Alejandro Villanueva: Growing up in Europe, Joining the Army Rangers, and Becoming a Farmer

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Every every parent in the United States will dream to
have the lottery of having a kid like this. Every
dad wants to have a you know, oh my god,
I can't wait for my son to be six ten.
That opened us up the playbook. I can be basketball,
I can do football, I can do any sport. But
what happens if you're from a small town in the
middle of nowhere in southern Spain, three miles away from Africa, Like.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
You know, what do you do?

Speaker 3 (00:22):
What kind of sports do you do? So I never
had a chance.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Basically, what's up? Everybody on Peanut to him?

Speaker 4 (00:33):
And this is the NFL Player's Second Acts podcast with
me as always as my trusty co host Roman. I
don't have my Pineapple T shirt on Harper.

Speaker 5 (00:44):
Yes, you know, I'm just I'm still used to you
just shooting shots that everybody in the room, and I'm
really looking forward to our next guest. He's the biggest
man in the room, probably in every room he's been in.

Speaker 4 (00:55):
He's a graduate at West Point, served in the US Army.
He didn't more towards in Afghanistan. He's got several awards,
He's a combat veteran. He's received a Bronze Star for Valor.
In his second act, he he played left tackle, played
seven seasons for the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Ravens. And
his third act, he is a farmer and he is

(01:18):
killing it in the homestead. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome
to the pod misster Alejandro Villanueva.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
Did I say that right? I just bro I tried
so hard not to butcher the last part.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
Villanueva like, outside of Miami, that's a that's a great,
that's a that's a that's a that's an A.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
In Miami.

Speaker 3 (01:40):
Now we can place you exactly where you're in the city.

Speaker 4 (01:42):
Now, yeah, I will take what I can get. I
was like, Damn, I really ain't trying to butcher this
man's last name. So Alejandro, I like, I can. I
can mock that all day, but the last.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
When I first came to the United States, Uh, there's
a lot of people from the South that in the army.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
So when they read my name is said Alejandro, Alejandro Alejandro,
and it got stuck as Ali. So I'm a Catholic
kid from Spain and his new name is Ali. My
name is Ali. For people in the Army still call
me Ali. Everybody in the army calls me Ali. And
then when I went to the NFL, I try to
introduce myself as Alejandro or Alejandro or they make you.

Speaker 3 (02:14):
And then my coach said, not but your name is Al.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
Somebody two names of Ali and now and then finally,
you know, I got in here the Miami people. People
are not can call me my name, but I understand
that it's one of the most difficult names to pronounce,
uh for the for the English names.

Speaker 5 (02:28):
And of course, you know football, nobody likes. Everybody has
a nickname. Everybody's an Nobody's going like your whole name
all day long. I'm Charles, not Peanuts. Mine was either
Rome or Harp. It was yeah, easy, easy, That's what
everybody did. So I'm sure somebody called you Villa or Ali,
Ali and Al.

Speaker 3 (02:47):
There have been not two my two names, Ali and
Al big Al.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
I couldn't say it. Just don't don't it. Don't it's
too long.

Speaker 4 (02:54):
I get a point across when I'm yeling with all
those damn syllables, So it don't really it don't really
hit like that. I want to talk about your upbringing
in the military, So my dad did twenty years in
the army. I'm a military brat. Your dad did he
served time in the Spanish Navy, If I'm not mistaken right,
he served time in the Spanish Navy. You guys moved

(03:14):
around different schools. I'm the same way. I like to say,
I'm from Chicago and then from you and all my
others Like, bro, you ain't from nowhere.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
You from Texas.

Speaker 4 (03:24):
You're from Chicago, You're from Louisiana, You're from Kansas, You're
from Like do you do your friends tease you about
that when you're like oh, they say, oh, yeah, where
you from?

Speaker 2 (03:33):
And you'll be like, oh, well, do you pick up
a spot where you're from? Well, that's the same one.

Speaker 3 (03:37):
I mean, I'm from Mississippi.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
People laugh.

Speaker 3 (03:40):
You know what I said, I'm Missisippi.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
Sound like that, bro, Misissippi.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
So like, you know, if to be from Mississippi is
a huge statement, you know what I mean. There's not
an Alejandro vi Illinois a sixth ten from Mississippi. But that's
where they teach all pilots how to fly, particularly if
the United States is selling what in systems to those
countries and so uh NATO is a is A is
a big organization one that is you know right now

(04:07):
and and and especially particularly with Spain is going through
some some some issues. But uh, but my father was
was stationed in Meridian, Mississippi, uh, when he was learning
how to fly, and so I was born in Mississippi.
But then after that I've lived you know, I've got
miamis the eighteenth city that I lived in. So I've
been living all around the world. I would say, like
my favorite, Savannah, Georgia is one of my favorite places.

Speaker 2 (04:31):
The food, the food is incredible, food.

Speaker 1 (04:34):
The culture is amazing, especially when you come from outside,
like I understand the South is complex for people from
the South, but for me coming from outside of the
United States, it's it's it's it's interesting, it's it's very
interesting to see the dynamics of how a city gets built.
The difference between Savannah and uh and Charleston, for example,
that are right.

Speaker 2 (04:51):
Next to each other.

Speaker 3 (04:52):
One is more British, one was more French.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
The Savannah River, Like how how rivers are so crucial
in the United States for development. The Savannah Port is
one of the largest on the East coast United States.
I think it's the second largest.

Speaker 2 (05:04):
So look at your little historian.

Speaker 3 (05:06):
Oh yeah, yeah, I love this South.

Speaker 1 (05:08):
I love Georgia, I love Savannah. I know where prov
Villa is very well.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
Look at that eighty five to sixty five to eighty two.
Yeah yeah, you're not talking about where he from.

Speaker 4 (05:18):
You just you just making Yeah, he's just like it's true.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
True.

Speaker 1 (05:23):
I used to we used to party and when I
was in the army, when I just graduated. You know,
for Benning Georgia, we used to go to Auburn in
negative fifteen minutes. Yes, because it's an hour away and
forty five minutes.

Speaker 2 (05:34):
That is true.

Speaker 1 (05:35):
So you can just take eighty two all the way,
you know, to the Auburn, or you can go to
the exclus if you feel a little more.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
Yeah, love frog eighty two. That is like going through
my hometowl exactly. What do you know? That is nobody
pumping his head up right now. Nobody talk about my
hometown now one time ever, since it ain't nothing to
talk about. I drove through his hometown. I was like, hey, Roam,
I'm man your hometown. Hey room, I'm out of your hometown. Yeah,
that thing is so small.

Speaker 4 (05:59):
So you didn't start playing football till you were in Belgium.

Speaker 2 (06:06):
Yes, you know, but you had played rugby, rugby.

Speaker 4 (06:10):
You had played some other sports your your parents had tried.

Speaker 2 (06:13):
Swimming, swimming. I was a swimmer, Yeah, my whole life.

Speaker 4 (06:15):
And so come on, talk to us about your whole
kind of upbringing. Yeah, so, like, what is the sport?
What is the activity that people are trying to push
you to do.

Speaker 3 (06:23):
Yes, that's a great question.

Speaker 1 (06:25):
So every every parent in the United States will dream
to have the lottery of having a kid like this.
Every dad wants to have a you know, oh my god,
I can't wait for my son to be six ten.
That opened us up the playbook. I can play basketball,
I can do football, I can do any sport. But
what happens if you're from a small town in the
middle of nowhere in southern Spain, three miles away from Africa, Like,

(06:46):
you know, what do you do? What kind of sports
do you do? So I never had a chance basically,
and in Spain, the only.

Speaker 3 (06:53):
Sport is soccer. It's soccer or soccer. It's which one
do you want to choose? You know, there's there's no.

Speaker 2 (07:00):
Football, like they call it soccer. Yeah, whatever, soccer.

Speaker 1 (07:03):
It's the only chance to do anything in sports, and
you have to sacrifice your entire life to become a
soccer player. So it's not like in the United States
where you can go to college, you can receive an education.
There is a little bit more like hockey, like you
have to start putting your.

Speaker 2 (07:17):
Kids in to follow their dreams.

Speaker 1 (07:21):
And because my father was moving constantly all the time
and my parents are not soccer players, I was just
along for the ride with my parents with every single
base that we went to. Right, what do we do here?
You know, I want to try to put you in basketball. Okay,
I'll play a year of basketball. The level is never
really competitive, you know, but it's fun.

Speaker 2 (07:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (07:39):
The only people that are going to be in the
stands watching and you're gonna be my parents. And so
swimming was a constant because I was in a naval basis,
so I became a swimmer. Swimming was my passion. But
then one day asked my dad, how much do you
make if I win the gold medal in the Olympics?
And I think you said, I think you made like
fifteen thousand dollars. I said that find me another sport,
get me out of this. This is this is not enough. Uh,

(08:00):
And It wasn't until I went to an American high
school in Belgium that I got the chance to play
American football.

Speaker 2 (08:04):
How were I was sixteen?

Speaker 3 (08:08):
Okay, and and and I mean I got that.

Speaker 1 (08:11):
Not only did I did, I got a chance to
start playing football, but I got a chance to travel
and see Europe because I was seeing all the bases
or you know, whether the US. You know, US, I
think at one point had half a million troops in
West Germany. So we still had all the bases, and
so we would go to like Ramstein, we would go
to stutt.

Speaker 3 (08:28):
Guard, we would go all around.

Speaker 2 (08:30):
UH Shack used to play UH in Mannheim. I think.

Speaker 1 (08:34):
So it's not that uncommon UH to have kids come
out and and and and have some level of competition.
So for me, you know, I fell in love with
the dynamics of a football team, fell in love with
the dynamics of of American high school, American culture, and
so ever since, I said, if I have the chance,
I'll play football. And so when I went to West Point,
I walked into the team I started playing. I never

(08:56):
really had a position, and I never really knew how
to play football in terms of the intensity. I mean
as a European you do everything a little.

Speaker 3 (09:04):
Bit soft and gentle.

Speaker 1 (09:05):
And then when you come to the United States, especially
when you're coming here to the South, if you see
kids out here in West prom with like the little kids,
you know, like the pouncy twins or another way there
raising these pipows, I mean, that's that's how you that's
how you raise somebody to play football. And I did
not have that in me. So any position that I play,
I was always I just looked like a soft, disinterested kid,
you know. Uh, until I started playing a wide receiver,

(09:26):
and I said, man, wide receiver was fun, like catching
the ball, getting yards, touchdowns, la la la la la
and so.

Speaker 3 (09:32):
And I was a lot bigger than all the.

Speaker 1 (09:33):
Other cornerbacks, so when I had to block, it was
it was the whole game became extremely fun. And uh
and then and then I said, okay, I understand footba
football is about being, you know, ripping people's heads off, violent,
having intense, just having the raging you and and and
and and doing it to impose.

Speaker 3 (09:50):
Your will on the other person.

Speaker 1 (09:51):
I mean, all those all those evil medieval concepts started
creeping into my head. And I loved American football from
that moment I was hooked, and so I was trying
to find any any position on the field.

Speaker 3 (10:01):
I don't care what it is.

Speaker 1 (10:03):
Tackle happened to be the position that fed my family,
and so I ended up playing tackle.

Speaker 3 (10:06):
But if I could go back, I would I love
to play wide receiver.

Speaker 2 (10:09):
Now when you played tackle, did it did it come natural?
Was it easy? Like with the footwork and everything? Being
a tall guy?

Speaker 4 (10:15):
Because I know when my daughter, My daughter's like six feet,
so she's tall, but as she's a young pup getting
and growing into her body, trying to figure it out,
it's just like Scooby Doo, like they're tripping all over
the damn place and trying to.

Speaker 1 (10:28):
I feel like, unless you're Joe Thomas, and I know
that you guys interviewed him recently, that's you're Joe Joe Thomas.
Playing offensive lineman just does not come natural. Especially tackle.
Your foot is all over the place. You're just you're
jiggling because you know it's true, and you're just trying
to do your best.

Speaker 3 (10:44):
You're trying to do your best.

Speaker 1 (10:45):
You try to do your best at getting you know,
I managing getting beat. You're trying to do your best
at you know, uh, firing off the ball in uncomfortable
situations and moving your body.

Speaker 2 (10:54):
Wizard, you don't have to.

Speaker 1 (10:55):
So I don't think anybody plays again unless you're Joe
Thomas and you have to get coiled up in that
you don't play comfortable. Offensive line is being comfortable at
being uncomfortable. And so for me, you know, from the army,
I said, you know what, I can play tackle. I
had an amazing teammates and uh, and the transition into
an O line room is easier than any other room

(11:16):
in an NFL lockera because offensive linemen thrive when everybody
When everybody plays well, that's when you that's when you
play well.

Speaker 2 (11:23):
A true team that it is, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (11:25):
The biggest competitor a on a wide receiver room is
not another wide receiver, another team. It's your teammates standing
next to you. That's the biggest that's the person you
have to try to beat. But in an offensive line room,
you're trying to If your guard plays well, then you're
gonna play well.

Speaker 4 (11:39):
Now, how much time did you all actually spend at
or in practice? I know, military, Uh, military schools are
a lot different than in Alabama Louisana Lafiette, like y'all
got to do.

Speaker 2 (11:54):
What you compare Alabama to Louisiana. Oh don't. First off,
first off.

Speaker 3 (11:58):
We gonna get into I love it.

Speaker 4 (12:01):
We're working on we're working on getting you a jersey
because you you and the wrong sport shirt right now.

Speaker 2 (12:06):
But we'll get to that later. Anyway.

Speaker 4 (12:09):
Louisiana Alabama all good schools, right, but when they practice
and they do things like, it's geared toward that program
you're at the you're at West Point right, So completely
different organization as far how how you guys tackle football? Yes,
you guys wake up and do pt and you got

(12:30):
to do other things that all the other soldiers or
cadet students, I don't know what they call cadets. Yeah,
y'all got to do something else. But then you got
to go do practice, do all your other stuff, and
then you have to do other stuff that whatever the school.

Speaker 2 (12:45):
Requires you to do.

Speaker 4 (12:46):
Yes, correct, So how much time did you actually spend
in football?

Speaker 1 (12:52):
The thing is that I don't know because I know
I didn't go to Alabama, So I'm assuming that if
I mean meeting time is meeting time. There's only so
much information that the brain can process. Once you go
over an hour and a half, I don't care if
you're at Stanford or Alabama. You know, people just start
getting fried with information. You cannot process that much. Yeah,
I do think that there's n cub A limitations when

(13:16):
you can.

Speaker 2 (13:19):
So I don't think.

Speaker 3 (13:19):
I don't think Army violated any of those. I'm sure
that Alabama might have, but I don't absolute. But I
don't think Army ever violated.

Speaker 4 (13:28):
They did, like give us a give us a typical
date during football season, like on a Wednesday.

Speaker 2 (13:35):
On a Wednesday at Army football and Army football. Okay,
so minute you get up.

Speaker 3 (13:40):
The moment I get up.

Speaker 1 (13:42):
So I don't want I mean, obviously this is pg's
I don't want to say, you know where where I
use the bathroom in the morning, But you're trying to
save time, if you know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (13:48):
So I got up in the morning.

Speaker 1 (13:49):
I always slept on top of my bed so I
wouldn't have to make my bed. You know, all this
time they always say, oh, the best thing you do
with do in life is make your bed in the morning.

Speaker 3 (13:58):
Is like, but what did you sleep on top of you?
They never talked about that you know what I mean,
what size bed did you have?

Speaker 2 (14:03):
No? The same.

Speaker 1 (14:04):
I have to take the diagonal in my bed to
fit in and my arms will fall out. Yeah. So
I will get up in the morning, I will get ready,
I will not leave my room.

Speaker 2 (14:13):
But everything dry shafe.

Speaker 1 (14:15):
I mean waking up in the morning is hard for me,
very difficult for me Spanish in me difficult. And then
you go out the formation. You got to breakfast. Everything's
pump on, pumpum. You start class.

Speaker 2 (14:26):
You do.

Speaker 3 (14:26):
You have like insane amount of credit hours, so you
think you have like I don't.

Speaker 1 (14:30):
I don't want exaggerate, but basically you have a class
all the way non stop until two thirty from the
moment you work up at seven. I was an engineer,
so I had engineering courses which you know obviously they
inteli in send amount of homework and whatnot. And then
you go to practice when two thirty, and then you
do the same thing. You work out, you lift, you

(14:50):
do your meetings, you have practice, same hours and then
you eat and then you just say, man, I gotta
go back to the academy and start doing homework. So
then you would prolonged the time that you will you
know that go I got to go back to the facility,
and you will just stay in the locker room. And
then that's when like prison like habits will come up
and we'll start messing around with each other and we'll
start got in trouble just because we did not want

(15:12):
to go back to the academy. Because inevitably, when you
go back to the academy, now you got to start
doing the homework for all the classes that you took
and so and so. Then either you have to go
to bed and not do your homework or stay.

Speaker 2 (15:22):
Up until midnight and trying to finish.

Speaker 1 (15:24):
Your homework and do it all over again, and do
it all over again the next day exactly.

Speaker 2 (15:27):
And we're traveling and everything else.

Speaker 4 (15:28):
That's why I think military colleges are way different. Have
nothing but the utmost respect for what you all, uh Navy, Army,
Coast Guard, Air Force, like it's it's a process.

Speaker 1 (15:43):
But I didn't know that. I don't know what you're
doing in Alabama, so everything becomes relative. If you don't know,
it was almost like ignorance. It's bliss, you know what
I mean. So I don't know, it's amos.

Speaker 2 (15:51):
You know, Like, yeah, I don't want to tell you
my colleges now.

Speaker 1 (15:56):
I know, now, I know now after I want to
Clusa and I was hanging out for Banning. I was
the retreat and I was like watching all that. I
was like, oh man, these guys, it's crazy. They have
like twelve credit hours and one of them is like
multiple choice on yeah, yeah.

Speaker 5 (16:10):
Yeah, you had to take like eighteen yeah yeah yeah,
middle like, yeah, you're good.

Speaker 3 (16:15):
Eighteen is a light year.

Speaker 2 (16:16):
I think too. Yes, it's crazy. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (16:18):
I want to know this though, all the moving around
growing up as what Peanut calls the military brat, and
being in these different cities, on these different bases, getting
to meet so many different people. How much do you
think that lifestyle for you growing up? How much do
you think it benefited you later on in life becoming
a man.

Speaker 3 (16:36):
Yeah, that's a very tricky question.

Speaker 1 (16:38):
I seem normal now, I seem like I'm accomplished and whatnot,
But it's moving around that much is not normal.

Speaker 3 (16:44):
Yeah, and I and I don't understand why.

Speaker 1 (16:46):
The military does it so much. I don't know if
I don't know if it's because you don't want to
develop true bonds and friendships between units, and then you
have rogue units. I have no idea why the military
does it, but I never I never lit me in.
Pittsburgh is the city that the longest in my life.
It was six months gone, a year gone, three months,
three years gone. You got a girl friend, your love her,

(17:07):
you want to marry her, fifteen gone, you know, and
you're like, no, I mean, and I don't have I'm
not from I'm from nowhere, So I have no identity.
I have no I mean, a lot of me is fake,
you know what I mean. A lot of me is
like me learning how Americans dress and be like O're
gonna wear kuby boots now, Like I don't have I
don't have a place to call home, you know. I
don't have any of that, and so very very difficult

(17:28):
when you're a teenager, very very I would never do
that to my kids. That's why I said, I'm going
to make a decision. I'm going to move somewhere and
that's it. I'm not going to be a coach and
move to another fifty thousand different cities. I'm done, you
know what I mean. I'm picking a city, I'm staying
with it, and that's it. Just because I think it
really did make it very difficult in my life. No,
I can't complain now. I mean, obviously I got to
meet so many people. I speak so many different languages.

(17:50):
I'm very socially fluid everywhere. You know, I can talk
about anything.

Speaker 3 (17:53):
But it was not easy. I mean, it is the
thing that I resent a little bit from my past.

Speaker 4 (17:57):
So I did the I think from kindergarten to twelfth grade.
I've been to twelve different schools. Right, it was difficult.
Some places were difficult at times. But to me, the
beauty of it was when I didn't like somewhere, I
was like, all right, I just we got six months
and we out. I got a year and we're gonna
be out, and I get to go to another space
or a new base or wherever, and I'll be good.

(18:23):
I would always tell people the last place I lived,
like that's where I'm from. It just made it. It
made it easier than trying to tell people, well, not
my dad's the army, but I'm moving to Germany, but
I'm not from Germany. Well we live in ram Sign,
but we don't. Hey man, I'm from ram Sign. I'm
just I just kept it. I just kept it somewhere
I'm from. I'm from Texas.

Speaker 1 (18:41):
We got a big mall on Ramsteinn. You know you
should check out my mall and Ramstign. That's the only
thing I remember is just going to the mall on Ramsign.

Speaker 2 (18:47):
I just got a commissary in the PX and ran
all the time.

Speaker 1 (18:51):
I mean, I think for every success story, you do
have a lot of people that really that really did
get stuck.

Speaker 2 (18:57):
Yeah. Absolutely absolutely, and.

Speaker 1 (18:58):
I'm keeping those people in mind. I answer that question
because I don't think it's normal and natural.

Speaker 2 (19:03):
It's not.

Speaker 5 (19:04):
You guys both are the anomaly in the whole situation.

Speaker 2 (19:08):
Probably, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (19:09):
I mean, I hope not.

Speaker 2 (19:10):
But yes, maybe you're a big guy, but I mean
you were a big guy like young. So you're six
nine when you're like fourteen. Yes, so how is that?

Speaker 5 (19:22):
Because I always think about always joke, like, you know,
we think basketball.

Speaker 2 (19:26):
Players are so cool in America.

Speaker 5 (19:28):
Yeah, but I'm like, before they start dunking the ball,
they're probably not that cool. Like because you're way bigger
than everybody else in your whole class.

Speaker 2 (19:35):
You're bigger than your teachers.

Speaker 5 (19:37):
You're just and you're just kind of until you grow
into your body like, yeah, me that said, like, how is.

Speaker 1 (19:42):
That so Spanish people are very short? Yeah, they're too,
They're very short. And I was the tallest. And so
in Spain you want everybody to be the same. You
want everybody to have the same money. Do you want
everybody to have the same clothes? You want every uniformity
is what you value. So when you have a get
that tall, it throws.

Speaker 3 (20:02):
It's like a wrench in the glitch in the matrix.
It's just people.

Speaker 1 (20:05):
Cannot compute that you being that tall, and so it
was not easy. I hate it being not tall. I
cannot if I'm I'm uncertain about the benefits of moving around,
but I am certain that I did not like being this.

Speaker 2 (20:17):
Tall when I was a kid. Really no, it's not
like I was playing here.

Speaker 1 (20:21):
If I was this tall in Miami, I'd be like,
I'm the king, I'm the best, I'm the man. But
in Europe there's not what there's nothing, being a toll
for what you know, you can't fit anywhere. I can't
find clothes, and if you can't find clothes, you don't
look like anybody else.

Speaker 2 (20:33):
And there's no shoes, shoes.

Speaker 1 (20:35):
I'm wearing flip stops and shorts in the winter everywhere
all you're around because I can't find clothes.

Speaker 2 (20:39):
How did you get them?

Speaker 1 (20:42):
That the PX at Ramstein it was the first time
that I found Jack Penny Jack Penny. It is like
a first time that I saw catalog from J. C.
Penny and they had thirty eight inc. The first time
that I have about jeans. It's crazy from J. C.
Penny and Ramstein.

Speaker 2 (20:56):
That's why I.

Speaker 3 (20:56):
Remember it graating my head.

Speaker 2 (20:57):
At Ramstein, I'm like, just go to the the egg bro.

Speaker 5 (20:59):
You know.

Speaker 3 (21:01):
But it's not it's not It was not.

Speaker 2 (21:03):
It was not normal. It's not easy.

Speaker 1 (21:04):
Now again, you can make everything through trauma. You can
make I don't know what it's like to be maybe five.

Speaker 2 (21:07):
To two, you know what I mean, so.

Speaker 3 (21:11):
Definitely, I mean flying.

Speaker 2 (21:13):
You know what it's like. You know what I mean, with.

Speaker 1 (21:15):
Your ears on the bag, you know for eight hours,
you know, constantly.

Speaker 2 (21:18):
Can fit anywhere. The cars are not big, cars are
not big.

Speaker 1 (21:23):
I was tall in the teachers since I was like,
you know, a lot of times people thought I had
a problem, you know, they held me back like ten years.

Speaker 4 (21:32):
Bill it had to be I was like, nobody's that tall,
that nobody, nobody like you.

Speaker 2 (21:42):
No one in your family's tall.

Speaker 1 (21:44):
My mom played tight end for the giants if she
wanted to. Okay, yeah, my mom's got that. My mom's
got the jeans nice, she's got the yeah's your pops,
they're both.

Speaker 3 (21:55):
My dad's a sloppy six two.

Speaker 2 (21:56):
My mom's uh six Yeah, Okay, I like it. I
like that. We're going to take a short break and
we'll be back in a minute.

Speaker 4 (22:07):
So I want to show you a picture, mister Thomas,
can you help me out right here?

Speaker 2 (22:13):
So when you see this picture, who do you see? Okay?

Speaker 1 (22:16):
This is this is I'm not gonna say it's funny.
This is a picture that you have to take when
you're getting ready to deploy with a first Ranger regiment. Okay,
and when you get to play with the first Ranger regimen,
you have to take a picture in case you pass away.
This is the picture you want to show in case
you pass away. And culturally, I remember rangers looking very

(22:38):
tough in the picture. You try to look as tough
as you can. It's a thing and me being me,
and if you know me, you know why I said,
you know what? A smile on the picture I'm gonna
smile on this picture because this is you know, this
is because I can't.

Speaker 3 (22:52):
It's weird for me to look at a picture. Seglement.

Speaker 1 (22:54):
You always you when you look at takes the picture
say cheese. Yeah, they always smile. So I smile in
the picture. So this is the picture. I'm supposed to
look tough, but I don't look very tough. I look
very gentle.

Speaker 2 (23:04):
Yeah I look like.

Speaker 1 (23:06):
Maybe I look like a care bear in the picture.
But this is supposed to be like my wow, you
know that's never ranger O there.

Speaker 2 (23:12):
I like that. That's a bit. I mean, I like
the thought of it.

Speaker 4 (23:15):
Just like no, I'm smiling, man, I'm I'm doing something different.
So what does the army ranger do?

Speaker 1 (23:22):
What does a range Army ranger do? Beautiful, great question. Okay,
So I'm gonna try to give you a little bit
of background of the United States.

Speaker 2 (23:30):
World War Two.

Speaker 1 (23:30):
We had one hundred and twenty divisions. I want to say,
so when you when you went when different types of needs.
So in World War two, major major operation, you need
to you need to go to Europe, then you need
to go to Asia. You need to deploy millions of people.
So within the army, they created volunteer units that would

(23:52):
do missions that were different than the rest. So the
Rangers were the first all volunteer army unit within the army.
So they were deployed in places like the Battle of Normandy'.
So if you see in the movie Saving Private Ryan,
those are the Rangers, you know, the Allmaha Beach, the
battles Cisterna, they got wiped out. I mean there were
units where they were. There were battalions that got completely

(24:13):
wiped out over time. The military does not like to
get rid of units just because. And so if you
look at the units that we have right now, the
one hundred and first, for example, and for Campbell, it's
it's a unit that's it's a legacy unit. You know,
it comes from you know, if you've seen Band of Brothers,
that's the hundred and first. So we still have one
hundred first, eighty second. There are units that out of

(24:34):
the out of those one hundred and twenty hundred and nine, however,
many divisions we had, we boiled it down, and I
think we have nine now and a lot of them
are legacy. So we still want to keep a lot
of the tradition So the Rangers have become a unit
in the Special Operations you know, a realm of things.
So basically you have to you have to be you
have to want to be in that unit. You don't
get randomly assigned. You have to try out being the unit.

(24:57):
And their main mission, their core mission has in seasoned
airfields to go into a country. But if you wanted
to invade a country and you wanted to take the airfield,
you would say you would send the Rangers.

Speaker 3 (25:12):
That's like the that's like the main mission. That's the mission.

Speaker 1 (25:14):
Why why taxpayers paid to have a unit that can
take an airfield? Same thing as the Navy Seals are
for hijacked boats and Delta Forces for hijacked planes. Their
core mission is that. But in reality, the Rangers have
been a mission that has been you know, they've been
doing everything they've been doing. They called the premier raid
uh units. So if you have to raid a building,
you have to raid a village, then the Rangers are

(25:35):
one of the units out of the many units of
the United States, you know, join Special Operations Command has
that can go out and perform that mission.

Speaker 2 (25:42):
That's a great description, very descriptive.

Speaker 5 (25:44):
Actually, I can tell you have a lot of knowledge
in that area.

Speaker 2 (25:50):
I knew a.

Speaker 4 (25:50):
Little bit about it because my dad was in the
one thing. So I remember asking my dad and this
is old school army where the rangers green berets. They
are all or their beret and all that other stuff.
And I used to ask, but I was like, why
don't you want to do something like that? He goes, man,
I like food, he was like, when you were arranged
it they starview. He was like, I like, I like food.

(26:11):
I ain't trying to run that far.

Speaker 1 (26:13):
So like, yeah, it's good, it's it is. It is
a unit that you have to create the illusion. Maybe
you don't starve. I mean I was stuff in my
face every day, but you have to create the illusion
that is hard. You have to create. It's like almost
like saying you're gonna play for saving you're gonna play
for You have to create the illusion to fear that
it's going to be harder. And maybe it's not harder,
you know, maybe maybe it's not. But you have to

(26:33):
create the illusion that the fear of respect so that
you get those volunteers to.

Speaker 2 (26:37):
Say, oh you start, is heart a volunteer to go there?
So why did you choose that rough.

Speaker 1 (26:42):
I chose that right because I was so insecure about
not being American when I first came into the United States.

Speaker 2 (26:48):
Really, oh my god.

Speaker 1 (26:49):
Yeah, I mean thinking about like about it. You know,
I was not very I have no family, no no
nobody here.

Speaker 3 (26:55):
My accent was a lot.

Speaker 2 (26:56):
You know.

Speaker 1 (26:56):
I did not speak to you English very well. I
was always trying to prove myself as being an American,
always constantly, all the time.

Speaker 3 (27:04):
But I was asking myself.

Speaker 1 (27:05):
You know, one of the things I tell people, if
you want to learn a language, and you want to
be really good at it, you don't have to think
about studying the words. You have to start about acting
like someone. You have to act American. You have to
instead of saying you know, no way, you have to
think of of someone in California, you know, laying on
the beach and somebody's saying, dude, they got amazing free

(27:26):
food over there, and you got to say, like, no way.
And that's that's how you start learning the language. You
start learning the language by pretending to be American. So
when you go to West Point, especially during the time
of two thousand and six twenty ten, which is when
I went, they brainwashed every single person into being that
person that runs to danger one hundred thousand percent. So

(27:48):
I wasn't alone in the fact that we all wanted
to be the most American soldier version that we could.
And so for me, I saw it as a challenge.
It's the same thing as like why did you want
to play football of Alabama not Lafayette Because you want
to be with the best. You want to be with
the best, you want to do with the best do
And so for me, Airborne Ranger is like it's a
cultural thing that you have in the Army. It's a

(28:09):
culture thing you have at West Point, and they have
a charter that as a ranger, you serve in the
Ranger Regiment. Especially as an officer, you serve some years
in the Ranger Regiment, but then you go back into
the regular Army and you set the standards for everybody else.

Speaker 3 (28:23):
It's almost like if you.

Speaker 1 (28:24):
Went to Alabama, you played for a few years, and
then you went to West Point and you say, like, guys,
this is how we practice, this is how it's done.
And so I looked at those guys that came from
Ranger Regiment and I said.

Speaker 3 (28:33):
Like that that's OUs me right there.

Speaker 1 (28:35):
Yeah, I want to be just like them, you know,
the special operations. I was a little bit longer. Maybe
I would have been a better fit because they do
have like the language thing, but it's a longer process.
In when I was in I wanted to get back
to Afghanistan as quickly as I could, and so the
rangers they deploy every four months. You got four months,
six months, four months, and you always constantly ploying.

Speaker 2 (28:53):
You you said you want to get back multiple times.

Speaker 1 (28:56):
Why because you go a little crazy, because you just
you can't make sense of it all. You know, the
first time you go. You've romanticized war for so long,
You've watched movies, you had an idea in your head.
You really don't know, you know what I mean. It's
like you don't know what happened, and then you kind
of just want to you know. For me, it's like

(29:17):
I can't get stuck in the past of what just happened.
Let me let me try it again, let me go
back again.

Speaker 2 (29:22):
You know, it's crazy because you use the word romanticized.

Speaker 5 (29:24):
Yeah, everybody, we have this vision of what war or
what whatever these things are.

Speaker 2 (29:29):
Of course, it's the most romanticized thing in the world.

Speaker 4 (29:31):
But it's also but you know, it's it's also like
it's your super Bowl. It's like what do you what
do you train for? Like we do all this work up,
we do this build up, right, I'm doing all this
training like I want to I want to go to war.
Like I don't think that the goal is like I
want to go to war, and now I want to
be like no, no, no, no no.

Speaker 2 (29:50):
But but there's but there is manipula.

Speaker 1 (29:52):
I mean there's a lot of manipulation, mental manipulation, and
is how do you build an army?

Speaker 3 (29:57):
And the same thing happens in the NFL. You know,
with a war.

Speaker 2 (29:59):
It's like all pro not a you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (30:01):
Like those those little things, those those little sparkles that
you throw.

Speaker 6 (30:05):
They make people fight, you know what I mean? Yeah,
they really make people. My mindset in the NFL like R,
I'm want to get drafted. I gotta take a Pro Bowl.
You gotta d It's like this is all you know.

Speaker 2 (30:15):
It's all you know.

Speaker 1 (30:16):
It's hilarious when you watch Tom Brady in tears crying.
He was a seventh round pick and he wanted to
be I was like, bro, you were the great because
that's what it created, like that, having the status of
drafting number one is the one thing you care about
the most in the army. It was the same way
now i'm speaking. You know, I'm mayor of kids that
one Afghanistan is over. I've had time to think about this.
When I was twenty one years old and I was

(30:38):
hanging out of parties at Universal, I could care less
about the draft, I could care less about the NFL,
I could see nothing. The only thing I wanted to
do was be an everone ranger. There was nothing in
the world mattered to me most right. I will do
anything I will, I will sell my mother to Uncle
s Sam anything. I just wanted to be an airbone
ranger because I thought that the possibility of not being
one will crush me for life. And the Army is

(31:02):
very smart. I mean, the largest award that you can
wear on your chest is the Combat Infantry Back and
they did it for a reason. It's twice the size
is any other award you can wear, and it's for
infantrymen who face combat. So how hard is it to
motivate somebody as a soldier at the prayer a rifle
and go face the enemy? So the army said, okay,
let's create an award for that, and the awards that

(31:23):
you wear and all that. Subconsciously, they have an effect.
I mean, Napoleons say, give men a small piece of
ribbon and they'll go die for you. So I do
think that when you're that young, it did have a huge,
huge effect on me, and being an everyone ranger was
one thousand percent out of that.

Speaker 4 (31:37):
It's one of the first things I noticed when I
look at someone's uniform and you see it was like, oh, okay,
he's got his he's got his combat ribbon. Okay, I
see you. Yeah, it's something I noticed. Yes, okay, they
got some combat, they see some acc and a they
are real deal.

Speaker 3 (31:51):
Yeah, dog sniff the tails.

Speaker 2 (31:53):
Would you see two minute uniform? The first thing to
do is ding ding ding ding dinging.

Speaker 3 (31:57):
Continue to have the.

Speaker 2 (31:57):
Conversation absolutely absolutely, Who am I talking to?

Speaker 5 (32:00):
You?

Speaker 2 (32:00):
Know what I mean? What was your welcome to the
military moment?

Speaker 1 (32:04):
My welcome to the military moment. I had a lot
of moments of humility. I had a lot of moments
where I thought I was invincible. I had a lot
of crazy nights in Ilanda. For example, when I was
staying in Columbus and I will get back, and I
realized that I was not a kid anymore. You know,
I can't talk about those welcome moments here and I think,
but I did there. There's an incredible amount of humility

(32:26):
that goes into being a lieutenant in the United States
Army because you're the youngest person. I was twenty one,
twenty two years old, and you're in charge of thirty
nine You.

Speaker 2 (32:34):
Know, men better men women?

Speaker 1 (32:37):
Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, for sure, especially in the infantry.
I mean, I didn't have a chance to serve with women,
but in the man's world. You know what the man's
world is like when you sit in front and to
get that credibility. So a lot of humility, a lot
of welcome to the Army moments. But thankfully I had
incredible soldiers that I served with, and they carry me through.
They made up for my mistakes, they allowed me to lead,

(32:58):
and my experience as a platoon leader. I just can't
I can't speak a high enough of how incredible my
journey was and how thankful I am for the United
States Army.

Speaker 4 (33:05):
Do you feel like you were prepared leaving once you
left West Point to be a twenty one year old
lieutenant being in charge of a group of thirty forty men.
Do you think you were really truly prepared at twenty two.

Speaker 1 (33:18):
Yes, because I wanted it so bad. I wanted it
so bad. I did impossible things to be this next
person to be sent to Afghanistan. I waved all my
leave after West Point.

Speaker 3 (33:30):
I did it.

Speaker 1 (33:30):
I mean I was so obsessed. I mean I couldn't
stop thinking about it. It was night and day.

Speaker 2 (33:36):
But not just me. Don't think I'm like, oh, we're.

Speaker 1 (33:37):
Looking at no, No, no, it was every single person that
you talked to from my class was exactly the same way.

Speaker 2 (33:42):
Twenty graduation.

Speaker 1 (33:43):
In twenty ten West Point Infantry, it was a rat
race to get to a unit that was going to Afghanistan.
So for me, it was like, Okay, I need to
go to for Drum, New York, which is not the
unit that everybody wants. I'm gonna go to a unit
that nobody wants to go to so I can get
there as soon as possible.

Speaker 2 (33:57):
I'm gonna wave everything.

Speaker 1 (33:58):
And I wanted it so bad that I think now
looking back, it wouldn't have mattered because I was willing
to do anything to be prepared.

Speaker 4 (34:05):
So when you when you got there, was it what
you expected? No, no, no, no, it was there like
a letdown and was like, oh yeah, this is this is.

Speaker 1 (34:16):
A now that letdown is now I it's it's it's
it's great. I mean, this is like a super deep
conversation is great. It's far greater than that. I mean,
you romanticize it for years. You want to be you
want to liberate the people from Afghanistan. You feel that
the talent that that the Taliban are oppressing this people
and that you're going there to liberate them and you're

(34:37):
going to build a great nation that is going to
And then you go there and it's not like that
at all.

Speaker 2 (34:42):
But it takes you a couple of times to go
there and be like what you said. The first time,
you're like, I gotta go back because it's not.

Speaker 1 (34:49):
Right, because I'm like, Okay, I didn't come. Why did
I not solve the war? I came here to be
the hero and you know, why did it not happen?
You know, let me go back at one more time.
And then you realize like hold on, hold on, hold on, yeah,
I got me, you know, I mean, this is not
it is not what I thought it was. The world
is a lot more complicated. I don't understand things. I
cannot simplify things into saying is like this or like that.

(35:10):
I'm very humble in my intentions and what I'm trying
to do.

Speaker 2 (35:15):
I have to just take the little truth.

Speaker 1 (35:16):
In my heart of how much I care about being
a soldier, how much I love being a soldier, how
much I love the army, what is given me by
Outside of those things, forget about it. I don't know anything.
I don't know anything about Afghanistan. I don't know what
we were doing. I can't can't pinpoint exactly where we
missed up. At what point I stopped trying.

Speaker 2 (35:34):
To figure it out?

Speaker 5 (35:35):
When did you decide, you know what? I'm done with
the war. I want to try and play football.

Speaker 1 (35:40):
My last deployment, I said, I don't know if I
I don't know, if I don't know, I don't know
if this is this is what my life is supposed
to be.

Speaker 3 (35:45):
I don't know, I don't know, if I don't know
if I can do this. I got married.

Speaker 1 (35:49):
I don't want to start a dicycle of moving over
and over again, and then I have this crazy, delusional
idea that I complaining on a felt because I was
this big and tall, Like I still have to face
myself in the mirror every single day and be like, bro,
you're this tall, you're six ten, and you're out here
doing PowerPoint presentations right now, like.

Speaker 2 (36:09):
What are your well, hey, Okay.

Speaker 1 (36:12):
In the Army, sometimes you're a patuon leader and you're
doing you know, you're leading and you're doing PT and
you're you're doing maneuvers. But then sometimes they take you
out of that role to give it to someone else,
and then they put you in a staff role and
then they say, okay, my guy here read this thousand
emails and put a presentation for this. So you're in
a computer that hunched over like this, you know, and
then you go to the gym.

Speaker 2 (36:32):
Incredible, Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 (36:34):
Everybody has to go through a staff job in the Army.
And so I would go to the gym in the
afternoons and I would play football with a sustaining brigade,
which usually they love playing sports, and we'll play flag
football and I was like, I'm dominating this game, like
I'm I'm I'm jumping and in my mind I was
thinking I'm six ten, like, how can you? How can

(36:54):
you if I can catch the ball. Now that I
look at you, guys, I'm like, yeah, you got You know,
there's no way on a jump ball if I can't
jump that, I'm going to take the ball away from you.
But in my mind, I thought all corners were five
two five five, because that's what the level of corners
that I faced in college. So I I you know,
I was thinking to myself very in a very delusional way.
I can plain in the NFL. There's no way I
can't play it. There's no way I cannot play. There's

(37:15):
no way I cannot play. And so when it was
time for me to get out of the army, I
wanted to go into the NFL just so I can
have one year and they could pay for my business school.
Because everybody at West Point goes from you know, the academy.
They get out and they go to business school. It's
kind of like you do it because everybody else is
doing it, same thing as the airborne Ranger. When you
get out, it's go to business school. So I was like, man,

(37:36):
the NFL loves the army in the military so much.
Every third, you know, every quarter aff. They always honor
in the troops, like, maybe they'll give me a chance,
you know. And so that's when I started thinking. You know,
they had the super Regional Combine and Flowery Branch. I said,
maybe if I drive out there around my forty, I
catch the ball in front of the scouts, maybe they'll
give me a chance.

Speaker 3 (37:55):
Maybe it's maybe it's possible.

Speaker 2 (37:57):
You know. I don't know how, but man, I look
so good.

Speaker 3 (37:59):
There's no way they.

Speaker 2 (38:00):
Don't give me a chance. I love your confidence.

Speaker 1 (38:03):
It was it was a very now looking back, it
was it was. It was I was the only person
that was confident.

Speaker 2 (38:08):
That's all that matters. Though. What makes it beautiful. It's
gonna be a wide receiver too. Yes, don't put me
a tight end. Put me a wide receiver, BROI yeah,
put me the X.

Speaker 3 (38:20):
Put me out there on myself.

Speaker 5 (38:23):
That's the funniest thing to it is no confident, but
everybody else that was okay.

Speaker 3 (38:27):
So I don't think they do the super Regional Combine.

Speaker 2 (38:29):
Now.

Speaker 1 (38:30):
I don't know if I'm bad mouthed in the NFL
by exposing the fact that maybe they stopped doing it
because you knows. Okay, So people that were showing up
to these super regional combines. They were characters, but like
forty year old bartenders and teachers, people that played one
year in sophomore high school and they got hurt and
they're like, yeah, you know, we were we were all.
It was like a like an American idol.

Speaker 2 (38:53):
That's how it was.

Speaker 1 (38:54):
You know, there was no there was no It was
not like a I don't think it was like a
serious thing. But people had the dreams of going through
the end, you know, and I think out of my class,
I think like two three players, what they get out.

Speaker 4 (39:03):
The beautiful thing about that it was the forty year
old bartender. He was the only one who thought he
could have a chance, Yeah, making an NFL roster. Yes, so,
And it doesn't sound delusional because in his mind he
is out there catching touchdowns on me and you that
whole sunday.

Speaker 2 (39:18):
He watches on the cast. He's like, bro, I could
do It's exactly what it was. That's exactly what I was.
You know.

Speaker 1 (39:24):
You know, you have a lot of people that just
criticize players and they think they can do it.

Speaker 3 (39:27):
It was a collection of all of us, you know. Yes,
and when you put a.

Speaker 1 (39:31):
Little bit of under army, you know, the under arm
was coming up with like the long sleeve stuff.

Speaker 3 (39:34):
Yeah, come on, man, I looked just like them.

Speaker 2 (39:36):
You know what I mean? Thirty seven?

Speaker 4 (39:38):
Yeah, thirty seven is the thing. It is a vibe
something that I don't want. So you went to this
regional combine. So how did you get from this regional
combine to Pittsburgh.

Speaker 1 (39:52):
So when I went to the regional combine, I signed
up because one of my teammates from Army told me
that they have a an open tryout. I was like, hey,
check it out, check it out. Look at this, Look
at this pamphlet. You know wow, you know, I mean
three hundred and fifty dollars and I get to run
the forty and maybe I can go to the NFL.
So I was so enamored with the idea of being

(40:12):
able to have a chance to put it to bed,
put it to rest as to whether I belong to
the NFL or not, that I signed up. I drove
an hour to go to or a couple hours to
go to Flowery Branch. And then when I did my
my regional combine, they invited me to go into the
super regional combine, and so I went to Detroit where
they they did a did your friend get invited to

(40:34):
my friend? My friend was already in the NFL. My friend,
my friend was able to get in the year before.
And I saw him as Saint Patrick's Day in Savannah, Georgia.
And when I cut up to him, I was like, man,
what are you doing? Man, I'm in the NFL. I
was like, no, hey, he'say, yeah, man. All you got
to do is get in the system. Once you're in,
you're good.

Speaker 2 (40:50):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (40:51):
You know how NFL players talking about like, you know,
when you talk to the guys in the outside that
really want to come in and encourage them, you know,
try out. Man, Once you get into the system of
training camp though, bounce you around.

Speaker 3 (41:00):
You good.

Speaker 1 (41:01):
I mean obviously I knew that he was over selling it,
but I didn't know that that that that there was
an opportunity to at least showcase your talents in front
of scouts. That's what you want to know, I mean,
I want to know that there's a scout you know,
there's gonna be there. And when I went to the
Super Regional Combine, then they sent maybe like fifteen twenty

(41:21):
scouts from from the NFL or.

Speaker 3 (41:24):
Maybe all of them.

Speaker 1 (41:25):
I'm not sure how many they sent out, but they
sent scouts from from from the NFL and and and
then obviously I became an intriguing prospect because I was
so large, so tall. I had the story the Army,
you know, we had we talked about a connection between
the NFL and Army and service. And so I got
I got an invite to go to try out to
do with with the Philadelphia Eagles, and so I went

(41:48):
to Philadelphia the week after that.

Speaker 3 (41:50):
I did the same exam.

Speaker 1 (41:51):
I mean, I started, I brought my tight end gloves
and they ended up doing an alllne workout and I
ended up starting as a D line.

Speaker 2 (41:58):
So I was a D line.

Speaker 3 (42:00):
Yeah, I was a D line.

Speaker 2 (42:01):
Never gave up on I love the guy Sticky.

Speaker 1 (42:08):
I put away sound you're not gonna need him. But
that that so I was in the D line room
with you know, with the with the amazing you know,
I've been in your grand Graham and Fletcher Cox, Connor Borrowings.
So I knew right off the battle was not gonna
make the team. But I was hoping that I would
do good enough. Like my buddy said, in the system,
you know that I would do preseason that I that

(42:28):
I would be able to end up somewhere else. So
you know, from there, I got a call call from
coach Tomlin and we hit it off, had of bromance
and then the rest is Sister.

Speaker 2 (42:38):
When did they tell you, like, all right, you're not
a d You're really good. I understand now how it works.

Speaker 1 (42:43):
You want to you set up your fifty three, and
then you have to create your your your your practice
squad roster. And with the practice squad roster, you want
to keep a certain things in mind. One is obviously
the most urgent one is do you are you gonna
need that player.

Speaker 2 (42:56):
During the season.

Speaker 1 (42:57):
Yes, and if you're gonna need especially I know that
towards at the end of my career, they expanded the
roster to maybe ten players or something like that. So
and you can protect them to you can give them
like specific tags, and then there's all the ones where
you can develop them. So I think they looked at
me in mind with the idea of developing me. You
want to have a practice squad player, especially in the

(43:19):
on line, because if your online players start getting hurt
and you have to put the start, you know, the backups,
the starters, they're not gonna be able to take the
scout reps. So I took all the scout reps, you know,
and obviously I was I was very very happy with
doing that job. But now Coach Thalman saw me do
my O line, my deal, my D line tryout. I

(43:39):
look good, but I think, and this is so important
about playing D line, is you cannot be laid off
the ball. You just can't be laid off the ball.

Speaker 2 (43:47):
Unacceptable. That is a great point.

Speaker 1 (43:49):
That is not the only thing that matters about playing
D line. Nothing else matters. If you don't have the
reacting that the fast twitch of coming off the ball
and reacting, it doesn't matter how good you look can
be as big, as strong as whatever.

Speaker 2 (44:01):
You'll never get there. You'll never get there, you know.

Speaker 1 (44:03):
But if I know that snapcount, I can operate. And
I've always liked, you know, again, because wide receivers, the
position that I had to play, I always I always
like to know that snapcount in the play. I feel
more comfortable that way. Both of you feel comfortable with
whatever reactors you know, double two la la la, Robert Thief,
you know whatever. But for me, it's like I watched
the play. Where's it going, Who's getting the vault?

Speaker 2 (44:24):
You know?

Speaker 1 (44:24):
And then from there, the you know, the the the
the journey of practice squad to the starting and to
eventually playing in the NFL was it was just hard
work and sacrifice.

Speaker 2 (44:34):
We'll be back in a minute, all right.

Speaker 4 (44:38):
So you go from this amazing career in the army,
you go to war, you come out, you make it back,
and you're a rookie all over again when you get
picked up by Pittsburgh.

Speaker 2 (44:53):
What was that like?

Speaker 1 (44:56):
I mean, it's very difficult to describe because I wasn't
I was not work. I was in practice squad. I
was a practice squad player of the Pittsburgh Steelers. I'm
twenty six years old. They just they just re signed
James Harrison to be on the team. So I got
to go against James Harrison every single day. And I
don't think a single person that was in the locker room,

(45:18):
to include the coaches, knew what I was doing in
the service. They didn't know that I was going into
valleys just a couple of months ago, and I was like,
you know, or was coming into.

Speaker 2 (45:29):
That gets you?

Speaker 1 (45:30):
Yeah, and now I'm picking up the pads, you know,
and I'm and I'm giving a look to James Harrison,
so you can tear my arm apart, you know for
my torso. Uh so that part was very humbling, but
you know, at the end of the day is it's
what you have to you have to you have to do.
There's no story that you can write in America where

(45:50):
you don't have that part. You know, you have to
go through that. You have to go through the the
humbling part of yeah, you're a practice squad.

Speaker 3 (45:56):
Be thankful. This is how it is.

Speaker 1 (45:58):
Who do you think you are that you to be,
you know, playing football in Kanahar Airfield and then you're
gonna come to the NFL, Like what are you?

Speaker 2 (46:05):
What?

Speaker 3 (46:05):
Are you crazy?

Speaker 1 (46:06):
You know?

Speaker 3 (46:06):
I mean, you know how many people want to play
in the NFL.

Speaker 1 (46:07):
This is the most sought after position in football for
the guys that are your your height, you know, play
left tack in the NFL. So yeah, I was, you know,
it was it was crazy, you know, but but you know, thankfully,
the Pittsburgh Steels were an incredible organization and I had
a Hall of Fame coach who did not care, could
care less if you were into Alabama Lefayette or if

(46:30):
you went the army. He could care less. He just
wanted the principles of football, and so that played huge
in my development.

Speaker 4 (46:36):
Now, when your teammates found out what you did, were
they shocked. It's like, wait, what, I just.

Speaker 1 (46:41):
Don't think they understood. I still don't know. I still
don't think they understand. Now they don't have told them
thousands of time, because you can't until you see a
chinook in the middle of the night on a value.

Speaker 2 (46:54):
It's a helicopter. Thought I would have guessed it's someone
that the backdrops the.

Speaker 1 (46:58):
Backdrops and it's got two two right, until you.

Speaker 3 (47:03):
See what it's like to be with night vision goggles.

Speaker 1 (47:07):
Everybody in inside you know what I mean, like me
giving the brief You know what I mean, like me
giving the briefers, like, hey, this is what we're doing tonight.
This is like, you know, with the precise language, with
the everybody's paying attention of professional If you don't see that,
you don't know. You just think that all the jobs
in the military are sort of the same.

Speaker 2 (47:24):
You know that you were just you.

Speaker 1 (47:26):
Know, it's very difficult to portray what an arm because
the Rangers also don't have a lot of movies and
they don't have a lot of I mean, say Private
Ryans the only but they don't have a lot of
And I'm very media wise, they're not.

Speaker 2 (47:36):
They don't.

Speaker 1 (47:37):
They do not like being on the media at all.
So if I would have said Navy Seal, they would
have been like, well, Navy Seal. Who it's the Navy
Seals that can stop making podcasting books. But for the art,
for the Rangers, it's different, you know, you try to
be at a little more low key and so yeah,
they had no idea that they just they could understand it.

Speaker 4 (47:52):
I just remember when we were in Carolina. I'm familiar
with everything, what y'all do? My dad, And then I
got a bunch of Navy friends, so me and military
guys and team guys and operators like I get it.

Speaker 2 (48:05):
We were in Carolina.

Speaker 4 (48:07):
And they had a Team six guy, a deaf grew
guy came and he spoke to us and he gave
this great presentation about, oh, we know we do this,
we do that, leadership team, we gotta be one work
as one unit, we vote on everything, trust blah blah
blah blah blah. And then somebody was like, I think
it was Chuck. He goes, hey, I got a question.

(48:29):
Do y'all get to pick y'all guns for y'all missions?
And I could see when the guy was speaking. When
Chuck asked that question, the guy was like, that's the
only thing he worried about out of every just said,
you weren't about what gun I could pick? And then
he made a reference to like call of duties, like
can y'all do y'all got scars?

Speaker 1 (48:50):
And I'm just like, yeah, if people were if people
were interested, they want to know how many be about killed?

Speaker 2 (48:55):
You know.

Speaker 3 (48:56):
Questions?

Speaker 2 (48:57):
Yeah, of course it was I thought it was hills.

Speaker 4 (49:00):
But and even so, we had a we had a
I had a foundation event in twenty fifteen and General
Raymond Ordierno, of course was at my uh I know
him person I knew him personally pass away r ip coach.

Speaker 2 (49:15):
General.

Speaker 4 (49:15):
Oh, my father in law was his warrant officer. So family, rural,
connected with each other, whatnot. So I had him come
to this charity event I had, right and I had
all my dbs, and.

Speaker 2 (49:29):
I'm like, yeah, what else. I was like, yoh, man,
that's that's General. Oh. Like, dude's a he's a rock star.

Speaker 4 (49:34):
He's like Don Shula of the army and they were
just like yeah, and no one got him like he's
responsible for Saddam Hushane when they called him into create
like that's that's general over like y'all and they were
just like what.

Speaker 1 (49:48):
I had the same issue in Pittsburgh. So coach Toman
came up to me one day and said, hey, we
have an army unit that's coming over. I don't know
any like, you know, he's asking me. And I said, okay,
you know, I was probably you know, whatever listed the
national goal or whatever. And and then I saw the
unit and it was a it was a CAG unit
from for Bragg, you know comment actions me with Delta

(50:10):
and they were doing some training out there, and I
started shaking, you have no idea, you have no idea.
And then I introduced them, you know, to the team
and and then you know they were they were mainly
wing up but the players just the players had no
idea who these people were.

Speaker 2 (50:24):
Just the head right, right? Are you guys not? How
do you not know?

Speaker 1 (50:29):
But you have to understand also that you know, it's
a voluntary force. It's not it's better to be that way.
It's better that we're not obsessed with the military. We're
not in a military nation. You know, we praise our
generals and whynot? No, no, no, no, military is America is perfect
the way it is. And if we have to have
that ignorance, then that we're still very blessed.

Speaker 2 (50:48):
That's amazing for you to say. I want to come
back to that because.

Speaker 5 (50:54):
That's good because you have this unique perspective where most
people do not. Peanut has a really great perspective, but
he's still was not in it as you are. And
I'm sure when you were coming down in the what
what kind of plane was that? What did we you
just the helicopter was Dude, you probably looked like a

(51:14):
nightmare from hell. Bro, you're six nine coming out with
a what are your night vision and stuff? You're probably
the scariest dude.

Speaker 2 (51:21):
Yeah, it's got to be. It's got to be the
scarious person ever see. Be it that tall sight to see?

Speaker 4 (51:32):
Yeah, dude, I just got the whole like people in front,
he's in the back, just leading by.

Speaker 2 (51:36):
Bro. Who is that? Anyways? What was your first welcome
to the NFL moment? Okay, so.

Speaker 1 (51:46):
I did other things right, I was I was a
teacher's pet when I was in the NFL. There was
not a single time that you ask me what my
assignment was and I didn't know it. There wasn't a
drill that I didn't do a one hundred percent there wasn't.
And I try to do everything absolutely right in order
to get a chance to make the roster because I
knew that. I mean, I was like, man, I gotta

(52:07):
make a ruster. So I made the ruster and I
was a backup. A lot of things happened for me
to start. The starter who was one of my biggest mentors,
Kevin Beacha, who goes down with an ACL injury. The
other backup it was a first round pick injury with
a back injury.

Speaker 2 (52:21):
For the other.

Speaker 3 (52:21):
So I'm the third string. I mean, I'm like like a.

Speaker 1 (52:24):
Big time fringe guy. And two people get hurt and
now I'm going in. So now this is no longer
you know a teacher's pet tie. This is like, now,
now you out there and you're performing for your teacher.
And I was going against Dwight Freeney. My first start
was against the Arizona Cardinals, and I had to go
against Dwight Freeney, Las Campbell, lamar Woodley I mean, there

(52:46):
were a bunch of old, you know, NFL legends that
I had to go against.

Speaker 2 (52:50):
And I remember.

Speaker 1 (52:53):
My coach was a head coach for the time, so
he had gone against Dwight Freeney for many many years
when he was playing with Indianapolis. Coach and he said, listen,
be very careful with the spin move. The spin move,
the spin He's got a crazy spin move.

Speaker 3 (53:06):
And I was like, I got it, I got it,
spin move.

Speaker 1 (53:08):
I got the spin was like no, no, no, no,
Like a third third and Long's he's gonna look like
he's not doing the spin move.

Speaker 2 (53:13):
He's gonna look like he's gonna look like he's going
on field.

Speaker 1 (53:15):
Trust me, the spin move. So I remember the first
third and ten, I could hear Coach Haley screaming from
the from the sidelights.

Speaker 2 (53:23):
That spin move, out, spin move.

Speaker 1 (53:25):
I got a coach, you know what I mean, I
got to spin mind knows, I relax. I'm gonna say
it heavy inside. But man, when you watch an NFL
VET who's been doing a move for years and it
has made a career, I mean, one of the all
time sack leaders in the NFL with a spin move,
you understand why it is so effective. I mean because
you just can't see the end of the move coming.

(53:47):
You don't think he's gonna do the spin. You're heavy,
you're setting so heavy inside only a crazy person would
do the spin move.

Speaker 2 (53:55):
Sure again, Bing did the spin move. Beat me clean.

Speaker 3 (53:58):
The guard was not looking, and thankfully the quarterback got
the ball out.

Speaker 4 (54:02):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (54:02):
But that's when I started realizing that even if you prepare,
you have to give incredible amounts. You have to almost
you have to almost become the hero and beat the legend.
In order for you to thrive in the NFL. You
have to get these old NFL legends and you have
to be able to beat them somehow. By you proven
that that you can also think, just like that, that
you can also think outside the box and come up

(54:23):
with something he's never seen before, and for him to
reconsider whether he should be playing in the NFL.

Speaker 2 (54:27):
Then not do that that game he continued to play.
You're very happily.

Speaker 4 (54:33):
I want you to expand upon something real quick. You
had mentioned that you don't think you would have played
or had a longer career if you would have played
for another team in the NFL. If you would have
played for all the Pittsburgh Steelers. Why do you think
that is.

Speaker 1 (54:48):
I think the Pittsburgh Steelers are first of all the
Pittsburgh Steelers. I think that they did have a little
bit of a superstitious thing.

Speaker 3 (54:55):
Everybody. Everybody in the world of sports.

Speaker 2 (54:57):
Is a little superstian. Absolutely, it's not. It's not kid ourself.

Speaker 1 (55:00):
So the Pittsburgh Steels won a lot of Super Bowls
when they had Rocky Blyier. It was a soldier that
came from Vietnam. So I think the Pittsburgh Steelers in
there in, they're in, They're in their in, their in
their juju sort of mantra. They want they always want
to have somebody from from the army, you know what
I mean, maybe so they can give them that little boost.

Speaker 3 (55:18):
I thought it was that great.

Speaker 1 (55:19):
I have a team that cares about having a soldier
on the team for whatever reason, but they care about
having me in here. When I was with the Philadelphia Eagles,
I thought they like it because it does give great
publicity to the team because the coach loves the military.
But they were not seriously consider me as a player.
They looked at me like all NFL teams that looked

(55:39):
at me before like, there's no way if you didn't
go to Alabama. I'm not drafting you, I'm not playing you.
I want SEC players only on my team. That's how
I can go to sleep by night. You know, by
knowing that you played in one hundred thousand dollars stadiums
and you got boosters, you know.

Speaker 2 (55:54):
Paying you under the table, and you're not about like
put in pressure form.

Speaker 1 (55:58):
You know what, what's it like when you're University of
Miami and you lose a big game against Louisville you
have all this excitement. I think that coaches want to
know that players need to feel the responsibility of the
city in terms of you need to perform, because there's
a lot of stick, you know, with you here, son,
And I don't think there's a better example than Tutcalusive
for that.

Speaker 2 (56:15):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (56:16):
So I thought that nobody gave me a chance until
I met coach Munchak. It was a Hall of Fame guard,
and I think he had had so much experience with
how to evaluate NFL allline talent that he said, I
just don't I don't care about a player being from

(56:37):
the SEC. I don't care about a player having these
measurements or having this experience and teach them.

Speaker 2 (56:41):
Maybe it was his ego. Maybe his ego was so
he's one of the greatest. Though he is the greatest.

Speaker 1 (56:46):
He's amazing that he's the goat. And I think he
was that confident he said, do you give me this
kid and I'll turn them into.

Speaker 2 (56:53):
It because he played like every Like how many positions
did he play?

Speaker 3 (56:58):
No, I think he played right guard and played for
many many years.

Speaker 2 (57:01):
Yes, forever, right forever.

Speaker 3 (57:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (57:03):
I think he retired right before the free agency opened
up in the eighties. You know, we're like DN the coach.
You couldn't you couldn't get the trains, you know, you
couldn't get there, the legs going for one more year.
But he went right into coaching, you know, with Houston
Oilers and then he went to the Tennessee became the
head coach. When a man dedicates that much to the
position of all line, I mean that coman is dedicated

(57:23):
as an entire life to playing allline, then that gives
you a chance. When you have a coach for another
team and I saw this that evaluates you and he says,
I don't like it, give me another one. I would
have I would have been a victim of that, because
being this tall is not perfect, per is not It's
not ideal to be this tall when you're playing official
alignment because you have so much height, you know your

(57:46):
leverage and you do get you do you know you're playing.

Speaker 3 (57:48):
A little high.

Speaker 1 (57:49):
And if you don't have the knowledge and the understanding
of how to anticipate plays based on the fact that
you play with a legendary coach in college, then it
becomes a little bit difficult. I don't understand a lot
of concepts like trap pulling and stuff, no triple option,
but I don't know how to play in the pro
style offense.

Speaker 3 (58:06):
But he did not care.

Speaker 2 (58:07):
I think he enjoyed it.

Speaker 1 (58:08):
I think he saw me as a good match and
a good fit, maybe based on the fact that I've
lived all around the world and I've been with people
from all around the you know the place, uh, and
he liked me having in the room, and so because
of that I was able to have So all those
things had to happen. The fact that two players got
hurted from me, that's the biggest one. Then the fact
that I went to a team that valued having a

(58:29):
veteran on the team somebody from the army for historical
reasons or not. And also because Pittsburgh does have a
very special connection with the veteran community, and I thought
that being a veteran in Pittsburgh was the most the
special transition that I could ever had. It really, the
city of Pittsburgh and the war in Vietnam were two
concepts that really really helped me cope through all the

(58:51):
things that I went because it was almost very very
eerily familiar to what Vinam vets went through. And then lastly,
having a whole fam coach an incredible teammates.

Speaker 5 (59:00):
You're probably so right, and just because every time Pittsburgh
was on TV, they always mentioned you and what you
meant to so many more and your service and all
like it was always mentioned like that was the one
thing that always stood out.

Speaker 3 (59:13):
The NFL did that a lot.

Speaker 2 (59:14):
They did.

Speaker 5 (59:15):
Now.

Speaker 3 (59:15):
I don't think a veteran could do that because I
think the shifts.

Speaker 1 (59:19):
They're not trying to bring like all that is now
if you're a firefighter or first or a nurse, for sure,
you know to complain the team. But it really was
a time in place, I mean right to have an
all volunteer force serving the longest war in our history,
in a fight that was so unknown to the American public.
I mean, we talked about all those three themes. It's difficult,

(59:41):
it's not easy, it's not easy. And so I do
think that the NFL is embedded in the NFL and
the army that have big strategy, big national strategies to
try to cheer up and bring morale of the population,
because if morale goes down, like could happened in Vietnam
for example, like like we can, we can enter situations
where you know, all of a sudden, people people just
don't have the urge to be an airbe ranger.

Speaker 3 (01:00:03):
I mean, that's that's when you can get in trouble.
So I think everybody kind of works together.

Speaker 2 (01:00:07):
We'll be right back after a quick break.

Speaker 5 (01:00:11):
Early on in your career, you block for a traditional
quarterback like Ben Roethlisberger. Yeah, but then by the end
you got somebody like Lamar Jackson.

Speaker 2 (01:00:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:00:19):
We're the biggest two differences besides the athlete that's playing quarterback.

Speaker 2 (01:00:23):
But block them for these guys.

Speaker 1 (01:00:24):
I mean, I'll go in specifics of what it's like
the block for for different quarterbacks. Ben is very limited
in as move. It was very limited as move. So
he knew that the best, the safest spot in the
pocket for a quarterback, it's six years behind the center.

Speaker 3 (01:00:41):
That's the safest.

Speaker 1 (01:00:42):
If you go further than six yards behind the center.
Now you're telling a person to run backward. When a
person is going forward and you want to beat him
ten yards, it's impossible.

Speaker 3 (01:00:54):
You cannot.

Speaker 1 (01:00:54):
I mean it's just mathematically you cannot kick slide back.
But the person's going forward and you can beat him
at ten yards on the loop, but you cannot be
a ten yard So Ben Roethlisberger was very wise, obviously
had a very long career, and he knew that at
six yards he was gonna sit in his pocket. He was,
and he could care less. They could care less if
he threw the ball, and then Suggs just decleted him.

(01:01:16):
You know, as that he understood that that's how you
played the position. Lamar does not like being trapped because
he's magical with his legs and he's such an inspiring athlete.
Both of them were such competitors and so inspiring in
the huddle. I mean, when you're in the hoddle with
Ben Roethlisberger, I mean I think about like how lucky
I got I got to play football with Michael Vick,

(01:01:38):
Lamar Jackson, Ben Roethlisberger. You know what I mean, Like,
that's incredible, that's insane. I like that from Spain, you
know what I mean, It's incredible. They transmit an aura.
Another kids now saying aura aora farmer. My kids are
saying ooral a time they do.

Speaker 2 (01:01:53):
The aura.

Speaker 1 (01:01:54):
That that that a quarterback like like like Lamar and
Ben have in the huddle is amazing. It makes you
play better, It definitely does. But you know, Lamar does
not mind putting himself in harm's way. You know, he
does not mind putt himself in harms way. He doesn't
mind going ten twelve yards being a little deeper. And
if it doesn't, you know, if he cannot find the throat,

(01:02:15):
I think he just he glides, you know it is
I feel like that.

Speaker 4 (01:02:21):
All right, let's get into the third act. All right,
you get out of the military and you get into farming.
How did you get into a farming fruit?

Speaker 3 (01:02:30):
So my mom's out of the family. They're all fruit farmers.

Speaker 1 (01:02:34):
So they all farm avocados and a very specific fruit
that only Spanish people know. All in Spanish countries and
not America's called Cherimoya. So if you're not from a
Spanish speaking country, you've probably never heard of this. Americans
have a very conservative palate. They do not like to
try different things. They're like what they want. That's the

(01:02:55):
reason what we talk about. Food in America is very.

Speaker 2 (01:02:58):
Very average at best worldwide.

Speaker 3 (01:03:02):
But we do have incredible fruits in America. We do
have the Americas.

Speaker 1 (01:03:06):
And I'm obviously you know, when we talk about, you know, biology,
we're not just speaking about the frontiers of nation in
the Americas has The Americans have incredible biodiversity, and we're
very blessed to be in a climate zone here in
South Florida where it doesn't freeze and you have subtropical climate,
so you can't grow some of these fruits that are

(01:03:26):
very very unique only to the Americas.

Speaker 3 (01:03:30):
And so when I got done playing.

Speaker 1 (01:03:34):
From my house, I can make a right and I
can go to Brickel and I'm in the financial district
of Miami and where the action is happening, and every
single person is talking about private equity and crypto and
things that are like wow, sounds amazing, ten x twenty x,
you know, you're gonna quadruple could do. And all I

(01:03:54):
can think about the entire time was seventy percent of
NFL players lose their money. Seventy of NFL players lose
their money. Seventy eight percent of NFL players lose their money.
I mean, what if you cannot understand what is it
that you're doing with this new mean coin or whatever?
Are you going to be part of that seventy eight percent?

Speaker 2 (01:04:13):
You know?

Speaker 1 (01:04:14):
And then I started making a left out of my
house and I started going towards homestead, you know, just
you know, I had to go pick up plans, nurses
or whatever. And when I went to the homestead, I
realized the leaf of the trees were the same as
the ones that I had in my hometown. And I
started investing as a hole in a minute, like what
are you guys growing here?

Speaker 3 (01:04:30):
What is it that you grow? And I realized that
you're growing.

Speaker 1 (01:04:33):
All the subtropicals that make Spanish cuisine, particularly the America
is very very special. And I became in love with
I mean, I was obsessed. So I started looking into
the idea of buying land, and I bought a farm,
and then after that came the investment opportunity of doing
another one and another one, And so I said, okay,
this is it. You know that I understand the fact

(01:04:53):
that if you do speak Spanish, you're going to love
chair mooyas. I can sell them to you.

Speaker 3 (01:04:58):
It is value.

Speaker 1 (01:05:00):
Maybe maybe I can go to a place like Pittsburgh
or Prattville or Chicago, and I can put it in
front of an American and maybe his conservative palette is
going to open up the deliciousness of eating a mango
and sub tropical fruit because it is the only thing
that we do have special outside of that, you know,
our or our diet is very sus.

Speaker 2 (01:05:20):
Like, look at you don't still crash on you? Boy,
there we go.

Speaker 5 (01:05:29):
You said something earlier that I was like, man, I
think I think that's awesome and it seems very personal
that I feel like you can only answer.

Speaker 2 (01:05:38):
To all of our crowd.

Speaker 5 (01:05:40):
And you talked about how well you know anybody that's
from America, if they've made any type of success, they
come from the story we're about hard work and how
nothing's just given like that, you like think everybody knows that.

Speaker 2 (01:05:54):
I think opposite.

Speaker 5 (01:05:55):
I think a lot of people in America don't think
that that a lot of people are in things are
just kind of just like, oh well, you just kind
of made it or you're lucky. And I want to
know if because you weren't American born, you look at
it in a different way and sometimes you have this
different appreciation for so many things that a lot of
us don't appreciate it all.

Speaker 1 (01:06:16):
Yeah, I mean I've I've had a unique experience, and
I do have the fact that I am coming from
a place like Europe, that is that is a very
interesting place to come from because Europe. There's a lot
of stuff going on in Europe, and it always has.
But I've had what you know, one of my biggest
teams that I always told my classmates, especially in my classmates,

(01:06:38):
my teammates, you know, we always you always get into
these arguments, especially the on line. Don't call arguments calling discussions. Yes,
you're discussing things, discuss in life politics. I said, man,
you know, the like we were talking about Earli about
Alabama and an army. Things become revelative and you just
don't know anything else. You know, when you live in
your town, do you live in your town, that's your town.
So in Europe, discrimination happens not because of the color

(01:07:01):
of your skin, not because it happens because your last name.
It happens because of the way you speak, and because
the way you speak in.

Speaker 3 (01:07:07):
Your last name. You will never have access to a life.
This is your spot.

Speaker 1 (01:07:13):
You start creating aristocracies and you start creating classes that
you cannot access.

Speaker 2 (01:07:18):
But this is Miami, this is new money.

Speaker 1 (01:07:21):
I don't care who you are. You could be in
a yacht going up and down the Miami River. We
all recognize that as being the American dream. It does
not matter who you are. You come from anywhere, you
can think whatever. If you're in a yacht in Miami,
people go like this. And what is understood is that
in order to beat that, you have to disintegrate any

(01:07:43):
social concerts that you might have as to what makes
you successful. And it is understood in the United States
and especially in football, that if you sacrifice and you
work harder than anybody else around you, you sacrifice. You
sacrifice your family, you sacrifice your healthy you sacrifice your
your friendships, you sacrifice your values, you believes your religion.

(01:08:04):
If you if you give up everything, if you make
a deal with the devil and you work harder to
get your goals, you will be successful. But if you
do that in Europe, you're not going to get your success.

Speaker 2 (01:08:16):
Because of ah Man. You know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (01:08:20):
Your last name is now doesn't rhyme with you know whatever,
it's now. You just you just were not born into wealth,
you know, or you just you know. This is not
like a It's not a thing that you could ever
dream to become by here in the United States, especially
in the city like Miami.

Speaker 3 (01:08:34):
That's why I feel so good in Miami. Miami is the.

Speaker 1 (01:08:35):
City of individual stories, just like my story is crazy.
He talked to a Cuban that came out here, you
know what I mean, on a boat a raft landed
in Key Largo, and he started doing you know, medical sales,
and now he sold a multi billion dollar company. You know,
that's the story that we all say in America. That's America.
That happens in America doesn't happen anywhere else. When you say,

(01:08:56):
when you come in America and you're and you're dealing,
like I imagine that this place gets crazy doing the
formula one, you know what I mean. And it's such
an interesting thing because from the one is truly a
European sort of thing it is, But how much would
you love being here right in this thing? Listen to
conversations talking to people about how they made their money.
When you talk to an American, if they say like,
oh my daddy this, and I like next, yeah, and

(01:09:17):
I don't want to hear you, well, you tell me
that you failed and you failed and you failed, and
all of a sudden, you just you know, your wife
left you, your kids to your dad. You're the addiction,
and that in one day, boom, you know what I mean,
You hit the lottery.

Speaker 2 (01:09:30):
It just happened.

Speaker 1 (01:09:31):
Listen, I was watching the Jerry Jones documentary. You know
what I mean, the oil with the oil field. What
is every American thing? You're like, roll, yes, that's America.
Like you'd waited everything. He became the dead. He took
the risk. Americans take a lot of risk and then
it paid off. The European mine cannot comprehend that. It's
not it's not it's not structured to be that way,

(01:09:52):
you know. So in this paragraph, it would be amazing
to see which conversations you like it, you find yourself
more interested in it. You want new money, new money's
fu you know what I mean? Yeah, New Money brings
salt together, and that's why people like hip hop.

Speaker 3 (01:10:03):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (01:10:03):
You think in Ala and you have like new money
is like, yeah it is. It is an amazing thing.
When I come to the United States and.

Speaker 1 (01:10:08):
Lil Wayne is crushing it, you know what I mean,
anybody can identify with that, with the ambitions of a
young American who just was willing to risk, sacrifice and
work harder than everybody else.

Speaker 3 (01:10:18):
So I mean, that is what makes America number one.

Speaker 1 (01:10:20):
You know, as long as you can keep that and
that expectation people think that way, then I think it
will always be Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:10:26):
This is why I love that conversation. I love it.
I love it. I got one more question for you.
Mount Rushmore.

Speaker 4 (01:10:32):
It's a mountain full of for presidents, but yeah, we're
just gonna call it a Mount Rushmore of greatness. And
you get to pick four people that have had an
influence on you in your life, that have helped shape you, sir,
and becoming.

Speaker 2 (01:10:45):
The man you are today.

Speaker 4 (01:10:47):
It can be a very large man, football related, faith related, religion,
family cousins, whatever. You just get four people you get
to pick and put on this mountain.

Speaker 1 (01:10:57):
I was sitting here when you guys asked, you have
even out the same question. So I'm gonna make it.
I'm gonna make it funny. I'm a creatures beat.

Speaker 2 (01:11:03):
So I'll say.

Speaker 1 (01:11:05):
Joe Dallasandris all Right who passed away. All I coach
of the the Baltimore Ravens, loved them to death, Rest
in peace.

Speaker 2 (01:11:13):
Mike Munchak I talked about him. Ha such a huge
effect on me.

Speaker 1 (01:11:17):
And then you know the Will Smith and Fulton Jones
of the NFL, Mike Tomlin and John Harbaugh. I put
them all the same. They've had a huge I mean,
if you take away the NFL from my story is
not it's not that incredible, just you know, somebody who
came me here and serve. But the fact that I
was able to make it in the NFL doesn't make
it very special. I'm very grateful for the NFL. It's

(01:11:38):
very difficult to define what the NFL is and it.

Speaker 3 (01:11:40):
Isn't you know what I mean?

Speaker 2 (01:11:41):
Is it the fans?

Speaker 3 (01:11:42):
Is it not the fans?

Speaker 1 (01:11:43):
The cities and not the city? Is it the brotherhood
of players who've played beforehand? For me, those four have
had an amazing, incredible impact. And uh and yeah, I
guess I'll put him in there.

Speaker 2 (01:11:55):
You know, I like it. It's a good little list.

Speaker 4 (01:11:57):
Alejandro, hey man, I appreciate you. Thank you for your time.
More importantly, thank forre your service. You blessed us with
some amazing stories. I kind of knew what you're about
when I did my little research and read upon you.
I wanted to be you, meaning no, no, seriously, So

(01:12:17):
having grown up in the military or being around it
so much like that was what I wanted to do
coming out of high school. I don't know if you
want to call it. I want to use the word brainwash,
but like it was just what I knew. So I
was just like, all right, I'm joining the army. And
then I got a scholarship and I was like, okay,
I just want to join the army. I'll just go
play football. And then after I was like, all right,
if I get draft. If I don't get drafted, I'm

(01:12:37):
still joining the Army. I'm gonna do some ranger whatever.
That's what I'm gonna do. And then I just kept
playing football. I was like, oh, I guess I'm not
joining the army anymore.

Speaker 1 (01:12:47):
Worst I could be dismissive, but I would tell you
that between the two the now obviously I can say
that now, but the Army was the highlight of my life.
I do feel I do feel like being in the
Army was kind of like being an actor for the office.
You know that nothing else after that is you know,
like that image of the Shino coming out with my man,
that that is.

Speaker 2 (01:13:04):
That is the peak, and everything else after that is
absolutely I get it. I get it.

Speaker 3 (01:13:08):
I'm very thankful for the United States Army.

Speaker 4 (01:13:10):
I can never say yeah, but I appreciate you. Thank
you for your time service and telling us all these
amazing stories. Truly, you are, sir, one of one. You truly,
you really are.

Speaker 3 (01:13:21):
I don't think everybody everybody's in one on one you
know where in Miami, So.

Speaker 2 (01:13:26):
No, man, I mean Peanuts said it all. Man, it
was great.

Speaker 5 (01:13:29):
This was one of the more unique stories we've got
to hear, and I'm really thankful for it was great.
And uh this you two just falling over each other
is It's awesome. So congrats man, Well, thank you some
amazing career.

Speaker 1 (01:13:41):
I've heard so much about you throughout your whole careers
when I started watching football talking to NFL VET, you
get you get you drift away from the NFL when
you retired, But you guys have an amazing job right
now being able to keep the veteran community together and
continue to talk and highlight, you know, what the NFL
is all about. So thank you so much for the
program that you guys have. Congratulations to your success. It's

(01:14:02):
been an amazing pleasure.

Speaker 2 (01:14:04):
Thank gus. Man appreciated Baby, appreciate it. Man. That's awesome.

Speaker 5 (01:14:07):
So forever you pick up your podcast, make sure you
continue to check in and give us a like, subscribe, follow,
whether it's iHeartRadio, Apple podcasts, continue to check us out.

Speaker 2 (01:14:16):
Man, tell a friend to tell a friend of what Peanut,
tell a friend.

Speaker 4 (01:14:19):
There we go, Man, get us up out of here. Peanut,
I'm Peanut. That's wrong. That's Alexandro And this is the
NFL Player's Second Acts podcast.

Speaker 2 (01:14:27):
We Out

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Alejandro Villanueva: Growing up in Europe, Joining the Army Rangers, and Becoming a Farmer