June 25, 2025 • 50 mins
On the latest NFL Players: Second Acts podcast, former Super Bowl champion and versatile NFL athlete Isaiah Stanback joins Peanut and Roman to share his remarkable journey from the NFL to WWE to GMFB. He opens up about the challenges and mindset required to constantly switch positions during his NFL career. Isaiah also takes us inside his surprising pivot to attending WWE’s training camp and channeling his inner DMX to create a wrestling persona. He recalls what it was like playing for coaching legends like Bill Belichick and Tom Coughlin. The conversation also touches on Isaiah’s move into TV, the power of genuine networking, and how childhood friend Nate Burleson helped spark his media aspirations.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
So in twenty eleven, that was a year I want
a Super Bowl? Or do you keep your Super Bowl ring?
Speaker 2 (00:04):
It's locked up in the safe.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Locked up, And to say, if you don't ever bring
it out during Super I know we saw you super Bowl,
and do you ever bring it out?
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Just it just stay right.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Now bringing out if I'm doing typically if i'm doing
like a speaking engagement, but other than that, there's really
not a scenario that I bring it out.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Man, I keep it locked up.
Speaker 4 (00:18):
What about you, crickets, crickets, I got no come back.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Tailor's. Tailor's like.
Speaker 5 (00:38):
Right, He's just like, I'm over to.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
What up, everybody?
Speaker 1 (01:00):
I'm Penut Tillman And this is the NFL Player's second
Acts podcasting with me, as always my trusity co host
Miter Roman professional flower blossom lavender Harper.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
I appreciate that.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
I don't know if it's lavender, but thank you for
the compliments. As always, I'm really excited about still being
here in Dallas, putting him down, picking him up, putting
them down as we continue to do this thing. And
I really got a I'm excited to see this our
next guest because he's kind of done some really great
things on TV.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Kin he is doing some great o.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
I know, but like I don't want to give it
all the way at the beginning. It's kind of yeah,
it's called a tease, and so just go to it.
Let's go get to our guests.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Plate seven years in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Mister utility man himself quarterback, running back, tight end, kick returner,
part returner, wilde receiver. He Danner should have played center.
He drove the bus, he flew the plane. The man
did everything. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the pod.
Mister Isaiah Stamps.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Appreciate y'all good. Yeah, we good. I didn't.
Speaker 6 (02:05):
I don't think I realized you played that many positions. Like,
I didn't know that at all.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
I was like, wait a minute, it was a little
bit of everything. I thought he was just wide receiver.
I did too, I had learned how to play wide receiver.
Speaker 6 (02:16):
Yeah, exactly that part.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
I didn't know that.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
No, they were clowning me man the first week of practice.
So I played quarterback in college.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
I did.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
I returned some kicks my red shirt freshman year, because
that's only I get on the field. We had a
heightsman candidate quarterback but other than that, I was just
straight quarterback. So when I, you know, had it, got
injured and had to wait on the draft, I didn't
know what position I was going to get drafted for.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Similar to did you.
Speaker 6 (02:38):
Do any workouts at wide receiver or anything else?
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Nothing? No, you did not straight QB.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
Okay, so you you did the straight QB thing like
I was playing quarterback.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Now I only played half my senior season because I
blew my foot out my senior season.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
So because blew, I never heard that total complete list
frank complete.
Speaker 6 (02:57):
So it really was like a blowout, bro literal.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
They had to rebuild my foot, so went down and
was at that ended in October. So you know, no
no bowl games, no, you know, senior Bowl, couldn't do
any of those things. Couldn't run my forty at the
combine because I was just coming off my second surgery,
you know, still rehabing. So when I went through that
whole process of meeting with all the coaches and gyms
and owners, I was meeting as a quarterback primarily. Some
(03:22):
teams wanted me as athlete, some wanted me as a receiver.
So when it came to the draft, I literally didn't
know what position I was going to get drafted for,
even though I had only played quarterback. So it was
like a you know, a little crap shoot where I
was just like, all right, whoever calls, that's what it's
going to be. But all I knew at that point,
all I felt comfortable and confident with was a quarterback.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Now do you think we had Vic on the show?
And you know, we've had warm Michael Vick. We had
Michael Vick on the show. We had war Moon on
the pod and talking to war Moon, he talked about, Yeah,
you know, they they didn't think I was smart enough
because he fell into that stereotype of being a black quarterback,
like he wasn't smart enough. Do you think that you
(04:03):
fell into that stereo type?
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Before I answered that, I can tell you that Warren
Moon is my freaking unicorn.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Yeah. And he was the first black quarterback at the
University of Washington. I was the second.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
So he was literally the reason why I stayed at
the University of Washington because I went through three head
coaches there. When the second head coach came in, I
was going through all the stuff right, similar things that
he had went through, and it was almost unbearable. So
to the point, I'm one of those people that once
you commit to something, you rock with it. You write
it out. So that time in college football, if you
(04:36):
were to transfer, not only did you lose that year,
you lost the next year also, you guys remember that.
So I was at the point where I was about
the transfer, and Warren came and took me out the
lunch and gave me perspective as to some of the
things he had been through, and it changed my outlook
and allowed for me to really push through. But I
don't believe that I fell into the you're not smart enough.
I think I fell into the category of you can
(05:00):
do so much. Why are you being selfish? Just trying
to do the thing that you want to do.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Right.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
So, when I was trying to be a quarterback at
the University of Washington, trying to push through, I had
three or four other cats I was competing with that
didn't look like me, right, and athletic quarterbacks that looked
like me at the time wasn't necessarily fully accepted yet. Right,
we had a handful of guys. We had way of Warren,
We had me, Naw, we had me, nare, we had
you know Cunningham, you know Vic, those guys that have
been there, but they were like the exceptions at times.
(05:27):
So when you could run a four to three when
you're six to three, you're two hundred pounds and you
can do all the things right.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
You can run, you can catch, They're.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
Like, Okay, well these guys can't do that. These guys
that you're competing with, all they can do is throw
the ball, So why don't we let them do that
and you go do something else to help the team
out at one of the other positions. And that's that
was what I was faced with very often at that time,
to the point where I wasn't even conversing with any
coaches on my team. I have got been so black
(05:55):
ball to that point where I was only talking with
my quarterback coach and offensive coordinator.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Imagine going to.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Practice and you feel like you can't talk to nobody,
absolutely no everybody on the staff because they're calling you
selfish for doing the thing that you signed on to
do and you're the best doing it at that position,
but yet you should go do something else because you
need to help the team.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
So it was a lot going on at that time.
But I had my head down, pushed it.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
What did Warren Moon say when he took you out
to lunch? What was the important words to say?
Speaker 2 (06:23):
You know what? You're right?
Speaker 6 (06:25):
And as you said, you called him a unicorn, he
was your unicorn.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
It was bainly just about purpose, you know, and it
was about not allowing anybody to take you off your
track and not you know, to this day, I still
cherish a lot of the morals that he gave me
because at that time I was giving other humans power
over me, right, I was giving them the power to
potentially alter my future. And ever since then, I've learned
(06:52):
that people are going to be people. People are going
to be selfish, people are going to be immature, people
are going to be you know whatever, have a lack
of self confidence whatever it might be, right, and that's
going to come off on you at times. And if
you allow them, who were unsteady h to alter what
you're trying to do, then what are you really standing for?
Speaker 2 (07:14):
All right?
Speaker 3 (07:14):
So he gave me the courage to really push through
because I was able to go back and look at
his story. I was able to go back and he
was telling me about how he used to have to
hide film, right, and go you retrieved over, retrieve the
film and send it out and you know, do his own,
you know, marketing for himself. And you know he had
to go go out to another league and ball out
and then you'll come back and ball out.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
In an NFL.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Right, So his path was so much more difficult and
he faced so much more scrutiny than I did. So
it allowed for me to look at myself and be like,
you know what, it sucks, but it's not nearly as
bad as what he did, and he still made it happen.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
Yeah, first of all, appreciate you sharing that. So let
him know that We've talked to Warren and he didn't
share that with us at all. You know, he talked
about some of his pitfalls that were ed Washington and
everything being held against him.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
But it does allow.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
You to freedom say you know what I need to
cause I can do this. Yeah, fact that that was real.
I want to talk to you about this WWE things.
I mean you look like you gr ass as a wrestler,
straight up tea. Yeah, but like what made you say
all right, I want to try this cause you say,
you know I just tried things.
Speaker 6 (08:16):
Yeah, Once I start something, I don't stop.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
You kind of stop that, but I want to know, like,
why did you even start the training camp part of it?
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Man?
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Honestly, at that point in my life, I made a
commitment to myself or whatever opportunity to present.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Themselves, you're going to do it.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Just see about it, okay, right, because I think for
so long we were so fixated on our sports.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Right.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
So for me growing up, I always made a commitment
to myself, I'm either going pro and baseball or pro
and football.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
It was one of the choice, one of the two.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Once I got through high school, I had to turn
down the first round draft pick from baseball, and at
that point, I'm majority of my focus went straight to football, right,
So I'm like, okay, well that portion, you've kind of
closed that door, even though I did a little bit
of baseball in college, because like, you're football now, so
you're going to make that happen. So you get so
fixated and you hit that goal on reach that goal,
and then once that's done, it's like, okay, well, you know,
(09:04):
I really hit what I what I've always you know,
saw it after so now I really don't know what
I want to do. So whatever the opportunity presented itself,
and I'm always a WWE fan, and I was like,
you know, I can't pass on an opportunity to go
down there right with some of the legends and and
do what they do.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
And it was fun. It was like a two or
three d three day camp. And I can tell you
what feelus. There's many training camp as we've been through.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
You know your body, how bad you howbut your body
hurts about day four or five, right, you irritated, Right,
you're not sleeping well right.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
On the pads, Like like day four or five, You're like, dude,
you're waking up at four thirty.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Do the p test all the stuff? Right? The people,
come on, man, come.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
On, man, random exactly, get random. My body had never
hurt so bad, really never hurt so bad. It's so
when we started running the ropes, doing what they call bumps, right,
you're pretty much thrown yourself on the ground. But there's
a whole technique to that. There's a technique to how
you get up because you protect your the person that
you're that you're you know, out there competing with.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
So there's a lot of nonverbal cues.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Which I correlated with what we do right, So a
lot of nonverbal cues to get to the point where
we're so tight you can look at your boy and
give a little head nod and you ready know what
it is.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Right.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
They do the same thing. So they have all these
all these processes in place. But once you started running
the ropes, it's literally elevator cable wrapped in tape.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
So if you hit that thing wrong, it looked like
it sound like it hurt. Bruh. Listen my back, elevator
nick in my back.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
My back was so swollen, like I could barely lift
my arms, my neck I was I gave myself a
concussion because I wasn't doing the bumps all the way right.
You have to tuck your chin a certain way, you know,
tighten up your cord. There's so much technique that that
you don't see right when you're watching, you know, and
watching watching it live, you can't really appreciate how much
work goes into it because it looks like they're just
jumping around and slamming each other. Now there's a lot
(10:54):
of technique that's involved. So I gained a whole new
respect for not only the physical aspect of it, but
also for how much of a family.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
They are.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
They from the from the top down. They make you
start off at the bottom. They make you understand how
to set up the ring. They make you understand the
production side. They make you understand people who are set
up the mats right. They make you do all that
work to appreciate everybody who has a role and what
shows up on production day. So I love every aspect
and gain a whole new regard for the w Did
you did you have like a persona like your character?
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Did you did you get.
Speaker 6 (11:27):
What was what was that guy's name?
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Man?
Speaker 6 (11:29):
Did you have to like come on committed for you?
Speaker 2 (11:32):
You know what? So DMX is my dude, Yeah right, DMX.
You know r P DMX.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
So I pretty much channeled like my little inner dog
and that was That's pretty much what I came with.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
So what was the name or was it? I don't
remember the name, to be honest with you, Okay, I
I don't remember the name, but I definitely had the
whole DMX vibe coming on with it. They're doing a
little cameo.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
I listened to your interview on when people ask you
about this and you're like, dude, for three days, I
just felt like they just wanted to try and make
people quita. They they what was the tech bro. I
don't even think they taught us all that. They would
just trying to make quick.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
So they had three rings set up, right, they had
three rings set up, and you would run circuits at
every ring. Right.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
Some of it was you had to hit up. They'll
tell you, hey, five minutes on the clock, so boom
you'll go. You got to hit a bump, right, you
get up, you run the ropes, you get down. It's
pretty much like an updown, right, But they're testing to
see can you still do what we've taught you to
do when your dog tired? Right, And then they get up.
You're running and you're jumping over people on all the stuff.
And then you get up to blow to whistle and
(12:32):
you got to run sprint to the next ring and
the boom you're hitting something else. Right, So you're so
exhausted that your mind is just not into it. Right,
you're doing tucking rolls. Bro mean, your stomach you feel
like you're about to throw up. Oh, it was awful,
and they're just yelling at you, and man, it was
wild and it was funny.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
At one point one of them.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
They had some of the active WWE you know WW
next at that time, and some of the actual people
in the actual WW come up to you and they're
up there getting on you, trying to yell at you.
And one of the girls come up to me, you know,
acting all tough, militant. She comes up, she says, keep
it up.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
They like you, all right. So it's at the end
of it.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
Man, they gave me an offer, but yeah, the bread
wasn't bread, and so I was like, I appreciate the opportunity,
but yeah, I got bills to pay.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
Hey, at least you got the offer that Sometimes it's
all you want to know. You was good all you
want to That's it what you was good enough.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
So when you get when you got to the league,
the only thing I ever played was corner.
Speaker 6 (13:25):
Maybe a little bit of safety, that was it. But
corner and safety I.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Think they're interchangeable, would you agree, depending on the scheme
I'm asking you.
Speaker 4 (13:32):
As a safety, I do not think they're that interchangeable.
Really no, because I don't want to go outside.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Cover yeah yeah, yeah. You like to be able to
see everything.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
I want to be able to see everything, Okay, So
and not every corner wants to get in that action.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Absolutely I did. I wanted to. Yeah, yeah, I wanted
all that smoke.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
What was the best or what was your favorite position
that you played in the league being a utility man?
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (13:58):
No, I mean I would have to say, honestly, in
a specialist. I like being a specialist because I felt
like you had an impact on the game. It's one
of those I don't want to say it's thankless, right
because your teammates appreciate it, right, But from the outward looking.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
In, it's a thankless role.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
You do your job and there all right, we're going
to commercial, all right, or we're just coming back from commercial, right,
Nobody really cares. But for the guys that are on
the team, I think there's such a high regard that's
held for guys that do special teams, right, because it's gritty.
It's a grind. You know, you got to get.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
A lot of it's gritty. It's a grind. Yeah, absolutely tough. Yeah, absolutely,
is that he's just a clown? Is what? Yes, that's
what I know. He had to get checks, checks was hidden.
You don't know about that grind? So about it? So listen,
So he ain't never think nobody.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
Being a quarterback in college and having never played receiver
but getting drafted as a receiver right literally t O
and Patrick creating all these guys was clown to me
my first day showing up on the access field because
I had on all the pass knee pass, thine pass,
butt pass, hit pasts.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
They told me I looked like the little man. Again,
that's on a poster. So I literally had I didn't
know what I was doing. You never see it.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
If I saw you receiver with all the pass I'm like, bro,
you's straight craft dummy block.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Absolutely, they are not throwing this ball. I knew how
to do one thing.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
Well, yeah, so when I get the first thing that
they had me doing to have an impact on the
team was being a kick returner, right, So I'm like, okay,
well I did this a little bit like my redshirt
freshman year, but whatever we hear now, let me have
some kind of impact. So you try to utilize my speed.
But then by being a kick returner, you had to
learn how to be an offer turner. And when you're
an offer turner, your job is a block. Who MDM right,
(15:44):
most lagers man? So whoever that might be sometimes it
might be one hundred and sixty pound dude. Most times
it's gonna be about a two sixty.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Right.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
So now all of a sudden, having played quarterback my
whole life'm hitting two hundred and sixty pound dudes. And
once they showed that you could do that, okay, so
you could return the ball, you could run, you could
block these dudes, okay, next to me?
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Want you do?
Speaker 3 (16:02):
You gotta cover some kicks, right, So it just kept
going and going right, So we went from kick offf
return to kick off, to keep a punt, return to punt.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
You end up doing it all. But I love it.
Speaker 6 (16:12):
You're a team player and you were doing anything to
help your team win the game. I would have too, man,
but that no, they didn't need me for that.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
He said, that wasn't my job. My job.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Dude always tries to get out of it when he's like, yeah,
I'm not going to run from it.
Speaker 6 (16:28):
I don't care. I'm just like, I'm not a special teams.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Guy for sure, never was, and some guys don't have
to be.
Speaker 6 (16:34):
And did you know this, he ain't want that smoke.
It was different and everybody knows this. If you don't
do it early.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
You can't just like be a special teams guy after
like seven eight years.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Did you ever do like, were you ever a wedge
buster like the L five? Oh my god. Yeah, we
can respect the body to the five.
Speaker 6 (16:50):
The body I was always the one. I was a
safety guy every time, Like I'm not.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
Bro Listen, this is about again for those that are
listening right now, there's no wedges.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
You don't have no real kid. Back of the day,
you was running for forty to fifty yards and the.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
Only thing that was going to stop you was a
wall of three to four three hundred pounds dudes. Yes,
and you had to make some business decisions on whether
or not you wanted your job batter enough to go
in there.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
And that was real.
Speaker 4 (17:17):
That was also before they had the five yard rule too,
where you guys were hitting it like full speed. If
you could tie it rot so you are you could
be you did matp you started the other end zone.
Can you can start it so you can get your speed?
And everybody had their own little time, you know.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
Speaking about Chicago, I'm pretty sure it's crossed over to
the time that you was there.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Israel doneja? Oh my god? Yeah? Texting them yesterday first
seventy one.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
Listen, we're about to play seventy one. Bro so detacled
walk into a special teams meeting room. Coach just gets
up there and says, okay, show you guys what y'all
dealing with this week. Literally takes the laser highlights seventy
one right there at five. It says, watch him. This
dude runs, big dude right about two seventy five to
eighty five. Yeah yeah, running down there now, untouched right.
(18:02):
Front line doesn't touch him, second line doesn't touch them.
They let him go all the way through to the
wedge as he gets culture because they thinking that, you know,
six seventy hundred pounds is going to stop him. Right
as he gets closer to the wedge about ten years out, somehow,
some way, this juggernaut speeds up right. He accelerates as
he sees the wall coming at him, he accelerates. Bust
these dudes straight in the wedge. All you saw was
(18:25):
a mouthpiece fly out somebody's helmet again. One dude versus
three lays out both of these casts. Both of these
guys sleep. The coaches like, this is what y'all dealing
with this week?
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Bruh, Yeah he was. He was a different he was different.
No seen him. I want no smoke. I didn't want
no party. No, I was like somebody on the front
line trip him something.
Speaker 6 (18:47):
Well, that's what it used to like shadow at him,
like flash at the FLA.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
He wasn't. He didn't care about no flash.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
So you flash at somebody early and then they just
yet slow him down early so they can't build.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
You ever seen the jugging Nott slow down?
Speaker 1 (18:59):
No, So with all the positions that you made, what
was your welcome to the NFL moment?
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Welcome to the NFL moment, like several of them. No,
I did it.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
I think it happened to be in the preseason actually,
when we're playing against at the time, the San Diego Chargers.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
It was there was a dude by the name of
Apple White. I can't remember his first name.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
He was a big dude, about two sixty and again
as an off returney, they kicked it to the other
return man. So now I'm blocking MDM. Dude comes down
and he literally is coming. I'm like, okay, well I
can't punk out right. I got a man up and
I went to go hit him, but I didn't hit
him head up. Yeah, you know, you try to turn
your like I'm gonna do my job, but I don't.
I really don't want this, you know, so you can
turn your head to the side. Hit me in the
(19:39):
temple and literally I tried to look and I couldn't
see in my eyes, no life, myself, My eyes was
back here somewhere.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
I'm literally eyes, bro, I couldn't see, but I couldn't see.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
So I'm literally on the field trying to get my
eyes to get back right. Yeah. It was gone.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
Yeah, yeah, bro, that was my come to Jesus moment
that I was like, I'm here, here, where we're here,
He's are grown men.
Speaker 7 (20:02):
How I look, I look, We're going to take a
short break and we'll be right back.
Speaker 6 (20:13):
In two thousand and nine, you played with the Patriots.
Speaker 4 (20:15):
Yes, you signed with Patriots, Bill Belichick and that whole crew,
and they said you're going to play quarterback for us. Yeah,
so coming to you play quarterback all college? All right,
you were a superb athlete in high school, play quarterback
in college. Get drafted, you're like, you're going to be
a wide receiver and a utility guy. Then free agency,
(20:37):
we will sign you and you're going to play quarterback
now for us?
Speaker 2 (20:41):
What was that like?
Speaker 3 (20:42):
It was dope because I had went through a lot
of surgeries coming out of college. I had my foot
that I blew out, right, so I had that, you know,
two surgeries to repair that. You know, I killed my
draft stock. Then I get drafted at a position I
never played at. I get the Dallas I literally have
three straight injuries that require surgeries, right, So I mean
I had five surgeries. Boom boo boom ba boom. Right,
So my time in Dallas was over and just due
(21:05):
to that. So I'm sitting at the house. You know,
if you get those last cuts after training camp, you're
sitting around because it's a long weekend, right And I'm
playing Call of Duty with my with my best friend
and my phone rings. I don't recognize the number. I
answer it and he's like, yeah, this is Isaiah and I'm like, yeah,
who's it. He's like, oh, this is Bill Belichick And
I'm like, sure, this is you know, but you try
(21:27):
to act cool, you know, you're good, what's up?
Speaker 2 (21:29):
What's up? Yeah? He was like, well this is He's like,
this is Bill. He's like, you know, can you still
throw the ball.
Speaker 6 (21:33):
I'll go back in his voice, I like it better?
Speaker 2 (21:35):
You like that better? Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
He's like, he's like, can you still throw the ball
like that? And I was like, yeah, you know, and
because in my heart I'm still a QB.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
Yeah you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
Like, I've been playing receiver, I've been doing all the
special things, but I'm a quarterback. I'm out of position, right,
I'm a fish out of water. I'm making it happen.
I'm in the league, but this isn't what I really do.
So he gives me that here. I'm like absolutely. So
he's like okay, He's like, well, we.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Were going to draft you and the fourth, but Dallas
got you first.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
So I was like, bet so Dallas drafts me as
a receiver, but I got Bill Belichick that would have
drafted me as a quarterback. Literally, get on the flight
the next day, go out there, do a workout with
him and Billy O'Brien.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
They said, okay, you can still throw the work. You
can still throw the ball. I'm on practice squad. Had
you been throwing the ball? I was wondering? And two
years were you the rock?
Speaker 1 (22:26):
What's the mindset from going to kick returner to tight
end to receiver to quarterback, Like, what's the what's the mindset?
But I'm just saying like, it's whatever position you play,
it's in my opinion, different mindset.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
Is completely different mindset. Yeah, so be honest with you,
I was trying. I literally went back and started watching
my college film. I had to go back and start
watching my college film to remember who I was at
that position.
Speaker 6 (22:54):
Okay, yeah, absolutely are who you are?
Speaker 3 (22:58):
No, I mean, because honestly, I have been through a
lot injury wise, I had been through a lot feeling
like I was impersonating a receiver, you know, and never
haven't really been taught to play receiver. So now I'm
trying to reidentify myself with who I truly am. But
I'm rusty, right, I'm rusty, and not rusty from not
only just from the physical aspect, but from the logistics
(23:19):
and from the mentality. To your point, So, you know,
showing up in New England and now all of a sudden,
I'm sitting in a room where I was sitting in
a room with te O and Terry Glenn and you know,
and Patrick Craid and now I'm sitting in a room
with freaking Tom Brady, you know, and I'm.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Like, oh, okay, well this is this is this is different,
you know, and he's the considered the goat. Now he's
in the prime. So trying to wrap my head back around.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
Okay, you can't walk in the huddle as a receiver anymore, right,
walking back in the huddle, now everybody's looking at you.
You got to command, right, you have to command the
huddle right. So literally, for like the first week or so,
I was struggling with that. You know, taking command was
really the thing that I had to really get back into.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
So so that took some took a little bit.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
But I you know, as being a backup, I was
a third string quarterback, but I was also going to
the receiver meetings and I was also going to the
special teams meetings.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
So once I started.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
Helping out being on as a as a scout team
guy pretty much you know, a practice player at that time.
After the first week of practice, Coach Belichick came up
to me because I was killing in that receiver right,
that was what I've been naturally doing now for the
last three years. He was like, I need you to
I need you in the game, So learn this ginormous playbook.
We already have learned it. We're already installing another one
(24:35):
hundred and some odd players a week. Catch up that was,
that was a conversation. So I literally was splitting time
between the quarterback rooms. I would do stuff with you know,
watching film with TV twelve, watching how he broke down
stuff and how he prepared. And then I would literally
go hop over with Tom Brady West, you know, Jules,
you know all those guys. So had that opportunity. And
then I was in special teams meeting, so literally I
(24:56):
was became the first practice squad player at the time
who was a allowed to travel. Bill Belichick didn't allow
practice players to travel, and you guys, you don't know
they too, They just don't, right. But I was understudy
at the time, and he wanted me to hear the plays.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Right.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
I was clipboard. I was clipboard, Jesus right. I was
that guy writing all the plays down with the earpiece.
And I had to catch up. So by week six
I was playing, right. So by week six of the season,
I was playing, and I had to know the offense
enough and I was still playing ketchup and my mind
was going like this, yeah, but yeah, it was.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
It was a whirlwind.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
So my first game, I was actually number I started
off as number nine because I was quarterback, right, But
as soon as I entered the game as a receiver,
the league sent sent a memo to the team and said, hey,
he has to change his number to a double digit.
So they changed my number to fifteen so I could
play quarterback and receiver.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Sweet.
Speaker 4 (25:44):
Now that before that's well, you know, instead of having
to put the big fat jersey on over the top
of it like they do at college.
Speaker 6 (25:51):
Sometimes you also played for Coaughland.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
Yep, right, what is some similarities or or where the
differences between Belichick and caff Like Caughlin we've heard is
tough like five minutes before. Yeah, buddy, it is like,
I mean, he says nine, but it's really eight fifty five,
and then acts like eight fifty five is not late.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Yeah, you know what I mean. So and then like
everybody knows these stories, I've heard of it. Yeah, no, no, no,
change your clock, like Legit sat there with you, like, hey, listen,
it's yeah exactly. If it's really nine o'clock, y'all better
set your watches, set your phones. Take fifty five because
we're five minutes early, right, and if you do, if
you're late, that's stacks coming out your check when it's
(26:32):
really all time. But yeah, that's what it was. Yep.
Speaker 6 (26:36):
So what are some simulators?
Speaker 2 (26:37):
What the difference is?
Speaker 6 (26:38):
What would your what would you say, is like.
Speaker 4 (26:40):
Man, this is what this one made, made who they
were and vice versa.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
So I was spoiled, man, I'll spoiled a lead to
be playing for some really good organizations.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
But the difference between.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Belichick and Coughlan, I would say, Belichick, you had to
be overly prepared mentally, right, overly prepared. And when I
say that, I mean, like, legit, the whole team in
the team meeting room when you came in for your
team meeting, he would quiz everybody, Yeah, I've heard that.
(27:12):
So my first team meeting in New England, I sit,
you know, sitting with the quarterbacks, and I see Tom
and Wes and Moss and I'm looking around, you know,
you're just trying to get us see your surroundings, and
you see everybody with their books out. It's Wednesday, right,
so you just got your book supposedly, right. Honestly, most
guys came in on Tuesday and got there is in
New England. But Wednesday, guys are flipping through their book
and I'm like, this guy's is stressing out what is going?
Speaker 2 (27:32):
You know what I'm saying, like, what is kas's doing it?
Speaker 3 (27:34):
And Coach gets up there and everybody takes her book down,
throws it under the chairs. He's like, hey, Wes, uh,
tell me who the kicker is for the Miami Dolphins, right,
And you know, West gives an answer.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
All right, Coach. He's like, all right, so what college
did he go to? You know? How tall is? He
starts asking all these questions and Wes is like, I
don't freaking know. Coach.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
He's like, boy, you better freaking know that's not that
you're word to use, but you better freaking know he's
gonna be kicking you that damn ball.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
But he was. He was just intense like that.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
And we would go on our plane and you would
be given up a test like a full on packet
with hardly anything on it, which is separate in the
play call.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Your your job was to fill it out and hand
it done before you got off the plane. So where
you got off the plane before you got the plane?
What I want my nap No what where you're working
on the clock. That was the mentality.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
You were always mentally prepared, which is why when you
saw them play, you never felt like they were out
of it. They never seemed like they were panicking because
they had prepared for every scenario, every situation. In New York,
it was more of a.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Gritty physical mentality, right.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
Like Coach Kauflin is a disciplinarian obviously, right, We just
talked about him in the time. But I can give
you example my first week there again, I got there
as a practice squad guy, right, I had to put
my time in.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
But at this time I'm a vet, right, So I'm
in my what year of miam at that point, and
I've been in it for four years, right, five years?
At this point.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
I get there and literally one of the you know,
lower coaches comes in and you know, they're stressing with
the cards and they're get over here green.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
No grabbing guys, you know, just you know what I mean, right,
the car, the car, the cars quality control. They be
sure that's that's their job, and don't get that right
the head coach being and the coach has been yelling
at them.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
So now they have the power that would do what
yell a yell at you. However, I'm a vet right
and you ain't. Yeah, you're not going to talk to
me any.
Speaker 6 (29:30):
Yellow hat or the green hat or the blue hat.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Like, okay, you're with me. Yeah. So he grabs me this,
this coach grabs me. I said, get the f.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
Over here, and I'm like, whoa play, hold on, this
is my figure. This is my first, like second day there.
I'm like, hold on, like it don't.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Require all that.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
He's like what, I'm like, Lloyd, lower your tone, right,
I'm a grown man. He's like, oh, real, eving smart,
you know, new guy d So we're.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Literally face to face offensive walkthroughs on one side, defensive
walkthroughs on the other field. You guys remember that.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
Yeah, And I'm in the face to face with the
quality control coach and we're going head to head. Eli's quiet,
be Jacob's quiet, big cruze. Everybody's like, oh no, like
the new cat, newcast's wild, right, even.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
Though I wasn't in the wrong.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
There's like this this tiff between me and this coach
and it's like about to go down, and literally that
the whole thing is broken up. But I look over
over his shoulder and Coach Cofflin's over there, his arms
cross is smiling, He's like, yeah yeah. And from that
point forward, I had his respect and I had to
respect of for the rest of the coaches because I
wasn't no pump. Yeah, I wasn't disrespectful, but I wasn't
no pump, right. So that kind of gives you an
(30:38):
example of like how he wanted some goons out there, right,
He wanted some boons. He wanted some cats that had
a little edge to him, but wasn't going to cross
the line, right. So it was there was a physicality
to that team and to the culture that he that
he elicited in New York, and you felt it. You know,
you felt it from the time that you're in the
weight room to the time you're on the field to
the time you handed the ball off to be Jacobs
(30:58):
good luck, you know what I'm saying. Like there was
just an attitude that that he had and it stemmed
from coach, did you have a.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
Tackle, Brandon James?
Speaker 6 (31:04):
Uh? I have, But he also ran me over before
he touched.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Off six four. It's kind of hard to stuff.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
You're going to look that up, Tom, see Tom and
shaking his head. So twenty eleven, that was a year
I won the Super Bowl? Or do you keep the
Super Bowl ring?
Speaker 2 (31:20):
It's just it's locked up in the safe.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
Locked up, and say if you don't ever bring it
out during Super I know we saw you Super Bowl.
Do you ever bring it out? Just it just stay
right now.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
Bring it out if I'm doing typically if I'm doing
like a speaking engagement. But other than that, there's really
not a scenario that I bring it out. Man, I
keep it locked up.
Speaker 4 (31:33):
What about you, crickets, crickets.
Speaker 6 (31:47):
I got no come back.
Speaker 8 (31:50):
Taylor's Tailor's like, he's just like, yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
I'm over to. No, You're good, I'm over You played
with my dog Tank, Yeah that was my big bro
in college. Man, Yeah I am. I am over to.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
But switching topics retirement second act.
Speaker 6 (32:19):
So when I retired, I got into a job immediately, right.
I enjoyed it. I did TV, live TV.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
My guy over here did absolutely nothing for three hundred
and sixty five days. He was just a a stay
at home dad, a bomb, played some golf if he
didn't get to the laundry. And I'm gonna get to
it the next thing. Correct my question to you, is
would you do as soon as you're retired?
Speaker 3 (32:43):
Yeah, well, I tore my achilles my fourth year in
the league, my contract year, and it's actually before I
won a super Bowl.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
At that point in time, I recognized, this probably.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
Isn't what God necessarily has in store for me all
the way, you know, it's a part of my journey.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
So I started my Executive NBA program. So I went, so,
go get my Executive NBA from.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
George Washington University, and from that I used that to
help me try to figure out my transition. Because everything
that we've always heard and analytics wise, is most players
go broke, right, Most players, you know, start having issues
with you know, mental issues because they're you know, they're
so sad about not knowing what to do next. Right,
because your whole life you focus on this one thing,
(33:22):
you attain it early. Now you're retired at thirty and
what else is going on? I wanted to learn from
other people's mistakes. I didn't have to learn the hard way.
So I took it upon myself to go get my
my NBA and then literally where'd you get it from?
George Washington? George Washington, excuse me? So I didn't want to.
I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do. I
had opportunities to go into finance and all the stuff,
(33:43):
but I'm like, I'm not about to be calling my
boys asking to have access to their finances, right, I'm
not gonna. I value my relationships too much. So I
started at the time my wife, we had just had
a kid. So I wanted to do something for post
NATO prenatal with the women, you know. But also I
wanted to kind of stay close to the performance side
with the sports. But I hated the politics and sports,
(34:03):
you know. I had been tarnished by that. So I
found a way to just create this business called Steadfast
Fitness and Performance and really just tied it all together.
I mean so literally. I started that business prior to
my last year in the league. My last year in
the league actually got fired and found out I was
having twins the same day.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
Damn.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
Yeah, that's a bad combo, bro. So I found out
I was having twins, and an hour later got fired.
I was like, you know what, Yes, this time, I'm done.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
I'm done. So literally walked came home and went straight
to work, walked into the facility and started trying to
build a community.
Speaker 6 (34:38):
You had this idea of the steadfast, did you?
Speaker 4 (34:41):
I saw your co owner yea, yeah, with you on
the website and so were you guys just always thinking
about this, talking about this because you know it's hard
to you have this idea, but how do you get
it from an idea out of your mind into all
of a sudden into a building and also building a
community from there.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
Man, I am a proactive individual.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
So I was working out at the gym during off season, right,
just doing at the normal gyms.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Okay, I know there's probably no gym sponsors, so I'm
not gonna drop.
Speaker 3 (35:09):
No names right now, but working out of the regular gym,
and he would see me, and I ended up his
dad actually was my handyman at the crib, right, just
a little hood cat that was doing stuff around the house,
doing the lights and all that, and he was he
became like a little bro right. He would come over
do the ladders with me. I was the only cat
in the gym doing the ladders and box jumps and
all the performance stuff right o edicats and they're just
(35:30):
getting their lips on. So I took him under my
wing and he started to figure out that. You know,
he was a believer like me. He was you know,
self driven, you know, a motivated athlete, all the things right,
So we had a lot in common. So when we
started thinking about this transition, my wife and I, actually
my wife was one who came up with the worst
step ass first print then is fifteen fifty eight B
stepass in the bound in the Lord and all your ways.
(35:51):
So he was able to tie the faith element into
it as well. I knew that he was on board
with that. He had went to the school for kinesiology,
and I knew that he wanted to ultimately have a facility.
So when I started it, I was like, there's no
better person that I could link up with who not
only knows this space better than me, but also has
the vision that I have and understands the realm that
I'm coming from. And we were able to tie it
(36:13):
all together and really create something pretty special.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
So now we're just wrapping up here. We just wrapped
up year twelve. Oh man, Okay, year twelve.
Speaker 6 (36:19):
So you're doing the steadfast fitness. Where did the TV
space come from? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (36:25):
Like, where did I know?
Speaker 6 (36:26):
You co host Good Morning Football sometimes?
Speaker 1 (36:28):
So where did that. Yeah, love for speaking and talking, which.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
You do a great job.
Speaker 3 (36:34):
I appreciate you for us honestly with my wife again,
she got tired of me as a former quarterback player,
receive all the stuff right. I have a different perspective
of the games, so I don't like watching games in
front of it. You know what a bunch of people.
I like to really watch the game. So I'm at
the house, sitting on the couch and I would be
calling stuff out. I'll be calling out coverages, I'll be
calling out where the ball is going to go, all
the things. And then after it happened, the commentator would
(36:56):
say it would say the same thing, and she.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
Would like always hit me. I'm like what she was like, like,
go out here, please explore this. I'm like, all right.
Speaker 3 (37:05):
So I finally made a commitment to myself to just
be Dora the Explorer and go figure figure it out.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (37:10):
The NFL had a program that was called a Speakers
Bureau that was down at USC went down there and
learned how to present in the public setting, learn how
to get your thoughts together, how to you know, just
be able to perform in that regard. End up meeting
somebody named Jerry madelon right and shout.
Speaker 6 (37:25):
Out these guys everywhere.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
He is the Jedi on air.
Speaker 6 (37:31):
Oh, he does Jedi.
Speaker 2 (37:32):
He does.
Speaker 6 (37:35):
The Jedi of on air.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
G Matt is the man, so ended up linking with him, right,
So again the power of network. G Matt ended up
calling me and was like, Hey, the Cowboys are looking
for somebody to do a podcast.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
Is that something that you'll be interested in. I think
you're in Dallas. Says yeah.
Speaker 3 (37:51):
So Derek Eagleton, who just runs the media in Dallas,
ends up touching base with me and was like, hey, yeah,
I actually heard you speak at my church and I
want to talk to you. But there's some people so
it just never really happened. Long story short, COVID years there, right,
So we're doing podcasts from the house, you know, everybody
zooming in all the jazz. So they send me all
my equipment and that's how it started. So I started
(38:12):
off doing a podcast for the Cowboys. That one podcast
turned into doing seven different shows on the Dallas Cowboys
dot com. That turned into doing a pregame show for
CBS locally for Dallas, and then I ended up doing
the broadcast boot Camp referred through the NFL because my
first time was doing it online because of COVID year,
so they let me do it in person. And then
(38:34):
from that experience, I was able to get the opportunity
to do Good Morning Football and get just a little
little rooky deal there.
Speaker 6 (38:40):
What a story, get.
Speaker 4 (38:41):
Them reps telling you it is all about about the reps.
Shout out to Tracy because you know it's it's no
longer a boot camp.
Speaker 2 (38:48):
It's not. That's right, it's work work workshop.
Speaker 6 (38:52):
I went with the boot camp too.
Speaker 2 (38:53):
Facts get into boot camp.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
I tried twice and told me it's like three hundred
people told me no, and I thought I was good.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
You good.
Speaker 4 (39:03):
Now, do you ever reach back out to former players,
teammates and anything like that that you ever maybe use
as inspiration to keep you going, especially with some of
the things that you've kind of been through. I mean
you've been through, you know, all the injuries. I mean,
you've made seven years in carib but I mean over
half of it was all injuries and mostly Yeah, and
(39:26):
so when you bounced around, you played all these but
you were in a lot of the locker rooms.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
Yeah, and you seem like a connected person.
Speaker 4 (39:32):
Sure, and because of that, you probably built out a
lot of relationships and so has that How is that
probably motivated you or helped elevate you to get you
to where you are right now?
Speaker 3 (39:43):
You know what to be honest with you, because I'm
such a network driven person, Like, I never want anybody
to feel when I'm hitting them up that I'm asking
for something. So I am very conscious of when I
pulled my cards. Right, I'll stay in contact with cats obviously,
just on just on some GP stuff, right, just being cool,
checking in. I'll sender text man, just tapping in, thinking
(40:04):
about you, like those type of things. But you know
what it is when you get back with your boys,
it's like you never like you never missed a step.
But hardly ever do I reach out for anything pertaining
to media. I really try to keep those things separate
unless it's an absolute have to. So I try to keep
my relationships as genuine as possible. And if I ever
am in a position where I have to ask for
(40:24):
a favor, they already know that's not that's not like me.
Speaker 2 (40:28):
So they usually come through.
Speaker 6 (40:29):
So are you trying to be like? Uh, are you
trying to It's.
Speaker 2 (40:34):
One of my dudes. So I grew up with Nate.
Speaker 3 (40:35):
Oh yeah, because from the town yea, So he went
to oday was about five minutes from my crib. My
sister used to tutor his brother. I grew up with
his little brother, Windale. So like so the whole fam
I know.
Speaker 4 (40:46):
I mean, well, Nate is such a unique situation. He
is like one of It's like Michael Straham is the first.
Then it's Nate who's made the crossover and really burst
it out.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (40:58):
Now he's a blueprint Nate native right now, for anybody
who wants to have their hand in a little bit
of everything, Nate is literally the blueprint. Him and straight
Ham have literally laid the foundation for a path forward,
right in terms of being able to get in all
these different avenues. I like myself. I don't want to
just be known as a football guy. Like I feel
(41:18):
like I like my career and like my as an athlete.
I feel like I was a Swiss Army knife. I
feel like I'm the same way in the media space,
right so even on the football platform, and I can
sit down, I can do a podcast, I could do
you know, a studio analyst, I can do you know,
super serious show, you know, suiting and booted. I can
do the color commentator like I feel like I can.
Speaker 2 (41:35):
I can do some WWE What's up all day?
Speaker 3 (41:39):
So I feel I feel blessed to have that flexibility
and I don't want to be ever be boxed in right,
So when I look at a potential path forward, those
are the two individuals, you know, Nate and straight Hand
are the guys that say, Okay, it's been done. Much
like my relationship Warm Moon, it's been done. He's shown
me the way. Okay, I can make it happen.
Speaker 1 (41:58):
Yeah, that colon commentary is some different. I did local
or excuse me, I did one in London. Yeah, my
very first time I ever did it like that live.
That was like no, no, though.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
Okay, that's different.
Speaker 1 (42:11):
That's different too, just like whoa I did it just
to say I did it. It's a lot of prep, man,
there's a whole lot of a lot of a lot
of prep.
Speaker 2 (42:21):
And radio is completely different. Radio.
Speaker 3 (42:23):
I've been done radio color commentary. I've only done I
do all the Cowboys preseason games. Now for the last
four years, I've been doing the Cowboys preseasons. Game started
off with one game, then they gave me two, and
then they gave me all three. So that's completely different
because I've had to learn so much on how to
present on air in that regard, right, completely different in
the studio, completely different. Podcasts is different than everything, right,
(42:45):
which is why the media space is so intriguing, because
it's forever changing. And if you're on all these different platforms,
you get to be the same person, but presented differently, right,
wrapped in a different package. Radio, it's a completely different approach,
no doubt, because you have to be so descriptive.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
Right, and no, that was that was what I struggled.
I was like, oh, yeah, you know, he just ran
over right there? Where's there?
Speaker 2 (43:07):
You can't you know what I mean? That part it's
so hard, but it was I had to to do
it live.
Speaker 6 (43:11):
And I was like, oh damn.
Speaker 2 (43:12):
He was like, you gotta be a little bit more descripted.
Speaker 6 (43:14):
I'm like, I got you, but this is my first time.
Speaker 1 (43:17):
Bro, Like, just give me a little wit. You got
one hundred names to remember, one hundred and fifty names memorized.
I mean, I got the names. I just like, I'm
I'm working on it. I'm As the fourth quarter came,
I was like, all right, I kind of felt like
I got my groove and then the game was over.
I was like, we got to do this. Spit stop,
We'll be right back after a quick break. We asked
(43:38):
this question to all our people's uh, you get four
people mount rushmore from the time you were born till now,
the people that have helped influence you, shape you, mold you,
people that have poured.
Speaker 6 (43:50):
Into you, loved on you. Who would those four people be?
Speaker 2 (43:54):
Hmm, Moms is number one for sure. Yeah, you're talking
about actual human is right, actual humans. Moms is definitely
number one. My wife for my mom real quick though.
Speaker 3 (44:08):
My Moms was the example of team no excuse.
Speaker 2 (44:13):
You know.
Speaker 3 (44:13):
Moms had three kids by three different three different guys,
had my brother at fifteen, had my sister at sixteen.
She just got after it growing up in the hood.
You know, there was no excuse. She didn't make any excuses.
It was like, get it, how you live. I'm going
to make sure that I do everything I can to
put you all in a position to be successful. I'm
do the best that I can. And all of us
(44:33):
went to college, all of us had opportunities great. So
she gave us that right. She gave us that by
not being given a lot. So she is definitely the
example for me there shut out the mom mom Dukes
absolutely so moms for sure. My wife has been a
big part of my obviously my last my last ten
plus years.
Speaker 2 (44:54):
My pops is in there. My pops in there.
Speaker 3 (44:57):
I didn't spend as much time with my dad growing
up as I wanted to because my mom and my
dad were separated, so it was one of those every
other weeknd type of deals. But he gave me a
different perspective on life. Moms was was hood, my dad
was not was not hood, but he the faith element
was big in his house right, not to say that
wasn't my mom's, but he was all the way in
So my dad for sure.
Speaker 2 (45:19):
The last person. Mm hmm.
Speaker 3 (45:23):
There's a mentor that I had by the name of
Greg greg Alex. He was my taekwondb Greg Alex. Yeah,
double doubled up g A. Yeah, he was my Taekwon
door instructor as a as a young as a young
cat in the hood.
Speaker 2 (45:40):
You know, again, not being able to spend a lot
of time with my pops.
Speaker 3 (45:44):
Greg Alex was the cat that you saw that you
could look up to and be like, Okay, there's something
different about him, you know, how he carried himself, the
faith element that he had. Help professional he was, he
was such a giver, but he was a mentor and
he just showed you how to go about your business
(46:06):
the right way. So for me, it was Greg Alex
and then he became my team chaplain and mentor all
the way through college too. So he probably doesn't know
that he had that much of a role in my life.
But yeah, that was my Mount Rushmore. That's probably that's
probably what it is.
Speaker 2 (46:19):
That's awesome.
Speaker 6 (46:20):
Yeah, I got one more. I know we usually end
after that, but you always got it.
Speaker 4 (46:25):
I do, I do, but I want to know because
I just think Isaiah has such a unique.
Speaker 6 (46:31):
Story story absolutely from all the injuries.
Speaker 4 (46:35):
I mean, you came in as a quarterback after like
your high school career is crazy, crazy good. You were
one of the best players in the country and you
also were drafted in baseball and so you were like
this three star athlete, but you choose football. Then you
kind of like kind of get pushed around and you
still know what to do. Then you play wide receiver,
(46:56):
you do all these other things. Then you go play quarterback.
Then you end up in Jacksonville to play tight end
Yeah Brown, which is crazy. So like the og.
Speaker 2 (47:07):
Og bro, he's still doing it. Like, yeah, what is
like twenty? You're twenty?
Speaker 4 (47:13):
So when when I repeat your whole story back to you,
like what is it a story of?
Speaker 6 (47:20):
I know it's survival.
Speaker 4 (47:21):
I know it's something else, but I want you to
give me that word and kind of reflect, like how
do you reflect on your career and everything that it is?
But you know, I'm still right here now having on
on TV. People are listening to my works even though
they didn't see me all the time play Yeah.
Speaker 2 (47:38):
But I still made it.
Speaker 4 (47:39):
Through all that to be above and have somewhere that
so many other people want to be.
Speaker 2 (47:43):
It's what I might.
Speaker 3 (47:45):
My business is called steadfast, and steadfast is something that's unmovable,
that's unwavering, that's consistent. Every time that I was knocked down,
I looked for to the opportunity of proving and disproving people,
and not only other people but myself.
Speaker 2 (48:05):
You know, I had. It took me a while through
faith to.
Speaker 3 (48:08):
Learn that every hurdle, pitfall, whatever you want to call it,
is an opportunity. Right, whatever adversity you face is an
opportunity to not only.
Speaker 2 (48:18):
Prove others, but prove to yourself.
Speaker 3 (48:20):
Right, I mean you even Hurtsha Dura Center say the
other day like this ain't about y'all, this is this
is about me. So they said that I couldn't come
back from my foot when I was coming into the league.
Speaker 2 (48:30):
Okay, bet right. It sucks, right, but I did that
all every term Achilles, every other surgery I had. I
come back from that.
Speaker 3 (48:38):
You know, transition from the league to to you know,
regular citizens slash professional, that's hard.
Speaker 2 (48:44):
Most guys don't do it, bet right. Game on.
Speaker 3 (48:47):
So getting into the media space after having been away
from football for so long, all right, you gotta stay
closer to the game. Once you detach, you really can't
do it, all right, cool, bet I'll put the work
in right, So I look forward to the challenges that
are presented forward for me. And because of that, you
have to remain steadfast through it all. We all have
a story.
Speaker 2 (49:06):
Everybody, every single person has a story, and everybody has
an opportunity to remain steadfast or not. That's just a
competition in you. That's that's just that's just who we are. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (49:15):
Well, Isaiah Man appreciate it. Man, We're gonna let you
get up out of here.
Speaker 2 (49:18):
Man.
Speaker 4 (49:18):
I know, according to your steadfastest website, you got a
TRX bootcamp tomorrow morning, five thirty.
Speaker 2 (49:27):
So you guys do it.
Speaker 6 (49:30):
There's no hell no, damn I'm no, I'm not doing that, all.
Speaker 1 (49:34):
Right, but no, no, we're gonna we're gonna get out
of here.
Speaker 2 (49:39):
Oh now when thank you guys.
Speaker 4 (49:41):
As always, where all of your viewers and listeners, wherever
you pick up your podcast, whether it's Apple podcasts, our
Heart Radio, make sure you give us a five star rating,
leave a review, comment, like, share, subscribe, Please subscribe and
leave a couple of comments. We like to answer those back.
We're gonna start getting some feedback. Listen, continue to go.
Let us know what we could do better? You I
want to know, and so Peanut man, tell a friend
(50:02):
to tell afraid to do what? Tell a friend? Make
sure you check us out on NFL's YouTube channel. All right,
get us out on Peanut.
Speaker 2 (50:08):
That's Isaiah, that's
Speaker 1 (50:11):
Roman and this is the NFL Player's second X podcast,
So in twenty eleven, that was a year I want
a Super Bowl? Or do you keep your Super Bowl ring?
Speaker 2 (00:04):
It's locked up in the safe.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Locked up, And to say, if you don't ever bring
it out during Super I know we saw you super Bowl,
and do you ever bring it out?
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Just it just stay right.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Now bringing out if I'm doing typically if i'm doing
like a speaking engagement, but other than that, there's really
not a scenario that I bring it out.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Man, I keep it locked up.
Speaker 4 (00:18):
What about you, crickets, crickets, I got no come back.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Tailor's. Tailor's like.
Speaker 5 (00:38):
Right, He's just like, I'm over to.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
What up, everybody?
Speaker 1 (01:00):
I'm Penut Tillman And this is the NFL Player's second
Acts podcasting with me, as always my trusity co host
Miter Roman professional flower blossom lavender Harper.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
I appreciate that.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
I don't know if it's lavender, but thank you for
the compliments. As always, I'm really excited about still being
here in Dallas, putting him down, picking him up, putting
them down as we continue to do this thing. And
I really got a I'm excited to see this our
next guest because he's kind of done some really great
things on TV.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Kin he is doing some great o.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
I know, but like I don't want to give it
all the way at the beginning. It's kind of yeah,
it's called a tease, and so just go to it.
Let's go get to our guests.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Plate seven years in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Mister utility man himself quarterback, running back, tight end, kick returner,
part returner, wilde receiver. He Danner should have played center.
He drove the bus, he flew the plane. The man
did everything. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the pod.
Mister Isaiah Stamps.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Appreciate y'all good. Yeah, we good. I didn't.
Speaker 6 (02:05):
I don't think I realized you played that many positions. Like,
I didn't know that at all.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
I was like, wait a minute, it was a little
bit of everything. I thought he was just wide receiver.
I did too, I had learned how to play wide receiver.
Speaker 6 (02:16):
Yeah, exactly that part.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
I didn't know that.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
No, they were clowning me man the first week of practice.
So I played quarterback in college.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
I did.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
I returned some kicks my red shirt freshman year, because
that's only I get on the field. We had a
heightsman candidate quarterback but other than that, I was just
straight quarterback. So when I, you know, had it, got
injured and had to wait on the draft, I didn't
know what position I was going to get drafted for.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Similar to did you.
Speaker 6 (02:38):
Do any workouts at wide receiver or anything else?
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Nothing? No, you did not straight QB.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
Okay, so you you did the straight QB thing like
I was playing quarterback.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Now I only played half my senior season because I
blew my foot out my senior season.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
So because blew, I never heard that total complete list
frank complete.
Speaker 6 (02:57):
So it really was like a blowout, bro literal.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
They had to rebuild my foot, so went down and
was at that ended in October. So you know, no
no bowl games, no, you know, senior Bowl, couldn't do
any of those things. Couldn't run my forty at the
combine because I was just coming off my second surgery,
you know, still rehabing. So when I went through that
whole process of meeting with all the coaches and gyms
and owners, I was meeting as a quarterback primarily. Some
(03:22):
teams wanted me as athlete, some wanted me as a receiver.
So when it came to the draft, I literally didn't
know what position I was going to get drafted for,
even though I had only played quarterback. So it was
like a you know, a little crap shoot where I
was just like, all right, whoever calls, that's what it's
going to be. But all I knew at that point,
all I felt comfortable and confident with was a quarterback.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Now do you think we had Vic on the show?
And you know, we've had warm Michael Vick. We had
Michael Vick on the show. We had war Moon on
the pod and talking to war Moon, he talked about, Yeah,
you know, they they didn't think I was smart enough
because he fell into that stereotype of being a black quarterback,
like he wasn't smart enough. Do you think that you
(04:03):
fell into that stereo type?
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Before I answered that, I can tell you that Warren
Moon is my freaking unicorn.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Yeah. And he was the first black quarterback at the
University of Washington. I was the second.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
So he was literally the reason why I stayed at
the University of Washington because I went through three head
coaches there. When the second head coach came in, I
was going through all the stuff right, similar things that
he had went through, and it was almost unbearable. So
to the point, I'm one of those people that once
you commit to something, you rock with it. You write
it out. So that time in college football, if you
(04:36):
were to transfer, not only did you lose that year,
you lost the next year also, you guys remember that.
So I was at the point where I was about
the transfer, and Warren came and took me out the
lunch and gave me perspective as to some of the
things he had been through, and it changed my outlook
and allowed for me to really push through. But I
don't believe that I fell into the you're not smart enough.
I think I fell into the category of you can
(05:00):
do so much. Why are you being selfish? Just trying
to do the thing that you want to do.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Right.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
So, when I was trying to be a quarterback at
the University of Washington, trying to push through, I had
three or four other cats I was competing with that
didn't look like me, right, and athletic quarterbacks that looked
like me at the time wasn't necessarily fully accepted yet. Right,
we had a handful of guys. We had way of Warren,
We had me, Naw, we had me, nare, we had
you know Cunningham, you know Vic, those guys that have
been there, but they were like the exceptions at times.
(05:27):
So when you could run a four to three when
you're six to three, you're two hundred pounds and you
can do all the things right.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
You can run, you can catch, They're.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
Like, Okay, well these guys can't do that. These guys
that you're competing with, all they can do is throw
the ball, So why don't we let them do that
and you go do something else to help the team
out at one of the other positions. And that's that
was what I was faced with very often at that time,
to the point where I wasn't even conversing with any
coaches on my team. I have got been so black
(05:55):
ball to that point where I was only talking with
my quarterback coach and offensive coordinator.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Imagine going to.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Practice and you feel like you can't talk to nobody,
absolutely no everybody on the staff because they're calling you
selfish for doing the thing that you signed on to
do and you're the best doing it at that position,
but yet you should go do something else because you
need to help the team.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
So it was a lot going on at that time.
But I had my head down, pushed it.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
What did Warren Moon say when he took you out
to lunch? What was the important words to say?
Speaker 2 (06:23):
You know what? You're right?
Speaker 6 (06:25):
And as you said, you called him a unicorn, he
was your unicorn.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
It was bainly just about purpose, you know, and it
was about not allowing anybody to take you off your
track and not you know, to this day, I still
cherish a lot of the morals that he gave me
because at that time I was giving other humans power
over me, right, I was giving them the power to
potentially alter my future. And ever since then, I've learned
(06:52):
that people are going to be people. People are going
to be selfish, people are going to be immature, people
are going to be you know whatever, have a lack
of self confidence whatever it might be, right, and that's
going to come off on you at times. And if
you allow them, who were unsteady h to alter what
you're trying to do, then what are you really standing for?
Speaker 2 (07:14):
All right?
Speaker 3 (07:14):
So he gave me the courage to really push through
because I was able to go back and look at
his story. I was able to go back and he
was telling me about how he used to have to
hide film, right, and go you retrieved over, retrieve the
film and send it out and you know, do his own,
you know, marketing for himself. And you know he had
to go go out to another league and ball out
and then you'll come back and ball out.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
In an NFL.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Right, So his path was so much more difficult and
he faced so much more scrutiny than I did. So
it allowed for me to look at myself and be like,
you know what, it sucks, but it's not nearly as
bad as what he did, and he still made it happen.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
Yeah, first of all, appreciate you sharing that. So let
him know that We've talked to Warren and he didn't
share that with us at all. You know, he talked
about some of his pitfalls that were ed Washington and
everything being held against him.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
But it does allow.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
You to freedom say you know what I need to
cause I can do this. Yeah, fact that that was real.
I want to talk to you about this WWE things.
I mean you look like you gr ass as a wrestler,
straight up tea. Yeah, but like what made you say
all right, I want to try this cause you say,
you know I just tried things.
Speaker 6 (08:16):
Yeah, Once I start something, I don't stop.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
You kind of stop that, but I want to know, like,
why did you even start the training camp part of it?
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Man?
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Honestly, at that point in my life, I made a
commitment to myself or whatever opportunity to present.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Themselves, you're going to do it.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Just see about it, okay, right, because I think for
so long we were so fixated on our sports.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Right.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
So for me growing up, I always made a commitment
to myself, I'm either going pro and baseball or pro
and football.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
It was one of the choice, one of the two.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Once I got through high school, I had to turn
down the first round draft pick from baseball, and at
that point, I'm majority of my focus went straight to football, right,
So I'm like, okay, well that portion, you've kind of
closed that door, even though I did a little bit
of baseball in college, because like, you're football now, so
you're going to make that happen. So you get so
fixated and you hit that goal on reach that goal,
and then once that's done, it's like, okay, well, you know,
(09:04):
I really hit what I what I've always you know,
saw it after so now I really don't know what
I want to do. So whatever the opportunity presented itself,
and I'm always a WWE fan, and I was like,
you know, I can't pass on an opportunity to go
down there right with some of the legends and and
do what they do.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
And it was fun. It was like a two or
three d three day camp. And I can tell you
what feelus. There's many training camp as we've been through.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
You know your body, how bad you howbut your body
hurts about day four or five, right, you irritated, Right,
you're not sleeping well right.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
On the pads, Like like day four or five, You're like, dude,
you're waking up at four thirty.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Do the p test all the stuff? Right? The people,
come on, man, come.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
On, man, random exactly, get random. My body had never
hurt so bad, really never hurt so bad. It's so
when we started running the ropes, doing what they call bumps, right,
you're pretty much thrown yourself on the ground. But there's
a whole technique to that. There's a technique to how
you get up because you protect your the person that
you're that you're you know, out there competing with.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
So there's a lot of nonverbal cues.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Which I correlated with what we do right, So a
lot of nonverbal cues to get to the point where
we're so tight you can look at your boy and
give a little head nod and you ready know what
it is.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Right.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
They do the same thing. So they have all these
all these processes in place. But once you started running
the ropes, it's literally elevator cable wrapped in tape.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
So if you hit that thing wrong, it looked like
it sound like it hurt. Bruh. Listen my back, elevator
nick in my back.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
My back was so swollen, like I could barely lift
my arms, my neck I was I gave myself a
concussion because I wasn't doing the bumps all the way right.
You have to tuck your chin a certain way, you know,
tighten up your cord. There's so much technique that that
you don't see right when you're watching, you know, and
watching watching it live, you can't really appreciate how much
work goes into it because it looks like they're just
jumping around and slamming each other. Now there's a lot
(10:54):
of technique that's involved. So I gained a whole new
respect for not only the physical aspect of it, but
also for how much of a family.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
They are.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
They from the from the top down. They make you
start off at the bottom. They make you understand how
to set up the ring. They make you understand the
production side. They make you understand people who are set
up the mats right. They make you do all that
work to appreciate everybody who has a role and what
shows up on production day. So I love every aspect
and gain a whole new regard for the w Did
you did you have like a persona like your character?
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Did you did you get.
Speaker 6 (11:27):
What was what was that guy's name?
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Man?
Speaker 6 (11:29):
Did you have to like come on committed for you?
Speaker 2 (11:32):
You know what? So DMX is my dude, Yeah right, DMX.
You know r P DMX.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
So I pretty much channeled like my little inner dog
and that was That's pretty much what I came with.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
So what was the name or was it? I don't
remember the name, to be honest with you, Okay, I
I don't remember the name, but I definitely had the
whole DMX vibe coming on with it. They're doing a
little cameo.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
I listened to your interview on when people ask you
about this and you're like, dude, for three days, I
just felt like they just wanted to try and make
people quita. They they what was the tech bro. I
don't even think they taught us all that. They would
just trying to make quick.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
So they had three rings set up, right, they had
three rings set up, and you would run circuits at
every ring. Right.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
Some of it was you had to hit up. They'll
tell you, hey, five minutes on the clock, so boom
you'll go. You got to hit a bump, right, you
get up, you run the ropes, you get down. It's
pretty much like an updown, right, But they're testing to
see can you still do what we've taught you to
do when your dog tired? Right, And then they get up.
You're running and you're jumping over people on all the stuff.
And then you get up to blow to whistle and
(12:32):
you got to run sprint to the next ring and
the boom you're hitting something else. Right, So you're so
exhausted that your mind is just not into it. Right,
you're doing tucking rolls. Bro mean, your stomach you feel
like you're about to throw up. Oh, it was awful,
and they're just yelling at you, and man, it was
wild and it was funny.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
At one point one of them.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
They had some of the active WWE you know WW
next at that time, and some of the actual people
in the actual WW come up to you and they're
up there getting on you, trying to yell at you.
And one of the girls come up to me, you know,
acting all tough, militant. She comes up, she says, keep
it up.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
They like you, all right. So it's at the end
of it.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
Man, they gave me an offer, but yeah, the bread
wasn't bread, and so I was like, I appreciate the opportunity,
but yeah, I got bills to pay.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
Hey, at least you got the offer that Sometimes it's
all you want to know. You was good all you
want to That's it what you was good enough.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
So when you get when you got to the league,
the only thing I ever played was corner.
Speaker 6 (13:25):
Maybe a little bit of safety, that was it. But
corner and safety I.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Think they're interchangeable, would you agree, depending on the scheme
I'm asking you.
Speaker 4 (13:32):
As a safety, I do not think they're that interchangeable.
Really no, because I don't want to go outside.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Cover yeah yeah, yeah. You like to be able to
see everything.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
I want to be able to see everything, Okay, So
and not every corner wants to get in that action.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Absolutely I did. I wanted to. Yeah, yeah, I wanted
all that smoke.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
What was the best or what was your favorite position
that you played in the league being a utility man?
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (13:58):
No, I mean I would have to say, honestly, in
a specialist. I like being a specialist because I felt
like you had an impact on the game. It's one
of those I don't want to say it's thankless, right
because your teammates appreciate it, right, But from the outward looking.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
In, it's a thankless role.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
You do your job and there all right, we're going
to commercial, all right, or we're just coming back from commercial, right,
Nobody really cares. But for the guys that are on
the team, I think there's such a high regard that's
held for guys that do special teams, right, because it's gritty.
It's a grind. You know, you got to get.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
A lot of it's gritty. It's a grind. Yeah, absolutely tough. Yeah, absolutely,
is that he's just a clown? Is what? Yes, that's
what I know. He had to get checks, checks was hidden.
You don't know about that grind? So about it? So listen,
So he ain't never think nobody.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
Being a quarterback in college and having never played receiver
but getting drafted as a receiver right literally t O
and Patrick creating all these guys was clown to me
my first day showing up on the access field because
I had on all the pass knee pass, thine pass,
butt pass, hit pasts.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
They told me I looked like the little man. Again,
that's on a poster. So I literally had I didn't
know what I was doing. You never see it.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
If I saw you receiver with all the pass I'm like, bro,
you's straight craft dummy block.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Absolutely, they are not throwing this ball. I knew how
to do one thing.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
Well, yeah, so when I get the first thing that
they had me doing to have an impact on the
team was being a kick returner, right, So I'm like, okay,
well I did this a little bit like my redshirt
freshman year, but whatever we hear now, let me have
some kind of impact. So you try to utilize my speed.
But then by being a kick returner, you had to
learn how to be an offer turner. And when you're
an offer turner, your job is a block. Who MDM right,
(15:44):
most lagers man? So whoever that might be sometimes it
might be one hundred and sixty pound dude. Most times
it's gonna be about a two sixty.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Right.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
So now all of a sudden, having played quarterback my
whole life'm hitting two hundred and sixty pound dudes. And
once they showed that you could do that, okay, so
you could return the ball, you could run, you could
block these dudes, okay, next to me?
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Want you do?
Speaker 3 (16:02):
You gotta cover some kicks, right, So it just kept
going and going right, So we went from kick offf
return to kick off, to keep a punt, return to punt.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
You end up doing it all. But I love it.
Speaker 6 (16:12):
You're a team player and you were doing anything to
help your team win the game. I would have too, man,
but that no, they didn't need me for that.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
He said, that wasn't my job. My job.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Dude always tries to get out of it when he's like, yeah,
I'm not going to run from it.
Speaker 6 (16:28):
I don't care. I'm just like, I'm not a special teams.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Guy for sure, never was, and some guys don't have
to be.
Speaker 6 (16:34):
And did you know this, he ain't want that smoke.
It was different and everybody knows this. If you don't
do it early.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
You can't just like be a special teams guy after
like seven eight years.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Did you ever do like, were you ever a wedge
buster like the L five? Oh my god. Yeah, we
can respect the body to the five.
Speaker 6 (16:50):
The body I was always the one. I was a
safety guy every time, Like I'm not.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
Bro Listen, this is about again for those that are
listening right now, there's no wedges.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
You don't have no real kid. Back of the day,
you was running for forty to fifty yards and the.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
Only thing that was going to stop you was a
wall of three to four three hundred pounds dudes. Yes,
and you had to make some business decisions on whether
or not you wanted your job batter enough to go
in there.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
And that was real.
Speaker 4 (17:17):
That was also before they had the five yard rule too,
where you guys were hitting it like full speed. If
you could tie it rot so you are you could
be you did matp you started the other end zone.
Can you can start it so you can get your speed?
And everybody had their own little time, you know.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
Speaking about Chicago, I'm pretty sure it's crossed over to
the time that you was there.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Israel doneja? Oh my god? Yeah? Texting them yesterday first
seventy one.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
Listen, we're about to play seventy one. Bro so detacled
walk into a special teams meeting room. Coach just gets
up there and says, okay, show you guys what y'all
dealing with this week. Literally takes the laser highlights seventy
one right there at five. It says, watch him. This
dude runs, big dude right about two seventy five to
eighty five. Yeah yeah, running down there now, untouched right.
(18:02):
Front line doesn't touch him, second line doesn't touch them.
They let him go all the way through to the
wedge as he gets culture because they thinking that, you know,
six seventy hundred pounds is going to stop him. Right
as he gets closer to the wedge about ten years out, somehow,
some way, this juggernaut speeds up right. He accelerates as
he sees the wall coming at him, he accelerates. Bust
these dudes straight in the wedge. All you saw was
(18:25):
a mouthpiece fly out somebody's helmet again. One dude versus
three lays out both of these casts. Both of these
guys sleep. The coaches like, this is what y'all dealing
with this week?
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Bruh, Yeah he was. He was a different he was different.
No seen him. I want no smoke. I didn't want
no party. No, I was like somebody on the front
line trip him something.
Speaker 6 (18:47):
Well, that's what it used to like shadow at him,
like flash at the FLA.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
He wasn't. He didn't care about no flash.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
So you flash at somebody early and then they just
yet slow him down early so they can't build.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
You ever seen the jugging Nott slow down?
Speaker 1 (18:59):
No, So with all the positions that you made, what
was your welcome to the NFL moment?
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Welcome to the NFL moment, like several of them. No,
I did it.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
I think it happened to be in the preseason actually,
when we're playing against at the time, the San Diego Chargers.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
It was there was a dude by the name of
Apple White. I can't remember his first name.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
He was a big dude, about two sixty and again
as an off returney, they kicked it to the other
return man. So now I'm blocking MDM. Dude comes down
and he literally is coming. I'm like, okay, well I
can't punk out right. I got a man up and
I went to go hit him, but I didn't hit
him head up. Yeah, you know, you try to turn
your like I'm gonna do my job, but I don't.
I really don't want this, you know, so you can
turn your head to the side. Hit me in the
(19:39):
temple and literally I tried to look and I couldn't
see in my eyes, no life, myself, My eyes was
back here somewhere.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
I'm literally eyes, bro, I couldn't see, but I couldn't see.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
So I'm literally on the field trying to get my
eyes to get back right. Yeah. It was gone.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
Yeah, yeah, bro, that was my come to Jesus moment
that I was like, I'm here, here, where we're here,
He's are grown men.
Speaker 7 (20:02):
How I look, I look, We're going to take a
short break and we'll be right back.
Speaker 6 (20:13):
In two thousand and nine, you played with the Patriots.
Speaker 4 (20:15):
Yes, you signed with Patriots, Bill Belichick and that whole crew,
and they said you're going to play quarterback for us. Yeah,
so coming to you play quarterback all college? All right,
you were a superb athlete in high school, play quarterback
in college. Get drafted, you're like, you're going to be
a wide receiver and a utility guy. Then free agency,
(20:37):
we will sign you and you're going to play quarterback
now for us?
Speaker 2 (20:41):
What was that like?
Speaker 3 (20:42):
It was dope because I had went through a lot
of surgeries coming out of college. I had my foot
that I blew out, right, so I had that, you know,
two surgeries to repair that. You know, I killed my
draft stock. Then I get drafted at a position I
never played at. I get the Dallas I literally have
three straight injuries that require surgeries, right, So I mean
I had five surgeries. Boom boo boom ba boom. Right,
So my time in Dallas was over and just due
(21:05):
to that. So I'm sitting at the house. You know,
if you get those last cuts after training camp, you're
sitting around because it's a long weekend, right And I'm
playing Call of Duty with my with my best friend
and my phone rings. I don't recognize the number. I
answer it and he's like, yeah, this is Isaiah and I'm like, yeah,
who's it. He's like, oh, this is Bill Belichick And
I'm like, sure, this is you know, but you try
(21:27):
to act cool, you know, you're good, what's up?
Speaker 2 (21:29):
What's up? Yeah? He was like, well this is He's like,
this is Bill. He's like, you know, can you still
throw the ball.
Speaker 6 (21:33):
I'll go back in his voice, I like it better?
Speaker 2 (21:35):
You like that better? Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
He's like, he's like, can you still throw the ball
like that? And I was like, yeah, you know, and
because in my heart I'm still a QB.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
Yeah you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
Like, I've been playing receiver, I've been doing all the
special things, but I'm a quarterback. I'm out of position, right,
I'm a fish out of water. I'm making it happen.
I'm in the league, but this isn't what I really do.
So he gives me that here. I'm like absolutely. So
he's like okay, He's like, well, we.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Were going to draft you and the fourth, but Dallas
got you first.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
So I was like, bet so Dallas drafts me as
a receiver, but I got Bill Belichick that would have
drafted me as a quarterback. Literally, get on the flight
the next day, go out there, do a workout with
him and Billy O'Brien.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
They said, okay, you can still throw the work. You
can still throw the ball. I'm on practice squad. Had
you been throwing the ball? I was wondering? And two
years were you the rock?
Speaker 1 (22:26):
What's the mindset from going to kick returner to tight
end to receiver to quarterback, Like, what's the what's the mindset?
But I'm just saying like, it's whatever position you play,
it's in my opinion, different mindset.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
Is completely different mindset. Yeah, so be honest with you,
I was trying. I literally went back and started watching
my college film. I had to go back and start
watching my college film to remember who I was at
that position.
Speaker 6 (22:54):
Okay, yeah, absolutely are who you are?
Speaker 3 (22:58):
No, I mean, because honestly, I have been through a
lot injury wise, I had been through a lot feeling
like I was impersonating a receiver, you know, and never
haven't really been taught to play receiver. So now I'm
trying to reidentify myself with who I truly am. But
I'm rusty, right, I'm rusty, and not rusty from not
only just from the physical aspect, but from the logistics
(23:19):
and from the mentality. To your point, So, you know,
showing up in New England and now all of a sudden,
I'm sitting in a room where I was sitting in
a room with te O and Terry Glenn and you know,
and Patrick Craid and now I'm sitting in a room
with freaking Tom Brady, you know, and I'm.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Like, oh, okay, well this is this is this is different,
you know, and he's the considered the goat. Now he's
in the prime. So trying to wrap my head back around.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
Okay, you can't walk in the huddle as a receiver anymore, right,
walking back in the huddle, now everybody's looking at you.
You got to command, right, you have to command the
huddle right. So literally, for like the first week or so,
I was struggling with that. You know, taking command was
really the thing that I had to really get back into.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
So so that took some took a little bit.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
But I you know, as being a backup, I was
a third string quarterback, but I was also going to
the receiver meetings and I was also going to the
special teams meetings.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
So once I started.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
Helping out being on as a as a scout team
guy pretty much you know, a practice player at that time.
After the first week of practice, Coach Belichick came up
to me because I was killing in that receiver right,
that was what I've been naturally doing now for the
last three years. He was like, I need you to
I need you in the game, So learn this ginormous playbook.
We already have learned it. We're already installing another one
(24:35):
hundred and some odd players a week. Catch up that was,
that was a conversation. So I literally was splitting time
between the quarterback rooms. I would do stuff with you know,
watching film with TV twelve, watching how he broke down
stuff and how he prepared. And then I would literally
go hop over with Tom Brady West, you know, Jules,
you know all those guys. So had that opportunity. And
then I was in special teams meeting, so literally I
(24:56):
was became the first practice squad player at the time
who was a allowed to travel. Bill Belichick didn't allow
practice players to travel, and you guys, you don't know
they too, They just don't, right. But I was understudy
at the time, and he wanted me to hear the plays.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Right.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
I was clipboard. I was clipboard, Jesus right. I was
that guy writing all the plays down with the earpiece.
And I had to catch up. So by week six
I was playing, right. So by week six of the season,
I was playing, and I had to know the offense
enough and I was still playing ketchup and my mind
was going like this, yeah, but yeah, it was.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
It was a whirlwind.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
So my first game, I was actually number I started
off as number nine because I was quarterback, right, But
as soon as I entered the game as a receiver,
the league sent sent a memo to the team and said, hey,
he has to change his number to a double digit.
So they changed my number to fifteen so I could
play quarterback and receiver.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Sweet.
Speaker 4 (25:44):
Now that before that's well, you know, instead of having
to put the big fat jersey on over the top
of it like they do at college.
Speaker 6 (25:51):
Sometimes you also played for Coaughland.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
Yep, right, what is some similarities or or where the
differences between Belichick and caff Like Caughlin we've heard is
tough like five minutes before. Yeah, buddy, it is like,
I mean, he says nine, but it's really eight fifty five,
and then acts like eight fifty five is not late.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Yeah, you know what I mean. So and then like
everybody knows these stories, I've heard of it. Yeah, no, no, no,
change your clock, like Legit sat there with you, like, hey, listen,
it's yeah exactly. If it's really nine o'clock, y'all better
set your watches, set your phones. Take fifty five because
we're five minutes early, right, and if you do, if
you're late, that's stacks coming out your check when it's
(26:32):
really all time. But yeah, that's what it was. Yep.
Speaker 6 (26:36):
So what are some simulators?
Speaker 2 (26:37):
What the difference is?
Speaker 6 (26:38):
What would your what would you say, is like.
Speaker 4 (26:40):
Man, this is what this one made, made who they
were and vice versa.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
So I was spoiled, man, I'll spoiled a lead to
be playing for some really good organizations.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
But the difference between.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Belichick and Coughlan, I would say, Belichick, you had to
be overly prepared mentally, right, overly prepared. And when I
say that, I mean, like, legit, the whole team in
the team meeting room when you came in for your
team meeting, he would quiz everybody, Yeah, I've heard that.
(27:12):
So my first team meeting in New England, I sit,
you know, sitting with the quarterbacks, and I see Tom
and Wes and Moss and I'm looking around, you know,
you're just trying to get us see your surroundings, and
you see everybody with their books out. It's Wednesday, right,
so you just got your book supposedly, right. Honestly, most
guys came in on Tuesday and got there is in
New England. But Wednesday, guys are flipping through their book
and I'm like, this guy's is stressing out what is going?
Speaker 2 (27:32):
You know what I'm saying, like, what is kas's doing it?
Speaker 3 (27:34):
And Coach gets up there and everybody takes her book down,
throws it under the chairs. He's like, hey, Wes, uh,
tell me who the kicker is for the Miami Dolphins, right,
And you know, West gives an answer.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
All right, Coach. He's like, all right, so what college
did he go to? You know? How tall is? He
starts asking all these questions and Wes is like, I
don't freaking know. Coach.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
He's like, boy, you better freaking know that's not that
you're word to use, but you better freaking know he's
gonna be kicking you that damn ball.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
But he was. He was just intense like that.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
And we would go on our plane and you would
be given up a test like a full on packet
with hardly anything on it, which is separate in the
play call.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Your your job was to fill it out and hand
it done before you got off the plane. So where
you got off the plane before you got the plane?
What I want my nap No what where you're working
on the clock. That was the mentality.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
You were always mentally prepared, which is why when you
saw them play, you never felt like they were out
of it. They never seemed like they were panicking because
they had prepared for every scenario, every situation. In New York,
it was more of a.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Gritty physical mentality, right.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
Like Coach Kauflin is a disciplinarian obviously, right, We just
talked about him in the time. But I can give
you example my first week there again, I got there
as a practice squad guy, right, I had to put
my time in.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
But at this time I'm a vet, right, So I'm
in my what year of miam at that point, and
I've been in it for four years, right, five years?
At this point.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
I get there and literally one of the you know,
lower coaches comes in and you know, they're stressing with
the cards and they're get over here green.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
No grabbing guys, you know, just you know what I mean, right,
the car, the car, the cars quality control. They be
sure that's that's their job, and don't get that right
the head coach being and the coach has been yelling
at them.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
So now they have the power that would do what
yell a yell at you. However, I'm a vet right
and you ain't. Yeah, you're not going to talk to
me any.
Speaker 6 (29:30):
Yellow hat or the green hat or the blue hat.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Like, okay, you're with me. Yeah. So he grabs me this,
this coach grabs me. I said, get the f.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
Over here, and I'm like, whoa play, hold on, this
is my figure. This is my first, like second day there.
I'm like, hold on, like it don't.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Require all that.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
He's like what, I'm like, Lloyd, lower your tone, right,
I'm a grown man. He's like, oh, real, eving smart,
you know, new guy d So we're.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Literally face to face offensive walkthroughs on one side, defensive
walkthroughs on the other field. You guys remember that.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
Yeah, And I'm in the face to face with the
quality control coach and we're going head to head. Eli's quiet,
be Jacob's quiet, big cruze. Everybody's like, oh no, like
the new cat, newcast's wild, right, even.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
Though I wasn't in the wrong.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
There's like this this tiff between me and this coach
and it's like about to go down, and literally that
the whole thing is broken up. But I look over
over his shoulder and Coach Cofflin's over there, his arms
cross is smiling, He's like, yeah yeah. And from that
point forward, I had his respect and I had to
respect of for the rest of the coaches because I
wasn't no pump. Yeah, I wasn't disrespectful, but I wasn't
no pump, right. So that kind of gives you an
(30:38):
example of like how he wanted some goons out there, right,
He wanted some boons. He wanted some cats that had
a little edge to him, but wasn't going to cross
the line, right. So it was there was a physicality
to that team and to the culture that he that
he elicited in New York, and you felt it. You know,
you felt it from the time that you're in the
weight room to the time you're on the field to
the time you handed the ball off to be Jacobs
(30:58):
good luck, you know what I'm saying. Like there was
just an attitude that that he had and it stemmed
from coach, did you have a.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
Tackle, Brandon James?
Speaker 6 (31:04):
Uh? I have, But he also ran me over before
he touched.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Off six four. It's kind of hard to stuff.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
You're going to look that up, Tom, see Tom and
shaking his head. So twenty eleven, that was a year
I won the Super Bowl? Or do you keep the
Super Bowl ring?
Speaker 2 (31:20):
It's just it's locked up in the safe.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
Locked up, and say if you don't ever bring it
out during Super I know we saw you Super Bowl.
Do you ever bring it out? Just it just stay
right now.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
Bring it out if I'm doing typically if I'm doing
like a speaking engagement. But other than that, there's really
not a scenario that I bring it out. Man, I
keep it locked up.
Speaker 4 (31:33):
What about you, crickets, crickets.
Speaker 6 (31:47):
I got no come back.
Speaker 8 (31:50):
Taylor's Tailor's like, he's just like, yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
I'm over to. No, You're good, I'm over You played
with my dog Tank, Yeah that was my big bro
in college. Man, Yeah I am. I am over to.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
But switching topics retirement second act.
Speaker 6 (32:19):
So when I retired, I got into a job immediately, right.
I enjoyed it. I did TV, live TV.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
My guy over here did absolutely nothing for three hundred
and sixty five days. He was just a a stay
at home dad, a bomb, played some golf if he
didn't get to the laundry. And I'm gonna get to
it the next thing. Correct my question to you, is
would you do as soon as you're retired?
Speaker 3 (32:43):
Yeah, well, I tore my achilles my fourth year in
the league, my contract year, and it's actually before I
won a super Bowl.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
At that point in time, I recognized, this probably.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
Isn't what God necessarily has in store for me all
the way, you know, it's a part of my journey.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
So I started my Executive NBA program. So I went, so,
go get my Executive NBA from.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
George Washington University, and from that I used that to
help me try to figure out my transition. Because everything
that we've always heard and analytics wise, is most players
go broke, right, Most players, you know, start having issues
with you know, mental issues because they're you know, they're
so sad about not knowing what to do next. Right,
because your whole life you focus on this one thing,
(33:22):
you attain it early. Now you're retired at thirty and
what else is going on? I wanted to learn from
other people's mistakes. I didn't have to learn the hard way.
So I took it upon myself to go get my
my NBA and then literally where'd you get it from?
George Washington? George Washington, excuse me? So I didn't want to.
I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do. I
had opportunities to go into finance and all the stuff,
(33:43):
but I'm like, I'm not about to be calling my
boys asking to have access to their finances, right, I'm
not gonna. I value my relationships too much. So I
started at the time my wife, we had just had
a kid. So I wanted to do something for post
NATO prenatal with the women, you know. But also I
wanted to kind of stay close to the performance side
with the sports. But I hated the politics and sports,
(34:03):
you know. I had been tarnished by that. So I
found a way to just create this business called Steadfast
Fitness and Performance and really just tied it all together.
I mean so literally. I started that business prior to
my last year in the league. My last year in
the league actually got fired and found out I was
having twins the same day.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
Damn.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
Yeah, that's a bad combo, bro. So I found out
I was having twins, and an hour later got fired.
I was like, you know what, Yes, this time, I'm done.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
I'm done. So literally walked came home and went straight
to work, walked into the facility and started trying to
build a community.
Speaker 6 (34:38):
You had this idea of the steadfast, did you?
Speaker 4 (34:41):
I saw your co owner yea, yeah, with you on
the website and so were you guys just always thinking
about this, talking about this because you know it's hard
to you have this idea, but how do you get
it from an idea out of your mind into all
of a sudden into a building and also building a
community from there.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
Man, I am a proactive individual.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
So I was working out at the gym during off season, right,
just doing at the normal gyms.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Okay, I know there's probably no gym sponsors, so I'm
not gonna drop.
Speaker 3 (35:09):
No names right now, but working out of the regular gym,
and he would see me, and I ended up his
dad actually was my handyman at the crib, right, just
a little hood cat that was doing stuff around the house,
doing the lights and all that, and he was he
became like a little bro right. He would come over
do the ladders with me. I was the only cat
in the gym doing the ladders and box jumps and
all the performance stuff right o edicats and they're just
(35:30):
getting their lips on. So I took him under my
wing and he started to figure out that. You know,
he was a believer like me. He was you know,
self driven, you know, a motivated athlete, all the things right,
So we had a lot in common. So when we
started thinking about this transition, my wife and I, actually
my wife was one who came up with the worst
step ass first print then is fifteen fifty eight B
stepass in the bound in the Lord and all your ways.
(35:51):
So he was able to tie the faith element into
it as well. I knew that he was on board
with that. He had went to the school for kinesiology,
and I knew that he wanted to ultimately have a facility.
So when I started it, I was like, there's no
better person that I could link up with who not
only knows this space better than me, but also has
the vision that I have and understands the realm that
I'm coming from. And we were able to tie it
(36:13):
all together and really create something pretty special.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
So now we're just wrapping up here. We just wrapped
up year twelve. Oh man, Okay, year twelve.
Speaker 6 (36:19):
So you're doing the steadfast fitness. Where did the TV
space come from? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (36:25):
Like, where did I know?
Speaker 6 (36:26):
You co host Good Morning Football sometimes?
Speaker 1 (36:28):
So where did that. Yeah, love for speaking and talking, which.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
You do a great job.
Speaker 3 (36:34):
I appreciate you for us honestly with my wife again,
she got tired of me as a former quarterback player,
receive all the stuff right. I have a different perspective
of the games, so I don't like watching games in
front of it. You know what a bunch of people.
I like to really watch the game. So I'm at
the house, sitting on the couch and I would be
calling stuff out. I'll be calling out coverages, I'll be
calling out where the ball is going to go, all
the things. And then after it happened, the commentator would
(36:56):
say it would say the same thing, and she.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
Would like always hit me. I'm like what she was like, like,
go out here, please explore this. I'm like, all right.
Speaker 3 (37:05):
So I finally made a commitment to myself to just
be Dora the Explorer and go figure figure it out.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (37:10):
The NFL had a program that was called a Speakers
Bureau that was down at USC went down there and
learned how to present in the public setting, learn how
to get your thoughts together, how to you know, just
be able to perform in that regard. End up meeting
somebody named Jerry madelon right and shout.
Speaker 6 (37:25):
Out these guys everywhere.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
He is the Jedi on air.
Speaker 6 (37:31):
Oh, he does Jedi.
Speaker 2 (37:32):
He does.
Speaker 6 (37:35):
The Jedi of on air.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
G Matt is the man, so ended up linking with him, right,
So again the power of network. G Matt ended up
calling me and was like, Hey, the Cowboys are looking
for somebody to do a podcast.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
Is that something that you'll be interested in. I think
you're in Dallas. Says yeah.
Speaker 3 (37:51):
So Derek Eagleton, who just runs the media in Dallas,
ends up touching base with me and was like, hey, yeah,
I actually heard you speak at my church and I
want to talk to you. But there's some people so
it just never really happened. Long story short, COVID years there, right,
So we're doing podcasts from the house, you know, everybody
zooming in all the jazz. So they send me all
my equipment and that's how it started. So I started
(38:12):
off doing a podcast for the Cowboys. That one podcast
turned into doing seven different shows on the Dallas Cowboys
dot com. That turned into doing a pregame show for
CBS locally for Dallas, and then I ended up doing
the broadcast boot Camp referred through the NFL because my
first time was doing it online because of COVID year,
so they let me do it in person. And then
(38:34):
from that experience, I was able to get the opportunity
to do Good Morning Football and get just a little
little rooky deal there.
Speaker 6 (38:40):
What a story, get.
Speaker 4 (38:41):
Them reps telling you it is all about about the reps.
Shout out to Tracy because you know it's it's no
longer a boot camp.
Speaker 2 (38:48):
It's not. That's right, it's work work workshop.
Speaker 6 (38:52):
I went with the boot camp too.
Speaker 2 (38:53):
Facts get into boot camp.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
I tried twice and told me it's like three hundred
people told me no, and I thought I was good.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
You good.
Speaker 4 (39:03):
Now, do you ever reach back out to former players,
teammates and anything like that that you ever maybe use
as inspiration to keep you going, especially with some of
the things that you've kind of been through. I mean
you've been through, you know, all the injuries. I mean,
you've made seven years in carib but I mean over
half of it was all injuries and mostly Yeah, and
(39:26):
so when you bounced around, you played all these but
you were in a lot of the locker rooms.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
Yeah, and you seem like a connected person.
Speaker 4 (39:32):
Sure, and because of that, you probably built out a
lot of relationships and so has that How is that
probably motivated you or helped elevate you to get you
to where you are right now?
Speaker 3 (39:43):
You know what to be honest with you, because I'm
such a network driven person, Like, I never want anybody
to feel when I'm hitting them up that I'm asking
for something. So I am very conscious of when I
pulled my cards. Right, I'll stay in contact with cats obviously,
just on just on some GP stuff, right, just being cool,
checking in. I'll sender text man, just tapping in, thinking
(40:04):
about you, like those type of things. But you know
what it is when you get back with your boys,
it's like you never like you never missed a step.
But hardly ever do I reach out for anything pertaining
to media. I really try to keep those things separate
unless it's an absolute have to. So I try to keep
my relationships as genuine as possible. And if I ever
am in a position where I have to ask for
(40:24):
a favor, they already know that's not that's not like me.
Speaker 2 (40:28):
So they usually come through.
Speaker 6 (40:29):
So are you trying to be like? Uh, are you
trying to It's.
Speaker 2 (40:34):
One of my dudes. So I grew up with Nate.
Speaker 3 (40:35):
Oh yeah, because from the town yea, So he went
to oday was about five minutes from my crib. My
sister used to tutor his brother. I grew up with
his little brother, Windale. So like so the whole fam
I know.
Speaker 4 (40:46):
I mean, well, Nate is such a unique situation. He
is like one of It's like Michael Straham is the first.
Then it's Nate who's made the crossover and really burst
it out.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (40:58):
Now he's a blueprint Nate native right now, for anybody
who wants to have their hand in a little bit
of everything, Nate is literally the blueprint. Him and straight
Ham have literally laid the foundation for a path forward,
right in terms of being able to get in all
these different avenues. I like myself. I don't want to
just be known as a football guy. Like I feel
(41:18):
like I like my career and like my as an athlete.
I feel like I was a Swiss Army knife. I
feel like I'm the same way in the media space,
right so even on the football platform, and I can
sit down, I can do a podcast, I could do
you know, a studio analyst, I can do you know,
super serious show, you know, suiting and booted. I can
do the color commentator like I feel like I can.
Speaker 2 (41:35):
I can do some WWE What's up all day?
Speaker 3 (41:39):
So I feel I feel blessed to have that flexibility
and I don't want to be ever be boxed in right,
So when I look at a potential path forward, those
are the two individuals, you know, Nate and straight Hand
are the guys that say, Okay, it's been done. Much
like my relationship Warm Moon, it's been done. He's shown
me the way. Okay, I can make it happen.
Speaker 1 (41:58):
Yeah, that colon commentary is some different. I did local
or excuse me, I did one in London. Yeah, my
very first time I ever did it like that live.
That was like no, no, though.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
Okay, that's different.
Speaker 1 (42:11):
That's different too, just like whoa I did it just
to say I did it. It's a lot of prep, man,
there's a whole lot of a lot of a lot
of prep.
Speaker 2 (42:21):
And radio is completely different. Radio.
Speaker 3 (42:23):
I've been done radio color commentary. I've only done I
do all the Cowboys preseason games. Now for the last
four years, I've been doing the Cowboys preseasons. Game started
off with one game, then they gave me two, and
then they gave me all three. So that's completely different
because I've had to learn so much on how to
present on air in that regard, right, completely different in
the studio, completely different. Podcasts is different than everything, right,
(42:45):
which is why the media space is so intriguing, because
it's forever changing. And if you're on all these different platforms,
you get to be the same person, but presented differently, right,
wrapped in a different package. Radio, it's a completely different approach,
no doubt, because you have to be so descriptive.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
Right, and no, that was that was what I struggled.
I was like, oh, yeah, you know, he just ran
over right there? Where's there?
Speaker 2 (43:07):
You can't you know what I mean? That part it's
so hard, but it was I had to to do
it live.
Speaker 6 (43:11):
And I was like, oh damn.
Speaker 2 (43:12):
He was like, you gotta be a little bit more descripted.
Speaker 6 (43:14):
I'm like, I got you, but this is my first time.
Speaker 1 (43:17):
Bro, Like, just give me a little wit. You got
one hundred names to remember, one hundred and fifty names memorized.
I mean, I got the names. I just like, I'm
I'm working on it. I'm As the fourth quarter came,
I was like, all right, I kind of felt like
I got my groove and then the game was over.
I was like, we got to do this. Spit stop,
We'll be right back after a quick break. We asked
(43:38):
this question to all our people's uh, you get four
people mount rushmore from the time you were born till now,
the people that have helped influence you, shape you, mold you,
people that have poured.
Speaker 6 (43:50):
Into you, loved on you. Who would those four people be?
Speaker 2 (43:54):
Hmm, Moms is number one for sure. Yeah, you're talking
about actual human is right, actual humans. Moms is definitely
number one. My wife for my mom real quick though.
Speaker 3 (44:08):
My Moms was the example of team no excuse.
Speaker 2 (44:13):
You know.
Speaker 3 (44:13):
Moms had three kids by three different three different guys,
had my brother at fifteen, had my sister at sixteen.
She just got after it growing up in the hood.
You know, there was no excuse. She didn't make any excuses.
It was like, get it, how you live. I'm going
to make sure that I do everything I can to
put you all in a position to be successful. I'm
do the best that I can. And all of us
(44:33):
went to college, all of us had opportunities great. So
she gave us that right. She gave us that by
not being given a lot. So she is definitely the
example for me there shut out the mom mom Dukes
absolutely so moms for sure. My wife has been a
big part of my obviously my last my last ten
plus years.
Speaker 2 (44:54):
My pops is in there. My pops in there.
Speaker 3 (44:57):
I didn't spend as much time with my dad growing
up as I wanted to because my mom and my
dad were separated, so it was one of those every
other weeknd type of deals. But he gave me a
different perspective on life. Moms was was hood, my dad
was not was not hood, but he the faith element
was big in his house right, not to say that
wasn't my mom's, but he was all the way in
So my dad for sure.
Speaker 2 (45:19):
The last person. Mm hmm.
Speaker 3 (45:23):
There's a mentor that I had by the name of
Greg greg Alex. He was my taekwondb Greg Alex. Yeah,
double doubled up g A. Yeah, he was my Taekwon
door instructor as a as a young as a young
cat in the hood.
Speaker 2 (45:40):
You know, again, not being able to spend a lot
of time with my pops.
Speaker 3 (45:44):
Greg Alex was the cat that you saw that you
could look up to and be like, Okay, there's something
different about him, you know, how he carried himself, the
faith element that he had. Help professional he was, he
was such a giver, but he was a mentor and
he just showed you how to go about your business
(46:06):
the right way. So for me, it was Greg Alex
and then he became my team chaplain and mentor all
the way through college too. So he probably doesn't know
that he had that much of a role in my life.
But yeah, that was my Mount Rushmore. That's probably that's
probably what it is.
Speaker 2 (46:19):
That's awesome.
Speaker 6 (46:20):
Yeah, I got one more. I know we usually end
after that, but you always got it.
Speaker 4 (46:25):
I do, I do, but I want to know because
I just think Isaiah has such a unique.
Speaker 6 (46:31):
Story story absolutely from all the injuries.
Speaker 4 (46:35):
I mean, you came in as a quarterback after like
your high school career is crazy, crazy good. You were
one of the best players in the country and you
also were drafted in baseball and so you were like
this three star athlete, but you choose football. Then you
kind of like kind of get pushed around and you
still know what to do. Then you play wide receiver,
(46:56):
you do all these other things. Then you go play quarterback.
Then you end up in Jacksonville to play tight end
Yeah Brown, which is crazy. So like the og.
Speaker 2 (47:07):
Og bro, he's still doing it. Like, yeah, what is
like twenty? You're twenty?
Speaker 4 (47:13):
So when when I repeat your whole story back to you,
like what is it a story of?
Speaker 6 (47:20):
I know it's survival.
Speaker 4 (47:21):
I know it's something else, but I want you to
give me that word and kind of reflect, like how
do you reflect on your career and everything that it is?
But you know, I'm still right here now having on
on TV. People are listening to my works even though
they didn't see me all the time play Yeah.
Speaker 2 (47:38):
But I still made it.
Speaker 4 (47:39):
Through all that to be above and have somewhere that
so many other people want to be.
Speaker 2 (47:43):
It's what I might.
Speaker 3 (47:45):
My business is called steadfast, and steadfast is something that's unmovable,
that's unwavering, that's consistent. Every time that I was knocked down,
I looked for to the opportunity of proving and disproving people,
and not only other people but myself.
Speaker 2 (48:05):
You know, I had. It took me a while through
faith to.
Speaker 3 (48:08):
Learn that every hurdle, pitfall, whatever you want to call it,
is an opportunity. Right, whatever adversity you face is an
opportunity to not only.
Speaker 2 (48:18):
Prove others, but prove to yourself.
Speaker 3 (48:20):
Right, I mean you even Hurtsha Dura Center say the
other day like this ain't about y'all, this is this
is about me. So they said that I couldn't come
back from my foot when I was coming into the league.
Speaker 2 (48:30):
Okay, bet right. It sucks, right, but I did that
all every term Achilles, every other surgery I had. I
come back from that.
Speaker 3 (48:38):
You know, transition from the league to to you know,
regular citizens slash professional, that's hard.
Speaker 2 (48:44):
Most guys don't do it, bet right. Game on.
Speaker 3 (48:47):
So getting into the media space after having been away
from football for so long, all right, you gotta stay
closer to the game. Once you detach, you really can't
do it, all right, cool, bet I'll put the work
in right, So I look forward to the challenges that
are presented forward for me. And because of that, you
have to remain steadfast through it all. We all have
a story.
Speaker 2 (49:06):
Everybody, every single person has a story, and everybody has
an opportunity to remain steadfast or not. That's just a
competition in you. That's that's just that's just who we are. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (49:15):
Well, Isaiah Man appreciate it. Man, We're gonna let you
get up out of here.
Speaker 2 (49:18):
Man.
Speaker 4 (49:18):
I know, according to your steadfastest website, you got a
TRX bootcamp tomorrow morning, five thirty.
Speaker 2 (49:27):
So you guys do it.
Speaker 6 (49:30):
There's no hell no, damn I'm no, I'm not doing that, all.
Speaker 1 (49:34):
Right, but no, no, we're gonna we're gonna get out
of here.
Speaker 2 (49:39):
Oh now when thank you guys.
Speaker 4 (49:41):
As always, where all of your viewers and listeners, wherever
you pick up your podcast, whether it's Apple podcasts, our
Heart Radio, make sure you give us a five star rating,
leave a review, comment, like, share, subscribe, Please subscribe and
leave a couple of comments. We like to answer those back.
We're gonna start getting some feedback. Listen, continue to go.
Let us know what we could do better? You I
want to know, and so Peanut man, tell a friend
(50:02):
to tell afraid to do what? Tell a friend? Make
sure you check us out on NFL's YouTube channel. All right,
get us out on Peanut.
Speaker 2 (50:08):
That's Isaiah, that's
Speaker 1 (50:11):
Roman and this is the NFL Player's second X podcast,
Hosts And Creators
Jamie Erdahl
Jason McCourty
Kyle Brandt
Peter Schrager
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