On the latest NFL Players: Second Acts podcast, former Colts running back Vick Ballard joins Peanut and Roman to share his remarkable journey. Vick opens up about starting his football career at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College before making it to Mississippi State and eventually being drafted by the Indianapolis Colts in 2012. He reflects on his breakout rookie season and the devastating injuries that derailed his promising NFL career. Vick talks candidly about the emotional toll of early retirement and how he channeled his drive into academics and a new profession. He walks us through his impressive post-football path—earning a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from UCF, then a master's degree from the University of Florida, and now working as an aeronautical engineer for Lockheed Martin. But Vick's goals in life aren't close to complete. His next challenge? Real estate development. His story is a powerful testament to resilience, reinvention, and never settling for less than your full potential.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Do not expect to be sitting here with y'all. But
it's crazy. I've been having so many thoughts since I
got the email to come speak to you all, because
you know, looking at y'all guest list, and it's like,
I saw you had Michael Vick, you had, you know,
a lot of notable guys who had these long careers
on the field correct and I was like, man, that
was not me. And it's like I'm being you know,
(00:22):
asked to talk about something I did after football, and
that was huge for me because whenever you go off
into a new direction, you don't know if you're doing
the right thing or not. But like you know that
I'm sitting down here with y'all. That let me know
that I made the right decision.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
What's up, everybody. I'm Peanut Toman and this is the
NFL Player's Second Act podcast and with me as always
as my trusty co host, mister Roman Harborough.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Shout out to the brothers out there. I'm not one
appreciate it, man. I'm really looking forward to listening to
our next guest story. It's very unique. He's actually the
first of one of what we have to go. But
I'm not going to give it all the way Peanut
get us started. I really want to dive in because
this guy has a very very unique journey.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
First Team All Juco, four year NFL Vick Vic Baller, Baby,
welcome to the past.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
So all the big.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Appreciate you coming on, man, appreciate So Vic, you are
the first Juco player we've ever had on the show.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Yeah, ain't, no way, no way.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
You are the first. We've had Hall of Famers, We've
had a Burgundy Jacket guys, which is which are one
of the top one hundred, top one hundred players of
all time in the NFL. We've had people that are
considered the greatest and whatever, but we've never had a Juco,
even a Juco All American at that you never. You
are the first.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
That's why I say, bro, you got you got a
very unique story. You got a story.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Look, asked me about it. I'll talk all day.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
Okay, so let's talk about it. Because I didn't go
Juco route. I've only heard the horse.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
It's like a dig So you just gave you your flowers.
It was like, look, I didn't go down, I didn't
water them.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Yet I'm awarded the flowers I'm awarded of flowers. Okay,
you you went to Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, right now,
explain to our viewers that do not know where that is.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
It's done in Perkinston, Mississippi. It's a small little town
back in the day, probably had one red light. The
McDonald's that we had was attached to a gas station, so, uh,
it wasn't much there, but it was home for about
a year and a half.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
And so what do you do for food? What do
you do for entertainment?
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Like?
Speaker 3 (02:45):
What is that?
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Like?
Speaker 3 (02:47):
What is that that? That campus atmosphere like if you
can call it an atmosphere, you.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Know, it was actually fun, you know, we made our
own fun. For food, you know, we go to the
caf I go home because I was relatively close to home.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
But cas cafeteria.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Yeah, yeah, yes. For entertainment, we had this one little
spot called Bobos Bobos. It was actually it looked like
it was an old house that somebody gut it out
and turned to a club man. But it was in
there every weekend.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
But you are that's when you got to meet everybody though,
So it makes that that party makes it easier. We
ain't got no options this is the option.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
That's the only spot with either that. I go to Hattiesburg.
You know what Southern miss is.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
But how far was that?
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Maybe about thirty forty five minutes down the road. But
bobot Burg, Yeah, Bobo's was just like ten minutes down
down the road.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
So that's a spot. Okay, I want to know about
because you guys, and I hate to bring this up.
I mean, I blame Thomas for this one. The loss.
You guys lost the Junior college championship game, and only
because the score was seventy five to seventy one. Where's
the defensive dude? This is Mississippi football. Dog. Sometimes you
should see the stats out of high school. In my
(03:52):
line about that, you know, you'll see that somebody rush
for four thousand yards in high school. This is Mississippi.
This is what happens.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
I was gonna make a joke, but it was probably inappropriate.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
So I'm like, you ran for one hundred and eighty
six yards four touchdowns, so you did your job right,
but you guys ended up losing the game. Yeah, seventy
five to seventy one.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Yeah, y'all did some research, man.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
And for some reason, you guys decided to throw. The
quarterback lost that. You guys lost it because the quarterback
threw an interception.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
At the end of the day, I can't even put
it on him. We scored seventy one points. If you
scored seventy one points in lou it's like, what else
can you do?
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Yeah? Play defense?
Speaker 1 (04:28):
I mean that's what you can do.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
What are y'all saying on the sidelines, did you guys
keep running it up and then your your defense keeps
giving it up?
Speaker 1 (04:35):
It was a shootout, That's that's everybody knew it was
a shootout. It's like who has the ball last? Yeah,
I mean we had it last, but we still lost.
But like you said, we threw an interception. But we
knew it was gonna be a shootout. We saw that
very early. But we just couldn't stop them. I had
four touchdowns, no hundred and so yards. We had another
receiver had like three touchdowns and you know about two
(04:58):
hundred yards receiven So everybody had good stats that game.
If you was on offense, if you touched the ball,
you probably scored a touchdown. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
So Rom and I we had similar past. We went
to our respect to colleges you know, we went to
the combine, did the whole thing, got drafted, went to
our team. What was your What was a process like
for you getting into the NFL?
Speaker 1 (05:20):
I got drafted as well, got drafted fifth round. I
was telling the story earlier about draft day. I knew
that there was a possibility I can go second day.
Didn't go second day, Yeah, I was okay, Well, I
think fourth round is a is a good spot for me.
I feel like my talent is a fourth round talent.
Didn't go fourth round either, and Saint Louis called me
(05:40):
somewhere in the fifth round. Yeah, and they told me
that if I didn't get drafted, you know, they wanted
me as a free agent. So, you know, getting that
call during the draft that was discouraging. So I was
thinking to myself, you know, you know, maybe I'm not
gonna get drafted, but let me, let me, let me
not ruin this day. Let me, you know, have my
phone with my family. And as soon as I got
up to go fix myself or play the food to eat,
and I was called me. And I think it was
(06:01):
like pick one fifty six or something like that, but uh, yeah,
they called me. I became a coach that day.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
So who called you or not?
Speaker 2 (06:08):
I know that we know the coat called you, but
like what what person was on your end of the phone.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Honestly, I think it was coach pegana Chuck Pagano. Yeah,
but I'm not too sure because back then I was
just happy to be talking to somebody. It didn't matter
who it was.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
So you get to you, you go to Indy, you
get there, and you work your way into the starting lineup.
How was that process?
Speaker 1 (06:30):
It was crazy? But well it was crazy but not
crazy at the same time, because like you said, I
came from Juco. Even when I got to Missippi State,
you know, it was a grind. You know, it wasn't
like a shoe in. I wasn't you know, the guy
from day one. So when I got to Indianapolis, I knew.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Well you became the guy. Let's let's let's put some
numbers with it. Now. You still have the school record,
season season school recor record for rushing touchdowns at nineteen
So I mean you weren't that unknown. Okay, go ahead,
and I finish your story. I just want to put
some respect.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Yeah. Yeah, but what I'm saying is I've never I
was never the day one started. No matter where I
went to, I always had to earn my spot, earn
my keep. So when I got to Indianapolis, it was
no different. I was deep on a depth chart too,
and eventually I found myself, you know, getting into rotation.
And I think it was like week five, Bruce arians
(07:22):
came up to me and said, hey, you know, I
want to give you a little bit more playing time,
but you got to learn the playbook because number rookie,
I'm trying to learn how to read defenses and things
like that. Y'all guys back then in the second day
moving around, and so pretty much after that, you know,
they started putting me in and I worked my way
to the starting spot.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
You first get there, you get the inde. We all
have that welcome to the NFL moment where you just like,
holy I'm in the NFL. You hit somebody, you get
scored on, something happens in the locker room, whatever. We
all have that moment where you're just like, damn.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
I'm in the NFL. Welcome to the NFL.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Rookie.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
What was that welcome to the NFL rocky moment?
Speaker 1 (07:59):
For you got a good one. It's a twenty twelve.
Week one, We're playing Chicago and uh, you know you
in the second day, I'm looking at Julius Pepper's coming
off the edge, Brian Urlaca back there standing up looking
like a tree, and they say, you know, they called
the play and the ball is coming to me. I'm like,
(08:19):
what this this is my first play in They give
me the ball and Brian url like it wasn't one
that hit me out of It was like a no gainage.
But it was just so surreal to me just to
be seeing all these people that I grew up seeing,
you know, playing on video games, and now I'm lining
up against them. So that was it was super surreal
for me.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
So did you no hit, no nothing, just it was
just kind of.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Nothing, just doing it was just a moment and I
had played through the preseason we played uh try po. Yeah,
it wasn't that. It wasn't that impactful though, No disrespect
to him, no great, no, yeah, but I think it
was that that week one, Uh, this is it's real now,
you know it's not. It's not practice anymore. And now
you got all these guys lined up on the other
(09:00):
side of the ball trying to take your head off
like the guys and it just clicked for me and
that moment like man, I'm here.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
But uh so after that the no gain or whatever,
did you kind of snap out of it? Is like okay, yeah,
at the end of the day.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
It's just football.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Uh yeah, pretty much pretty much, I would say.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
So, okay, that's fine that that happened opposite to me.
Then when I went out there my first start, and
I feel like Peyton Man was just staring at me,
it was very you feel very small at that moment.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Yeah, yeah, but I feel you. Yeah, I feel small.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Do you remember your first NFL touchdown?
Speaker 1 (09:38):
I definitely do.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
Let's tell me about it, walk us through it, give
us the play call if you can remember it, give
me the action what you see.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Yes, right, So I'm gonna start with the weekly number
to the game. Bruce Arians, who was the office coordinated
at the time, he had told us about a play
he saw Virginia Tech. Bro I think it was Virginia
Tech and h basically he was like, I want to
try that practice, you know, drew it up in the
same Basically, we tried that practice, it worked, never went
back to it, and uh so we're playing Tennessee. Uh,
(10:10):
I'm having a decent game. You know, we're moving the
ball pretty well as an offense. Uh, and we find
ourselves in overtime. We had another another running back by
the name of Donald Brown. He actually got us down
to the red zone, you know, running the ball and uh,
I'm not I'm not sure if they called a time
out or we called a time out, but my running
back coach, Coach Walker, he thought that, you know, we
(10:32):
should switch out. So we made the switch. You know,
we're on the field now. Bruce calls to play the
Luck and Luck is reading the play to us. I'm
looking at Reggie Wayne reggielight, is he sure he wanted
to run this play right now? Is overtime and win
the red zone? Uh? You know, so we called it,
and uh, I forgot the specifics of the play, but
(10:54):
I knew he had the option front side. He didn't
take the option front side. And I saw him, you know,
turning back to look at me. I was, oh, now
it's on me. Now. He threw me the ball and
there was a guy who if he was maybe a
step fast, they could have took it. It was at
the end. Oh yeah, yeah, he could have took it
the other way for six for sure didn't touch the ball,
so I caught it. I'm running and I got to
(11:15):
about the ten yard line and so and I saw
that I was running out of real estate. I knew
that it was two guys. I knew one of the
two was probably gonna try to push me out of bounds.
So I dove just to try to see what, you know,
what would happen. And when I dove, the safety ended
up rotating me. So now I'm like inverted and I'm
just gliding through the.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
Ass a good dive.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Yeah, yeah, I didn't know who I was gonna land,
And when I didn't land, I just hopped up and
threw my hands up. Didn't know if I scored or not.
I was like, let me see if I can convince
the rest that I scored. But ended up hitting the
potline and uh scored the first testdown.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
A lot of running backs possibly could drop that pass too,
just because somebody was flashing in front of you just
a second. Yeah, I know you said they didn't touch it,
but it was very close though. I thought it was
a great catch. It was a great effort.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Yeah, it was definitely very close, but I called it
turned into a touchdown.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
So you had a lot of success your rookie year,
decent amount.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Then you get.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Into your second year, you tear acl in the game,
do that rehab, and then the next year you tear
your achilles in practice. How hard was it to stay
motivated during that time having two very very serious injuries.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
It was incredibly hard. Anybody that's been on our and know, yeah,
like the you know, the the uphill batter that you're facing,
especially when it's a season ended injury. And it got
to a point, especially that second year, well, I didn't
even feel like I was part of the team. There
was guys walking around the locker room don't know who
I am, you know, because I hadn't played mile Let's
let's call it my rookie year. Like the vests know
(12:47):
who I am, but the new guys just like, you know,
who is this guy that's always hurt? So you know,
I'm fighting my physical battles but also fighting my mental battles.
And it was tough, man, I have. I had a
lot of rough nights and a lot of people saw
it on my face, and you know, they would give
me words of encouragement, but the only the only thing
that could break that spell was me, me getting back
on the field.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
Yeah, well you really weren't able to get back on
the field. And understanding that now that you're away from it,
do you ever probably give yourself enough praise for what
you did accomplish and even on the other side, grace
for the disappointment and that what it was or was not.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Some days I give myself praise, some days I give
myself grace. But the competitor in me, it's like I
just I wanted to be the next best, you know,
especially you know, working my way into a spot, a
starting spot. You know, it's like, man, I'm it's my time,
you know. So I was thinking like that, it's my time,
it's my time, it's my time. And for not to
(13:50):
unfold like that, it was a big shot to my ego.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
So after you know, you're you're out of the league,
and you're I'm sure trying to figure out what's next.
How long did it take you to kind of figure
that part out?
Speaker 1 (14:06):
I kind of already knew because you know, as we
alluded to, I faced a lot of injuries, uh before
I actually got cut for the last time. So my
just the way my brain works, It's like, Okay, if
this doesn't pan out, what's next. So I thought, you know,
I brainstormed a lot, but eventually I found myself kind
(14:27):
of going back to my eighteen year old self. And
remember that I originally wanted to go to school for
engineering and I was kind of denied the opportunity when
I got to Missippi State because you know, classes conflict
with practice and I was like, nah, bro, you came
here to play football. So I was thinking, that's true.
That's basically what they told me. So you know, whenever
(14:50):
I found myself out of the game, I was like, okay,
it was it was, you know, obviously a fall time.
I was like, I'm gonna wait until the following spring
to uh, you know, start applying the schools, and you know,
that was that was the plan. I stuck with it.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Tell me this, so you said, you know, it really
hurts your ego with all the things that were going
on and how it wasn't on your terms.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
Has it recovered with my ego?
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Oh? So so this is the beautiful part of it.
So during that process, I don't think I've ever been
more motivated, more dedicated, more into you know what I
was doing in that moment, you know, trying to get
back to the to the field, and it didn't work out.
But I told myself, I was like, man, you know
that didn't work out because I just feel like I
(15:36):
didn't have enough time. But if I could take that
same drive, that same dedication, that same discipline, and applied
to anything else in life, it's no telling why I
ended up. And I took that with me to school. Yeah,
then you studied mechanical engineering. Mechanical engineering, that's a whole
lot of math. It's a whole lot of everything.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
The whole Yeah, I was. I was struggling with the
TI eighty three Texas instrument calculator. Y'all had the that
big I don't even it was a Texas injuring, but
it was. They had a keyboard on it. I don't
know what the you know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
The calculators.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
It's a T I think ninety three, Well at least
when I was in.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
School, Yeah, that's what it was.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
It was.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
It was a big one like calculator. Yeah, couldn't what
did you look at? You know about the calculator? Everybody
know about that.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
He just talking to her.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
I didn't come there to play no school. Yeah, I
was crazy. It's like what Yeah, So now you got
your your bachelor's and mechanical engineering at Central Florida all right,
all right, then you went and got a master's in
(16:44):
engineering at the University of Florida. Right, So you were
in Gainesville for this or you did it online?
Speaker 1 (16:50):
No, so I was actually in Atlanta at the time.
I was having to commute to actually Orlando once a
month for class. So yeah, it was in person, so nice. Yeah,
I was commute once a month. Man, it was terrible.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
But like and man, Florida is a top five university
though the last couple of years as far as education
and experience all the overall. So that's it's still a
great place for sure. And are you currently seeking an
NBA or yeah?
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Yeah, so I actually started the NBA too. I'll be
done probably this time next year. And I have an
NBA as well.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Congress, where's that going to be out.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Of University of Florida as well?
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Congratulations all that.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
So, you know, I've been trying to get him to
do NBA program with me. He just want to do it.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
You know, I'm going to accuse you of cutting me
off age deal. Yeah, so and now you're a mechanical
engineer for the great company of Lockheed and Martin.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Yeah, my aeronautical engineer specifically.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Okay, here it is so aeronautical engineering. That's what I
was going to ask, What exactly is it? What is
your job title?
Speaker 1 (17:48):
So aeronautical engineering. The job title is broad because we
have different engineers that do different things. Me specifically and
what they call a stress analyst. So I support a
production of an aircraft called the F sixteen.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
Love the F sixteen.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Okay, so anyone Okay.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
My dad worked on the Jackson seats as a so
I grew up around the F sixteen.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Right, So I'm gonna I do a frame stress for
the F sixteen. Whenever anybody on the production floor does anything.
The dvs from the blueprint. So let's say you drill
a hole in the wrong spot. They sent a to
us to say, okay, can you analyze this to make
sure that there's viable you know, the flo so the
so the poblot can be safe.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Yeah, I'm not signing off for anything though. It's layers
and layers, but I'm sure. But yeah, that's what I do.
Day in and day out.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
Now, how long you been doing this? Sorry?
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Yeah, yeah, so I just started doing a frame stress
because before I was a different type of engineering back
in Georgia.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Why mechanical engineering.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
So initially I wanted to do mechanical engine and engineering
back when I was eighteen, and because a little country
dude form Mississippi. You know, we work on cars and
things like that, and I thought that, Yeah, I thought
that's what being a mechanical engineer was. But it's so
much more, absolutely, yeah, yeah, so much more.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
I thought working on the car was a mechanical mechanical engineer.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Yeah, because it's.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Mechanical exactly, exactly, honestly, that's.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
Kind That is Mississippi, baby, that's Alabama too.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Yeah, it is part of it. But you learn the
science behind why the car is doing what it's doing. Yes,
And the motivation came from uh, like I said, me
trying to I got to figure the rest of my
life out. I can't play football no more. That's what
I've been doing my whole life. I need a new deal.
And I never really saw myself being a coach or
a personal trainer, you know, No knocked to anybody that's
doing it with their life. That's a former player. But
(19:37):
that's not the route I wanted to take. I wanted
to do something that was challenging. So I went back
to school for engineering.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Now, how difficult was it to land a job that?
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Like? He It's crazy, you know, because a lot of
people talk about how hard it is. I applied one time,
got it. It just it was pretty easy to me.
But you know, I think it depends on the person.
Because when I was going to orientation, that was a
guy who said he applied twenty times before he got
an interview. I applied once.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
We're going to take a short break and we'll be
right back. I think all these companies number one, this
is my opinion, but I think all these companies really
appreciate and love former athletes because the working worthic Like,
they understand it's tough, they can be you know, they
can be corrected, and they don't take it personal. I
just think it's they know how to work well with
(20:27):
a team, which at Lackey Martin you're part of a
huge grouping team definitely, and so it's just really really
cool to actually talk to you about those things. I
want to know. Also, what was it like going back
to school again, because you know, you're probably dealing with
people that are younger than you. You'd already been in
the NFL. I have a small sense of that because
(20:48):
I went back to school after two years in the
league and I finished my degree. But I was like
I was, you know, I was back in Tuscaloose on
the campus that I was familiar with.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
It was different, right, you totally different. You're a totally
different fish in a totally different pod.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Yeah. One day I had this moment where I was like, man,
what am I doing my life? Because I'm in freshman
level physics, you know, sitting next to these kids, you know,
eighteen nineteen years old trying to figure out how they
can pull money together to buy pizza, And I'm like, man,
I just I just came from like to my left
(21:24):
was Andrew Luck, to my right was Reggie Wayne. Yeah,
you know the lifestyle that you know a lot of
NFL players live, Like, I went from that to this,
and I was having like a moment and I had
to remind myself, you know, we're all here for the
same things in life, you know, we just had a
different path. Yeah, So if this is what I want
to do in my life. I need to, you know,
shake that off and you keep it moving. And that's
what I did. So it was crazy.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
That is the emotion that I felt. It was like
I was back and I was in my last business class.
You know, I got a Bens, I got a Louis
book Bass. Yes, so different, and I'm in class and
I'm doing a group project with just We're meeting at
(22:06):
a frat house, you know, like the door barely works
in the front to get into the other person's apartments.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
We're all your classes online.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
No, mine was in person. A lot of them.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Online are all person online was in persons all in person.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
Yeah, mine were in person. So I had to go
there and be there and so and I was in
the same mentality as you vic. It's like, man, I'm
looking around like slightly judging people. But I had to
humble myself and be like, you know what, like all
these people in this room are literally working to get
this piece of paper to get their dream job. Roaman,
(22:43):
you're blessing fortunate enough to where you have your dream job.
You just trying to get the paper so then you
can say you accomplished this. Give it to your mom,
and you can also tell your future kids like what
you can do.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
The beautiful thing about that is we can totally humble
ourselves again, and you can give your mom another sheet
of paper and we can go we.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Can go get it.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
We can go get it. We can go get this NBA.
My dukes, we can get it.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
I'm trying to get you some honey to get this NBA.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
We can get it. Talk to him, convince him. Let's
get home.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
But with that being said, you got four picks on
Mount Rushmore. So these are picks of people that have
had influence, people that have loved on you, people that
cared about you, people that poured into you to help
you become the young man you are today, from the
time you were born until fourteen fifty six today made
(23:40):
of fifteenth, who would those four people be.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
It's a tough question because you know they said it
takes a.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Village, absolutely, the village of four.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
I mean, I would definitely say I would include or
can I include, like all of my family as like
yeah one, okay, definitely like my core family, you know,
because you know they are no part of the reason
why I am who I am? All right?
Speaker 3 (24:15):
Who are you? Who? Is your core.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Family, brothers, sisters, you know, mom, pops, grandmother, grandfather. Yeah,
I mean they know who they are shout out to.
They know who they are. So aside from that from family,
I would definitely say my juco head coach because he
was the first person to show me that, you know,
(24:39):
it doesn't matter if you got excuses, like life, life
really doesn't care if you got excuses. It's like did
you get it done or didn't or you know, did
you not? So I would definitely put him up there.
Steve Campbell, Steve Yeah, legendary Mississippi golf coach, football coach, legendary.
I would put on the rough of no feathers. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
(25:03):
I would say. Okay, I would say my high school hit,
my high school football coach as well, because when I
was a junior in high school, the springtime, they come
out with this thing called twelve most Wanted and I
was not one of those guys. And he was the
first person to call me and tell me like, look,
you know, don't worry about the article that came out
of paper, because when it's all said and done, you
(25:25):
can have the last live. And he was he was
right because none of those guys actually got drafted. I
was the only one you know, from my area from
that from that time period to make it to the NFL.
So he was definitely right, you know, gave me motivation
to keep going. And that's one other guy. His name
is Nate David. Shout out to nay Man. We don't
talk much, but he don't know it. And I've said
(25:48):
this on other podcasts, but he is a big reason
why I pushed myself as hard as I did because
he was always pushing me. You know, if I did,
if he uh, if he did you know ten or something.
I try to get eleven, if I do know five sets,
he trying to get six. So we was always pushing
each other, you know what I'm saying, to get better.
And whenever we split, you know, we out different different directions.
(26:10):
And I kept that mentality with me.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
So he is a high school college team high school high.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
School, high school, yeah, high school, and now he was
the first person that I met that said now I'm
gonna do something and actually did it. He was telling
me from probably middle school age he was going to
be a doctor, and today he's a doctor. Yeah. I
like that.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
How gratifying is it to have the success that you
have right now in your new profession, considering how playing
an NFL, how that ended for you.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
I definitely give myself a pat on the back sometime
because just the fashion in which everything ended with the NFL,
you know, me actually having to go back to school
and sit in the classroom with you know, people that's
ten years younger than me, and uh, to actually be
sitting in a seat where I you know, I like
what I do for a living. You know, it's it
was a it was a process, it was a jo
to get there. So I'm definitely proud of myself. But
(27:04):
you know, being an athlete, you are ambitious, you are
you know, gol oriented. You have all these things, all
these qualities about you that enables you to be a
professional football player. So it's like it's like I'm looking
for It's like what's next. It's like it's like I'm
trying to enjoy the moment, but also you know, figure
out what's what's next for the future.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Now, did you take that same mindset to lack heat, Like,
did you take that same attitude like, all right, you know,
my new goal is, well I can design a new
frame or I can fix this or I could do that.
Is that the same kind of attitude that you brought
over I.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Wouldn't say that. It's it's more so like, Okay, I'm
an engineer. Now what it's going to be my title?
Teens from now now? I'm not really stuck on being
an engineer. If I am, you know, great, and I'll
find a vertical that I can excel in. But if not,
you know, what is it? What's what's my new what's
my new title?
Speaker 3 (27:57):
So you are that was because I want to know, like,
like what, because you know we I talked to somebody
else about this. It's like so often being goal oriented
people who are like minded, people that are always trying
to achieve the next When you're an athlete or you're
a football player, it's easy to see like I'm in
high school, I want to get to college. Like at
(28:19):
the college, I'm trying to get to the league.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
I'm in the league.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
I'm trying to get starter or be the highest paid
or get to a Pro Bowl. So it's easy to
see what's the next goal when you're doing something that
I'm unfamiliar with. When you are an engineer, a mechanical engineer,
mechanical engineering lackeys Martin, what is that next goal? And
I don't even know if you know it as much
(28:41):
as it's like, well, if I'm going to be in
this lane, how can I be vertical versus what other
options are out there? I don't know, That's what I'm
trying to ask.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
And the well as I was kind of alluding to,
like are you saying like what is the next step
for men engineer? No? For you? Oh for me? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (28:57):
OK, the next season?
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Yeah. So, as I mentioned, you know, if I continue
to grow in my career as an engineer, you know,
I definitely you know, maximize whatever opportunities are put on
my plate. But if it comes down to me, you know,
creating my own opportunities. One area I've been looking at
is real estate development. So I'm currently doing a little
stuff in real estate right now, selling off some rentals
I have because I want to move into the development space.
(29:20):
So you know, we'll see, you know, hopefully it works out,
you know, whenever I dipping my toes in the water.
But I think that's probably what's on the horizon for me.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
Oh man, I think we appreciate you coming on the pot.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Man. That's dope.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
That's a great answer. Thank you for sharing your story
and just blessing us with your presence.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Man, I appreciate you all having man, I really do,
because I did not expect to be sitting here with y'all.
But it's crazy. I've been having so many thoughts since
I got the email to come speak to you all, because,
you know, looking at y'all guest list, you know, it's
like I saw you had Michael Vick, you had you know,
a lot of notable guys who had these long careers
on the field correct And I was like, man, that
(30:00):
was not me. And it's like I'm being you know,
asked to talk about something I did after football, and
that was huge for me because whenever you go off
into a new direction, you don't know if you're doing
the right thing or not. But like you know that
I'm sitting down here with all that, let me know
that I made the right decision.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
We all got a story, man, in the second act
this podcast, it's us really giving you your flowers and
the things that you're doing right now in your second act.
So hey, man, congratulations, and I hope the goal, whether
it's a year from now, five years from now ten
years from now, you're doing the things that you want
to do.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
Appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
Yeah, man, And if you were just a good football player,
you wouldn't be here.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
That's true.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
It's literally because everything else you're doing in your life,
and so everything that your football journey puts you through
is that actually need to put you right here in
front of us today. So this is why we do
the show. And it's been really cool. And you, like
I said before, you're first Juco All America.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
That's great. Many I take honor in that because he
shout out on my Juco boys. Man, because that was
a different grind, a whole different grid. That's a different ground.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
That's probably more of a grind. That's more of a
grind than at UL right.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Uh yeah, yeah, how far is that Pearl River is
Pearl that's a Juco?
Speaker 3 (31:20):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (31:20):
How far is that from me?
Speaker 1 (31:22):
Yeah? Uh thirty minutes? Maybe that was one of our rivals.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
That rivals. Yeah, my roommate he went there.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
Yeah, say, Mississippi got a whole bunch of they were.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
Like fifteen maybe yeah, oh damn yeah, it's a lot.
Speaker 3 (31:35):
Yeah, yeah, they go at it though. Mississippi, Oklahoma and
California or Kansas. Yeah, Kansas, Kansas, Kansas other state Coffeeville
like Garden City, Kansas. Garden City.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
Funny, no story before we leave real quick. You know
Cam Newton actually went to Juco after he left Florida. Yeah,
and we lost our state championship game, the seventy five
to seventy one. But if we would have won, we
would have had to play Camp Newton uh in the
Juico National Championship, so you probably would have scored about
seventy five too. But I just thought I thought that
(32:09):
was so crazy.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
Small football. This football plays small, small world for sure,
Man vig Man, appreciate you dog, great job, Man. I
can't wait to continue to follow up and pay attention
to everything that you're being able to accomplish. Man, And
I want to sit up here and now specifically thank
all of our viewers and listeners out there. Wherever you
pick up our podcast, whether it's Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, uh,
(32:31):
make sure you give us a five star rating review,
click that follow button, subscribe, leave a couple of comments.
You can, you know, tell me what I could be
doing better? You like that I do? Okay?
Speaker 1 (32:43):
All right?
Speaker 3 (32:43):
Make sure you check us out on the NFL Pages
YouTube channel as well. Peanut Man get a Saturday. I'm Peanut.
That's big.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
This is Roman and you have been listening and watching
the NFL Player's Second Acts podcast.
Speaker 3 (32:57):
Woout what buck buck buck
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Stop
Do not expect to be sitting here with y'all. But
it's crazy. I've been having so many thoughts since I
got the email to come speak to you all, because
you know, looking at y'all guest list, and it's like,
I saw you had Michael Vick, you had, you know,
a lot of notable guys who had these long careers
on the field correct and I was like, man, that
was not me. And it's like I'm being you know,
(00:22):
asked to talk about something I did after football, and
that was huge for me because whenever you go off
into a new direction, you don't know if you're doing
the right thing or not. But like you know that
I'm sitting down here with y'all. That let me know
that I made the right decision.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
What's up, everybody. I'm Peanut Toman and this is the
NFL Player's Second Act podcast and with me as always
as my trusty co host, mister Roman Harborough.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Shout out to the brothers out there. I'm not one
appreciate it, man. I'm really looking forward to listening to
our next guest story. It's very unique. He's actually the
first of one of what we have to go. But
I'm not going to give it all the way Peanut
get us started. I really want to dive in because
this guy has a very very unique journey.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
First Team All Juco, four year NFL Vick Vic Baller, Baby,
welcome to the past.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
So all the big.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Appreciate you coming on, man, appreciate So Vic, you are
the first Juco player we've ever had on the show.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Yeah, ain't, no way, no way.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
You are the first. We've had Hall of Famers, We've
had a Burgundy Jacket guys, which is which are one
of the top one hundred, top one hundred players of
all time in the NFL. We've had people that are
considered the greatest and whatever, but we've never had a Juco,
even a Juco All American at that you never. You
are the first.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
That's why I say, bro, you got you got a
very unique story. You got a story.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Look, asked me about it. I'll talk all day.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
Okay, so let's talk about it. Because I didn't go
Juco route. I've only heard the horse.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
It's like a dig So you just gave you your flowers.
It was like, look, I didn't go down, I didn't
water them.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Yet I'm awarded the flowers I'm awarded of flowers. Okay,
you you went to Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, right now,
explain to our viewers that do not know where that is.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
It's done in Perkinston, Mississippi. It's a small little town
back in the day, probably had one red light. The
McDonald's that we had was attached to a gas station, so, uh,
it wasn't much there, but it was home for about
a year and a half.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
And so what do you do for food? What do
you do for entertainment?
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Like?
Speaker 3 (02:45):
What is that?
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Like?
Speaker 3 (02:47):
What is that that? That campus atmosphere like if you
can call it an atmosphere, you.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Know, it was actually fun, you know, we made our
own fun. For food, you know, we go to the
caf I go home because I was relatively close to home.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
But cas cafeteria.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Yeah, yeah, yes. For entertainment, we had this one little
spot called Bobos Bobos. It was actually it looked like
it was an old house that somebody gut it out
and turned to a club man. But it was in
there every weekend.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
But you are that's when you got to meet everybody though,
So it makes that that party makes it easier. We
ain't got no options this is the option.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
That's the only spot with either that. I go to Hattiesburg.
You know what Southern miss is.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
But how far was that?
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Maybe about thirty forty five minutes down the road. But
bobot Burg, Yeah, Bobo's was just like ten minutes down
down the road.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
So that's a spot. Okay, I want to know about
because you guys, and I hate to bring this up.
I mean, I blame Thomas for this one. The loss.
You guys lost the Junior college championship game, and only
because the score was seventy five to seventy one. Where's
the defensive dude? This is Mississippi football. Dog. Sometimes you
should see the stats out of high school. In my
(03:52):
line about that, you know, you'll see that somebody rush
for four thousand yards in high school. This is Mississippi.
This is what happens.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
I was gonna make a joke, but it was probably inappropriate.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
So I'm like, you ran for one hundred and eighty
six yards four touchdowns, so you did your job right,
but you guys ended up losing the game. Yeah, seventy
five to seventy one.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Yeah, y'all did some research, man.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
And for some reason, you guys decided to throw. The
quarterback lost that. You guys lost it because the quarterback
threw an interception.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
At the end of the day, I can't even put
it on him. We scored seventy one points. If you
scored seventy one points in lou it's like, what else
can you do?
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Yeah? Play defense?
Speaker 1 (04:28):
I mean that's what you can do.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
What are y'all saying on the sidelines, did you guys
keep running it up and then your your defense keeps
giving it up?
Speaker 1 (04:35):
It was a shootout, That's that's everybody knew it was
a shootout. It's like who has the ball last? Yeah,
I mean we had it last, but we still lost.
But like you said, we threw an interception. But we
knew it was gonna be a shootout. We saw that
very early. But we just couldn't stop them. I had
four touchdowns, no hundred and so yards. We had another
receiver had like three touchdowns and you know about two
(04:58):
hundred yards receiven So everybody had good stats that game.
If you was on offense, if you touched the ball,
you probably scored a touchdown. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
So Rom and I we had similar past. We went
to our respect to colleges you know, we went to
the combine, did the whole thing, got drafted, went to
our team. What was your What was a process like
for you getting into the NFL?
Speaker 1 (05:20):
I got drafted as well, got drafted fifth round. I
was telling the story earlier about draft day. I knew
that there was a possibility I can go second day.
Didn't go second day, Yeah, I was okay, Well, I
think fourth round is a is a good spot for me.
I feel like my talent is a fourth round talent.
Didn't go fourth round either, and Saint Louis called me
(05:40):
somewhere in the fifth round. Yeah, and they told me
that if I didn't get drafted, you know, they wanted
me as a free agent. So, you know, getting that
call during the draft that was discouraging. So I was
thinking to myself, you know, you know, maybe I'm not
gonna get drafted, but let me, let me, let me
not ruin this day. Let me, you know, have my
phone with my family. And as soon as I got
up to go fix myself or play the food to eat,
and I was called me. And I think it was
(06:01):
like pick one fifty six or something like that, but uh, yeah,
they called me. I became a coach that day.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
So who called you or not?
Speaker 2 (06:08):
I know that we know the coat called you, but
like what what person was on your end of the phone.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Honestly, I think it was coach pegana Chuck Pagano. Yeah,
but I'm not too sure because back then I was
just happy to be talking to somebody. It didn't matter
who it was.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
So you get to you, you go to Indy, you
get there, and you work your way into the starting lineup.
How was that process?
Speaker 1 (06:30):
It was crazy? But well it was crazy but not
crazy at the same time, because like you said, I
came from Juco. Even when I got to Missippi State,
you know, it was a grind. You know, it wasn't
like a shoe in. I wasn't you know, the guy
from day one. So when I got to Indianapolis, I knew.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Well you became the guy. Let's let's let's put some
numbers with it. Now. You still have the school record,
season season school recor record for rushing touchdowns at nineteen
So I mean you weren't that unknown. Okay, go ahead,
and I finish your story. I just want to put
some respect.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Yeah. Yeah, but what I'm saying is I've never I
was never the day one started. No matter where I
went to, I always had to earn my spot, earn
my keep. So when I got to Indianapolis, it was
no different. I was deep on a depth chart too,
and eventually I found myself, you know, getting into rotation.
And I think it was like week five, Bruce arians
(07:22):
came up to me and said, hey, you know, I
want to give you a little bit more playing time,
but you got to learn the playbook because number rookie,
I'm trying to learn how to read defenses and things
like that. Y'all guys back then in the second day
moving around, and so pretty much after that, you know,
they started putting me in and I worked my way
to the starting spot.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
You first get there, you get the inde. We all
have that welcome to the NFL moment where you just like,
holy I'm in the NFL. You hit somebody, you get
scored on, something happens in the locker room, whatever. We
all have that moment where you're just like, damn.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
I'm in the NFL. Welcome to the NFL.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Rookie.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
What was that welcome to the NFL rocky moment?
Speaker 1 (07:59):
For you got a good one. It's a twenty twelve.
Week one, We're playing Chicago and uh, you know you
in the second day, I'm looking at Julius Pepper's coming
off the edge, Brian Urlaca back there standing up looking
like a tree, and they say, you know, they called
the play and the ball is coming to me. I'm like,
(08:19):
what this this is my first play in They give
me the ball and Brian url like it wasn't one
that hit me out of It was like a no gainage.
But it was just so surreal to me just to
be seeing all these people that I grew up seeing,
you know, playing on video games, and now I'm lining
up against them. So that was it was super surreal
for me.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
So did you no hit, no nothing, just it was
just kind of.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Nothing, just doing it was just a moment and I
had played through the preseason we played uh try po. Yeah,
it wasn't that. It wasn't that impactful though, No disrespect
to him, no great, no, yeah, but I think it
was that that week one, Uh, this is it's real now,
you know it's not. It's not practice anymore. And now
you got all these guys lined up on the other
(09:00):
side of the ball trying to take your head off
like the guys and it just clicked for me and
that moment like man, I'm here.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
But uh so after that the no gain or whatever,
did you kind of snap out of it? Is like okay, yeah,
at the end of the day.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
It's just football.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Uh yeah, pretty much pretty much, I would say.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
So, okay, that's fine that that happened opposite to me.
Then when I went out there my first start, and
I feel like Peyton Man was just staring at me,
it was very you feel very small at that moment.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Yeah, yeah, but I feel you. Yeah, I feel small.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Do you remember your first NFL touchdown?
Speaker 1 (09:38):
I definitely do.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
Let's tell me about it, walk us through it, give
us the play call if you can remember it, give
me the action what you see.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Yes, right, So I'm gonna start with the weekly number
to the game. Bruce Arians, who was the office coordinated
at the time, he had told us about a play
he saw Virginia Tech. Bro I think it was Virginia
Tech and h basically he was like, I want to
try that practice, you know, drew it up in the
same Basically, we tried that practice, it worked, never went
back to it, and uh so we're playing Tennessee. Uh,
(10:10):
I'm having a decent game. You know, we're moving the
ball pretty well as an offense. Uh, and we find
ourselves in overtime. We had another another running back by
the name of Donald Brown. He actually got us down
to the red zone, you know, running the ball and uh,
I'm not I'm not sure if they called a time
out or we called a time out, but my running
back coach, Coach Walker, he thought that, you know, we
(10:32):
should switch out. So we made the switch. You know,
we're on the field now. Bruce calls to play the
Luck and Luck is reading the play to us. I'm
looking at Reggie Wayne reggielight, is he sure he wanted
to run this play right now? Is overtime and win
the red zone? Uh? You know, so we called it,
and uh, I forgot the specifics of the play, but
(10:54):
I knew he had the option front side. He didn't
take the option front side. And I saw him, you know,
turning back to look at me. I was, oh, now
it's on me. Now. He threw me the ball and
there was a guy who if he was maybe a
step fast, they could have took it. It was at
the end. Oh yeah, yeah, he could have took it
the other way for six for sure didn't touch the ball,
so I caught it. I'm running and I got to
(11:15):
about the ten yard line and so and I saw
that I was running out of real estate. I knew
that it was two guys. I knew one of the
two was probably gonna try to push me out of bounds.
So I dove just to try to see what, you know,
what would happen. And when I dove, the safety ended
up rotating me. So now I'm like inverted and I'm
just gliding through the.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
Ass a good dive.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Yeah, yeah, I didn't know who I was gonna land,
And when I didn't land, I just hopped up and
threw my hands up. Didn't know if I scored or not.
I was like, let me see if I can convince
the rest that I scored. But ended up hitting the
potline and uh scored the first testdown.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
A lot of running backs possibly could drop that pass too,
just because somebody was flashing in front of you just
a second. Yeah, I know you said they didn't touch it,
but it was very close though. I thought it was
a great catch. It was a great effort.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Yeah, it was definitely very close, but I called it
turned into a touchdown.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
So you had a lot of success your rookie year,
decent amount.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Then you get.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Into your second year, you tear acl in the game,
do that rehab, and then the next year you tear
your achilles in practice. How hard was it to stay
motivated during that time having two very very serious injuries.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
It was incredibly hard. Anybody that's been on our and know, yeah,
like the you know, the the uphill batter that you're facing,
especially when it's a season ended injury. And it got
to a point, especially that second year, well, I didn't
even feel like I was part of the team. There
was guys walking around the locker room don't know who
I am, you know, because I hadn't played mile Let's
let's call it my rookie year. Like the vests know
(12:47):
who I am, but the new guys just like, you know,
who is this guy that's always hurt? So you know,
I'm fighting my physical battles but also fighting my mental battles.
And it was tough, man, I have. I had a
lot of rough nights and a lot of people saw
it on my face, and you know, they would give
me words of encouragement, but the only the only thing
that could break that spell was me, me getting back
on the field.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
Yeah, well you really weren't able to get back on
the field. And understanding that now that you're away from it,
do you ever probably give yourself enough praise for what
you did accomplish and even on the other side, grace
for the disappointment and that what it was or was not.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Some days I give myself praise, some days I give
myself grace. But the competitor in me, it's like I
just I wanted to be the next best, you know,
especially you know, working my way into a spot, a
starting spot. You know, it's like, man, I'm it's my time,
you know. So I was thinking like that, it's my time,
it's my time, it's my time. And for not to
(13:50):
unfold like that, it was a big shot to my ego.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
So after you know, you're you're out of the league,
and you're I'm sure trying to figure out what's next.
How long did it take you to kind of figure
that part out?
Speaker 1 (14:06):
I kind of already knew because you know, as we
alluded to, I faced a lot of injuries, uh before
I actually got cut for the last time. So my
just the way my brain works, It's like, Okay, if
this doesn't pan out, what's next. So I thought, you know,
I brainstormed a lot, but eventually I found myself kind
(14:27):
of going back to my eighteen year old self. And
remember that I originally wanted to go to school for
engineering and I was kind of denied the opportunity when
I got to Missippi State because you know, classes conflict
with practice and I was like, nah, bro, you came
here to play football. So I was thinking, that's true.
That's basically what they told me. So you know, whenever
(14:50):
I found myself out of the game, I was like, okay,
it was it was, you know, obviously a fall time.
I was like, I'm gonna wait until the following spring
to uh, you know, start applying the schools, and you know,
that was that was the plan. I stuck with it.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Tell me this, so you said, you know, it really
hurts your ego with all the things that were going
on and how it wasn't on your terms.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
Has it recovered with my ego?
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Oh? So so this is the beautiful part of it.
So during that process, I don't think I've ever been
more motivated, more dedicated, more into you know what I
was doing in that moment, you know, trying to get
back to the to the field, and it didn't work out.
But I told myself, I was like, man, you know
that didn't work out because I just feel like I
(15:36):
didn't have enough time. But if I could take that
same drive, that same dedication, that same discipline, and applied
to anything else in life, it's no telling why I
ended up. And I took that with me to school. Yeah,
then you studied mechanical engineering. Mechanical engineering, that's a whole
lot of math. It's a whole lot of everything.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
The whole Yeah, I was. I was struggling with the
TI eighty three Texas instrument calculator. Y'all had the that
big I don't even it was a Texas injuring, but
it was. They had a keyboard on it. I don't
know what the you know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
The calculators.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
It's a T I think ninety three, Well at least
when I was in.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
School, Yeah, that's what it was.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
It was.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
It was a big one like calculator. Yeah, couldn't what
did you look at? You know about the calculator? Everybody
know about that.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
He just talking to her.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
I didn't come there to play no school. Yeah, I
was crazy. It's like what Yeah, So now you got
your your bachelor's and mechanical engineering at Central Florida all right,
all right, then you went and got a master's in
(16:44):
engineering at the University of Florida. Right, So you were
in Gainesville for this or you did it online?
Speaker 1 (16:50):
No, so I was actually in Atlanta at the time.
I was having to commute to actually Orlando once a
month for class. So yeah, it was in person, so nice. Yeah,
I was commute once a month. Man, it was terrible.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
But like and man, Florida is a top five university
though the last couple of years as far as education
and experience all the overall. So that's it's still a
great place for sure. And are you currently seeking an
NBA or yeah?
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Yeah, so I actually started the NBA too. I'll be
done probably this time next year. And I have an
NBA as well.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Congress, where's that going to be out.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Of University of Florida as well?
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Congratulations all that.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
So, you know, I've been trying to get him to
do NBA program with me. He just want to do it.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
You know, I'm going to accuse you of cutting me
off age deal. Yeah, so and now you're a mechanical
engineer for the great company of Lockheed and Martin.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Yeah, my aeronautical engineer specifically.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Okay, here it is so aeronautical engineering. That's what I
was going to ask, What exactly is it? What is
your job title?
Speaker 1 (17:48):
So aeronautical engineering. The job title is broad because we
have different engineers that do different things. Me specifically and
what they call a stress analyst. So I support a
production of an aircraft called the F sixteen.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
Love the F sixteen.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Okay, so anyone Okay.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
My dad worked on the Jackson seats as a so
I grew up around the F sixteen.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Right, So I'm gonna I do a frame stress for
the F sixteen. Whenever anybody on the production floor does anything.
The dvs from the blueprint. So let's say you drill
a hole in the wrong spot. They sent a to
us to say, okay, can you analyze this to make
sure that there's viable you know, the flo so the
so the poblot can be safe.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Yeah, I'm not signing off for anything though. It's layers
and layers, but I'm sure. But yeah, that's what I do.
Day in and day out.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
Now, how long you been doing this? Sorry?
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Yeah, yeah, so I just started doing a frame stress
because before I was a different type of engineering back
in Georgia.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Why mechanical engineering.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
So initially I wanted to do mechanical engine and engineering
back when I was eighteen, and because a little country
dude form Mississippi. You know, we work on cars and
things like that, and I thought that, Yeah, I thought
that's what being a mechanical engineer was. But it's so
much more, absolutely, yeah, yeah, so much more.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
I thought working on the car was a mechanical mechanical engineer.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Yeah, because it's.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Mechanical exactly, exactly, honestly, that's.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
Kind That is Mississippi, baby, that's Alabama too.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Yeah, it is part of it. But you learn the
science behind why the car is doing what it's doing. Yes,
And the motivation came from uh, like I said, me
trying to I got to figure the rest of my
life out. I can't play football no more. That's what
I've been doing my whole life. I need a new deal.
And I never really saw myself being a coach or
a personal trainer, you know, No knocked to anybody that's
doing it with their life. That's a former player. But
(19:37):
that's not the route I wanted to take. I wanted
to do something that was challenging. So I went back
to school for engineering.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Now, how difficult was it to land a job that?
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Like? He It's crazy, you know, because a lot of
people talk about how hard it is. I applied one time,
got it. It just it was pretty easy to me.
But you know, I think it depends on the person.
Because when I was going to orientation, that was a
guy who said he applied twenty times before he got
an interview. I applied once.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
We're going to take a short break and we'll be
right back. I think all these companies number one, this
is my opinion, but I think all these companies really
appreciate and love former athletes because the working worthic Like,
they understand it's tough, they can be you know, they
can be corrected, and they don't take it personal. I
just think it's they know how to work well with
(20:27):
a team, which at Lackey Martin you're part of a
huge grouping team definitely, and so it's just really really
cool to actually talk to you about those things. I
want to know. Also, what was it like going back
to school again, because you know, you're probably dealing with
people that are younger than you. You'd already been in
the NFL. I have a small sense of that because
(20:48):
I went back to school after two years in the
league and I finished my degree. But I was like
I was, you know, I was back in Tuscaloose on
the campus that I was familiar with.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
It was different, right, you totally different. You're a totally
different fish in a totally different pod.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Yeah. One day I had this moment where I was like, man,
what am I doing my life? Because I'm in freshman
level physics, you know, sitting next to these kids, you know,
eighteen nineteen years old trying to figure out how they
can pull money together to buy pizza, And I'm like, man,
I just I just came from like to my left
(21:24):
was Andrew Luck, to my right was Reggie Wayne. Yeah,
you know the lifestyle that you know a lot of
NFL players live, Like, I went from that to this,
and I was having like a moment and I had
to remind myself, you know, we're all here for the
same things in life, you know, we just had a
different path. Yeah, So if this is what I want
to do in my life. I need to, you know,
shake that off and you keep it moving. And that's
what I did. So it was crazy.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
That is the emotion that I felt. It was like
I was back and I was in my last business class.
You know, I got a Bens, I got a Louis
book Bass. Yes, so different, and I'm in class and
I'm doing a group project with just We're meeting at
(22:06):
a frat house, you know, like the door barely works
in the front to get into the other person's apartments.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
We're all your classes online.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
No, mine was in person. A lot of them.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Online are all person online was in persons all in person.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
Yeah, mine were in person. So I had to go
there and be there and so and I was in
the same mentality as you vic. It's like, man, I'm
looking around like slightly judging people. But I had to
humble myself and be like, you know what, like all
these people in this room are literally working to get
this piece of paper to get their dream job. Roaman,
(22:43):
you're blessing fortunate enough to where you have your dream job.
You just trying to get the paper so then you
can say you accomplished this. Give it to your mom,
and you can also tell your future kids like what
you can do.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
The beautiful thing about that is we can totally humble
ourselves again, and you can give your mom another sheet
of paper and we can go we.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Can go get it.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
We can go get it. We can go get this NBA.
My dukes, we can get it.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
I'm trying to get you some honey to get this NBA.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
We can get it. Talk to him, convince him. Let's
get home.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
But with that being said, you got four picks on
Mount Rushmore. So these are picks of people that have
had influence, people that have loved on you, people that
cared about you, people that poured into you to help
you become the young man you are today, from the
time you were born until fourteen fifty six today made
(23:40):
of fifteenth, who would those four people be.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
It's a tough question because you know they said it
takes a.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Village, absolutely, the village of four.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
I mean, I would definitely say I would include or
can I include, like all of my family as like
yeah one, okay, definitely like my core family, you know,
because you know they are no part of the reason
why I am who I am? All right?
Speaker 3 (24:15):
Who are you? Who? Is your core.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Family, brothers, sisters, you know, mom, pops, grandmother, grandfather. Yeah,
I mean they know who they are shout out to.
They know who they are. So aside from that from family,
I would definitely say my juco head coach because he
was the first person to show me that, you know,
(24:39):
it doesn't matter if you got excuses, like life, life
really doesn't care if you got excuses. It's like did
you get it done or didn't or you know, did
you not? So I would definitely put him up there.
Steve Campbell, Steve Yeah, legendary Mississippi golf coach, football coach, legendary.
I would put on the rough of no feathers. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
(25:03):
I would say. Okay, I would say my high school hit,
my high school football coach as well, because when I
was a junior in high school, the springtime, they come
out with this thing called twelve most Wanted and I
was not one of those guys. And he was the
first person to call me and tell me like, look,
you know, don't worry about the article that came out
of paper, because when it's all said and done, you
(25:25):
can have the last live. And he was he was
right because none of those guys actually got drafted. I
was the only one you know, from my area from
that from that time period to make it to the NFL.
So he was definitely right, you know, gave me motivation
to keep going. And that's one other guy. His name
is Nate David. Shout out to nay Man. We don't
talk much, but he don't know it. And I've said
(25:48):
this on other podcasts, but he is a big reason
why I pushed myself as hard as I did because
he was always pushing me. You know, if I did,
if he uh, if he did you know ten or something.
I try to get eleven, if I do know five sets,
he trying to get six. So we was always pushing
each other, you know what I'm saying, to get better.
And whenever we split, you know, we out different different directions.
(26:10):
And I kept that mentality with me.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
So he is a high school college team high school high.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
School, high school, yeah, high school, and now he was
the first person that I met that said now I'm
gonna do something and actually did it. He was telling
me from probably middle school age he was going to
be a doctor, and today he's a doctor. Yeah. I
like that.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
How gratifying is it to have the success that you
have right now in your new profession, considering how playing
an NFL, how that ended for you.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
I definitely give myself a pat on the back sometime
because just the fashion in which everything ended with the NFL,
you know, me actually having to go back to school
and sit in the classroom with you know, people that's
ten years younger than me, and uh, to actually be
sitting in a seat where I you know, I like
what I do for a living. You know, it's it
was a it was a process, it was a jo
to get there. So I'm definitely proud of myself. But
(27:04):
you know, being an athlete, you are ambitious, you are
you know, gol oriented. You have all these things, all
these qualities about you that enables you to be a
professional football player. So it's like it's like I'm looking
for It's like what's next. It's like it's like I'm
trying to enjoy the moment, but also you know, figure
out what's what's next for the future.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Now, did you take that same mindset to lack heat, Like,
did you take that same attitude like, all right, you know,
my new goal is, well I can design a new
frame or I can fix this or I could do that.
Is that the same kind of attitude that you brought
over I.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Wouldn't say that. It's it's more so like, Okay, I'm
an engineer. Now what it's going to be my title?
Teens from now now? I'm not really stuck on being
an engineer. If I am, you know, great, and I'll
find a vertical that I can excel in. But if not,
you know, what is it? What's what's my new what's
my new title?
Speaker 3 (27:57):
So you are that was because I want to know, like,
like what, because you know we I talked to somebody
else about this. It's like so often being goal oriented
people who are like minded, people that are always trying
to achieve the next When you're an athlete or you're
a football player, it's easy to see like I'm in
high school, I want to get to college. Like at
(28:19):
the college, I'm trying to get to the league.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
I'm in the league.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
I'm trying to get starter or be the highest paid
or get to a Pro Bowl. So it's easy to
see what's the next goal when you're doing something that
I'm unfamiliar with. When you are an engineer, a mechanical engineer,
mechanical engineering lackeys Martin, what is that next goal? And
I don't even know if you know it as much
(28:41):
as it's like, well, if I'm going to be in
this lane, how can I be vertical versus what other
options are out there? I don't know, That's what I'm
trying to ask.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
And the well as I was kind of alluding to,
like are you saying like what is the next step
for men engineer? No? For you? Oh for me? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (28:57):
OK, the next season?
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Yeah. So, as I mentioned, you know, if I continue
to grow in my career as an engineer, you know,
I definitely you know, maximize whatever opportunities are put on
my plate. But if it comes down to me, you know,
creating my own opportunities. One area I've been looking at
is real estate development. So I'm currently doing a little
stuff in real estate right now, selling off some rentals
I have because I want to move into the development space.
(29:20):
So you know, we'll see, you know, hopefully it works out,
you know, whenever I dipping my toes in the water.
But I think that's probably what's on the horizon for me.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
Oh man, I think we appreciate you coming on the pot.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Man. That's dope.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
That's a great answer. Thank you for sharing your story
and just blessing us with your presence.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Man, I appreciate you all having man, I really do,
because I did not expect to be sitting here with y'all.
But it's crazy. I've been having so many thoughts since
I got the email to come speak to you all, because,
you know, looking at y'all guest list, you know, it's
like I saw you had Michael Vick, you had you know,
a lot of notable guys who had these long careers
on the field correct And I was like, man, that
(30:00):
was not me. And it's like I'm being you know,
asked to talk about something I did after football, and
that was huge for me because whenever you go off
into a new direction, you don't know if you're doing
the right thing or not. But like you know that
I'm sitting down here with all that, let me know
that I made the right decision.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
We all got a story, man, in the second act
this podcast, it's us really giving you your flowers and
the things that you're doing right now in your second act.
So hey, man, congratulations, and I hope the goal, whether
it's a year from now, five years from now ten
years from now, you're doing the things that you want
to do.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
Appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
Yeah, man, And if you were just a good football player,
you wouldn't be here.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
That's true.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
It's literally because everything else you're doing in your life,
and so everything that your football journey puts you through
is that actually need to put you right here in
front of us today. So this is why we do
the show. And it's been really cool. And you, like
I said before, you're first Juco All America.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
That's great. Many I take honor in that because he
shout out on my Juco boys. Man, because that was
a different grind, a whole different grid. That's a different ground.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
That's probably more of a grind. That's more of a
grind than at UL right.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Uh yeah, yeah, how far is that Pearl River is
Pearl that's a Juco?
Speaker 3 (31:20):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (31:20):
How far is that from me?
Speaker 1 (31:22):
Yeah? Uh thirty minutes? Maybe that was one of our rivals.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
That rivals. Yeah, my roommate he went there.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
Yeah, say, Mississippi got a whole bunch of they were.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
Like fifteen maybe yeah, oh damn yeah, it's a lot.
Speaker 3 (31:35):
Yeah, yeah, they go at it though. Mississippi, Oklahoma and
California or Kansas. Yeah, Kansas, Kansas, Kansas other state Coffeeville
like Garden City, Kansas. Garden City.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
Funny, no story before we leave real quick. You know
Cam Newton actually went to Juco after he left Florida. Yeah,
and we lost our state championship game, the seventy five
to seventy one. But if we would have won, we
would have had to play Camp Newton uh in the
Juico National Championship, so you probably would have scored about
seventy five too. But I just thought I thought that
(32:09):
was so crazy.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
Small football. This football plays small, small world for sure,
Man vig Man, appreciate you dog, great job, Man. I
can't wait to continue to follow up and pay attention
to everything that you're being able to accomplish. Man, And
I want to sit up here and now specifically thank
all of our viewers and listeners out there. Wherever you
pick up our podcast, whether it's Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, uh,
(32:31):
make sure you give us a five star rating review,
click that follow button, subscribe, leave a couple of comments.
You can, you know, tell me what I could be
doing better? You like that I do? Okay?
Speaker 1 (32:43):
All right?
Speaker 3 (32:43):
Make sure you check us out on the NFL Pages
YouTube channel as well. Peanut Man get a Saturday. I'm Peanut.
That's big.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
This is Roman and you have been listening and watching
the NFL Player's Second Acts podcast.
Speaker 3 (32:57):
Woout what buck buck buck
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Stop
Hosts And Creators
Charles “Peanut” Tillman
Roman Harper
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