July 3, 2024 • 40 mins
On the latest NFL Players: Second Acts podcast, former USC legend and 16-year veteran quarterback Rodney Peete joins Peanut and Roman. Rodney discusses what it was like being runner-up to Barry Sanders in the Heisman Trophy race then becoming his teammate the next season with the Detroit Lions. Rodney carved out a respectable NFL career, but he talks about why he almost passed on the NFL to purse a career in Major league Baseball. Rodney then talks about his struggles coming to terms with the end of his football career, despite having a second act in media lined up after retirement. Rodney later reflects on his initial denial of his son’s autism diagnosis to becoming an avid activist for the cause with his wife Holly Robinson Peete. All this, and more, in a conversation you don’t want to miss.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, this is Rodney Pete, NFL Veterans Up sixteen years,
co host of Rogan and Rodney on a five to
seventy LA Sports and iHeartMedia.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
This is the.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
NFL Player Second Ax Podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
Come on now, thanks for tuning in, Peanut Tuman and
this is the NFL Player Second Acts Podcast with me
as always as my guy Roman Harper.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
He's got his he's got his little shirt popped open.
You know what I'm saying. He's trying to show show
like he in LA. He got the La vibes right now.
I don't know what is this pink leopard or something
with the olive green?
Speaker 5 (00:45):
Yes, where are these? I don't even know what they are.
Speaker 6 (00:48):
They're like pedals, so yeah, pedals, pedals. Yeah, they like
fall off roses and things of that nature.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Edles.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
Yeah, it's very frosty.
Speaker 5 (00:56):
Yeah, it's all good. I appreciate that.
Speaker 6 (00:57):
Anyways, let me get out here and give us shout
out to all of our viewers, all of our listeners
wherever you take in your podcast, where it's Apple Podcast,
iHeart Radio app thank you for always tune in. Give
us a rating of review five stars. Please give us
a couple comments, Share like and always give us a follow.
Man and Peanut, what do we do? We tell him
to tell a friend, to tell a friend to do
(01:17):
what tell a friend?
Speaker 2 (01:19):
There we go.
Speaker 6 (01:19):
Just in case you didn't remember, Peanut, who is our
special guest this even this morning. I'm really excited about
this one. Grew up watching this man for do a
lot of great things.
Speaker 5 (01:28):
I think we all did.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
Can I just say he is the greatest multi sport
athlete to come out of the state of Arizona. He
was an All American ads. Come on see sixteen year
NFL VET, author of sports radio.
Speaker 5 (01:43):
He runs a foundation. Ladies and gentlemen, Rodney p walcome to.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
The show, Come on see, yeah, you gotta bring it man,
You just you've earned that.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Sixteen years, sixteen man, sixteen Yeah, I'm still walking up
right too.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Oh it's all good. Yeah, no, I'm uh.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
I think back at it, and you guys know, it
could be a grind over the years and going and
go training camp after training camp after training camp. But
after a while they start to run together and you
look back and go, man Dahn, sixteen years. It really did.
And I know it sounds cliches, but it really did
fly by it really did. But you know I enjoyed
(02:24):
every minute of it.
Speaker 6 (02:26):
So I hate to do this to you, do it,
but we want you to explain something. All Right, you
look a little bit different. You look great this morning.
I don't think all right, Thomas putting me back here,
you got me all right? A little bit of TV
magic here, Yeah, yeah, I want you to explain this
to me. Okay, you look beautiful.
Speaker 4 (02:48):
But right here, So for fort is Roy Pete in
high school and he's got he's got a Jerry curR.
Speaker 5 (02:59):
He got this glow.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Uh huh.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
He was at the end of that term. Get a
redone right there. Wow, look at y'all, Doug to get
that bad boy right there.
Speaker 5 (03:14):
That's your sophomore year.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
That was my sophomore year in high school.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
In fact, I think that is right after we won
the state title in basketball in Arizona.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Yeah, and basketball. You know you had to hear have
the hair bouncing up and down.
Speaker 6 (03:27):
Got to yeah, yeah, it ain't helmet, no help.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
You had to let it go, man, you had to
let it go. So yeah, I rocked it for a while.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
That you could have been a member of like boys
in the hood right there, Like that's that's ice Q,
that's w.
Speaker 5 (03:46):
Yeah, you had full length. Oh my god, how long
did you grow that to get that?
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Oh man?
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Yeah, you know, speaking of that sophomore year, I think
I started in junior high man middle school and telling
my you're not cutting my hair, You're not cutting.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
It at all. I got to let it go. You know.
Speaker 5 (04:04):
That is a larrium. Oh all right, so let's let's
stay back on the starting. That's how we saw that
took you way back.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
He looked like y'all could have saw his face.
Speaker 5 (04:15):
He was just like, oh my god, damn, I'm glad
you knew you remember exactly what it is.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Though.
Speaker 6 (04:22):
I want to go to this though, we'll stay back
a little bit, and that is in nineteen eighty eight
eighty nine, you were running up for the Heisman Trophy
and you lost it to a young man by.
Speaker 5 (04:34):
The name of Barry Sanders.
Speaker 6 (04:36):
And we all saw, well, Barry like didn't even react
when he won the Heisman. No, he did not. He
didn't react at all. Yeah, yeah, no emotion. And you
leave me right to my next question. What was it
like to go from that point where you saw him
in college do what he did. You had all the
accolades and were coming off your great year to where
now you guys are in Detroit together just the following year.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
It was a first of all, he is a he's
an amazing guy.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
And and you know, it's funny that you say that
he didn't react to winning the Heisman, because that's that's
actually genuinely who he is. And when you get to
know him, you understand that's who he is because sometimes
you see him from afar and I do remember in college,
first of all, nobody knew who he was started our
senior year. Going back, I'm dating myself because I'm going
(05:25):
back to nineteen eighty eight and we're leading up to it.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
It was a really good class.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
I mean, there was some great team Dion Sanders in
Florida State rolling at that time, you know, and Nebraska
and Broderick Thomas and Steve Taylor were rolling at that time.
Oklahoma had it going at that time when Jamel Holloway
so and then across town UCLA and Troy Aikman they
had it going. So it was there was a lot
of those names out there in eighty eight that were
people saying, Wholla, this, this could be a nice Heisman race.
(05:51):
And so halfway through the season, we started off undefeated.
Ucla started off undefeated. So it was a lot of
Troy Aikman, Rodney Pete in California and we're doing our thing.
And then about week six we started seeing highlights of
this cat from Oklahoma State. It was just running for
two hundred yards, running for three fifth and not against
you know, the little sisters of the poor. He was
(06:13):
doing it against you know, Nebraska, he was doing it
against you know, Oklahoma, he was doing against Texas, and
he was running, he was doing all the It was
a highlight every weekend, and you were like this, this
dude is amazing, amazing. And then by the time it
came for the ceremony at the Heisman thing, we all
knew it was it was Barry's trophy because he had
just done and had a phenomenal season that year. So
(06:38):
I got to know him a little bit there. But
then when we went to Detroit, you know, and I
was fortunate, like you said, you guys said, I played
sixteen years, I played for six different teams, I played
with other unbelievable running backs over that time, had a
chance to spend a year in Dallas with emmittt.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Smith. Ricky Waters was in Philly.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
With me for a few years, but nobody, nobody, I'm
telling you, nobody was like Barry Sanders.
Speaker 5 (07:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
And I used to pride myself on being able to,
you know, do play action well and carry out my face.
But he made me the worst faking quarterback in the
whole league because every time I handed the ball off,
I just wanted to watch him.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
You know, I didn't carry it out.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
I just turned around to watch him because he was
going to do something amazing and it could have been
a five yard run, but that five yard run was
one of the most amazing five yard runs you've ever seen.
But just just amazing, amazing teammate. To have an amazing
person too, to this.
Speaker 5 (07:36):
Day, definitely my favorite.
Speaker 6 (07:39):
I got one more A little quick follow up, my bad
and that's like, so you went from Heisman Like I
want to know your mentality though, because you were projected
and you were you were great in college and then
your NFL career get started off a little. I would say, Rocky,
I mean you were six round pick. Yeah, you want
(07:59):
to Rocky, Yeah, I was like, you're one hundred and
forty first overall from when you went from a Heisman
Trophy candidate and we're the man at USC to all
of a sudden, ah, he's too small.
Speaker 5 (08:11):
Oh his arm strength is in question.
Speaker 6 (08:13):
And you look at that, and that was really a
true narrative that a lot of quarterbacks had to fight,
especially quarterbacks of color at that time. Maybe kind of
walk me through that part of it as well, and
then you still got sixteen years.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Look, I'm not even going to sugarcoat it was. It
was a very difficult time, right, because that's what you do.
You know, there's a certain point for all of us
that we figure out, I got a shot to make
it in the NFL. I got to go pro. You know,
maybe not happened at eighth grade. Some some folks that
does ninth grade early on. You know, you go into
the league. But there comes a time where you figure out,
I can do this, I can do this long term,
(08:49):
and I can go to the next level doing this.
And it happened for me in college. And I started
at USC middle of my freshman year, so I was playing.
I played a full three and a half year that
you see, and was kind of growing each year, and
then got to my senior year and was in the
national conversation. We had went to the Rose Bowl the
(09:09):
year before and we were rejected in the top five.
I think we were ranked to start the season ranked
number two or three in the country, and so there
was a lot of attention as to mention the Heisman race.
They're talking about Troy Aikman, Amy and and so you
build up that whole season and we go on and
we we win ten straight games. We're number one against
Notre Dame or number two against Notre Dame. Number one,
(09:31):
they beat us, they go on and win a national title.
But after that, you're like, Okay, now what's next. It's
the next Lebble, it's the league. And heard it all,
heard it all, yeah, heard okay. We're not sure because
I played baseball in college too, We're not sure he's
gonna play baseball. Do we want to waste a pick
(09:52):
on him high if he's going to play baseball? So
I took that out of the equation. I didn't play
baseball my senior year. So in the spring of my
senior year, I decided not to play because I really
wanted to play football, so I didn't want to give
them an excuse to not draft me. So I didn't
play and just worked out for the Combine and then
(10:14):
worked out and had a pro day at SC and
all things were going well. So you start to get
and back then it wasn't like it is now where
there's so much attention. There's so much detail on you know, draft,
you know, prospects and where you're going to go and
talking to this and interview For this, it was you
get calls from different teams and say, hey, you know,
we're thinking about you. We just wanted to talk to
you about it. And so there were about half a
(10:36):
dozen teams that said, yeah, we like you and we
think And then then the projections came in here like
late first round, second round, you know, we can we
can work with you. And draft Day comes and it
was first round goals, second round goals, third round goals.
(10:56):
Then I started seeing other quarterbacks go and because everybody
knew Troy was going to be number one, I mean,
it was just it was from all season long, the
year before he was going to be number one pick
for the Cowboys.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Cowboys came out and said it.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
So it was like Troy and everybody else basically, And
so I started to see these quarterbacks go in the
second round and the third round, and then the fourth
round and the fifth round, and the fifth round ended
the first day, So I didn't get drafted on the
first day of the draft. So I'm sitting there, five
(11:30):
rounds go by, I'm not drafted, and I'm wondering at
that point, am I ever going to get drafted?
Speaker 2 (11:36):
And it was the.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Longest night that I have ever had, I think to
this day, just thinking about not being able to sleep,
because this is what you dream about, this is what
you want. You think you worked and you proved yourself
enough to get noticed and to have an opportunity to play.
Because after the fifth round went by, you started thinking,
am I not even going to opportunity play?
Speaker 5 (12:00):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Anybody gonna ever draft me? Right?
Speaker 1 (12:04):
And so the next day rolls around and I think
Detroit had like one of the early picks in the
morning of that sixth round, and Wayne Fons called me
and they called me and said, we drafted you.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
You know, come on in.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
But it was it was a difficult thing because nine
quarterbacks went before me.
Speaker 5 (12:20):
Do you remember them?
Speaker 1 (12:23):
I remember some of them, Yeah, some of them. The
guy I think Anthony Dilwick was one of them from
Duke who went to UH I went to Green Bay
at that time. And then I think it was a
guy named Jeff Carlson that would played at Weaver State.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
And then they shout out to Jeff heard there's another.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Guy at Oregon State that played in the pack with us,
and so again nine of them went yeah, and I
had to yeah, absolutely absolutely. I mean there was a
part of me that that was, you know, what the
hell with this, I'm going to play I'm going to
play baseball. Yeah, you know, I'm just gonna go play baseball.
And interesting enough, a month later was the baseball Draft
(13:06):
and the Oakland A's drafted me. They drafted me the
year before and I didn't go, but then they draft
me again. When they saw that, I flipped in and
dropped to the sixth round and said, okay, maybe there's
a shot, and I went up and worked out for them.
They were, you know, they drafted me, I think in
thirteen to fourteen round, but they were offering me like
first round money to come and play for them, and
(13:28):
I for the first time I seriously considered doing it. Right,
But then in talking to you know, my parents, my family,
my brother and some other people that were close to
me and other coaches and other guys that I played with.
It was you gotta go show them, you gotta go
show them, you gotta go let them know that they
(13:50):
made a mistake and that you can play in this league.
And so when I heard all that, I was like,
I gotta go do it. I gotta go to Detroit.
I gotta go play. And my mind was made up.
And then again sixteen years later, you know, I lasted out.
That lasted all Yeah, I think you yeah, yeah, it's crazy, right, Joy.
Speaker 4 (14:11):
We're going to take a short break and we'll be
right back. I cannot hit a baseball. I cannot hit
a fastball. I can only stole basis. I'm like Willie
Beaman from from Major League. That's the only thing I
can do. You've been drafted four times. You got drafted
in eighty four, eighty eight, eighty nine, and ninety Yeah,
what kind of baseball player? Tell me what kind of
(14:33):
baseball player you were? Ooh like that, because I know
what I this way.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Many people thought I made the wrong decision, including coaches,
especially my baseball coaches. And to this day I would
run into different people said you should I mean I
run into Barry Bonds all the time, and he was like, man,
you should have played baseball. I told you should play baseball.
I was like, man, my heart was in football, though,
you I don't know if I if I had played baseball,
I would have always wondered what it would have been
(15:03):
like to play football.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
I don't.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
I don't feel that way playing baseball. I mean playing football,
going God, I should have played. I wondered what it
was he liked playing baseball. I admire it, you know,
and I appreciate it, but I don't. I don't think
I would feel the same way if it was flipped around.
But yeah, no, we were good and in fact, uh
you know during that time, you know, playing baseball in
(15:26):
the Pac ten as it was, it was like playing
minor league baseball because the talent level was so good.
Like I mentioned, Barry Bonds went to Arizona State. He
was playing there. I was on the team with the
big unit. Randy Johnson was the team. Yeah, Brett Boone
was my team. Hard back, harder, harder. Yeah, he didn't
(15:47):
care back then. That's all he threw was a fastball,
and he was he would knock you out. It was
all a bit of six ' ten coming off that hill.
It was it was scary. You know, he'd before he
started again, he would have you know, like a c
D C rocking hard going out there, and I think
(16:07):
I think he might have spoke two or three joints
before he got on the hill and was just coming out,
and he intimidated so many people. Man, it was it
was incredible to see that size a guy throwing that hard.
But uh, yeah, so I was pretty good.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
Yeah, so Bo said, excuse me, Bo Jackson is my
all time greatest athlete. The amount of amazingness he had
on the field, on the on on baseball and football.
He was just like, blew me away, breaking the bast
with his leg.
Speaker 5 (16:37):
Did you ever think that you could do baseball and football?
Did that that ever? Was that ever a fault?
Speaker 2 (16:43):
It barely?
Speaker 1 (16:46):
But at the pro level, Yeah, to play quarterback and
play baseball, you can't great and do it. Like if
I was a receiver, running back like bow was, or
defense back like the probably could probably could do it.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Yeah, probab we could do it.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
But the demand on the quarterback position, the demand in
the offseason, demand of studying, trying to you know, trying
to come in to a season, say in September, and
then okay, I'm gonna transition back to football after you
played baseball spring and summer as a quarterback. That'd be
very difficult to do. And and so it was. It
wouldn't have happened. But I'm with you with bo Bow.
(17:23):
You know, we see his football highlights all the time,
but if you just go and just watch his baseball highlights,
that man, I mean, incredible, incredible athlete, incredible.
Speaker 5 (17:34):
Well, it was funny because at that time it was
three guys.
Speaker 6 (17:36):
It was Bo, it was Dion and then Brian Jordan,
and Jordan was also the other guy a lot of
people don't talk about, but also in Atlanta playing football
and then would switch over in place in baseball too.
Speaker 5 (17:47):
And but you bringing up the quarterback. I didn't think
about it. I didn't either.
Speaker 6 (17:51):
I was like, actually, that makes all the sense in
the world not to be because you still gotta be.
Speaker 4 (17:55):
Doing my My one question is how hard is to
hit a fastball?
Speaker 1 (18:03):
The fastball is the easy part. It's everything else because
you can time if you like, like Randy Johnson, like
in college there were games where he would get shelled.
I mean, they hit him for like eight nine runs
because he thought he could throw throw it by everybody,
and he did that for the first inning. Then that
second time around people would time him up. So a
(18:24):
fastball is usually the easiest pitch to hit because you
can time it up. If you time it up right,
then you can hit it. It's the off speed pitches,
it's the breaking ball. It's the pitch that you think
is coming at you, you're getting out of the way
and it turns out to be a strike. That's the
pitch that is difficult to hit because you got to
get so ready for that fastball that's coming at ninety
five ninety eight miles an hour that you're so far
(18:47):
ready for that, and then they throw something soft and
you're way out in front of it, you know. So
that's the difficult thing is to be able to adjust
to the different you know, speed and velocity of the pitches.
Speaker 5 (18:57):
Told you, we can hit a fastball, dude, there's no
way we can hit it. Fact, we had this conversation yesterday.
That's what he's all in his head.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
Thomas, and there shaking his head, Thomas, we can.
Speaker 5 (19:07):
Hit a fastball. This is a whole big unit I
can hit your fastball.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Put it right here every time. Sooner or later I'm
gonna hit it exactly. That's not gonna happen.
Speaker 6 (19:17):
So this is a I know we want to try
and move this thing along, but I really really am
intrigued by this. And so you played sixteen years. I
know you're probably happy, excited. Tell me about how you
felt when you accomplished that. But then also I want
to know because I've also heard in some other interviews
how you said, well, you did the best Am Best
(19:37):
AM's TV show, but overall you just you weren't always
happy with your second act immediately. And so how eventually
did you work through that or to maybe talk about
some of those emotions of what you were feeling, what
you're feeling like you're missing out on, because this is
why we do this show and this podcast is to
really dive into that too, because we all have our
(19:57):
inner struggles or our own internal.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
About Yeah, and I appreciate you guys for doing this
because this is this is something that first of all,
you can't talk about it enough, yes, right, but it's
something I'm sure you guys deal with it when you
run into other fellow players or whatever. It's like, Man,
how was it for you when you retired? You know,
how did you transition? And it's different for everyone, But
(20:22):
at the same time, it is a struggle, I think,
and now how big that struggle is is it's all
individualized and you figure out for each person. But for me,
you never really know when it's and it's going to end,
but you know it's going to end at some point,
(20:43):
and you try to prepare yourself, at least you should,
and you try to prepare yourself for that time. And
I always wanted to be in entertainment. I wanted to
be in media. I wanted to do something like that,
and so I kind of started preparing myself prior to
my time that I was leaving. The last three or
four years when I was in Carolina, I would come
(21:03):
back to LA and I would work in different studios
and I would try to understand the business as much
as I could. And then when I was contemplating retirement,
I think it was like two thousand and five, Best
Damn Sports Show called said we're revamping the show. We
want to bring you in and would you like to
be a part of it? And I was like, Okay,
(21:25):
this is a sign. This is it, right, I don't
have to search for that next gig. Sorry, he go
write the Fox and do best damn sports shows right here.
I don't have to wait a year or two to
figure out what I'm going to do. And I transitioned
right into it. But it was still difficult because as
much as people tell you what it's going to be
(21:45):
like when you're tired, you don't know until you do
it yourself. Because that feeling you get when you put
on that uniform and you run out in the stadium,
you warm it up, and then all of a sudden
you get that first hit right in the game start
and they kick it off, and you're like, man, it's
this nothing like this, that tingle you get, that butterfly
feeling you get. And so when you retire, I think
(22:05):
we often try to duplicate that somewhere. We try to
find that void. We're trying to find that same feeling,
when in essence, there's never gonna be that feeling again.
You got to change that direction. So if you keep
trying to search for that same feeling, you're never gonna
get there, right, And so you got to, for lack
of a better phrase, you got to find a different high.
(22:27):
And once you come to grips with that, I'm not
gonna have that feeling anymore. I think you start to
be okay with retirement and what's gonna happen secondarily for you,
because there were a period of time, you know, for
a good three to four years time I was on
best day on that as great a gig as it was,
(22:49):
I just didn't fill me up, you know, it didn't
fill me up. It didn't I didn't feel like, Okay,
where's that feeling I had? Where's those butterflies that I
had when I was playing? Where can I get that?
You start searching. That's why guys do different things. Right now,
I'm gonna get a restaurant. I'm gonna get a nightclub.
I'm gonna get this, I'm gonna go do the real estate. Yeah,
I'm gonna do whatever, trying to search for it instead
(23:11):
of saying, okay, that was that, I'm gonna put that away.
I have all those memories, but now my energy's focused
somewhere else. Yeah, And that's not easy to do. I
mean I'm saying, but it's not easy to do.
Speaker 5 (23:22):
Right.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
So, since being retired and you've I'm assuming you've found
more things to do. What have you been up to,
and then what's been the most fun that you've been doing?
Speaker 2 (23:31):
Man, Raising four kids has been great. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
My oldest are twins that are twenty six years old.
And you know, speaking of the whole retirement thing, which
another part of it was difficult, is that my oldest
son was diagnosed with autism at three years old. And
that was a that took a toll on me as well,
because that happened later in my career towards the end
(23:55):
and then into retirement. There was a level of me
being in done nile about that because at that time, say,
twenty to twenty three years ago, not a lot of
people were talking about autism, right, lumping it into ADHD
or just any kind of this, you know, development of
disorder that we didn't have a whole lot of studies
and people weren't talking about it.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
So I did what my dad would do. Right, I'm
gonna try to coach it out of you.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
I'm gonna try to coach the autism y, Yeah, see
it right, I would go, We're gonna go in the backyard,
We're gonna play catch, we gonna we're gonna work this
through and you're gonna make eye contact with me, and
you're gonna you're gonna have your speech, and we're gonna
talk through it and don't fix somewhere.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
We're gonna fix it. We're gonna fix it.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
In the meantime, my wife was like rolling up her sleeves, going, Okay,
we gotta read this article, we gotta read this book.
We're gonna talk to this doctor. We got to talk
to this therapist. We got to find out everything we do.
She would send me, she would send me articles and
magazines and books on a regular basis, and I never
opened them, never wanted to read them. And she would
(25:02):
come and this is what I was playing in Carolina.
She would come and that box would not even be open,
and we'd have our knockdown, drag out fights about it
because she knew there was a period of time that
you had to attack it. You had to really get
in with both feet and get to the therapies and understand,
(25:23):
you know, what this was all about. And I was
not willing to do that. It was my first son, right,
he was my firstborn son, had my name. Yeah, it
was like, you know, he's gonna be a star. He's right, Hey,
we're gonna go play littlely, ye do all these things
to usc Yeah, all of that. And when that, when
that hits you, that that may not happen, that's it's
a tough thing. That's a tough thing on a on
(25:44):
a dad and a lot of fathers that I talk
to now, they go through that because they have this
vision of what they want for their son, and when
that doesn't happen or that is derailed a little bit,
then it's a difficult thing to adjust to from from
a marriage standpoint, individually standpoint, a lot of people start
(26:07):
drinking too much, like I did, you know, started drinking
way too much, and just like I don't want to
even think about it. I didn't want to think about it.
And until I came to grips, was I gotta I
gotta look at this from from his eyes, from my
son's eyes, right from his world instead of my world.
(26:27):
Is when I started to come around. And really, basically,
my wife gave me an ultimatum. She was like, you
better get on board or you're gonna have to get
on out. And because I'm at the end of the day,
I'm gonna choose him because I gotta I gotta be there,
all in for him. And if you're not all in
for him too, what are we doing?
Speaker 5 (26:49):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (26:50):
So that that hit me hard and I was like, okay,
let's do it.
Speaker 5 (26:53):
You know.
Speaker 6 (26:54):
That was Look, man, we all get hit sometimes smacked
dead in the face with some kind of ultimatum. Wife
told me one time, Hey, you know, would you want
your daughter to date you? Like, like, you hit that
dose reality and it does kind of shake you.
Speaker 5 (27:10):
I appreciate you sharing that. Yeah, I really do. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (27:13):
Yeah, man, talk about the some of the work that
you and your wife do. What do your foundation? And
I know you, but you do some stuff with autism?
Speaker 2 (27:21):
Yeah, we do. We have our own foundation.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Yeah, it's called a Holly Rod Foundations Hollyrod dot org.
You can find it. But we do everything from early
intervention and helping families deal with it early education. One
of our big things now is we work with a
number of corporations to hire kids that are on the
spectrum because one of the things that these kids kind
of matriculate through middle school and high school, say, okay,
(27:46):
most of them will not go to college, right, It's okay.
What happens now you know, they're becoming young adults and
what okay, so how do they interact in society? And
a lot of times people are afraid of what they
don't know. They're not going to hire a kid it's
got special needs or maybe a little different, right, So
we really are trying to be out there as much
(28:08):
as we can talking to corporate and say, hey, it's okay,
hire this kid. He will be your best worker, he
will be your most loyal worker, just give him a chance.
And that's been rewarding for us because we've been able
to place kids in different jobs with restaurants and then
businesses and things like that that have really benefited them
(28:29):
and their families. And it really came about because what
happened to us. We were going through that situation. We
were fortunate enough again to have him diagnosed as early
as possible, and he grew over those years, not to
the point where he was going to go to a
typical four year college. So he got to be eighteen,
We're like, okay, what are we going to do now
(28:51):
with him? How are we going to help him become
a young adult? And so we started looking for a
job for him, and it was so difficult, so difficult
for someone even with the people in the connections that
we had of someone really just taking a chance on it, right.
And then finally the Dodgers called really, yeah, we had
(29:12):
friends over there. Magic Johnson had just bought the team
with the Guggenheim guys, and so we knew a lot
of people that were coming on to the Dodgers as
new people. And one of them was Lon Rosen, who
was in the marketing department, and he got along with
Magic say bring him over. Let's just you know, maybe
we have a position for him. And we brought him
over and he was so excited because he he's one
(29:34):
of those kids that's got that brain. Right.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
Yeah, he can.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
You can tell him one time everybody in this room's
birthday and I'll never forget it. Or you can say
what day does March twenty fifth, two thousand and thirty
fall on, and he can tell you it falls on
a Wednesday that quick. So he's got one of those brains,
and so he just kind of blew them away and
(30:01):
they hired him on the spot. And so now he's
been working in the clubhouse for the Dodgers in the
equipment room and doing those things, and it's best for
him because he interacts with the players. You know, he's
there in the locker room before the games, after the games,
during spring training, and he's been doing for nine years now.
Speaker 5 (30:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
Yeah, change his life, change his life. So when we
saw that, it was like, Okay, this is our focus
now for our foundations. We're really gonna hemm hard at
these corporations to get other kids to feel what we
feel and for for other families to feel what we feel,
because there's a sense of hopelessness out there when a
child starts to grow and gets older, because you you know,
(30:41):
you want your your children to do better than you,
always right, and then you want them, okay, what are
they gonna What are they gonna do when they're adults,
How are they gonna survive in this world? And you
want somebody to look after him. And so the fact
that he got a job and probably gonna have it
for for a long time, it did so so many
things for him but also for us.
Speaker 4 (31:00):
But I could I could tell because your face let up.
So as you're telling the series, your face everything about
you changed. It's like, oh, he got a job, and
he's like, you know, because when you started out telling
the story, you know, it's like, oh, well, and I'm
a coach out of him. But now to see where
he is now, you're just like, he's he works in
the clubhouse, and you're just like it's like he made it,
like he won the Heisman, like he went to sc
and did all the things you wanted him to do.
(31:23):
You know what, I'm like, like, I can you can
feel it with your smile and your your your body language.
So thank you for sharing that. That's awesome, man, Yeah,
that's awesome. Blessing, and we'll be right back.
Speaker 6 (31:34):
I want to kind of keep this next one in
the same vein because you're talking about like the inside
joy that you get it's from your family. And I
know this one's kind of random, but your wife, she
comes up on my Instagram all the time, especially lately
because of South Carolina and coach Don State. Is anybody
more happier than your wife right now than what Don
today is doing? Because like every time I turn around
(31:57):
is Don Stately is hometown this and they're both from Philly,
So how how much are you hearing about this?
Speaker 1 (32:03):
I didn't know. I didn't know how tight that Philly
connection until I met her, right, And there's there's a thing.
It really is the thing about folks from Philly, Okay, right,
And so the fact that you know, Donna is from Philly,
She's from Philly. They knew each other, you know, way
before she even got to South Carolina, so.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
They were friends.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
And then this run that she's been on, Holly's been
her biggest cheerleader. Man, So it's been it's been great
to watch. But it's Yeah, she often throws that Philly
thing in the face, but she is so happy on class, Like,
you're right, I think she's happier than Donna.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
For the whole thing.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
She's up in the middle of the night. Well, I
gotta put something together for don on the ground.
Speaker 6 (32:47):
It keeps popping up random of mind all the time, like, dude,
what is going on?
Speaker 2 (32:52):
I guess she's happy.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
Man. Yeah, she's got that that Philly girl thing, girlfriend
thing that that's going on with her. But incredible though,
for women's sports, women's basketball in general. You know what
has happened over the last you know, the last year, man,
it's been incredible.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
It's great to see.
Speaker 4 (33:07):
Yeah, you've had amazing high school run, amazing college run,
amazing NFL run on the field, off the field, sports, TV, radio,
broadcasting author, all these all these things, what's been your
personal Mount Rushmore? Like if you could name four people
on your personal Mount Rushmore, who would those people be?
Speaker 2 (33:25):
Wow?
Speaker 5 (33:26):
M hm, you get four?
Speaker 2 (33:28):
I get four?
Speaker 5 (33:29):
Yes, sir, and now this is yours, so you can
kind of do it how you right? Right?
Speaker 1 (33:32):
We give you some leadway, Well it's it's well. The
first's gotta be my mom and dad. Yeah, yeah, they're
up there. Why Mom, Dad, God rust your soul. She
passed away a year and a half ago. Yeah, I
appreciate because my mom was. My mom was the one
that was there taking me to practice every day.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
You know.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
She was a school teacher, so she made sure I
didn't go to practice unless I had my work done.
She was the one that was like, don't you ever
give up. Don't you ever let them see you sweat,
don't let you don't ever don't ever show any kind
of weakness, because you can do anything. She was that
motivator in our family. So she definitely definitely definitely the
(34:20):
one up there. And then my dad was the you know,
he was a coach for so many years. He started
out in high school obviously, and then the college he
coached at the University of Arizona, then went to coach
in the NFL for twenty years. He was that coach
that never I don't know, but he's never. He never
(34:42):
coached me. He just loved me, right. So yeah, and
it's got to be hard because I coached my son's
a little league and I tell you, I'm I couldn't
do more than a little jokers. Wasn't doing what I
was saying. Man, I was like, come on, man, you
know I want him to do it like I was
going through.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (35:01):
Yeah, no.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
He had so much patience, but man.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
He he never dragged me, never forced me to go
play anything or play any sport.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
But he was always there.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
He was always there if I needed to go, you know,
play catch and work on something.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
He was always there.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
If I needed to, you know, talk through some things
psychologically about the sport and the game.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
He was always there.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
And he's one of those guys that always always had
a good day, right. He was always like this, no
matter how high and how low however it got. He
was always that calming force in our family and with everybody.
And to this day I run into people that you
know either played for him or knew him from back
in the day, and he was he's this same guy.
(35:47):
So you know, both those guys are definitely definitely up there.
Then I'd probably have to I'd have to put my
high school baseball coach up. The name is Hal Eustace
and uh, he passed away a little a little while
ago as well. But he's he's the he's the one
(36:11):
that that took what you had inside and pushed you
to be better. He's the one to put.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
The dog in you.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
I mean, you got to have it in you, the
number one. You gotta have it in you. But he's
the one to help bring it out. And he was
a fierce, fierce competitor as a coach and even when
he played, but as a coach he was and he
was the one that just taught me taking those same
principles not that I had, and he would talk about
(36:43):
on the field but in life as well, and that's
how you attack it. His name is Hal Eustace Man,
so he yeah, he's definitely up there. Okay, coach, how's
up there? And then my better half, man, Yeah, she's
she's up there because we've been married twenty eight years now,
and uh, you know, she's been she's been with me,
(37:06):
with me through some some good times and bad times.
You mean the times that we just talked about my
son was diagnosed and you know, and I was just
wilding out and just you know, drinking way too much,
as I said, and then you know, not being able
to deal with the reality of what's going on. She
gave me that tough love, you know. And and she's
(37:28):
been the one that, no matter what, has fought for
us in this family.
Speaker 2 (37:33):
Right.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
So I wouldn't I wouldn't be here in the shape
and the way I am right now that had it
not been for her.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
So she's definitely up there.
Speaker 5 (37:41):
Great compliment, great compliment. I think that's that's a rap.
Speaker 4 (37:47):
I mean, great job, Rodney p appreciates for coming on,
thanks for sharing all that.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
And I gotta say thank you for for what you
guys have eve been doing, man, because it's it's so important,
it's so important. I mean, I watch the show with
John Abraham.
Speaker 5 (38:02):
Yes, yeah, it was a really deep, real.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Deep one, right.
Speaker 1 (38:04):
Yes, he got sober, right, Yes, I thought, which is
really cool. Christian Pondan was a good one too. Yes,
I appreciate with you guys, because sometimes we get lost
when those playing days are over, and we got to
look out for each other. So what you guys are
doing is really important.
Speaker 5 (38:21):
Yeah, man, I appreciate that compiment. Man.
Speaker 6 (38:24):
You know, Peanut has really gotten I think since doing
this podcast, I've seen growth in him and being able
to accept compliments and understanding that we all got a purpose, man,
But right now to kind of live through this and
getting to actually meet a lot of our own heroes
and legends that we saw and watch grow up. And
it's been really cool to have you on and so
(38:44):
many other great guests.
Speaker 5 (38:45):
But then you know, you never know how.
Speaker 6 (38:47):
This thing is going to go when we get up
here on the right And then for you to sit
up here and be so candid and so open about
your walk through life with your son dealing with autism,
going from trying to coach it out of him to
really having your wife loving on you and making sure
she's fighting for this family to keep it strong and
get you on that straight and narrow path. For such
a strong man that accomplished so much in the areas
(39:08):
that we think is all the credit in the world,
but to be able to sit up here humbly and
tell us us like, Man, I was down, yeah, but
I'm here now. Really kind of shows us like, man,
it's light. And this is why we do this podcast.
It's to be able to shine a light on all
of us that are really going out here and walking
that straight and narrow path, trying to do it the best.
Speaker 5 (39:26):
Way we know possible.
Speaker 6 (39:27):
After we hang up the cleats, when all the lights
are off and nobody's really paying attention to our struggles.
Speaker 5 (39:34):
We appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
Yeah, well said man, Thanks man, Thank you appreciate it. Man.
Speaker 6 (39:38):
Well, well, Peter, you want to get us up out
of here, dog, Yeah, thank you all for listen, doing
a great job.
Speaker 4 (39:43):
Thanks for tuning in, Like, Share, subscribe, follow, give us
a five star rating. iHeartRadio app Apple Podcast. You can
check us out on Peanut that's.
Speaker 5 (39:54):
Wrong, that's Rodney Pete.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
Hey.
Speaker 4 (39:57):
We appreciate y'all. Thank you all for listening, tuning in.
Chill next time we're out
Hey, this is Rodney Pete, NFL Veterans Up sixteen years,
co host of Rogan and Rodney on a five to
seventy LA Sports and iHeartMedia.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
This is the.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
NFL Player Second Ax Podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
Come on now, thanks for tuning in, Peanut Tuman and
this is the NFL Player Second Acts Podcast with me
as always as my guy Roman Harper.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
He's got his he's got his little shirt popped open.
You know what I'm saying. He's trying to show show
like he in LA. He got the La vibes right now.
I don't know what is this pink leopard or something
with the olive green?
Speaker 5 (00:45):
Yes, where are these? I don't even know what they are.
Speaker 6 (00:48):
They're like pedals, so yeah, pedals, pedals. Yeah, they like
fall off roses and things of that nature.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Edles.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
Yeah, it's very frosty.
Speaker 5 (00:56):
Yeah, it's all good. I appreciate that.
Speaker 6 (00:57):
Anyways, let me get out here and give us shout
out to all of our viewers, all of our listeners
wherever you take in your podcast, where it's Apple Podcast,
iHeart Radio app thank you for always tune in. Give
us a rating of review five stars. Please give us
a couple comments, Share like and always give us a follow.
Man and Peanut, what do we do? We tell him
to tell a friend, to tell a friend to do
(01:17):
what tell a friend?
Speaker 2 (01:19):
There we go.
Speaker 6 (01:19):
Just in case you didn't remember, Peanut, who is our
special guest this even this morning. I'm really excited about
this one. Grew up watching this man for do a
lot of great things.
Speaker 5 (01:28):
I think we all did.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
Can I just say he is the greatest multi sport
athlete to come out of the state of Arizona. He
was an All American ads. Come on see sixteen year
NFL VET, author of sports radio.
Speaker 5 (01:43):
He runs a foundation. Ladies and gentlemen, Rodney p walcome to.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
The show, Come on see, yeah, you gotta bring it man,
You just you've earned that.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Sixteen years, sixteen man, sixteen Yeah, I'm still walking up
right too.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Oh it's all good. Yeah, no, I'm uh.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
I think back at it, and you guys know, it
could be a grind over the years and going and
go training camp after training camp after training camp. But
after a while they start to run together and you
look back and go, man Dahn, sixteen years. It really did.
And I know it sounds cliches, but it really did
fly by it really did. But you know I enjoyed
(02:24):
every minute of it.
Speaker 6 (02:26):
So I hate to do this to you, do it,
but we want you to explain something. All Right, you
look a little bit different. You look great this morning.
I don't think all right, Thomas putting me back here,
you got me all right? A little bit of TV
magic here, Yeah, yeah, I want you to explain this
to me. Okay, you look beautiful.
Speaker 4 (02:48):
But right here, So for fort is Roy Pete in
high school and he's got he's got a Jerry curR.
Speaker 5 (02:59):
He got this glow.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Uh huh.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
He was at the end of that term. Get a
redone right there. Wow, look at y'all, Doug to get
that bad boy right there.
Speaker 5 (03:14):
That's your sophomore year.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
That was my sophomore year in high school.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
In fact, I think that is right after we won
the state title in basketball in Arizona.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Yeah, and basketball. You know you had to hear have
the hair bouncing up and down.
Speaker 6 (03:27):
Got to yeah, yeah, it ain't helmet, no help.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
You had to let it go, man, you had to
let it go. So yeah, I rocked it for a while.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
That you could have been a member of like boys
in the hood right there, Like that's that's ice Q,
that's w.
Speaker 5 (03:46):
Yeah, you had full length. Oh my god, how long
did you grow that to get that?
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Oh man?
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Yeah, you know, speaking of that sophomore year, I think
I started in junior high man middle school and telling
my you're not cutting my hair, You're not cutting.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
It at all. I got to let it go. You know.
Speaker 5 (04:04):
That is a larrium. Oh all right, so let's let's
stay back on the starting. That's how we saw that
took you way back.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
He looked like y'all could have saw his face.
Speaker 5 (04:15):
He was just like, oh my god, damn, I'm glad
you knew you remember exactly what it is.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Though.
Speaker 6 (04:22):
I want to go to this though, we'll stay back
a little bit, and that is in nineteen eighty eight
eighty nine, you were running up for the Heisman Trophy
and you lost it to a young man by.
Speaker 5 (04:34):
The name of Barry Sanders.
Speaker 6 (04:36):
And we all saw, well, Barry like didn't even react
when he won the Heisman. No, he did not. He
didn't react at all. Yeah, yeah, no emotion. And you
leave me right to my next question. What was it
like to go from that point where you saw him
in college do what he did. You had all the
accolades and were coming off your great year to where
now you guys are in Detroit together just the following year.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
It was a first of all, he is a he's
an amazing guy.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
And and you know, it's funny that you say that
he didn't react to winning the Heisman, because that's that's
actually genuinely who he is. And when you get to
know him, you understand that's who he is because sometimes
you see him from afar and I do remember in college,
first of all, nobody knew who he was started our
senior year. Going back, I'm dating myself because I'm going
(05:25):
back to nineteen eighty eight and we're leading up to it.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
It was a really good class.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
I mean, there was some great team Dion Sanders in
Florida State rolling at that time, you know, and Nebraska
and Broderick Thomas and Steve Taylor were rolling at that time.
Oklahoma had it going at that time when Jamel Holloway
so and then across town UCLA and Troy Aikman they
had it going. So it was there was a lot
of those names out there in eighty eight that were
people saying, Wholla, this, this could be a nice Heisman race.
(05:51):
And so halfway through the season, we started off undefeated.
Ucla started off undefeated. So it was a lot of
Troy Aikman, Rodney Pete in California and we're doing our thing.
And then about week six we started seeing highlights of
this cat from Oklahoma State. It was just running for
two hundred yards, running for three fifth and not against
you know, the little sisters of the poor. He was
(06:13):
doing it against you know, Nebraska, he was doing it
against you know, Oklahoma, he was doing against Texas, and
he was running, he was doing all the It was
a highlight every weekend, and you were like this, this
dude is amazing, amazing. And then by the time it
came for the ceremony at the Heisman thing, we all
knew it was it was Barry's trophy because he had
just done and had a phenomenal season that year. So
(06:38):
I got to know him a little bit there. But
then when we went to Detroit, you know, and I
was fortunate, like you said, you guys said, I played
sixteen years, I played for six different teams, I played
with other unbelievable running backs over that time, had a
chance to spend a year in Dallas with emmittt.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Smith. Ricky Waters was in Philly.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
With me for a few years, but nobody, nobody, I'm
telling you, nobody was like Barry Sanders.
Speaker 5 (07:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
And I used to pride myself on being able to,
you know, do play action well and carry out my face.
But he made me the worst faking quarterback in the
whole league because every time I handed the ball off,
I just wanted to watch him.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
You know, I didn't carry it out.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
I just turned around to watch him because he was
going to do something amazing and it could have been
a five yard run, but that five yard run was
one of the most amazing five yard runs you've ever seen.
But just just amazing, amazing teammate. To have an amazing
person too, to this.
Speaker 5 (07:36):
Day, definitely my favorite.
Speaker 6 (07:39):
I got one more A little quick follow up, my bad
and that's like, so you went from Heisman Like I
want to know your mentality though, because you were projected
and you were you were great in college and then
your NFL career get started off a little. I would say, Rocky,
I mean you were six round pick. Yeah, you want
(07:59):
to Rocky, Yeah, I was like, you're one hundred and
forty first overall from when you went from a Heisman
Trophy candidate and we're the man at USC to all
of a sudden, ah, he's too small.
Speaker 5 (08:11):
Oh his arm strength is in question.
Speaker 6 (08:13):
And you look at that, and that was really a
true narrative that a lot of quarterbacks had to fight,
especially quarterbacks of color at that time. Maybe kind of
walk me through that part of it as well, and
then you still got sixteen years.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Look, I'm not even going to sugarcoat it was. It
was a very difficult time, right, because that's what you do.
You know, there's a certain point for all of us
that we figure out, I got a shot to make
it in the NFL. I got to go pro. You know,
maybe not happened at eighth grade. Some some folks that
does ninth grade early on. You know, you go into
the league. But there comes a time where you figure out,
I can do this, I can do this long term,
(08:49):
and I can go to the next level doing this.
And it happened for me in college. And I started
at USC middle of my freshman year, so I was playing.
I played a full three and a half year that
you see, and was kind of growing each year, and
then got to my senior year and was in the
national conversation. We had went to the Rose Bowl the
(09:09):
year before and we were rejected in the top five.
I think we were ranked to start the season ranked
number two or three in the country, and so there
was a lot of attention as to mention the Heisman race.
They're talking about Troy Aikman, Amy and and so you
build up that whole season and we go on and
we we win ten straight games. We're number one against
Notre Dame or number two against Notre Dame. Number one,
(09:31):
they beat us, they go on and win a national title.
But after that, you're like, Okay, now what's next. It's
the next Lebble, it's the league. And heard it all,
heard it all, yeah, heard okay. We're not sure because
I played baseball in college too, We're not sure he's
gonna play baseball. Do we want to waste a pick
(09:52):
on him high if he's going to play baseball? So
I took that out of the equation. I didn't play
baseball my senior year. So in the spring of my
senior year, I decided not to play because I really
wanted to play football, so I didn't want to give
them an excuse to not draft me. So I didn't
play and just worked out for the Combine and then
(10:14):
worked out and had a pro day at SC and
all things were going well. So you start to get
and back then it wasn't like it is now where
there's so much attention. There's so much detail on you know, draft,
you know, prospects and where you're going to go and
talking to this and interview For this, it was you
get calls from different teams and say, hey, you know,
we're thinking about you. We just wanted to talk to
you about it. And so there were about half a
(10:36):
dozen teams that said, yeah, we like you and we
think And then then the projections came in here like
late first round, second round, you know, we can we
can work with you. And draft Day comes and it
was first round goals, second round goals, third round goals.
(10:56):
Then I started seeing other quarterbacks go and because everybody
knew Troy was going to be number one, I mean,
it was just it was from all season long, the
year before he was going to be number one pick
for the Cowboys.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Cowboys came out and said it.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
So it was like Troy and everybody else basically, And
so I started to see these quarterbacks go in the
second round and the third round, and then the fourth
round and the fifth round, and the fifth round ended
the first day, So I didn't get drafted on the
first day of the draft. So I'm sitting there, five
(11:30):
rounds go by, I'm not drafted, and I'm wondering at
that point, am I ever going to get drafted?
Speaker 2 (11:36):
And it was the.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Longest night that I have ever had, I think to
this day, just thinking about not being able to sleep,
because this is what you dream about, this is what
you want. You think you worked and you proved yourself
enough to get noticed and to have an opportunity to play.
Because after the fifth round went by, you started thinking,
am I not even going to opportunity play?
Speaker 5 (12:00):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Anybody gonna ever draft me? Right?
Speaker 1 (12:04):
And so the next day rolls around and I think
Detroit had like one of the early picks in the
morning of that sixth round, and Wayne Fons called me
and they called me and said, we drafted you.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
You know, come on in.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
But it was it was a difficult thing because nine
quarterbacks went before me.
Speaker 5 (12:20):
Do you remember them?
Speaker 1 (12:23):
I remember some of them, Yeah, some of them. The
guy I think Anthony Dilwick was one of them from
Duke who went to UH I went to Green Bay
at that time. And then I think it was a
guy named Jeff Carlson that would played at Weaver State.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
And then they shout out to Jeff heard there's another.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Guy at Oregon State that played in the pack with us,
and so again nine of them went yeah, and I
had to yeah, absolutely absolutely. I mean there was a
part of me that that was, you know, what the
hell with this, I'm going to play I'm going to
play baseball. Yeah, you know, I'm just gonna go play baseball.
And interesting enough, a month later was the baseball Draft
(13:06):
and the Oakland A's drafted me. They drafted me the
year before and I didn't go, but then they draft
me again. When they saw that, I flipped in and
dropped to the sixth round and said, okay, maybe there's
a shot, and I went up and worked out for them.
They were, you know, they drafted me, I think in
thirteen to fourteen round, but they were offering me like
first round money to come and play for them, and
(13:28):
I for the first time I seriously considered doing it. Right,
But then in talking to you know, my parents, my family,
my brother and some other people that were close to
me and other coaches and other guys that I played with.
It was you gotta go show them, you gotta go
show them, you gotta go let them know that they
(13:50):
made a mistake and that you can play in this league.
And so when I heard all that, I was like,
I gotta go do it. I gotta go to Detroit.
I gotta go play. And my mind was made up.
And then again sixteen years later, you know, I lasted out.
That lasted all Yeah, I think you yeah, yeah, it's crazy, right, Joy.
Speaker 4 (14:11):
We're going to take a short break and we'll be
right back. I cannot hit a baseball. I cannot hit
a fastball. I can only stole basis. I'm like Willie
Beaman from from Major League. That's the only thing I
can do. You've been drafted four times. You got drafted
in eighty four, eighty eight, eighty nine, and ninety Yeah,
what kind of baseball player? Tell me what kind of
(14:33):
baseball player you were? Ooh like that, because I know
what I this way.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Many people thought I made the wrong decision, including coaches,
especially my baseball coaches. And to this day I would
run into different people said you should I mean I
run into Barry Bonds all the time, and he was like, man,
you should have played baseball. I told you should play baseball.
I was like, man, my heart was in football, though,
you I don't know if I if I had played baseball,
I would have always wondered what it would have been
(15:03):
like to play football.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
I don't.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
I don't feel that way playing baseball. I mean playing football,
going God, I should have played. I wondered what it
was he liked playing baseball. I admire it, you know,
and I appreciate it, but I don't. I don't think
I would feel the same way if it was flipped around.
But yeah, no, we were good and in fact, uh
you know during that time, you know, playing baseball in
(15:26):
the Pac ten as it was, it was like playing
minor league baseball because the talent level was so good.
Like I mentioned, Barry Bonds went to Arizona State. He
was playing there. I was on the team with the
big unit. Randy Johnson was the team. Yeah, Brett Boone
was my team. Hard back, harder, harder. Yeah, he didn't
(15:47):
care back then. That's all he threw was a fastball,
and he was he would knock you out. It was
all a bit of six ' ten coming off that hill.
It was it was scary. You know, he'd before he
started again, he would have you know, like a c
D C rocking hard going out there, and I think
(16:07):
I think he might have spoke two or three joints
before he got on the hill and was just coming out,
and he intimidated so many people. Man, it was it
was incredible to see that size a guy throwing that hard.
But uh, yeah, so I was pretty good.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
Yeah, so Bo said, excuse me, Bo Jackson is my
all time greatest athlete. The amount of amazingness he had
on the field, on the on on baseball and football.
He was just like, blew me away, breaking the bast
with his leg.
Speaker 5 (16:37):
Did you ever think that you could do baseball and football?
Did that that ever? Was that ever a fault?
Speaker 2 (16:43):
It barely?
Speaker 1 (16:46):
But at the pro level, Yeah, to play quarterback and
play baseball, you can't great and do it. Like if
I was a receiver, running back like bow was, or
defense back like the probably could probably could do it.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Yeah, probab we could do it.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
But the demand on the quarterback position, the demand in
the offseason, demand of studying, trying to you know, trying
to come in to a season, say in September, and
then okay, I'm gonna transition back to football after you
played baseball spring and summer as a quarterback. That'd be
very difficult to do. And and so it was. It
wouldn't have happened. But I'm with you with bo Bow.
(17:23):
You know, we see his football highlights all the time,
but if you just go and just watch his baseball highlights,
that man, I mean, incredible, incredible athlete, incredible.
Speaker 5 (17:34):
Well, it was funny because at that time it was
three guys.
Speaker 6 (17:36):
It was Bo, it was Dion and then Brian Jordan,
and Jordan was also the other guy a lot of
people don't talk about, but also in Atlanta playing football
and then would switch over in place in baseball too.
Speaker 5 (17:47):
And but you bringing up the quarterback. I didn't think
about it. I didn't either.
Speaker 6 (17:51):
I was like, actually, that makes all the sense in
the world not to be because you still gotta be.
Speaker 4 (17:55):
Doing my My one question is how hard is to
hit a fastball?
Speaker 1 (18:03):
The fastball is the easy part. It's everything else because
you can time if you like, like Randy Johnson, like
in college there were games where he would get shelled.
I mean, they hit him for like eight nine runs
because he thought he could throw throw it by everybody,
and he did that for the first inning. Then that
second time around people would time him up. So a
(18:24):
fastball is usually the easiest pitch to hit because you
can time it up. If you time it up right,
then you can hit it. It's the off speed pitches,
it's the breaking ball. It's the pitch that you think
is coming at you, you're getting out of the way
and it turns out to be a strike. That's the
pitch that is difficult to hit because you got to
get so ready for that fastball that's coming at ninety
five ninety eight miles an hour that you're so far
(18:47):
ready for that, and then they throw something soft and
you're way out in front of it, you know. So
that's the difficult thing is to be able to adjust
to the different you know, speed and velocity of the pitches.
Speaker 5 (18:57):
Told you, we can hit a fastball, dude, there's no
way we can hit it. Fact, we had this conversation yesterday.
That's what he's all in his head.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
Thomas, and there shaking his head, Thomas, we can.
Speaker 5 (19:07):
Hit a fastball. This is a whole big unit I
can hit your fastball.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Put it right here every time. Sooner or later I'm
gonna hit it exactly. That's not gonna happen.
Speaker 6 (19:17):
So this is a I know we want to try
and move this thing along, but I really really am
intrigued by this. And so you played sixteen years. I
know you're probably happy, excited. Tell me about how you
felt when you accomplished that. But then also I want
to know because I've also heard in some other interviews
how you said, well, you did the best Am Best
(19:37):
AM's TV show, but overall you just you weren't always
happy with your second act immediately. And so how eventually
did you work through that or to maybe talk about
some of those emotions of what you were feeling, what
you're feeling like you're missing out on, because this is
why we do this show and this podcast is to
really dive into that too, because we all have our
(19:57):
inner struggles or our own internal.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
About Yeah, and I appreciate you guys for doing this
because this is this is something that first of all,
you can't talk about it enough, yes, right, but it's
something I'm sure you guys deal with it when you
run into other fellow players or whatever. It's like, Man,
how was it for you when you retired? You know,
how did you transition? And it's different for everyone, But
(20:22):
at the same time, it is a struggle, I think,
and now how big that struggle is is it's all
individualized and you figure out for each person. But for me,
you never really know when it's and it's going to end,
but you know it's going to end at some point,
(20:43):
and you try to prepare yourself, at least you should,
and you try to prepare yourself for that time. And
I always wanted to be in entertainment. I wanted to
be in media. I wanted to do something like that,
and so I kind of started preparing myself prior to
my time that I was leaving. The last three or
four years when I was in Carolina, I would come
(21:03):
back to LA and I would work in different studios
and I would try to understand the business as much
as I could. And then when I was contemplating retirement,
I think it was like two thousand and five, Best
Damn Sports Show called said we're revamping the show. We
want to bring you in and would you like to
be a part of it? And I was like, Okay,
(21:25):
this is a sign. This is it, right, I don't
have to search for that next gig. Sorry, he go
write the Fox and do best damn sports shows right here.
I don't have to wait a year or two to
figure out what I'm going to do. And I transitioned
right into it. But it was still difficult because as
much as people tell you what it's going to be
(21:45):
like when you're tired, you don't know until you do
it yourself. Because that feeling you get when you put
on that uniform and you run out in the stadium,
you warm it up, and then all of a sudden
you get that first hit right in the game start
and they kick it off, and you're like, man, it's
this nothing like this, that tingle you get, that butterfly
feeling you get. And so when you retire, I think
(22:05):
we often try to duplicate that somewhere. We try to
find that void. We're trying to find that same feeling,
when in essence, there's never gonna be that feeling again.
You got to change that direction. So if you keep
trying to search for that same feeling, you're never gonna
get there, right, And so you got to, for lack
of a better phrase, you got to find a different high.
(22:27):
And once you come to grips with that, I'm not
gonna have that feeling anymore. I think you start to
be okay with retirement and what's gonna happen secondarily for you,
because there were a period of time, you know, for
a good three to four years time I was on
best day on that as great a gig as it was,
(22:49):
I just didn't fill me up, you know, it didn't
fill me up. It didn't I didn't feel like, Okay,
where's that feeling I had? Where's those butterflies that I
had when I was playing? Where can I get that?
You start searching. That's why guys do different things. Right now,
I'm gonna get a restaurant. I'm gonna get a nightclub.
I'm gonna get this, I'm gonna go do the real estate. Yeah,
I'm gonna do whatever, trying to search for it instead
(23:11):
of saying, okay, that was that, I'm gonna put that away.
I have all those memories, but now my energy's focused
somewhere else. Yeah, And that's not easy to do. I
mean I'm saying, but it's not easy to do.
Speaker 5 (23:22):
Right.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
So, since being retired and you've I'm assuming you've found
more things to do. What have you been up to,
and then what's been the most fun that you've been doing?
Speaker 2 (23:31):
Man, Raising four kids has been great. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
My oldest are twins that are twenty six years old.
And you know, speaking of the whole retirement thing, which
another part of it was difficult, is that my oldest
son was diagnosed with autism at three years old. And
that was a that took a toll on me as well,
because that happened later in my career towards the end
(23:55):
and then into retirement. There was a level of me
being in done nile about that because at that time, say,
twenty to twenty three years ago, not a lot of
people were talking about autism, right, lumping it into ADHD
or just any kind of this, you know, development of
disorder that we didn't have a whole lot of studies
and people weren't talking about it.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
So I did what my dad would do. Right, I'm
gonna try to coach it out of you.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
I'm gonna try to coach the autism y, Yeah, see
it right, I would go, We're gonna go in the backyard,
We're gonna play catch, we gonna we're gonna work this
through and you're gonna make eye contact with me, and
you're gonna you're gonna have your speech, and we're gonna
talk through it and don't fix somewhere.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
We're gonna fix it. We're gonna fix it.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
In the meantime, my wife was like rolling up her sleeves, going, Okay,
we gotta read this article, we gotta read this book.
We're gonna talk to this doctor. We got to talk
to this therapist. We got to find out everything we do.
She would send me, she would send me articles and
magazines and books on a regular basis, and I never
opened them, never wanted to read them. And she would
(25:02):
come and this is what I was playing in Carolina.
She would come and that box would not even be open,
and we'd have our knockdown, drag out fights about it
because she knew there was a period of time that
you had to attack it. You had to really get
in with both feet and get to the therapies and understand,
(25:23):
you know, what this was all about. And I was
not willing to do that. It was my first son, right,
he was my firstborn son, had my name. Yeah, it
was like, you know, he's gonna be a star. He's right, Hey,
we're gonna go play littlely, ye do all these things
to usc Yeah, all of that. And when that, when
that hits you, that that may not happen, that's it's
a tough thing. That's a tough thing on a on
(25:44):
a dad and a lot of fathers that I talk
to now, they go through that because they have this
vision of what they want for their son, and when
that doesn't happen or that is derailed a little bit,
then it's a difficult thing to adjust to from from
a marriage standpoint, individually standpoint, a lot of people start
(26:07):
drinking too much, like I did, you know, started drinking
way too much, and just like I don't want to
even think about it. I didn't want to think about it.
And until I came to grips, was I gotta I
gotta look at this from from his eyes, from my
son's eyes, right from his world instead of my world.
(26:27):
Is when I started to come around. And really, basically,
my wife gave me an ultimatum. She was like, you
better get on board or you're gonna have to get
on out. And because I'm at the end of the day,
I'm gonna choose him because I gotta I gotta be there,
all in for him. And if you're not all in
for him too, what are we doing?
Speaker 5 (26:49):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (26:50):
So that that hit me hard and I was like, okay,
let's do it.
Speaker 5 (26:53):
You know.
Speaker 6 (26:54):
That was Look, man, we all get hit sometimes smacked
dead in the face with some kind of ultimatum. Wife
told me one time, Hey, you know, would you want
your daughter to date you? Like, like, you hit that
dose reality and it does kind of shake you.
Speaker 5 (27:10):
I appreciate you sharing that. Yeah, I really do. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (27:13):
Yeah, man, talk about the some of the work that
you and your wife do. What do your foundation? And
I know you, but you do some stuff with autism?
Speaker 2 (27:21):
Yeah, we do. We have our own foundation.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Yeah, it's called a Holly Rod Foundations Hollyrod dot org.
You can find it. But we do everything from early
intervention and helping families deal with it early education. One
of our big things now is we work with a
number of corporations to hire kids that are on the
spectrum because one of the things that these kids kind
of matriculate through middle school and high school, say, okay,
(27:46):
most of them will not go to college, right, It's okay.
What happens now you know, they're becoming young adults and
what okay, so how do they interact in society? And
a lot of times people are afraid of what they
don't know. They're not going to hire a kid it's
got special needs or maybe a little different, right, So
we really are trying to be out there as much
(28:08):
as we can talking to corporate and say, hey, it's okay,
hire this kid. He will be your best worker, he
will be your most loyal worker, just give him a chance.
And that's been rewarding for us because we've been able
to place kids in different jobs with restaurants and then
businesses and things like that that have really benefited them
(28:29):
and their families. And it really came about because what
happened to us. We were going through that situation. We
were fortunate enough again to have him diagnosed as early
as possible, and he grew over those years, not to
the point where he was going to go to a
typical four year college. So he got to be eighteen,
We're like, okay, what are we going to do now
(28:51):
with him? How are we going to help him become
a young adult? And so we started looking for a
job for him, and it was so difficult, so difficult
for someone even with the people in the connections that
we had of someone really just taking a chance on it, right.
And then finally the Dodgers called really, yeah, we had
(29:12):
friends over there. Magic Johnson had just bought the team
with the Guggenheim guys, and so we knew a lot
of people that were coming on to the Dodgers as
new people. And one of them was Lon Rosen, who
was in the marketing department, and he got along with
Magic say bring him over. Let's just you know, maybe
we have a position for him. And we brought him
over and he was so excited because he he's one
(29:34):
of those kids that's got that brain. Right.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
Yeah, he can.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
You can tell him one time everybody in this room's
birthday and I'll never forget it. Or you can say
what day does March twenty fifth, two thousand and thirty
fall on, and he can tell you it falls on
a Wednesday that quick. So he's got one of those brains,
and so he just kind of blew them away and
(30:01):
they hired him on the spot. And so now he's
been working in the clubhouse for the Dodgers in the
equipment room and doing those things, and it's best for
him because he interacts with the players. You know, he's
there in the locker room before the games, after the games,
during spring training, and he's been doing for nine years now.
Speaker 5 (30:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
Yeah, change his life, change his life. So when we
saw that, it was like, Okay, this is our focus
now for our foundations. We're really gonna hemm hard at
these corporations to get other kids to feel what we
feel and for for other families to feel what we feel,
because there's a sense of hopelessness out there when a
child starts to grow and gets older, because you you know,
(30:41):
you want your your children to do better than you,
always right, and then you want them, okay, what are
they gonna What are they gonna do when they're adults,
How are they gonna survive in this world? And you
want somebody to look after him. And so the fact
that he got a job and probably gonna have it
for for a long time, it did so so many
things for him but also for us.
Speaker 4 (31:00):
But I could I could tell because your face let up.
So as you're telling the series, your face everything about
you changed. It's like, oh, he got a job, and
he's like, you know, because when you started out telling
the story, you know, it's like, oh, well, and I'm
a coach out of him. But now to see where
he is now, you're just like, he's he works in
the clubhouse, and you're just like it's like he made it,
like he won the Heisman, like he went to sc
and did all the things you wanted him to do.
(31:23):
You know what, I'm like, like, I can you can
feel it with your smile and your your your body language.
So thank you for sharing that. That's awesome, man, Yeah,
that's awesome. Blessing, and we'll be right back.
Speaker 6 (31:34):
I want to kind of keep this next one in
the same vein because you're talking about like the inside
joy that you get it's from your family. And I
know this one's kind of random, but your wife, she
comes up on my Instagram all the time, especially lately
because of South Carolina and coach Don State. Is anybody
more happier than your wife right now than what Don
today is doing? Because like every time I turn around
(31:57):
is Don Stately is hometown this and they're both from Philly,
So how how much are you hearing about this?
Speaker 1 (32:03):
I didn't know. I didn't know how tight that Philly
connection until I met her, right, And there's there's a thing.
It really is the thing about folks from Philly, Okay, right,
And so the fact that you know, Donna is from Philly,
She's from Philly. They knew each other, you know, way
before she even got to South Carolina, so.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
They were friends.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
And then this run that she's been on, Holly's been
her biggest cheerleader. Man, So it's been it's been great
to watch. But it's Yeah, she often throws that Philly
thing in the face, but she is so happy on class, Like,
you're right, I think she's happier than Donna.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
For the whole thing.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
She's up in the middle of the night. Well, I
gotta put something together for don on the ground.
Speaker 6 (32:47):
It keeps popping up random of mind all the time, like, dude,
what is going on?
Speaker 2 (32:52):
I guess she's happy.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
Man. Yeah, she's got that that Philly girl thing, girlfriend
thing that that's going on with her. But incredible though,
for women's sports, women's basketball in general. You know what
has happened over the last you know, the last year, man,
it's been incredible.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
It's great to see.
Speaker 4 (33:07):
Yeah, you've had amazing high school run, amazing college run,
amazing NFL run on the field, off the field, sports, TV, radio,
broadcasting author, all these all these things, what's been your
personal Mount Rushmore? Like if you could name four people
on your personal Mount Rushmore, who would those people be?
Speaker 2 (33:25):
Wow?
Speaker 5 (33:26):
M hm, you get four?
Speaker 2 (33:28):
I get four?
Speaker 5 (33:29):
Yes, sir, and now this is yours, so you can
kind of do it how you right? Right?
Speaker 1 (33:32):
We give you some leadway, Well it's it's well. The
first's gotta be my mom and dad. Yeah, yeah, they're
up there. Why Mom, Dad, God rust your soul. She
passed away a year and a half ago. Yeah, I
appreciate because my mom was. My mom was the one
that was there taking me to practice every day.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
You know.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
She was a school teacher, so she made sure I
didn't go to practice unless I had my work done.
She was the one that was like, don't you ever
give up. Don't you ever let them see you sweat,
don't let you don't ever don't ever show any kind
of weakness, because you can do anything. She was that
motivator in our family. So she definitely definitely definitely the
(34:20):
one up there. And then my dad was the you know,
he was a coach for so many years. He started
out in high school obviously, and then the college he
coached at the University of Arizona, then went to coach
in the NFL for twenty years. He was that coach
that never I don't know, but he's never. He never
(34:42):
coached me. He just loved me, right. So yeah, and
it's got to be hard because I coached my son's
a little league and I tell you, I'm I couldn't
do more than a little jokers. Wasn't doing what I
was saying. Man, I was like, come on, man, you
know I want him to do it like I was
going through.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (35:01):
Yeah, no.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
He had so much patience, but man.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
He he never dragged me, never forced me to go
play anything or play any sport.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
But he was always there.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
He was always there if I needed to go, you know,
play catch and work on something.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
He was always there.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
If I needed to, you know, talk through some things
psychologically about the sport and the game.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
He was always there.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
And he's one of those guys that always always had
a good day, right. He was always like this, no
matter how high and how low however it got. He
was always that calming force in our family and with everybody.
And to this day I run into people that you
know either played for him or knew him from back
in the day, and he was he's this same guy.
(35:47):
So you know, both those guys are definitely definitely up there.
Then I'd probably have to I'd have to put my
high school baseball coach up. The name is Hal Eustace
and uh, he passed away a little a little while
ago as well. But he's he's the he's the one
(36:11):
that that took what you had inside and pushed you
to be better. He's the one to put.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
The dog in you.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
I mean, you got to have it in you, the
number one. You gotta have it in you. But he's
the one to help bring it out. And he was
a fierce, fierce competitor as a coach and even when
he played, but as a coach he was and he
was the one that just taught me taking those same
principles not that I had, and he would talk about
(36:43):
on the field but in life as well, and that's
how you attack it. His name is Hal Eustace Man,
so he yeah, he's definitely up there. Okay, coach, how's
up there? And then my better half, man, Yeah, she's
she's up there because we've been married twenty eight years now,
and uh, you know, she's been she's been with me,
(37:06):
with me through some some good times and bad times.
You mean the times that we just talked about my
son was diagnosed and you know, and I was just
wilding out and just you know, drinking way too much,
as I said, and then you know, not being able
to deal with the reality of what's going on. She
gave me that tough love, you know. And and she's
(37:28):
been the one that, no matter what, has fought for
us in this family.
Speaker 2 (37:33):
Right.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
So I wouldn't I wouldn't be here in the shape
and the way I am right now that had it
not been for her.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
So she's definitely up there.
Speaker 5 (37:41):
Great compliment, great compliment. I think that's that's a rap.
Speaker 4 (37:47):
I mean, great job, Rodney p appreciates for coming on,
thanks for sharing all that.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
And I gotta say thank you for for what you
guys have eve been doing, man, because it's it's so important,
it's so important. I mean, I watch the show with
John Abraham.
Speaker 5 (38:02):
Yes, yeah, it was a really deep, real.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Deep one, right.
Speaker 1 (38:04):
Yes, he got sober, right, Yes, I thought, which is
really cool. Christian Pondan was a good one too. Yes,
I appreciate with you guys, because sometimes we get lost
when those playing days are over, and we got to
look out for each other. So what you guys are
doing is really important.
Speaker 5 (38:21):
Yeah, man, I appreciate that compiment. Man.
Speaker 6 (38:24):
You know, Peanut has really gotten I think since doing
this podcast, I've seen growth in him and being able
to accept compliments and understanding that we all got a purpose, man,
But right now to kind of live through this and
getting to actually meet a lot of our own heroes
and legends that we saw and watch grow up. And
it's been really cool to have you on and so
(38:44):
many other great guests.
Speaker 5 (38:45):
But then you know, you never know how.
Speaker 6 (38:47):
This thing is going to go when we get up
here on the right And then for you to sit
up here and be so candid and so open about
your walk through life with your son dealing with autism,
going from trying to coach it out of him to
really having your wife loving on you and making sure
she's fighting for this family to keep it strong and
get you on that straight and narrow path. For such
a strong man that accomplished so much in the areas
(39:08):
that we think is all the credit in the world,
but to be able to sit up here humbly and
tell us us like, Man, I was down, yeah, but
I'm here now. Really kind of shows us like, man,
it's light. And this is why we do this podcast.
It's to be able to shine a light on all
of us that are really going out here and walking
that straight and narrow path, trying to do it the best.
Speaker 5 (39:26):
Way we know possible.
Speaker 6 (39:27):
After we hang up the cleats, when all the lights
are off and nobody's really paying attention to our struggles.
Speaker 5 (39:34):
We appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
Yeah, well said man, Thanks man, Thank you appreciate it. Man.
Speaker 6 (39:38):
Well, well, Peter, you want to get us up out
of here, dog, Yeah, thank you all for listen, doing
a great job.
Speaker 4 (39:43):
Thanks for tuning in, Like, Share, subscribe, follow, give us
a five star rating. iHeartRadio app Apple Podcast. You can
check us out on Peanut that's.
Speaker 5 (39:54):
Wrong, that's Rodney Pete.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
Hey.
Speaker 4 (39:57):
We appreciate y'all. Thank you all for listening, tuning in.
Chill next time we're out
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