was like, I know, ys,
like every year must be nice? Yeahrew back there, it
got nice, Drew Drew want to give him a shot out.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
He got that ring. He didn't even do nothing. He
didn't do nothing, he didn't make a tackle, nothing.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
Yeah, you gotta have him to come back do nothing.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
I like it. I like that. The room was like,
all right, I got a fun question for you. You ready.
Do you remember your first NFL sack?
Speaker 5 (30:52):
Yeah, Seattle Seahawks two thousand and eight, that was hasfled
Back because I was with him. You know, he served
on the see too, so I used to always tell him, Ye,
he was my first set.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
Okay, did you have a dance or did you like
with no celebration?
Speaker 3 (31:06):
You know who was that? That gives still no, I
wouldn't give that was uh. But we had old school coaches,
so we.
Speaker 5 (31:14):
Had oh you had him with Greg Williams. Yeah, and
then we had Greg Gloss. I don't know if you've
ever been around. Oh yeah, did you have in Chicago? Yeah,
rookie year, So you know what that's that's yeah. So
that's where I came and that's where I came from.
Speaker 3 (31:34):
So I'm not doing nothing.
Speaker 5 (31:35):
Yeah, undrafted man, play man, I'm going right back to
the huddle, head down.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
I didn't do nothing. Yeah, he had you worried in
practice over some stacks.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
Man.
Speaker 5 (31:45):
Gosh, that was yeah, well Greg would I didn't have
to deal with him as much, but he was insane.
Up down, y'all do the updowns, drill up down, run
and go get a can you and get the car?
Speaker 3 (31:57):
Got do? Man?
Speaker 5 (31:58):
What is this?
Speaker 3 (31:59):
We had guy A C trying to die for that
we had.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
It was three guys and co.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
Yeah, you got.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Right.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
It was everybody wanted to do that. It was.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Man mad.
Speaker 3 (32:20):
It was.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
What was your welcome to the NFL?
Speaker 3 (32:24):
Oh Man, welcome the NFL moment? Man? I don't I
don't know, I don't know. I don't know. That just
threw me all off right there reminiscing was that he
probably was my welcoming moment. Man.
Speaker 5 (32:40):
That's craziness. Man over there, Man, that was that was insane. Man,
I don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
I'll just call it that drill.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
Did You'll have to do up down to yes to
get in yes, so to be a part of it
right down like first.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
So it's like forty up downs, he sudden, he said
the tone and so no.
Speaker 4 (33:06):
But in two thousand and nine when we were the
Super Bowl, we were like bringing guys during playoffs just
to like get us a good updown day.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Because individuals after that, we're bringing the cast off the street,
just like n see what they're gonna do.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
Bro, it's bad. It was.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
I'm just glad I was not the only one that
had to do that. This wasn't just us, this is
now you had to get them to right.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
Yeah, for sure. You know what, as you remember that.
Speaker 5 (33:36):
Big Leonard Davis Gerard having to play one technique and
talking about having good technique, trying to stay low on
both of them boys, low dipped the shoulder and the
double team and all you doing is just moving backwards.
That was probably my welcome the NFL moment that just
kind of popped on my head. Big both of them dude,
(33:58):
and they had Colombo out there. That was just a
different off of the line type of error when you
just had all them dudes from the team to take.
But yeah, but Leonard had to be like Phonnic Pounds
and just trying to hold a double team against them
dudes and not have great technique and not be able
to do anything until they decide to let you go.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
That was pretty uh got me in college. I was
about one hundred and eighty pounds. He just threw me
like great, just a big man, yeah, like scary, massive individual.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
All right, Nope, nope, I got the I got I
got one. It's gonna be I guess, kind of serious
or make him think for you.
Speaker 4 (34:32):
Yeah, I know, That's why I say, Okay, we like
to ask, Sister, all of our guests, we asked them
about their Mount Rushmore. Who is their Mount Rushmore? Influence
on your life, your experience through football, life, all of that.
You got four and you're free two of them already,
all right.
Speaker 5 (34:51):
But uh man, my uncle see yeah, I mean my
mom is there too, but as far as football, she's
more life.
Speaker 3 (35:00):
But my uncle, for sure. London Fletcher would be two.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
Man, London. I know, I know the bile, but I
want to listeners let them know.
Speaker 5 (35:11):
So obviously London is probably I mean he should be
in the Hall of Fame by now, but one of
the greatest linebackers ever played this game. I think he
got sixteen years in, won a Super Bowl, went to
another one like.
Speaker 4 (35:24):
Eight tho times, right, I mean he's the deepest covered
two linebacker I've ever seen.
Speaker 5 (35:29):
Yeah, just athletic, fast, strong, very intelligent, probably the only
player I think could have called the defense and then
played at a high level and been very effective doing both.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
Man of faith.
Speaker 5 (35:42):
And then when I was in Washington if you've never
played for Washington, our facility was in Ashburn. It's near Fairfact, Ashburn,
and then our stadium was in Landover, Maryland, and we
used to stay in like PG County, So that's an
hour from Ashburn's for home games and then probably another
thirty minute drive to our stadium on game days. And
(36:05):
he was one of the guys that I would ride
to the game with every week during the season. We
used to have some real, some real conversations about life
and if you I mean he went to John.
Speaker 3 (36:14):
Carroll's a hooper, you know, transition to playing football.
Speaker 5 (36:17):
I mean he had some some some some family dynamics
that he just learned from and overcame and just learned
about that and how he became you know, you know
marriage and then marriage is his wife that he's with now,
developed his family.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
Just some real, just good.
Speaker 5 (36:32):
Life stuff that you learn about how to be a
man within this craziness of the NFL.
Speaker 3 (36:37):
And so that's why you know London is is way
up there, you know, he's pretty growth for too. Yeah, yeah,
I know I need to. I need to get with London. Man,
he's you ain't gonna never beat me. So that's all right,
I'm coming. I'm coming.
Speaker 5 (36:48):
I'm working silently right now on Phoenix. So so I'll
be out there. I'm gonna come out there and let
you know.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
Yeah we got so who.
Speaker 3 (36:56):
Wins all the time we had against each other? Okay,
you he's scared of you. Scared.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
I'm probably he not that good though, Okay, but I
still call Hi when I need a lesson.
Speaker 5 (37:09):
Yeah yeah, so yeah, but I'm working side. Who else
is up on that Mount Rushmore? I would say Danny Smith,
special teams coach. He's with the Pittsburgh Steelers right now.
He really gave me my first opportunity to play on
teams and just taught me a lot of a ton
of stuff. And then, man, I mean, this is so
many other guys that's right there. I say Chris Samuels,
(37:32):
probably Mike Sellers. Mike Sellers, another big bro full back, right,
another special team demon. You know, he was two hundred
and ninety five. His two ninety five looked different than mine. Know,
he was rocked up, solid, you know, looked like a
little yeah, a little bodybuilder out there.
Speaker 3 (37:47):
So he probably be my fourth as far as it's teaching.
Speaker 5 (37:50):
Me again the game and then life and hanging out
with him and growing up with him a little bit
in the league too. So those are probably my top
four guys, and it's probably it's a ton of other
guys that I probably left later my years. You had
Leslie Fraser two, you know, Chicago, So I really enjoyed
being around Leslie Fraser as far as you know, he's
a man of faith as well, dude. Yeah, and it's working,
(38:11):
you know, helped me cultivate my leadership and later in
my career and what transition was gonna look like when
I got done on top of just being just an
awesome dude and being around and playing football for.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
Yeah, Well, man, we appreciate you coming on. You got
in like hell of late.
Speaker 5 (38:26):
Yeah, I didn't want to cancel you man. You know,
if y'all didn't play bar be like man, I'll see
y'all later, man, So.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
I really appreciate. I know, flight delayed. You got in
at three.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
We got the eight am, so yeah, you still came
in and for y'all, we I think you're riding with
us over We're going to fill it later on to
go to films do some more stuff.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
So, yeah, we appreciate you always.
Speaker 3 (38:51):
I'm gonna go get something somewhere in here, right, I appreciate,
I appreciate you guys.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
You drink that car, You're gonna be up now. Na.
This is just something that is keep you right, all right,
appreciate you. Hey, I'm Peanut.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
That's Rome, that's a This is an NFL Player Segments podcast,
and we out
What's going on.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
I'm Peanut, just my guy Rome, and this is the
NFL Player Second Acts Podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
I actually called you Rome this time. I shouldn't. I
should have called you up. No, No, it's good.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
I'm romant. Thank you.
Speaker 4 (00:15):
Can just keep it going this today.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
This is the past that's gonna preside over my funeral
right here.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
I like the past or outfits you got going on.
I am dressed. You know, we're in New York, so
you can't see like I'm walking the street. You can't
see his pants right now. I'm not gonna show him either.
Speaker 4 (00:31):
So anyways, look, anywhere you listen to your podcast, at
first and foremost, we always want to thank you for
our listeners, our viewers. Tell a friend to tell a
friend to tell a friend. Give us a rating of
review five stars. I'm telling you, I'm not asking you
five stars. And wherever you listen to your podcast, where
it's Apple Podcast or iHeart Music Radio, please give us
(00:54):
a link here follow let's do that. Peanut, who is
our guest today, an oldie but a goody.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
I gotta read his resume because it's like fifteen years
worth of It's a lot.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
It's a lot. It's a lot. It's a lot of Yeah,
let me just get to it.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Undrafted in two thousand and five, went to col went
to Carolina in five. He's made two Pro Bowls, was
the defensive MVP in twenty sixteen. Got him a car
out of that.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
It's sure he pretty taxes on that. Okay. He was
the second team All throw in twenty sixteen.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Was the Buffalo Bill's Walter Payton Man of the Year
of recipient or nomine three times. His nickname is one
Man Game because he is heart and knows playing his
versatility and now he's doing amazing things with his foundation
through aces with the flag, football ladies and gentlemen. The
most interesting man in the world, Lorenzo.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Alexander appreciate that, fir Let's appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
I like the cow you got the I like the shirt.
I got that same shirt, the cow and everything.
Speaker 5 (02:01):
It's a little customing, you know. I was in Buffalo
for a while. That's what New Area is. So I
got some people over there that kind of make me
one of a kind hat. So that's what I got
to realize. New Era is out of Buffalo. Yeah you
just turned forty.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Yeah, Yeah, I.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Was life man.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
I saw your Instagram post too, and I just got
to be honest. Your birthday post to yourself a beautiful wife,
amazing family.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
With the interception, Bro, you ain't had to do that.
You did not. First of all, it's a great break.
Great break came right in the middle, hesitate. I picked
that thing off.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
The old man quarterback definitely was staring at down right
boom picked it off.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Was then you had to.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Drag the last yards. Then you spun on him.
Speaker 5 (02:40):
To let me just I like really enjoyed playing those
type of games because I'm technically a big man at heart.
So when I came out, I was throwing the fifteen
pounds of detach get into that. Oh yeah, so we
can talk about that. So anytime I get to be
athletic and play dB, I'm going all out and giving
you everything because Brian was my favorite player, yeah, as
(03:01):
he was everybody else.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
So, like you said, you went undrafted out of college
out of Cal. You were six to one, three hundred
and fifteen pounds over three hundred pounds coming out of Cale.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
You you don't.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
I didn't even realize you played defensive tackle. Looking up
your value and stuff, and so internally you know, you
don't get drafted. You thought you were going to be
a mid round guy. You don't get that call. Why
do you not stop? What says?
Speaker 6 (03:26):
You know what?
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Because you can take it here.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Right, Yeah?
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Why do you not stop?
Speaker 5 (03:30):
Initially you still say, well, I'm good, Right, they don't
know what they're talking about. So you know, you get
out there, you work out. You know, I was in Carolina,
as we mentioned, I had some good mentors down there.
I was down there with Julius Peppers, Bricks and Prison Buckner,
Mike Rutger.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Yeah. So it's just a really good that's what I mean.
Speaker 5 (03:49):
Yeah, So that's one of the reasons why I picked
to go there as an undrafted guy. Let me learn
from these guys that was playing a four to three,
had just come off of maybe a Super Bowl berth
either that year the year prior, so, just a really
good organization.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
And so get down there.
Speaker 5 (04:02):
They had drafted another guy to Ellison and Jovon Hay
might have been the.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Other d lineman in our draft class. And you know,
you practicing and you can see that, you know, I
can do what.
Speaker 5 (04:13):
They do, right, I can sit in here, maybe not
what Pep does, but yeah, yeah, maybe not what he
can do, but everybody else, Okay, I can see myself
in them and maybe playing, you know, and how they play.
And then you hear people are coaches talking, and then
you learn about some of the things that are out
of your control as a football player. A guy going
(04:35):
down another position, or we drafted this guy, so we
want to give him a shot. You're you're you're only
six to one. You know things I can't I can't change.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
But you're a good football player.
Speaker 5 (04:46):
And so going through some of that stuff being cut
being released, I guess ultimately I knew that I could
play because I was out there with those boys playing
and making plays. And then I also had my mom
and my uncle that were really the foundation, because at
one point after I got away from Carolina did think
about quitting because that flying back and forth when you
are or sogent.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
So we were East Coast guy.
Speaker 5 (05:06):
If you go on like I was in Cali, right,
and then fly out to Baltimore, flyout to Minnesota just
for workout, and I get signed and I'm a col dude,
I'm like, man, I'm about to go yeah, my masters
or something. I'm not doing this. This is not my life.
So but they, you know, encouraged me to keep going.
And then I got actually got really lucky when I
got to Washington, had to work out with them, and
(05:27):
they actually chose another guy doing the workout, but he
pulled his hamstring and I got on that way and
never looked back there ever since.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
So what did you really learn? What did that teach you?
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Though?
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Going from from team, because I know we we literally
talked about that.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
I was like, man, he went from team to team
and to go and living in this hotel.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
It's really tough that four fifty fifth guy on the
rocks where it's like that.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
But PETERA, No, I ran one forty. That was like
coming out.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
You running, I got different coaches looking at you for
just a couple of minutes and you have to go
through this process over and over and over again. But
then yeah, but not only that, but didn't get told no,
right and so real as the whether like really, we're
on your mind, your your confidence because you got to
be confident to play ball, and so how does that
how do you continue to do that?
Speaker 1 (06:16):
How do you continue to grind?
Speaker 4 (06:17):
And also I also read a story that you you
kept a pair of cleats like did you really just.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Just in the bag all the time.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
You just never know.
Speaker 5 (06:25):
But but when I look back at I actually had
a boy that was we had a frat house, that's
what I called when I was in Washington, Burrow Toler.
He would come in, they would switch between him and
another guy off of the lineman every week. Yeah, he
would leave, then he'll come right back and he'd be
like we had like the third guy in our in
our apartment because we were sharing an apartment, you know,
trying to save money back then. So for me, it's
(06:48):
it's crazy. I look back, my journey as far as
being on that kind of circuit really wasn't that long. Yeah,
it have been like five weeks where I was like
really just coming off the couch to see if I
can get on the team. And I was able to
catch on with Washington, you know, you know, by God's grace.
But I think that's really what it was. I had
great mentorship at different every place that I was at,
(07:10):
you know, whether it was London Fletcher when I was
when I was in Washington, or Brinson Buckton when I
was in Carolina. Those guys really showed me what hard
work looked like. I was in I was in in
Baltimore for like three or four days and saw Ray
Lewis like up close personal, right, I'm like, oh, this
is why this dude is great.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
This is work ethic, right, you get to get around greatness.
Speaker 5 (07:30):
And so for me, it was a great learning experience
because I saw where I wasn't working, where my shortcomings were,
where I thought I was doing something, but like, man,
you ain't working if you want to be on this
level and hold down this type of job and you know,
deal with all the pressures. But it mainly came down
to me understanding I only can control what I can control,
and I can't worry about all the other stuff because
I used to get migraine headaches and be stressing and
(07:52):
over stuff that I can't even do nothing about. Right,
So I just had some real good wisdom for some
older guys kind of telling me how to you know,
let some of that stuff go as.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Best you can.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Yeah, So I think the three of us we have
been truly blessed with having long careers. And I think
we all know that the NFL is it's you're here
today and you're gone tomorrow, and it's it's super quickly.
And I've had some great moments. I know you've had
some great moments. You have some great times. Fifteen years,
that's a long time, bro, Like, what was what was
(08:24):
one of your proudest moments of your career?
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Wow?
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Out of fifteen years, I.
Speaker 5 (08:31):
Mean there's a ton I would say to Walter, Payton
is probably the one that stands out amongst the you
know the rest.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Because you get the signey on your jersey.
Speaker 5 (08:39):
I never I never actually won the award. I'll tell
you a little funny story my last year.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
You know.
Speaker 5 (08:44):
No, typically they give it to guys on their way
out or later in the year, right, they want.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
To see some masturbation.
Speaker 5 (08:49):
My my, my star was never as bright as some
other guys. I was kind of right there, always like
a high end, blue collar guy.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
But we were at the I think it was in Miami.
Speaker 5 (09:00):
Asked you in twenty nineteen, were sitting there they had
this was the first time they actually had acted.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Because you want it, right, I have.
Speaker 5 (09:05):
One, Yeah, asked me like, hey, you know what would
you say? Give you Let's talk about a couple of
speeches where you're gonna be sitting. Make sure that you're
in your seat, right, and so you know, it's like
two or three other guys. They're doing that with the finalists.
And then they opened it up and said, this man
comes from humble beginnings, and me and my wife kind
of get ready to kind out so you can stand
up when they say your name.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Claius Campbell, I said, oh.
Speaker 5 (09:28):
You know, just kind of just shut down inside. But
Clay's is a great guy as well.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
There.
Speaker 5 (09:32):
But that was kind of like funny as far as
me because I had been a nominee four times prior
to that.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
That was my fifth time and I was retiring. It
was the first round pick with no I think it
was the second round.
Speaker 5 (09:44):
But Claire I never knew he was went to Miami,
but I didn't know Clayis was he was homeless when
he grew up.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Oh I didn't know that, right, Yeah, humble beginning.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
It was like, oh man, that's real right there.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
I didn't have to deal with that.
Speaker 5 (10:02):
Right, So it was just that that kind of stuff,
But that I think just being around those guys, I've
gotten to know a lot of them, play with a
lot of guys. Thomas Davis is another guy played who
was actually the same draft class in Carolina.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Or same rookie class drafted.
Speaker 5 (10:15):
So yeah, right, so just a lot of those different guys.
It's definitely not yeah, so just different guys like that
throughout my career. London that wanted one year as well,
Larry Fitzgerald. So I've been fortunate to play with a
(10:37):
lot of these dudes and get to know them and
who they are and how impactful they are in the
locker room and then more importantly in the community. And
coming from Oakland single mom, you know, my dad, my
uncle stepped in. So to be able to give back
to the community that way and be recognized by your teammates,
it was the coolest thing because every locker room I
was ever in, our teammates voted for that guy. So
recognized by them because they gonna tell you the truth
(10:59):
and you know, as far as you are what.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
You're doing, and so to be recognized by then, it
was really cool.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
The award has come a long way. Yeah, I know
sinces winning it when I want it. Back in thirteen,
I was a Bears nominee a couple of times.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
And what they've tried to do with the award and
the money that they've.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
Raised, Oh yeah, like they've they significant.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
It's significant.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
It's significant from when I did it to when TT
when TD Thomas Davis when he wanted, like compared to
what it is right now, like they are doing some
amazing even just to.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
Be nominated about your team is a significant amount of
money to your foundation.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
And so they didn't used to do that.
Speaker 5 (11:37):
It was like ten grand I think maybe early maybe
even when you wanted, they didn't even do They didn't
even do that. Like earlier on I would get like
a ten thousand dollars stipend, which is great money get
back at all the event. Yeah, and then by the
end it was like up to fifty thousand because you
were split it with the local nighted Way and then
the greater would get five hundred thousand and his crazy.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Yeah, it's like life change, right of people.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
And just so people know, like the player doesn't get
that money, that money goes toward the players foundation.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
That's where to make sure we don't know.
Speaker 4 (12:11):
So Lorenzo Man, so I didn't really recognize all of
the hoops and the things that you went through in
your career early right to get where you are, Like
I didn't realize you were d Lineman, a d tackle
I only recognized you when you were doing like the
Special Teams you were balling out in Washington, and then
later on in Buffalo when you were really the starting outside.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
I thought that was what who you were your whole career.
Speaker 4 (12:38):
I have to share this. As I looked up more
and more stuff on you. Is that so as you
started to trim down? All right, you're in Washington, Shanahan's
got you playing offensive line, tight end, fullback, and d lineman.
At times you're mostly a special teams guy, and they're like, okay,
we're going to three four, we need you to get down.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
You're like, okay, whatever it takes. One man, gag, I
got it right. Fred Smooth, by the way, give a
shout to friend Smoke. He gave me that nickname.
Speaker 4 (13:07):
One of the funniest, one of the funniest people I've
ever met in my life. I forget Friend Smooth's his
rap album he released one time, Oh my God, anyways,
but every Friend Smooth could do.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
That's my boys. And then all of a sudden, but
one round you got on P ninety X. That is
the most taboo thing I've ever heard. But like, that's
what you did.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
That was even I can't remember his name.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
They had the dark hair due but the fact that
implemented some of that into like your workout to just
get down.
Speaker 5 (13:40):
Yeah, the cycling, Yeah, I mean I did some like
mm a kind of grappling because we had a guy
they used to do something. They had a gym and
guys with an Eddie Mason out in Virginia, and so
I would do all those things. But to your point,
and actually started with Joe Gibbs. Man, you're talking about
old school football coach and mostly young cats don't even
(14:00):
understand what football used to be like in the in
the early you know, nineties, two thousands, and Joe Gibbs
goes all the way back to setties.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
You're right, So just a different mindset of dude.
Speaker 5 (14:13):
And so like my hardest days were like probably with
Joe Gibbs, and that's really what I think my foundation
football wise got said. As far as the league, you know,
Paddy practices on Fridays, hit him right in the chin,
live drills. I mean, it's just just different crazy yeah,
old school said, but during that time, it's really where
it came. Where I was on practice squad and I
(14:33):
tell people that was my hardest years because I literally
took every single rep that you possibly could take in practice,
so offensive look, defensive looks.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
I did not come out.
Speaker 5 (14:45):
I got what is this my man rock cart right, like, man,
this is how we work here. I'm like, man, this
is crazy, but that's really how they saw me, right,
how they saw Yeah, well he's a good golf.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (14:57):
It really really showed them that I could multi dimensional.
I could play some offensive line and hold my own
with some of the starters, and then be on special team.
Even though I was big, I was coming down. I
could understand the concepts. I was always chasing Danny Smith around.
Hey man, put me on something, because you know, for
young guys and you get that special teams coach to
put you out there, show out you can at least
kind of maybe secure. He'll stand on the table for you.
(15:19):
So it started being in the wedge. And then I
remember one game, Oh yeah, I'll.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
Tell you football.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
So for for here, on kick return, you get like
the four biggest guys they would lot like this grid
the wall, and then if you were the I guess
on kickoff your job was just to run down, split
the wedge.
Speaker 4 (15:45):
Hit the guy in the chin, right exactly. Sometime the
two would have so many on the wedge guys.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
Right once in a while to come down to try
to stay. I couldn't wait for that guy, like you
don't see him, I don't see you.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
I see you being buss Yeah, y'all was crazy.
Speaker 5 (16:03):
Yeah, so doing that and then eventually it's transition. I
was two ninety five running down on kickoff at the
three and running through.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
The wedg definitely right, yeah, definitely hitting it.
Speaker 5 (16:13):
So just see evolved over time, and so as they
saw me do multiple things, Shannon had eventually got there,
saw me covering on kicks and felt like I could
play in space. And so over those maybe three to
four years, I would just lose like ten to fifteen
pounds p ninety X. When I got married, I stopped drinking,
riding by just a ton of different things, cross training
(16:34):
that really helped me lose that weight incrementally over over
my last or my maybe my last three four years
in Washington.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
All right, and you know, as you were going through
all of that, I want to get to one thing
that's kind of serious, and I thought it was very vital.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
I'm a man of faith, and.
Speaker 4 (16:47):
So could you maybe just share with the listeners and
the viewers. All right, how you spoke about when after
Sean Taylor's death, how it really changed you. It's like,
you know what, I'm at this point, I'm giving my life.
You really focused, and.
Speaker 5 (17:02):
So we already had guys that were kind of working
on me. You know, you think about James Thrash and
Antoine Rando Leo, another body that's more my age, Kendrick Ghoston.
Just just a lot of good brothers, men of faith
that were not only talking in the locker room about it,
you know, in their bibles, but were living it out
when you would go out or go over to the
houses with their families. There's something different about them. U
(17:24):
passor Brett Fuller was our team chaplain had already kind
of been talking to me going to chapels, and when
Sean passed, I think that thing just kind of just
kicked me over the edge because we were the same
age and you look up, you know, when you playing ball,
you feel like, Okay, I'm invincible, can't nothing stop me
and do whatever I want to do. And that really,
I mean knocked everybody kind of back a little bit.
(17:47):
As far as you know, a guy that was here
one day and not there the next day.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
You're great, right, great? Oh yeah great.
Speaker 5 (17:55):
And it was actually as a man was making a
lot of strides from a maturity standpoint, had just had
his daughter, my wife now is really close with, was
really close with his fiance Jackie, and just getting to
know their family a little bit. But just seeing that
that process and then he couldn't finish it right to
really become great on and off the field and become
(18:15):
the man that he wanted.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
To be was just abruptly stopped.
Speaker 5 (18:19):
And so you know, I already had that working for me,
and as far as like where I was leaning to
as far as people around me and not feeling out
playing ball, making money, but I was feeling empty and
I didn't know what that was. And just watching those
guys and then seeing Sean pass really pushed me towards
Christ and giving my life up and really trying to
(18:40):
pursue them every day since then, back in two thousand
and eight, So you know, obviously that's a life walk.
You're never there, but definitely trying to continue to cultivate
myself right, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, discipline,
trying to make sure I am breathing living those things
every day, not only for myself, my wife and my kids,
and then my community.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
I'm gonna hit that one more time. How many of
those games, there's a lot of it.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
Sometimes you forget a couple, hold on, hold.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
On past them, missed.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
I think you missed a couple.
Speaker 5 (19:16):
Love, joy's, peace, patience, faithfulness, gentleness, and discipline, own mind.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
Think seven right, Yeah, okay, I'm good. I'm good, all right.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
But like, but since so, I know when I retired
certain coaches or whatever, Like, hey, can you can you
talk to a player?
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Talk to this player, just mentor ask them a couple
of questions. And I have I feel like we have
a wealth of knowledge about the game of football, and I.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Kind of know that's something you're doing right now, you know,
mentoring other other players because you have so much knowledge
about what you did right, what you did wrong, and
the people that helped you along that way when you
first started. So can you talk about how just kind
of what you're doing now and and and mentoring some
of these these athletes.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (20:11):
So the cool thing about when you play a long time,
you just play with a ton of guys, guys you
forget about man Man, I played with you like damn
man or you have at least, you know, one degree
of separational you have a connection point and so you know,
obviously the later on my career being that mental in
the locker room and helping guys, young guys come in
or even some venteran guys that sometimes trying to figure
out what life is all about was something that was
(20:32):
always on my heart as far as serving, you know,
the men in our locker room. So transitioning out having
been part of the nfl PAS Executive Committee and sitting
on the board as a rep multiple times, it was
like almost like a seamless transition to now work with
gods as they transition out and having built building a
relationship relationship with Tracy Perlman over the years being part
(20:54):
of the Man in a Year because that's one of
her initiatives that she works over as well. Had a
couple of conversations and went to the to welcome legends.
Welcome like when you retired, they bring you in. Mine
was kind of weird because right after it was right
after COVID. It was supposed to being twenty twenty, but
it got pushed back. But one end was talking to
her and Laura, and it was like, man, you need
to be a community coordinator, Like yeah, cool, Because I
(21:16):
was always trying to see if I wanted to be
a PA player director, one of those guys that come
in to help you like figure out the business. But
this really, you know, kind of fit what I wanted
to do as far as having time with the family,
but more important to be able to impact the guys
because this is where a lot of guys struggle at.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
And fall through the cracks.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Yeah, And because it's hard. I mean it's hard for anybody.
Speaker 5 (21:38):
I mean most people go through transition, right, but you
can still maybe find a job that you were in
or it feels that you love to do. I mean,
it ain't nowhere else. You're gonna go play ball at
a high level. I mean, you can go out to
the park like I do on Thanksgiving, right, have a
couple of I INT's, you know, a couple of tds.
You know pick six is maybe hit a guy on accident, you.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
Know what I mean. You can do that, but it
ain't it ain't it ain't the same. Right you don't
have that.
Speaker 5 (22:03):
You don't have the community, the locker room, that feel
and so being a part of a guy's journey and
just really helping them understand that they are equipped to
do anything that they want to do in life. And
I think a lot of guys are stopped by fear
and anxiety and that gap of I don't know because
I haven't done it, not realizing that the game has
cultivated a lot of things in them that are transferable
(22:25):
to anything you want to do. Just a lot of
guys just don't see it, right, And that's just how
we've been conditioned since we were whatever age you started
playing sports. That being accountable, being disciplined, being humble, or culturable,
you know, excellent has been just around that sport and
you haven't had to really applied in other areas. And
(22:48):
so I went back and got my masters in life
coaching to maybe help guys, you know, kind of see
some of that stuff a little bit differently because a
lot of us just reframing, helping them see it from
a different perspective, right, that you can still be impactful
in life because that's what you were on the football field.
You're part of a team, going out there doing your
job at a high level. Having camaraderie, you can build
that in other spaces. It's gonna feel a little different,
(23:09):
it's gonna look different, but you can still serve and
have a purpose driven life in another area without ball Man.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
That's beautiful, and we need more people like you saying
that to other guys as they're starting to transition. That's
we've done some of these other interviews the last couple
of days, like same conversation, right, and it's all the time,
and there is no perfect answer for it either and
so and so it really figured this out.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Hearing it more and more about every different person or.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
God makes me feel like, you know, I think we
really are serving more people and more people need to
continue to hear this because this is a true a
true feeling, a true statement, and it's understood by all
of us, not just a few of us right who
actually struggle or go through certain things or might not
be figuring it all out. So I appreciate that we're
gonna take a short break and we'll be back in
a minute. And now I want to ask you another
(24:01):
thing about something you're very passionate about, and that's your
foundations with ACES and how you have partnered up with
the NFL and the flag football and how big it's going.
I've seen the flag football league in my area here
in Charlotte, North Carolina, and how it's blowing up. I'm
signing my son up. He's gonna play next year. Uh
so we're gonna see how this thing goes.
Speaker 5 (24:21):
He's seven, Okay, man, you want to fly him out
to Phoenix every weekend?
Speaker 3 (24:26):
You know what I mean. He's always you don't get
coached up now coaching all Now.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
That's what I want.
Speaker 4 (24:36):
And so it's funny because you know, I'm always like,
all right, when am I gonna let him play? And
growing up, we were not told like flag football has
any type of it was not play.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
Yeah, that was like it's not even All you're.
Speaker 4 (24:57):
Doing is making himself And now seeing the benefits of
flag football, I want to let you talk about most
of them, but I see it because you learn how
to play in space.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Yeah, a lot of the things that.
Speaker 4 (25:08):
We do in practice every day, which is learn how
to play the game of football without the contact to
keep us healthy. It's another way to learn the angles,
the way the ball moves plays, concepts.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
Please jump said you just said everything you said, You're
gonna leave it for me. That's everything right, there's still.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
A little bit of meat on that.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
Yes, it's a great space to be in. I have
two boys.
Speaker 5 (25:29):
I actually have a daughter as well as a freshman
that's playing high school flag football.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
I hope my wife is that right? Because the sport
now end on what state you're in.
Speaker 5 (25:39):
It's a high school like ours is an Arizona Athletic Commission,
and they have it in some nai schools have scholarships
already out.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
There, some free money.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
Yeah, and so in a couple of years we hopefully
some of these d ones, right, you know secs. Why
wouldn't they do? You know the women give you a
video game? Right? Yeah, So it's that's a growing sport.
Speaker 5 (25:59):
So I I've loved being in it, understanding all of
the ramification that comes from playing a collision sport like football. Right,
the concussions, especially when we played the first and even
probably towards the end of my career, because I was
already conditioned. You've running back out there after you've seen
some black spots, it didn't matter smelling salts. No, I'm good,
don't come check me. Where's my helmet at? You know,
(26:21):
I'm about to go right back out there.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
And so right, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, right, yeah,
all that stuff that you kind of you know, kind
of remember. So you can get back out there.
Speaker 5 (26:33):
To be able to protect my son but still allow
him to play a game that he saw me play,
as well as my daughter be coming to the locker room.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
That's one thing people are gonna let your son play.
Speaker 5 (26:40):
I say, yeah, I'm just gonna push it down the
road because I didn't pay until high school, so to
your point, and I think that's allowed me to play fifteen.
I don't know how many did you get in I
got thirteen, eleven. Yeah, I don't know if I could
have played. And I'm still mad at Joe Gibbs because
I think he took a couple of years off my
career early early.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
That hard.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
If I've had more football earlier year, right, I.
Speaker 5 (27:04):
Don't know if I would have played fifteen, because it
it just gets hard on the back end. So but
just saving your body so that you don't have to
deal with some of it, even like the soft tissue
injuries in addition to the head or the concussions that
you want to kind of limit because football. I tell
my son all the time, he's nipping at me every day.
He's thirteen, he's going into the seventh grade.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
I want to play. I want to play.
Speaker 5 (27:25):
I'm gonnalet him play next year, so he has a
little one year before high school, eighth grade.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
Yeah, I'm gonna give just to give him a little
feel for it, so you're not getting knocked around. But
it's a hard game.
Speaker 5 (27:36):
It's not like I kind of like it. I'm gonna
get out there and play like baseball basketball. So I'm
trying to save me from himself because he really doesn't know,
and he can playing working out with me.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
He's he's like, it's one hundred degrees.
Speaker 5 (27:47):
I'm like, you're gonna be having helm and the shoulder
pass in this in another year, so you're not gonna
be complaining the right.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
So just s get him to understand.
Speaker 5 (27:55):
But the flag football has allowed him to kind of
play it, be a part of it, and then learn
all those concepts you was talking about. We're just gonna
be beneficial, you know, planning space, avoid of evading people,
trying to pull your flag, moving your feet, hand out, coordination,
I mean, just all the things outside of the contact.
The only thing that's different, obviously is five on five
(28:16):
and so as a coach, I have to start teaching
principles of this is what it actually is gonna look like, right,
versus five on five. But you can still do all
the man on man and man and cover two concepts
and cover three concepts with five on five.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
You just have to be a little creative.
Speaker 5 (28:31):
And so it's gotten him to understand, so it'll at
least have some type of experience and knowledge of have
being out there, and so it's been beneficial. I mean,
and it's really grown and it's a lot of fun.
It's very competitive, but I think it's huge.
Speaker 4 (28:44):
Football is the one sport that in America you can
start late and still be great.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
At it if you got the size of the ability,
like we can find a spot.
Speaker 5 (28:53):
Oh yeah yeah yeah, and the mentality right because it's
not as skillful as like baseball.
Speaker 4 (28:59):
Shout out to your son. I saw my instagram hit
that opposite field home run to lead.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
Yeah I appreciate that. Yeah yeah that's Cooperstown you know.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Yeah yeah, pretty big time as well.
Speaker 4 (29:07):
So yeah, just gotta be cool as the father seeing
your son shining anything.
Speaker 3 (29:11):
He's way better than I ever was just way better.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
And uh, it's really cool. To.
Speaker 4 (29:15):
You know, I started playing football in fourth grade, and
so you can guys, like you said, you started in
high school and you hear these stories and I didn't
know it because I started so young. He started eighth grade,
and you guys still played and played longer than I did.
So it's it's still you. It's more than one way
to skin a cat. So I think that's really cool.
Just continue to share that and encouraging more parents and families.
Speaker 5 (29:37):
But if I don't want a championship, I probably wouldn't
have played fifteen.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
I was chasing championship. Both of y'all got rings, don't y'all?
Are you missed? You missed it?
Speaker 5 (29:46):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (29:46):
I thought you Oh, I know you got one. I
know I thought you had one too, though, Look right,
I don't have you know what I'm saying. Both I
didn't even I thought you want to?
Speaker 5 (30:03):
Yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, I've never been to one. I
don't think I've ever been out of the first round
of playoffs, you know. So it's just a different grind
over here.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
You know.
Speaker 6 (30:16):
Soon as you said that, I was like, I know, ys,
like every year must be nice? Yeahrew back there, it
got nice, Drew Drew want to give him a shot out.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
He got that ring. He didn't even do nothing. He
didn't do nothing, he didn't make a tackle, nothing.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
Yeah, you gotta have him to come back do nothing.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
I like it. I like that. The room was like,
all right, I got a fun question for you. You ready.
Do you remember your first NFL sack?
Speaker 5 (30:52):
Yeah, Seattle Seahawks two thousand and eight, that was hasfled
Back because I was with him. You know, he served
on the see too, so I used to always tell him, Ye,
he was my first set.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
Okay, did you have a dance or did you like
with no celebration?
Speaker 3 (31:06):
You know who was that? That gives still no, I
wouldn't give that was uh. But we had old school coaches,
so we.
Speaker 5 (31:14):
Had oh you had him with Greg Williams. Yeah, and
then we had Greg Gloss. I don't know if you've
ever been around. Oh yeah, did you have in Chicago? Yeah,
rookie year, So you know what that's that's yeah. So
that's where I came and that's where I came from.
Speaker 3 (31:34):
So I'm not doing nothing.
Speaker 5 (31:35):
Yeah, undrafted man, play man, I'm going right back to
the huddle, head down.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
I didn't do nothing. Yeah, he had you worried in
practice over some stacks.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
Man.
Speaker 5 (31:45):
Gosh, that was yeah, well Greg would I didn't have
to deal with him as much, but he was insane.
Up down, y'all do the updowns, drill up down, run
and go get a can you and get the car?
Speaker 3 (31:57):
Got do? Man?
Speaker 5 (31:58):
What is this?
Speaker 3 (31:59):
We had guy A C trying to die for that
we had.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
It was three guys and co.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
Yeah, you got.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Right.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
It was everybody wanted to do that. It was.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Man mad.
Speaker 3 (32:20):
It was.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
What was your welcome to the NFL?
Speaker 3 (32:24):
Oh Man, welcome the NFL moment? Man? I don't I
don't know, I don't know. I don't know. That just
threw me all off right there reminiscing was that he
probably was my welcoming moment. Man.
Speaker 5 (32:40):
That's craziness. Man over there, Man, that was that was insane. Man,
I don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
I'll just call it that drill.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
Did You'll have to do up down to yes to
get in yes, so to be a part of it
right down like first.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
So it's like forty up downs, he sudden, he said
the tone and so no.
Speaker 4 (33:06):
But in two thousand and nine when we were the
Super Bowl, we were like bringing guys during playoffs just
to like get us a good updown day.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Because individuals after that, we're bringing the cast off the street,
just like n see what they're gonna do.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
Bro, it's bad. It was.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
I'm just glad I was not the only one that
had to do that. This wasn't just us, this is
now you had to get them to right.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
Yeah, for sure. You know what, as you remember that.
Speaker 5 (33:36):
Big Leonard Davis Gerard having to play one technique and
talking about having good technique, trying to stay low on
both of them boys, low dipped the shoulder and the
double team and all you doing is just moving backwards.
That was probably my welcome the NFL moment that just
kind of popped on my head. Big both of them dude,
(33:58):
and they had Colombo out there. That was just a
different off of the line type of error when you
just had all them dudes from the team to take.
But yeah, but Leonard had to be like Phonnic Pounds
and just trying to hold a double team against them
dudes and not have great technique and not be able
to do anything until they decide to let you go.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
That was pretty uh got me in college. I was
about one hundred and eighty pounds. He just threw me
like great, just a big man, yeah, like scary, massive individual.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
All right, Nope, nope, I got the I got I
got one. It's gonna be I guess, kind of serious
or make him think for you.
Speaker 4 (34:32):
Yeah, I know, That's why I say, Okay, we like
to ask, Sister, all of our guests, we asked them
about their Mount Rushmore. Who is their Mount Rushmore? Influence
on your life, your experience through football, life, all of that.
You got four and you're free two of them already,
all right.
Speaker 5 (34:51):
But uh man, my uncle see yeah, I mean my
mom is there too, but as far as football, she's
more life.
Speaker 3 (35:00):
But my uncle, for sure. London Fletcher would be two.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
Man, London. I know, I know the bile, but I
want to listeners let them know.
Speaker 5 (35:11):
So obviously London is probably I mean he should be
in the Hall of Fame by now, but one of
the greatest linebackers ever played this game. I think he
got sixteen years in, won a Super Bowl, went to
another one like.
Speaker 4 (35:24):
Eight tho times, right, I mean he's the deepest covered
two linebacker I've ever seen.
Speaker 5 (35:29):
Yeah, just athletic, fast, strong, very intelligent, probably the only
player I think could have called the defense and then
played at a high level and been very effective doing both.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
Man of faith.
Speaker 5 (35:42):
And then when I was in Washington if you've never
played for Washington, our facility was in Ashburn. It's near Fairfact, Ashburn,
and then our stadium was in Landover, Maryland, and we
used to stay in like PG County, So that's an
hour from Ashburn's for home games and then probably another
thirty minute drive to our stadium on game days. And
(36:05):
he was one of the guys that I would ride
to the game with every week during the season. We
used to have some real, some real conversations about life
and if you I mean he went to John.
Speaker 3 (36:14):
Carroll's a hooper, you know, transition to playing football.
Speaker 5 (36:17):
I mean he had some some some some family dynamics
that he just learned from and overcame and just learned
about that and how he became you know, you know
marriage and then marriage is his wife that he's with now,
developed his family.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
Just some real, just good.
Speaker 5 (36:32):
Life stuff that you learn about how to be a
man within this craziness of the NFL.
Speaker 3 (36:37):
And so that's why you know London is is way
up there, you know, he's pretty growth for too. Yeah, yeah,
I know I need to. I need to get with London. Man,
he's you ain't gonna never beat me. So that's all right,
I'm coming. I'm coming.
Speaker 5 (36:48):
I'm working silently right now on Phoenix. So so I'll
be out there. I'm gonna come out there and let
you know.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
Yeah we got so who.
Speaker 3 (36:56):
Wins all the time we had against each other? Okay,
you he's scared of you. Scared.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
I'm probably he not that good though, Okay, but I
still call Hi when I need a lesson.
Speaker 5 (37:09):
Yeah yeah, so yeah, but I'm working side. Who else
is up on that Mount Rushmore? I would say Danny Smith,
special teams coach. He's with the Pittsburgh Steelers right now.
He really gave me my first opportunity to play on
teams and just taught me a lot of a ton
of stuff. And then, man, I mean, this is so
many other guys that's right there. I say Chris Samuels,
(37:32):
probably Mike Sellers. Mike Sellers, another big bro full back, right,
another special team demon. You know, he was two hundred
and ninety five. His two ninety five looked different than mine. Know,
he was rocked up, solid, you know, looked like a
little yeah, a little bodybuilder out there.
Speaker 3 (37:47):
So he probably be my fourth as far as it's teaching.
Speaker 5 (37:50):
Me again the game and then life and hanging out
with him and growing up with him a little bit
in the league too. So those are probably my top
four guys, and it's probably it's a ton of other
guys that I probably left later my years. You had
Leslie Fraser two, you know, Chicago, So I really enjoyed
being around Leslie Fraser as far as you know, he's
a man of faith as well, dude. Yeah, and it's working,
(38:11):
you know, helped me cultivate my leadership and later in
my career and what transition was gonna look like when
I got done on top of just being just an
awesome dude and being around and playing football for.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
Yeah, Well, man, we appreciate you coming on. You got
in like hell of late.
Speaker 5 (38:26):
Yeah, I didn't want to cancel you man. You know,
if y'all didn't play bar be like man, I'll see
y'all later, man, So.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
I really appreciate. I know, flight delayed. You got in
at three.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
We got the eight am, so yeah, you still came
in and for y'all, we I think you're riding with
us over We're going to fill it later on to
go to films do some more stuff.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
So, yeah, we appreciate you always.
Speaker 3 (38:51):
I'm gonna go get something somewhere in here, right, I appreciate,
I appreciate you guys.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
You drink that car, You're gonna be up now. Na.
This is just something that is keep you right, all right,
appreciate you. Hey, I'm Peanut.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
That's Rome, that's a This is an NFL Player Segments podcast,
and we out
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