NFL Legend and Host of the Speak For Yourself Podcast, Marcellus Wiley, joins the Burn Factory Podcast; Marcellus talks about navigating his childhood through the streets of Compton, LA, battling the Ultimate Burn Moment of losing a childhood best friend and continuing to create your own path through life. Marcellus also has a book called " Never Shut Up, The Life, Opinions and Unexpected Adventures Of An NFL Outlier," So be sure to check that out!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Burn Factory Podcast with Priest and Phoenix Rivera.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Listen as the voice.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Interview the biggest names in sports and entertainment. The Burn
Factory starts.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Now, what is up? Guys?
Speaker 4 (00:17):
Welcome back to another episode of a Burn Factory podcast.
I'm your host, Priests drum By my co host, my brother,
mister Phoenix. Save it up to the camera. Well, so, y'all,
this is called the Burn Factory for a reason. I
was literally caught on fire fifty percent chance of living.
But through that, I started this podcast because I believe
(00:38):
every single person out there on this planet goes through
a burn moment somewhere in their life.
Speaker 5 (00:44):
Yes, you heard pre say burn moment.
Speaker 6 (00:46):
So burn moment is a super hard time in someone's
life that they had to fight and get through to
be where they are today. And me and Priest believe
that every single person goes through these little burn moments
every single day that truly get them to where they
are today. But Priest, we have a very special guest
in the house, a true story by making his own path.
(01:06):
He's a football Ivy League legend at Columbia University. He
played ten seasons in the NFL. Was an NFL pro bowler,
and he worked at ESPN on the NFL Live Show,
was the co host of the Sports Nation Show on ESPN,
and was a co host on the Speak for Yourself
Show on Fox Sports One, and now has a book
(01:27):
called Never Shut Up, The Life and Opinions of an
Unexpected Adventures of an NFL Outsider, and now has his
own podcast called The More to It Podcast.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
So please welcome Marcellus Wiley.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Oh man, love boy, keep going, keep going Thatuary.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
I'm still alive, man.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
Keep going, repeat it one more time.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
I appreciate you guys, so good brothers. Good to see
you guys.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Man.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
I've been watching the podcast thanks, seeing a couple of them,
and when I heard the story, it was obvious to
me that I wanted to get in front of you
guys and just talk through this because, uh, the content
of your message and just how you guys are really
trying to tell people how you can overcome adversity. It's
so special and so dear to my heart.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
So that's so fun. Let's talk through it.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
I appreciate it so much.
Speaker 5 (02:19):
Yeah, just doing here what we love.
Speaker 6 (02:20):
We just love talking to people and people have these
burning moments that they just got to get through that
no one knows about.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yeah, it's crazy.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
I mean, look, first of all, I don't know if
everyone could see the set up here, but y'all burning
through some money to.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Serious. This is the most top level podcast I've ever
been on.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
And I have a jealous streak in me that motivates me.
But I'm hella jealous right now looking at all these cameras.
I'm like, stepping up, Willy when you get home.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
So blessed to have all this stuff. I mean, it's
just it's real.
Speaker 6 (02:51):
It's a real team effort, Like me and him couldn't
do this by yourself. And I have a whole team
back there that works so hard behind the scenes, and
we're just we're so thankful for them for a.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Real team tall I'm talking like an NFL team. Like
it's like more people in here than than you would
see at the super Bowl halftime. Shall Like, I love it, man,
appreciate y'all.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
Thank you, thank you coming on.
Speaker 6 (03:10):
Yeah sure, okay, So I have to ask you were
a bit of a genius?
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Were coming in hot?
Speaker 6 (03:18):
We're coming in hot, and so were you just naturally
like smart? Did you have to work at it? Like
for me, like I had a four point zero high school,
but I had to work hard for it, Like I
wasn't naturally smart. I couldn't just be like, oh, yeah,
I got a test tomorrow, like I had to study.
Speaker 5 (03:31):
I had to work hard for it. So is it
just easy for you?
Speaker 3 (03:35):
I won't say easy. I think I made it easy
on myself because I was naturally curious. I was just
one of those kids first day of school. I just
wanted to run to the front of the class. I
wanted to raise my hand. I wanted to know all
the answers. So that made it easier, but it was
always still a process, and it was always still something
(03:56):
that was a task. I wouldn't even call myself a genius.
What I am smart at is knowing what I can do,
what I should do, and.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
What I should not do.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
So I always start off any process by addressing the adversity.
So I don't run the one hundred meters, I run
the one ten hurdles. In my mind, I always put
the hurdles in front of me and say, okay, this
is what I'm going to face. So I build into
any equation basically the difficulties. I think a lot of
times when you start to dream of things, you almost
(04:27):
make it a fantasy instead of reality. Now my dreams
have to become reality. So let's be real about my
dream right. I know I can't draw, and so you
know a lot of people say, oh my god, you
can do anything in this world.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
No, you can't stop lying. I can't draw.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
You know.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
I say, oh, you can play basketball. No I can't
play basketball.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
I suck.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
So you know there are certain things I'm just like,
puts that to the side. That's not going to be
a priority in terms of task. But one of the
things that I knew I could do was achieve in
a classroom. I knew I could get good grades. I
knew I could retain information, and I knew that I
was a fast kid. I don't know if I was
an athlete. I just was seven years old and faster
(05:05):
than your uncle. You know, That's who I was. So
I had a few superpowers. I felt like Batman. You know,
he looks at Superman and all the other superheroes like, damn,
I can't do all that.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
But I got three.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Things I can do, and I got five hours in
my pocket, you know what I'm saying. So I just
tried to make lemonade out of everything, and that was
my mindset.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
Cool, you're I'm totally the complete opposite of what you are.
I was the person that sat in the back of
the classroom hoping the teacher wouldn't call on me because
I was afraid I was give the wrong answer and
not like you guys having four point ohs and five
point ohs. I was like a three point five guy. Okay,
a couple of bees, but yeah, I passed right right, right,
(05:45):
that's the goal to pass man.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Well, that's not the goal. That's what you achieved to
get the four point.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
See.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
That's the funny thing. So where I grew up, everyone
would reset the paradigm, reset the goals. Right, So the
goals for us going the school was just past time
to get to the field to play sports, or past
time in the classroom to actually get to a studio
or become an entertainer or a rapper, right, And I
was like, dude, I am in class way longer than
(06:15):
I am on the football field. I'm in class way
longer than you are when.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
You go to the studio.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
I'm like, why are we wasting those seven eight hours?
So that was my driving force. It wasn't like I
was a genius or smarter anybody. I was just like,
I'm not wasting my time. Let's start there. And the
teacher's there for a reason. They're telling me stuff. I
don't know, why not retain that? And that's kind of
how the snowball started to build. I see. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 6 (06:41):
So on this podcast, we do use the acronym burns,
so you're kind of leading us into the first one,
which is b B stands for beginning. So take us
back to your childhood, high school days, elementary school days.
Were there any burn moments that you just had to
get through that really catapulted you to where you are today?
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Man? So many How long is the podcast?
Speaker 5 (07:00):
As long as it needs to be?
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Oh, Man, call me Dante, because I grew up in
an inferno. Brother, it was just hot, so many burn moments.
My beginnings from Compton, California, raised there to the age
of five or six, then we moved to Greener Pastors,
south central LA. So obviously knowing the ills of both
of those communities, the gains, the drugs, the poverty, I
(07:25):
think that was the reputation and I think it was
a real reputation. It was deserving because that was a
lot of the problems in the neighborhood. Growing up, I
had to navigate before I even got to class, I
had to navigate, and leaving school, I had to navigate
around a lot of drama. But I think the most
damaging and damning thing was the low ambition. I just
(07:48):
saw so many people aiming lower than I thought that
they should.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
I saw people who had jobs, not careers.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
I saw people who living on the edge emotionally because
they were so distraught, so like beaten down by the
world and by their neighborhood. Their greatest aspirations and ambitions
have been challenged to a point where they gave.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Up on themselves.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
It felt like, so I would do these sociology experiments
and I'm seven, eight nine years old, I'm like, why
is this lady so mad at the grocery store?
Speaker 2 (08:20):
You know?
Speaker 3 (08:20):
And then why these dudes outside just waiting for a
problem or waiting to beat up somebody. I was like,
why is everybody so close to just saying forget it?
Speaker 2 (08:28):
I'm about to go there?
Speaker 3 (08:30):
And I started to realize that, oh, it's because they're
not living out their dreams.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
So instead of judging them.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
I started to put a responsibility on myself to make
sure I gave myself the best chance to live on
my dreams. And that kind of kept me in a
better spirit then I would say my peers. And it
also kept me more ambitious like than my peers. I
didn't complain. I didn't look at the circumstances and say, oh,
we don't have it as good as them over there,
(08:57):
because I start competing against myself. Once that happened, I
had a different trajectory than everybody else. It wasn't like
I was special. I wasn't that kid. I wasn't the
kid like, oh my god, look at Marshals. It was
just I stayed to myself. I stayed within myself, and
I just kept building myself up and competing against myself,
and then you finally look up. If you keep getting
(09:18):
wins against yourself, you'll find yourself exactly where you want
to be. And that was my journey, a late bloomer,
a guy who just stayed the course and stayed disciplined
on it. So I dealt with so much adversity growing up.
We were poor, we were on welfare, food stamps, we
got paid three times a month, man, the first, the third,
(09:38):
and the fifteenth.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
The government shook up.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
The neighborhood and like here you go, here's your stimulus check, right,
And I just remember never feeling poor, even though I
knew I was poor because I was full of love.
My family was there, my mom and dad in the house,
raising me, making sure I kept my balance, kept myself focused,
and when I went outside help more love on the
inside me personally, more love on the inside inside my home.
(10:05):
So I didn't get challenged by that gang culture. I
didn't get challenged by the drug dealer. I didn't get
enticed by the dude who looked fresh to everybody else.
I was like, man, I saw you running from some pain.
Maybe you're running from something more so than acting like
where you are is the best place. So I deal
with a lot of burn moments, man, growing up. You
know you name it, Yeah, you name it.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
I've been shot at, not me personally, but bullets going
by me, so it could have been for me.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Yeah, the navigation was real. Man.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
I'm from Compton before n WA, before the movies, before
the song, So everything you heard about I had to
live through and it was real.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
So you obviously grew up in tough parts of town.
Did they ever try to mess with you the games
and stuff?
Speaker 3 (10:52):
Yes, they did, And I got bullied when I was
in the third grade. I think it was third grade,
these gangsters. My sister beat up some girl in school
for good reasons too. She was trying to mess with me,
and my sister was my protector.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Right.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
I never had to fight because I had an older
sister that will whoop your hat, and she beat up
this girl. This girl tried to cut me in line.
I didn't care about it. I moved on. I'm not
a fighter. My sister is. She's like, you better not
cut my brother, and the girls start talking back next
to you know, my sister got hands. She put hands
on the girl, and I thought that was the end
of it, right, like you were in the wrong. My
sister was in the wrong for taking it to that level.
(11:27):
But hey, let bygones be bygones. That girl that got
beat up had gangster brothers and uncles right in our neighborhood.
So yeah, the next day it felt like you were
were walking home and you see two older dudes at
the corner just looking at us, and I was like, oh,
this ain't gonna be cool, and we try to walk
(11:49):
by him. Actually, my sister tried to walk by him
because she's the fighter. I'm the one that they called
the punk. I wanted to run by him. I'm out right,
but my sister had to play a cool and they
just came up to us and start beating us up.
And I thought that was the end of it, right
old old next day they're there again. And now I
(12:09):
have a dilemma. Do I tell my teachers, do I
tell my parents? Do I tell my family that was
in the street life and gangsters too, And then it's
going to just all of a sudden ratchet up.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
And I don't want that.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
And I'm like, let's just walk home tomorrow, maybe they
won't be there. They were there, it felt like for weeks,
every day just beating us up.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
And then finally I go.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
To my grandmother's house and I she knows me, and
she knows how to push my buttons, and she saw
me leaking, she saw me not in my same high
level of energy and spirit, and she's like, everything okay,
And I just broke down and told her what was happening,
and she was like, oh, and now and this is
my grandmother, so her sons are the street dudes. Right,
Let's just say the next day I got to school
(12:54):
and we were leaving school, didn't see those gangsters anymore.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
So you put two or two together.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
That was one of the episodes for me growing up,
like man, because they could have went obviously wrong in
so many ways. They could have really beat us up
to the point where we were harmed beyond just just
the emotional harm I think it was. The bullying wasn't
so bad physically, it was emotionally. It was just terrifying
every day to go home. It could have got worse.
(13:22):
Those two gangsters could have got into it with my
uncles and all that, and they could have escalated. So
that was just one of the burn moments, man, and
I probably have five million more.
Speaker 4 (13:30):
That's a blessing. You did tell your grandmother though, Yeah.
How old were you and your sister when this happened.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
It felt like I was eight, you know, and you're
young young, yeah, yeah, and you know you're not thinking properly,
even though you think you are. You can't make those
type of decisions. And when you hear about bullying, it's
a real thing and it could affect everybody differently. I
didn't go to a dark place mentally, thankfully. I just
(13:56):
was scared. I was just scared. I was scared of
my own I was scared of my neighborhood. I was
scared of my own street. I was scared to just
go to school and come back. And I guess it
built up in a weird way, some of my determination,
like we didn't change routes, we didn't go a different way,
We didn't quote unquote tap out, even though now looking back,
(14:17):
I should have said something the first day, right, And
it just built up a determination that, Okay, I can't
let somebody else take me off course, no matter what
they have in store for.
Speaker 5 (14:27):
Me, it should go.
Speaker 6 (14:29):
I was gonna say, I feel like you kind of
found yourself during that time, and you talked about I
was actually reading your book and your grandma made you
take out the piece of paper and you'd write down
like who you are, what you are, what you're worth.
And she said if anyone doesn't call you or what
she said, if anyone doesn't call you by.
Speaker 5 (14:45):
These names, don't listen to them.
Speaker 6 (14:46):
Yeah, you think that is that kind of where it
started for you to just be like no one, like,
no one's gonna affect my life.
Speaker 5 (14:52):
I have plans for myself.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
Say it again, man, it was a huge time in
my life. Blessing in disguise, if you could say that
was that. Let's talk about it. So I'm getting beat up,
and my grandmother's like, all right, baby, we got to
figure out who you are and your identity. I'm like
what she said, go grab a piece of paper. And
I learned through this lesson identity is not just who
(15:14):
you are, but who you are not. And I found
out who I wasn't and I wasn't gangster. I wasn't
gonna be a drug dealer, and I wasn't gonna be
a thug. I wasn't gonna be any of the things
that some people were whispering or yelling that I should
have been.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Right. So I grabbed this piece of paper.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
She says, write your name on top, and I was
all right, Marcella's Fernert Whitley. And then she says, okay,
write down three things that you are. I said, okay,
I'm athletic. She said, why are you athletic? I was like,
because I could beat everybody running my age and people
older than me too. She said, all right, write down athletic.
She's like, what's next. I said, I'm smart? Why are
you smart? I said, I get all a'ds grandma, and
(15:50):
I love to go to school. She said, all right,
you're smart. She said one more thing, and this one
stuck me and I was like, I said, okay, I'm nice.
She said, why are you nice? I was like, because
I like everybody, even those dudes that beat us up.
I like them too. And she was like, all right,
so you're Marcellus Vernon Whitey. You're smart, you're athletic, and
you're nice. Okay, I want you to put that piece
(16:12):
of paper under your bed, and if anybody calls you
by any of those things on there your name, you're smart, athletic,
and nice, you can listen to them. They call you
anything else outside of that, A punk, sissy, you know,
all these kind of things that they were trying to
bully me with. Don't listen to them, baby. And literally,
I swear in my head a railroad track uppere. It
(16:34):
felt like this is the way to go. And if
you didn't encourage me, support me say things like that,
I just knew I was still going to go this way.
And I saw you over there, but I wasn't slowing
down and stopping for you. And I think for kids today,
they really need to do a lesson just as simple
as that. Find out who they are, know their identity.
(16:55):
And it's not like you got to have the answer.
You got to know more who you're not than who
you are. And in that moment, I knew I was
three things and I knew I wasn't a lot of
other things.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
Burn moment right there. That's crazy. If you don't, if
you don't write those three things down, do you think
your life would be completely different?
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Absolutely, I'm gangbanging, I'm shooting at people that mis stop.
Where you from? Cud?
Speaker 3 (17:19):
Yeah, of course, Like all these things add up to
the gumbo of who you are. You know, you just
put them into the pot and keep mixing them up.
And it's funny like that. All the ingredients individually are
not always the best of ingredients. Like getting bullied is
not a good ingredient. Just like if you're baking a cake,
you ever taste flour by yourself, not good, right, but
(17:41):
damn it, it show turns into something that's good, right,
And that's what I use. I use all of the
negativity and all of the bad issues that occurred in
my life, and I just put them in the pot,
and I always thought of them like flour. I always
thought of them, It's not always gonna be sugar, but
it could come out sweet. So when something came towards me,
I had to battle. I just had to challenge myself
(18:03):
to win that battle. And I'm very competitive in the
sense of making sure I don't succumb to circumstances, making
sure that no matter what comes my way, that my
desires have to be victorious. So I had a different
mindset than a lot of my friends, who would get
beat up by their own thoughts, beat up by the circumstances,
(18:25):
beat up by the adversity around us. And I just
didn't want that to happen to me because I seen
so many talented people that didn't live up to their
own dreams and expectations. I was like, you got one
life to live, why not go out swinging. And to
this day, man, I'm just the guy that's gonna always
see something. Okay, that's the defense, that's what I have
(18:47):
to go against. All right, that's the opponent. All right,
it's tom give me the rock. I'm a score, maybe
not a first down, maybe not second down, maybe not
this possession. But it's gonna be a long game. It's
gonna be a marathon, and the certainly I'm gonna get
on the on some points on the score board.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
Yes, sir, I mean you just said beginning and burned
crazy beginning from your sister beating up people, to you guys,
to you guys being borderline almost killed by people fighting you.
But it's time to go to you and burn Unfortunate
like myself, I had an unfortunate experience with my teacher
(19:23):
doing a science experiment and fifty percent chance of surviving.
I mean, she completely flat out messed up, had no
idea what she was doing, and changed my life forever
after that point. But I'm sure you playing in the NFL,
or even growing up in those tough areas, there has
to be so many unfortunate moments that happened they got
(19:44):
you to where.
Speaker 5 (19:44):
You're at today.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Well, the first one that jumps in my head is
my best friend. I was eleven years old and he
lived we had apartment building kind of facing each other,
and he lived right across from me, and we played
every day hot wheels, riding our bikes. I had a Huffey,
he had a mongoose, so that's a better bike. But
(20:09):
were yeah, right, right, you have no idea. They don't
make them anymore. And he was just my best friend,
but more he was an angel on earth. Like I
don't remember one time this guy being mean or selfish,
Like were playing hot wheels. You know, I have kids, now,
give them, give them one car. They are fighting over
(20:33):
that car. Give them two cars. They're fighting over those
two cars. Instead of sharing, you have one, I have one, right.
He always was giving of his things to me. He
was just an angel on earth. I don't remember one
bad thing about him. And then one day it was
like a Friday, and he was supposed to come back.
We were supposed to race our bikes soon as he
got home from school, soon as I got home from school.
(20:53):
And this time he's taking longer and longer and longer,
and I'm like supposed to be going by now, right,
And all of a sudden, we have someone at the
door telling us that Korby been hit by a car
and we had.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
To go to the hospital.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
And at that age, I didn't think it was something
that was fatal. I didn't think it was that bad,
getting hit by a car on your bike. I was like, oh, man,
he's in the hospital, broken arm, broken leg. I was
assuming that, but obviously it was much worse than that.
I get to the hospital and his family's there. I'm there,
(21:29):
I'm his best friend, and I remember the doctor's vividly
telling me I couldn't see him, and I was like why,
and they was like, cause you're not family, and I
couldn't reconcile it. I was like, okay, I'm not family,
but I'm closer than maybe three other people in his world,
like his parents and his sister or something like that.
I'm family. And they said, no, you can't see him.
(21:51):
And I'm sitting there just shocked. I was like, wow,
so I don't know how he is and I can't
visually see him. And one doctor tapped me on the
shoulder a few minutes he's come here. He said, your
friend's about to leave here and I want you to
see him on the helicopter and I was like okay,
And he took me to a window and they rolled
him out and I saw him laying there with the
(22:14):
bandages around him and the red, blood stained and that
was the last time I saw And the craziest thing was, like,
it wasn't that I knew that he was dead, because
he was still alive at that time. He passed away
the next day, and the craziest thing was I wasn't
(22:35):
allowed to say goodbye. And that's the lasting image I
have of my best friend.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
And the next day I had to track me.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
And this is how I was able to compartmentalize, and
I was able to still push through that railroad. Right,
I'm still on the tracks no matter what's coming my way.
And I did well that the track meet. Won all
my races. I was really fast at the time, so
it didn't just eard me that way. And someone walked
up to me, it was like, you're okay because you
know you're winning your races. Everybody from the outside doesn't
(23:06):
know what's going on. They're like okay, And I was like, yeah,
I'm okay. And if someone ran up and say, nah,
his best friend got hit by a car, he's he's
not okay. Then I get the news he passed away.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
From that moment on.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
I've had this weird relationship with like the deepest parts
of love. I've always wanted to go all the way
in diving to the deep end of just loving everyone.
But I've always been challenged because it can end like that.
So what I've learned from that moment is obviously, you
(23:42):
got to pour yourself into everything no matter what, even
if it's taken away from you. Right, don't be scared
to be disappointed, don't be scared to lose. But I
also am always affected by the fact that it could
be here today and gone tomorrow. And I literally had
to live that out while I was trying to figure
out who I was in this world.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
So that is an unfortunate incident, but it's given me such.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
Resolve, such character that I like, live through that moment,
I live through that legacy.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
It makes you just appreciate life more to the fullest
and just treat every day like at your last.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
Yeah, every day, every moment like not even cliche, like
for real, like I am still a guy who's when
I leave the house, I'm like, I kiss my kids,
I kiss my wife, and I don't know if everyone's
like this, but I am actually mindful that may be
my last kiss. And it feels like, oh man, that
is negative. It feels like, oh man, that's damaging, but
(24:44):
in reality, it gives me such appreciation to not take
anything for granted. And I got all that from that moment.
Speaker 4 (24:50):
It's crazy. Sorry, I was gonna say it's crazy because
life could be going so good for you and you're
like wow, like I'm living it and then just one
day it's gone forever. And just like how I said earlier,
it makes you appreciate life more. To the forest, yeah, man,
And I mean with like with myself, whenever I thought
(25:11):
I thought I was gonna be a professional golfer, and
like I was playing and practicing so hard, and then
just one day it's done. And I can't and go
out in the sun for a year because with a burn,
because it's like the swelling is so bad, and like
the surgeries and stuff and they wrap me up and
(25:32):
I can't go to the sun going to the sun
for a year because they don't want me to get
skin cancer, and like that can lead to other stuff
and other stuff. And it's just like, you know what,
I will appreciate the small things in life.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
Say it again, man. I always tell my kids that
I coach. Right now, I say, if you want to
do it big, do all the little things, you know,
And if you want to have this big life and
big goals accomplished, you got to do all the little things,
including appreciate all those little things. Just don't take them
for granted. And I've learned that, and football taught me
(26:04):
so much. That moment taught me so much. Like you
could be the man this year, mess around and just
think that you're that guy forever instead of like always
trying to work on who that is and trying to improve,
it'll be taken away from you like that. You could
be the man on this play. Oh my god, look
at that sack. Oh my god, he got Tom Brady
and the next play you get packacked.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
You know, I.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
Just got rock exactly. And I swear life is just
like that balancing act. It's that seesaw and I always
try to make sure I appreciate it.
Speaker 6 (26:37):
I feel like you need those experiences, though, to really
appreciate it. Like if you don't have any of these
like losses or tragic events in your life, you really
don't see that life can literally be taken just like that.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
Yeah, I wish, I wish man, I wish I lived
that fairy tale, and I wish somebody can to tell
me that I'm wrong, but yeah, you're right. You got
to go through the roller coaster ride to really enjoy
this thing.
Speaker 4 (26:56):
And it makes you stronger as a person.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
That yeah, it's who I mean. You just remember all
the people that have tried to do the same thing
you have. Especially football, it's kind of easy to quantify it.
You know that they only drafts what two hundred and
three hundred guys every year, and you know there are
a million plus football players in high school. You could
just drive down one city block and see two three
(27:22):
different schools practicing at the same time. That's already enough
for the entire draft. And you're like, that's just one
block in one city and you just realize that, Wow,
you accomplish what so many people have raised their hand
to try and do. And I use that more than
just a pad on the back and a stroke of
the ego, but like, wow, you can make your dreams
(27:44):
the reality, no matter what they are, no matter what
adversity you face. Because my road wasn't smooth and it
wasn't paved, I had to grind, I had to compete,
I had to work, I had to persevere. But you
can overcome it. No matter what those obstacles are.
Speaker 6 (27:58):
I feel like people like you talk about the railroad
track and the train and you always said like, no
matter what, you kept going, like you just passed by them.
But I feel like so many times they're train derailed
because of these are moments like oh, you know, I'm
not good enough. I can't be that person. But you
always just gotta keep going.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
Man, Yeah you really do? You know? I heard someone
say this.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
He said, your thoughts are not you, You are your thoughts,
And it made me think, like wow, because just imagine
what you.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
Just said lived out.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
It's like you get into a thought chamber about who
you are, right and you start to tell yourself either
great things or bad things, and since no one is
there to check it, and if you don't have that
internal fortitude and you don't have that inner discipline, it
will go unchecked. Right, So the ego like I'm killing
them out here. Every time I go out there, I
(28:54):
get a sack. Every time I'm out there, I'm the man.
You can get out of control with that next thing.
You know, maybe you're not working this hard, maybe you
think it's just gonna come to you, or the opposite.
What we call you no doubt, and you all of
a sudden start telling yourself bad things. Oh man, not
feeling good. Oh man, this dude just blocked me. Oh man,
we're down ten points, and next thing you know, you're
(29:16):
spiraling out of control towards the negative. So it's always
that balance in act between like chaos and order, and
you just got to have make make sure that you
keep that proper balance. Don't get too high, don't get
too low, stay even killed with this.
Speaker 6 (29:29):
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Speaker 5 (29:46):
How did you keep it?
Speaker 2 (29:47):
Like?
Speaker 6 (29:48):
I mean, because you talk about you're playing in the NFL,
like the pressure and all the the little voices in
your head, oh you're not good enough, like stuff like that.
Speaker 5 (29:55):
How did you battle through those?
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Yeah? I always keep keep.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
Like the end in mind in terms of what do
I really want out of this? So you go into
every game you want to win the game and you
want to play well, right, And I always keep that
in mind because I know that's gonna get challenged.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
I don't walk once again.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
I always build in the difficulties of every equation before
I even go on that journey. And if you don't,
you'll be surprised. And then all of a sudden, you're
not prepared because you're surprised. You shouldn't be surprised, like
when you think of you're gonna go walk out there
and score every time you get the ball, like, and
I use that as a microcosm of life, Like, Okay,
I want to I want to have a podcast.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
Well, first you gotta find the proper team.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
And then all say, okay, I got the proper team,
but one person maybe not fitting in like everyone else. Okay,
we gotta get our equipment. Maybe one of these cameras
and mics is not exactly perfect, right, Like, you just
got to keep going at it. And I think in
this world, we're told that the most successful people are
the most talented or the ones that work the hardest,
(30:59):
and I all always challenged that. I'm like, nah, it's
the ones that persevere. It's the one that gets up
one more time, who doesn't lose enthusiasm between his losses, right,
And that's what it's about like, no matter what I'm
trying to achieve, if it's my greater passion and a
goal of mine, can't give up on it.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
That's it. And so I think what I've done is.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
Endured more than my friends and my peers, the ones
that found themselves challenged and didn't attain their dreams. It
wasn't like I was better. It wasn't like I was smarter,
more athletic.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Dude. I can list ten dudes.
Speaker 3 (31:35):
Right now that were better than me and football growing up,
State's Bozman is number one. Always got to get a
name out. This dude is the best athlete I've ever seen.
But he didn't play pro. He played basketball. He chose
that number one in high school in football and number
two in high school in basketball. He was insane. But
it's about perseverance because he had more talent than me.
(31:56):
It's about just continuing on that path. But what I
always remembered was don't get off. And if you get derel,
get back on, you know, fix that damn train and
get back on the tracks.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
And that's all you have to do.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
So it's just a lot of internal work that needs
to happen before you could ever make anything happen on the.
Speaker 4 (32:14):
Outside, and it's the one who wants it the more, yeah,
or who wants it more.
Speaker 3 (32:18):
And I can't even say that, you know why I
have lost a many of battles, whether it's in sports
or in life, wanting it more than I'm sure somebody else,
like you know, it's not cliche. It's just something that
you think is a part of the ultimate success. It's
like you want it more. Two teams in a championship
(32:39):
game want it both the most like I want it,
You want it, but one is more prepared for the obstacles.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
One has a better Plan B.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
Because when you get in high stakes poker in life,
no matter what it is, you gotta go to plan B,
because I'm gonna take away your strength. I'm gonna take
away the best thing you do. Right now, What are
you gonna do? And if you haven't prepare for that moment,
or you can't react in the moment and keep yourself going,
you lose. But it's not because you don't want it.
(33:08):
It's because in this moment you probably weren't prepared for
this pivot.
Speaker 5 (33:12):
You didn't do this the little things, yeah, the thing.
Speaker 3 (33:16):
Including all right, I give you a simple example. You
write a paper. You got to turn in a five
page paper tomorrow. Priests, all right, priest gonna wait to
the last moment to do it, just like me, just
like just like all of us.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
Right, get it done.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
You don't get anything done until there's a deadline, right,
and then you're doing it. And this is what I
learned the hard way. Write that paper and you're struggling,
like at four and a half pages, like, damn it,
you gotta fluff this. Yes, I gotta get the five right.
I got the five all right, And I used to
do this. Then I turn into paper the next day.
Did I proof read it?
Speaker 4 (33:51):
No?
Speaker 2 (33:51):
No, did I take time away from it, put the
paper down.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
Go away, come back, let me check for it. And
when I finally got challenged by my teachers, like proof
read it, Marcel's the content's amazing. But I could tell
you just rush through it, And they said, take time
away from it, look at it, spin it, turn it around,
and then challenge yourself to read it again. And when
(34:15):
I start doing that, I will find my own mistakes
before I even turned it in.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
So she can find my mistakes.
Speaker 3 (34:21):
How many times in life is there a task for
you that all you do is just do it, or
you just walk into it, rush, wait for the end,
wait writing before it's due, and just do it. And
if you just challenge yourself to.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Say, wait a minute, my goal is this.
Speaker 3 (34:37):
I got to continue always to look at it and
proof read it and correct it. Then you'll find yourself
in a better place. You'll turn in better work. That
doesn't mean you got better. You're not a better student
for that. This is a smarter student who's making sure
he's taking care of himself.
Speaker 6 (34:52):
Yeah, a little little things, the little things will will
really get you to where you are today.
Speaker 5 (34:57):
But that's going to do it for you.
Speaker 6 (34:58):
Unfortunate losing your bead friend, like I couldn't even imagine,
we went through tragedy ourselves, but like actually losing the life,
that's that's got to be hard. But I feel like
that moment really got you to where you are today.
But we got to move and move onto our our
stands for ridiculous. So ten season in the NFL chuckled
(35:19):
want all the way turn it up to ten. But
I mean all all the traveling, all the fans, all
the pictures, all the like, were there any ridiculous burn
moments that you could share with us.
Speaker 3 (35:30):
Yeah, let me start with the first one. Okay. So
I grew up. I'm a John L.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
Way fan. You guys heard of him, goody.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
Oh Man talking about the man that's the governor, if
not the mayor Denver for sure, John L Way, Eric Dickerson.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
I was a running back. So yeah, yeah, I thought.
Speaker 3 (35:51):
I was gonna be Eric Dickerson and fast and tall
and skinny at that time. Uh So, I wanted to
be John L. Way because he could just throw the
ball in on the ends. I was like, oh, I
love this dude. I remember coming home like it fell
like eleventh grade Mom, Can I get a John that
Way Jersey?
Speaker 2 (36:07):
What? And I was like, damn every time I heard
that what that quick? What that means?
Speaker 3 (36:11):
Don't even try? But I'm like, I get the John
that Way Jersey?
Speaker 2 (36:15):
How much?
Speaker 3 (36:16):
And I was like I think it was like sixty
dollars at full lock or so I'm just like, hey,
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
And I was like, all I kind of knew that
was coming. I could tell by your.
Speaker 3 (36:23):
What, So just move on. It's another thing I can't
get whatever. I wasn't that kid, So there are kids
in that moment that all of a sudden they get thirsty.
I gotta have that jersey, right, So some of them
in a good way to go start selling lemonade or
candy or whatever it may be, right to get the
money to do it. I wasn't that kid. I didn't
give it damn that much. There are some kids that
actually do some bad things to go get that money.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
Right. Yeah, uncle, come here, how can I get sixty dollars?
Speaker 5 (36:47):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (36:48):
I hook you up. I hook you up, nephew and
steal it or whatever. Right.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
I wasn't that kid. I was this kid, Okay, I
tuk it away. One day I'm gonna become somebody and
my mo I buy my own damn jersey, right, and
that somebody turn into an NFL rookie first game ever
in the NFL Buffalo Bills, a team I was drafted to.
Traveling to Denver Mile High Stadium, right, get off the plane,
(37:14):
I'm like, Wow, this is real. I can't breathe.
Speaker 6 (37:17):
It's oh, it's awful headaches.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
Yo.
Speaker 3 (37:23):
I was like, yo, I thought it was just like
some folklore, some fables. I said, I'm gonna play tomorrow.
We figure it out. Get on the field and we're
warming up. So if you visualize a football field, one
team has that fifty and other team has this fifty
and our backstory to each other. Right, So I'm not starting.
(37:43):
I'm a rookie and I'm watching Bruce Smith and I'm
watching our defense go out there, and I'm like at
the fifty yard line and I'm like, you know what
you should do? Turn around and look at them. And
it really was just to find John that Way, Like,
where's John that Way?
Speaker 2 (37:57):
Right now?
Speaker 3 (37:58):
Now you're on the field with John Elway? Find John Elway?
Now you gotta have this fake focus. A lot of
times in sports, right the guys on the bench, I'll
be like, yeah, oh god, oh yeah, really in their head, like, yo,
you see that girl on the third row, man, you
got a fake focus. If not, coach is gonna check
the film and look at you. You're not into it,
you know. So I'm like fake focus watching Bruce Ooh move, Okay,
(38:22):
where's John Alway?
Speaker 2 (38:23):
Turn around?
Speaker 3 (38:24):
So I'm imagining when I turn around, He's gonna be
somewhere way away, and I'm just gonna have this moment
and be like, wow, that was dope, didn't happen that way.
I turn around and guess who's three feet if not
closer to me seven l Way. And I was like, ah,
and it wasn't a foot locker jersey. This was the
(38:46):
real one. Mama, Yeah take that. And I was like,
that is the John Elway right there. Play the game.
I ain't touch on my insack, mightn't do a damn thing.
That was as close as I got to John that
way a pregame, because during the game, I didn't do
a damn thing. But I say that because because that's ridiculous.
Like I used to be the kid throwing the football
up at the ceiling, the popcorn ceiling in our apartment,
(39:07):
so it was snowfall every time, right, and I used
to just dream about making it. My dream was twofold,
become a school teacher or NFL football player, and I
used to just dream about it. And then obviously my
dreams were focused on being John Elway or being Eric Dickerson.
And then the first NFL experience and moment I have
(39:29):
is being on the field with my actual dream my
favorite players. So I tell that story to everyone because
I want them to realize how ridiculous a dream may sound.
May feel in the moment, but how really can become.
Speaker 5 (39:41):
Yeah, that's super cool.
Speaker 6 (39:44):
Growing So growing up going into football, like, was the
NFL the ultimate goal or was it just kind of
a thing that kind of like grew and grew and
grew and you're like, oh, hold up, maybe I can
I can make it.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
Yeah, I would say the latter.
Speaker 3 (39:56):
I wasn't like the stereotype, like you know, in the hood,
everybody want to go to the league. I was like,
and in part because everybody wanted to go to league,
I was like, well, all y'all want to go, somebody
ain't let me prepare for just in case. So I
always wanted a high safety net. I knew too many
good football players better than me who didn't make it,
so I wasn't foolish enough to just put all my
(40:18):
eggs in that basket. So I always had that balancing act.
I always took care of my school and my studies
and made sure I was challenging myself as much academically as.
Speaker 2 (40:28):
I was athletically.
Speaker 3 (40:29):
So I never got out of balance, like, oh my god,
I'm the man in football for good school. I was like, nope,
I can't forget school. And when I had the opportunity
to choose colleges. I had a lot of football factories
after me, right then I had Columbia after me as well,
And certainly choosing Columbia wasn't the best thing for my
NFL career if I were going to make it to
(40:51):
the NFL, but I wanted that high safety net. I
didn't want to go back to the neighborhood saying, oh, man,
you know what happened. I didn't want that. I've seen
it time and time again. You're injury away, right, I
lost my best friend like that. So I'm a guy
that knows any given Sunday it can go away for you, right.
So I just gave myself the best reputation in terms
(41:14):
of academics and athletics. But I wanted to go to
the league. But I wasn't stupid enough to think that
it was going to actually happen.
Speaker 4 (41:20):
But you led Columbia to its best record since nineteen
forty five at eight and two, Columbia, Yeah, best record
since nineteen forty five.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
Damn yeah, man, that's love.
Speaker 5 (41:35):
I couldn't have mattered.
Speaker 6 (41:36):
How hard was it to balance like studies at Columbia
and football?
Speaker 3 (41:40):
Like hmm, tough. Bruh, is there another word that's harder
than tough? Like it was hell oh man? Because they
don't give you. They don't give you any they give
you support, They just don't cut corners. They just don't
give you like a lighter load because you're playing football.
They didn't care, like you're gonna play football hundred percent.
(42:01):
You're gonna be a student at Columbia one hundred percent,
so you have two hundred percent, not like some of
the football factories. I hear stories of guys who actually
got a little lighter load academically. Oh you know he
has a game. Oh you know he has practice. Oh
you know he has to travel. Oh no, no, yeah, the
big scass. It's a little bit different in terms of
(42:22):
the leveling, but Columbia hundred hundred. We don't give a
damn So it was really tough. The best part about
Columbia was one people were as competitive in the classroom as.
Speaker 2 (42:35):
I was used to people being competitive on.
Speaker 3 (42:37):
The field, like they I knew a dude who would
take a nap before every class, right, he would take
a nap, wake up, put on a suit, and go
to class. I was like, where you're going after class,
He's like, we mean, I'm going back home, probably go
to study and sleep again. Right, all he did was
get ready, he got geared up, he got geeked up
for class, like what does this dude?
Speaker 2 (42:59):
And that was just the norm.
Speaker 3 (43:01):
Guys that were really challenging themselves to just be great students.
And the other thing that I loved about Columbia was
no one was thinking to use their body to make it.
And I loved that because it was refreshing, like no
one was thinking that, oh man, I'm gonna play sports,
and then it was all between the ears.
Speaker 2 (43:19):
I know I'm gonna make it.
Speaker 3 (43:21):
I know I'm gonna climb this mountain and there are
a lot of different paths, but I'm gonna use my
brain over my body. And that was just good to
see because everywhere growing up it was just the opposite.
Speaker 2 (43:31):
It was just a flip.
Speaker 4 (43:32):
Well, it was a burn moment choosing Columbia over going
to these top schools you had.
Speaker 2 (43:38):
It was tough.
Speaker 3 (43:39):
It was challenging because my friends didn't support it, and
you know, I'm seventeen at the time, so you got
act like your friends don't matter in their opinions, but
it does, right, So The toughest part was actually just
locking in. My mom didn't even want me to go
to Columbia. She's like, that's too damn far. I was like, Mommy,
do you have any other reasons? And she was like, no,
(43:59):
that's it too far. And I was like, it's a
great school. She didn't even want to go there, so
that was challenging. What else was challenging was the fact
that my friends kept clown to me like, oh, you
ain't going pro now, damn you going to that sorry
as football school.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
I was like wait.
Speaker 3 (44:13):
I was like, I could be a big vish in
a little pond. Yeah, whatever, And then I was like, no,
I could make it. It's like, dude, where are you
going to school? And I had one friend this was
the funniest. I was like, I'm thinking about going to Columbia.
He was like, you're going to school in South America.
Speaker 4 (44:29):
We got something I would say, this is something I
would say, it is something you would say.
Speaker 2 (44:34):
So yeah, man.
Speaker 3 (44:36):
What made me make the decision was simple. I told
my guidance counselor at the time all the schools that
were interested in me, and she was like, yes, yes, yes, yes,
Oh that's amazing.
Speaker 2 (44:45):
Great experience. Oh, go, Marcealis, go.
Speaker 3 (44:47):
And then I mentioned Columbia and she said, and her
reaction was different, and she said, Marshall's I'm not going
to tell you what to do, but go to Columbia.
And I was like really, And I was like why.
She's like, I'm not going to tell you what to do,
but it's gonna really help you out in the long run.
So it was an easy decision for me once I
kind of put everything together, stop being a seventeen year
(45:09):
old and start being the thirty to forty year old
who which diploma did I want?
Speaker 2 (45:14):
Hanging up?
Speaker 3 (45:15):
And what gave me an opportunity to still go and
live up my dreams and make it to the NFL.
And Columbia, even though it was tougher, still gave me
that opportunity.
Speaker 6 (45:22):
Yeah, there was a quote in your book that you
talked about how when you were younger, you went into
the kitchen and your mom was on your phone, and
then you go to your sister, she was on the phone,
and you talked about how everyone around you was a
talker and you didn't want to be a talker.
Speaker 5 (45:38):
So where did that mentality kind of kind of come from?
Speaker 3 (45:41):
Yeah, man, I still am like post traumatic stress when
I see somebody on the phone around me, and it's
the worst. And I shouldn't be this way. I need
to get healed. I need healing, get this Because my
family was like they get off work, coming home from school,
and they just jump on the phone and talk about
their day and I'm like, all right, talk about goals,
talk about your dreams, talk about something else. They just gossiping.
(46:03):
Did you see Luis?
Speaker 2 (46:04):
What's she wearing? This stuff?
Speaker 3 (46:06):
Like, all right, anything else? And they were like just gossiping.
And I was like, man, come on, get off the phone.
Let's do something. Not talk about it, be about it.
And I used to just judge and I use the
phone kind of like something that tells me, don't just talk.
Don't just be about talk. You know a lot of
times you can waste your twenty four hours in a
(46:27):
day laterally because you're just planning, you're just talking about it.
You're just talking about people, right, instead of talking about
what you really want. Where is your where are your goals?
What are your greatest ambitions? So I hated that growing up,
and it really challenged me to not be just a talker.
Speaker 2 (46:43):
Then I literally have a career in talking.
Speaker 3 (46:46):
That's all we do too.
Speaker 2 (46:48):
But yeah, man, it was just funny.
Speaker 3 (46:50):
I really miss judge a lot of my family because
they just wanted to release from the day and just
be normal, right, socialized.
Speaker 2 (47:00):
I was sitting there like game planning every time.
Speaker 3 (47:01):
No no, no, no, not time for us to be sitting
here fluffing and talking about Luis's dress. Just game plan
how do we get out in the hood. And I
guess I was the mad scientist that had to come
up with that game plan.
Speaker 4 (47:12):
That's crazy, all right, Marcella's we've been on our It's
time to go to n and burn. It's two parts
now and next. Are there any burn moments now or
are there any burn moments coming up? Oh?
Speaker 3 (47:26):
Oh well, there's a burner moment now leaving Fox. I
think it's a burn moment for me and a lot
of people. And I can't ever pay it justice in
terms of articulating why, because there are so many reasons,
so many levels and layers to it. But in short,
(47:50):
I've always chased my goals and my dreams, right, and
my goal in life and dream in life wasn't to
talk sports surface level, you know it wasn't just to
be an ice skater in sports like Okay Dak Prescott,
Okay Cowboys, Okay Lebron.
Speaker 2 (48:07):
Or who's gonna win?
Speaker 3 (48:08):
Like the headlines, yeah, and just results like who's the better,
who's better, who's the gold? And like I was like,
your story, our story, the process, how do you get
to become that person that we're talking about just on
the surface level. I was much more invested in that
(48:29):
that was who I was. Remember, I'm a football player
or a school teacher. So I love to grab a
person at the fork in the road and help them
out and talk through that and go through that process
with him. So after being in the business for twenty
years and realizing I was going to just do more
of the same, I was like, it's time to go
chase your dreams and really challenge yourself to do it.
Speaker 2 (48:52):
Now.
Speaker 3 (48:52):
The tough thing is you get paid a lot of
money to be up in there, like it's Kate y'all,
it was fluffy. But someone told me in the process
when I was really like I'm gonna bet on myself
and just do it my way, that they were like, Okay,
I'm glad that you're not going to stay in a
velvet coughing.
Speaker 2 (49:10):
They call it. I was like velvet coughing.
Speaker 3 (49:12):
It was like, yeah, you're fluffed up, You're feeling good
and comfortable and nice, but you're dead on the inside, right,
You're not really loving that. And my friends, one by one,
all of a sudden start popping up and telling me
stories of when I first got into broadcasting that I
told them I wanted to be Larry King. I was
like really, and they were like nah. They told me
(49:34):
how you like want to be doctor Phield And I
was like really, I told all you guys all this
doing the road, but I just turned into like a
baby version of stephen A.
Speaker 2 (49:43):
I was like, which is know this?
Speaker 3 (49:45):
It's just like that, ain't me?
Speaker 2 (49:47):
I wanted to do this and.
Speaker 3 (49:48):
I'm just getting fluffed up, stuffed like a turkey up here.
And I was like, man, I got to chase my dreams,
chase my goals. There are too many people to help,
too many real conversations I think that are to be
had with people that really.
Speaker 2 (50:02):
Want to have them.
Speaker 3 (50:03):
And I think even athletes want to have this discussion,
and I know the audience is right for it. So
the burn moment was that the burn moment that's next
is putting it all together. Continue to talk through the
podcast's original content and deeper form, and so far has
been so rewarding, not only in terms of fulfillment, but
also in the returns, Like Wow, I'm gonna mess around
(50:27):
and make more money doing this.
Speaker 2 (50:28):
It's crazy, right.
Speaker 5 (50:29):
And it's what you love.
Speaker 6 (50:30):
You're not You're not just following this hamster wheel talking
about Lamar Jackson for the last two weeks, like stuff
like that.
Speaker 5 (50:37):
Tell how it is, tell us the stuff that we
want to hear.
Speaker 2 (50:40):
Yeah, for real.
Speaker 3 (50:41):
And it's funny because now you know, those are all
my friends and I watch them and I'm sitting there
just giggling on inside. Oh oh, trade deadline, you know,
franchise Yeah yeah, and they have to do it and
I had to do it for twenty years. And now
the same person or the same topic. Oh, I could
take it wherever I want to. And to me, that's
(51:01):
so fulfilling.
Speaker 6 (51:02):
You think a lot more people are gonna kind of
follow you and kind of venture off and do their
own thing too, or are they too stuffed.
Speaker 3 (51:09):
That Bell m coffin does feel good? Don't get it twisted. Yeah,
they're gonna follow me because I'm following someone else. You know,
I'm following the guys Joe rogan A, Pat McAfee, etc.
You know, I'm watching those guys, And like I told you,
I get jealous and I love it because it just
motivates me. I'm like, I'm not jealous and like I'm
gonna pull you down. I'm jealous, like, oh, I gotta
(51:29):
get up there, right, I'm like, I gotta get there,
and I'm so competitive that I won't stop until I
get there. And I'm like issuing that challenge to everybody,
come get it. I used to speak at panels all
the time and cats wanted to be me. They said,
they were like, oh, I want to be a sports reporter.
I want to be a broadcaster. And I used to
always give them as much information and many jewels as
(51:50):
I could, and I said, and I will always end
like this, Now go out there and come take my job,
like I want you to come get this because guess
what I'm coming to get that. And that's just what
I do. And it's so fun. I go downstairs at
my home and my basement not even half of this.
I'm still jealous, you guys, but I go on my
(52:11):
home studio, and I just plow our work and it's
just I would do it twenty five hours a day,
like the day's not long enough.
Speaker 2 (52:19):
I just love doing it.
Speaker 3 (52:21):
And then just chasing these kids around man, being a
coach and being a chauffeur.
Speaker 4 (52:24):
Oh that's awesome. I got the little young ends trying
to follow your footsteps.
Speaker 3 (52:28):
Yeah, man, a two year old or four year old
to seven year old. And then my daughter that's twenty four.
She's at Columbia grad School graduating in May.
Speaker 2 (52:36):
Loving life.
Speaker 4 (52:37):
Yeah, congrats to her.
Speaker 3 (52:38):
Yeah, she's a beast. She's after it. She's such a
good person. That's why I'm so proud of hers. Like, yeah,
she's smart, Yes, she's beautiful. She is.
Speaker 2 (52:46):
She's a great person.
Speaker 3 (52:48):
She's just a good person, high character, and I love that.
Then the little ones, man, you know, I'm gonna just
support them wherever they want to go.
Speaker 2 (52:55):
And so far, so special, especially my little boy.
Speaker 3 (52:58):
He loves football more than me, which is scary, and
I'm like, it skipped the generation because my dad is
that way. My dad loves football. My dad talks about
football no matter what the conversation is. I'm like, Dad,
I'm about to go in the podcast. Oh yeah's a
football podcast?
Speaker 2 (53:13):
No factor?
Speaker 3 (53:14):
Oh okay, yeah, are they talking about how you burned
it up when you were playing? I was like, no, daddy,
And after that, we're going to go to a comedy show.
Oh does he like football? The comedian? I was like, damn,
And so now my son has that bug. I didn't
have that bug. I just was like, look, let me
just try and do the best I can and whatever
I do. So my son literally come in the house
now march. Daddy, is there any football on him?
Speaker 5 (53:37):
Like, dude, yes, XFL?
Speaker 3 (53:39):
Yeah exactly. He calls that preseason football. I was like,
that's cold, Like everything's out the NFL. Like, Dady, want
to watch more preseason? I was like, it's not pre season,
it's XFL. So I just love it, man. It's fun
every day, new challenges, new ways to do it.
Speaker 4 (53:52):
Make sure they do what they love.
Speaker 3 (53:54):
There it is now we're talking right. Yes, you want
to do it big, you gotta do it a little
things be greater than your greatest excuse.
Speaker 2 (54:02):
That's what I teach my kids. Damn it to hear.
Speaker 5 (54:05):
What does it be greater than your greatest excuse?
Speaker 2 (54:07):
Yeah, because we all got one I'm.
Speaker 5 (54:08):
Gonna go home and write that on my mirror.
Speaker 2 (54:10):
Hey, there you go.
Speaker 4 (54:11):
I could write it. I could write I write it
in my notebook out there.
Speaker 3 (54:14):
And that's a must.
Speaker 4 (54:18):
Well, Marcellus, you just spelt Burn crazy inspirational story, very inspiring,
from losing one of your best friends to pulling that
deep dog out of you and just catapulting your life
from there. And as a gift for coming on the podcast,
(54:38):
we will be giving you the Burn Factory Black label
edition hood you only keep in mind only guests get
these streaks.
Speaker 6 (54:50):
For giving you the Burn Factory Black Edition.
Speaker 2 (54:55):
The Villains in Black Street, I've been on the Burn.
Speaker 6 (55:00):
You're gonna have to worry that on your next your
next podcast episode, I will too, and then send us.
Speaker 5 (55:04):
You'll send us some of your gear and we'll do
the same we gear.
Speaker 3 (55:07):
I'm telling us that. No, man, you guys up for sure.
This is dope.
Speaker 2 (55:12):
Man.
Speaker 6 (55:12):
Tell the audience where they can find you, Instagram, your podcast,
give it all to them.
Speaker 3 (55:17):
Yeah, I don't want you to find me for real, Like,
don't come with my house, I chill out. No, No,
you can find me, marcellous way on all socials.
Speaker 2 (55:24):
Uh, and you can find me man.
Speaker 3 (55:26):
Everywhere you guys are looking in terms of sports content,
life content, cultural content.
Speaker 2 (55:31):
Just trying to help people out. Man, That's who I am.
Speaker 3 (55:33):
I'm built for that, So follow me on socials. You
guys know, I engage back. So I got my my
Kevin Durant burner accounts too, So I'm the one. Marcello's
is amazing. That's my burner accounts and then my real accounts.
I'm the one that actually asks answers all the questions
from people. Just love life, man, and just trying to
keep it going awome.
Speaker 6 (55:52):
Thank you so much. Marcellus is amazing being on the show.
You're such an inspiration to us. And I'm gonna go
write that quote. Yes, yes, me too, and proof read it.
That's what I needed to do.
Speaker 4 (56:03):
But you heard the man. Go give him some love
and always please visit my foundation at Priest James Foundation
dot or again Priest James Foundation dot or to understand
why this is called the burn Factory. I'll see you
guys for the next episode.
Speaker 3 (56:19):
Peace all right, guys.
Speaker 4 (56:22):
Marcellus wileye NFL players.
Speaker 3 (56:26):
I love it.
Speaker 4 (56:28):
Just felt he just felt burn in his life and
he called himself the champs. So now he has to
call out someone who you calling out.
Speaker 3 (56:39):
Stop the best best receiver that ever played on the borough.
Speaker 2 (56:46):
Fact you stopped playing with.
Speaker 5 (56:47):
The big dollars, Marcel, and I know you want this belt.
Speaker 3 (56:52):
Come get it. My sister from other podcast, let's go,
Let's do it, brother,
Welcome to the Burn Factory Podcast with Priest and Phoenix Rivera.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Listen as the voice.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Interview the biggest names in sports and entertainment. The Burn
Factory starts.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Now, what is up? Guys?
Speaker 4 (00:17):
Welcome back to another episode of a Burn Factory podcast.
I'm your host, Priests drum By my co host, my brother,
mister Phoenix. Save it up to the camera. Well, so, y'all,
this is called the Burn Factory for a reason. I
was literally caught on fire fifty percent chance of living.
But through that, I started this podcast because I believe
(00:38):
every single person out there on this planet goes through
a burn moment somewhere in their life.
Speaker 5 (00:44):
Yes, you heard pre say burn moment.
Speaker 6 (00:46):
So burn moment is a super hard time in someone's
life that they had to fight and get through to
be where they are today. And me and Priest believe
that every single person goes through these little burn moments
every single day that truly get them to where they
are today. But Priest, we have a very special guest
in the house, a true story by making his own path.
(01:06):
He's a football Ivy League legend at Columbia University. He
played ten seasons in the NFL. Was an NFL pro bowler,
and he worked at ESPN on the NFL Live Show,
was the co host of the Sports Nation Show on ESPN,
and was a co host on the Speak for Yourself
Show on Fox Sports One, and now has a book
(01:27):
called Never Shut Up, The Life and Opinions of an
Unexpected Adventures of an NFL Outsider, and now has his
own podcast called The More to It Podcast.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
So please welcome Marcellus Wiley.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Oh man, love boy, keep going, keep going Thatuary.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
I'm still alive, man.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
Keep going, repeat it one more time.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
I appreciate you guys, so good brothers. Good to see
you guys.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Man.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
I've been watching the podcast thanks, seeing a couple of them,
and when I heard the story, it was obvious to
me that I wanted to get in front of you
guys and just talk through this because, uh, the content
of your message and just how you guys are really
trying to tell people how you can overcome adversity. It's
so special and so dear to my heart.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
So that's so fun. Let's talk through it.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
I appreciate it so much.
Speaker 5 (02:19):
Yeah, just doing here what we love.
Speaker 6 (02:20):
We just love talking to people and people have these
burning moments that they just got to get through that
no one knows about.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yeah, it's crazy.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
I mean, look, first of all, I don't know if
everyone could see the set up here, but y'all burning
through some money to.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Serious. This is the most top level podcast I've ever
been on.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
And I have a jealous streak in me that motivates me.
But I'm hella jealous right now looking at all these cameras.
I'm like, stepping up, Willy when you get home.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
So blessed to have all this stuff. I mean, it's
just it's real.
Speaker 6 (02:51):
It's a real team effort, Like me and him couldn't
do this by yourself. And I have a whole team
back there that works so hard behind the scenes, and
we're just we're so thankful for them for a.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Real team tall I'm talking like an NFL team. Like
it's like more people in here than than you would
see at the super Bowl halftime. Shall Like, I love it, man,
appreciate y'all.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
Thank you, thank you coming on.
Speaker 6 (03:10):
Yeah sure, okay, So I have to ask you were
a bit of a genius?
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Were coming in hot?
Speaker 6 (03:18):
We're coming in hot, and so were you just naturally
like smart? Did you have to work at it? Like
for me, like I had a four point zero high school,
but I had to work hard for it, Like I
wasn't naturally smart. I couldn't just be like, oh, yeah,
I got a test tomorrow, like I had to study.
Speaker 5 (03:31):
I had to work hard for it. So is it
just easy for you?
Speaker 3 (03:35):
I won't say easy. I think I made it easy
on myself because I was naturally curious. I was just
one of those kids first day of school. I just
wanted to run to the front of the class. I
wanted to raise my hand. I wanted to know all
the answers. So that made it easier, but it was
always still a process, and it was always still something
(03:56):
that was a task. I wouldn't even call myself a genius.
What I am smart at is knowing what I can do,
what I should do, and.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
What I should not do.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
So I always start off any process by addressing the adversity.
So I don't run the one hundred meters, I run
the one ten hurdles. In my mind, I always put
the hurdles in front of me and say, okay, this
is what I'm going to face. So I build into
any equation basically the difficulties. I think a lot of
times when you start to dream of things, you almost
(04:27):
make it a fantasy instead of reality. Now my dreams
have to become reality. So let's be real about my
dream right. I know I can't draw, and so you
know a lot of people say, oh my god, you
can do anything in this world.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
No, you can't stop lying. I can't draw.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
You know.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
I say, oh, you can play basketball. No I can't
play basketball.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
I suck.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
So you know there are certain things I'm just like,
puts that to the side. That's not going to be
a priority in terms of task. But one of the
things that I knew I could do was achieve in
a classroom. I knew I could get good grades. I
knew I could retain information, and I knew that I
was a fast kid. I don't know if I was
an athlete. I just was seven years old and faster
(05:05):
than your uncle. You know, That's who I was. So
I had a few superpowers. I felt like Batman. You know,
he looks at Superman and all the other superheroes like, damn,
I can't do all that.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
But I got three.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Things I can do, and I got five hours in
my pocket, you know what I'm saying. So I just
tried to make lemonade out of everything, and that was
my mindset.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
Cool, you're I'm totally the complete opposite of what you are.
I was the person that sat in the back of
the classroom hoping the teacher wouldn't call on me because
I was afraid I was give the wrong answer and
not like you guys having four point ohs and five
point ohs. I was like a three point five guy. Okay,
a couple of bees, but yeah, I passed right right, right,
(05:45):
that's the goal to pass man.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Well, that's not the goal. That's what you achieved to
get the four point.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
See.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
That's the funny thing. So where I grew up, everyone
would reset the paradigm, reset the goals. Right, So the
goals for us going the school was just past time
to get to the field to play sports, or past
time in the classroom to actually get to a studio
or become an entertainer or a rapper, right, And I
was like, dude, I am in class way longer than
(06:15):
I am on the football field. I'm in class way
longer than you are when.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
You go to the studio.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
I'm like, why are we wasting those seven eight hours?
So that was my driving force. It wasn't like I
was a genius or smarter anybody. I was just like,
I'm not wasting my time. Let's start there. And the
teacher's there for a reason. They're telling me stuff. I
don't know, why not retain that? And that's kind of
how the snowball started to build. I see. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 6 (06:41):
So on this podcast, we do use the acronym burns,
so you're kind of leading us into the first one,
which is b B stands for beginning. So take us
back to your childhood, high school days, elementary school days.
Were there any burn moments that you just had to
get through that really catapulted you to where you are today?
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Man? So many How long is the podcast?
Speaker 5 (07:00):
As long as it needs to be?
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Oh, Man, call me Dante, because I grew up in
an inferno. Brother, it was just hot, so many burn moments.
My beginnings from Compton, California, raised there to the age
of five or six, then we moved to Greener Pastors,
south central LA. So obviously knowing the ills of both
of those communities, the gains, the drugs, the poverty, I
(07:25):
think that was the reputation and I think it was
a real reputation. It was deserving because that was a
lot of the problems in the neighborhood. Growing up, I
had to navigate before I even got to class, I
had to navigate, and leaving school, I had to navigate
around a lot of drama. But I think the most
damaging and damning thing was the low ambition. I just
(07:48):
saw so many people aiming lower than I thought that
they should.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
I saw people who had jobs, not careers.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
I saw people who living on the edge emotionally because
they were so distraught, so like beaten down by the
world and by their neighborhood. Their greatest aspirations and ambitions
have been challenged to a point where they gave.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Up on themselves.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
It felt like, so I would do these sociology experiments
and I'm seven, eight nine years old, I'm like, why
is this lady so mad at the grocery store?
Speaker 2 (08:20):
You know?
Speaker 3 (08:20):
And then why these dudes outside just waiting for a
problem or waiting to beat up somebody. I was like,
why is everybody so close to just saying forget it?
Speaker 2 (08:28):
I'm about to go there?
Speaker 3 (08:30):
And I started to realize that, oh, it's because they're
not living out their dreams.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
So instead of judging them.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
I started to put a responsibility on myself to make
sure I gave myself the best chance to live on
my dreams. And that kind of kept me in a
better spirit then I would say my peers. And it
also kept me more ambitious like than my peers. I
didn't complain. I didn't look at the circumstances and say, oh,
we don't have it as good as them over there,
(08:57):
because I start competing against myself. Once that happened, I
had a different trajectory than everybody else. It wasn't like
I was special. I wasn't that kid. I wasn't the
kid like, oh my god, look at Marshals. It was
just I stayed to myself. I stayed within myself, and
I just kept building myself up and competing against myself,
and then you finally look up. If you keep getting
(09:18):
wins against yourself, you'll find yourself exactly where you want
to be. And that was my journey, a late bloomer,
a guy who just stayed the course and stayed disciplined
on it. So I dealt with so much adversity growing up.
We were poor, we were on welfare, food stamps, we
got paid three times a month, man, the first, the third,
(09:38):
and the fifteenth.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
The government shook up.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
The neighborhood and like here you go, here's your stimulus check, right,
And I just remember never feeling poor, even though I
knew I was poor because I was full of love.
My family was there, my mom and dad in the house,
raising me, making sure I kept my balance, kept myself focused,
and when I went outside help more love on the
inside me personally, more love on the inside inside my home.
(10:05):
So I didn't get challenged by that gang culture. I
didn't get challenged by the drug dealer. I didn't get
enticed by the dude who looked fresh to everybody else.
I was like, man, I saw you running from some pain.
Maybe you're running from something more so than acting like
where you are is the best place. So I deal
with a lot of burn moments, man, growing up. You
know you name it, Yeah, you name it.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
I've been shot at, not me personally, but bullets going
by me, so it could have been for me.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Yeah, the navigation was real. Man.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
I'm from Compton before n WA, before the movies, before
the song, So everything you heard about I had to
live through and it was real.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
So you obviously grew up in tough parts of town.
Did they ever try to mess with you the games
and stuff?
Speaker 3 (10:52):
Yes, they did, And I got bullied when I was
in the third grade. I think it was third grade,
these gangsters. My sister beat up some girl in school
for good reasons too. She was trying to mess with me,
and my sister was my protector.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Right.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
I never had to fight because I had an older
sister that will whoop your hat, and she beat up
this girl. This girl tried to cut me in line.
I didn't care about it. I moved on. I'm not
a fighter. My sister is. She's like, you better not
cut my brother, and the girls start talking back next
to you know, my sister got hands. She put hands
on the girl, and I thought that was the end
of it, right, like you were in the wrong. My
sister was in the wrong for taking it to that level.
(11:27):
But hey, let bygones be bygones. That girl that got
beat up had gangster brothers and uncles right in our neighborhood.
So yeah, the next day it felt like you were
were walking home and you see two older dudes at
the corner just looking at us, and I was like, oh,
this ain't gonna be cool, and we try to walk
(11:49):
by him. Actually, my sister tried to walk by him
because she's the fighter. I'm the one that they called
the punk. I wanted to run by him. I'm out right,
but my sister had to play a cool and they
just came up to us and start beating us up.
And I thought that was the end of it, right
old old next day they're there again. And now I
(12:09):
have a dilemma. Do I tell my teachers, do I
tell my parents? Do I tell my family that was
in the street life and gangsters too, And then it's
going to just all of a sudden ratchet up.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
And I don't want that.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
And I'm like, let's just walk home tomorrow, maybe they
won't be there. They were there, it felt like for weeks,
every day just beating us up.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
And then finally I go.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
To my grandmother's house and I she knows me, and
she knows how to push my buttons, and she saw
me leaking, she saw me not in my same high
level of energy and spirit, and she's like, everything okay,
And I just broke down and told her what was happening,
and she was like, oh, and now and this is
my grandmother, so her sons are the street dudes. Right,
Let's just say the next day I got to school
(12:54):
and we were leaving school, didn't see those gangsters anymore.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
So you put two or two together.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
That was one of the episodes for me growing up,
like man, because they could have went obviously wrong in
so many ways. They could have really beat us up
to the point where we were harmed beyond just just
the emotional harm I think it was. The bullying wasn't
so bad physically, it was emotionally. It was just terrifying
every day to go home. It could have got worse.
(13:22):
Those two gangsters could have got into it with my
uncles and all that, and they could have escalated. So
that was just one of the burn moments, man, and
I probably have five million more.
Speaker 4 (13:30):
That's a blessing. You did tell your grandmother though, Yeah.
How old were you and your sister when this happened.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
It felt like I was eight, you know, and you're
young young, yeah, yeah, and you know you're not thinking properly,
even though you think you are. You can't make those
type of decisions. And when you hear about bullying, it's
a real thing and it could affect everybody differently. I
didn't go to a dark place mentally, thankfully. I just
(13:56):
was scared. I was just scared. I was scared of
my own I was scared of my neighborhood. I was
scared of my own street. I was scared to just
go to school and come back. And I guess it
built up in a weird way, some of my determination,
like we didn't change routes, we didn't go a different way,
We didn't quote unquote tap out, even though now looking back,
(14:17):
I should have said something the first day, right, And
it just built up a determination that, Okay, I can't
let somebody else take me off course, no matter what
they have in store for.
Speaker 5 (14:27):
Me, it should go.
Speaker 6 (14:29):
I was gonna say, I feel like you kind of
found yourself during that time, and you talked about I
was actually reading your book and your grandma made you
take out the piece of paper and you'd write down
like who you are, what you are, what you're worth.
And she said if anyone doesn't call you or what
she said, if anyone doesn't call you by.
Speaker 5 (14:45):
These names, don't listen to them.
Speaker 6 (14:46):
Yeah, you think that is that kind of where it
started for you to just be like no one, like,
no one's gonna affect my life.
Speaker 5 (14:52):
I have plans for myself.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
Say it again, man, it was a huge time in
my life. Blessing in disguise, if you could say that
was that. Let's talk about it. So I'm getting beat up,
and my grandmother's like, all right, baby, we got to
figure out who you are and your identity. I'm like
what she said, go grab a piece of paper. And
I learned through this lesson identity is not just who
(15:14):
you are, but who you are not. And I found
out who I wasn't and I wasn't gangster. I wasn't
gonna be a drug dealer, and I wasn't gonna be
a thug. I wasn't gonna be any of the things
that some people were whispering or yelling that I should
have been.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Right. So I grabbed this piece of paper.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
She says, write your name on top, and I was
all right, Marcella's Fernert Whitley. And then she says, okay,
write down three things that you are. I said, okay,
I'm athletic. She said, why are you athletic? I was like,
because I could beat everybody running my age and people
older than me too. She said, all right, write down athletic.
She's like, what's next. I said, I'm smart? Why are
you smart? I said, I get all a'ds grandma, and
(15:50):
I love to go to school. She said, all right,
you're smart. She said one more thing, and this one
stuck me and I was like, I said, okay, I'm nice.
She said, why are you nice? I was like, because
I like everybody, even those dudes that beat us up.
I like them too. And she was like, all right,
so you're Marcellus Vernon Whitey. You're smart, you're athletic, and
you're nice. Okay, I want you to put that piece
(16:12):
of paper under your bed, and if anybody calls you
by any of those things on there your name, you're smart, athletic,
and nice, you can listen to them. They call you
anything else outside of that, A punk, sissy, you know,
all these kind of things that they were trying to
bully me with. Don't listen to them, baby. And literally,
I swear in my head a railroad track uppere. It
(16:34):
felt like this is the way to go. And if
you didn't encourage me, support me say things like that,
I just knew I was still going to go this way.
And I saw you over there, but I wasn't slowing
down and stopping for you. And I think for kids today,
they really need to do a lesson just as simple
as that. Find out who they are, know their identity.
(16:55):
And it's not like you got to have the answer.
You got to know more who you're not than who
you are. And in that moment, I knew I was
three things and I knew I wasn't a lot of
other things.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
Burn moment right there. That's crazy. If you don't, if
you don't write those three things down, do you think
your life would be completely different?
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Absolutely, I'm gangbanging, I'm shooting at people that mis stop.
Where you from? Cud?
Speaker 3 (17:19):
Yeah, of course, Like all these things add up to
the gumbo of who you are. You know, you just
put them into the pot and keep mixing them up.
And it's funny like that. All the ingredients individually are
not always the best of ingredients. Like getting bullied is
not a good ingredient. Just like if you're baking a cake,
you ever taste flour by yourself, not good, right, but
(17:41):
damn it, it show turns into something that's good, right,
And that's what I use. I use all of the
negativity and all of the bad issues that occurred in
my life, and I just put them in the pot,
and I always thought of them like flour. I always
thought of them, It's not always gonna be sugar, but
it could come out sweet. So when something came towards me,
I had to battle. I just had to challenge myself
(18:03):
to win that battle. And I'm very competitive in the
sense of making sure I don't succumb to circumstances, making
sure that no matter what comes my way, that my
desires have to be victorious. So I had a different
mindset than a lot of my friends, who would get
beat up by their own thoughts, beat up by the circumstances,
(18:25):
beat up by the adversity around us. And I just
didn't want that to happen to me because I seen
so many talented people that didn't live up to their
own dreams and expectations. I was like, you got one
life to live, why not go out swinging. And to
this day, man, I'm just the guy that's gonna always
see something. Okay, that's the defense, that's what I have
(18:47):
to go against. All right, that's the opponent. All right,
it's tom give me the rock. I'm a score, maybe
not a first down, maybe not second down, maybe not
this possession. But it's gonna be a long game. It's
gonna be a marathon, and the certainly I'm gonna get
on the on some points on the score board.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
Yes, sir, I mean you just said beginning and burned
crazy beginning from your sister beating up people, to you guys,
to you guys being borderline almost killed by people fighting you.
But it's time to go to you and burn Unfortunate
like myself, I had an unfortunate experience with my teacher
(19:23):
doing a science experiment and fifty percent chance of surviving.
I mean, she completely flat out messed up, had no
idea what she was doing, and changed my life forever
after that point. But I'm sure you playing in the NFL,
or even growing up in those tough areas, there has
to be so many unfortunate moments that happened they got
(19:44):
you to where.
Speaker 5 (19:44):
You're at today.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Well, the first one that jumps in my head is
my best friend. I was eleven years old and he
lived we had apartment building kind of facing each other,
and he lived right across from me, and we played
every day hot wheels, riding our bikes. I had a Huffey,
he had a mongoose, so that's a better bike. But
(20:09):
were yeah, right, right, you have no idea. They don't
make them anymore. And he was just my best friend,
but more he was an angel on earth. Like I
don't remember one time this guy being mean or selfish,
Like were playing hot wheels. You know, I have kids, now,
give them, give them one car. They are fighting over
(20:33):
that car. Give them two cars. They're fighting over those
two cars. Instead of sharing, you have one, I have one, right.
He always was giving of his things to me. He
was just an angel on earth. I don't remember one
bad thing about him. And then one day it was
like a Friday, and he was supposed to come back.
We were supposed to race our bikes soon as he
got home from school, soon as I got home from school.
(20:53):
And this time he's taking longer and longer and longer,
and I'm like supposed to be going by now, right,
And all of a sudden, we have someone at the
door telling us that Korby been hit by a car
and we had.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
To go to the hospital.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
And at that age, I didn't think it was something
that was fatal. I didn't think it was that bad,
getting hit by a car on your bike. I was like, oh, man,
he's in the hospital, broken arm, broken leg. I was
assuming that, but obviously it was much worse than that.
I get to the hospital and his family's there. I'm there,
(21:29):
I'm his best friend, and I remember the doctor's vividly
telling me I couldn't see him, and I was like why,
and they was like, cause you're not family, and I
couldn't reconcile it. I was like, okay, I'm not family,
but I'm closer than maybe three other people in his world,
like his parents and his sister or something like that.
I'm family. And they said, no, you can't see him.
(21:51):
And I'm sitting there just shocked. I was like, wow,
so I don't know how he is and I can't
visually see him. And one doctor tapped me on the
shoulder a few minutes he's come here. He said, your
friend's about to leave here and I want you to
see him on the helicopter and I was like okay,
And he took me to a window and they rolled
him out and I saw him laying there with the
(22:14):
bandages around him and the red, blood stained and that
was the last time I saw And the craziest thing was, like,
it wasn't that I knew that he was dead, because
he was still alive at that time. He passed away
the next day, and the craziest thing was I wasn't
(22:35):
allowed to say goodbye. And that's the lasting image I
have of my best friend.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
And the next day I had to track me.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
And this is how I was able to compartmentalize, and
I was able to still push through that railroad. Right,
I'm still on the tracks no matter what's coming my way.
And I did well that the track meet. Won all
my races. I was really fast at the time, so
it didn't just eard me that way. And someone walked
up to me, it was like, you're okay because you
know you're winning your races. Everybody from the outside doesn't
(23:06):
know what's going on. They're like okay, And I was like, yeah,
I'm okay. And if someone ran up and say, nah,
his best friend got hit by a car, he's he's
not okay. Then I get the news he passed away.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
From that moment on.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
I've had this weird relationship with like the deepest parts
of love. I've always wanted to go all the way
in diving to the deep end of just loving everyone.
But I've always been challenged because it can end like that.
So what I've learned from that moment is obviously, you
(23:42):
got to pour yourself into everything no matter what, even
if it's taken away from you. Right, don't be scared
to be disappointed, don't be scared to lose. But I
also am always affected by the fact that it could
be here today and gone tomorrow. And I literally had
to live that out while I was trying to figure
out who I was in this world.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
So that is an unfortunate incident, but it's given me such.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
Resolve, such character that I like, live through that moment,
I live through that legacy.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
It makes you just appreciate life more to the fullest
and just treat every day like at your last.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
Yeah, every day, every moment like not even cliche, like
for real, like I am still a guy who's when
I leave the house, I'm like, I kiss my kids,
I kiss my wife, and I don't know if everyone's
like this, but I am actually mindful that may be
my last kiss. And it feels like, oh man, that
is negative. It feels like, oh man, that's damaging, but
(24:44):
in reality, it gives me such appreciation to not take
anything for granted. And I got all that from that moment.
Speaker 4 (24:50):
It's crazy. Sorry, I was gonna say it's crazy because
life could be going so good for you and you're
like wow, like I'm living it and then just one
day it's gone forever. And just like how I said earlier,
it makes you appreciate life more. To the forest, yeah, man,
And I mean with like with myself, whenever I thought
(25:11):
I thought I was gonna be a professional golfer, and
like I was playing and practicing so hard, and then
just one day it's done. And I can't and go
out in the sun for a year because with a burn,
because it's like the swelling is so bad, and like
the surgeries and stuff and they wrap me up and
(25:32):
I can't go to the sun going to the sun
for a year because they don't want me to get
skin cancer, and like that can lead to other stuff
and other stuff. And it's just like, you know what,
I will appreciate the small things in life.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
Say it again, man. I always tell my kids that
I coach. Right now, I say, if you want to
do it big, do all the little things, you know,
And if you want to have this big life and
big goals accomplished, you got to do all the little things,
including appreciate all those little things. Just don't take them
for granted. And I've learned that, and football taught me
(26:04):
so much. That moment taught me so much. Like you
could be the man this year, mess around and just
think that you're that guy forever instead of like always
trying to work on who that is and trying to improve,
it'll be taken away from you like that. You could
be the man on this play. Oh my god, look
at that sack. Oh my god, he got Tom Brady
and the next play you get packacked.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
You know, I.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
Just got rock exactly. And I swear life is just
like that balancing act. It's that seesaw and I always
try to make sure I appreciate it.
Speaker 6 (26:37):
I feel like you need those experiences, though, to really
appreciate it. Like if you don't have any of these
like losses or tragic events in your life, you really
don't see that life can literally be taken just like that.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
Yeah, I wish, I wish man, I wish I lived
that fairy tale, and I wish somebody can to tell
me that I'm wrong, but yeah, you're right. You got
to go through the roller coaster ride to really enjoy
this thing.
Speaker 4 (26:56):
And it makes you stronger as a person.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
That yeah, it's who I mean. You just remember all
the people that have tried to do the same thing
you have. Especially football, it's kind of easy to quantify it.
You know that they only drafts what two hundred and
three hundred guys every year, and you know there are
a million plus football players in high school. You could
just drive down one city block and see two three
(27:22):
different schools practicing at the same time. That's already enough
for the entire draft. And you're like, that's just one
block in one city and you just realize that, Wow,
you accomplish what so many people have raised their hand
to try and do. And I use that more than
just a pad on the back and a stroke of
the ego, but like, wow, you can make your dreams
(27:44):
the reality, no matter what they are, no matter what
adversity you face. Because my road wasn't smooth and it
wasn't paved, I had to grind, I had to compete,
I had to work, I had to persevere. But you
can overcome it. No matter what those obstacles are.
Speaker 6 (27:58):
I feel like people like you talk about the railroad
track and the train and you always said like, no
matter what, you kept going, like you just passed by them.
But I feel like so many times they're train derailed
because of these are moments like oh, you know, I'm
not good enough. I can't be that person. But you
always just gotta keep going.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
Man, Yeah you really do? You know? I heard someone
say this.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
He said, your thoughts are not you, You are your thoughts,
And it made me think, like wow, because just imagine
what you.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
Just said lived out.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
It's like you get into a thought chamber about who
you are, right and you start to tell yourself either
great things or bad things, and since no one is
there to check it, and if you don't have that
internal fortitude and you don't have that inner discipline, it
will go unchecked. Right, So the ego like I'm killing
them out here. Every time I go out there, I
(28:54):
get a sack. Every time I'm out there, I'm the man.
You can get out of control with that next thing.
You know, maybe you're not working this hard, maybe you
think it's just gonna come to you, or the opposite.
What we call you no doubt, and you all of
a sudden start telling yourself bad things. Oh man, not
feeling good. Oh man, this dude just blocked me. Oh man,
we're down ten points, and next thing you know, you're
(29:16):
spiraling out of control towards the negative. So it's always
that balance in act between like chaos and order, and
you just got to have make make sure that you
keep that proper balance. Don't get too high, don't get
too low, stay even killed with this.
Speaker 6 (29:29):
This portion of the Burn Factory Podcast is sponsored by
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Speaker 5 (29:46):
How did you keep it?
Speaker 2 (29:47):
Like?
Speaker 6 (29:48):
I mean, because you talk about you're playing in the NFL,
like the pressure and all the the little voices in
your head, oh you're not good enough, like stuff like that.
Speaker 5 (29:55):
How did you battle through those?
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Yeah? I always keep keep.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
Like the end in mind in terms of what do
I really want out of this? So you go into
every game you want to win the game and you
want to play well, right, And I always keep that
in mind because I know that's gonna get challenged.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
I don't walk once again.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
I always build in the difficulties of every equation before
I even go on that journey. And if you don't,
you'll be surprised. And then all of a sudden, you're
not prepared because you're surprised. You shouldn't be surprised, like
when you think of you're gonna go walk out there
and score every time you get the ball, like, and
I use that as a microcosm of life, Like, Okay,
I want to I want to have a podcast.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
Well, first you gotta find the proper team.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
And then all say, okay, I got the proper team,
but one person maybe not fitting in like everyone else. Okay,
we gotta get our equipment. Maybe one of these cameras
and mics is not exactly perfect, right, Like, you just
got to keep going at it. And I think in
this world, we're told that the most successful people are
the most talented or the ones that work the hardest,
(30:59):
and I all always challenged that. I'm like, nah, it's
the ones that persevere. It's the one that gets up
one more time, who doesn't lose enthusiasm between his losses, right,
And that's what it's about like, no matter what I'm
trying to achieve, if it's my greater passion and a
goal of mine, can't give up on it.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
That's it. And so I think what I've done is.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
Endured more than my friends and my peers, the ones
that found themselves challenged and didn't attain their dreams. It
wasn't like I was better. It wasn't like I was smarter,
more athletic.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Dude. I can list ten dudes.
Speaker 3 (31:35):
Right now that were better than me and football growing up,
State's Bozman is number one. Always got to get a
name out. This dude is the best athlete I've ever seen.
But he didn't play pro. He played basketball. He chose
that number one in high school in football and number
two in high school in basketball. He was insane. But
it's about perseverance because he had more talent than me.
(31:56):
It's about just continuing on that path. But what I
always remembered was don't get off. And if you get derel,
get back on, you know, fix that damn train and
get back on the tracks.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
And that's all you have to do.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
So it's just a lot of internal work that needs
to happen before you could ever make anything happen on the.
Speaker 4 (32:14):
Outside, and it's the one who wants it the more, yeah,
or who wants it more.
Speaker 3 (32:18):
And I can't even say that, you know why I
have lost a many of battles, whether it's in sports
or in life, wanting it more than I'm sure somebody else,
like you know, it's not cliche. It's just something that
you think is a part of the ultimate success. It's
like you want it more. Two teams in a championship
(32:39):
game want it both the most like I want it,
You want it, but one is more prepared for the obstacles.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
One has a better Plan B.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
Because when you get in high stakes poker in life,
no matter what it is, you gotta go to plan B,
because I'm gonna take away your strength. I'm gonna take
away the best thing you do. Right now, What are
you gonna do? And if you haven't prepare for that moment,
or you can't react in the moment and keep yourself going,
you lose. But it's not because you don't want it.
(33:08):
It's because in this moment you probably weren't prepared for
this pivot.
Speaker 5 (33:12):
You didn't do this the little things, yeah, the thing.
Speaker 3 (33:16):
Including all right, I give you a simple example. You
write a paper. You got to turn in a five
page paper tomorrow. Priests, all right, priest gonna wait to
the last moment to do it, just like me, just
like just like all of us.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
Right, get it done.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
You don't get anything done until there's a deadline, right,
and then you're doing it. And this is what I
learned the hard way. Write that paper and you're struggling,
like at four and a half pages, like, damn it,
you gotta fluff this. Yes, I gotta get the five right.
I got the five all right, And I used to
do this. Then I turn into paper the next day.
Did I proof read it?
Speaker 4 (33:51):
No?
Speaker 2 (33:51):
No, did I take time away from it, put the
paper down.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
Go away, come back, let me check for it. And
when I finally got challenged by my teachers, like proof
read it, Marcel's the content's amazing. But I could tell
you just rush through it, And they said, take time
away from it, look at it, spin it, turn it around,
and then challenge yourself to read it again. And when
(34:15):
I start doing that, I will find my own mistakes
before I even turned it in.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
So she can find my mistakes.
Speaker 3 (34:21):
How many times in life is there a task for
you that all you do is just do it, or
you just walk into it, rush, wait for the end,
wait writing before it's due, and just do it. And
if you just challenge yourself to.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Say, wait a minute, my goal is this.
Speaker 3 (34:37):
I got to continue always to look at it and
proof read it and correct it. Then you'll find yourself
in a better place. You'll turn in better work. That
doesn't mean you got better. You're not a better student
for that. This is a smarter student who's making sure
he's taking care of himself.
Speaker 6 (34:52):
Yeah, a little little things, the little things will will
really get you to where you are today.
Speaker 5 (34:57):
But that's going to do it for you.
Speaker 6 (34:58):
Unfortunate losing your bead friend, like I couldn't even imagine,
we went through tragedy ourselves, but like actually losing the life,
that's that's got to be hard. But I feel like
that moment really got you to where you are today.
But we got to move and move onto our our
stands for ridiculous. So ten season in the NFL chuckled
(35:19):
want all the way turn it up to ten. But
I mean all all the traveling, all the fans, all
the pictures, all the like, were there any ridiculous burn
moments that you could share with us.
Speaker 3 (35:30):
Yeah, let me start with the first one. Okay. So
I grew up. I'm a John L.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
Way fan. You guys heard of him, goody.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
Oh Man talking about the man that's the governor, if
not the mayor Denver for sure, John L Way, Eric Dickerson.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
I was a running back. So yeah, yeah, I thought.
Speaker 3 (35:51):
I was gonna be Eric Dickerson and fast and tall
and skinny at that time. Uh So, I wanted to
be John L. Way because he could just throw the
ball in on the ends. I was like, oh, I
love this dude. I remember coming home like it fell
like eleventh grade Mom, Can I get a John that
Way Jersey?
Speaker 2 (36:07):
What? And I was like, damn every time I heard
that what that quick? What that means?
Speaker 3 (36:11):
Don't even try? But I'm like, I get the John
that Way Jersey?
Speaker 2 (36:15):
How much?
Speaker 3 (36:16):
And I was like I think it was like sixty
dollars at full lock or so I'm just like, hey,
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
And I was like, all I kind of knew that
was coming. I could tell by your.
Speaker 3 (36:23):
What, So just move on. It's another thing I can't
get whatever. I wasn't that kid, So there are kids
in that moment that all of a sudden they get thirsty.
I gotta have that jersey, right, So some of them
in a good way to go start selling lemonade or
candy or whatever it may be, right to get the
money to do it. I wasn't that kid. I didn't
give it damn that much. There are some kids that
actually do some bad things to go get that money.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
Right. Yeah, uncle, come here, how can I get sixty dollars?
Speaker 5 (36:47):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (36:48):
I hook you up. I hook you up, nephew and
steal it or whatever. Right.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
I wasn't that kid. I was this kid, Okay, I
tuk it away. One day I'm gonna become somebody and
my mo I buy my own damn jersey, right, and
that somebody turn into an NFL rookie first game ever
in the NFL Buffalo Bills, a team I was drafted to.
Traveling to Denver Mile High Stadium, right, get off the plane,
(37:14):
I'm like, Wow, this is real. I can't breathe.
Speaker 6 (37:17):
It's oh, it's awful headaches.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
Yo.
Speaker 3 (37:23):
I was like, yo, I thought it was just like
some folklore, some fables. I said, I'm gonna play tomorrow.
We figure it out. Get on the field and we're
warming up. So if you visualize a football field, one
team has that fifty and other team has this fifty
and our backstory to each other. Right, So I'm not starting.
(37:43):
I'm a rookie and I'm watching Bruce Smith and I'm
watching our defense go out there, and I'm like at
the fifty yard line and I'm like, you know what
you should do? Turn around and look at them. And
it really was just to find John that Way, Like,
where's John that Way?
Speaker 2 (37:57):
Right now?
Speaker 3 (37:58):
Now you're on the field with John Elway? Find John Elway?
Now you gotta have this fake focus. A lot of
times in sports, right the guys on the bench, I'll
be like, yeah, oh god, oh yeah, really in their head, like, yo,
you see that girl on the third row, man, you
got a fake focus. If not, coach is gonna check
the film and look at you. You're not into it,
you know. So I'm like fake focus watching Bruce Ooh move, Okay,
(38:22):
where's John Alway?
Speaker 2 (38:23):
Turn around?
Speaker 3 (38:24):
So I'm imagining when I turn around, He's gonna be
somewhere way away, and I'm just gonna have this moment
and be like, wow, that was dope, didn't happen that way.
I turn around and guess who's three feet if not
closer to me seven l Way. And I was like, ah,
and it wasn't a foot locker jersey. This was the
(38:46):
real one. Mama, Yeah take that. And I was like,
that is the John Elway right there. Play the game.
I ain't touch on my insack, mightn't do a damn thing.
That was as close as I got to John that
way a pregame, because during the game, I didn't do
a damn thing. But I say that because because that's ridiculous.
Like I used to be the kid throwing the football
up at the ceiling, the popcorn ceiling in our apartment,
(39:07):
so it was snowfall every time, right, and I used
to just dream about making it. My dream was twofold,
become a school teacher or NFL football player, and I
used to just dream about it. And then obviously my
dreams were focused on being John Elway or being Eric Dickerson.
And then the first NFL experience and moment I have
(39:29):
is being on the field with my actual dream my
favorite players. So I tell that story to everyone because
I want them to realize how ridiculous a dream may sound.
May feel in the moment, but how really can become.
Speaker 5 (39:41):
Yeah, that's super cool.
Speaker 6 (39:44):
Growing So growing up going into football, like, was the
NFL the ultimate goal or was it just kind of
a thing that kind of like grew and grew and
grew and you're like, oh, hold up, maybe I can
I can make it.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
Yeah, I would say the latter.
Speaker 3 (39:56):
I wasn't like the stereotype, like you know, in the hood,
everybody want to go to the league. I was like,
and in part because everybody wanted to go to league,
I was like, well, all y'all want to go, somebody
ain't let me prepare for just in case. So I
always wanted a high safety net. I knew too many
good football players better than me who didn't make it,
so I wasn't foolish enough to just put all my
(40:18):
eggs in that basket. So I always had that balancing act.
I always took care of my school and my studies
and made sure I was challenging myself as much academically as.
Speaker 2 (40:28):
I was athletically.
Speaker 3 (40:29):
So I never got out of balance, like, oh my god,
I'm the man in football for good school. I was like, nope,
I can't forget school. And when I had the opportunity
to choose colleges. I had a lot of football factories
after me, right then I had Columbia after me as well,
And certainly choosing Columbia wasn't the best thing for my
NFL career if I were going to make it to
(40:51):
the NFL, but I wanted that high safety net. I
didn't want to go back to the neighborhood saying, oh, man,
you know what happened. I didn't want that. I've seen
it time and time again. You're injury away, right, I
lost my best friend like that. So I'm a guy
that knows any given Sunday it can go away for you, right.
So I just gave myself the best reputation in terms
(41:14):
of academics and athletics. But I wanted to go to
the league. But I wasn't stupid enough to think that
it was going to actually happen.
Speaker 4 (41:20):
But you led Columbia to its best record since nineteen
forty five at eight and two, Columbia, Yeah, best record
since nineteen forty five.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
Damn yeah, man, that's love.
Speaker 5 (41:35):
I couldn't have mattered.
Speaker 6 (41:36):
How hard was it to balance like studies at Columbia
and football?
Speaker 3 (41:40):
Like hmm, tough. Bruh, is there another word that's harder
than tough? Like it was hell oh man? Because they
don't give you. They don't give you any they give
you support, They just don't cut corners. They just don't
give you like a lighter load because you're playing football.
They didn't care, like you're gonna play football hundred percent.
(42:01):
You're gonna be a student at Columbia one hundred percent,
so you have two hundred percent, not like some of
the football factories. I hear stories of guys who actually
got a little lighter load academically. Oh you know he
has a game. Oh you know he has practice. Oh
you know he has to travel. Oh no, no, yeah, the
big scass. It's a little bit different in terms of
(42:22):
the leveling, but Columbia hundred hundred. We don't give a
damn So it was really tough. The best part about
Columbia was one people were as competitive in the classroom as.
Speaker 2 (42:35):
I was used to people being competitive on.
Speaker 3 (42:37):
The field, like they I knew a dude who would
take a nap before every class, right, he would take
a nap, wake up, put on a suit, and go
to class. I was like, where you're going after class,
He's like, we mean, I'm going back home, probably go
to study and sleep again. Right, all he did was
get ready, he got geared up, he got geeked up
for class, like what does this dude?
Speaker 2 (42:59):
And that was just the norm.
Speaker 3 (43:01):
Guys that were really challenging themselves to just be great students.
And the other thing that I loved about Columbia was
no one was thinking to use their body to make it.
And I loved that because it was refreshing, like no
one was thinking that, oh man, I'm gonna play sports,
and then it was all between the ears.
Speaker 2 (43:19):
I know I'm gonna make it.
Speaker 3 (43:21):
I know I'm gonna climb this mountain and there are
a lot of different paths, but I'm gonna use my
brain over my body. And that was just good to
see because everywhere growing up it was just the opposite.
Speaker 2 (43:31):
It was just a flip.
Speaker 4 (43:32):
Well, it was a burn moment choosing Columbia over going
to these top schools you had.
Speaker 2 (43:38):
It was tough.
Speaker 3 (43:39):
It was challenging because my friends didn't support it, and
you know, I'm seventeen at the time, so you got
act like your friends don't matter in their opinions, but
it does, right, So The toughest part was actually just
locking in. My mom didn't even want me to go
to Columbia. She's like, that's too damn far. I was like, Mommy,
do you have any other reasons? And she was like, no,
(43:59):
that's it too far. And I was like, it's a
great school. She didn't even want to go there, so
that was challenging. What else was challenging was the fact
that my friends kept clown to me like, oh, you
ain't going pro now, damn you going to that sorry
as football school.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
I was like wait.
Speaker 3 (44:13):
I was like, I could be a big vish in
a little pond. Yeah, whatever, And then I was like, no,
I could make it. It's like, dude, where are you
going to school? And I had one friend this was
the funniest. I was like, I'm thinking about going to Columbia.
He was like, you're going to school in South America.
Speaker 4 (44:29):
We got something I would say, this is something I
would say, it is something you would say.
Speaker 2 (44:34):
So yeah, man.
Speaker 3 (44:36):
What made me make the decision was simple. I told
my guidance counselor at the time all the schools that
were interested in me, and she was like, yes, yes, yes, yes,
Oh that's amazing.
Speaker 2 (44:45):
Great experience. Oh, go, Marcealis, go.
Speaker 3 (44:47):
And then I mentioned Columbia and she said, and her
reaction was different, and she said, Marshall's I'm not going
to tell you what to do, but go to Columbia.
And I was like really, And I was like why.
She's like, I'm not going to tell you what to do,
but it's gonna really help you out in the long run.
So it was an easy decision for me once I
kind of put everything together, stop being a seventeen year
(45:09):
old and start being the thirty to forty year old
who which diploma did I want?
Speaker 2 (45:14):
Hanging up?
Speaker 3 (45:15):
And what gave me an opportunity to still go and
live up my dreams and make it to the NFL.
And Columbia, even though it was tougher, still gave me
that opportunity.
Speaker 6 (45:22):
Yeah, there was a quote in your book that you
talked about how when you were younger, you went into
the kitchen and your mom was on your phone, and
then you go to your sister, she was on the phone,
and you talked about how everyone around you was a
talker and you didn't want to be a talker.
Speaker 5 (45:38):
So where did that mentality kind of kind of come from?
Speaker 3 (45:41):
Yeah, man, I still am like post traumatic stress when
I see somebody on the phone around me, and it's
the worst. And I shouldn't be this way. I need
to get healed. I need healing, get this Because my
family was like they get off work, coming home from school,
and they just jump on the phone and talk about
their day and I'm like, all right, talk about goals,
talk about your dreams, talk about something else. They just gossiping.
(46:03):
Did you see Luis?
Speaker 2 (46:04):
What's she wearing? This stuff?
Speaker 3 (46:06):
Like, all right, anything else? And they were like just gossiping.
And I was like, man, come on, get off the phone.
Let's do something. Not talk about it, be about it.
And I used to just judge and I use the
phone kind of like something that tells me, don't just talk.
Don't just be about talk. You know a lot of
times you can waste your twenty four hours in a
(46:27):
day laterally because you're just planning, you're just talking about it.
You're just talking about people, right, instead of talking about
what you really want. Where is your where are your goals?
What are your greatest ambitions? So I hated that growing up,
and it really challenged me to not be just a talker.
Speaker 2 (46:43):
Then I literally have a career in talking.
Speaker 3 (46:46):
That's all we do too.
Speaker 2 (46:48):
But yeah, man, it was just funny.
Speaker 3 (46:50):
I really miss judge a lot of my family because
they just wanted to release from the day and just
be normal, right, socialized.
Speaker 2 (47:00):
I was sitting there like game planning every time.
Speaker 3 (47:01):
No no, no, no, not time for us to be sitting
here fluffing and talking about Luis's dress. Just game plan
how do we get out in the hood. And I
guess I was the mad scientist that had to come
up with that game plan.
Speaker 4 (47:12):
That's crazy, all right, Marcella's we've been on our It's
time to go to n and burn. It's two parts
now and next. Are there any burn moments now or
are there any burn moments coming up? Oh?
Speaker 3 (47:26):
Oh well, there's a burner moment now leaving Fox. I
think it's a burn moment for me and a lot
of people. And I can't ever pay it justice in
terms of articulating why, because there are so many reasons,
so many levels and layers to it. But in short,
(47:50):
I've always chased my goals and my dreams, right, and
my goal in life and dream in life wasn't to
talk sports surface level, you know it wasn't just to
be an ice skater in sports like Okay Dak Prescott,
Okay Cowboys, Okay Lebron.
Speaker 2 (48:07):
Or who's gonna win?
Speaker 3 (48:08):
Like the headlines, yeah, and just results like who's the better,
who's better, who's the gold? And like I was like,
your story, our story, the process, how do you get
to become that person that we're talking about just on
the surface level. I was much more invested in that
(48:29):
that was who I was. Remember, I'm a football player
or a school teacher. So I love to grab a
person at the fork in the road and help them
out and talk through that and go through that process
with him. So after being in the business for twenty
years and realizing I was going to just do more
of the same, I was like, it's time to go
chase your dreams and really challenge yourself to do it.
Speaker 2 (48:52):
Now.
Speaker 3 (48:52):
The tough thing is you get paid a lot of
money to be up in there, like it's Kate y'all,
it was fluffy. But someone told me in the process
when I was really like I'm gonna bet on myself
and just do it my way, that they were like, Okay,
I'm glad that you're not going to stay in a
velvet coughing.
Speaker 2 (49:10):
They call it. I was like velvet coughing.
Speaker 3 (49:12):
It was like, yeah, you're fluffed up, You're feeling good
and comfortable and nice, but you're dead on the inside, right,
You're not really loving that. And my friends, one by one,
all of a sudden start popping up and telling me
stories of when I first got into broadcasting that I
told them I wanted to be Larry King. I was
like really, and they were like nah. They told me
(49:34):
how you like want to be doctor Phield And I
was like really, I told all you guys all this
doing the road, but I just turned into like a
baby version of stephen A.
Speaker 2 (49:43):
I was like, which is know this?
Speaker 3 (49:45):
It's just like that, ain't me?
Speaker 2 (49:47):
I wanted to do this and.
Speaker 3 (49:48):
I'm just getting fluffed up, stuffed like a turkey up here.
And I was like, man, I got to chase my dreams,
chase my goals. There are too many people to help,
too many real conversations I think that are to be
had with people that really.
Speaker 2 (50:02):
Want to have them.
Speaker 3 (50:03):
And I think even athletes want to have this discussion,
and I know the audience is right for it. So
the burn moment was that the burn moment that's next
is putting it all together. Continue to talk through the
podcast's original content and deeper form, and so far has
been so rewarding, not only in terms of fulfillment, but
also in the returns, Like Wow, I'm gonna mess around
(50:27):
and make more money doing this.
Speaker 2 (50:28):
It's crazy, right.
Speaker 5 (50:29):
And it's what you love.
Speaker 6 (50:30):
You're not You're not just following this hamster wheel talking
about Lamar Jackson for the last two weeks, like stuff
like that.
Speaker 5 (50:37):
Tell how it is, tell us the stuff that we
want to hear.
Speaker 2 (50:40):
Yeah, for real.
Speaker 3 (50:41):
And it's funny because now you know, those are all
my friends and I watch them and I'm sitting there
just giggling on inside. Oh oh, trade deadline, you know,
franchise Yeah yeah, and they have to do it and
I had to do it for twenty years. And now
the same person or the same topic. Oh, I could
take it wherever I want to. And to me, that's
(51:01):
so fulfilling.
Speaker 6 (51:02):
You think a lot more people are gonna kind of
follow you and kind of venture off and do their
own thing too, or are they too stuffed.
Speaker 3 (51:09):
That Bell m coffin does feel good? Don't get it twisted. Yeah,
they're gonna follow me because I'm following someone else. You know,
I'm following the guys Joe rogan A, Pat McAfee, etc.
You know, I'm watching those guys, And like I told you,
I get jealous and I love it because it just
motivates me. I'm like, I'm not jealous and like I'm
gonna pull you down. I'm jealous, like, oh, I gotta
(51:29):
get up there, right, I'm like, I gotta get there,
and I'm so competitive that I won't stop until I
get there. And I'm like issuing that challenge to everybody,
come get it. I used to speak at panels all
the time and cats wanted to be me. They said,
they were like, oh, I want to be a sports reporter.
I want to be a broadcaster. And I used to
always give them as much information and many jewels as
(51:50):
I could, and I said, and I will always end
like this, Now go out there and come take my job,
like I want you to come get this because guess
what I'm coming to get that. And that's just what
I do. And it's so fun. I go downstairs at
my home and my basement not even half of this.
I'm still jealous, you guys, but I go on my
(52:11):
home studio, and I just plow our work and it's
just I would do it twenty five hours a day,
like the day's not long enough.
Speaker 2 (52:19):
I just love doing it.
Speaker 3 (52:21):
And then just chasing these kids around man, being a
coach and being a chauffeur.
Speaker 4 (52:24):
Oh that's awesome. I got the little young ends trying
to follow your footsteps.
Speaker 3 (52:28):
Yeah, man, a two year old or four year old
to seven year old. And then my daughter that's twenty four.
She's at Columbia grad School graduating in May.
Speaker 2 (52:36):
Loving life.
Speaker 4 (52:37):
Yeah, congrats to her.
Speaker 3 (52:38):
Yeah, she's a beast. She's after it. She's such a
good person. That's why I'm so proud of hers. Like, yeah,
she's smart, Yes, she's beautiful. She is.
Speaker 2 (52:46):
She's a great person.
Speaker 3 (52:48):
She's just a good person, high character, and I love that.
Then the little ones, man, you know, I'm gonna just
support them wherever they want to go.
Speaker 2 (52:55):
And so far, so special, especially my little boy.
Speaker 3 (52:58):
He loves football more than me, which is scary, and
I'm like, it skipped the generation because my dad is
that way. My dad loves football. My dad talks about
football no matter what the conversation is. I'm like, Dad,
I'm about to go in the podcast. Oh yeah's a
football podcast?
Speaker 2 (53:13):
No factor?
Speaker 3 (53:14):
Oh okay, yeah, are they talking about how you burned
it up when you were playing? I was like, no, daddy,
And after that, we're going to go to a comedy show.
Oh does he like football? The comedian? I was like, damn,
And so now my son has that bug. I didn't
have that bug. I just was like, look, let me
just try and do the best I can and whatever
I do. So my son literally come in the house
now march. Daddy, is there any football on him?
Speaker 5 (53:37):
Like, dude, yes, XFL?
Speaker 3 (53:39):
Yeah exactly. He calls that preseason football. I was like,
that's cold, Like everything's out the NFL. Like, Dady, want
to watch more preseason? I was like, it's not pre season,
it's XFL. So I just love it, man. It's fun
every day, new challenges, new ways to do it.
Speaker 4 (53:52):
Make sure they do what they love.
Speaker 3 (53:54):
There it is now we're talking right. Yes, you want
to do it big, you gotta do it a little
things be greater than your greatest excuse.
Speaker 2 (54:02):
That's what I teach my kids. Damn it to hear.
Speaker 5 (54:05):
What does it be greater than your greatest excuse?
Speaker 2 (54:07):
Yeah, because we all got one I'm.
Speaker 5 (54:08):
Gonna go home and write that on my mirror.
Speaker 2 (54:10):
Hey, there you go.
Speaker 4 (54:11):
I could write it. I could write I write it
in my notebook out there.
Speaker 3 (54:14):
And that's a must.
Speaker 4 (54:18):
Well, Marcellus, you just spelt Burn crazy inspirational story, very inspiring,
from losing one of your best friends to pulling that
deep dog out of you and just catapulting your life
from there. And as a gift for coming on the podcast,
(54:38):
we will be giving you the Burn Factory Black label
edition hood you only keep in mind only guests get
these streaks.
Speaker 6 (54:50):
For giving you the Burn Factory Black Edition.
Speaker 2 (54:55):
The Villains in Black Street, I've been on the Burn.
Speaker 6 (55:00):
You're gonna have to worry that on your next your
next podcast episode, I will too, and then send us.
Speaker 5 (55:04):
You'll send us some of your gear and we'll do
the same we gear.
Speaker 3 (55:07):
I'm telling us that. No, man, you guys up for sure.
This is dope.
Speaker 2 (55:12):
Man.
Speaker 6 (55:12):
Tell the audience where they can find you, Instagram, your podcast,
give it all to them.
Speaker 3 (55:17):
Yeah, I don't want you to find me for real, Like,
don't come with my house, I chill out. No, No,
you can find me, marcellous way on all socials.
Speaker 2 (55:24):
Uh, and you can find me man.
Speaker 3 (55:26):
Everywhere you guys are looking in terms of sports content,
life content, cultural content.
Speaker 2 (55:31):
Just trying to help people out. Man, That's who I am.
Speaker 3 (55:33):
I'm built for that, So follow me on socials. You
guys know, I engage back. So I got my my
Kevin Durant burner accounts too, So I'm the one. Marcello's
is amazing. That's my burner accounts and then my real accounts.
I'm the one that actually asks answers all the questions
from people. Just love life, man, and just trying to
keep it going awome.
Speaker 6 (55:52):
Thank you so much. Marcellus is amazing being on the show.
You're such an inspiration to us. And I'm gonna go
write that quote. Yes, yes, me too, and proof read it.
That's what I needed to do.
Speaker 4 (56:03):
But you heard the man. Go give him some love
and always please visit my foundation at Priest James Foundation
dot or again Priest James Foundation dot or to understand
why this is called the burn Factory. I'll see you
guys for the next episode.
Speaker 3 (56:19):
Peace all right, guys.
Speaker 4 (56:22):
Marcellus wileye NFL players.
Speaker 3 (56:26):
I love it.
Speaker 4 (56:28):
Just felt he just felt burn in his life and
he called himself the champs. So now he has to
call out someone who you calling out.
Speaker 3 (56:39):
Stop the best best receiver that ever played on the borough.
Speaker 2 (56:46):
Fact you stopped playing with.
Speaker 5 (56:47):
The big dollars, Marcel, and I know you want this belt.
Speaker 3 (56:52):
Come get it. My sister from other podcast, let's go,
Let's do it, brother,
Hosts And Creators
LaVar Arrington
TJ Houshmandzadeh
Plaxico Burress
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