November 26, 2025 • 36 mins
On this episode of NFL Players: Second Acts, Peanut Tillman and Roman Harper are joined by former Bengals running back Giovani Bernard to find out what he’s been up to since he retired three years ago.
Giovani opens up about the loss of his newborn son and the joy he’s found in becoming a parent of twin girls. He also explains how he dealt with the Bengals’ lack of playoff success during career and why he decided to retire after ten years.
Then Giovani shares the multiple passions he’s found in second act, including photography, endurance sports, and investing in real estate.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
There was a hurricane that came and wiped out Augusta
and like power lines were down. I can't remember the
name of it, but they canceled that that Iron Man
Half Iron and then essentially I was like, well, my
wife's going to the hospital next week.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
I really ain't got no all the time. I'm just
gonna go do it myself.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
So I literally did a seventy point three by myself
in South Florida. Uh, it was like September, so it
was probably heated next like one O two, one O
three and just got actually absolutely baked and it was.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Yeah, it was tough.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
What's up everybody, I'll Peanut Tillman and this is the
NFL Player's Second Act podcast and with me, as always
my trusty co host Roman, I smoke the bear harpor.
Speaker 4 (00:48):
Yeah, I don't know, thank you appreciate it. Really looking
forward to this next guest that we have. Man, he's
been in a very entertaining running back in the league
for a long time and now he's doing different things
in his second career. I really want to get into
it and let him dive in share with us exactly
how he's been living out his dream second round running
back in the twenty thirteen NFL Draft. Played ten seasons,
(01:12):
played for the Bengals and the Bucks. Now he's in
the real estate and he is a photographer. Ladies and gentlemen,
please welcome to the pod GF I t but no,
I feel like we got to get like rule applause. Yeah, yeah, because.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
We need to sign and.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Then it's just like like two people clapping, like your
bigger room.
Speaker 4 (01:38):
It's a bigger room this time. Sometimes it gets really loud. Sorry, Geo,
it's just it's all we're going to be working on it. Well,
we'll put that in on YouTube, all right, we'll add
that in.
Speaker 5 (01:49):
Well, welcome to the pod Man. How's life.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Life is good. It's been busy. I could, I could.
I could definitely say that it's been busy.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
And you know a lot of people talk about, you know,
retirement and just so you know how you know, diff
to this, you know, go into that next chapter and
this and that. But to be honest, man, it's been
it's been busy, but it's been so much fun and
it's been so rewarding.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
There's a lot of stuff.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
I mean, I'm sure we'll kind of get into it
a lot, but I've learned a lot a lot about.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Myself, to be honest, and it's just been a lot
of fun.
Speaker 6 (02:17):
Man.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
I really really enjoyed it, and I really appreciate you
guys having me on here.
Speaker 5 (02:21):
Why has it been fun?
Speaker 4 (02:23):
And tell me something interesting that you maybe have learned
about yourself in retirement.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
So in December, my wife and I had twins. I
think when you add two to the already one that
we had, it creates, you know, some some different aspects that.
Speaker 4 (02:37):
I didn't know they were both twins. I thought you
just had like some little babies.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Oh yeah, so we had identical girl twins. They were
born early. It's there's it's a long kind of story,
but at the end of the day, the girls came.
You know, girls came early. They're healthy, they're growing, all
the markers are great. But it was a very rare
type of pregnancy. The type of twins that they were,
they're called mono mono twins. Essentially, they shared the same
(03:02):
sack and the same placenta from the mother, so there
was no real border in between them. So with that
being said, it's a high risk because the umbilical core
can get wrapped around either one of them.
Speaker 5 (03:13):
Gotcha.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
So my wife essentially spent ten weeks bed rest at
the hospital and I was just back with my son
at the time, and uh, just doing the thing.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Yeah, just doing the thing.
Speaker 5 (03:25):
Do you get them confused?
Speaker 1 (03:27):
To be honest, every once in a while, I do.
But we have earrings to distinguish the two. So Kaya
has like little hearts on there, and then Shay she
has like little moons.
Speaker 5 (03:38):
So I a reason I said that.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
I was on my ig was doing some research this
morning and this this feed popped up and it was
parents getting their twins confused, and and it was most
of most of the time it was the dad. Yeah,
the dad couldn't tell who who was.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
To be honest, it really don't matter at this stage,
you know what I mean, Like they really couldn't.
Speaker 5 (03:57):
Tell who who was.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
And then the boys he had there was these older
boys and they started missing with their dad, and it
was like, let's get them, and he did.
Speaker 5 (04:04):
They came out and.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
He goes.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Yeah, and he's cursing, he's looking, He's like, god, dang it, look,
I just need so and so to do to pick
up the trash and so and so do to leave.
Speaker 5 (04:15):
What's somebody and they're like, well, which one is who dad?
Speaker 3 (04:18):
And he's liked guys and they're probably like twelves and
they knew their dad couldn't tell them.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
So yeah, hopefully they can.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
I've already gotten the mixed up that that's that's beside
the part. But as they get older, hopefully I can
find different signs on the both of them that says, Okay,
you were you and you were them and yeah, so
we'll figure it out.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
I just think that's so cool, Like I'd actually never
heard of this mono mono.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Yeah, it's the rarest type of twins, and it's because
it's identical. Fraternal twins can can be hereditary, so you know,
passed down by jeans or all that, but identical twins
or by chance only so pure chance. And we had
the highest risk, lowest percentage of survival type of twins.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
And they're healthy. That's so cool. A blessing. Yeah, I
just had the.
Speaker 5 (05:02):
Blessings health blessing. I want a boy.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
I want a girl.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Bro at the end of the day, because I had
a I had a daughter of some heart complication whatever.
At the end of the day, you just want healthy kids,
yeah or girl.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 5 (05:15):
I want healthy kids.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
I'm sorry, I don't mean interrupt you. But even before then,
last year we had lost one. So we lost his
name was Gabriel, and we lost him at twenty two weeks,
so my wife still had to kind of go through
the entire process. And that was a court accident, so
nothing that we did wrong, So it was just just
how it worked. And and now we got blessed with
(05:37):
two and do it. It's unbelievable this past you know,
really since I retired, what life has kind of been like,
you know, And obviously I learned a lot about myself
when I say that in the sense of you know,
just having I'm big into my faith, just putting full
this let and go of control, because when you're playing,
you try to control everything you kind of you know,
you try to write, but there's some circumstances and some
(05:57):
times where you really just have to let go and
just let God kind of take, you know, take that
wheel and to just drive your life. And really this
past year has kind of been one of those moments
where I just let go and and he blessed us
with two additional you know, Yeah, it's just super thankful
that they're healthy, that they're doing their things, and yeah, yeah,
just super grateful.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
That's probably one of the hardest things though, is when
you when you're dealing with something uh just uh in
a life event, a very serious life event, and.
Speaker 5 (06:27):
You gotta let go for me.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
I know, with my daughter, her her her health situation,
I don't know that nors. She she ended up having
a hard transplant after the whole thing. But you read
since day one, you're young and have faith, have faith,
have face, and you think you have faith until you
actually go through something. Then it's like, oh wow, I
(06:50):
really gotta I know I say it, but now I
really gotta practice it. And it was probably the hardest
thing I had to go through because I didn't have
any control over it. And big, strong, small, tall, physical.
You got money, you can, you think you can, you
can just do what you want to do because you
got money, and this was one of those situations where
you couldn't do nothing, and it's just like I just
(07:13):
gotta pray. Kind of feel a little helpless, but I
just got dropped to my knees start praying give it
to the Lord. It's yeah, I'm just saying I understand
it tests one hundred percent testament, so I know exactly
what you're going through, what you went through.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
So yeah, and to be honest, my wife is she's
really been you know, people talk about the man being
the leader of the family, this and that, but you know,
it's one of those things that how my wife has
handled herself and to really still be the type of
person that she is has blown my mind. You know,
sometimes you don't really see your wife going through struggles
like that, you know, they you know, I'm not gonna
(07:49):
say like things are given to her this kind of stuff,
but you know, we never really had a big, you know,
moment like that as a as a you know, being
in a couple, and when something like that happens, you
have no idea which way it is going to go.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
You can go left and go right. You you don't
really know.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
But for us to have stayed the way that we did,
and for us to learn about each other the way
we did during that process, man, it was just yeah,
it was unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
And I've yeah, she's so.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
If anything, that process would you say it brought you
and your wife closer together.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
One hundred percent?
Speaker 1 (08:20):
And you know, you know, people talk about regrets and
things like man, like, as much as I want Gabriel
to be here with us, I don't think we would
have had the twins if we didn't, And I don't
think my wife and I relationship would be as strong.
Not that not saying that we were you know that
things were happening before, not at all like we were great,
But I think you reach a different level when you
(08:40):
go through a life event like that. Absolutely, you know
what I mean, And you know, yeah, So it's just
kind of one of those things, like I just we
saw a different side of each other and we leaned
on each other, and that's what you want a relationship.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
Right Well, I want to say this, man, it's a
blessing here both you guys sharing that story again personally
from somebody or that has not had to go through
a tragic moment like that for any man. It's just,
you know, it's just what what God has for all
of us for us, and you really don't get to
pick and choose on your own. And so I'm gonna
switch gears a little bit and try and get talk
(09:13):
about a little bit about your career.
Speaker 5 (09:16):
You know, we all have these moments.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
You've talked about a few moments that you shared with
us in your post post retirement career. But I want
to go back to your NFL career. What was your
first welcome to the NFL moment?
Speaker 1 (09:27):
My rookie year, we had Vonte's perfect you know, we
had Raymond Luga, we had Taylor Mays, we had Reggie Nelson,
we had James Harrison was on our team at the time.
We had Carlos and tons of guys on the defensive
side of the ball.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
And when I was.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
In college, you know, you're coming out like you're running back.
Nobody really trying to tackle you. In practice, you know,
they kind of keep it easy whatever, and especially when
you have uppers on right, you just have uppers, no lowers,
and you know.
Speaker 5 (09:53):
And you're also the main man in North Carolina.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Yeah, so nobody say right, everybody off. So it was
just tagging off right. So that's kind of what I expected.
It was like third day, you know, when you can
start putting pads on. So we just did uppers only
that day. And I'll never forget, man, I went through
that line smooth, broke through that, you know, got got
(10:19):
off to the secondary.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Georgia I Loca.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
He's from Boise State, he was uh second year guy
at the time, came up and just put that shoulder right.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
In my chest.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
He was the safety went down, and then it was
just like, Okay, everybody's gonna tag off on g today, right.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
That was early in practice.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Vante has hit me later on in practice, and then
I got hit by somebody else later on in practice.
After practice, Marvin Lewis called everybody up and put his
arms He said, Jill, come here, put his arms around
me in the middle.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Of the huddle. Said this is our guy. We don't
want to hurt him. You know how. You know how
soft I felt.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Bro.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
He took me so much time problem from me by
saying that you could have left me in the back.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Don't even say nothing. Don't bring me up in front
of everybody. I'm a rookie. Oh come on, man, so man.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Ever, since that day, every time I put the helmet on,
as long as we got a helmet on.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
It's full contact to me.
Speaker 5 (11:13):
Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
So I learned a lot from that little moment, but
I'll never forget somebody just bringing somebody up in the
middle of the entirety hard knocks was honest too. So
that was on it too, so and then you put
the arms around me saying, hey man, hey fellas, this
is our guy. We don't want to hurt them, right,
we want to take care of our own. I'm just like, goodness, gracious, man,
(11:35):
don't do that to me. So that was my welcome
to the NFL.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
It was the hardest hit you took practice and practice, Okay,
hardest one, hardest one.
Speaker 5 (11:44):
What about game one?
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Yeah, I don't want to say.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
He was just like, yeah, dad, coach, I don't even
want the ball no more. He got me too good.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Yeah, I mean, I know I had one in uh.
It was a wild card game in twenty fifteen where
Shazier hit me and I was knocked out. But you know,
when you get knoed out, you don't really know what
you don't feel. Not yes, everybody said, I just got
knocked out.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
I woke up.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
I'm cool, right, But as far as like hits like that,
you you know, you kind of have to stumble off
the fields, you know, or they call time out. You
have to they have to come get you. I was
playing against the Colts and it was a swing route
and Vante Davis and I had worked out with him
and you know, obviously all the stuff that has happened.
I've worked out with him down here. He was a
(12:24):
Miami guy and we would work out quite a bit,
and you know, I'm playing against him, so you know,
we met each other before the game that I just
chopping it up whatever. I had a swing route, you know,
a little swing route till left him. It was covered too.
He was just chilling there and he didn't see him.
It is what it is, got me right, and it
was like one of those Reggie busheads, you know.
Speaker 5 (12:43):
Yeah, it was kind of like that. I was that
the same effect was.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
The ground, the roll on the ground. But you know
how it hurt me right.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
So I got up, went to the sidline because it
was definitely they had to come get me. I got
off to the sideline. I came back. It was a
third down play that was on first down, miss second down.
Came back for the third down play, same type of play.
It was more of a checkdown this time sat like
a played route, same type of hit, same location, same person.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
And I was like, come on, man, I just laid there.
I can't do nothing. So that was it.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
So going into this uh wild card game, let's let's go,
let's go back to that. What was what was one
of the memories you take away from that game? Well,
because it was it was a back and forth like.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Yeah, and I think part of it too, is like
we played Pittsburgh later on in the season that year
and it was like a little screen pass to myself
and it got intercepted by somebody and then Andy tried
to make a tackle on that play and mess his
thumb up. So we were hoping that he would be
ready for this wildcard game, but he wasn't. Aj McCarron
(13:53):
had a step in and play and he played well. Right,
We just dropped the ball with how we reacted to
certain situations in the game. It is what it is.
I was knocked out by you know, third quarter, so
I was already out. But you know, it's just that's
part of it, man, Like you know, certain teams that
don't necessarily make it every year, and that was kind
(14:16):
of one of the years where we've had the teams
we've been in the wildcards. We have, we have the
players to do it. It was just we weren't experienced
enough to go deep into the playoffs, or we haven't
had the experience of going deep in the playoffs to
really understand what it takes to win that first wildcard game.
So it is what it is, man, A lot of
people learn a lot of things, and yeah, it's part
(14:38):
of the game.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
When you first got into the league, all right, your
first three years, you go for over a thousand yards
in each year seasons, first three seasons. I mean at
that point, was it NFL easy? Like, how do you
expect the rest of your career to kind of go
after that? I'm sure we're having that much success early.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
I've always been the type of person I've never had
fun playing.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
I was always just like I gotta get it, simple
as that, Like, ain't none to it, especially growing up
down here, Like it's fun to play the game, but
at the end of the day, there's parents, and there's coaches,
there's fans betting known you know, six year olds.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Well, yeah, it's a.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Real thing, right, So for me, it was all about, like,
you got a ball and that's that's it, right. And
so for you know, those first three years that I
was doing my job right, and I and I felt
that I never I never really appreciated doing the job.
I just did it because that was that was second nature,
(15:34):
whether good or bad, what it is, what it.
Speaker 5 (15:36):
Is, you never stop them, no, like now I do.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Now I think about it, I'm like, I was kind
of decent, you know what I mean, right, And to
be honest, like, you know, it was kind of part
of the later career when I spent a couple of
years in Tampa. Some of those memories were some of
my most favorite because I was it was I didn't
care about the yards. I didn't care about the tds
man like, I didn't care about any of that. I
was just I just want to go out and have fun,
(16:00):
play ball, right. And I remember there was a game
against the Dolphins. It was my first year in Tampa,
and I had messed up my knee, got some MCL thing,
and I came back that game, missed one game, came
back that game and my first play was a third
and I don't know, maybe third and six, and you know,
I come in. They expected some you know, some route
from the running back. Right, I ran a choice. It
(16:21):
was in the goal line against Miami, and I was
able to score. And that touchdown was probably my most
favorite touchdown that I've ever had in my entire football career.
And it wasn't because Okay, I scored. It was because
the fact that I missed the game and the fact
that I enjoyed coming back that I just just took
in the moment and then I was just I was
(16:44):
able to earn my spot in a way.
Speaker 5 (16:45):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
It was weird, but I enjoyed that moment and that
was probably one of my most memorable touchdowns.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
To be honest, What was it like being in Cincinnati
and you guys were rolling, like, y'all, you guys are winning,
but you just can't get over that at the Wild
Card That must be terrible.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Yeah, man, it was.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
It was tough, and you know, it's one of those
things like we always had the players to do it
always we we just never understood And I think that
comes from the experience of playing in the in the playoffs, right,
like having that experience, having having some guys that come in,
whether you know, you know, trades, whatever it may be,
some guys that have had that experience to play what
does it take, right, We just didn't. We didn't know
(17:27):
most of the guys that were you know that I
was with those guys that we were all drafted by Cincy.
We were all there, right, So we never just had
that experience, but we always had the you know, the
caliber team to be able to do it. We just,
for whatever reason, lose our cool whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
I want to talk about the timing of your career too,
maybe like when I put it all together, because I
don't think I realized this about you, geo. Was that
so twenty twenty was it your last year with the Bengals?
Speaker 2 (17:53):
Yep?
Speaker 5 (17:54):
And you guys didn't go to the playoffs that year? Now,
reach right, So that was the same year that the
Bucks won the Super Bowl?
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Correct?
Speaker 5 (18:00):
All right?
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Then you go to tell me that.
Speaker 5 (18:06):
You go to the.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
Bucks and twenty twenty one was the first year yep,
and then won the Wild But the Bengals went to
the Super Bowl that year versus the Ram.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
For sure, for sure?
Speaker 5 (18:15):
All right?
Speaker 4 (18:16):
And then all right, but it was the one season
where you played you actually did win a playoff.
Speaker 5 (18:22):
Game, yea.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Yeah, so that was good, yeah for sure?
Speaker 1 (18:24):
And I think if if that game hadn't happened versus
the Eagles, that Wildcard game, because uh, Lenny was like
the main guy, but he wasn't playing that game. So
to be honest, a lot of the guys weren't. But
I think everybody was like, all right, we'll just wait,
because they they knew the type of team that they were,
and they're like, we'll just wait to the second game.
We'll just wait, you know, so we'll just miss this
wildcard game, y'all. Y'all good, Yeah, y'all. Replacements just handled
(18:47):
that real quick. I felt like I had a decent game,
has a couple of you know, a couple of catches,
a couple of carriers, whatever, and we ended up winning
that game. And that was my first playoff win, right,
and since he obviously went to the super Bowl and
did what they did, and yeah, and like it was
weird because I didn't. I didn't really feel like I
(19:08):
missed out. I didn't like I enjoyed my because again
I was telling this, like I enjoyed myself so much
that year because I just took a different approach to
the game, Like my mind was just it was somewhere else.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
And yeah, I just really enjoyed that year.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
And I was able to make some really good friendships
on that team, really good people over there. Yeah, man,
I you know, I've always been the type of person
you make a decision.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
You live with it. It is what it is. Forget
about everything else.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
We're going to take a short break and we'll be
back in a minute. I want to get into the
your second act. Yeah right, so you're done playing football,
You're in the second act, you're in retirement. How did
you get into photography? Yeah, so I will say I've
(19:55):
seen I've seen some of your pictures.
Speaker 4 (19:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Yeah, really don't done much lately with photography.
Speaker 5 (20:02):
Your visit, bro, there's plenty of that.
Speaker 6 (20:05):
But.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
It's so yeah, to be honest, the photography thing kind
of started like way back when, in like twenty sixteen,
I tore my a c on Cincy, and you know,
I was like, I got to get out the house.
You know, I've already done like my rehab whatever, and
you know, I'm done for the day. I don't really
flexing in on meetings, and so I just, you know,
I picked up a camera. That's when Instagram and social
(20:28):
media was kind of you know, just jumping off at
that time.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
And I take photos whatever.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
And my wife, you know, my wife's beautiful and I
love taking photos of her, and so she became, you know,
like my little muse. And I would just take photos
of her, and it was wondering.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
I thought that.
Speaker 6 (20:41):
Was Yeah, yeah, I just figured it was because like
it's the same woman's boot.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
I'm just good.
Speaker 6 (20:57):
I was.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
She's a natural, don't way and stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
So yeah, so she, you know, she she became that person,
and uh, you know, eventually I started just ended up
just doing like, you know, I did the maternity photos,
I did our engagement photos. I did you know, the
kids photos and stuff like that, and it just became fun.
I pick it up every once in a while. I
don't really have the time now, but what I do
have the time for is cycling. Like I've really actually
picked up on cycling and running and just endurance sports.
(21:26):
That's kind of to be honest, I really feel like
that's my second act more.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
So than photography.
Speaker 5 (21:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Get yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
So when I retired from Tampa, it was about we
just had exit meetings and it was like one or
two and I knew I was done. I was like,
I'm done, Like I walked off that field. I was like,
I already know I'm done. So that next day, after
the exit meetings, I got back home, I was like,
I'm gonna go see how far I can run. And
we was in Tampa, close to Bay Shore, and I
was like, I'm just going to see. I ran like
(21:52):
a mile and a half. My back was all tight,
my legs were just oh man, it was brutal, but
there was something in me that said, oh okay, let's
try to get better, right, So I just picked it
up and I just would try to go further and
further and further, and then I would reach a point
that all right, let me see how fast I could
do you know, three four miles or whatever. I would
just do that, and then long story short, I would
(22:13):
just wake up early at five o'clock and I wo
just did that for like a good year. While I
was running down here in South Florida on a one A,
I met this. I ran into this guy. His name's Mike,
and he was an iron man guy, right, he did
you know that swim cycle, brun kind of guy. And
he was like, man, like you rolling like you could?
You could pick it up right? And I'm like, hey,
(22:33):
you know, I used to play ball that. So we
just started chopping. We started running together, and then he
was like he should just get a bike, right, just.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Let's get a get a road bike. All right, I go,
you know, go drop you know a couple.
Speaker 5 (22:44):
Couple.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Yeah, that's start.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Yeah, yeah, I'll go pick up a bike, you know whatever.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Yeah, I would go pick up a bike.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
And then we went you know, I did my own
little thing, and I went thirty miles. Like on the
first day he texted me, I was like, why would
you ever ride your bike thirty Like how'd you feel?
Speaker 2 (22:59):
I was like so fine? And yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
Then it just kind of progressed into this thing of
well you should might as well just try swimming, Like see,
see how you did know how to swim before. No,
I mean, I'm sorry, I knew how to swim, but
like not no lap, got no much nothing in like.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
You're like, yeah, I'm.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
Gonna say, I'm gonna sit right here with my drinking
and yeah, yeah, I'm not going drowned. I'm not.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
I'm gonna be growing.
Speaker 5 (23:24):
Up down here.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
You gotta be I you know, you gotta be an
eye swimmer.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
So so yeah, so I went into you know, a
little swimming hall of Fame in Lauderdale and did like
a you know, a fifty and like, dude, I was
it was it was it was brutal. It was impossible
I was like, people do this for like a mile,
they do this for two miles like crazy. So again,
you know, that mentality just kind of picked up and
just got better at it, and you know, I ended
(23:48):
up hiring a coach because I wanted to do this
seventy point three in Georgia. And this was this was
when I I wanted to do this one specifically because
it was prior to my wife having to go to
the hospital for the twins.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
So I had to do it.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
That was the only date that I had, So I
had like nine weeks to learn how to swim, you know,
really run long distance and then bike and you know
that whole thing. There was a hurricane that came and
wiped out Augusta and like power lines were down. I
can't remember the name of it, but they canceled that
that Iron Man Half Iron and then essentially I was like, well,
I was going to the hospital next week. I really
(24:22):
got all the time, I'm just gonna do it. I'm
just gonna go do it myself. So I literally did
a seventy point three by myself in South Florida. Uh,
it was like September, so it was probably heated. Next
like one O two, one, O three and just got
actually absolutely baked and it was Yeah, it was tough,
but I did.
Speaker 5 (24:40):
So where did you do the swimming at?
Speaker 1 (24:42):
You did the swimm So I did at the Swimming
Hall of Fame and biked my bike there.
Speaker 5 (24:45):
Then you both yep.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
And then once I got back, my wife was like
she would meet me at these little checkpoints and uh,
when I started my run, she would drove next to
me on the golf cart, you know, whether handed me
water or whatever. And then essentially I just ran back
home and yeah, that was it. So that's awesome like that,
that is a lot of people want to do that. No,
not by themselves, iron man, by yourself. Is so I
(25:09):
hold on that you had.
Speaker 5 (25:10):
Your wife there committed.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
Yeah, you know, I mean shut out, shut out the wife.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
You hold them down.
Speaker 5 (25:17):
So good.
Speaker 4 (25:18):
You said something before you talked about your man. I
think it's important. Well I wanted to hear is that
you like I knew I was done?
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (25:25):
Was ten years? Was that always a goal? Because it's nice?
Speaker 4 (25:28):
Yeah, because for me somebody told me, like, you know,
you could play nine ten years, like if you keep
your head on right.
Speaker 5 (25:35):
So for me, it was like, okay, ten years is
what's up?
Speaker 2 (25:38):
Yeah, So like that was just the goal.
Speaker 5 (25:40):
For one ten.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
Yeah, then I get out of it. Like every year
after that was just like a It was like it
was a bonus. Yeah, But ten just sounds.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Yeah, I think, to be honest, I really do feel
ten one ten sounded nice. Like, you know, I didn't.
I didn't want to try to scrap for another two
or whatever.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Maybe't. I didn't want to do that.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
Like I had other passions outside of football that I
really just really wanted to go after, right, And like
I think one of the things that for me growing
up or in the earlier parts of my career, I
was always excited for what life looked like post ball.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
I just was excited about it.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
I understood like I had to do what I had
to do, Like I get all that, but I was
excited for all of the fruits and of all the
stuff that I've done, whether that was pee wee football,
high school, whatever. I was excited to, you know, hopefully
experience that once I retired, and thankfully enough, man, I
got ten out of it, and I was like, I'm cool,
I'm gonna go home, you know what I mean, Like
(26:41):
I'm good and you know, I enjoyed you know, I
enjoyed being around around my people's and my little one
was at the time where I enjoyed like spending the
time with him. I would takehim. He's like my little partner.
I would just take him everywhere. Right, So just truly
enjoyed that that and it wasn't it really wasn't a
hard decision for me at all.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Like I was like, I'm good.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
So I know you're into real estate. I've dabbled into
it a little bit, but I just it doesn't interest me.
It's kind of slow and I don't want to say boring,
it just doesn't Yeah, I like the end result, Like I.
Speaker 5 (27:15):
Can go in, I see the house, but I don't
have that vision.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
I can't be like, oh, you know, we can tear
this out and knock a wall down. Are you a
guy that does that? Because I know you're in real
estate now, right, Yeah. Yeah, you knew everything from the
rehab from start to finish.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Essentially the way I've kind of thought of it. I
remember in twenty fourteen, so this is my second year,
my brother told me about like yeah, he's like, yeah,
people are doing this thing called house hacking, Like they
you know, they live on one side, they rent out
the other with multi families.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
I was like, whatever it does, I wasn't paying any
of mine.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
Later that off season twenty fourteen, I bought my first
investment property.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
I bought a duplex like down the street from my spot. Right.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
I got a rent check for like m'd have been
like twenty one hundred dollars. I was that was the
greatest rent check I've That was the greatest check that
I've ever received. And I became hooked them. And to
be honest, I've just kind of grown and I've learned,
and that's what I would do, like all my off time.
I would just like look up properties and in South
Florida and just look up multi family units and see
(28:18):
what I like, see what I don't like, areas that
I like, areas that I don't like. And I became
familiar with, uh, you know, just things that will rent well.
So I typically try not to go after the you know,
the the really dumpy spot that you can you know,
renovate and do you know add cost to it all
(28:38):
that kind of stuff. I try to just find a
good enough property in a great area, just like anything. Location, location, location,
and just been able to build, you know, build my
portfolio that way. So I to be honest, I haven't
really except for one. I bought all of them while
I was playing. They're all paid for and it just
comes in and I don't really think about it. A
hire a property management company to oversee the data to
(29:00):
day because.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
I don't want I don't want to call about toilets.
Speaker 5 (29:02):
So I don't blame you, dude.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
I got time for that.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
So you know what, they handle that, and you know,
they just you know, we'll talk every once in a
while about you know, hey this happened, Hey, we got
to do this, this and that and yeah, and then
we acquired our first one out of the state in
Colorado and we've actually used that one for ourselves, and yeah,
it's been a lot of fun to really just kind
of build that portfolio.
Speaker 5 (29:25):
That's so cool. I saw in your ig that you
and your wife got baptized together.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Correct, Yeah, day before was this the wedding?
Speaker 5 (29:34):
Sorry no, oh, it was before the wedding.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
Yeah, day before the wedding.
Speaker 4 (29:37):
Yeahh okay, tell me about it because it looked really cold.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
Yeah, so we were so my wife's a flight attendant.
She works for Delta. She's been a flight attendant for
thirteen thirteen years now, and she it was funny we
had this conversation. She says, I've been working. I've been
you know, working professionally longer than you have, like come on,
you know, trying to be late that. So yeah, so
she's been a fight center for Delta for you know,
thirteen years. And so one of the perks with Delta
(30:04):
is that you can fly for free, right, so we
would just hop whatever flight that looks good and stand by, right,
there's nobody on the flight, we would just go.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
So we did.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
We would do like three day, three day trips to
Paris like during no like during OTA's Like if you know,
you get done with practice on Friday, hop on that flight.
You know, da da da, we have Monday off or whatever.
Come back you're good, like you just had, you know,
we did Valentine's Day. We literally just went to Paris
for a dinner, came back. We flew first class and
we had to pay nothing but in international taxi, which
is like one hundred dollars. So I always we've always
(30:37):
enjoyed doing that. Right then there was time, you know,
I spent I enjoyed myself a little bit. I'm not
gonna say I didn't, but I ended up buying a car,
a Porsche and BEF pre Covid. They did this thing
called the European Delivery. Different brands do it and where
you can go to the factory where the car is
built and you could drive your car around the area wherever,
(31:00):
bring it back to them. They'll ship it back to
the US three for free. So we did that. So
we went to Germany. It's too We went to Stuttgart,
picked up the Porsche, drove it to Italy, spent a
week in Italy, and we went we drove to Como.
We stayed in Como, and we had just gotten engaged
that trip, and so the trip was really about the
car and not the engagement.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
But I'm just kidding.
Speaker 5 (31:18):
It's all good.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
So yeah, so, and a long story short, ended up
just deciding on doing having our our wedding there. We
did a fifty person wedding rented out to villas side
by side. Especially paid for everybody for two nights to
be there. A lot of people made trips out of it. Yeah,
it was beautiful, and you know, we obviously got baptized.
(31:43):
The day before the wedding and the day of the wedding,
it was absolutely beautiful. It was like fifty fifties, upper fifties. Yeah,
it was just beautiful, man, And it looked beautiful. Yeah,
it was awesome.
Speaker 5 (31:55):
Yeah yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
So we asked all of our guests this question. Rushmore,
you get four picks of people that have had some
type of a positive influence on you and helped you
become the man you are today.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Outside of family. No, it can be anything, gotcha.
Speaker 5 (32:11):
It could be anything. Anybody.
Speaker 3 (32:13):
This is your personal mount Rushmore. You get four picks. Okay,
if you could put those four people on the mountain,
who would they be.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
Obviously, I'll combine everybody because I got a lot of people.
I'll combine everybody like family wise, like you know, I'll
give my slot, you know, my wife for own slot.
So that's that's one. But my family obviously, like my brother,
my dad, those are two individuals that you know, they
took care of me and my mom passing away when
I was younger.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
That was huge.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
And those are the two individuals that you know, they
they just did things that I just until now I
never really saw. So that's that Chris Carter is one
of those individuals. I played little league football with his son.
He was my coach, and you know he ended up
playing high school ball with his son.
Speaker 5 (32:57):
Like the one that only catches touched down.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
Yeah, that's the one. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, coach called it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
He was an instrumental in my football career for sure,
into just you know, getting to where I am deciding
to go to Saint Thomas, uh, deciding to do this,
deciding to do that. And he helped out our family
quite a bit. And he didn't have to. You know,
he didn't have to. He was still playing at the time,
so he didn't have to do any of that.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Obviously.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
You know, I'm a big faith person, so God obviously,
like he's one of those individuals with you know, ultimate power.
And you know, I've learned to just let everything go
and and and I'm grateful for that.
Speaker 4 (33:36):
Man.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
I'm grateful that I've this retirement journey has been what
it has because I've learned a lot about myself that
I never knew while I was playing. So I got
a team, chaplain. He's now with the Carolina Panthers.
Speaker 6 (33:49):
UH.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
Lamor's Crawford and his family I still you know have
I literally just got off the phone with him. Every
week every Wednesday we do a call at ten am
just to catch up, talk about life. But him and
his family, him and Meg, his wife. They were huge
into my journey to becoming a man. And they were
the ones that baptize us in Incomo. And yeah, their
(34:13):
family means a lot to our family.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
And yeah, so solid pig Man, good job, Geo.
Speaker 5 (34:20):
Appreciate you. I will say this, man, I appreciate you.
Speaker 6 (34:24):
Man.
Speaker 4 (34:25):
A lot of times we talked to some guys and
they talk about the struggle here and the understanding of
this journey in their second chapter. And man, I'll be honest, dude,
you're flourishing. You walk around with a great smile. You
have an amazing attitude. It's infections. God has continued to
bless and shine on you and you you can tell. Yeah,
and I really really love what I see out of you.
(34:47):
This is my first time I've got to meet you personally.
Speaker 5 (34:49):
I've seen you.
Speaker 4 (34:51):
Yeah, I've seen your career for a far and my
boy Trey Boston would always talk about you as well.
Speaker 5 (34:56):
So, uh, dude, Trivion, you keep doing your thing.
Speaker 4 (34:59):
Man, you you were going to continue to crush life.
Speaker 5 (35:01):
Man, you are, You're doing great job.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
I appreciate it. Man, Thank you guys, thanks for having
me on. It's been awesome man, no doubt.
Speaker 5 (35:06):
Man, apologies, we were late. It was listen, I want
to go to casino. Yeah, our driver take us to
the hard rock so that it was a little late.
Speaker 4 (35:20):
So yeah, well we're gonna get out of here. Man
where we should pick up your podcast? That with his
Apple Apple Podcasts are our radio app. Make sure you
continue to give us a like, subscribe, follow, leave a
couple of comments, and you can also check us out
on the NFL pages YouTube channel.
Speaker 3 (35:35):
I'm Peanut, this is Roman, that's Joe, and this is
the NFL Player's second XT podcast.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
We out
There was a hurricane that came and wiped out Augusta
and like power lines were down. I can't remember the
name of it, but they canceled that that Iron Man
Half Iron and then essentially I was like, well, my
wife's going to the hospital next week.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
I really ain't got no all the time. I'm just
gonna go do it myself.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
So I literally did a seventy point three by myself
in South Florida. Uh, it was like September, so it
was probably heated next like one O two, one O
three and just got actually absolutely baked and it was.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Yeah, it was tough.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
What's up everybody, I'll Peanut Tillman and this is the
NFL Player's Second Act podcast and with me, as always
my trusty co host Roman, I smoke the bear harpor.
Speaker 4 (00:48):
Yeah, I don't know, thank you appreciate it. Really looking
forward to this next guest that we have. Man, he's
been in a very entertaining running back in the league
for a long time and now he's doing different things
in his second career. I really want to get into
it and let him dive in share with us exactly
how he's been living out his dream second round running
back in the twenty thirteen NFL Draft. Played ten seasons,
(01:12):
played for the Bengals and the Bucks. Now he's in
the real estate and he is a photographer. Ladies and gentlemen,
please welcome to the pod GF I t but no,
I feel like we got to get like rule applause. Yeah, yeah, because.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
We need to sign and.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Then it's just like like two people clapping, like your
bigger room.
Speaker 4 (01:38):
It's a bigger room this time. Sometimes it gets really loud. Sorry, Geo,
it's just it's all we're going to be working on it. Well,
we'll put that in on YouTube, all right, we'll add
that in.
Speaker 5 (01:49):
Well, welcome to the pod Man. How's life.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Life is good. It's been busy. I could, I could.
I could definitely say that it's been busy.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
And you know a lot of people talk about, you know,
retirement and just so you know how you know, diff
to this, you know, go into that next chapter and
this and that. But to be honest, man, it's been
it's been busy, but it's been so much fun and
it's been so rewarding.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
There's a lot of stuff.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
I mean, I'm sure we'll kind of get into it
a lot, but I've learned a lot a lot about.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Myself, to be honest, and it's just been a lot
of fun.
Speaker 6 (02:17):
Man.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
I really really enjoyed it, and I really appreciate you
guys having me on here.
Speaker 5 (02:21):
Why has it been fun?
Speaker 4 (02:23):
And tell me something interesting that you maybe have learned
about yourself in retirement.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
So in December, my wife and I had twins. I
think when you add two to the already one that
we had, it creates, you know, some some different aspects that.
Speaker 4 (02:37):
I didn't know they were both twins. I thought you
just had like some little babies.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Oh yeah, so we had identical girl twins. They were
born early. It's there's it's a long kind of story,
but at the end of the day, the girls came.
You know, girls came early. They're healthy, they're growing, all
the markers are great. But it was a very rare
type of pregnancy. The type of twins that they were,
they're called mono mono twins. Essentially, they shared the same
(03:02):
sack and the same placenta from the mother, so there
was no real border in between them. So with that
being said, it's a high risk because the umbilical core
can get wrapped around either one of them.
Speaker 5 (03:13):
Gotcha.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
So my wife essentially spent ten weeks bed rest at
the hospital and I was just back with my son
at the time, and uh, just doing the thing.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Yeah, just doing the thing.
Speaker 5 (03:25):
Do you get them confused?
Speaker 1 (03:27):
To be honest, every once in a while, I do.
But we have earrings to distinguish the two. So Kaya
has like little hearts on there, and then Shay she
has like little moons.
Speaker 5 (03:38):
So I a reason I said that.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
I was on my ig was doing some research this
morning and this this feed popped up and it was
parents getting their twins confused, and and it was most
of most of the time it was the dad. Yeah,
the dad couldn't tell who who was.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
To be honest, it really don't matter at this stage,
you know what I mean, Like they really couldn't.
Speaker 5 (03:57):
Tell who who was.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
And then the boys he had there was these older
boys and they started missing with their dad, and it
was like, let's get them, and he did.
Speaker 5 (04:04):
They came out and.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
He goes.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Yeah, and he's cursing, he's looking, He's like, god, dang it, look,
I just need so and so to do to pick
up the trash and so and so do to leave.
Speaker 5 (04:15):
What's somebody and they're like, well, which one is who dad?
Speaker 3 (04:18):
And he's liked guys and they're probably like twelves and
they knew their dad couldn't tell them.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
So yeah, hopefully they can.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
I've already gotten the mixed up that that's that's beside
the part. But as they get older, hopefully I can
find different signs on the both of them that says, Okay,
you were you and you were them and yeah, so
we'll figure it out.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
I just think that's so cool, Like I'd actually never
heard of this mono mono.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Yeah, it's the rarest type of twins, and it's because
it's identical. Fraternal twins can can be hereditary, so you know,
passed down by jeans or all that, but identical twins
or by chance only so pure chance. And we had
the highest risk, lowest percentage of survival type of twins.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
And they're healthy. That's so cool. A blessing. Yeah, I
just had the.
Speaker 5 (05:02):
Blessings health blessing. I want a boy.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
I want a girl.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Bro at the end of the day, because I had
a I had a daughter of some heart complication whatever.
At the end of the day, you just want healthy kids,
yeah or girl.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 5 (05:15):
I want healthy kids.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
I'm sorry, I don't mean interrupt you. But even before then,
last year we had lost one. So we lost his
name was Gabriel, and we lost him at twenty two weeks,
so my wife still had to kind of go through
the entire process. And that was a court accident, so
nothing that we did wrong, So it was just just
how it worked. And and now we got blessed with
(05:37):
two and do it. It's unbelievable this past you know,
really since I retired, what life has kind of been like,
you know, And obviously I learned a lot about myself
when I say that in the sense of you know,
just having I'm big into my faith, just putting full
this let and go of control, because when you're playing,
you try to control everything you kind of you know,
you try to write, but there's some circumstances and some
(05:57):
times where you really just have to let go and
just let God kind of take, you know, take that
wheel and to just drive your life. And really this
past year has kind of been one of those moments
where I just let go and and he blessed us
with two additional you know, Yeah, it's just super thankful
that they're healthy, that they're doing their things, and yeah, yeah,
just super grateful.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
That's probably one of the hardest things though, is when
you when you're dealing with something uh just uh in
a life event, a very serious life event, and.
Speaker 5 (06:27):
You gotta let go for me.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
I know, with my daughter, her her her health situation,
I don't know that nors. She she ended up having
a hard transplant after the whole thing. But you read
since day one, you're young and have faith, have faith,
have face, and you think you have faith until you
actually go through something. Then it's like, oh wow, I
(06:50):
really gotta I know I say it, but now I
really gotta practice it. And it was probably the hardest
thing I had to go through because I didn't have
any control over it. And big, strong, small, tall, physical.
You got money, you can, you think you can, you
can just do what you want to do because you
got money, and this was one of those situations where
you couldn't do nothing, and it's just like I just
(07:13):
gotta pray. Kind of feel a little helpless, but I
just got dropped to my knees start praying give it
to the Lord. It's yeah, I'm just saying I understand
it tests one hundred percent testament, so I know exactly
what you're going through, what you went through.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
So yeah, and to be honest, my wife is she's
really been you know, people talk about the man being
the leader of the family, this and that, but you know,
it's one of those things that how my wife has
handled herself and to really still be the type of
person that she is has blown my mind. You know,
sometimes you don't really see your wife going through struggles
like that, you know, they you know, I'm not gonna
(07:49):
say like things are given to her this kind of stuff,
but you know, we never really had a big, you know,
moment like that as a as a you know, being
in a couple, and when something like that happens, you
have no idea which way it is going to go.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
You can go left and go right. You you don't
really know.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
But for us to have stayed the way that we did,
and for us to learn about each other the way
we did during that process, man, it was just yeah,
it was unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
And I've yeah, she's so.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
If anything, that process would you say it brought you
and your wife closer together.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
One hundred percent?
Speaker 1 (08:20):
And you know, you know, people talk about regrets and
things like man, like, as much as I want Gabriel
to be here with us, I don't think we would
have had the twins if we didn't, And I don't
think my wife and I relationship would be as strong.
Not that not saying that we were you know that
things were happening before, not at all like we were great,
But I think you reach a different level when you
(08:40):
go through a life event like that. Absolutely, you know
what I mean, And you know, yeah, So it's just
kind of one of those things, like I just we
saw a different side of each other and we leaned
on each other, and that's what you want a relationship.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
Right Well, I want to say this, man, it's a
blessing here both you guys sharing that story again personally
from somebody or that has not had to go through
a tragic moment like that for any man. It's just,
you know, it's just what what God has for all
of us for us, and you really don't get to
pick and choose on your own. And so I'm gonna
switch gears a little bit and try and get talk
(09:13):
about a little bit about your career.
Speaker 5 (09:16):
You know, we all have these moments.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
You've talked about a few moments that you shared with
us in your post post retirement career. But I want
to go back to your NFL career. What was your
first welcome to the NFL moment?
Speaker 1 (09:27):
My rookie year, we had Vonte's perfect you know, we
had Raymond Luga, we had Taylor Mays, we had Reggie Nelson,
we had James Harrison was on our team at the time.
We had Carlos and tons of guys on the defensive
side of the ball.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
And when I was.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
In college, you know, you're coming out like you're running back.
Nobody really trying to tackle you. In practice, you know,
they kind of keep it easy whatever, and especially when
you have uppers on right, you just have uppers, no lowers,
and you know.
Speaker 5 (09:53):
And you're also the main man in North Carolina.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Yeah, so nobody say right, everybody off. So it was
just tagging off right. So that's kind of what I expected.
It was like third day, you know, when you can
start putting pads on. So we just did uppers only
that day. And I'll never forget, man, I went through
that line smooth, broke through that, you know, got got
(10:19):
off to the secondary.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Georgia I Loca.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
He's from Boise State, he was uh second year guy
at the time, came up and just put that shoulder right.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
In my chest.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
He was the safety went down, and then it was
just like, Okay, everybody's gonna tag off on g today, right.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
That was early in practice.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Vante has hit me later on in practice, and then
I got hit by somebody else later on in practice.
After practice, Marvin Lewis called everybody up and put his
arms He said, Jill, come here, put his arms around
me in the middle.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Of the huddle. Said this is our guy. We don't
want to hurt him. You know how. You know how
soft I felt.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Bro.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
He took me so much time problem from me by
saying that you could have left me in the back.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Don't even say nothing. Don't bring me up in front
of everybody. I'm a rookie. Oh come on, man, so man.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Ever, since that day, every time I put the helmet on,
as long as we got a helmet on.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
It's full contact to me.
Speaker 5 (11:13):
Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
So I learned a lot from that little moment, but
I'll never forget somebody just bringing somebody up in the
middle of the entirety hard knocks was honest too. So
that was on it too, so and then you put
the arms around me saying, hey man, hey fellas, this
is our guy. We don't want to hurt them, right,
we want to take care of our own. I'm just like, goodness, gracious, man,
(11:35):
don't do that to me. So that was my welcome
to the NFL.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
It was the hardest hit you took practice and practice, Okay,
hardest one, hardest one.
Speaker 5 (11:44):
What about game one?
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Yeah, I don't want to say.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
He was just like, yeah, dad, coach, I don't even
want the ball no more. He got me too good.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Yeah, I mean, I know I had one in uh.
It was a wild card game in twenty fifteen where
Shazier hit me and I was knocked out. But you know,
when you get knoed out, you don't really know what
you don't feel. Not yes, everybody said, I just got
knocked out.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
I woke up.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
I'm cool, right, But as far as like hits like that,
you you know, you kind of have to stumble off
the fields, you know, or they call time out. You
have to they have to come get you. I was
playing against the Colts and it was a swing route
and Vante Davis and I had worked out with him
and you know, obviously all the stuff that has happened.
I've worked out with him down here. He was a
(12:24):
Miami guy and we would work out quite a bit,
and you know, I'm playing against him, so you know,
we met each other before the game that I just
chopping it up whatever. I had a swing route, you know,
a little swing route till left him. It was covered too.
He was just chilling there and he didn't see him.
It is what it is, got me right, and it
was like one of those Reggie busheads, you know.
Speaker 5 (12:43):
Yeah, it was kind of like that. I was that
the same effect was.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
The ground, the roll on the ground. But you know
how it hurt me right.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
So I got up, went to the sidline because it
was definitely they had to come get me. I got
off to the sideline. I came back. It was a
third down play that was on first down, miss second down.
Came back for the third down play, same type of play.
It was more of a checkdown this time sat like
a played route, same type of hit, same location, same person.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
And I was like, come on, man, I just laid there.
I can't do nothing. So that was it.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
So going into this uh wild card game, let's let's go,
let's go back to that. What was what was one
of the memories you take away from that game? Well,
because it was it was a back and forth like.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Yeah, and I think part of it too, is like
we played Pittsburgh later on in the season that year
and it was like a little screen pass to myself
and it got intercepted by somebody and then Andy tried
to make a tackle on that play and mess his
thumb up. So we were hoping that he would be
ready for this wildcard game, but he wasn't. Aj McCarron
(13:53):
had a step in and play and he played well. Right,
We just dropped the ball with how we reacted to
certain situations in the game. It is what it is.
I was knocked out by you know, third quarter, so
I was already out. But you know, it's just that's
part of it, man, Like you know, certain teams that
don't necessarily make it every year, and that was kind
(14:16):
of one of the years where we've had the teams
we've been in the wildcards. We have, we have the
players to do it. It was just we weren't experienced
enough to go deep into the playoffs, or we haven't
had the experience of going deep in the playoffs to
really understand what it takes to win that first wildcard game.
So it is what it is, man, A lot of
people learn a lot of things, and yeah, it's part
(14:38):
of the game.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
When you first got into the league, all right, your
first three years, you go for over a thousand yards
in each year seasons, first three seasons. I mean at
that point, was it NFL easy? Like, how do you
expect the rest of your career to kind of go
after that? I'm sure we're having that much success early.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
I've always been the type of person I've never had
fun playing.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
I was always just like I gotta get it, simple
as that, Like, ain't none to it, especially growing up
down here, Like it's fun to play the game, but
at the end of the day, there's parents, and there's coaches,
there's fans betting known you know, six year olds.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Well, yeah, it's a.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Real thing, right, So for me, it was all about, like,
you got a ball and that's that's it, right. And
so for you know, those first three years that I
was doing my job right, and I and I felt
that I never I never really appreciated doing the job.
I just did it because that was that was second nature,
(15:34):
whether good or bad, what it is, what it.
Speaker 5 (15:36):
Is, you never stop them, no, like now I do.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Now I think about it, I'm like, I was kind
of decent, you know what I mean, right, And to
be honest, like, you know, it was kind of part
of the later career when I spent a couple of
years in Tampa. Some of those memories were some of
my most favorite because I was it was I didn't
care about the yards. I didn't care about the tds
man like, I didn't care about any of that. I
was just I just want to go out and have fun,
(16:00):
play ball, right. And I remember there was a game
against the Dolphins. It was my first year in Tampa,
and I had messed up my knee, got some MCL thing,
and I came back that game, missed one game, came
back that game and my first play was a third
and I don't know, maybe third and six, and you know,
I come in. They expected some you know, some route
from the running back. Right, I ran a choice. It
(16:21):
was in the goal line against Miami, and I was
able to score. And that touchdown was probably my most
favorite touchdown that I've ever had in my entire football career.
And it wasn't because Okay, I scored. It was because
the fact that I missed the game and the fact
that I enjoyed coming back that I just just took
in the moment and then I was just I was
(16:44):
able to earn my spot in a way.
Speaker 5 (16:45):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
It was weird, but I enjoyed that moment and that
was probably one of my most memorable touchdowns.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
To be honest, What was it like being in Cincinnati
and you guys were rolling, like, y'all, you guys are winning,
but you just can't get over that at the Wild
Card That must be terrible.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Yeah, man, it was.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
It was tough, and you know, it's one of those
things like we always had the players to do it
always we we just never understood And I think that
comes from the experience of playing in the in the playoffs, right,
like having that experience, having having some guys that come in,
whether you know, you know, trades, whatever it may be,
some guys that have had that experience to play what
does it take, right, We just didn't. We didn't know
(17:27):
most of the guys that were you know that I
was with those guys that we were all drafted by Cincy.
We were all there, right, So we never just had
that experience, but we always had the you know, the
caliber team to be able to do it. We just,
for whatever reason, lose our cool whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
I want to talk about the timing of your career too,
maybe like when I put it all together, because I
don't think I realized this about you, geo. Was that
so twenty twenty was it your last year with the Bengals?
Speaker 2 (17:53):
Yep?
Speaker 5 (17:54):
And you guys didn't go to the playoffs that year? Now,
reach right, So that was the same year that the
Bucks won the Super Bowl?
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Correct?
Speaker 5 (18:00):
All right?
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Then you go to tell me that.
Speaker 5 (18:06):
You go to the.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
Bucks and twenty twenty one was the first year yep,
and then won the Wild But the Bengals went to
the Super Bowl that year versus the Ram.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
For sure, for sure?
Speaker 5 (18:15):
All right?
Speaker 4 (18:16):
And then all right, but it was the one season
where you played you actually did win a playoff.
Speaker 5 (18:22):
Game, yea.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Yeah, so that was good, yeah for sure?
Speaker 1 (18:24):
And I think if if that game hadn't happened versus
the Eagles, that Wildcard game, because uh, Lenny was like
the main guy, but he wasn't playing that game. So
to be honest, a lot of the guys weren't. But
I think everybody was like, all right, we'll just wait,
because they they knew the type of team that they were,
and they're like, we'll just wait to the second game.
We'll just wait, you know, so we'll just miss this
wildcard game, y'all. Y'all good, Yeah, y'all. Replacements just handled
(18:47):
that real quick. I felt like I had a decent game,
has a couple of you know, a couple of catches,
a couple of carriers, whatever, and we ended up winning
that game. And that was my first playoff win, right,
and since he obviously went to the super Bowl and
did what they did, and yeah, and like it was
weird because I didn't. I didn't really feel like I
(19:08):
missed out. I didn't like I enjoyed my because again
I was telling this, like I enjoyed myself so much
that year because I just took a different approach to
the game, Like my mind was just it was somewhere else.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
And yeah, I just really enjoyed that year.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
And I was able to make some really good friendships
on that team, really good people over there. Yeah, man,
I you know, I've always been the type of person
you make a decision.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
You live with it. It is what it is. Forget
about everything else.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
We're going to take a short break and we'll be
back in a minute. I want to get into the
your second act. Yeah right, so you're done playing football,
You're in the second act, you're in retirement. How did
you get into photography? Yeah, so I will say I've
(19:55):
seen I've seen some of your pictures.
Speaker 4 (19:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Yeah, really don't done much lately with photography.
Speaker 5 (20:02):
Your visit, bro, there's plenty of that.
Speaker 6 (20:05):
But.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
It's so yeah, to be honest, the photography thing kind
of started like way back when, in like twenty sixteen,
I tore my a c on Cincy, and you know,
I was like, I got to get out the house.
You know, I've already done like my rehab whatever, and
you know, I'm done for the day. I don't really
flexing in on meetings, and so I just, you know,
I picked up a camera. That's when Instagram and social
(20:28):
media was kind of you know, just jumping off at
that time.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
And I take photos whatever.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
And my wife, you know, my wife's beautiful and I
love taking photos of her, and so she became, you know,
like my little muse. And I would just take photos
of her, and it was wondering.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
I thought that.
Speaker 6 (20:41):
Was Yeah, yeah, I just figured it was because like
it's the same woman's boot.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
I'm just good.
Speaker 6 (20:57):
I was.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
She's a natural, don't way and stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
So yeah, so she, you know, she she became that person,
and uh, you know, eventually I started just ended up
just doing like, you know, I did the maternity photos,
I did our engagement photos. I did you know, the
kids photos and stuff like that, and it just became fun.
I pick it up every once in a while. I
don't really have the time now, but what I do
have the time for is cycling. Like I've really actually
picked up on cycling and running and just endurance sports.
(21:26):
That's kind of to be honest, I really feel like
that's my second act more.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
So than photography.
Speaker 5 (21:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Get yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
So when I retired from Tampa, it was about we
just had exit meetings and it was like one or
two and I knew I was done. I was like,
I'm done, Like I walked off that field. I was like,
I already know I'm done. So that next day, after
the exit meetings, I got back home, I was like,
I'm gonna go see how far I can run. And
we was in Tampa, close to Bay Shore, and I
was like, I'm just going to see. I ran like
(21:52):
a mile and a half. My back was all tight,
my legs were just oh man, it was brutal, but
there was something in me that said, oh okay, let's
try to get better, right, So I just picked it
up and I just would try to go further and
further and further, and then I would reach a point
that all right, let me see how fast I could
do you know, three four miles or whatever. I would
just do that, and then long story short, I would
(22:13):
just wake up early at five o'clock and I wo
just did that for like a good year. While I
was running down here in South Florida on a one A,
I met this. I ran into this guy. His name's Mike,
and he was an iron man guy, right, he did
you know that swim cycle, brun kind of guy. And
he was like, man, like you rolling like you could?
You could pick it up right? And I'm like, hey,
(22:33):
you know, I used to play ball that. So we
just started chopping. We started running together, and then he
was like he should just get a bike, right, just.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Let's get a get a road bike. All right, I go,
you know, go drop you know a couple.
Speaker 5 (22:44):
Couple.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Yeah, that's start.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Yeah, yeah, I'll go pick up a bike, you know whatever.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Yeah, I would go pick up a bike.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
And then we went you know, I did my own
little thing, and I went thirty miles. Like on the
first day he texted me, I was like, why would
you ever ride your bike thirty Like how'd you feel?
Speaker 2 (22:59):
I was like so fine? And yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
Then it just kind of progressed into this thing of
well you should might as well just try swimming, Like see,
see how you did know how to swim before. No,
I mean, I'm sorry, I knew how to swim, but
like not no lap, got no much nothing in like.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
You're like, yeah, I'm.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
Gonna say, I'm gonna sit right here with my drinking
and yeah, yeah, I'm not going drowned. I'm not.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
I'm gonna be growing.
Speaker 5 (23:24):
Up down here.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
You gotta be I you know, you gotta be an
eye swimmer.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
So so yeah, so I went into you know, a
little swimming hall of Fame in Lauderdale and did like
a you know, a fifty and like, dude, I was
it was it was it was brutal. It was impossible
I was like, people do this for like a mile,
they do this for two miles like crazy. So again,
you know, that mentality just kind of picked up and
just got better at it, and you know, I ended
(23:48):
up hiring a coach because I wanted to do this
seventy point three in Georgia. And this was this was
when I I wanted to do this one specifically because
it was prior to my wife having to go to
the hospital for the twins.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
So I had to do it.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
That was the only date that I had, So I
had like nine weeks to learn how to swim, you know,
really run long distance and then bike and you know
that whole thing. There was a hurricane that came and
wiped out Augusta and like power lines were down. I
can't remember the name of it, but they canceled that
that Iron Man Half Iron and then essentially I was like, well,
I was going to the hospital next week. I really
(24:22):
got all the time, I'm just gonna do it. I'm
just gonna go do it myself. So I literally did
a seventy point three by myself in South Florida. Uh,
it was like September, so it was probably heated. Next
like one O two, one, O three and just got
actually absolutely baked and it was Yeah, it was tough,
but I did.
Speaker 5 (24:40):
So where did you do the swimming at?
Speaker 1 (24:42):
You did the swimm So I did at the Swimming
Hall of Fame and biked my bike there.
Speaker 5 (24:45):
Then you both yep.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
And then once I got back, my wife was like
she would meet me at these little checkpoints and uh,
when I started my run, she would drove next to
me on the golf cart, you know, whether handed me
water or whatever. And then essentially I just ran back
home and yeah, that was it. So that's awesome like that,
that is a lot of people want to do that. No,
not by themselves, iron man, by yourself. Is so I
(25:09):
hold on that you had.
Speaker 5 (25:10):
Your wife there committed.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
Yeah, you know, I mean shut out, shut out the wife.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
You hold them down.
Speaker 5 (25:17):
So good.
Speaker 4 (25:18):
You said something before you talked about your man. I
think it's important. Well I wanted to hear is that
you like I knew I was done?
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (25:25):
Was ten years? Was that always a goal? Because it's nice?
Speaker 4 (25:28):
Yeah, because for me somebody told me, like, you know,
you could play nine ten years, like if you keep
your head on right.
Speaker 5 (25:35):
So for me, it was like, okay, ten years is
what's up?
Speaker 2 (25:38):
Yeah, So like that was just the goal.
Speaker 5 (25:40):
For one ten.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
Yeah, then I get out of it. Like every year
after that was just like a It was like it
was a bonus. Yeah, But ten just sounds.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Yeah, I think, to be honest, I really do feel
ten one ten sounded nice. Like, you know, I didn't.
I didn't want to try to scrap for another two
or whatever.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Maybe't. I didn't want to do that.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
Like I had other passions outside of football that I
really just really wanted to go after, right, And like
I think one of the things that for me growing
up or in the earlier parts of my career, I
was always excited for what life looked like post ball.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
I just was excited about it.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
I understood like I had to do what I had
to do, Like I get all that, but I was
excited for all of the fruits and of all the
stuff that I've done, whether that was pee wee football,
high school, whatever. I was excited to, you know, hopefully
experience that once I retired, and thankfully enough, man, I
got ten out of it, and I was like, I'm cool,
I'm gonna go home, you know what I mean, Like
(26:41):
I'm good and you know, I enjoyed you know, I
enjoyed being around around my people's and my little one
was at the time where I enjoyed like spending the
time with him. I would takehim. He's like my little partner.
I would just take him everywhere. Right, So just truly
enjoyed that that and it wasn't it really wasn't a
hard decision for me at all.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Like I was like, I'm good.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
So I know you're into real estate. I've dabbled into
it a little bit, but I just it doesn't interest me.
It's kind of slow and I don't want to say boring,
it just doesn't Yeah, I like the end result, Like I.
Speaker 5 (27:15):
Can go in, I see the house, but I don't
have that vision.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
I can't be like, oh, you know, we can tear
this out and knock a wall down. Are you a
guy that does that? Because I know you're in real
estate now, right, Yeah. Yeah, you knew everything from the
rehab from start to finish.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Essentially the way I've kind of thought of it. I
remember in twenty fourteen, so this is my second year,
my brother told me about like yeah, he's like, yeah,
people are doing this thing called house hacking, Like they
you know, they live on one side, they rent out
the other with multi families.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
I was like, whatever it does, I wasn't paying any
of mine.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
Later that off season twenty fourteen, I bought my first
investment property.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
I bought a duplex like down the street from my spot. Right.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
I got a rent check for like m'd have been
like twenty one hundred dollars. I was that was the
greatest rent check I've That was the greatest check that
I've ever received. And I became hooked them. And to
be honest, I've just kind of grown and I've learned,
and that's what I would do, like all my off time.
I would just like look up properties and in South
Florida and just look up multi family units and see
(28:18):
what I like, see what I don't like, areas that
I like, areas that I don't like. And I became
familiar with, uh, you know, just things that will rent well.
So I typically try not to go after the you know,
the the really dumpy spot that you can you know,
renovate and do you know add cost to it all
(28:38):
that kind of stuff. I try to just find a
good enough property in a great area, just like anything. Location, location, location,
and just been able to build, you know, build my
portfolio that way. So I to be honest, I haven't
really except for one. I bought all of them while
I was playing. They're all paid for and it just
comes in and I don't really think about it. A
hire a property management company to oversee the data to
(29:00):
day because.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
I don't want I don't want to call about toilets.
Speaker 5 (29:02):
So I don't blame you, dude.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
I got time for that.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
So you know what, they handle that, and you know,
they just you know, we'll talk every once in a
while about you know, hey this happened, Hey, we got
to do this, this and that and yeah, and then
we acquired our first one out of the state in
Colorado and we've actually used that one for ourselves, and yeah,
it's been a lot of fun to really just kind
of build that portfolio.
Speaker 5 (29:25):
That's so cool. I saw in your ig that you
and your wife got baptized together.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Correct, Yeah, day before was this the wedding?
Speaker 5 (29:34):
Sorry no, oh, it was before the wedding.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
Yeah, day before the wedding.
Speaker 4 (29:37):
Yeahh okay, tell me about it because it looked really cold.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
Yeah, so we were so my wife's a flight attendant.
She works for Delta. She's been a flight attendant for
thirteen thirteen years now, and she it was funny we
had this conversation. She says, I've been working. I've been
you know, working professionally longer than you have, like come on,
you know, trying to be late that. So yeah, so
she's been a fight center for Delta for you know,
thirteen years. And so one of the perks with Delta
(30:04):
is that you can fly for free, right, so we
would just hop whatever flight that looks good and stand by, right,
there's nobody on the flight, we would just go.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
So we did.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
We would do like three day, three day trips to
Paris like during no like during OTA's Like if you know,
you get done with practice on Friday, hop on that flight.
You know, da da da, we have Monday off or whatever.
Come back you're good, like you just had, you know,
we did Valentine's Day. We literally just went to Paris
for a dinner, came back. We flew first class and
we had to pay nothing but in international taxi, which
is like one hundred dollars. So I always we've always
(30:37):
enjoyed doing that. Right then there was time, you know,
I spent I enjoyed myself a little bit. I'm not
gonna say I didn't, but I ended up buying a car,
a Porsche and BEF pre Covid. They did this thing
called the European Delivery. Different brands do it and where
you can go to the factory where the car is
built and you could drive your car around the area wherever,
(31:00):
bring it back to them. They'll ship it back to
the US three for free. So we did that. So
we went to Germany. It's too We went to Stuttgart,
picked up the Porsche, drove it to Italy, spent a
week in Italy, and we went we drove to Como.
We stayed in Como, and we had just gotten engaged
that trip, and so the trip was really about the
car and not the engagement.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
But I'm just kidding.
Speaker 5 (31:18):
It's all good.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
So yeah, so, and a long story short, ended up
just deciding on doing having our our wedding there. We
did a fifty person wedding rented out to villas side
by side. Especially paid for everybody for two nights to
be there. A lot of people made trips out of it. Yeah,
it was beautiful, and you know, we obviously got baptized.
(31:43):
The day before the wedding and the day of the wedding,
it was absolutely beautiful. It was like fifty fifties, upper fifties. Yeah,
it was just beautiful, man, And it looked beautiful. Yeah,
it was awesome.
Speaker 5 (31:55):
Yeah yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
So we asked all of our guests this question. Rushmore,
you get four picks of people that have had some
type of a positive influence on you and helped you
become the man you are today.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Outside of family. No, it can be anything, gotcha.
Speaker 5 (32:11):
It could be anything. Anybody.
Speaker 3 (32:13):
This is your personal mount Rushmore. You get four picks. Okay,
if you could put those four people on the mountain,
who would they be.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
Obviously, I'll combine everybody because I got a lot of people.
I'll combine everybody like family wise, like you know, I'll
give my slot, you know, my wife for own slot.
So that's that's one. But my family obviously, like my brother,
my dad, those are two individuals that you know, they
took care of me and my mom passing away when
I was younger.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
That was huge.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
And those are the two individuals that you know, they
they just did things that I just until now I
never really saw. So that's that Chris Carter is one
of those individuals. I played little league football with his son.
He was my coach, and you know he ended up
playing high school ball with his son.
Speaker 5 (32:57):
Like the one that only catches touched down.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
Yeah, that's the one. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, coach called it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
He was an instrumental in my football career for sure,
into just you know, getting to where I am deciding
to go to Saint Thomas, uh, deciding to do this,
deciding to do that. And he helped out our family
quite a bit. And he didn't have to. You know,
he didn't have to. He was still playing at the time,
so he didn't have to do any of that.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Obviously.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
You know, I'm a big faith person, so God obviously,
like he's one of those individuals with you know, ultimate power.
And you know, I've learned to just let everything go
and and and I'm grateful for that.
Speaker 4 (33:36):
Man.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
I'm grateful that I've this retirement journey has been what
it has because I've learned a lot about myself that
I never knew while I was playing. So I got
a team, chaplain. He's now with the Carolina Panthers.
Speaker 6 (33:49):
UH.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
Lamor's Crawford and his family I still you know have
I literally just got off the phone with him. Every
week every Wednesday we do a call at ten am
just to catch up, talk about life. But him and
his family, him and Meg, his wife. They were huge
into my journey to becoming a man. And they were
the ones that baptize us in Incomo. And yeah, their
(34:13):
family means a lot to our family.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
And yeah, so solid pig Man, good job, Geo.
Speaker 5 (34:20):
Appreciate you. I will say this, man, I appreciate you.
Speaker 6 (34:24):
Man.
Speaker 4 (34:25):
A lot of times we talked to some guys and
they talk about the struggle here and the understanding of
this journey in their second chapter. And man, I'll be honest, dude,
you're flourishing. You walk around with a great smile. You
have an amazing attitude. It's infections. God has continued to
bless and shine on you and you you can tell. Yeah,
and I really really love what I see out of you.
(34:47):
This is my first time I've got to meet you personally.
Speaker 5 (34:49):
I've seen you.
Speaker 4 (34:51):
Yeah, I've seen your career for a far and my
boy Trey Boston would always talk about you as well.
Speaker 5 (34:56):
So, uh, dude, Trivion, you keep doing your thing.
Speaker 4 (34:59):
Man, you you were going to continue to crush life.
Speaker 5 (35:01):
Man, you are, You're doing great job.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
I appreciate it. Man, Thank you guys, thanks for having
me on. It's been awesome man, no doubt.
Speaker 5 (35:06):
Man, apologies, we were late. It was listen, I want
to go to casino. Yeah, our driver take us to
the hard rock so that it was a little late.
Speaker 4 (35:20):
So yeah, well we're gonna get out of here. Man
where we should pick up your podcast? That with his
Apple Apple Podcasts are our radio app. Make sure you
continue to give us a like, subscribe, follow, leave a
couple of comments, and you can also check us out
on the NFL pages YouTube channel.
Speaker 3 (35:35):
I'm Peanut, this is Roman, that's Joe, and this is
the NFL Player's second XT podcast.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
We out
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.