In the latest NFL Players: Second Acts podcast, Peanut Tillman and Roman Harper are joined by former Pro Bowl defensive end Adewale Ogunleye. Adewale and Peanut discuss playing together on the Chicago Bears and reminisce on playing in Super Bowl XLI against the Indianapolis Colts. Adewale also explains how he learned to manage his money after getting a big contract and why he moved into wealth management at UBS after he retired. Peanut also shares the story of how he “saved” Adewale’s life.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
One play, I think I try to punch him in
the nuts play and I think I think, okay, be honest, honest, honestly,
I just I'm just want to make sure the league
doesn't have to go and you go back in there
find me. I punsed him in the nuts. But as
(00:21):
I do that, the pile starts piling up on top
of me and in my hands. So two players like,
oh really, and then he starts giving me the business
and I.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Head like this whole time, like man.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
And thank god, I didn't know who saved me. Thank
god somebody just comes out like Superman and just hits
him off me.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
No, I'm still under the pile.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
I'm still under the pile, so I can't even help
be nut because people are still on top of me.
Whoever I had me trapped, I'm trapped. So that's the story. Peanut.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
I don't think I ever thank you for.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Them, sir. You did not any on camera, so I
appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Please hope you don't like have video footage of this,
But I was trapped and you saved me, and that
and that's what happened.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
So thank you. What's up? Joab Peanut Tooman and this
is the NFL Player's Second Acts podcast and with me
as always as my trustee co host Roman. I'm Roman Heart.
I'm filling his little outfit to day. Bruh, what are
his little pineapples? They're not pineapples at all. But I
(01:41):
appreciate that. It is actually President's Cup shirt I got
from when I was in Charlotte when the President's Cup
is there. So tell us who our guest is. As
a former teammate of yours, it's a former team know
each other very well. Eleven year vet, two thousand and
three pro bowler. He is the head of sports and
Entertainment at UBS Financial Services. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome
(02:02):
to the pot. Wow, I did that? What he did?
Speaker 1 (02:15):
I've known him now for a long time, so I
would have been a little hurt if he didn't get
it right.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
And every day we had everything it just says. I
was just like, no, you gotta pronounce like get that man.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Is we give my my name gives people stress, It
does the heart palpitations, and we'll go over so many times.
Just just be confident it.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Man, what's the worst pronunciations you've pronunciation you've ever heard?
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Still people say out of is okay, but it's a
goon delay, Like where is the d in them? My
last is a goon delay? And still to this day
people get it.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
And uh.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
I have a lot of Italian friends in New York
City where I grew up, and a lot of them
just call me Wally. So that's still so Wally and
delay is two of my pet peeves.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Like, hey, hey, Wally, has anybody ever called you chuck?
Only my dad? I don't let anybody else call me
nut though, yeah, which I thought was weird when when
Steve Wilkes, when I first met Peanut, well he first
came team and he's like, man, just call him nut,
Like I don't like calling another dude nut.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Yeah, But then eventually everybody says it so much it
just kind of but it fits.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Who he is.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Though he is quite crazy, he is his serious as
you though. Yeah, I'm what I need to be one.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
I need to be it. I think when we first met,
I think when you came to Chicago was at four
for forst year. Ye when you came to Chicago. We're
a bunch of jokesters. Wile a very serious And what
I mean by that is like when you get Wally
stressed out, and when he gets stressed out, I can
(03:57):
only imagine if I were to talk to your wife
or your kids, he does this.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Yeah yeah that or now was the she can see
the my jaws like I'm just like binding it out.
Like but yeah, with the kids, you can't be as
demonstrative because even my daughter, she's like she looks at
everything I do, and if I even look at her crazy,
it's like I see waterworks coming. So I'm like, man, like,
(04:26):
I can't be that crazy football player.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
I gotta be. That's like my favorite thing about you,
Like your body language is like what are you doing
the full hand slap?
Speaker 1 (04:38):
You don't care though, Like you you run through all
signs like yellow stop sign. You're running through it like
I'll give you a warning, like not I'm at my
wits end. You're running right through that like you don't care.
So that's why I enjoyed, you know, even playing with
you and the guys in the Bears, bunch of jokesters.
When I left Miami, I actually was down because our
(05:02):
locker room was really we had a really good locker room.
And I was left Miami and I got traded, but
then I got to Chicago and that atmosphere just was
through the roof.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
So the best.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Uh. I know, my Miami Dolphin fans are going to
be mad and my former players are going to be
mad at I say this, But the Bear's locker room
was probably the best place I've ever walked through. It
was just a bunch of jokesters. But when it came
time to suit it up on Sunday, man, we uh
we kicked ass.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
So it was good stuff. Do you think it was
the best locker room because you won more like like
because that usually matters ultimately, because you had some great
years in Miami as well.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Yeah, you know what I think. Ultimately in Miami I
was still I was like the young pup I had.
I was grinding. I had something to prove. So it
was a little less fun for me because I was
I was trying to get that big contract. I think
in Chicago, not only that we were winning, I had
(05:59):
money in the right. So now I'm like, I'm enjoying
a little bit more, right, So.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Let's talk about that. So you signed the six year,
thirty three million dollars, which at the time was listen.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
At the time, it was the biggest unrestricted free agent
contract that the NFL's ever had. Wow, so absolutely like
it was a lot of money back then. Now you're
seeing what these guys are signing now, Yeah, that's not
even a signing bonus anymore.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
I mean not at all. I would and I asked
that because Peanut, when big money shows up right to
Chicago now because you got they traded for him now
because you big money, all right, that's what That's how
they call it. What did Wile bring to the Bears
locker room that was already very jokes or you guys
are very much so, very great and together, especially on
(06:46):
the defense side, bringing in a more serious guy with
big pockets like wil A, what was that marriage like
when you guys all got together. He brought a pass
rush that we were somewhat missing. I mean, we had
Alex Bryant, we had a good D line, and I
think he made our D line better, you know. I
think he complimented Alex Brown lining up opposite of him,
and uh what he was able to do fresh off
(07:10):
of a Pro Bowl. So he he was hot, he
has some juice left in the tank, and we went
out and had some really good defenses. Early when he
first got there because I was coaching his first year,
oh four, So he got there the first year. We
were trying to figure out who we were as a defense,
trying to learn this new system, and we really were
the Saint Louis Bears because everything that the Rams have
(07:30):
been doing, that's literally that whole year we had only
watched film on the Rams. They I remember a really
good story. I actually saved his life. Oh my god,
there we go with this. Wait, wait before you go
into that, Before.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
You go into that, because I knew you're gonna talk
about this part. Let me tell me first, tell you
what I think. Let me say what I think I brought.
And okay, thanks before saving my life because I get
a call on this like once every three months that
Peanuts told somebody the story that he saved my life.
You're gonna want to hear about it. But I think
from a competitive standpoint, like a guy like with Alex,
like he and me like it wasn't something we've written
(08:09):
down or even vocalized, but there was a competitiveness that
between us, like who was going to be the better
defensive end every single practice, every single game. And I
think I brought that, and I actually probably I feel
like both of us were each other's battery in each
other's back, So that was great. And then also too,
I think for the younger guys, like knowing that I
had cornerbacks like you know, Peanut and Nate Vasher, who
(08:33):
if I could just do a little just a little
bit better and get them the ball out earlier, they
were going to make things happen. So for me, I
think ultimately I brought a steady hand, but more importantly,
I think the competitive busness of how to play a
great defense because I had come from a defense that
we had, you know, Jason Taylor, Zach Thomas, Tim Bowen,
(08:55):
Patrick Surtain, Sam Madison, Brock, Marion Junior say Ah, So
I played with some future Hall of famers, and I
was able to bring what I saw, how they worked,
how serious they brought to they brought their game to
practice every single practice and.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Then in the games.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
And for me, adding that with the ability to lock
in when we needed to lock in, but also have
fun with it, for me, I think was a great opportunity.
So when I did leave Miami, I was down a bit,
but seeing how great the city was, seeing how great
I was going to be on a team that had
now future Hall of famers. Also on my defense that
(09:35):
we have hopefully we'll get Peanut in there one of
these days. But having a team that has future Hall
of Famers, young healthy individuals, and then have a head
coach that trying to prove something too, having love he
was really really great, like he knew each person's strength
and one point he put us in a position to win.
(09:55):
So for me, I was able to just kind of
bring a steady hand to what we were doing. Addition
to know they did help me kind of like calm
down a bit like that was too you know, I
you know, I had to stick up my butt the
whole time I was there because I felt less pressure
on me. And Chicago media is not it's not a
great place.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
To be agree Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
If you're not, if you're not contributing, Chicago media will
jump down your throat, right, So for me, there was
a lot of pressure. I had that big contract you
had said earlier, I mean at more importantly my own
desire to make the mccaskey's and Lovey and who was
our GM, Jerry Angelo, just make them happy for bringing
(10:36):
me to Chicago so I was excited about that.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Do you think you always have this certain chip on
your shoulder when you're when you're you're undrafted, or you're
you know, you come from Indiana University Indiana, Like.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
I think a chip for me starts even like further,
like one of my parents are immigrants. When that's you know,
you're behind they're trying to find the American dream. You
have this crazy last name that nobody can pronounce again
now and you still feel like an outsider every time
from the first grade. My my first grade teachers like
they can't do it, so all the way through, you know.
(11:12):
And I think football was actually the first time where
I was able to kind of like force people to
say my name right. Like I was actually like, no,
I'm actually a good player. What great was this? This
is probably not probably until I got to college. Like
once I started being good in college, I could tell
people like, it's not Wally, it's Wale, and it's not
(11:35):
you know, it's not oh goun today it's Ogunley.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
So I think for me having my success was great,
but every step of the way, it was like I
got to make my last name. I want people to
say it the right way. I wanted to make sure
I make my parents, my parents proud, and I want
to continue to be successful, knowing that my parents came
all the way from Nigeria to be here, and I
wanted to find a way. Whether it's not because they
(12:01):
really wanted to be a doctor or a lawyer, but
I wanted to make sure I was going to be
successful and everything I did so that chip never leaves
even to today. And then absolually, you coming into the
NFL and you know you're getting undrafted, knowing the headwinds
that come from an undrafted free agent, the politics you
gotta fight through, having somebody drafted in your position every
(12:23):
single year, having coaches that probably don't believe in you
every single year. You have to prove yourself every single year.
So I went into camp every year thinking, I got
to prove myself that I deserve to be on a
fifty three man roster, even when I was a starter,
even when I got the big contract, I got to
deserve a spot on the defense, I got to earn
a starting spot, and I got to deserve or earn
(12:45):
a way to be a captain. Right, So those are
kind of things that I always kept that chip on
my shoulder and I use that like every day throughout
my life.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Now, I definitely think it showed, uh, you was always
a good teammate, always a good captain. I know we
haven't been here since Super Bowl forty one, right, it's
a long long time ago, February of seven. What's one
thing that you remember about that game? It's two things,
(13:13):
I think, well three things.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
The first one is obviously when Devin returned the kick
to begin the game and give us a seven zero spot.
There's no way you give our defense a spot like
that and we lose the game. So there's no way
I thought we were gonna lose the game. Number two,
I think watching the Giants win the next year and
seeing that how their D line dominated Tom Brady in
(13:37):
the Super Bowl. I thought then to myself, like we
should have did more against Peyton, Like I wish I
would have gotten to them a little bit more. So
watching you know, you know those Super Bowls that come
after us, I just keep looking at the D line
play and I can't even enjoy Super Bowl today, like
because of that loss.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
I can't do it.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
And I always start to look at internally, like what
could we have done? As a D line to make
life a little bit more hectic for Payton. I forgot though.
We played like what seventy plays in the Super I mean,
we gave that guy seventy snaps and no knock to offense.
But you know, Thomas Jones was was killing and we
(14:15):
made some mistakes at the end of the day, and
we still had an opportunity to win despite all of
that against the great Payton Manning. So I think about
Devin has to return that kick. I do think that
at the end of the day, I wish we would
as a D line would have done a little bit better,
just just the nature and me. And then lastly, I
have you know, at the end of that game, we
got all our equipment, and I took my equipment back
(14:37):
home and I still have it in my garage, and
I don't know, maybe a couple of years ago. I
opened it up and inside the bag it's like blue
and white confetti. Yeah, zip it back up again. I'm
not I want to see what's in there. I know
my pads are in there. When I saw the white
(14:59):
and blue confetti, I said, damn God, you don't love me, man,
I mean, geez, I mean so I went and opened
up and show my kids. But it's still in there.
So hopefully when I'm gone long time from now, they'll
open it up and see this day. Like I was,
I still have yet to watch that game all the
way through me because it is that bad.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
I can't. I actually watched it. I was not in
the league. What year was that that was?
Speaker 1 (15:22):
It was seven?
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Yes, I was, so I just got it. Yeah that
is true, but I was. Yeah, but I watched that game.
I was a little key rooting for you guys, and
thank you. I mean, it was raining, it wasn't pretty.
Your offensive really just kind of been what they have
been the last part of the season and so like.
(15:43):
But for you personally, knowing that you started your career
in Miami like that had to be special for you.
It was, and for that ending heartbreak like that, it
clearly is. It's still.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Yeah, that was rough because the locker room we used
was our home locker room. So I felt like this
is like this is going to be a perfect ending. Yes,
And we actually, me and Thomas Jones had a deal
that if we won the game, we were going to
go on Oprah that next day, right, So I wasn't
married yet, So I was like, oh, man, dude.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
I'm about to be all of them, every last one
of them.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
And I think because Oprah had a bet with like
David Letterman, he was a big coach fan, and I
was like, man, you know, forget Dave Letterman. I'm might
to be about to do this thing. Me and Thomas
going to be on Oprah and I'm about to have
everything I want in life. And it didn't go out
that way, so it was a bittersweet. I saw a
video of the moment when Devin returned that kick and
(16:40):
like the whole like neighborhoods were erupting. So I feel
like we let so many people down. And to be
honest with you, like I wanted to have what the
eighty five beers had, like when I got to Chicago.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
When I got to Chicago, I get it.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
I go to a sign I go to an autograph
signing and and you know, I'm the new kid on
the block. You know, I just got off a Pro
Bowl and nobody who was at my autograph signing and like, oh,
there's an eighty five beer signing line not too long,
not too far from me.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
I was like, that's where everybody was.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
So my mind is like, we got to get to
where we got our own ring, and we can have
our own legacy, and we can unsee if we could
the eighty five Bears, and so that's why, you know,
those guys still running around like kings of the castle.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
So we kind of low key was just joking a
little bit earlier today about how the eighty five Bears
was probably wishing we lost that game, probably because they
was like, yes, it's still going. You know what, we
still we're still the old kids on the block. I hope,
you know what. I don't think that. Maybe not because
at the end of the.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Day, like the way I think of it is, we
got ours, I get jaws, like it's hopefully it's one family.
But but but because they are treated as gods in Chicago,
I can see that, Like you don't want to share
that spotlight.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
I'm telling you, I have a former teammate of mine.
I'm not gonna call his name out, but he knows
who he is. He he weighs over three hundred and
something pounds. So you guys pick it out from the
Saints Super Bowl. We were all there at the Rams
Saints game in New Orleans where it looked like past inference,
where everybody thought it was passing inference and they didn't
call it. I had a guy that I was like, yes,
(18:18):
can only be one, because he's like, the moment somebody
else wins it, yours just doesn't have as much as
steam and the team is not in the upper lore
that it is. If you're the city that only has
one Super Bowl and you happen to be on that team,
you kind of can just say your way forever.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
That's like the seventy two Dolphins, right, I mean they're
over there popa champagne every year, every single time.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Still so all right, So you signed a six year
contract for thirty three mil lars just large amount of
money back in that time still today. What was one
of the first splurges you bought?
Speaker 1 (18:55):
First splurges that I bought, which I'm not proud of.
I bought a baby Blue Bentley. I was hoping he
said that it was clean. Oh it was what God
was it? It was a GT Continental Yeah. I mean
he had nobody ride with him, Nah, just me. I
didn't want to put tent on it. I want people
to see inside and see who it was.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
But the probacy, not that I not that I'm in
the financial world, not only the fact there was it
was a dumb purchase. The car costs more than the
house I was living in in Miami at the time,
and so I pulled this baby blue Bentley into a
garage where the house was actually worth less than the car. Okay,
(19:36):
priorities were messed up, but I got baited into buying
it because I walk into the dealership and deal looks
at me and goes something like he doesn't say specifically
you can't afford this, but it's like I don't. I
don't think you know what this price is. And I
(19:57):
was like, oh, okay. So I called my my person
and I say, hey, that's how much this car? Can
I Can I get it right now? He said you could?
I said would I Would I be going broke if
I did it? He said, no, you wouldn't, but if
you want to get it, get it.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
And my stupid but.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Bought a cash cash from the dealer that was insulting me,
just to prove to him that I could buy a
cash So if I was if I had to do
it all over again, I would still buy the car,
just from somebody with us from another dealer, because that's
where I think one of my my my that was
my first splurge. And since then though, I've been super conservative,
(20:37):
Like I just felt like I had to get that
that itch off of me and take care of my family.
And actually I've saved pretty much most of it, and
uh and I'm proud of that. But at the end
of the day, I had to have that one splurge
and that's that Bentley.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Yeah, yeah, don't don't be too conservative. It's okay. You're
talking about family here. What was it like to be
able to possibly tell your mom and your dad, you
know what, you're good?
Speaker 1 (21:03):
I got the benefit of my parents knew nothing about
American sports, so I didn't have the dad that was like,
you got to do this for us. They really wanted
me to just have a good education. So for me,
the people who actually told my parents were their coworkers, like,
why are you still working? I just saw in the
(21:24):
New York Times just son just signed this contract. And
my parents, you know, their hard workers. Both got their
master's degrees. And I appreciate their approach to life because
they really didn't it got you know, they didn't care
they had busted their tail enough. They had already purchased
their first house, probably when I was in college. They
had reached in their mind what their American dream was
(21:44):
going to be middle aged Americans, which you know, by
working two or three jobs and then me being able
to pay for college at Indiana. That was where I
thought it was going to be my peak. I'm going
to leave college without any debt. My parents were still
paying off their student loans, but for me to even
the ena without debt was going to be in my peak. Obviously,
God had other plans. So when I told my parents, Mom,
(22:06):
I hear what you're saying, but do me a favor.
Just give me like four or five more years. Now,
remember what I just said. I just signed this big
thirty something million dollar contract, So give me four or
five more years. Let me stack the money because obviously
nothing's guaranteed except that signing bonus. Okay, so you see
(22:28):
thirty something million, but that's not what it means. And
even if I get the whole something million, it's actually
like eight right at the tax. So let's let's wait.
What I'll do for you, though, is I'll take care
of all of your bills so I won't buy you
a house, shed, I won't buy you a car yet.
I know I promised you I was going to buy
you that house, but if you be paid forent me.
From what I understand about my finances, let us stack
(22:50):
a little bit and then I'll buy you the house
and take care of you. So for the next five years,
even when I was with the Bears, my parents were
still working and they didn't have any wants, any needs
anymore because I was taking all their bills, but they
were allowing my money to stack so every so I
played out the six years, so I got all my money.
And the funny thing about it is when I actually
(23:12):
finally bought them my house, I paid cash for it.
I looked at my bank statement and I didn't see
a change in my account. So I called my financial advice.
I was like, yo, that check was supposed to go
out for the house of my mom, for my parents' house.
He said it did go out. So but the problem
(23:33):
is I was making so much money off of my
investments and the money that I was doing, I didn't
see a difference. So that's why I'm super proud that
my parents warn't those you've got to do this for me,
And I know that's probably going to go into something
else we're going to talk about later, but I do
feel like in our communities, if we have a little
bit more patience when it comes to our money and
(23:54):
let it stack and let the money move forward instead
of moving backwards, we have more power with our cash.
And that's kind of my my example on how how
I lived my life is like, let's do things the
right way. Let's be patient, especially with these college kids
now with Nils. Like when we had college, we had
pizza and ramen noodles and we were and it was
(24:17):
the best time of our life. Yeah, why do we
have to start jumping into you know, champagne and waggle
beef the next day out of college. So my thing is,
you know, being patient with it, and I think it
it really boded well for me. But again, not everyone
has parents like myself.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Who taught you that. Though at some point somewhere someone
had to teach you, or you had or something went
off in your head was like wait, I gotta save this,
I gotta spend this. Yeah, I could retire my mom
and dad right now, but I could probably be in
a better position if I do it four or five
years from now. So like, did you have a coach,
was it a financial guy? Was it just your own
(24:56):
just afraid, just afraid to lose it?
Speaker 1 (25:00):
You know? And I think a lot of times people
like say, you're losing money because inflation, you're not investing it.
I say, like, actually, those years that I was just
keeping it in savings, I was learning. But the truth
of the matter is when you come from a place
where it was like six people in the two bedroom
(25:21):
apartment in New York City, you ain't trying to go
back to that. So you're super afraid of losing it.
And then when you speak to financial advisors, they're talking
to you in like German or Chinese, like it's not
even making sense. What are you talking about? Like liquidation
and equity and basis points something? What does that all mean?
(25:43):
So I was actually super scared, so I just saved
all my money. It winds up being the thing that
actually saved me because you saw a lot of I'm
sure you guys know too, a lot of our teammates
as soon as they got that cash, they spent it.
They had to buy mama house hopefully parents were married.
If not, then I gotta buy two houses. You got
two cars for a mom and dad. So I was
(26:05):
super lucky in a sense that my fair keep me
from making big mistakes. I mean, then two, I had
parents that were super patient with me when it came
to my money.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
We're gonna take a short break and we'll be right back.
I want to ask you about this white paper idea
that you got going on at UBS right to coming
through it. Amongst those who experienced a meaningful and second
careers is a stead fast belief that the same drive,
(26:34):
ambition and hard work that's propelled them and to start them.
Is that kind of where you are right now within
your second act being the director of Sports and Entertainment AUBS.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Yeah, man, I think I think a lot of the
things that we've learned in sports, especially in football, is
some of the best characteristics and strengths to help us
propel in corporate America. We understand teamwork extremely well. We
are we actually long for I want to say criticism,
(27:11):
but we do long for correction, coachable, right, and we're
able to like have two tracks of my team's success
and my personal success and they don't conflict, right, We're
able to do it at the same at the same time,
and I think people in society have a hard time
(27:32):
of finding that balance between I want to be successful,
but I also want to do it what's best for
everybody else. Think football players and team you know, orientated
sports and people are successful in that. I actually can
go into corporate America and do that easy. Right, my
my line manager correcting my behavior or telling me that
(27:53):
I need to do something a little bit better, I'm like, oh, thanks,
I appreciate that because we come from a space where
if coach stops talking to you, giving up on you.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Right, So.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
My thought process is, let's continue to pour into athletes.
Too many times, I think in the financial industry, they
look at you, They look at you and your family
as a transaction. How much money do you have, how
much money we're gonna make off of you? And we
don't talk about a legacy, like what are we going
(28:24):
to do for our communities, for our families, what are
we gonna leave behind? And that's kind of what my
role at UBS is is like, let me connect the dots.
Let's move away from this transactional state that we've always been.
Let's get away from the headlines where you see you know,
athletes losing hundreds of millions of dollars don't have to
say any names, but it happens. And let's start looking at,
(28:46):
you know, the wins and people who are good men,
who are upstanding citizens, people who are upstending wives and
good women, and who want to do best for their communities.
And I really feel like it's our obligation at ubs.
Some ubs manages almost six trillion dollars of assets, six
with a te So I really feel like there's an
(29:08):
obligation for people who have been given so much to
teach and to help build legacies in some of the
places where we haven't had the best guidance. And I
think athletes sometimes, because of who we are and we're
focused on winning that championship, we get taken advantage of.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
You know, I'm just sitting here listening to you eloquently
kind of talk about how how like athletes themselves because
we're on we're such good teammates naturally, right, because we
grew up in this what's best for the team mode,
but then we know how to put our own personal
goals within that team goals. We're all going the same way.
It's almost like driving on the interstate and sometime in
the HOV lane and sometimes I'm outside of it, but
(29:47):
we're all still going in the same way. Okay, I
like you that. I appreciate that. Do you know what
HOV stands for? I do you know? I don't know?
Occupancy vehicle vehicle like people in it. Yeah, it's more
than like I can't say that worshiper fast occupancy vehicles.
I might have jacked up, but it's occupancy. Okay. So, like,
(30:11):
what are the things that you try and say, you
know what, like I know for me, like you try
and because you said, like when these financial guys would
be talking to you, it sounded like Chinese German, it
was another language, you know, instead of just sometimes compounding
interest is your best friend, you know, Like that's simple.
You can take it as a bullet point that takes
(30:33):
you all the way. So take a compounding interest is
your best friend, you know what I mean, it's the
it's the jewel to it, absolutely so.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
And that's and that's why it's it's about you know,
being patient, and I think too, like you said, like
we've got to find a way, especially the financial institutions,
to talk to people in the language they understand, like
meet them where they are. It's not about like dumbing
it down, because that's not like some of our teammates.
(31:05):
Some of us are some of the smartest, hardest working,
creative individuals. You'll see a lot of athletes like look
at you two, Like you guys put your mind to
you know, moving in another direction and you're killing it, right,
that's not by accident. You guys are born with something.
And I think a lot of athletes that are successful
(31:26):
on the field or on a pitch, on a baseball diamond,
on the court, they have something in them that no
matter what feel they're in, they're going to be successful.
So for us in the financial industry, why not make
it easier? Why make it complicated? And why are you
doing that? That's that's another thing. Why are you making
this hard for the regular person to understand what you're
(31:49):
talking about?
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Right?
Speaker 1 (31:50):
Like as simple as you said compounding interests? Like why
is that my best friend?
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Right? Why does it?
Speaker 1 (31:55):
If I invest and I'm patient enough for every seven
years and rate, I can almost double my assets seven years. Right,
So imagine we've been doing that since we're twenty one.
At our ages now we would have doubled and tripled
own net worth just by those simple principles of compounding interest.
So again, people are doing it for a reason. And
(32:19):
I don't want to say that as nefarious, because maybe
some people is not. But I do feel like there
has to be a level of education when given to
our young men and women when it comes to their finances.
And that's my ultimate goal in working at ubs. And
as you guys said with my contract earlier, this isn't
a job that I, you know, wake np as that
I need. I've saved every dime that I had, so
(32:41):
this is more of my way of giving back to
I think people who have, you know, brought some of
the best memories to society known to men.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
You know. I'll go back to the Super Bowl questions.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Did you ask me Another thing that I do remember
of that I was that I looked in the stairs
and I saw moms and dads and Asians and Hispanics
and blacks and whites, either booing or chearing for their
team or against another team. And I realized, like sports,
we brought so many people together. We've made so many
(33:18):
memories for families. So the contracts that these young men
and women make they deserve it because we're creating memories
that last a lifetime. We're building communities, we're bringing families together,
and I feel like for a financial advisor to not
do right by their players, it's just wrong, and the
financial soitutions they should. We should be doing more to
(33:40):
make sure that the lives of our athletes entertainers are
put in the right direction because of all of the
good will that they've put forth in all our communities.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Now, while you've made a lot of really good decisions, right,
like from when you left college, going undrafted, saving your money,
all these other things, So when you do hang up
your cleats, right, how do you know you're ready to
get into that next chapter? And how did you like
figure that part out and kind of maybe walk us
through that journey because ultimately that's the key ingredient I
(34:13):
think to a lot of success ones for post career
because finding that identity, yeah, we do not find it.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
Have there is no blueprint to that. I think ultimately
it starts earlier. The league has to do a better
job of speaking to young men that this isn't gonna last. Yeah,
and you're gonna see a drop in one chemical dependency
you're going to see a drop in depression and some
of the things that happened with suicides with athletes and
(34:39):
people who have no one thing their whole lives. So
we've got to have this discussion a little bit earlier.
But for me, I think the benefit was that I
always knew this was not going to be forever. And
I go back to my parents, like they didn't care
about football. Like in my house, it's my sister who's
(35:00):
a medical doctor.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Doctor. She's like the.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
Princess of our house just because she's a doctor. I'm like, wait, Mom,
but I'm gonna one who bought you the house. Mom,
I went to the Pro Bowl. This sister was a doctor, right,
so she gets you know, if there's the biggest piece
of meat, you know, at Thanksgiving, she gets it right
because of she's the doctor. So again, I think those
(35:24):
are some of the discussions we need to have with
our younger athletes that this isn't gonna last forever, and
then ultimately too, we've got to start pivoting earlier than
when we hang it up. And I think coaches and
industry and I think even teams are doing a better
job of allowing guys to kind of have their own
kind of hobbies and knowing different ways. In the off
(35:45):
season when we played, if we looked anywhere outside of
that football field, they were saying, we're a distraction, and
we've were distracted. They wanted people that had the blinders
on and talked football eight football and slept football. That's
not gonna happen anymore. Like you're gonna get left behind
if your only thinking that's your only job as a
football player.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
Number two when you retire.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
I think I retired in mid thirties, I'm gonna sit
at home for the rest, Like am I just gonna
sit at home and do what? So ultimately I knew
I had to find something else, So I went back
to school. The NFL program that helps pay for continuing education.
I took advantage of that. Yep, that's another thing I
think our young men and young men don't do a
lot in the NFL is they should take advantage of
(36:31):
all those resources we earned it. It's basically off our
sweat that we've created these opportunities. So I took advantage
of the continuing education. When I got my MBA, I
wanted to go into broadcasting, when of they maybe do
what you guys were doing. I'm nice, didn't think. I
don't think I was built for that. But I did
(36:53):
bump into the GM of the Dolphins through a mutual
friend at the time, and I in my mind, I
wanted to be like one of the first black gms
in the NFL. So I started doing like a little
bit of an internship here with the Dolphins. And the
fact that they were just being there twenty four hours
(37:15):
a day. No one wanted to go home. They would
look down and see if the president was still in
his office before they left. I was like, man, I
can't be doing this. Man like, I can't do this.
But what I did enjoy on that aspect was for
the little time I was here, I was getting the coffee.
I was, you know, taking the rookies around. You know,
I'm like one of the better players that played in
the Dolphins history, and I'm a Pro Bowl player and
(37:37):
I'm getting coffee for people.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
Yeah, I felt like you were a part of something.
Speaker 1 (37:40):
Again, it did, and and I appreciate that because it
kind of if you want to if you want to
be a leader, you've got to know every aspect of
the business, right You got to know what the guy
that's getting coffee, how he feels. You got to know
that that assistant that drives the rookies around. You know,
remember when we were rookies, how annoying we were. We
got to feel like, what's going on with them? And
I shared that approach and I stepped away from that
(38:01):
internship realizing that I still want to be successful in
something I do, but I want to do a little
bit more of giving back.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
Down here in Miami.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
So after that, I bump into the head of private
wealth at UBS an you want to be a financial advisor,
and I was like, I'm not into supporting one industry
versus another, but what I will do is kind of
help UBS in a way they should be thinking when
they do bump into an athlete like ourselves. And they
appreciated that approach. So for the next five years, we
(38:34):
just kept going back and forth, like what does it
look like? What do you think you want to do?
Speaker 2 (38:38):
Were you working for him at this time?
Speaker 1 (38:39):
Oh, this is just just going back and forth, just
me consulting kind of just for free, you know, not
thinking it was going to really go anywhere, because again
I had all the money, I had full disclosure. I
was a client of UBS at the time, but I
just felt like I should be at the places where
the billionaire's bank. Right, one out of every two billionaires
(39:00):
has an account at UBS or has some relationship with UBS.
I was like, wait, I really didn't know much about
UBS when I got here. I actually thought UBS is competitor,
was FedEx right. I thought they delivered packages, everyone wore
brown suits, not knowing that this is a place where,
you know, one out of two billionaires has an account.
So that again another light bulb went over my head.
I was like, if I don't know this, then maybe
(39:22):
the average athlete doesn't notice either, who has millions of dollars.
So so the next four or five years we continue
to kind of go back and forth and what does
it look like? And eventually they brought it to me
and said, hey, listen, we appreciate your approach. Why don't
you take this blank piece of paper and build out
our sports and entertainment business. Get us all into the
framework and out of the silos that we're in everybody
(39:42):
doing their own thing, and have one focus and mission
statement of the sports and entertainment business. And for the
last seven years I've been doing that.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
How much door does it bring. You know, on that
you kind of worked it out five or six years
and then the boss or wherever it was, they basically
just say, yeah, I like what you're doing. You know,
here's basically a blank shick, here's a canvas. Do what
you need to do for the vision that you have
for UBS.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
It's big, right because you know, I'm not I'm not
an advisor. And if we're gonna be honest, this is
you know, a middle aged white society that we liveing
in corporate America. So to have one not mean just
a former player, but have you know former players an
African American running the sports entertainment business in a way
(40:34):
where I'm not actually out there, you know, saying hey Peanut,
bring your money to UBS, but actually thinking about it
behind the scenes on our strategy, pushing back on stereotypes
and biases that are already built into the financial industries,
and being able to say, if you guys don't like it,
I don't care, but this is the way we're gonna
run it, and giving me that freedom to do that
(40:55):
at a firm as big as Ubs. Kudos to UBS
for doing that, like it's an amazing opportunity and I'm
taking I'm making the most of them. I think my
ultimate goal is to get our competitors to see what
we're doing and to lift the bar up set. The
whole industry of finance does right by us. And when
I say us, our community, the people that you know
(41:16):
have put you know, their heart and soul and blood,
sweat and tears into perfecting their craft and have gotten
paid handsomely for it. Let's now be good stewards and
help them with their finances.
Speaker 2 (41:27):
And we'll be right back. So now we're going to
get back into the I saved his life story real quick.
So we're playing Tampa Bay. It's two thousand and eight.
I'm running off the field till now it's forth down.
Tampa Bay is gonna punt. As I'm jogging off the field,
I kind of look to my left and I see
Wylea on his back. Was anybody on top of him? Yes? Oh,
(41:52):
he was getting okay, he was getting the business. As
a referee says, he was getting the business. True blood.
I don't know what true Blood's first name. It's Jeremy,
you know, he's he was a writer or left tackle dude.
He was always doing something. I think he was a
left tackle. He was always He was big too, though
he's like six eight. I don't know the particulars of
(42:12):
what happened. I don't know if he hits you later,
you hit him late. I couldn't. I couldn't tell you
none of that. All I saw was he was like this,
and true Blood was just and Walle was just ya.
He was taking those jazz. So me, being the teammate
that I am, I just ran over, didn't ask no
(42:35):
questions and I hit the you know what out of
true Blood, just just took him out. And after I
did that, Mike h Mark Clayton, Michael Clayton, receiver out
of l s U Michael Clayton. He comes over and
then me and him get into it. Now I'm fighting
everybody's now it's a team bro. Michael Clayton and a
small dude either. No. Oh, but we're getting it though.
(42:56):
We getting it in for We're getting it in. At
the end of the day.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
I was the only one that got a penalty, really
because you hit true because I hit True Blood. Clayton
hit me, Well, you knock true Blood off of me.
So let me tell you what really happened. So true
Blood was one of them players like you just go
past past the whistle blow one play. I think I
(43:22):
tried to punch him in the nuts play and I
think I think, okay, be honest, honest, honestly, I just
I'm just want to make sure the league doesn't have
to go. And you go back in there, find cussed
him in the nuts there. But as I do that,
(43:43):
the pile starts piling up on top of me.
Speaker 2 (43:45):
And in my hands. You stuck.
Speaker 1 (43:50):
So true Blay is like, oh really, and then he
starts giving me the business am I like this whole time,
like man, and thank god I didn't know who saved me. Yeah,
thank god somebody just comes out like Superman and just
hits him off me. No, I'm still under the pile.
(44:13):
I'm still under the pile. So I can't even help
Peanut because people are still on top of me. Whoever
I had me trapped, I'm trapped. So that's the story.
Speaker 2 (44:23):
Peanut. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (44:24):
I don't think I ever thanked you for that. You
did not cameras, so I appreciate you. Please hope you
don't like have video footage of this. But I was
trapped and you saved me and that and that's what happened.
Speaker 2 (44:37):
So thank you. I really thought like he saved your life, like.
Speaker 1 (44:41):
But no, it was like, no, that's how my helmet on.
Speaker 2 (44:43):
It wasn't doing it.
Speaker 1 (44:46):
He was like in that locker room. Imagine the next
day we're watching the film. Oh, they're probably killing you,
destroying killing you. I mean, and it just rewinds and
he's just you know, my head just going back like
who is and love? He's probably made love. He's probably
loving it too.
Speaker 2 (45:05):
It's like, is that you? Is that?
Speaker 1 (45:07):
Like? Man?
Speaker 2 (45:08):
Dude?
Speaker 1 (45:09):
So I didn't tell Himbouy that I kicked him and
not to put him the Nazi.
Speaker 2 (45:11):
Yeah, I don't know that till just now. Yeah, so
that's a little extra. True Blood was, you know, being
in the South Division. We played against him twice a year,
so he was definitely a guy habitual over the definitely
like over the line. Yeah, it was for me, it
was always the true Blood guy. And then Atlanta Falcons
had a center that was just always extra extra.
Speaker 1 (45:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:36):
So last question for you, sir, Mount Rushmore. You get
four picks. You can put four people on your personal
Mount Rushmore.
Speaker 1 (45:44):
Four picks for people who would those four people be
any position or in football and no, no, just.
Speaker 2 (45:50):
In life and life in general. This helped you get
to where you are.
Speaker 1 (45:53):
So obviously my parents like they're on the mount rushmore
white Mom and Dad just because how do you leave
of village of and not literally a village, but a
village of people that love you and go to a
foreign place where you know, nobody set up shop and
(46:13):
now you have four thriving children.
Speaker 2 (46:17):
And now I think.
Speaker 1 (46:21):
Five grandchildren and then living life like enjoy. So for them,
that's my rush mark, like there's nobody and I think
top that for me. And even my dad, like I
just said this to my dad is just like my
biggest hero, even how he deals with my mom and
you know, even when she gets on his nerves the way,
he's still able to kind of like handle her. And
(46:42):
and that's probably why he has a ton of gray hairs.
You know, no knock to your wife, my friend, no knock,
but you don't know her. But either way he's able
to handle her. He teaches me, yeah, yeah, he teaches
me a lot on even in my own relationship now
with my wife. For some reason, I'm I'm super connected
(47:08):
to you know, Barack Obama. I think, you know, in
the way that society has said that a black man
needs to behave I think he touched every box on
that a good family man, uh, intelligent, was one of
the best. Maybe it was the president of his class
in college where I think he might have went to Harvard,
(47:31):
I believe so for that to me, I think I
just knew that I had to be that good to
be successful. And I think looking at him and seeing
that it was true, like if you can check all
the boxes as a black man, you can reach the
highest levels of this country. So he's he's on top
of that. If I'm really thinking about it, then maybe
(47:52):
Steve Jobs, I really feel.
Speaker 2 (47:54):
Like he's been this.
Speaker 1 (47:59):
If he can you already saw before you passed away,
but if you could really see the impact that he's
had on the world, like not there's a there can't
be any household that has any significant amount of money
even if they don't that doesn't have a product that
he's created.
Speaker 2 (48:16):
So I would put him, put him on that. I
think that's the first Steve Jobs. It is. It is
so great.
Speaker 1 (48:24):
So if it wasn't him, now I would say, maybe
Jeff Bezos said, what he did with Amazon, but we'll
leave him out of it. Maybe Oprah, Oprah, let's go
with Oprah.
Speaker 2 (48:34):
Okay, why Oprah?
Speaker 1 (48:37):
Because Oprah taught me that if you can make people
feel a certain way, like they'll they'll follow you anywhere
you gotta go, Like if you can pour into people,
like the fact that she's always like giving somebody something,
like people love free stuff. Right, But she made it
in a way where people listen to her. She was
(49:00):
able to create culture, you know, best selling books. But
it's because she made people when she was able to
jump in everyone's household, she was she wasn't abrasive in
the way she and people wanted to just jump like
she had Tom Cruise jump to jumping on the couch. Yeah,
I mean you never seen Tom Cruise do nothing like
(49:21):
that before that. Right now, I'm dating myself, right because
these kids, young kids are like Tom, who's that? But
like that's the kind of you know, respect she had
and she became a billionaire, right and hopefully you two
are gonna do this and have people jumping on the couch.
Speaker 2 (49:35):
And Okay, so how does how does Roman how do
Romana make you feel? Talking on the podcast?
Speaker 1 (49:43):
Sometimes, yeah, I was like a little weird of that
by both of y'all.
Speaker 2 (49:48):
Say, look, that can be brothers. You know what. I
always thought you guys were brothers. You know. I don't
know if I appreciate that older brother. And everybody knows
he's deal with him though, so I patiently Number one,
I would say, I have good patience.
Speaker 1 (50:02):
Is he he gave you something?
Speaker 2 (50:03):
Great? Hairs? No, I don't think I've had so. I've
had these since I came out of h Really, yeah,
I've had these since eighth grade.
Speaker 1 (50:10):
I used to I used to think that that was
a part of your like you know, your your lore
for like for chicks to like, yeah, like I'm this
young guy with gray hairs.
Speaker 2 (50:20):
Like it definitely a conversation starter. It's a conversation you
use it all the time, all of time. It's a
conversation starter. Now now you're pumping his head. I just
think it's you know, I don't know how other people
viewed me around the league, like, because the day when
(50:41):
we played, you didn't talk to other teams like that,
unless you were teammates, you didn't talk to them. You
didn't like that guy.
Speaker 1 (50:48):
But I know what we noticed the way crowds reacted
to you making plays and when they announce your name
like and they loved us do it in the once
man like and then when I was with you, weren't
super We're walking around, uh and the souper. I'm like,
this dude is a legend. Two minutes, we couldn't go
(51:08):
nowhere whatever.
Speaker 2 (51:11):
Right here. I mean, they love this man. So it
was the mayor of New Orleans. No, so again I.
Speaker 1 (51:16):
Don't know, you know, whatever you did. I mean, you
played well, but there was something extra that had people
like that were very enamored with you and and love you.
You're one of the you know, the better players, not
just for on the field but off the field.
Speaker 2 (51:29):
People love you. Yeah, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (51:30):
I was I was a little I want they shocked,
but I was like, damn, this dude still got it.
People stopping like okay, we take a picture, and and
I mean, you know, just sitting there like chop Liver, Like.
Speaker 2 (51:44):
Every time I go to Normans with this cat like
he's a man, do the Homer Simpson emotion where I
just kind of it's just the New Orleans. It was
very weird because like that's when my kids because I'm
just Dad everywhere else in the country. Then I go
to New Orleans just like, hey, everybody just loves Rome
and it's like, you know, but there's a lot of
times I was hanging out and all that other stuff.
(52:05):
But man, it's been a pleasure man while a man.
You're awesome, you know. I mean, I've been from the
very first time I actually got to meet you at
the hotel at the Casino in Las Vegas and when
I was with Peanut again my work wife, and so
you've been outstanding, bro, and I love hearing your story. Hey,
thank you for always watching and listening. Wherever you pick
up your podcast, whether it's Apple Podcast, the iHeartRadio app,
(52:28):
make sure you leave us a like, subscribe, comment, leave
us a fourth, give us a five star rating. Yeah,
and you can also find us on the NFL pages
YouTube channel Peanut get us up out of here on
Peanut that's wrong and that is I don't want to
like la And this is the NFL Player's second act podcast.
We out the
One play, I think I try to punch him in
the nuts play and I think I think, okay, be honest, honest, honestly,
I just I'm just want to make sure the league
doesn't have to go and you go back in there
find me. I punsed him in the nuts. But as
(00:21):
I do that, the pile starts piling up on top
of me and in my hands. So two players like,
oh really, and then he starts giving me the business
and I.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Head like this whole time, like man.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
And thank god, I didn't know who saved me. Thank
god somebody just comes out like Superman and just hits
him off me.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
No, I'm still under the pile.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
I'm still under the pile, so I can't even help
be nut because people are still on top of me.
Whoever I had me trapped, I'm trapped. So that's the story. Peanut.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
I don't think I ever thank you for.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Them, sir. You did not any on camera, so I
appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Please hope you don't like have video footage of this,
But I was trapped and you saved me, and that
and that's what happened.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
So thank you. What's up? Joab Peanut Tooman and this
is the NFL Player's Second Acts podcast and with me
as always as my trustee co host Roman. I'm Roman Heart.
I'm filling his little outfit to day. Bruh, what are
his little pineapples? They're not pineapples at all. But I
(01:41):
appreciate that. It is actually President's Cup shirt I got
from when I was in Charlotte when the President's Cup
is there. So tell us who our guest is. As
a former teammate of yours, it's a former team know
each other very well. Eleven year vet, two thousand and
three pro bowler. He is the head of sports and
Entertainment at UBS Financial Services. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome
(02:02):
to the pot. Wow, I did that? What he did?
Speaker 1 (02:15):
I've known him now for a long time, so I
would have been a little hurt if he didn't get
it right.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
And every day we had everything it just says. I
was just like, no, you gotta pronounce like get that man.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Is we give my my name gives people stress, It
does the heart palpitations, and we'll go over so many times.
Just just be confident it.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Man, what's the worst pronunciations you've pronunciation you've ever heard?
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Still people say out of is okay, but it's a
goon delay, Like where is the d in them? My
last is a goon delay? And still to this day
people get it.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
And uh.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
I have a lot of Italian friends in New York
City where I grew up, and a lot of them
just call me Wally. So that's still so Wally and
delay is two of my pet peeves.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Like, hey, hey, Wally, has anybody ever called you chuck?
Only my dad? I don't let anybody else call me
nut though, yeah, which I thought was weird when when
Steve Wilkes, when I first met Peanut, well he first
came team and he's like, man, just call him nut,
Like I don't like calling another dude nut.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Yeah, But then eventually everybody says it so much it
just kind of but it fits.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Who he is.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Though he is quite crazy, he is his serious as
you though. Yeah, I'm what I need to be one.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
I need to be it. I think when we first met,
I think when you came to Chicago was at four
for forst year. Ye when you came to Chicago. We're
a bunch of jokesters. Wile a very serious And what
I mean by that is like when you get Wally
stressed out, and when he gets stressed out, I can
(03:57):
only imagine if I were to talk to your wife
or your kids, he does this.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Yeah yeah that or now was the she can see
the my jaws like I'm just like binding it out.
Like but yeah, with the kids, you can't be as
demonstrative because even my daughter, she's like she looks at
everything I do, and if I even look at her crazy,
it's like I see waterworks coming. So I'm like, man, like,
(04:26):
I can't be that crazy football player.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
I gotta be. That's like my favorite thing about you,
Like your body language is like what are you doing
the full hand slap?
Speaker 1 (04:38):
You don't care though, Like you you run through all
signs like yellow stop sign. You're running through it like
I'll give you a warning, like not I'm at my
wits end. You're running right through that like you don't care.
So that's why I enjoyed, you know, even playing with
you and the guys in the Bears, bunch of jokesters.
When I left Miami, I actually was down because our
(05:02):
locker room was really we had a really good locker room.
And I was left Miami and I got traded, but
then I got to Chicago and that atmosphere just was
through the roof.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
So the best.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Uh. I know, my Miami Dolphin fans are going to
be mad and my former players are going to be
mad at I say this, But the Bear's locker room
was probably the best place I've ever walked through. It
was just a bunch of jokesters. But when it came
time to suit it up on Sunday, man, we uh
we kicked ass.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
So it was good stuff. Do you think it was
the best locker room because you won more like like
because that usually matters ultimately, because you had some great
years in Miami as well.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Yeah, you know what I think. Ultimately in Miami I
was still I was like the young pup I had.
I was grinding. I had something to prove. So it
was a little less fun for me because I was
I was trying to get that big contract. I think
in Chicago, not only that we were winning, I had
(05:59):
money in the right. So now I'm like, I'm enjoying
a little bit more, right, So.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Let's talk about that. So you signed the six year,
thirty three million dollars, which at the time was listen.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
At the time, it was the biggest unrestricted free agent
contract that the NFL's ever had. Wow, so absolutely like
it was a lot of money back then. Now you're
seeing what these guys are signing now, Yeah, that's not
even a signing bonus anymore.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
I mean not at all. I would and I asked
that because Peanut, when big money shows up right to
Chicago now because you got they traded for him now
because you big money, all right, that's what That's how
they call it. What did Wile bring to the Bears
locker room that was already very jokes or you guys
are very much so, very great and together, especially on
(06:46):
the defense side, bringing in a more serious guy with
big pockets like wil A, what was that marriage like
when you guys all got together. He brought a pass
rush that we were somewhat missing. I mean, we had
Alex Bryant, we had a good D line, and I
think he made our D line better, you know. I
think he complimented Alex Brown lining up opposite of him,
and uh what he was able to do fresh off
(07:10):
of a Pro Bowl. So he he was hot, he
has some juice left in the tank, and we went
out and had some really good defenses. Early when he
first got there because I was coaching his first year,
oh four, So he got there the first year. We
were trying to figure out who we were as a defense,
trying to learn this new system, and we really were
the Saint Louis Bears because everything that the Rams have
(07:30):
been doing, that's literally that whole year we had only
watched film on the Rams. They I remember a really
good story. I actually saved his life. Oh my god,
there we go with this. Wait, wait before you go
into that, Before.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
You go into that, because I knew you're gonna talk
about this part. Let me tell me first, tell you
what I think. Let me say what I think I brought.
And okay, thanks before saving my life because I get
a call on this like once every three months that
Peanuts told somebody the story that he saved my life.
You're gonna want to hear about it. But I think
from a competitive standpoint, like a guy like with Alex,
like he and me like it wasn't something we've written
(08:09):
down or even vocalized, but there was a competitiveness that
between us, like who was going to be the better
defensive end every single practice, every single game. And I
think I brought that, and I actually probably I feel
like both of us were each other's battery in each
other's back, So that was great. And then also too,
I think for the younger guys, like knowing that I
had cornerbacks like you know, Peanut and Nate Vasher, who
(08:33):
if I could just do a little just a little
bit better and get them the ball out earlier, they
were going to make things happen. So for me, I
think ultimately I brought a steady hand, but more importantly,
I think the competitive busness of how to play a
great defense because I had come from a defense that
we had, you know, Jason Taylor, Zach Thomas, Tim Bowen,
(08:55):
Patrick Surtain, Sam Madison, Brock, Marion Junior say Ah, So
I played with some future Hall of famers, and I
was able to bring what I saw, how they worked,
how serious they brought to they brought their game to
practice every single practice and.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Then in the games.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
And for me, adding that with the ability to lock
in when we needed to lock in, but also have
fun with it, for me, I think was a great opportunity.
So when I did leave Miami, I was down a bit,
but seeing how great the city was, seeing how great
I was going to be on a team that had
now future Hall of famers. Also on my defense that
(09:35):
we have hopefully we'll get Peanut in there one of
these days. But having a team that has future Hall
of Famers, young healthy individuals, and then have a head
coach that trying to prove something too, having love he
was really really great, like he knew each person's strength
and one point he put us in a position to win.
(09:55):
So for me, I was able to just kind of
bring a steady hand to what we were doing. Addition
to know they did help me kind of like calm
down a bit like that was too you know, I
you know, I had to stick up my butt the
whole time I was there because I felt less pressure
on me. And Chicago media is not it's not a
great place.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
To be agree Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
If you're not, if you're not contributing, Chicago media will
jump down your throat, right, So for me, there was
a lot of pressure. I had that big contract you
had said earlier, I mean at more importantly my own
desire to make the mccaskey's and Lovey and who was
our GM, Jerry Angelo, just make them happy for bringing
(10:36):
me to Chicago so I was excited about that.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Do you think you always have this certain chip on
your shoulder when you're when you're you're undrafted, or you're
you know, you come from Indiana University Indiana, Like.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
I think a chip for me starts even like further,
like one of my parents are immigrants. When that's you know,
you're behind they're trying to find the American dream. You
have this crazy last name that nobody can pronounce again
now and you still feel like an outsider every time
from the first grade. My my first grade teachers like
they can't do it, so all the way through, you know.
(11:12):
And I think football was actually the first time where
I was able to kind of like force people to
say my name right. Like I was actually like, no,
I'm actually a good player. What great was this? This
is probably not probably until I got to college. Like
once I started being good in college, I could tell
people like, it's not Wally, it's Wale, and it's not
(11:35):
you know, it's not oh goun today it's Ogunley.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
So I think for me having my success was great,
but every step of the way, it was like I
got to make my last name. I want people to
say it the right way. I wanted to make sure
I make my parents, my parents proud, and I want
to continue to be successful, knowing that my parents came
all the way from Nigeria to be here, and I
wanted to find a way. Whether it's not because they
(12:01):
really wanted to be a doctor or a lawyer, but
I wanted to make sure I was going to be
successful and everything I did so that chip never leaves
even to today. And then absolually, you coming into the
NFL and you know you're getting undrafted, knowing the headwinds
that come from an undrafted free agent, the politics you
gotta fight through, having somebody drafted in your position every
(12:23):
single year, having coaches that probably don't believe in you
every single year. You have to prove yourself every single year.
So I went into camp every year thinking, I got
to prove myself that I deserve to be on a
fifty three man roster, even when I was a starter,
even when I got the big contract, I got to
deserve a spot on the defense, I got to earn
a starting spot, and I got to deserve or earn
(12:45):
a way to be a captain. Right, So those are
kind of things that I always kept that chip on
my shoulder and I use that like every day throughout
my life.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Now, I definitely think it showed, uh, you was always
a good teammate, always a good captain. I know we
haven't been here since Super Bowl forty one, right, it's
a long long time ago, February of seven. What's one
thing that you remember about that game? It's two things,
(13:13):
I think, well three things.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
The first one is obviously when Devin returned the kick
to begin the game and give us a seven zero spot.
There's no way you give our defense a spot like
that and we lose the game. So there's no way
I thought we were gonna lose the game. Number two,
I think watching the Giants win the next year and
seeing that how their D line dominated Tom Brady in
(13:37):
the Super Bowl. I thought then to myself, like we
should have did more against Peyton, Like I wish I
would have gotten to them a little bit more. So
watching you know, you know those Super Bowls that come
after us, I just keep looking at the D line
play and I can't even enjoy Super Bowl today, like
because of that loss.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
I can't do it.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
And I always start to look at internally, like what
could we have done? As a D line to make
life a little bit more hectic for Payton. I forgot though.
We played like what seventy plays in the Super I mean,
we gave that guy seventy snaps and no knock to offense.
But you know, Thomas Jones was was killing and we
(14:15):
made some mistakes at the end of the day, and
we still had an opportunity to win despite all of
that against the great Payton Manning. So I think about
Devin has to return that kick. I do think that
at the end of the day, I wish we would
as a D line would have done a little bit better,
just just the nature and me. And then lastly, I
have you know, at the end of that game, we
got all our equipment, and I took my equipment back
(14:37):
home and I still have it in my garage, and
I don't know, maybe a couple of years ago. I
opened it up and inside the bag it's like blue
and white confetti. Yeah, zip it back up again. I'm
not I want to see what's in there. I know
my pads are in there. When I saw the white
(14:59):
and blue confetti, I said, damn God, you don't love me, man,
I mean, geez, I mean so I went and opened
up and show my kids. But it's still in there.
So hopefully when I'm gone long time from now, they'll
open it up and see this day. Like I was,
I still have yet to watch that game all the
way through me because it is that bad.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
I can't. I actually watched it. I was not in
the league. What year was that that was?
Speaker 1 (15:22):
It was seven?
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Yes, I was, so I just got it. Yeah that
is true, but I was. Yeah, but I watched that game.
I was a little key rooting for you guys, and
thank you. I mean, it was raining, it wasn't pretty.
Your offensive really just kind of been what they have
been the last part of the season and so like.
(15:43):
But for you personally, knowing that you started your career
in Miami like that had to be special for you.
It was, and for that ending heartbreak like that, it
clearly is. It's still.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Yeah, that was rough because the locker room we used
was our home locker room. So I felt like this
is like this is going to be a perfect ending. Yes,
And we actually, me and Thomas Jones had a deal
that if we won the game, we were going to
go on Oprah that next day, right, So I wasn't
married yet, So I was like, oh, man, dude.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
I'm about to be all of them, every last one
of them.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
And I think because Oprah had a bet with like
David Letterman, he was a big coach fan, and I
was like, man, you know, forget Dave Letterman. I'm might
to be about to do this thing. Me and Thomas
going to be on Oprah and I'm about to have
everything I want in life. And it didn't go out
that way, so it was a bittersweet. I saw a
video of the moment when Devin returned that kick and
(16:40):
like the whole like neighborhoods were erupting. So I feel
like we let so many people down. And to be
honest with you, like I wanted to have what the
eighty five beers had, like when I got to Chicago.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
When I got to Chicago, I get it.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
I go to a sign I go to an autograph
signing and and you know, I'm the new kid on
the block. You know, I just got off a Pro
Bowl and nobody who was at my autograph signing and like, oh,
there's an eighty five beer signing line not too long,
not too far from me.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
I was like, that's where everybody was.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
So my mind is like, we got to get to
where we got our own ring, and we can have
our own legacy, and we can unsee if we could
the eighty five Bears, and so that's why, you know,
those guys still running around like kings of the castle.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
So we kind of low key was just joking a
little bit earlier today about how the eighty five Bears
was probably wishing we lost that game, probably because they
was like, yes, it's still going. You know what, we
still we're still the old kids on the block. I hope,
you know what. I don't think that. Maybe not because
at the end of the.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Day, like the way I think of it is, we
got ours, I get jaws, like it's hopefully it's one family.
But but but because they are treated as gods in Chicago,
I can see that, Like you don't want to share
that spotlight.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
I'm telling you, I have a former teammate of mine.
I'm not gonna call his name out, but he knows
who he is. He he weighs over three hundred and
something pounds. So you guys pick it out from the
Saints Super Bowl. We were all there at the Rams
Saints game in New Orleans where it looked like past inference,
where everybody thought it was passing inference and they didn't
call it. I had a guy that I was like, yes,
(18:18):
can only be one, because he's like, the moment somebody
else wins it, yours just doesn't have as much as
steam and the team is not in the upper lore
that it is. If you're the city that only has
one Super Bowl and you happen to be on that team,
you kind of can just say your way forever.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
That's like the seventy two Dolphins, right, I mean they're
over there popa champagne every year, every single time.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Still so all right, So you signed a six year
contract for thirty three mil lars just large amount of
money back in that time still today. What was one
of the first splurges you bought?
Speaker 1 (18:55):
First splurges that I bought, which I'm not proud of.
I bought a baby Blue Bentley. I was hoping he
said that it was clean. Oh it was what God
was it? It was a GT Continental Yeah. I mean
he had nobody ride with him, Nah, just me. I
didn't want to put tent on it. I want people
to see inside and see who it was.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
But the probacy, not that I not that I'm in
the financial world, not only the fact there was it
was a dumb purchase. The car costs more than the
house I was living in in Miami at the time,
and so I pulled this baby blue Bentley into a
garage where the house was actually worth less than the car. Okay,
(19:36):
priorities were messed up, but I got baited into buying
it because I walk into the dealership and deal looks
at me and goes something like he doesn't say specifically
you can't afford this, but it's like I don't. I
don't think you know what this price is. And I
(19:57):
was like, oh, okay. So I called my my person
and I say, hey, that's how much this car? Can
I Can I get it right now? He said you could?
I said would I Would I be going broke if
I did it? He said, no, you wouldn't, but if
you want to get it, get it.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
And my stupid but.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Bought a cash cash from the dealer that was insulting me,
just to prove to him that I could buy a
cash So if I was if I had to do
it all over again, I would still buy the car,
just from somebody with us from another dealer, because that's
where I think one of my my my that was
my first splurge. And since then though, I've been super conservative,
(20:37):
Like I just felt like I had to get that
that itch off of me and take care of my family.
And actually I've saved pretty much most of it, and
uh and I'm proud of that. But at the end
of the day, I had to have that one splurge
and that's that Bentley.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Yeah, yeah, don't don't be too conservative. It's okay. You're
talking about family here. What was it like to be
able to possibly tell your mom and your dad, you
know what, you're good?
Speaker 1 (21:03):
I got the benefit of my parents knew nothing about
American sports, so I didn't have the dad that was like,
you got to do this for us. They really wanted
me to just have a good education. So for me,
the people who actually told my parents were their coworkers, like,
why are you still working? I just saw in the
(21:24):
New York Times just son just signed this contract. And
my parents, you know, their hard workers. Both got their
master's degrees. And I appreciate their approach to life because
they really didn't it got you know, they didn't care
they had busted their tail enough. They had already purchased
their first house, probably when I was in college. They
had reached in their mind what their American dream was
(21:44):
going to be middle aged Americans, which you know, by
working two or three jobs and then me being able
to pay for college at Indiana. That was where I
thought it was going to be my peak. I'm going
to leave college without any debt. My parents were still
paying off their student loans, but for me to even
the ena without debt was going to be in my peak. Obviously,
God had other plans. So when I told my parents, Mom,
(22:06):
I hear what you're saying, but do me a favor.
Just give me like four or five more years. Now,
remember what I just said. I just signed this big
thirty something million dollar contract, So give me four or
five more years. Let me stack the money because obviously
nothing's guaranteed except that signing bonus. Okay, so you see
(22:28):
thirty something million, but that's not what it means. And
even if I get the whole something million, it's actually
like eight right at the tax. So let's let's wait.
What I'll do for you, though, is I'll take care
of all of your bills so I won't buy you
a house, shed, I won't buy you a car yet.
I know I promised you I was going to buy
you that house, but if you be paid forent me.
From what I understand about my finances, let us stack
(22:50):
a little bit and then I'll buy you the house
and take care of you. So for the next five years,
even when I was with the Bears, my parents were
still working and they didn't have any wants, any needs
anymore because I was taking all their bills, but they
were allowing my money to stack so every so I
played out the six years, so I got all my money.
And the funny thing about it is when I actually
(23:12):
finally bought them my house, I paid cash for it.
I looked at my bank statement and I didn't see
a change in my account. So I called my financial advice.
I was like, yo, that check was supposed to go
out for the house of my mom, for my parents' house.
He said it did go out. So but the problem
(23:33):
is I was making so much money off of my
investments and the money that I was doing, I didn't
see a difference. So that's why I'm super proud that
my parents warn't those you've got to do this for me,
And I know that's probably going to go into something
else we're going to talk about later, but I do
feel like in our communities, if we have a little
bit more patience when it comes to our money and
(23:54):
let it stack and let the money move forward instead
of moving backwards, we have more power with our cash.
And that's kind of my my example on how how
I lived my life is like, let's do things the
right way. Let's be patient, especially with these college kids
now with Nils. Like when we had college, we had
pizza and ramen noodles and we were and it was
(24:17):
the best time of our life. Yeah, why do we
have to start jumping into you know, champagne and waggle
beef the next day out of college. So my thing is,
you know, being patient with it, and I think it
it really boded well for me. But again, not everyone
has parents like myself.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Who taught you that. Though at some point somewhere someone
had to teach you, or you had or something went
off in your head was like wait, I gotta save this,
I gotta spend this. Yeah, I could retire my mom
and dad right now, but I could probably be in
a better position if I do it four or five
years from now. So like, did you have a coach,
was it a financial guy? Was it just your own
(24:56):
just afraid, just afraid to lose it?
Speaker 1 (25:00):
You know? And I think a lot of times people
like say, you're losing money because inflation, you're not investing it.
I say, like, actually, those years that I was just
keeping it in savings, I was learning. But the truth
of the matter is when you come from a place
where it was like six people in the two bedroom
(25:21):
apartment in New York City, you ain't trying to go
back to that. So you're super afraid of losing it.
And then when you speak to financial advisors, they're talking
to you in like German or Chinese, like it's not
even making sense. What are you talking about? Like liquidation
and equity and basis points something? What does that all mean?
(25:43):
So I was actually super scared, so I just saved
all my money. It winds up being the thing that
actually saved me because you saw a lot of I'm
sure you guys know too, a lot of our teammates
as soon as they got that cash, they spent it.
They had to buy mama house hopefully parents were married.
If not, then I gotta buy two houses. You got
two cars for a mom and dad. So I was
(26:05):
super lucky in a sense that my fair keep me
from making big mistakes. I mean, then two, I had
parents that were super patient with me when it came
to my money.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
We're gonna take a short break and we'll be right back.
I want to ask you about this white paper idea
that you got going on at UBS right to coming
through it. Amongst those who experienced a meaningful and second
careers is a stead fast belief that the same drive,
(26:34):
ambition and hard work that's propelled them and to start them.
Is that kind of where you are right now within
your second act being the director of Sports and Entertainment AUBS.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Yeah, man, I think I think a lot of the
things that we've learned in sports, especially in football, is
some of the best characteristics and strengths to help us
propel in corporate America. We understand teamwork extremely well. We
are we actually long for I want to say criticism,
(27:11):
but we do long for correction, coachable, right, and we're
able to like have two tracks of my team's success
and my personal success and they don't conflict, right, We're
able to do it at the same at the same time,
and I think people in society have a hard time
(27:32):
of finding that balance between I want to be successful,
but I also want to do it what's best for
everybody else. Think football players and team you know, orientated
sports and people are successful in that. I actually can
go into corporate America and do that easy. Right, my
my line manager correcting my behavior or telling me that
(27:53):
I need to do something a little bit better, I'm like, oh, thanks,
I appreciate that because we come from a space where
if coach stops talking to you, giving up on you.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Right, So.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
My thought process is, let's continue to pour into athletes.
Too many times, I think in the financial industry, they
look at you, They look at you and your family
as a transaction. How much money do you have, how
much money we're gonna make off of you? And we
don't talk about a legacy, like what are we going
(28:24):
to do for our communities, for our families, what are
we gonna leave behind? And that's kind of what my
role at UBS is is like, let me connect the dots.
Let's move away from this transactional state that we've always been.
Let's get away from the headlines where you see you know,
athletes losing hundreds of millions of dollars don't have to
say any names, but it happens. And let's start looking at,
(28:46):
you know, the wins and people who are good men,
who are upstanding citizens, people who are upstending wives and
good women, and who want to do best for their communities.
And I really feel like it's our obligation at ubs.
Some ubs manages almost six trillion dollars of assets, six
with a te So I really feel like there's an
(29:08):
obligation for people who have been given so much to
teach and to help build legacies in some of the
places where we haven't had the best guidance. And I
think athletes sometimes, because of who we are and we're
focused on winning that championship, we get taken advantage of.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
You know, I'm just sitting here listening to you eloquently
kind of talk about how how like athletes themselves because
we're on we're such good teammates naturally, right, because we
grew up in this what's best for the team mode,
but then we know how to put our own personal
goals within that team goals. We're all going the same way.
It's almost like driving on the interstate and sometime in
the HOV lane and sometimes I'm outside of it, but
(29:47):
we're all still going in the same way. Okay, I
like you that. I appreciate that. Do you know what
HOV stands for? I do you know? I don't know?
Occupancy vehicle vehicle like people in it. Yeah, it's more
than like I can't say that worshiper fast occupancy vehicles.
I might have jacked up, but it's occupancy. Okay. So, like,
(30:11):
what are the things that you try and say, you
know what, like I know for me, like you try
and because you said, like when these financial guys would
be talking to you, it sounded like Chinese German, it
was another language, you know, instead of just sometimes compounding
interest is your best friend, you know, Like that's simple.
You can take it as a bullet point that takes
(30:33):
you all the way. So take a compounding interest is
your best friend, you know what I mean, it's the
it's the jewel to it, absolutely so.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
And that's and that's why it's it's about you know,
being patient, and I think too, like you said, like
we've got to find a way, especially the financial institutions,
to talk to people in the language they understand, like
meet them where they are. It's not about like dumbing
it down, because that's not like some of our teammates.
(31:05):
Some of us are some of the smartest, hardest working,
creative individuals. You'll see a lot of athletes like look
at you two, Like you guys put your mind to
you know, moving in another direction and you're killing it, right,
that's not by accident. You guys are born with something.
And I think a lot of athletes that are successful
(31:26):
on the field or on a pitch, on a baseball diamond,
on the court, they have something in them that no
matter what feel they're in, they're going to be successful.
So for us in the financial industry, why not make
it easier? Why make it complicated? And why are you
doing that? That's that's another thing. Why are you making
this hard for the regular person to understand what you're
(31:49):
talking about?
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Right?
Speaker 1 (31:50):
Like as simple as you said compounding interests? Like why
is that my best friend?
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Right? Why does it?
Speaker 1 (31:55):
If I invest and I'm patient enough for every seven
years and rate, I can almost double my assets seven years. Right,
So imagine we've been doing that since we're twenty one.
At our ages now we would have doubled and tripled
own net worth just by those simple principles of compounding interest.
So again, people are doing it for a reason. And
(32:19):
I don't want to say that as nefarious, because maybe
some people is not. But I do feel like there
has to be a level of education when given to
our young men and women when it comes to their finances.
And that's my ultimate goal in working at ubs. And
as you guys said with my contract earlier, this isn't
a job that I, you know, wake np as that
I need. I've saved every dime that I had, so
(32:41):
this is more of my way of giving back to
I think people who have, you know, brought some of
the best memories to society known to men.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
You know. I'll go back to the Super Bowl questions.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Did you ask me Another thing that I do remember
of that I was that I looked in the stairs
and I saw moms and dads and Asians and Hispanics
and blacks and whites, either booing or chearing for their
team or against another team. And I realized, like sports,
we brought so many people together. We've made so many
(33:18):
memories for families. So the contracts that these young men
and women make they deserve it because we're creating memories
that last a lifetime. We're building communities, we're bringing families together,
and I feel like for a financial advisor to not
do right by their players, it's just wrong, and the
financial soitutions they should. We should be doing more to
(33:40):
make sure that the lives of our athletes entertainers are
put in the right direction because of all of the
good will that they've put forth in all our communities.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Now, while you've made a lot of really good decisions, right,
like from when you left college, going undrafted, saving your money,
all these other things, So when you do hang up
your cleats, right, how do you know you're ready to
get into that next chapter? And how did you like
figure that part out and kind of maybe walk us
through that journey because ultimately that's the key ingredient I
(34:13):
think to a lot of success ones for post career
because finding that identity, yeah, we do not find it.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
Have there is no blueprint to that. I think ultimately
it starts earlier. The league has to do a better
job of speaking to young men that this isn't gonna last. Yeah,
and you're gonna see a drop in one chemical dependency
you're going to see a drop in depression and some
of the things that happened with suicides with athletes and
(34:39):
people who have no one thing their whole lives. So
we've got to have this discussion a little bit earlier.
But for me, I think the benefit was that I
always knew this was not going to be forever. And
I go back to my parents, like they didn't care
about football. Like in my house, it's my sister who's
(35:00):
a medical doctor.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Doctor. She's like the.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
Princess of our house just because she's a doctor. I'm like, wait, Mom,
but I'm gonna one who bought you the house. Mom,
I went to the Pro Bowl. This sister was a doctor, right,
so she gets you know, if there's the biggest piece
of meat, you know, at Thanksgiving, she gets it right
because of she's the doctor. So again, I think those
(35:24):
are some of the discussions we need to have with
our younger athletes that this isn't gonna last forever, and
then ultimately too, we've got to start pivoting earlier than
when we hang it up. And I think coaches and
industry and I think even teams are doing a better
job of allowing guys to kind of have their own
kind of hobbies and knowing different ways. In the off
(35:45):
season when we played, if we looked anywhere outside of
that football field, they were saying, we're a distraction, and
we've were distracted. They wanted people that had the blinders
on and talked football eight football and slept football. That's
not gonna happen anymore. Like you're gonna get left behind
if your only thinking that's your only job as a
football player.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
Number two when you retire.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
I think I retired in mid thirties, I'm gonna sit
at home for the rest, Like am I just gonna
sit at home and do what? So ultimately I knew
I had to find something else, So I went back
to school. The NFL program that helps pay for continuing education.
I took advantage of that. Yep, that's another thing I
think our young men and young men don't do a
lot in the NFL is they should take advantage of
(36:31):
all those resources we earned it. It's basically off our
sweat that we've created these opportunities. So I took advantage
of the continuing education. When I got my MBA, I
wanted to go into broadcasting, when of they maybe do
what you guys were doing. I'm nice, didn't think. I
don't think I was built for that. But I did
(36:53):
bump into the GM of the Dolphins through a mutual
friend at the time, and I in my mind, I
wanted to be like one of the first black gms
in the NFL. So I started doing like a little
bit of an internship here with the Dolphins. And the
fact that they were just being there twenty four hours
(37:15):
a day. No one wanted to go home. They would
look down and see if the president was still in
his office before they left. I was like, man, I
can't be doing this. Man like, I can't do this.
But what I did enjoy on that aspect was for
the little time I was here, I was getting the coffee.
I was, you know, taking the rookies around. You know,
I'm like one of the better players that played in
the Dolphins history, and I'm a Pro Bowl player and
(37:37):
I'm getting coffee for people.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
Yeah, I felt like you were a part of something.
Speaker 1 (37:40):
Again, it did, and and I appreciate that because it
kind of if you want to if you want to
be a leader, you've got to know every aspect of
the business, right You got to know what the guy
that's getting coffee, how he feels. You got to know
that that assistant that drives the rookies around. You know,
remember when we were rookies, how annoying we were. We
got to feel like, what's going on with them? And
I shared that approach and I stepped away from that
(38:01):
internship realizing that I still want to be successful in
something I do, but I want to do a little
bit more of giving back.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
Down here in Miami.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
So after that, I bump into the head of private
wealth at UBS an you want to be a financial advisor,
and I was like, I'm not into supporting one industry
versus another, but what I will do is kind of
help UBS in a way they should be thinking when
they do bump into an athlete like ourselves. And they
appreciated that approach. So for the next five years, we
(38:34):
just kept going back and forth, like what does it
look like? What do you think you want to do?
Speaker 2 (38:38):
Were you working for him at this time?
Speaker 1 (38:39):
Oh, this is just just going back and forth, just
me consulting kind of just for free, you know, not
thinking it was going to really go anywhere, because again
I had all the money, I had full disclosure. I
was a client of UBS at the time, but I
just felt like I should be at the places where
the billionaire's bank. Right, one out of every two billionaires
(39:00):
has an account at UBS or has some relationship with UBS.
I was like, wait, I really didn't know much about
UBS when I got here. I actually thought UBS is competitor,
was FedEx right. I thought they delivered packages, everyone wore
brown suits, not knowing that this is a place where,
you know, one out of two billionaires has an account.
So that again another light bulb went over my head.
I was like, if I don't know this, then maybe
(39:22):
the average athlete doesn't notice either, who has millions of dollars.
So so the next four or five years we continue
to kind of go back and forth and what does
it look like? And eventually they brought it to me
and said, hey, listen, we appreciate your approach. Why don't
you take this blank piece of paper and build out
our sports and entertainment business. Get us all into the
framework and out of the silos that we're in everybody
(39:42):
doing their own thing, and have one focus and mission
statement of the sports and entertainment business. And for the
last seven years I've been doing that.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
How much door does it bring. You know, on that
you kind of worked it out five or six years
and then the boss or wherever it was, they basically
just say, yeah, I like what you're doing. You know,
here's basically a blank shick, here's a canvas. Do what
you need to do for the vision that you have
for UBS.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
It's big, right because you know, I'm not I'm not
an advisor. And if we're gonna be honest, this is
you know, a middle aged white society that we liveing
in corporate America. So to have one not mean just
a former player, but have you know former players an
African American running the sports entertainment business in a way
(40:34):
where I'm not actually out there, you know, saying hey Peanut,
bring your money to UBS, but actually thinking about it
behind the scenes on our strategy, pushing back on stereotypes
and biases that are already built into the financial industries,
and being able to say, if you guys don't like it,
I don't care, but this is the way we're gonna
run it, and giving me that freedom to do that
(40:55):
at a firm as big as Ubs. Kudos to UBS
for doing that, like it's an amazing opportunity and I'm
taking I'm making the most of them. I think my
ultimate goal is to get our competitors to see what
we're doing and to lift the bar up set. The
whole industry of finance does right by us. And when
I say us, our community, the people that you know
(41:16):
have put you know, their heart and soul and blood,
sweat and tears into perfecting their craft and have gotten
paid handsomely for it. Let's now be good stewards and
help them with their finances.
Speaker 2 (41:27):
And we'll be right back. So now we're going to
get back into the I saved his life story real quick.
So we're playing Tampa Bay. It's two thousand and eight.
I'm running off the field till now it's forth down.
Tampa Bay is gonna punt. As I'm jogging off the field,
I kind of look to my left and I see
Wylea on his back. Was anybody on top of him? Yes? Oh,
(41:52):
he was getting okay, he was getting the business. As
a referee says, he was getting the business. True blood.
I don't know what true Blood's first name. It's Jeremy,
you know, he's he was a writer or left tackle dude.
He was always doing something. I think he was a
left tackle. He was always He was big too, though
he's like six eight. I don't know the particulars of
(42:12):
what happened. I don't know if he hits you later,
you hit him late. I couldn't. I couldn't tell you
none of that. All I saw was he was like this,
and true Blood was just and Walle was just ya.
He was taking those jazz. So me, being the teammate
that I am, I just ran over, didn't ask no
(42:35):
questions and I hit the you know what out of
true Blood, just just took him out. And after I
did that, Mike h Mark Clayton, Michael Clayton, receiver out
of l s U Michael Clayton. He comes over and
then me and him get into it. Now I'm fighting
everybody's now it's a team bro. Michael Clayton and a
small dude either. No. Oh, but we're getting it though.
(42:56):
We getting it in for We're getting it in. At
the end of the day.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
I was the only one that got a penalty, really
because you hit true because I hit True Blood. Clayton
hit me, Well, you knock true Blood off of me.
So let me tell you what really happened. So true
Blood was one of them players like you just go
past past the whistle blow one play. I think I
(43:22):
tried to punch him in the nuts play and I
think I think, okay, be honest, honest, honestly, I just
I'm just want to make sure the league doesn't have
to go. And you go back in there, find cussed
him in the nuts there. But as I do that,
(43:43):
the pile starts piling up on top of me.
Speaker 2 (43:45):
And in my hands. You stuck.
Speaker 1 (43:50):
So true Blay is like, oh really, and then he
starts giving me the business am I like this whole time,
like man, and thank god I didn't know who saved me. Yeah,
thank god somebody just comes out like Superman and just
hits him off me. No, I'm still under the pile.
(44:13):
I'm still under the pile. So I can't even help
Peanut because people are still on top of me. Whoever
I had me trapped, I'm trapped. So that's the story.
Speaker 2 (44:23):
Peanut. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (44:24):
I don't think I ever thanked you for that. You
did not cameras, so I appreciate you. Please hope you
don't like have video footage of this. But I was
trapped and you saved me and that and that's what happened.
Speaker 2 (44:37):
So thank you. I really thought like he saved your life, like.
Speaker 1 (44:41):
But no, it was like, no, that's how my helmet on.
Speaker 2 (44:43):
It wasn't doing it.
Speaker 1 (44:46):
He was like in that locker room. Imagine the next
day we're watching the film. Oh, they're probably killing you,
destroying killing you. I mean, and it just rewinds and
he's just you know, my head just going back like
who is and love? He's probably made love. He's probably
loving it too.
Speaker 2 (45:05):
It's like, is that you? Is that?
Speaker 1 (45:07):
Like? Man?
Speaker 2 (45:08):
Dude?
Speaker 1 (45:09):
So I didn't tell Himbouy that I kicked him and
not to put him the Nazi.
Speaker 2 (45:11):
Yeah, I don't know that till just now. Yeah, so
that's a little extra. True Blood was, you know, being
in the South Division. We played against him twice a year,
so he was definitely a guy habitual over the definitely
like over the line. Yeah, it was for me, it
was always the true Blood guy. And then Atlanta Falcons
had a center that was just always extra extra.
Speaker 1 (45:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:36):
So last question for you, sir, Mount Rushmore. You get
four picks. You can put four people on your personal
Mount Rushmore.
Speaker 1 (45:44):
Four picks for people who would those four people be
any position or in football and no, no, just.
Speaker 2 (45:50):
In life and life in general. This helped you get
to where you are.
Speaker 1 (45:53):
So obviously my parents like they're on the mount rushmore
white Mom and Dad just because how do you leave
of village of and not literally a village, but a
village of people that love you and go to a
foreign place where you know, nobody set up shop and
(46:13):
now you have four thriving children.
Speaker 2 (46:17):
And now I think.
Speaker 1 (46:21):
Five grandchildren and then living life like enjoy. So for them,
that's my rush mark, like there's nobody and I think
top that for me. And even my dad, like I
just said this to my dad is just like my
biggest hero, even how he deals with my mom and
you know, even when she gets on his nerves the way,
he's still able to kind of like handle her. And
(46:42):
and that's probably why he has a ton of gray hairs.
You know, no knock to your wife, my friend, no knock,
but you don't know her. But either way he's able
to handle her. He teaches me, yeah, yeah, he teaches
me a lot on even in my own relationship now
with my wife. For some reason, I'm I'm super connected
(47:08):
to you know, Barack Obama. I think, you know, in
the way that society has said that a black man
needs to behave I think he touched every box on
that a good family man, uh, intelligent, was one of
the best. Maybe it was the president of his class
in college where I think he might have went to Harvard,
(47:31):
I believe so for that to me, I think I
just knew that I had to be that good to
be successful. And I think looking at him and seeing
that it was true, like if you can check all
the boxes as a black man, you can reach the
highest levels of this country. So he's he's on top
of that. If I'm really thinking about it, then maybe
(47:52):
Steve Jobs, I really feel.
Speaker 2 (47:54):
Like he's been this.
Speaker 1 (47:59):
If he can you already saw before you passed away,
but if you could really see the impact that he's
had on the world, like not there's a there can't
be any household that has any significant amount of money
even if they don't that doesn't have a product that
he's created.
Speaker 2 (48:16):
So I would put him, put him on that. I
think that's the first Steve Jobs. It is. It is
so great.
Speaker 1 (48:24):
So if it wasn't him, now I would say, maybe
Jeff Bezos said, what he did with Amazon, but we'll
leave him out of it. Maybe Oprah, Oprah, let's go
with Oprah.
Speaker 2 (48:34):
Okay, why Oprah?
Speaker 1 (48:37):
Because Oprah taught me that if you can make people
feel a certain way, like they'll they'll follow you anywhere
you gotta go, Like if you can pour into people,
like the fact that she's always like giving somebody something,
like people love free stuff. Right, But she made it
in a way where people listen to her. She was
(49:00):
able to create culture, you know, best selling books. But
it's because she made people when she was able to
jump in everyone's household, she was she wasn't abrasive in
the way she and people wanted to just jump like
she had Tom Cruise jump to jumping on the couch. Yeah,
I mean you never seen Tom Cruise do nothing like
(49:21):
that before that. Right now, I'm dating myself, right because
these kids, young kids are like Tom, who's that? But
like that's the kind of you know, respect she had
and she became a billionaire, right and hopefully you two
are gonna do this and have people jumping on the couch.
Speaker 2 (49:35):
And Okay, so how does how does Roman how do
Romana make you feel? Talking on the podcast?
Speaker 1 (49:43):
Sometimes, yeah, I was like a little weird of that
by both of y'all.
Speaker 2 (49:48):
Say, look, that can be brothers. You know what. I
always thought you guys were brothers. You know. I don't
know if I appreciate that older brother. And everybody knows
he's deal with him though, so I patiently Number one,
I would say, I have good patience.
Speaker 1 (50:02):
Is he he gave you something?
Speaker 2 (50:03):
Great? Hairs? No, I don't think I've had so. I've
had these since I came out of h Really, yeah,
I've had these since eighth grade.
Speaker 1 (50:10):
I used to I used to think that that was
a part of your like you know, your your lore
for like for chicks to like, yeah, like I'm this
young guy with gray hairs.
Speaker 2 (50:20):
Like it definitely a conversation starter. It's a conversation you
use it all the time, all of time. It's a
conversation starter. Now now you're pumping his head. I just
think it's you know, I don't know how other people
viewed me around the league, like, because the day when
(50:41):
we played, you didn't talk to other teams like that,
unless you were teammates, you didn't talk to them. You
didn't like that guy.
Speaker 1 (50:48):
But I know what we noticed the way crowds reacted
to you making plays and when they announce your name
like and they loved us do it in the once
man like and then when I was with you, weren't
super We're walking around, uh and the souper. I'm like,
this dude is a legend. Two minutes, we couldn't go
(51:08):
nowhere whatever.
Speaker 2 (51:11):
Right here. I mean, they love this man. So it
was the mayor of New Orleans. No, so again I.
Speaker 1 (51:16):
Don't know, you know, whatever you did. I mean, you
played well, but there was something extra that had people
like that were very enamored with you and and love you.
You're one of the you know, the better players, not
just for on the field but off the field.
Speaker 2 (51:29):
People love you. Yeah, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (51:30):
I was I was a little I want they shocked,
but I was like, damn, this dude still got it.
People stopping like okay, we take a picture, and and
I mean, you know, just sitting there like chop Liver, Like.
Speaker 2 (51:44):
Every time I go to Normans with this cat like
he's a man, do the Homer Simpson emotion where I
just kind of it's just the New Orleans. It was
very weird because like that's when my kids because I'm
just Dad everywhere else in the country. Then I go
to New Orleans just like, hey, everybody just loves Rome
and it's like, you know, but there's a lot of
times I was hanging out and all that other stuff.
(52:05):
But man, it's been a pleasure man while a man.
You're awesome, you know. I mean, I've been from the
very first time I actually got to meet you at
the hotel at the Casino in Las Vegas and when
I was with Peanut again my work wife, and so
you've been outstanding, bro, and I love hearing your story. Hey,
thank you for always watching and listening. Wherever you pick
up your podcast, whether it's Apple Podcast, the iHeartRadio app,
(52:28):
make sure you leave us a like, subscribe, comment, leave
us a fourth, give us a five star rating. Yeah,
and you can also find us on the NFL pages
YouTube channel Peanut get us up out of here on
Peanut that's wrong and that is I don't want to
like la And this is the NFL Player's second act podcast.
We out the
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Fear thrives in silence and confusion. Ana Navarro rejects both. Her voice is an antidote to today’s chaos. Her new podcast, Bleep! with Ana Navarro, takes on today’s most pressing issues with the voices most connected to it: decision-makers, political leaders, cultural shapers, and people on the frontlines of the story. The conversations acknowledge the emotions we all feel—despair, sadness, fear— but emerge with knowledge, perspective, and hope. The belief is simple: fearless dialogue can transform fear into courage, and courage into change. When fear dominates the headlines, this show digs deeper. Because information, debate, and conversation don’t just ease fear, they give us power to shape the future.
Hey Jonas!
Hey Jonas! The official Jonas Brothers podcast. Hosted by Kevin, Joe, and Nick Jonas. It’s the Jonas Brothers you know... musicians, actors, and well, yes, brothers. Now, they’re sharing another side of themselves in the playful, intimate, and irreverent way only they can. Spend time with the Jonas Brothers here and stay a little bit longer for deep conversations like never before.