November 15, 2023 • 61 mins
On the latest NFL Players: Second Acts podcast, Peanut and Roman welcome one of Roman’s former Saints teammates - and fellow Saints Hall of Famer - receiver Marques Colston to the show. They start out clearing the air over an incident between Peanut and Marques during a game in the 2015 season. It’s the first time they’ve seen each other since then, and they hash it out on the podcast. Roman and Marques reminisce about their days playing together, and the thrill of winning Super Bowl 44. Marques shares his journey from 7th-round pick, to almost being cut during his first minicamp, to eventually becoming a Saints Hall of Famer. Always a forward thinker, Marques also shares how he started working on his post-NFL second act as the CEO of an Arena League team while still racking up 1,000-yard seasons. He also discusses how he became a professor at the University of New Orleans, the milestones he just missed on, and why he hated facing Peanut on the field.
1:05 - Hosts introduce Colston
3:35 - Peanut and Colston discuss the time they got in a fight during a game
9:00 - Roman talks about trashing Colston's apartment when they were young
10:09 - Colston shares his welcome to the NFL moment
13:39 - Would Colston have rather come into the league as a free agent rather than drafted in the 7th round
17:57 - Peanut asks Colston when he knew he would make it in the league
22:06 - Roman asks Colston if he is still disappointed that he never made a Pro Bowl or All Pro team
23:16 - Colston shares his favorite Super Bowl memories
25:11 - Roman shares one of his favorite memories of Colston
26:48 - Colston discusses his decision to retire
31:17 - Colston discusses his struggles in retirement
35:15 - Colston discusses his investment in arena football
39:05 - Colston discusses teaching at the University of New Orleans
46:37 - Roman asks Colston about his transition to his business persona
49:32 - Peanut asks Colston if he was mad that Vince Young won Rookie of the Year over him
52:45 - Roman asks Colston if he knows which wide receivers from his draft class played longer than him
53:48 - Colston discusses the toughest corners that he faced
55:13 - Colston shares 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.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm Brendan, I am Bide Joe and this is the
NFL Players Second Acts Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Thanks for tuning in.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
I'm Peanut tuning and this is the NFL Players Second
Acts Podcast. And with me as always my trusted late
sidekick Roman, I'm never on Tom Harper.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
What's up baby?
Speaker 1 (00:33):
They didn't even know, they don't know they do now
you know this is recorded so like they don't understand
timing because we when we release it like that's it.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
But thank you for that.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Anyways, all of our listeners, our viewers out there, first
of all, always want thank you for always tuning in.
Give us a five star rating, leave a comment, click
that button, follow wherever you listen to your podcast, whether
it's Apple podcasts, iHeartRadio podcast thank you as always, Peanut.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Who's our guest today? We got a good one. He
was is my favorite.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Honestly, this is do you want to.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
J Will?
Speaker 1 (01:09):
This is this is your people, This is completely my people.
This is my suggested guest. This is my man, my
ace boom coon since day one. He knows it. He
I will get emotional at some point during this podcast
because this is how much this guy means to me.
He was a seventh round pick, fourth from last in
two thousand and six by the New Orleans Saints out
(01:31):
of Hostra, the last player drafted out of Hofstra. Wow,
the last one because unfortunately they shut down the program.
But this neither here nor there all right. In fact,
he was an outer said that he's the last one,
but he wanted to have a productive tenure career all
with the Saints. He won a super Bowl with with
(01:51):
yours truly, which I don't like to bring up because
Peanut gets all his feelings hurt all the time we
talk about super Bowls around here.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Just reading.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Also all time leader and receptions, touchdowns and yards. He's
also in the team's hall of fame with you now, yes,
with me. He's now an entrepreneur, an educator, philanthropists, etc. Etcetera, etcetera,
financial advising, the whole nine, you name it.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
He's done it.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Marcus Colston, everybody, and he's.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Used to be just saying col.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Because that's what they were staying in the super dume
for all those years. Coast Man, So good seeing you,
Thank you for coming over. Thanks for being patiently waiting
on me. You know I'm gonna wait on you, man.
I just appreciate being here with y'all. Man been following
this this podcast for a minute, so.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Man give him. He's late.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
He was supposed to been here like hours ago, am
I line, you're not so for those listening and or watching,
room double booked. So he had to go back home
to Charlotte. We're in New York right now. See, he
had to go back home to Charlotte do this thing.
He went back last night. He did this appearance that
(03:02):
he had this morning where he was at the temple.
Uh no, I was at Myers Park Presbyterian Church. Okay,
close enough, So he was. He was at the He
was at the temple doing some stuff. And then he
got on a plane like literally, I don't know, a
couple of minutes ago, fresh off the plane. Yeah, Gardian, Yeah, Loguardia.
I actually had to run here get out of my
uber because the lea. So I don't sweat. Everybody knows
(03:25):
that about me. If you please, just cry, I do cry,
but I want to. I want to before we get
too far into this thing. All right, we got clear
the air up, all right, we gotta just let's just
get it all out there, all right, right twenty fifteen,
I believe it's the year I knew this.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
All right?
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Uh, you know, do you want to tell the story
if you want to go there? No, I want you
to tell it.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Okay, I'm corrected, because here's my This is gonna be
a good one, all right. So here's my perspective. Okay,
I love the Colt's been my guy since day one. Like,
and man, forget all that I told the story, you
sugar coated. We get over to the sideline, Pete that's
going all crazy and he's like, oh no, you know,
let me, let me, let me set it up. Twenty fifteen.
(04:14):
I'm in Carolina, my new teammate room, my new as
boon coom. I thought, I'm his new guy, right, I'm
his new bottom, you know what, I'm his new side piece.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
That's me. I'm his guy. So we're playing. We're playing.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
We're playing the Saints and Drew Brees he rolls outside
the pocket, so me, I have a clock that goes
off of my head. And when the quarterback gets outside
the tackle box, you get to push the receiver again.
So Coasey he's running down the field doing his things,
trying to get open. It's like backyard football and Drew's
(04:49):
outside the tackle box. So I push him coach and
falls down. And I didn't think nothing of it because
I do it all the time. I'm trying not to
laugh telling his story. So I'm walking back to the huddle.
It might have been fourth down. I might have been
third down. I can't remember. We came off the field right, yeah,
so it must have been fourth down. So Colson, he
(05:11):
walks over, was like, man, he will and I was like,
and I just saw red and I tried to I
tried to fight, but then all my teammates grabbed me
and we get to the sideline and I'm looking at
Rome and.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Rome was like, what what do you do?
Speaker 3 (05:30):
My god?
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Colson, he would never do that.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
That's not him. He would he wouldn't do it. What
do you mean?
Speaker 4 (05:37):
I mean?
Speaker 2 (05:37):
I just and I was like, I was like, Peter,
what'd you do?
Speaker 1 (05:40):
It was clearly, you know, like I am living, Like
I am just like who And I'm like that mother.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
I thought I'm a man first, I'm a football player.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Segment and Steve Wolk's decordinator of the San Franco forty
nine ers. It's like, look, if you want to go
fight him, we'll go fight him after the game. But
we gotta do it after the game. We got a
game to play right now. I was like, no, Steve,
we got to fight right down and call me a
I'm a man first, I'm a football player. Second, you
don't do that to a man. And the whole time
he was just like, nah, my god, he would never
(06:12):
do that. And I was like physically mad at room
because I was like, you're taking his side your I'm
your teammate, like.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
I'm your new boo, and I'm like he was like,
would never do that. He's not that guy. And I
was like, oh, I was, so I was so mad
as you.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
But then but then he did say he was like, hey, man,
he called me and was like, hey tell your boy Peen.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Apologize.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
Man.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
He was like, I'm just in a bad place right now. Things,
football life, life is happening right now. Like I apologize.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
You know. So we we did do that. But yeah,
that's that's the story.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
In a bit of a nutshell, you see, that moment
led us to this today.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
That moment let us so when we knew you were
coming on the show, everybody was like I was like,
oh man, I haven't really seen Colson since I haven't
seen him since twenty fifteen, since that incident.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
But I knew you had called.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
ROMs like hey man, tell Peanut, and that sold me
that's my bad. So I knew there wouldn't like be
friendy Ana Moster or anything like that. But that was
the first thing I thought about. I was like, Yo, this.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Is gonna be a good one because the first thing
we're gonna talk about. We need to get that out
the way.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
We need to get it out of the Tell everybody
what happened in your eyes.
Speaker 4 (07:20):
See it's it's one of them classic it wasn't you,
it's me.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Breakups.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
It was just fifteen was my last year, and it
was one of those It's one of those times where
like you could see the writing on the wall, and
I saw how I was getting phased out of the offense,
and I saw how the reps that I would normally
get they just want to coming no more. And like,
when you get to that point in your career and
you got to accept some hard truths, you just show
(07:52):
up different. So I'm showing up every game every week,
and I'm just like, I'm halfway pissed off because I
know I can play, but then not let me.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Play and they're using you as a blocker.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
Now I'm a blocker, I'm leaving, I'm leading on duo plays,
I'm leading. I'm like, hold on, Now, that's not how
I made a career. So no, it was just one
of those situations.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Man.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
I was just in a different place mentally, and yeah,
you hit a trigger.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
It was honestly, it was hilarious and you got to
understand though, Like even the year before in fourteen, you know,
I played against Coaston all so many times in practice
going against each other. We battled so many times, and
I hit him and he dropped the ball and literally
I went down to a knee to like check on him,
like in the middle of the game. And my colin,
(08:42):
Steve Wilfs, is like, wrong, you can't do that, dog,
You can't hit an opponent team and like ask him
if he's okay, Like you just we just can't put
that on films. So you know, that's how much this
guy means to me. And all right, coach you, I
want you to tell this quick story. But our rookie year,
why you banned me from hanging out out at your apartment?
(09:03):
I think I I went to pick up an War
and just kind of share how I got banned from
hanging out at Colston's house.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
Now this this is way back we early twenties, So
I gotta give you some grace, thank you, But you
got clean up after yourself, Thog. You can't just be
leaving Bear Cans's coffee table.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
I mean I came over. We were gonna go out,
me and Wars picking up an War.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Of course, I had beer with me at the time,
and I just didn't know we like kind of transt
his place and Colston never hung out, so it was
just me and me and Anwar.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Phillips at the time, another fellow rookie man and.
Speaker 4 (09:40):
Y y'all come kick it leading beer Cans leave, I
got clean up.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
You go kind of guess you're that person. I am
that person, but I'm not anymore though, thank god, thank god.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
It's that growth, man.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
You have grown, You have grown. So two thousand, what
was your what was your year?
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Uh?
Speaker 4 (09:56):
Six?
Speaker 1 (09:57):
We came together six terrible draft class anyway, so o
six you were here out of subth fron pick out
of Hofstrow when you got to New Orleans, and I'm
sure it was just like, okay, wow, you know, big city,
big lights everything. Drew Brees like, oh my god, what
was your what was your welcome.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
To the NFL moment when you got when you got
to New Orleans?
Speaker 4 (10:17):
That's easy. Rookie Minni camp, the rookie Mini camp. Like
I had never been in the South. Yeah, never been
to New Orleans. The heat, that heat almost ended my
career before it got started. Like the Rookie Minni Camp,
I think was it was a weekend, right, Yeah, So
we get out there day one, my back locks up,
day won. Rookie Minni Camp. Just got drafted. We just
(10:40):
drafted another receiver in the fifth round. So yep, Mike
as my roommate too to State. Yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Monster, Yeah, he came to Chicago, was one of our
practice squad players.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
Yeah. So get drafted, go down first opportunity to show
what I can do. Can't do nothing, back locked up.
I'm literally done for restauranking Mini camp. So I leave
that weekend feeling like I don't know if I'm gonna
get invited back to the Mini camp. Like that's seventh
round pick you just you hear the odds, you hear
the stories. Pick two fifty two, you're basically a free agent.
(11:16):
So my welcome to the NFL moment was like you
literally might not be here past three days. So obviously
didn't get cut, got a chance to come back to
Mini camp, kind of got the back stuff, figured out,
was able to survive Mini camp.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
But then I think survival is a good word.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
That's the only word it was, because it was pure
survival mode.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
It was like he was much bigger. He was a
big boy. Yeah, he was much bigger Colston. He flashed,
but like like he said, my man.
Speaker 4 (11:44):
Was, I was hurting from strugglings. So like that, that
five weeks that you get between Mini Camp and training
camp was like I flew back home and just figured
out how to I got back into live, figured out
how to get my body right. So when I came
back to training camp, I was ready to roll. And yeah,
that like that, that early scare, I think really set
(12:07):
the tone for my whole career because I never let
myself feel like I had job security after that, and
that just kind of drove the rest of my career.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
What did you do within those five weeks? Like what
did you change up?
Speaker 4 (12:19):
I honestly, I ended up cutting about fifteen pounds. I
came back to training camp right around two twenty and
I just I just I figured out how to work right.
And it sounds it sounds crazy, but you know, at Hofstra,
you know a lot of times you when you're at
you play at levels like that, you don't have that
(12:41):
consistent competition every day in practice. I wasn't at Alabama
going against you know, first and second round draft picks
on defense, right, So for me, it was just figuring
out how to work and like that first experience of
whatever you did to prepare for mini camp and it
is not it right. So I just kind of had
(13:03):
to teaching myself how to work and how to set
a standard that put me in position to actually compete.
And you know that I kind of took that five
weeks and started to figure some of that out to
where I just gave myself a fighting chance when I
came back in training camp, and you know, just made
the most of those opportunities.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
I mean, clearly you did.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
You were one of the two or three rookies that
actually were starting earlier than the rest of us. That
whole class of ours really eventually were starting. So but
this is a question I don't know I don't even
know the answer to, and that is being the fourth
to last pick in that two thousand and six draft.
In your mind, would you rather have not been drafted
(13:44):
at all? Because you know it is laying those rounds.
It's like, sometimes, do you even want to get drafted
because then you can pick a better situation? Knowing that
the Saints had already drafted a wide receive in the
fifth round, how were your feelings emotionally about still getting
your name called or would you rather like, I don't
know if I want to get dragted so that I
can go anywhere I want?
Speaker 4 (14:02):
Yeah, I mean that's at that point I was. I
was hoping to be a free agent because then I
could pick, I could pick a situation where I felt
like I could put myself in position to be successful.
Because at the combine and there were a handful of
teams that talked to me about playing tight end, another
handful to talk to me about playing h back, and
(14:22):
I just couldn't wrap my mind around lead blocking on
a middle linebacker.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Yeah, not the way CJ used to yell at you
from Craig blot block drills. CJ, oh my gosh, coaster,
get yelled at all the time. CJ be like, you
soft dude, man, you soft dude. Coast be getting mad,
just fhuman unity. But he never talked.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
So but.
Speaker 4 (14:47):
What was the question? Oh? Yeah, no, So I kind
of wanted to be a free agent because you know,
I get to pick my spot, and let's be honest,
New Orleans and the Saints the year that they were
and off of it wasn't it wasn't a destination at
that point. So at that point that the draft was
(15:08):
two days, I had sat through the first day with
my family. Didn't really expect to get drafted in the
first couple of rounds, so that was cool. But then
sitting all day the second day, like when you kind
of expect to come off the board early, and just
sitting there for hours and hours and hours, I was like, man,
I'm over this. Just let me get the free agency
(15:29):
I think I was. I was actually between the Texans
and the Cardinals. Those are gonna be my top two.
But then obviously I got my name called and went
to New Orleans and back locked up, but ended up
with a second opportunity.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
And where were you Where were you thinking originally where
you would maybe get drafted that, like, like, what round?
Speaker 2 (15:52):
What I heard?
Speaker 4 (15:53):
I heard anywhere between second round and free agent. That's
that's a crazy range range, crazy range. But that's I mean,
you think about the world back then, we didn't have
the social media. We weren't as connected, like information wasn't
flowing like it is today. So yeah, anywhere between second
(16:14):
and free agent. So first three rounds came and went.
I was pretty cool with that. I had a guy
that worked at Yahoo Sports at the time called me
after day one was like, listen, I got some intel.
You're gonna be going pretty early on day On day two,
Oh whoy he tell you that? So that sex the
expectation right away, somebody, I hope you still don't have
(16:35):
this source of yah, I hope you fired him.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
You know you're gonna work for Google or something. You
are a terrible source.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
I'm not paying you for no inside expects.
Speaker 4 (16:47):
Get killed killed the whole day because the draft started. Now,
I'm like, I'll be going about one o'closs.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
You want to call out that sources name, you can
call it out by.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
Everything, everything, everything. So once the expectation got set, and
fourth round came and went, fifth round came and went
sixth round came and went.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Let you Matt.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
Seventh round, I started getting called some teams they got
no more picks.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
I'm like, oh, that's bad. That's bad.
Speaker 4 (17:11):
Come a long day.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
That's a real long day. So I know, I remember
when I got my first start. My coach came on.
My coach, he walked up and was like, hey, you
starting this week. You're going against two Hall of famers.
You're starting against Jerry Rice and Tim Brown. Don't be
in there fing up. And then he walked out and
I was like, oh okay. And he walked out of
(17:34):
the room and I was like, God, got on the phone,
call my boys, like yo, I'm starting this week Jed
Rice and Tim Brown.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Yo, that's gonna be so tight.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
So for me, I think at that point, I played
the game and like I killed it. ID like I
had a really good game as a rookie. So I
think for me, I was like, yo, I know I
can make plays. You know I started had you know,
I had the forest fumbos, I was getting interceptions. I
was like, yo, I'm killing it right now. At what
point for you having the you know, the tight back
when you locked up then training camp and all that
(18:02):
a little bit of doubt. When did you know you
could like make it in.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
This league when I started making it? Like straight up?
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Was it was it like a point or was it
a game for you?
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Was it just like I don't catch just like oh
yeah I called this, Oh yeah, I'm finna kill it.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
I know I'm about to do work.
Speaker 4 (18:20):
I can honestly say I don't think I ever had
that like that I high moment, Like I was just
consistently in grind molde the whole time. Like the way
that I found that I was starting was you know,
we had that first that first practice day on Wednesday
of Week one. I literally found out on the field
and the huddle on the practice field that I was starting,
(18:42):
Like so there was really no time for me to
process it. I just had to literally go out and
did you just say, hey, Colsta, go thro once we
just the huddles there, like we don't have an exit there?
Who playing? X? You getting huddle? Like That's how I
found that I was starting.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
So what what was that inside feeling for you?
Speaker 3 (18:59):
Was it just like like oh, hell yeah, I made it,
or just I'm just a practice.
Speaker 4 (19:03):
Don't mess it up, don't mess it up, don't.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
It's so funny because I totally see that out of you,
like knowing who we were all the way from training camps,
which we had training camp not in New Orleans as Millsaps, Mississippi.
It was awful. It was right there in Jackson at
mill SOPs College.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
It was hot.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Practice was truly a.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Grind, and I knew you were going to be really
good though, Coaston when it was like a crossing route
and dude, I never seen nobody give like the go
go gadget arms like you had the ability to be
able to do and just plug a ball from out
of there going across the middle. And then when we
played Green Bay Week two and you had like a
(19:43):
monster game, you had like a big time touchdown for us,
brought us back, and like you just continue to.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Just show up.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
And you were probably the first rookie in our class
that really like popped out. But that's when I thought, like, well,
that's when I knew. I was like, man, this is
like my man, Colas is balling. And uh, I don't
think you ever really realized that you probably did you.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Ever think about it? Did you? There was no emotions,
just it's always been.
Speaker 4 (20:10):
You know, emotions are not my strong suit. So but
uh nah, there were in that rookie year. There was
never a moment, and I think a lot of it
was the situation one. I just never felt like I
had job security. I always felt and that's why I
took every single rep. I never let anybody else get
another rep, because if you go take this rep and
you kill it, like oh I might, I might not
(20:32):
get this one back. So my whole mentality was I
have this opportunity. I'm just gonna make the most of
this opportunity. And I had a position Coach CJ that
was he was just he was He was exactly what
I needed at that time. Like he was a guy
that you knew he loved you, but it was tough love.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Like he pushed you, he pushed, he pushed, he motivated you.
Speaker 4 (20:56):
He pushed you off, he pissed off, he pushed you,
he challenged you, but then on game that he left
you alone. Yeah, so like throughout the week you wanted
to fight him, but then on game day he was
your guy. And that's kind of how our relationship evolved.
So the combination of me not ever feeling safe and
then having that guy that literally pulled things out of
(21:18):
me I didn't know existed, Like that's that's kind of
what made it. That's kind of what made the situation
what it was. And in all honestly, I was I
was literally learning really in every situation. So as an example,
I played most most of my career, I played slot
receiver until I got to the league. I never played
(21:41):
in the slot right in a game, not in high school,
not in college. So I'm literally learning a new position
at the highest level. So there was never a lot
of time for me to process what was happening. Like
I always had to stay present to not mess up
the next the next moment, the next opportunity. That's kind
of that was my mentality.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Are you ever like disappointed or mad that you never
made an All Pro team or Pro Bowl? You put
up you're the all time leading Saints receiver yards or
is it are you more mad.
Speaker 4 (22:12):
That you didn't get the ten thousand the ten thousands
stung a little bit more?
Speaker 2 (22:17):
You're right there at it.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
I was right there at it, And there was two.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
Games that's a personal note.
Speaker 4 (22:21):
I knew, Yeah, there was two games at the end
of at the end of my last season where I
was hurt, and you know me, I prided myself on
never being hurt enough to not play true. Like so,
the fact that I couldn't go out for the last
two games and I knew I was two hundred and
forty one yards short of ten thousand, that's stung a
little bit. But like the Pro Bowl and all Pro stuff,
(22:46):
I've just never really been concerned about other people's opinions. Yeah,
you know, and that's that's really what those things become.
They become opinions about what people feel about your game. So,
you know, it never really either me. The thing that
I always played for was that my peers and my
competitors they respected me, and if I felt that I
(23:08):
was good, I don't care about the outside validation.
Speaker 3 (23:10):
Yeah, that's what's up.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
So I know I'm zero and two in Super Bowls,
you're one and one, You're one and Oh what's been
your fondest memory about Super Bowl forty four?
Speaker 4 (23:24):
The one that pops in my mind is not very fond.
I had a ball bounce off my face. Matter it was,
I thought we were tried on the whole crowd. Nobody
was in five ten yards of me.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Yeah, touchdown, it would have been touched on it first down.
Speaker 4 (23:38):
It had been a good twenty five thirty. That's the
first memory that pops in my head.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
No concentration, just didn't see it, or.
Speaker 4 (23:49):
I knew I had room to do something after the catch.
I knew I have room to just start taking about
what before you actually got in your hand yep, yeah,
and uh yeah that thing I saw my face mask
and popped up in the air, looky new white board.
That was the scaredest I have ever been in the game.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
But that's crazy to think that's the first memory, though,
because I'm sure everyone's like, oh, you want a super Bowl?
What's the best thing. What's the first thing that pops
in my mind? Like, I dropped this damn pass. I
gave a.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
First drive, first drive, first drive, boom boom.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
We come out hits Coaston dead smack in the face
mask and we Coaston never drops anything, catches everything, and
he was wide open.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
Wide open. That might have been it. I'm not used
to being that wide open.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Is that the only memory you got from that whole game?
Speaker 4 (24:34):
No, I mean there's obviously other memories. You know, I
called a I caught a A. It was like a
slug O. I forget what we called a sluggle stop
that I caught on the sideline, real nice catch, like
full extension. That's that. That was a good one. Didn't
do a whole lot in the second half. But yeah,
I mean, just for whatever reason, my mind goes to
(24:57):
the things I could have done differently, and that's that's
just not in football. That's just kind of how I'm wired,
you know. So that's where I go. You know.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
I will tell this one quick story. The funniest memory
I have of Colston playing football is literally when he
did like I don't know what he was thinking. We're
playing in Saint Louis and he catches a pass and
Coaston is like, all of a sudden, he's running. Coaston
never was like all right, he was one of those
like he's not a yack guy.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
This is this is my line? Are you a yack?
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Pretty accurate? He's not a yards after catch? Do you
gotta tell the people don't like, I don't know what
what's a Yeah, I don't know what it is. This
is not his life, this is not his like superpower.
All right, He's running and out of nowhere. Colston tries
to do the whole like Reggie busting and like jump
(25:49):
over somebody for a touchdown.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
I don't know, I don't know where he thought he
was going.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
All of a sudden, I was clearly about to jump
clean over a six foot dude. Yeah, who was standing stage?
Like straight up?
Speaker 2 (26:01):
I don't know what you were thinking, dude.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
Coaston gets hit, flips ball just like just gave it up,
balls up in the air.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
Colston hit the ground, It just lays out.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
He's out.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
Nobody's even checking on coast, everybody scramming for the ball.
Coach's body just just right there. Body, this body just
laid out, and I'm like, oh man, anybody check on
Coaston's out there?
Speaker 3 (26:27):
Nobody check on Oh that's funny.
Speaker 4 (26:30):
He had a character over there. Completely figure it out.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
But you know, these are the memories that I have
with Coaston just as a player.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
We'll be right back after a quick break.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
Let's let's dive into his post career.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
So, I think I think for me or most players,
when we leave this game, we don't do it on
our own terms.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
Right.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
It's always you get injured or you get cut, released
or whatever.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
You know, there's only a few of us. Uh, the
Peyton Manning's the Jerome Bettist.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
Didn't get to leave on his terms either. I mean
he won a Super Bowl and like that's that's a
that's a good way to go out, you know. Jerome Bennets,
he won Super Bowl, retired. We had Devin mccordy. He
just was say, yeah, I think I'm done. I'm I'm
one of my my three super Bowls. That's it. Mama
Rodolf in the Sunset did it the way he wanted
to do it. Was it easy for you to come
(27:21):
to your determination when you retire, because it kind of
I think I read you did it. You were like
three four years out kind of planning retirement or thinking
about it at least, you know, before you actually did it.
Speaker 4 (27:33):
Yeah, So it was a combination of I had already
been pretty active on the business front, Like I was,
I was investing at the time. I was actually I
was running a semi pro and arena football team while
I was playing, really running it, like really running it
like in training camp, building like my sales strategies and
(27:55):
my sponsorship strategies and stuff. So I was I was
like fully immersed in business at the time. Anyways, And
like I said that twenty fifteen year. I didn't. I
honestly didn't know I was going to come back and
play that tenth year. Like for five or six years running,
I would always tell Roman, like this might be the
last one. But after the fourteen season, my body was
(28:19):
just in a place where I knew I wouldn't be
able to be the player that I was. So I
was kind of undecided about twenty fifteen until the very
end anyways, So I kind of went into that year
knowing and that was it for me. So the combination
of that and then already having some business stuff going
(28:40):
it made that transition a little bit more seamless. But
I think what really fueled it was when I was
able to start to see how everything that I did
to prepare myself to play on Sundays, how I could
repurpose all of that into business, and like had real
proof because I was already doing it. I think that
(29:02):
was That was the thing that made the transition seamless
and one that didn't make it easy by any stretch,
But it was like it was just another challenge that
I knew I could. I didn't feel like I had
to overcome it. I just had to figure it out right,
and to me that I think there's a big difference
between you see this this mountain of adversity in front
(29:23):
of you that you just have no clue what to
do with versus all Right, this is a challenge that's
kind of comparable to the things I'm used to dealing with.
And when I was able to see it through that lens,
it made it, it made it just you know, a
new thing to attack.
Speaker 3 (29:37):
All right.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
So just saying what you just said, what is the
biggest difference, like, because I want you to describe the
situation that is like a mountain of just like adversity
versus the challenge that you just got to figure out
the answer to.
Speaker 4 (29:52):
Yeah. So for me, like I've never looked in the
mirror and just said, I'm a football player. That's that's
my worth, that's my value. Like I've always seen more
than that when I looked in the mirror, right, and
you know, football always said this. Football is something that
I do. I'm really good at it. I work my
butt off at it to become really good at it.
(30:12):
But it's something I do, you know. So I think
for a lot of guys and really anybody in a
life transition, that if all, you know, and you've kind
of built your life around one thing and that thing
abruptly stops. It's you kind of have this feeling that
you're falling off a cliff, and it's like, I have
(30:32):
no idea what's on the bottom of that's what's where
I'm going to land at when I hit when I
fall off this cliff. For me, I think that cliff
still existed. But because of the things that I was
doing off the field already and the things that I
kind of figured out mentality wise that I could repurpose,
(30:52):
I fell off the cliff, but it was a much
more shallow cliff right to where I was able to
land on my feet and I was able to it
was it was truly, it was. It was truly a
transition of mindset more than it was like a whole
life circumstance. If that makes sense, No, it does.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
Maybe could you share with us a couple examples or something,
maybe some of the struggles you had post retirement. I
know we all go through it, we all and you know,
this is kind of why we do this whole podcast.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
We talked about our second back and I had mine.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
I mean, I had to navigate mine my own way,
you navigated some of yours, you.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
Know, like me, I took three to sixty five days
did absolutely nothing yet to decompressed. And yeah, really take
a step back and say, all right, well, like you said,
I fell off that cliff and I didn't know it
was at the bottom of it, but I knew I
had the ability.
Speaker 3 (31:42):
To be able to afford some time to figure it out.
Speaker 4 (31:44):
Yeah, I kind of took the opposite approach, Like I
literally threw myself into any and everything that I thought
would be challenging, exciting and I thought would resonate with me.
You know, So everything from angel investing to you know,
(32:05):
working with entrepreneurs and figuring out how to become an
advisor and a consultant, to you know, all all the
things that you rattled off, you know, to begin the podcast.
Those are all ways that I just kind of immersed
myself in, like self discovery, like what are the things
that interest me, what are the things I could potentially
be good at, What are the things that I can
make an impact in my own way? And I did
(32:28):
that for the better part of a decade and just
constantly trying new things, constantly building new skill sets, knowing
that at some point some of these things are going
to be really valuable, not necessarily knowing when, how, the
platform that they're going to be valuable in, but just
building skill sets. And for me, the thing that really
(32:52):
changed was actually recently with my third my third child
being born, my daughter who's nine months now, that was
the time that, to your point, like I literally took
a step back and I finally was able to get
get to the place where I was content, but I
(33:15):
wasn't comfortable. And I think for us as athletes, like
those two things feel like the same. Contentment and being
comfortable they feel like the same thing. And it wasn't
until I had my third doubt, my third child, that
I was able to kind of separate those two. And
(33:36):
I've for the last year, I've just kind of been
in the moment. I've just kind of been slowed down
a lot of things on the business front and really
kind of focus more on impact and what are the
things that I can do to be impactful, What are
the things that you know are going to bring me
closer to my family. And having to go through that
(33:57):
whole decade long period of self discovery, I think is
what led me to the place that I'm at now
where I'm very content with where I'm at. I'm content
with what I've done, I'm content with what i'm doing,
I'm content with all the areas of my life. Still
not comfortable. I'm going to continue to push the envelope,
but I'm good.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
That's funny because like content and comfort and comfort and
comfort as.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
An athlete, never a good place. No, No, it's like
never want to be there.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
You never want to be there, especially when you like
we just don't think like that.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
No, it's like the opposite of everything we're taught, Like
the moment you get comfortable to get out of here.
Speaker 4 (34:35):
It's almost like we're hardwired. The way that the draft
comes around every year, they're literally drafting your replacement every year. Yeah,
and you got to fight them off but teach them
everything you know at the same time.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Yeah, thats a crazy thing.
Speaker 4 (34:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
I was always Yeah, I was always the guys like, damn,
each year I.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
Get older and slower, and you want to got younger
and faster, and you want to take my spot.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
So my my fault process was, no, you're not to
take a food off my table, Like I gotta I
gotta stay ready I'm comfortable. I gotta change something up.
I gotta do something different. I gotta flip the scrip.
Speaker 4 (35:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
So in your contentment and all that, I want you
to like tell me why why why.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
The Arena League?
Speaker 1 (35:18):
Why why was that, you know one of your business adventures.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
It was.
Speaker 4 (35:27):
It was an opportunity that just it really started as
like a passive investment at first. So just to kind
of give you the backdrop, there was a team that
was launching in my hometown in Harrisburg, PA, and they
were looking for investors, and for me, I was like,
all right, I want to I want to give back
to my community. I can kind of go to the
(35:48):
typical route, you know, build a charity, you know, host
to host to camp, create some programming, or this team
now becomes like a give back vehicle. So that's that
was kind of my mentality going into it. I'll be
a passive investor and we can kind of build some
some programs through the through the team to get back
to the community. And when I got a little bit
(36:10):
more involved in the business side of it, it really
intrigued me and it was an opportunity to as I
was actively playing at the highest level, like as the talent.
It gave me an opportunity to see the other side
of the business, like what actually makes this thing go
And learning those two things in concert was like a
(36:32):
hell of an experience for me. So when I kind
of saw that connection, it became more of a passive
investment and I said I want to get actively involved
in this, and that next year I bought out my
partner and was like president CEO GM ran the whole show.
(36:52):
He also moved chairs. Oh yeah, we're not afraid of
the grind. Everything from you know, putting putting the arena together,
making sure the turf is laid down, the field is
laid out, from game operations, making sure we got the
music licenses secured, like literally everything from soup the nuts. Yeah,
(37:13):
it just intrigued me that much. And my wife hated
it because at the time, like think about this, I
go down, play my season in the fall, get finished
in the winter, fly back home, pick up everything on
the on the arena side for the spring of the summer.
So there was no it was football like year round,
(37:36):
twelve months, twelve months a year, just a different kind
of football. Yeah, the arena stuff was a little bit
more stressful.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
Oh, I'm sure. How's how's how's the league doing now?
Speaker 3 (37:48):
Or do you still have it? Is it still going?
Is it?
Speaker 1 (37:50):
No?
Speaker 4 (37:51):
So I I the the league actually shut down in
twenty nineteen, so that was my last with the Arena
Football League in a since started to make a comeback
that I won't be a part of. But yeah, it
was a good seven year run.
Speaker 3 (38:12):
So coach.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
Another one of your passions is creating programs and educational
things for universities. And I know you're working at was
it un O right now and doing some other things.
I mean, you're an educator. I mean I've gone to
one of your entrepreneur business classes right here in Columbia,
right here in New York when I first retired, So
(38:35):
I know this is a passion of yours. Maybe tell
us what kind of got you started into that, And
also I want to know personally, because I know all
the other things you're into that that's not on all
these papers and stuff. And I've seen that big white
board in your office that's just full of all kinds
of stuff. So I want to know what's on the
whiteboard and also about what kind of got you and
(38:57):
led you into the whole university, the academia style of
everything you're doing.
Speaker 4 (39:02):
Yeah, so education was something that in a million years,
I never seen myself in it. I was an above
average I wasn't a great student. I was a slightly
above average student. I don't want to make excuses, but
I was capable more. But it just never clicked for me.
(39:23):
And when I was presented, I was doing some speaking
around entrepreneurship and management, business management. That's how I initially
got connected with University of New Orleans. And when the
opportunity to come in and develop a course around leadership
and entrepreneurship kind of appeared, it was for me. It
(39:45):
was just it was an opportunity to take something that
I wasn't very good at for reasons that I thought
I wasn't very good at, right, and like teaching a
different way, so not necessarily teach from a TechBook textbook,
but trying to teach from an individualized perspective. Right. So
I had a smaller, a smaller class, smaller cohort of students,
(40:07):
and it was less about teaching you concepts from a
textbook and more about how can you how can you
really take control of your own personal professional development journey?
That was really what the curriculum became. So for me,
it was I was scared to death to get in
(40:28):
front of the classroom because you know this more than
anybody else, I'm about as introverted as you can get, right,
So the fact that it scared the hell out of
me was one of the reasons why I did it.
Because it was a new opportunity to expand. It was
a new opportunity to grow into something different, and it
was an opportunity to see if I can create impact
(40:48):
in a different way. And those were all the reasons
I did it. It really had very little to do
with wanting to be an educator. It was more about
I think I have a unique perspective, I have some
unique insight, some unique experience. Can I share it with
these students as a way to unlock something for them?
So you approached them or do they They? They approached me,
(41:09):
And it was one of those things where when they
approached me, I thought they kind of had something in
mind already. But the opportunity was you come in here
as an adjunct, you create your own curriculum, which.
Speaker 1 (41:23):
So you you were a professor of the university, Okay, yeah,
I was. I wanted people to know that he was
a profess sore at the University of Normals. Like, okay,
like that's teaching honors classes. Yes, yep, that's big.
Speaker 4 (41:39):
So so I did that for taught that course for
three semesters.
Speaker 3 (41:42):
Yea.
Speaker 4 (41:44):
And there was some some unique things like COVID kind
of made virtual more of an option, so I was
able to do it from New Jersey. So there were
some stars that kind of aligned to make it happen.
But you know, it was just again, it was an
It was an opportunity to try something new, to try
something different, delivered joint I did. I really did enjoy it.
(42:05):
I got more and more comfortable with every class just
being me, you know, because you guys can probably attest
to this, like you step into a new a new arena,
a new environment, and when you're not one hundred percent
confident in what you can bring, you tend to show
up as like a representative of yourself. And for the
(42:25):
first handful of classes, I kind of had my little
lesson planned together. I knew exactly what I wanted to cover,
and I was I was in front of the class.
It's kind of that representative. And as I got more
and more comfortable. I went less and less to the
lesson plan more and more to like the mental role
of deex and the experiences, and that's when it started
(42:46):
to unlock things for me. But it also unlocked things
for the students because it became more conversational, It became
more personal, as opposed to here's my textbook, highlight this stuff,
we're going to take a test or getting a set
on this stuff. Like it became more about their own
journeys and me being invested in their personal journeys.
Speaker 2 (43:06):
How much did that? How much growth did you have
doing that?
Speaker 1 (43:09):
Because so often everybody thinks, oh, we're just coming there
when we talk to people, we pour into them, But
a lot of times it's actually the reverse, Like I
actually feel like I get poured into myself.
Speaker 2 (43:19):
And I actually have more growth.
Speaker 1 (43:21):
Yeah, in the whole process, because not only we learned
about ourselves, but we learn from them as well. So
what did you learn from all that too? Like what
do you think you got to walk away with like
man that felt really good or or something like that.
Speaker 4 (43:34):
I think personally, the most impactful piece of it was
I got a chance to walk away and see something
different than me when I looked in the mirror. I
got to take on something that is literally one of
my biggest fears, yeah, and turn it into power. And
you know, the growth that comes from that propelled me
(43:57):
into the next thing, and the next thing and the
next thing. Because a lot of times as athletes, we
could type cast and we kind of get treated as
its monolith. All you athletes do x y Z. You
athletes are interested in x y Z. You're in like.
So for me it was something that this is this
(44:17):
is not on the athlete Bengo card going to being
a college professor, right. So for me, it was an
opportunity to kind of take back ownership of my own brand,
my own you know, likeness, and repositioned it in a
way that I wanted.
Speaker 3 (44:37):
That you think you could teach me, yeah, versus Alabama
wants you to teach something. Do you think you could teach.
Speaker 4 (44:46):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (44:49):
Next question, I don't know so, but what you said
was great.
Speaker 2 (44:59):
The next I don't know.
Speaker 1 (45:02):
Past like family feud style, I would say, but that
kind of sexuy to the next thing is that you're
talking about your brand and what athletes are talking about
in and I've been in these spaces with you now
where I only know you as the Quiet Storm, right,
like that's all that was For those that don't know,
(45:23):
that was Colston's nickname in New Orleans because he did
not talk, and so he would go weeks upon weeks
and just not saying. You must have been really mad.
If he was talking and we tried to, you must
have been mad. That's why I was shocked. I was
so shocked. That's not even him, that's not even not
even here. So anyways, so how and because I've always
(45:48):
known you as Colston, but I've seen you in these
spaces now in your Marcus and you talk more, you're
more gentle, you're more able to have these conversations with
other people. And so now how do you you continue
to change the mindset where now people they only see
you as a businessman. They don't even see you as
this former athlete. So now you're on the opposite end
(46:10):
of this whole spectrum that most of us are always
trying to get away from. What has that been like?
And how do you continue to add value? I guess
that No, I still am that too.
Speaker 4 (46:21):
It's I mean, it's a constant, it's a constant. I'll
call it a challenge. It's a constant challenge just because
you kind of make some headway in some areas, but
then you go and you meet new people and it's
like a re education all over again. You know. So
I've actually gotten for a long time. I was just
(46:43):
like really really focused on everything you just said, like
I'm not the former football guy, I'm the current such
and such. Yeah, And in a lot of ways, it
helped push all those narratives forward, but it did kind
of leave me feeling a little bit disconnected from the
thing that I was really really good at. Yeah. So
(47:06):
it's a constant challenge and it really becomes and I
always tend to link it back to football, especially playing receiver,
because like it's really a game of strategy. And what
I start to think about is like it's all situational, right,
I don't need to I can go into an educational
space and can I have the resume and I have
(47:27):
the skill set to show up as who I need
to be in that space. I can go into a
sports setting and show up because I have the skill set,
I have the experience and be who I need to
be in that space. So the idea of like this
brand being this static thing that I always am no
matter where I'm at. It's kind of helped me move
(47:50):
beyond that concept to where now I can show up
with the references and I can show up with the
credentials to be who I need to be in that moment.
And you know, I think I'm just now starting to
really get back into the sports side, which is I mean,
(48:11):
it's it's fun to kind of unlock it in a
different way now, but for me, it's it's just really,
how can I control my narrative and use it as
a tool to kind of open the doors that I
want to open, Because for a lot, for a lot
of us, we just kind of get stuck in this
in this cycle of our brand is kind of dictated
to us, and then the opportunities that we see are
(48:35):
a function of the brand that people tell us that
we have to be.
Speaker 3 (48:39):
Okay, so let's get back to some football questions. Gotcha
rookie Year?
Speaker 4 (48:43):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (48:43):
Where you pissed off that Vince Young one Rookie of
the Year.
Speaker 1 (48:48):
Yeah, it's like, yeah, I know what I was like
body language. I'm pretty good reading mindy lang, which just
like you damn right, was pissed off. Yeah, Okay, it's
like if it was a bubble with like a.
Speaker 2 (49:08):
Coming the dots is like that not that hell Yeah.
Speaker 4 (49:12):
I mean I feel like I checked all the boxes,
Like I had a statistically had a good year.
Speaker 2 (49:18):
You did.
Speaker 4 (49:19):
We ended up in MC championship and he did, like
I think knows what it was the year prior to that.
So like I feel like I checked the boxes.
Speaker 1 (49:28):
I think you didn't get it just because of the
school you came from and the school he came from,
Like that might have had something.
Speaker 4 (49:34):
To do with it.
Speaker 2 (49:34):
You might be right about I didn't think about that.
Speaker 4 (49:37):
It's no uh no pride network.
Speaker 1 (49:41):
Yeah, I think that's why you lost that one. He
just went to a better school and he had the
name recognition. But you did have a hell of a yeah,
I mean you did have a hell of year. You
came in saying, which is which is good? I just yeah,
it'd be nice if you want it.
Speaker 4 (49:55):
Though you hurt blocking, you know, yeah, And I did
get hurt blocking.
Speaker 3 (50:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (50:01):
That is so funny though, because that whole little situation
is exactly how we play out every single time. Sean
Payton would say, all right, we're gonna break it down
after practice.
Speaker 3 (50:11):
You know, we get the little one two three whatever, and.
Speaker 1 (50:13):
He'd be like, all right, coast and everybody break it
down on coast and everybody like, hey, he's gonna talk.
Speaker 2 (50:19):
Everybody, he's gonna talk.
Speaker 1 (50:21):
And then he come up there he's just sight hey,
Saints on three one two three.
Speaker 2 (50:27):
So it's like nothing. I had this for eight years.
Speaker 1 (50:29):
I'm telling you, this is crazy talk more today than
in like six years. We got like that Nick Roach.
We used to call him NICKI whispers. Yeah, he was
a mic linebacker.
Speaker 3 (50:40):
He was like, all right, guys, overcover two ready break.
Speaker 4 (50:45):
You gotta pay attention.
Speaker 1 (50:48):
He said something you gonna pay attention. Definitely got to
pay attention, all right. So you know, it was how
many receivers are drafted? You know how many receivers were
drafted in two thousand and six in front of you?
Speaker 4 (51:04):
Twenty two? All right?
Speaker 3 (51:06):
Good enough?
Speaker 4 (51:07):
Answer was to I don't.
Speaker 2 (51:10):
I'm trying to think back.
Speaker 3 (51:11):
I think it was twenty five, twenty five, Yeah a lot.
Speaker 4 (51:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (51:18):
Out of all of those, can you name it was
only three receivers that played more games.
Speaker 4 (51:24):
Than you, Greg, Greg Jennings, Brandon Marshall, not Greg Jennings,
not Greg Nope, Yeah, I got one, then you did
get one.
Speaker 3 (51:37):
Brandon Marshall, who else had him here? Yeah, he was
yesterday the other day.
Speaker 4 (51:42):
Jason Levanna, Oh Jason, but Jason was a beast in
that slot. He was nice.
Speaker 2 (51:49):
Yeah, he was real nice. And the other one is
kind of like a hype rent. Yeah, he really wasn't
a receiver.
Speaker 1 (51:56):
He was probably a receiver coming out, but he eventually
transitioned the tight end.
Speaker 4 (52:00):
Oh Delaney Delaney Walker, Yeah, there we got Yeah.
Speaker 2 (52:03):
I figured yeah when I saw him, like, that's really yeah.
Speaker 4 (52:10):
They thought that was my future, man, that was that
was you, That was you. That was my future in
certain certain teams.
Speaker 2 (52:15):
Delay Delaney played a long time too, a long time.
It made it work.
Speaker 1 (52:20):
Yeah, I hate to say that. I think Delaney might
have been was he fashion in you coming out? Because
Delaney can roll? I mean not saying you can't run.
Speaker 3 (52:29):
He basically kind of did say that just a little bit.
Put a little song on that.
Speaker 4 (52:34):
I'm used to it at this point. I'm so good.
Speaker 1 (52:36):
He's always been known as the possession guy, even though
he could run. He ran like a four to three
something coming out of college.
Speaker 4 (52:42):
No, No, the four three is never in my life
for four. I ran mid four four at one point,
would you go?
Speaker 3 (52:50):
I was for four it at Alabama. So throughout the career,
toughest some of the toughest corns you've ever gone against.
Speaker 4 (53:01):
Hated playing against you, hated playing against Al Harris. Like
for me, bigger guys just a great comb that's a
great combo. Bigger guys just it's hard to look at
look across when like your size is your advantage and
like see a mirror image of you?
Speaker 2 (53:19):
What do I do this?
Speaker 1 (53:20):
Yeah, to me, I thought you guys were easier, like
the smaller Marvin Harrison, Steve Smith's like those.
Speaker 3 (53:27):
Are guys for me, they were harder to cover. But
a bigger guy you of Calvin Johnson, Randy Moss, like
those were the guys that I love.
Speaker 1 (53:37):
Like I used to get excited, I would get geeked
to play guys like your size, Like finally I got
a bigger dude, Like we now we can like we
can go at it.
Speaker 2 (53:45):
It's a heavy way about, like let's let's go.
Speaker 4 (53:47):
Yeah. No, I appreciate you putting in that category of
them two dudes, but yeah, you you Al Harris, Like
the bigger corners were always more challenging for me because
like my game was was body position, you know, so
you two and then the Royal reebs, and his prime
was just different.
Speaker 2 (54:05):
Yeah, like sand everywhere island just building out.
Speaker 4 (54:08):
You want to play number three? Like two yard's been
a tight end. Cool, I'm pressing you right there. It
didn't matter, It wasn't there weren't too many dudes like that. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (54:17):
Yeah, he was nice, all right, it was real nice.
Speaker 1 (54:20):
So every guest we bring in, we always like to
know who is on their personal route Mount Rushmore of
influence and you get four it's not just about football, life,
everything all holistically. Who's on your Mount Rushmore?
Speaker 4 (54:39):
I mean first, first I got to put my parents.
I'll let them collectively be one. So I lost my
dad at fourteen, and one of the things that I
always think about is in fourteen years, I got so
many life lessons. I got so many examples that I
still use to this day to where like those fourteen
(55:05):
years have given me a lifetime worth of guidance. He
and my mom. I lost my mom about about five
years ago, so they they have obviously, you know, everything
that's in my DNA comes from them, but just understanding
how to navigate this world, how to treat people, how
to stand on your word. All of those things that
(55:28):
I feel really strongly about and confident about myself, I
got from them. So they got to be number one.
I put up with CJ. I. I kind of spoke
(55:49):
on him a little bit earlier, but he took a
dude that had some raw talent, raw ability, and didn't
know how to work, didn't know how to be a
professional athlete, and forced me to become a professional. Fact. Yeah,
so I would say everything that I that I was
able to do in my career, he is. He's he's
(56:09):
got a lot of hand like he's got a hand
in all of that. And for it's tough, it's tough. Yeah,
there's a part of me to wants to say somebody
in the Saints front office, but they passed on me
seven times too. I was I was the second pick
of the seventh round. I would say, my financial advisor
(56:40):
is on my mount rushmore.
Speaker 1 (56:43):
That.
Speaker 4 (56:43):
And it's less about the job that he has and
more about the example that he set. Like he's a
former athlete himself, played ten years back back with the Eagles,
and he was somebody that always when I came to
him with these crazy ideas, these crazy opportunities. He always
pushed me out of my comfort zone, you know. So
(57:05):
he was more than just the money manager that a
lot of guys have. He was like a real live
mentor and advisor. Yeah that said, all right, I walked
this path. Here's some of the good things that happened
in my path. Here's some of the bad things that
happened in my path. I'm gonna give you all of it,
and you do it a what you need to do
with it. So he's somebody that always kept pushing me.
(57:26):
And yeah, a lot of the business stuff doesn't doesn't
happen as early as it did in my career without him.
Speaker 1 (57:33):
But we all know the path to success as a
business person is fail, fail early fail. You gotta feel
early early you fail, yeah, the better you're going to
be earlier.
Speaker 3 (57:43):
So yeah, that's really cool.
Speaker 4 (57:44):
One hundred ten percent. Damn it's tough. I put a
pin in my wife. I want to put her there,
but I know that's not what you guys are asking for.
Speaker 2 (57:54):
No, No, if you put their wife in there, I'm
play a big role.
Speaker 4 (57:59):
So my wife has bear with me through a lot
of stuff on the business front, particularly on the business front,
like there was a time where I was just so
fully invested in learning and full fully invested in growth,
and fully invested in you know, we talked about the
(58:19):
business in Jamaica, the cannabis business. I'm flying back and
forth to Jamaica and back and forth to Toronto for businesses.
I'm you know, taking what people normal people would vacation
in the off season. I'm going to run the front office.
So she she kind of understood throughout the whole journey.
She's kind of understood some of the things that I
(58:41):
was doing wasn't for that time. It was kind of
building for the future. Yeah, and you know, she made
some sacrifices. We made some sacrifices as a family, you know,
you know, just being able to live in the moment
to pursue some of those things, and you know, without
that support, you know, I'm not here talking about these things.
(59:05):
So yeah, she's got to be she's got a round
out mountain run. Yeah for sure, she's earned that. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (59:12):
I appreciate it, man twice.
Speaker 4 (59:14):
Yeah, Yeah, that's what's up.
Speaker 2 (59:16):
He man, appreciate you coming on, yeah, man, thank you man.
Speaker 1 (59:20):
This was almost as fun as all those early mornings
trying to speed down Airline Airline Boulevard in New Orleans,
trying to not be late, practicing for the meetings.
Speaker 2 (59:29):
You late.
Speaker 1 (59:30):
No, No, it was funny because it's like a whole
bunch of lights on this road for those that don't know,
and Colston had his little you know, he had his
Camaro back in the day, and he just blowed through
all these red lights.
Speaker 4 (59:41):
It's just like.
Speaker 2 (59:42):
Blowing through driving around cars, didn't matter.
Speaker 4 (59:44):
He hit the shoulder.
Speaker 2 (59:45):
Yeah, so that learned from him though.
Speaker 4 (59:49):
So it's all good. The ticket gonna be less than
the fine that was. Just give me a ticket.
Speaker 1 (59:54):
For those that don't know, For those that don't know,
what we're talking about is when you are late for
a team meeting, you get fined thousands of dollars.
Speaker 2 (01:00:03):
Yes, you get a speaking ticket. It might be sixty
five dollars.
Speaker 4 (01:00:05):
Yeah, give me that.
Speaker 1 (01:00:06):
You do the math, and if I get the ticket,
I got figure that out. And if I get if
I earned the ticket, I got an excuse because I
got pulled over.
Speaker 2 (01:00:13):
So it's like automatically it's a win win yeah. Yeah, yeah,
just better that way, just better.
Speaker 1 (01:00:20):
Well yeah, man, all right, Well thank you Coaston, You're
a true blessing man, the Quiet Storm this is It's
been awesome. Thank you man for showing up and being
patient enough with me and my partiness today. Everything I
got going on. You should totally be used to it.
He should be too.
Speaker 2 (01:00:36):
Everybody else.
Speaker 3 (01:00:37):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:00:37):
And they didn't even know.
Speaker 3 (01:00:38):
I was late until we announced it.
Speaker 1 (01:00:39):
So thank you as always, our listeners, our followers out there,
and our viewers watching this beautiful podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:00:46):
iHeartRadio Studios.
Speaker 1 (01:00:47):
Thank you up here in New York for having hosted
me and Peanut or Peanut me no, sorry, he would
totally correct me. Peanut and I an teach you. Yes,
wherever you pick up your podcast, I continue to do that.
Tell a friend to tell a friend to tell a friend.
Make sure you all give us a five star rating.
Click that follow button, hip subscribe. Where have you.
Speaker 2 (01:01:05):
Listen to him at? Where it's Apple Podcast. iHeartRadio Podcast.
Thank you as always, Peanut, get us up out of
your boss.
Speaker 1 (01:01:12):
Hey on, Peanut Tillman, that's Roman, I'm late, Harper, that's
the quad Storm.
Speaker 3 (01:01:16):
Marcus Colson.
Speaker 1 (01:01:17):
Hey, out of here, we out of here, out of
here later, see you later, Quiet Storm, quad Storm, sign
it over bye bye crazy,
I'm Brendan, I am Bide Joe and this is the
NFL Players Second Acts Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Thanks for tuning in.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
I'm Peanut tuning and this is the NFL Players Second
Acts Podcast. And with me as always my trusted late
sidekick Roman, I'm never on Tom Harper.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
What's up baby?
Speaker 1 (00:33):
They didn't even know, they don't know they do now
you know this is recorded so like they don't understand
timing because we when we release it like that's it.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
But thank you for that.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Anyways, all of our listeners, our viewers out there, first
of all, always want thank you for always tuning in.
Give us a five star rating, leave a comment, click
that button, follow wherever you listen to your podcast, whether
it's Apple podcasts, iHeartRadio podcast thank you as always, Peanut.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Who's our guest today? We got a good one. He
was is my favorite.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Honestly, this is do you want to.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
J Will?
Speaker 1 (01:09):
This is this is your people, This is completely my people.
This is my suggested guest. This is my man, my
ace boom coon since day one. He knows it. He
I will get emotional at some point during this podcast
because this is how much this guy means to me.
He was a seventh round pick, fourth from last in
two thousand and six by the New Orleans Saints out
(01:31):
of Hostra, the last player drafted out of Hofstra. Wow,
the last one because unfortunately they shut down the program.
But this neither here nor there all right. In fact,
he was an outer said that he's the last one,
but he wanted to have a productive tenure career all
with the Saints. He won a super Bowl with with
(01:51):
yours truly, which I don't like to bring up because
Peanut gets all his feelings hurt all the time we
talk about super Bowls around here.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Just reading.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Also all time leader and receptions, touchdowns and yards. He's
also in the team's hall of fame with you now, yes,
with me. He's now an entrepreneur, an educator, philanthropists, etc. Etcetera, etcetera,
financial advising, the whole nine, you name it.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
He's done it.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Marcus Colston, everybody, and he's.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Used to be just saying col.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Because that's what they were staying in the super dume
for all those years. Coast Man, So good seeing you,
Thank you for coming over. Thanks for being patiently waiting
on me. You know I'm gonna wait on you, man.
I just appreciate being here with y'all. Man been following
this this podcast for a minute, so.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Man give him. He's late.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
He was supposed to been here like hours ago, am
I line, you're not so for those listening and or watching,
room double booked. So he had to go back home
to Charlotte. We're in New York right now. See, he
had to go back home to Charlotte do this thing.
He went back last night. He did this appearance that
(03:02):
he had this morning where he was at the temple.
Uh no, I was at Myers Park Presbyterian Church. Okay,
close enough, So he was. He was at the He
was at the temple doing some stuff. And then he
got on a plane like literally, I don't know, a
couple of minutes ago, fresh off the plane. Yeah, Gardian, Yeah, Loguardia.
I actually had to run here get out of my
uber because the lea. So I don't sweat. Everybody knows
(03:25):
that about me. If you please, just cry, I do cry,
but I want to. I want to before we get
too far into this thing. All right, we got clear
the air up, all right, we gotta just let's just
get it all out there, all right, right twenty fifteen,
I believe it's the year I knew this.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
All right?
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Uh, you know, do you want to tell the story
if you want to go there? No, I want you
to tell it.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Okay, I'm corrected, because here's my This is gonna be
a good one, all right. So here's my perspective. Okay,
I love the Colt's been my guy since day one. Like,
and man, forget all that I told the story, you
sugar coated. We get over to the sideline, Pete that's
going all crazy and he's like, oh no, you know,
let me, let me, let me set it up. Twenty fifteen.
(04:14):
I'm in Carolina, my new teammate room, my new as
boon coom. I thought, I'm his new guy, right, I'm
his new bottom, you know what, I'm his new side piece.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
That's me. I'm his guy. So we're playing. We're playing.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
We're playing the Saints and Drew Brees he rolls outside
the pocket, so me, I have a clock that goes
off of my head. And when the quarterback gets outside
the tackle box, you get to push the receiver again.
So Coasey he's running down the field doing his things,
trying to get open. It's like backyard football and Drew's
(04:49):
outside the tackle box. So I push him coach and
falls down. And I didn't think nothing of it because
I do it all the time. I'm trying not to
laugh telling his story. So I'm walking back to the huddle.
It might have been fourth down. I might have been
third down. I can't remember. We came off the field right, yeah,
so it must have been fourth down. So Colson, he
(05:11):
walks over, was like, man, he will and I was like,
and I just saw red and I tried to I
tried to fight, but then all my teammates grabbed me
and we get to the sideline and I'm looking at
Rome and.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Rome was like, what what do you do?
Speaker 3 (05:30):
My god?
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Colson, he would never do that.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
That's not him. He would he wouldn't do it. What
do you mean?
Speaker 4 (05:37):
I mean?
Speaker 2 (05:37):
I just and I was like, I was like, Peter,
what'd you do?
Speaker 1 (05:40):
It was clearly, you know, like I am living, Like
I am just like who And I'm like that mother.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
I thought I'm a man first, I'm a football player.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Segment and Steve Wolk's decordinator of the San Franco forty
nine ers. It's like, look, if you want to go
fight him, we'll go fight him after the game. But
we gotta do it after the game. We got a
game to play right now. I was like, no, Steve,
we got to fight right down and call me a
I'm a man first, I'm a football player. Second, you
don't do that to a man. And the whole time
he was just like, nah, my god, he would never
(06:12):
do that. And I was like physically mad at room
because I was like, you're taking his side your I'm
your teammate, like.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
I'm your new boo, and I'm like he was like,
would never do that. He's not that guy. And I
was like, oh, I was, so I was so mad
as you.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
But then but then he did say he was like, hey, man,
he called me and was like, hey tell your boy Peen.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Apologize.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
Man.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
He was like, I'm just in a bad place right now. Things,
football life, life is happening right now. Like I apologize.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
You know. So we we did do that. But yeah,
that's that's the story.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
In a bit of a nutshell, you see, that moment
led us to this today.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
That moment let us so when we knew you were
coming on the show, everybody was like I was like,
oh man, I haven't really seen Colson since I haven't
seen him since twenty fifteen, since that incident.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
But I knew you had called.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
ROMs like hey man, tell Peanut, and that sold me
that's my bad. So I knew there wouldn't like be
friendy Ana Moster or anything like that. But that was
the first thing I thought about. I was like, Yo, this.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Is gonna be a good one because the first thing
we're gonna talk about. We need to get that out
the way.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
We need to get it out of the Tell everybody
what happened in your eyes.
Speaker 4 (07:20):
See it's it's one of them classic it wasn't you,
it's me.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Breakups.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
It was just fifteen was my last year, and it
was one of those It's one of those times where
like you could see the writing on the wall, and
I saw how I was getting phased out of the offense,
and I saw how the reps that I would normally
get they just want to coming no more. And like,
when you get to that point in your career and
you got to accept some hard truths, you just show
(07:52):
up different. So I'm showing up every game every week,
and I'm just like, I'm halfway pissed off because I
know I can play, but then not let me.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Play and they're using you as a blocker.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
Now I'm a blocker, I'm leaving, I'm leading on duo plays,
I'm leading. I'm like, hold on, Now, that's not how
I made a career. So no, it was just one
of those situations.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Man.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
I was just in a different place mentally, and yeah,
you hit a trigger.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
It was honestly, it was hilarious and you got to
understand though, Like even the year before in fourteen, you know,
I played against Coaston all so many times in practice
going against each other. We battled so many times, and
I hit him and he dropped the ball and literally
I went down to a knee to like check on him,
like in the middle of the game. And my colin,
(08:42):
Steve Wilfs, is like, wrong, you can't do that, dog,
You can't hit an opponent team and like ask him
if he's okay, Like you just we just can't put
that on films. So you know, that's how much this
guy means to me. And all right, coach you, I
want you to tell this quick story. But our rookie year,
why you banned me from hanging out out at your apartment?
(09:03):
I think I I went to pick up an War
and just kind of share how I got banned from
hanging out at Colston's house.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
Now this this is way back we early twenties, So
I gotta give you some grace, thank you, But you
got clean up after yourself, Thog. You can't just be
leaving Bear Cans's coffee table.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
I mean I came over. We were gonna go out,
me and Wars picking up an War.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Of course, I had beer with me at the time,
and I just didn't know we like kind of transt
his place and Colston never hung out, so it was
just me and me and Anwar.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Phillips at the time, another fellow rookie man and.
Speaker 4 (09:40):
Y y'all come kick it leading beer Cans leave, I
got clean up.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
You go kind of guess you're that person. I am
that person, but I'm not anymore though, thank god, thank god.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
It's that growth, man.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
You have grown, You have grown. So two thousand, what
was your what was your year?
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Uh?
Speaker 4 (09:56):
Six?
Speaker 1 (09:57):
We came together six terrible draft class anyway, so o
six you were here out of subth fron pick out
of Hofstrow when you got to New Orleans, and I'm
sure it was just like, okay, wow, you know, big city,
big lights everything. Drew Brees like, oh my god, what
was your what was your welcome.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
To the NFL moment when you got when you got
to New Orleans?
Speaker 4 (10:17):
That's easy. Rookie Minni camp, the rookie Mini camp. Like
I had never been in the South. Yeah, never been
to New Orleans. The heat, that heat almost ended my
career before it got started. Like the Rookie Minni Camp,
I think was it was a weekend, right, Yeah, So
we get out there day one, my back locks up,
day won. Rookie Minni Camp. Just got drafted. We just
(10:40):
drafted another receiver in the fifth round. So yep, Mike
as my roommate too to State. Yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Monster, Yeah, he came to Chicago, was one of our
practice squad players.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
Yeah. So get drafted, go down first opportunity to show
what I can do. Can't do nothing, back locked up.
I'm literally done for restauranking Mini camp. So I leave
that weekend feeling like I don't know if I'm gonna
get invited back to the Mini camp. Like that's seventh
round pick you just you hear the odds, you hear
the stories. Pick two fifty two, you're basically a free agent.
(11:16):
So my welcome to the NFL moment was like you
literally might not be here past three days. So obviously
didn't get cut, got a chance to come back to
Mini camp, kind of got the back stuff, figured out,
was able to survive Mini camp.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
But then I think survival is a good word.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
That's the only word it was, because it was pure
survival mode.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
It was like he was much bigger. He was a
big boy. Yeah, he was much bigger Colston. He flashed,
but like like he said, my man.
Speaker 4 (11:44):
Was, I was hurting from strugglings. So like that, that
five weeks that you get between Mini Camp and training
camp was like I flew back home and just figured
out how to I got back into live, figured out
how to get my body right. So when I came
back to training camp, I was ready to roll. And yeah,
that like that, that early scare, I think really set
(12:07):
the tone for my whole career because I never let
myself feel like I had job security after that, and
that just kind of drove the rest of my career.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
What did you do within those five weeks? Like what
did you change up?
Speaker 4 (12:19):
I honestly, I ended up cutting about fifteen pounds. I
came back to training camp right around two twenty and
I just I just I figured out how to work right.
And it sounds it sounds crazy, but you know, at Hofstra,
you know a lot of times you when you're at
you play at levels like that, you don't have that
(12:41):
consistent competition every day in practice. I wasn't at Alabama
going against you know, first and second round draft picks
on defense, right, So for me, it was just figuring
out how to work and like that first experience of
whatever you did to prepare for mini camp and it
is not it right. So I just kind of had
(13:03):
to teaching myself how to work and how to set
a standard that put me in position to actually compete.
And you know that I kind of took that five
weeks and started to figure some of that out to
where I just gave myself a fighting chance when I
came back in training camp, and you know, just made
the most of those opportunities.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
I mean, clearly you did.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
You were one of the two or three rookies that
actually were starting earlier than the rest of us. That
whole class of ours really eventually were starting. So but
this is a question I don't know I don't even
know the answer to, and that is being the fourth
to last pick in that two thousand and six draft.
In your mind, would you rather have not been drafted
(13:44):
at all? Because you know it is laying those rounds.
It's like, sometimes, do you even want to get drafted
because then you can pick a better situation? Knowing that
the Saints had already drafted a wide receive in the
fifth round, how were your feelings emotionally about still getting
your name called or would you rather like, I don't
know if I want to get dragted so that I
can go anywhere I want?
Speaker 4 (14:02):
Yeah, I mean that's at that point I was. I
was hoping to be a free agent because then I
could pick, I could pick a situation where I felt
like I could put myself in position to be successful.
Because at the combine and there were a handful of
teams that talked to me about playing tight end, another
handful to talk to me about playing h back, and
(14:22):
I just couldn't wrap my mind around lead blocking on
a middle linebacker.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Yeah, not the way CJ used to yell at you
from Craig blot block drills. CJ, oh my gosh, coaster,
get yelled at all the time. CJ be like, you
soft dude, man, you soft dude. Coast be getting mad,
just fhuman unity. But he never talked.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
So but.
Speaker 4 (14:47):
What was the question? Oh? Yeah, no, So I kind
of wanted to be a free agent because you know,
I get to pick my spot, and let's be honest,
New Orleans and the Saints the year that they were
and off of it wasn't it wasn't a destination at
that point. So at that point that the draft was
(15:08):
two days, I had sat through the first day with
my family. Didn't really expect to get drafted in the
first couple of rounds, so that was cool. But then
sitting all day the second day, like when you kind
of expect to come off the board early, and just
sitting there for hours and hours and hours, I was like, man,
I'm over this. Just let me get the free agency
(15:29):
I think I was. I was actually between the Texans
and the Cardinals. Those are gonna be my top two.
But then obviously I got my name called and went
to New Orleans and back locked up, but ended up
with a second opportunity.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
And where were you Where were you thinking originally where
you would maybe get drafted that, like, like, what round?
Speaker 2 (15:52):
What I heard?
Speaker 4 (15:53):
I heard anywhere between second round and free agent. That's
that's a crazy range range, crazy range. But that's I mean,
you think about the world back then, we didn't have
the social media. We weren't as connected, like information wasn't
flowing like it is today. So yeah, anywhere between second
(16:14):
and free agent. So first three rounds came and went.
I was pretty cool with that. I had a guy
that worked at Yahoo Sports at the time called me
after day one was like, listen, I got some intel.
You're gonna be going pretty early on day On day two,
Oh whoy he tell you that? So that sex the
expectation right away, somebody, I hope you still don't have
(16:35):
this source of yah, I hope you fired him.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
You know you're gonna work for Google or something. You
are a terrible source.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
I'm not paying you for no inside expects.
Speaker 4 (16:47):
Get killed killed the whole day because the draft started. Now,
I'm like, I'll be going about one o'closs.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
You want to call out that sources name, you can
call it out by.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
Everything, everything, everything. So once the expectation got set, and
fourth round came and went, fifth round came and went
sixth round came and went.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Let you Matt.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
Seventh round, I started getting called some teams they got
no more picks.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
I'm like, oh, that's bad. That's bad.
Speaker 4 (17:11):
Come a long day.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
That's a real long day. So I know, I remember
when I got my first start. My coach came on.
My coach, he walked up and was like, hey, you
starting this week. You're going against two Hall of famers.
You're starting against Jerry Rice and Tim Brown. Don't be
in there fing up. And then he walked out and
I was like, oh okay. And he walked out of
(17:34):
the room and I was like, God, got on the phone,
call my boys, like yo, I'm starting this week Jed
Rice and Tim Brown.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Yo, that's gonna be so tight.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
So for me, I think at that point, I played
the game and like I killed it. ID like I
had a really good game as a rookie. So I
think for me, I was like, yo, I know I
can make plays. You know I started had you know,
I had the forest fumbos, I was getting interceptions. I
was like, yo, I'm killing it right now. At what
point for you having the you know, the tight back
when you locked up then training camp and all that
(18:02):
a little bit of doubt. When did you know you
could like make it in.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
This league when I started making it? Like straight up?
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Was it was it like a point or was it
a game for you?
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Was it just like I don't catch just like oh
yeah I called this, Oh yeah, I'm finna kill it.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
I know I'm about to do work.
Speaker 4 (18:20):
I can honestly say I don't think I ever had
that like that I high moment, Like I was just
consistently in grind molde the whole time. Like the way
that I found that I was starting was you know,
we had that first that first practice day on Wednesday
of Week one. I literally found out on the field
and the huddle on the practice field that I was starting,
(18:42):
Like so there was really no time for me to
process it. I just had to literally go out and
did you just say, hey, Colsta, go thro once we
just the huddles there, like we don't have an exit there?
Who playing? X? You getting huddle? Like That's how I
found that I was starting.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
So what what was that inside feeling for you?
Speaker 3 (18:59):
Was it just like like oh, hell yeah, I made it,
or just I'm just a practice.
Speaker 4 (19:03):
Don't mess it up, don't mess it up, don't.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
It's so funny because I totally see that out of you,
like knowing who we were all the way from training camps,
which we had training camp not in New Orleans as Millsaps, Mississippi.
It was awful. It was right there in Jackson at
mill SOPs College.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
It was hot.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Practice was truly a.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Grind, and I knew you were going to be really
good though, Coaston when it was like a crossing route
and dude, I never seen nobody give like the go
go gadget arms like you had the ability to be
able to do and just plug a ball from out
of there going across the middle. And then when we
played Green Bay Week two and you had like a
(19:43):
monster game, you had like a big time touchdown for us,
brought us back, and like you just continue to.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Just show up.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
And you were probably the first rookie in our class
that really like popped out. But that's when I thought, like, well,
that's when I knew. I was like, man, this is
like my man, Colas is balling. And uh, I don't
think you ever really realized that you probably did you.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Ever think about it? Did you? There was no emotions,
just it's always been.
Speaker 4 (20:10):
You know, emotions are not my strong suit. So but
uh nah, there were in that rookie year. There was
never a moment, and I think a lot of it
was the situation one. I just never felt like I
had job security. I always felt and that's why I
took every single rep. I never let anybody else get
another rep, because if you go take this rep and
you kill it, like oh I might, I might not
(20:32):
get this one back. So my whole mentality was I
have this opportunity. I'm just gonna make the most of
this opportunity. And I had a position Coach CJ that
was he was just he was He was exactly what
I needed at that time. Like he was a guy
that you knew he loved you, but it was tough love.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Like he pushed you, he pushed, he pushed, he motivated you.
Speaker 4 (20:56):
He pushed you off, he pissed off, he pushed you,
he challenged you, but then on game that he left
you alone. Yeah, so like throughout the week you wanted
to fight him, but then on game day he was
your guy. And that's kind of how our relationship evolved.
So the combination of me not ever feeling safe and
then having that guy that literally pulled things out of
(21:18):
me I didn't know existed, Like that's that's kind of
what made it. That's kind of what made the situation
what it was. And in all honestly, I was I
was literally learning really in every situation. So as an example,
I played most most of my career, I played slot
receiver until I got to the league. I never played
(21:41):
in the slot right in a game, not in high school,
not in college. So I'm literally learning a new position
at the highest level. So there was never a lot
of time for me to process what was happening. Like
I always had to stay present to not mess up
the next the next moment, the next opportunity. That's kind
of that was my mentality.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Are you ever like disappointed or mad that you never
made an All Pro team or Pro Bowl? You put
up you're the all time leading Saints receiver yards or
is it are you more mad.
Speaker 4 (22:12):
That you didn't get the ten thousand the ten thousands
stung a little bit more?
Speaker 2 (22:17):
You're right there at it.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
I was right there at it, And there was two.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
Games that's a personal note.
Speaker 4 (22:21):
I knew, Yeah, there was two games at the end
of at the end of my last season where I
was hurt, and you know me, I prided myself on
never being hurt enough to not play true. Like so,
the fact that I couldn't go out for the last
two games and I knew I was two hundred and
forty one yards short of ten thousand, that's stung a
little bit. But like the Pro Bowl and all Pro stuff,
(22:46):
I've just never really been concerned about other people's opinions. Yeah,
you know, and that's that's really what those things become.
They become opinions about what people feel about your game. So,
you know, it never really either me. The thing that
I always played for was that my peers and my
competitors they respected me, and if I felt that I
(23:08):
was good, I don't care about the outside validation.
Speaker 3 (23:10):
Yeah, that's what's up.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
So I know I'm zero and two in Super Bowls,
you're one and one, You're one and Oh what's been
your fondest memory about Super Bowl forty four?
Speaker 4 (23:24):
The one that pops in my mind is not very fond.
I had a ball bounce off my face. Matter it was,
I thought we were tried on the whole crowd. Nobody
was in five ten yards of me.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Yeah, touchdown, it would have been touched on it first down.
Speaker 4 (23:38):
It had been a good twenty five thirty. That's the
first memory that pops in my head.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
No concentration, just didn't see it, or.
Speaker 4 (23:49):
I knew I had room to do something after the catch.
I knew I have room to just start taking about
what before you actually got in your hand yep, yeah,
and uh yeah that thing I saw my face mask
and popped up in the air, looky new white board.
That was the scaredest I have ever been in the game.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
But that's crazy to think that's the first memory, though,
because I'm sure everyone's like, oh, you want a super Bowl?
What's the best thing. What's the first thing that pops
in my mind? Like, I dropped this damn pass. I
gave a.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
First drive, first drive, first drive, boom boom.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
We come out hits Coaston dead smack in the face
mask and we Coaston never drops anything, catches everything, and
he was wide open.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
Wide open. That might have been it. I'm not used
to being that wide open.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Is that the only memory you got from that whole game?
Speaker 4 (24:34):
No, I mean there's obviously other memories. You know, I
called a I caught a A. It was like a
slug O. I forget what we called a sluggle stop
that I caught on the sideline, real nice catch, like
full extension. That's that. That was a good one. Didn't
do a whole lot in the second half. But yeah,
I mean, just for whatever reason, my mind goes to
(24:57):
the things I could have done differently, and that's that's
just not in football. That's just kind of how I'm wired,
you know. So that's where I go. You know.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
I will tell this one quick story. The funniest memory
I have of Colston playing football is literally when he
did like I don't know what he was thinking. We're
playing in Saint Louis and he catches a pass and
Coaston is like, all of a sudden, he's running. Coaston
never was like all right, he was one of those
like he's not a yack guy.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
This is this is my line? Are you a yack?
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Pretty accurate? He's not a yards after catch? Do you
gotta tell the people don't like, I don't know what
what's a Yeah, I don't know what it is. This
is not his life, this is not his like superpower.
All right, He's running and out of nowhere. Colston tries
to do the whole like Reggie busting and like jump
(25:49):
over somebody for a touchdown.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
I don't know, I don't know where he thought he
was going.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
All of a sudden, I was clearly about to jump
clean over a six foot dude. Yeah, who was standing stage?
Like straight up?
Speaker 2 (26:01):
I don't know what you were thinking, dude.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
Coaston gets hit, flips ball just like just gave it up,
balls up in the air.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
Colston hit the ground, It just lays out.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
He's out.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
Nobody's even checking on coast, everybody scramming for the ball.
Coach's body just just right there. Body, this body just
laid out, and I'm like, oh man, anybody check on
Coaston's out there?
Speaker 3 (26:27):
Nobody check on Oh that's funny.
Speaker 4 (26:30):
He had a character over there. Completely figure it out.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
But you know, these are the memories that I have
with Coaston just as a player.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
We'll be right back after a quick break.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
Let's let's dive into his post career.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
So, I think I think for me or most players,
when we leave this game, we don't do it on
our own terms.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
Right.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
It's always you get injured or you get cut, released
or whatever.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
You know, there's only a few of us. Uh, the
Peyton Manning's the Jerome Bettist.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
Didn't get to leave on his terms either. I mean
he won a Super Bowl and like that's that's a
that's a good way to go out, you know. Jerome Bennets,
he won Super Bowl, retired. We had Devin mccordy. He
just was say, yeah, I think I'm done. I'm I'm
one of my my three super Bowls. That's it. Mama
Rodolf in the Sunset did it the way he wanted
to do it. Was it easy for you to come
(27:21):
to your determination when you retire, because it kind of
I think I read you did it. You were like
three four years out kind of planning retirement or thinking
about it at least, you know, before you actually did it.
Speaker 4 (27:33):
Yeah, So it was a combination of I had already
been pretty active on the business front, Like I was,
I was investing at the time. I was actually I
was running a semi pro and arena football team while
I was playing, really running it, like really running it
like in training camp, building like my sales strategies and
(27:55):
my sponsorship strategies and stuff. So I was I was
like fully immersed in business at the time. Anyways, And
like I said that twenty fifteen year. I didn't. I
honestly didn't know I was going to come back and
play that tenth year. Like for five or six years running,
I would always tell Roman, like this might be the
last one. But after the fourteen season, my body was
(28:19):
just in a place where I knew I wouldn't be
able to be the player that I was. So I
was kind of undecided about twenty fifteen until the very
end anyways, So I kind of went into that year
knowing and that was it for me. So the combination
of that and then already having some business stuff going
(28:40):
it made that transition a little bit more seamless. But
I think what really fueled it was when I was
able to start to see how everything that I did
to prepare myself to play on Sundays, how I could
repurpose all of that into business, and like had real
proof because I was already doing it. I think that
(29:02):
was That was the thing that made the transition seamless
and one that didn't make it easy by any stretch,
But it was like it was just another challenge that
I knew I could. I didn't feel like I had
to overcome it. I just had to figure it out right,
and to me that I think there's a big difference
between you see this this mountain of adversity in front
(29:23):
of you that you just have no clue what to
do with versus all Right, this is a challenge that's
kind of comparable to the things I'm used to dealing with.
And when I was able to see it through that lens,
it made it, it made it just you know, a
new thing to attack.
Speaker 3 (29:37):
All right.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
So just saying what you just said, what is the
biggest difference, like, because I want you to describe the
situation that is like a mountain of just like adversity
versus the challenge that you just got to figure out
the answer to.
Speaker 4 (29:52):
Yeah. So for me, like I've never looked in the
mirror and just said, I'm a football player. That's that's
my worth, that's my value. Like I've always seen more
than that when I looked in the mirror, right, and
you know, football always said this. Football is something that
I do. I'm really good at it. I work my
butt off at it to become really good at it.
(30:12):
But it's something I do, you know. So I think
for a lot of guys and really anybody in a
life transition, that if all, you know, and you've kind
of built your life around one thing and that thing
abruptly stops. It's you kind of have this feeling that
you're falling off a cliff, and it's like, I have
(30:32):
no idea what's on the bottom of that's what's where
I'm going to land at when I hit when I
fall off this cliff. For me, I think that cliff
still existed. But because of the things that I was
doing off the field already and the things that I
kind of figured out mentality wise that I could repurpose,
(30:52):
I fell off the cliff, but it was a much
more shallow cliff right to where I was able to
land on my feet and I was able to it
was it was truly, it was. It was truly a
transition of mindset more than it was like a whole
life circumstance. If that makes sense, No, it does.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
Maybe could you share with us a couple examples or something,
maybe some of the struggles you had post retirement. I
know we all go through it, we all and you know,
this is kind of why we do this whole podcast.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
We talked about our second back and I had mine.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
I mean, I had to navigate mine my own way,
you navigated some of yours, you.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
Know, like me, I took three to sixty five days
did absolutely nothing yet to decompressed. And yeah, really take
a step back and say, all right, well, like you said,
I fell off that cliff and I didn't know it
was at the bottom of it, but I knew I
had the ability.
Speaker 3 (31:42):
To be able to afford some time to figure it out.
Speaker 4 (31:44):
Yeah, I kind of took the opposite approach, Like I
literally threw myself into any and everything that I thought
would be challenging, exciting and I thought would resonate with me.
You know, So everything from angel investing to you know,
(32:05):
working with entrepreneurs and figuring out how to become an
advisor and a consultant, to you know, all all the
things that you rattled off, you know, to begin the podcast.
Those are all ways that I just kind of immersed
myself in, like self discovery, like what are the things
that interest me, what are the things I could potentially
be good at, What are the things that I can
make an impact in my own way? And I did
(32:28):
that for the better part of a decade and just
constantly trying new things, constantly building new skill sets, knowing
that at some point some of these things are going
to be really valuable, not necessarily knowing when, how, the
platform that they're going to be valuable in, but just
building skill sets. And for me, the thing that really
(32:52):
changed was actually recently with my third my third child
being born, my daughter who's nine months now, that was
the time that, to your point, like I literally took
a step back and I finally was able to get
get to the place where I was content, but I
(33:15):
wasn't comfortable. And I think for us as athletes, like
those two things feel like the same. Contentment and being
comfortable they feel like the same thing. And it wasn't
until I had my third doubt, my third child, that
I was able to kind of separate those two. And
(33:36):
I've for the last year, I've just kind of been
in the moment. I've just kind of been slowed down
a lot of things on the business front and really
kind of focus more on impact and what are the
things that I can do to be impactful, What are
the things that you know are going to bring me
closer to my family. And having to go through that
(33:57):
whole decade long period of self discovery, I think is
what led me to the place that I'm at now
where I'm very content with where I'm at. I'm content
with what I've done, I'm content with what i'm doing,
I'm content with all the areas of my life. Still
not comfortable. I'm going to continue to push the envelope,
but I'm good.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
That's funny because like content and comfort and comfort and
comfort as.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
An athlete, never a good place. No, No, it's like
never want to be there.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
You never want to be there, especially when you like
we just don't think like that.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
No, it's like the opposite of everything we're taught, Like
the moment you get comfortable to get out of here.
Speaker 4 (34:35):
It's almost like we're hardwired. The way that the draft
comes around every year, they're literally drafting your replacement every year. Yeah,
and you got to fight them off but teach them
everything you know at the same time.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Yeah, thats a crazy thing.
Speaker 4 (34:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
I was always Yeah, I was always the guys like, damn,
each year I.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
Get older and slower, and you want to got younger
and faster, and you want to take my spot.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
So my my fault process was, no, you're not to
take a food off my table, Like I gotta I
gotta stay ready I'm comfortable. I gotta change something up.
I gotta do something different. I gotta flip the scrip.
Speaker 4 (35:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
So in your contentment and all that, I want you
to like tell me why why why.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
The Arena League?
Speaker 1 (35:18):
Why why was that, you know one of your business adventures.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
It was.
Speaker 4 (35:27):
It was an opportunity that just it really started as
like a passive investment at first. So just to kind
of give you the backdrop, there was a team that
was launching in my hometown in Harrisburg, PA, and they
were looking for investors, and for me, I was like,
all right, I want to I want to give back
to my community. I can kind of go to the
(35:48):
typical route, you know, build a charity, you know, host
to host to camp, create some programming, or this team
now becomes like a give back vehicle. So that's that
was kind of my mentality going into it. I'll be
a passive investor and we can kind of build some
some programs through the through the team to get back
to the community. And when I got a little bit
(36:10):
more involved in the business side of it, it really
intrigued me and it was an opportunity to as I
was actively playing at the highest level, like as the talent.
It gave me an opportunity to see the other side
of the business, like what actually makes this thing go
And learning those two things in concert was like a
(36:32):
hell of an experience for me. So when I kind
of saw that connection, it became more of a passive
investment and I said I want to get actively involved
in this, and that next year I bought out my
partner and was like president CEO GM ran the whole show.
(36:52):
He also moved chairs. Oh yeah, we're not afraid of
the grind. Everything from you know, putting putting the arena together,
making sure the turf is laid down, the field is
laid out, from game operations, making sure we got the
music licenses secured, like literally everything from soup the nuts. Yeah,
(37:13):
it just intrigued me that much. And my wife hated
it because at the time, like think about this, I
go down, play my season in the fall, get finished
in the winter, fly back home, pick up everything on
the on the arena side for the spring of the summer.
So there was no it was football like year round,
(37:36):
twelve months, twelve months a year, just a different kind
of football. Yeah, the arena stuff was a little bit
more stressful.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
Oh, I'm sure. How's how's how's the league doing now?
Speaker 3 (37:48):
Or do you still have it? Is it still going?
Is it?
Speaker 1 (37:50):
No?
Speaker 4 (37:51):
So I I the the league actually shut down in
twenty nineteen, so that was my last with the Arena
Football League in a since started to make a comeback
that I won't be a part of. But yeah, it
was a good seven year run.
Speaker 3 (38:12):
So coach.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
Another one of your passions is creating programs and educational
things for universities. And I know you're working at was
it un O right now and doing some other things.
I mean, you're an educator. I mean I've gone to
one of your entrepreneur business classes right here in Columbia,
right here in New York when I first retired, So
(38:35):
I know this is a passion of yours. Maybe tell
us what kind of got you started into that, And
also I want to know personally, because I know all
the other things you're into that that's not on all
these papers and stuff. And I've seen that big white
board in your office that's just full of all kinds
of stuff. So I want to know what's on the
whiteboard and also about what kind of got you and
(38:57):
led you into the whole university, the academia style of
everything you're doing.
Speaker 4 (39:02):
Yeah, so education was something that in a million years,
I never seen myself in it. I was an above
average I wasn't a great student. I was a slightly
above average student. I don't want to make excuses, but
I was capable more. But it just never clicked for me.
(39:23):
And when I was presented, I was doing some speaking
around entrepreneurship and management, business management. That's how I initially
got connected with University of New Orleans. And when the
opportunity to come in and develop a course around leadership
and entrepreneurship kind of appeared, it was for me. It
(39:45):
was just it was an opportunity to take something that
I wasn't very good at for reasons that I thought
I wasn't very good at, right, and like teaching a
different way, so not necessarily teach from a TechBook textbook,
but trying to teach from an individualized perspective. Right. So
I had a smaller, a smaller class, smaller cohort of students,
(40:07):
and it was less about teaching you concepts from a
textbook and more about how can you how can you
really take control of your own personal professional development journey?
That was really what the curriculum became. So for me,
it was I was scared to death to get in
(40:28):
front of the classroom because you know this more than
anybody else, I'm about as introverted as you can get, right,
So the fact that it scared the hell out of
me was one of the reasons why I did it.
Because it was a new opportunity to expand. It was
a new opportunity to grow into something different, and it
was an opportunity to see if I can create impact
(40:48):
in a different way. And those were all the reasons
I did it. It really had very little to do
with wanting to be an educator. It was more about
I think I have a unique perspective, I have some
unique insight, some unique experience. Can I share it with
these students as a way to unlock something for them?
So you approached them or do they They? They approached me,
(41:09):
And it was one of those things where when they
approached me, I thought they kind of had something in
mind already. But the opportunity was you come in here
as an adjunct, you create your own curriculum, which.
Speaker 1 (41:23):
So you you were a professor of the university, Okay, yeah,
I was. I wanted people to know that he was
a profess sore at the University of Normals. Like, okay,
like that's teaching honors classes. Yes, yep, that's big.
Speaker 4 (41:39):
So so I did that for taught that course for
three semesters.
Speaker 3 (41:42):
Yea.
Speaker 4 (41:44):
And there was some some unique things like COVID kind
of made virtual more of an option, so I was
able to do it from New Jersey. So there were
some stars that kind of aligned to make it happen.
But you know, it was just again, it was an
It was an opportunity to try something new, to try
something different, delivered joint I did. I really did enjoy it.
(42:05):
I got more and more comfortable with every class just
being me, you know, because you guys can probably attest
to this, like you step into a new a new arena,
a new environment, and when you're not one hundred percent
confident in what you can bring, you tend to show
up as like a representative of yourself. And for the
(42:25):
first handful of classes, I kind of had my little
lesson planned together. I knew exactly what I wanted to cover,
and I was I was in front of the class.
It's kind of that representative. And as I got more
and more comfortable. I went less and less to the
lesson plan more and more to like the mental role
of deex and the experiences, and that's when it started
(42:46):
to unlock things for me. But it also unlocked things
for the students because it became more conversational, It became
more personal, as opposed to here's my textbook, highlight this stuff,
we're going to take a test or getting a set
on this stuff. Like it became more about their own
journeys and me being invested in their personal journeys.
Speaker 2 (43:06):
How much did that? How much growth did you have
doing that?
Speaker 1 (43:09):
Because so often everybody thinks, oh, we're just coming there
when we talk to people, we pour into them, But
a lot of times it's actually the reverse, Like I
actually feel like I get poured into myself.
Speaker 2 (43:19):
And I actually have more growth.
Speaker 1 (43:21):
Yeah, in the whole process, because not only we learned
about ourselves, but we learn from them as well. So
what did you learn from all that too? Like what
do you think you got to walk away with like
man that felt really good or or something like that.
Speaker 4 (43:34):
I think personally, the most impactful piece of it was
I got a chance to walk away and see something
different than me when I looked in the mirror. I
got to take on something that is literally one of
my biggest fears, yeah, and turn it into power. And
you know, the growth that comes from that propelled me
(43:57):
into the next thing, and the next thing and the
next thing. Because a lot of times as athletes, we
could type cast and we kind of get treated as
its monolith. All you athletes do x y Z. You
athletes are interested in x y Z. You're in like.
So for me it was something that this is this
(44:17):
is not on the athlete Bengo card going to being
a college professor, right. So for me, it was an
opportunity to kind of take back ownership of my own brand,
my own you know, likeness, and repositioned it in a
way that I wanted.
Speaker 3 (44:37):
That you think you could teach me, yeah, versus Alabama
wants you to teach something. Do you think you could teach.
Speaker 4 (44:46):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (44:49):
Next question, I don't know so, but what you said
was great.
Speaker 2 (44:59):
The next I don't know.
Speaker 1 (45:02):
Past like family feud style, I would say, but that
kind of sexuy to the next thing is that you're
talking about your brand and what athletes are talking about
in and I've been in these spaces with you now
where I only know you as the Quiet Storm, right,
like that's all that was For those that don't know,
(45:23):
that was Colston's nickname in New Orleans because he did
not talk, and so he would go weeks upon weeks
and just not saying. You must have been really mad.
If he was talking and we tried to, you must
have been mad. That's why I was shocked. I was
so shocked. That's not even him, that's not even not
even here. So anyways, so how and because I've always
(45:48):
known you as Colston, but I've seen you in these
spaces now in your Marcus and you talk more, you're
more gentle, you're more able to have these conversations with
other people. And so now how do you you continue
to change the mindset where now people they only see
you as a businessman. They don't even see you as
this former athlete. So now you're on the opposite end
(46:10):
of this whole spectrum that most of us are always
trying to get away from. What has that been like?
And how do you continue to add value? I guess
that No, I still am that too.
Speaker 4 (46:21):
It's I mean, it's a constant, it's a constant. I'll
call it a challenge. It's a constant challenge just because
you kind of make some headway in some areas, but
then you go and you meet new people and it's
like a re education all over again. You know. So
I've actually gotten for a long time. I was just
(46:43):
like really really focused on everything you just said, like
I'm not the former football guy, I'm the current such
and such. Yeah, And in a lot of ways, it
helped push all those narratives forward, but it did kind
of leave me feeling a little bit disconnected from the
thing that I was really really good at. Yeah. So
(47:06):
it's a constant challenge and it really becomes and I
always tend to link it back to football, especially playing receiver,
because like it's really a game of strategy. And what
I start to think about is like it's all situational, right,
I don't need to I can go into an educational
space and can I have the resume and I have
(47:27):
the skill set to show up as who I need
to be in that space. I can go into a
sports setting and show up because I have the skill set,
I have the experience and be who I need to
be in that space. So the idea of like this
brand being this static thing that I always am no
matter where I'm at. It's kind of helped me move
(47:50):
beyond that concept to where now I can show up
with the references and I can show up with the
credentials to be who I need to be in that moment.
And you know, I think I'm just now starting to
really get back into the sports side, which is I mean,
(48:11):
it's it's fun to kind of unlock it in a
different way now, but for me, it's it's just really,
how can I control my narrative and use it as
a tool to kind of open the doors that I
want to open, Because for a lot, for a lot
of us, we just kind of get stuck in this
in this cycle of our brand is kind of dictated
to us, and then the opportunities that we see are
(48:35):
a function of the brand that people tell us that
we have to be.
Speaker 3 (48:39):
Okay, so let's get back to some football questions. Gotcha
rookie Year?
Speaker 4 (48:43):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (48:43):
Where you pissed off that Vince Young one Rookie of
the Year.
Speaker 1 (48:48):
Yeah, it's like, yeah, I know what I was like
body language. I'm pretty good reading mindy lang, which just
like you damn right, was pissed off. Yeah, Okay, it's
like if it was a bubble with like a.
Speaker 2 (49:08):
Coming the dots is like that not that hell Yeah.
Speaker 4 (49:12):
I mean I feel like I checked all the boxes,
Like I had a statistically had a good year.
Speaker 2 (49:18):
You did.
Speaker 4 (49:19):
We ended up in MC championship and he did, like
I think knows what it was the year prior to that.
So like I feel like I checked the boxes.
Speaker 1 (49:28):
I think you didn't get it just because of the
school you came from and the school he came from,
Like that might have had something.
Speaker 4 (49:34):
To do with it.
Speaker 2 (49:34):
You might be right about I didn't think about that.
Speaker 4 (49:37):
It's no uh no pride network.
Speaker 1 (49:41):
Yeah, I think that's why you lost that one. He
just went to a better school and he had the
name recognition. But you did have a hell of a yeah,
I mean you did have a hell of year. You
came in saying, which is which is good? I just yeah,
it'd be nice if you want it.
Speaker 4 (49:55):
Though you hurt blocking, you know, yeah, And I did
get hurt blocking.
Speaker 3 (50:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (50:01):
That is so funny though, because that whole little situation
is exactly how we play out every single time. Sean
Payton would say, all right, we're gonna break it down
after practice.
Speaker 3 (50:11):
You know, we get the little one two three whatever, and.
Speaker 1 (50:13):
He'd be like, all right, coast and everybody break it
down on coast and everybody like, hey, he's gonna talk.
Speaker 2 (50:19):
Everybody, he's gonna talk.
Speaker 1 (50:21):
And then he come up there he's just sight hey,
Saints on three one two three.
Speaker 2 (50:27):
So it's like nothing. I had this for eight years.
Speaker 1 (50:29):
I'm telling you, this is crazy talk more today than
in like six years. We got like that Nick Roach.
We used to call him NICKI whispers. Yeah, he was
a mic linebacker.
Speaker 3 (50:40):
He was like, all right, guys, overcover two ready break.
Speaker 4 (50:45):
You gotta pay attention.
Speaker 1 (50:48):
He said something you gonna pay attention. Definitely got to
pay attention, all right. So you know, it was how
many receivers are drafted? You know how many receivers were
drafted in two thousand and six in front of you?
Speaker 4 (51:04):
Twenty two? All right?
Speaker 3 (51:06):
Good enough?
Speaker 4 (51:07):
Answer was to I don't.
Speaker 2 (51:10):
I'm trying to think back.
Speaker 3 (51:11):
I think it was twenty five, twenty five, Yeah a lot.
Speaker 4 (51:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (51:18):
Out of all of those, can you name it was
only three receivers that played more games.
Speaker 4 (51:24):
Than you, Greg, Greg Jennings, Brandon Marshall, not Greg Jennings,
not Greg Nope, Yeah, I got one, then you did
get one.
Speaker 3 (51:37):
Brandon Marshall, who else had him here? Yeah, he was
yesterday the other day.
Speaker 4 (51:42):
Jason Levanna, Oh Jason, but Jason was a beast in
that slot. He was nice.
Speaker 2 (51:49):
Yeah, he was real nice. And the other one is
kind of like a hype rent. Yeah, he really wasn't
a receiver.
Speaker 1 (51:56):
He was probably a receiver coming out, but he eventually
transitioned the tight end.
Speaker 4 (52:00):
Oh Delaney Delaney Walker, Yeah, there we got Yeah.
Speaker 2 (52:03):
I figured yeah when I saw him, like, that's really yeah.
Speaker 4 (52:10):
They thought that was my future, man, that was that
was you, That was you. That was my future in
certain certain teams.
Speaker 2 (52:15):
Delay Delaney played a long time too, a long time.
It made it work.
Speaker 1 (52:20):
Yeah, I hate to say that. I think Delaney might
have been was he fashion in you coming out? Because
Delaney can roll? I mean not saying you can't run.
Speaker 3 (52:29):
He basically kind of did say that just a little bit.
Put a little song on that.
Speaker 4 (52:34):
I'm used to it at this point. I'm so good.
Speaker 1 (52:36):
He's always been known as the possession guy, even though
he could run. He ran like a four to three
something coming out of college.
Speaker 4 (52:42):
No, No, the four three is never in my life
for four. I ran mid four four at one point,
would you go?
Speaker 3 (52:50):
I was for four it at Alabama. So throughout the career,
toughest some of the toughest corns you've ever gone against.
Speaker 4 (53:01):
Hated playing against you, hated playing against Al Harris. Like
for me, bigger guys just a great comb that's a
great combo. Bigger guys just it's hard to look at
look across when like your size is your advantage and
like see a mirror image of you?
Speaker 2 (53:19):
What do I do this?
Speaker 1 (53:20):
Yeah, to me, I thought you guys were easier, like
the smaller Marvin Harrison, Steve Smith's like those.
Speaker 3 (53:27):
Are guys for me, they were harder to cover. But
a bigger guy you of Calvin Johnson, Randy Moss, like
those were the guys that I love.
Speaker 1 (53:37):
Like I used to get excited, I would get geeked
to play guys like your size, Like finally I got
a bigger dude, Like we now we can like we
can go at it.
Speaker 2 (53:45):
It's a heavy way about, like let's let's go.
Speaker 4 (53:47):
Yeah. No, I appreciate you putting in that category of
them two dudes, but yeah, you you Al Harris, Like
the bigger corners were always more challenging for me because
like my game was was body position, you know, so
you two and then the Royal reebs, and his prime
was just different.
Speaker 2 (54:05):
Yeah, like sand everywhere island just building out.
Speaker 4 (54:08):
You want to play number three? Like two yard's been
a tight end. Cool, I'm pressing you right there. It
didn't matter, It wasn't there weren't too many dudes like that. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (54:17):
Yeah, he was nice, all right, it was real nice.
Speaker 1 (54:20):
So every guest we bring in, we always like to
know who is on their personal route Mount Rushmore of
influence and you get four it's not just about football, life,
everything all holistically. Who's on your Mount Rushmore?
Speaker 4 (54:39):
I mean first, first I got to put my parents.
I'll let them collectively be one. So I lost my
dad at fourteen, and one of the things that I
always think about is in fourteen years, I got so
many life lessons. I got so many examples that I
still use to this day to where like those fourteen
(55:05):
years have given me a lifetime worth of guidance. He
and my mom. I lost my mom about about five
years ago, so they they have obviously, you know, everything
that's in my DNA comes from them, but just understanding
how to navigate this world, how to treat people, how
to stand on your word. All of those things that
(55:28):
I feel really strongly about and confident about myself, I
got from them. So they got to be number one.
I put up with CJ. I. I kind of spoke
(55:49):
on him a little bit earlier, but he took a
dude that had some raw talent, raw ability, and didn't
know how to work, didn't know how to be a
professional athlete, and forced me to become a professional. Fact. Yeah,
so I would say everything that I that I was
able to do in my career, he is. He's he's
(56:09):
got a lot of hand like he's got a hand
in all of that. And for it's tough, it's tough. Yeah,
there's a part of me to wants to say somebody
in the Saints front office, but they passed on me
seven times too. I was I was the second pick
of the seventh round. I would say, my financial advisor
(56:40):
is on my mount rushmore.
Speaker 1 (56:43):
That.
Speaker 4 (56:43):
And it's less about the job that he has and
more about the example that he set. Like he's a
former athlete himself, played ten years back back with the Eagles,
and he was somebody that always when I came to
him with these crazy ideas, these crazy opportunities. He always
pushed me out of my comfort zone, you know. So
(57:05):
he was more than just the money manager that a
lot of guys have. He was like a real live
mentor and advisor. Yeah that said, all right, I walked
this path. Here's some of the good things that happened
in my path. Here's some of the bad things that
happened in my path. I'm gonna give you all of it,
and you do it a what you need to do
with it. So he's somebody that always kept pushing me.
(57:26):
And yeah, a lot of the business stuff doesn't doesn't
happen as early as it did in my career without him.
Speaker 1 (57:33):
But we all know the path to success as a
business person is fail, fail early fail. You gotta feel
early early you fail, yeah, the better you're going to
be earlier.
Speaker 3 (57:43):
So yeah, that's really cool.
Speaker 4 (57:44):
One hundred ten percent. Damn it's tough. I put a
pin in my wife. I want to put her there,
but I know that's not what you guys are asking for.
Speaker 2 (57:54):
No, No, if you put their wife in there, I'm
play a big role.
Speaker 4 (57:59):
So my wife has bear with me through a lot
of stuff on the business front, particularly on the business front,
like there was a time where I was just so
fully invested in learning and full fully invested in growth,
and fully invested in you know, we talked about the
(58:19):
business in Jamaica, the cannabis business. I'm flying back and
forth to Jamaica and back and forth to Toronto for businesses.
I'm you know, taking what people normal people would vacation
in the off season. I'm going to run the front office.
So she she kind of understood throughout the whole journey.
She's kind of understood some of the things that I
(58:41):
was doing wasn't for that time. It was kind of
building for the future. Yeah, and you know, she made
some sacrifices. We made some sacrifices as a family, you know,
you know, just being able to live in the moment
to pursue some of those things, and you know, without
that support, you know, I'm not here talking about these things.
(59:05):
So yeah, she's got to be she's got a round
out mountain run. Yeah for sure, she's earned that. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (59:12):
I appreciate it, man twice.
Speaker 4 (59:14):
Yeah, Yeah, that's what's up.
Speaker 2 (59:16):
He man, appreciate you coming on, yeah, man, thank you man.
Speaker 1 (59:20):
This was almost as fun as all those early mornings
trying to speed down Airline Airline Boulevard in New Orleans,
trying to not be late, practicing for the meetings.
Speaker 2 (59:29):
You late.
Speaker 1 (59:30):
No, No, it was funny because it's like a whole
bunch of lights on this road for those that don't know,
and Colston had his little you know, he had his
Camaro back in the day, and he just blowed through
all these red lights.
Speaker 4 (59:41):
It's just like.
Speaker 2 (59:42):
Blowing through driving around cars, didn't matter.
Speaker 4 (59:44):
He hit the shoulder.
Speaker 2 (59:45):
Yeah, so that learned from him though.
Speaker 4 (59:49):
So it's all good. The ticket gonna be less than
the fine that was. Just give me a ticket.
Speaker 1 (59:54):
For those that don't know, For those that don't know,
what we're talking about is when you are late for
a team meeting, you get fined thousands of dollars.
Speaker 2 (01:00:03):
Yes, you get a speaking ticket. It might be sixty
five dollars.
Speaker 4 (01:00:05):
Yeah, give me that.
Speaker 1 (01:00:06):
You do the math, and if I get the ticket,
I got figure that out. And if I get if
I earned the ticket, I got an excuse because I
got pulled over.
Speaker 2 (01:00:13):
So it's like automatically it's a win win yeah. Yeah, yeah,
just better that way, just better.
Speaker 1 (01:00:20):
Well yeah, man, all right, Well thank you Coaston, You're
a true blessing man, the Quiet Storm this is It's
been awesome. Thank you man for showing up and being
patient enough with me and my partiness today. Everything I
got going on. You should totally be used to it.
He should be too.
Speaker 2 (01:00:36):
Everybody else.
Speaker 3 (01:00:37):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:00:37):
And they didn't even know.
Speaker 3 (01:00:38):
I was late until we announced it.
Speaker 1 (01:00:39):
So thank you as always, our listeners, our followers out there,
and our viewers watching this beautiful podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:00:46):
iHeartRadio Studios.
Speaker 1 (01:00:47):
Thank you up here in New York for having hosted
me and Peanut or Peanut me no, sorry, he would
totally correct me. Peanut and I an teach you. Yes,
wherever you pick up your podcast, I continue to do that.
Tell a friend to tell a friend to tell a friend.
Make sure you all give us a five star rating.
Click that follow button, hip subscribe. Where have you.
Speaker 2 (01:01:05):
Listen to him at? Where it's Apple Podcast. iHeartRadio Podcast.
Thank you as always, Peanut, get us up out of
your boss.
Speaker 1 (01:01:12):
Hey on, Peanut Tillman, that's Roman, I'm late, Harper, that's
the quad Storm.
Speaker 3 (01:01:16):
Marcus Colson.
Speaker 1 (01:01:17):
Hey, out of here, we out of here, out of
here later, see you later, Quiet Storm, quad Storm, sign
it over bye bye crazy,
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.