Life After the NFL With Stephen Spach

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Episode Transcript

(00:01):
All right, all right, allright, welcome back to Bring the Juice.
I'm your host, Frank Atlanta's dayon the pod. We have Steven
Spock, Fresno guy, Dog's guy, NFL guy now giving back to the
community in all different types of ways. But he's also got pro and what
he does. Spuck a lot totalk about today, a lot of juice.
I'm fired up. Good to haveyou on the pod. Say what's

(00:22):
up to Bring the Juice Nation?Real quick? What's up bringing Jews Nason?
Frank, thanks for having me,buddy, long overdue. Love to
see it, you know, Spock, doing my research on you a little
bit today. Obviously we've become buddiesover the last couple of years now.
Undrafted went from the Eagles, theVikings of the Patriots, the Carlos,
the Rams, and the Jags.That was your journey according to Wikipedia.

(00:43):
So I'm gonna trust it, allright. I can't trust everything you see,
ye can't. Google is not notalways the correct resource. But talk
to me just about like going undrafted, getting into camp and then making a
fifty three in that in the midall that rookie year, yes, rookie
year, rookie year, all right, so young Spock. All right,

(01:07):
let's go let's go way back then, let's let's jump even further back.
So from when I was I thinkI was in sixth grade. We had
sixth grade journals, so I wrote, you know, I still have it.
I wrote that I wanted to playin the NFL. So I still
have that. No, it's in, it's there though. Yeah, I
got it. Yeah, bring itback when I need it, bring it

(01:30):
out when I needed it. Yeah. So no, I've always wanted,
always wanted to play in the NFL, but I was never I was never
like I was never like the guyright on any team that I had grown
up. So, uh, youknow, senior year I played O and
D line all growing up, andthen senior year of high school, I

(01:55):
finally got to play like a skillposition, right, So that was the
first time I ever played tight end, And so I just wanted to play
college football and I wanted to playD one. You know I understand that.
Yeah, yeah exactly. So,uh, I got the opportunity to
walk on at Present State. Soit was always like it was walk on

(02:19):
had to earn everything. You knowthe story, you know the story very
well. So I mean I camein, but we'll skip ahead to you
want to talk about rookie year,so I and you could tell you,
tell your story, tell your story, all right. Well, I ended
up earning the scholarship at Present State. But it was always, I guess

(02:39):
coming in every year I was untilmy senior year in college, I was
never the first on the depth chart. I was always second, third,
fourth on the depth start yourself everytime, exactly every single year, every
single training camp. So that wasone when I got a chance in in

(03:00):
the NFL, and I didn't getdrafted, right, so when I got
a chances undrafted free agent, itwas much of the same. It was
the same story that for the forthe last five years exactly. It's just
a little bit more intense because ifyou don't make it, it's not like
your red shirt, like you're gone, you're fired, exactly. So uh

(03:23):
yeah, so coming in I justhad that same same mentality, and uh,
you know, put my blinders onand they said jump, said how
high that was? That was thatwas with the Eagles. So they just
kept saying how jump and you werelike, they kept telling me to jump

(03:44):
and jumping. There was a lotof jumping up but but I mean,
you know, people, I thinkthat the more involved if you know the
business of the NFL. If you'redrafted, you're not necessarily guaranteed a roster
spot out of the gate, letalone to be undrafted to make fifty three.
It's it's a big I don't Ithink it's not a big deal.

(04:05):
It's a big deal. So that'sit was a big deal to me.
Thank you appreciate it. No,thanks, man, I appreciate you get
this guy going now. But well, I'll tell you what, So,
how'd you do it day in andday out though you know you're undrafted.

(04:25):
You got that walk online set,you earn that skull, You did your
thing in college. You got enoughstripes obviously to get the opportunity to make
it to the Eagles. And Ithink, you know, even talking about
this podcast game now, where I'mtrying to separate myself from the pack,
and when there's so many people withthe same goal, and even in college,
everybody is good, right. Idon't care if you're on the roster,

(04:46):
whether you're first string or seventh string, you're good enough to be there.
You might not be assignment perfect,and you can't get it mentally you
might not be the physical specimen toget the job done constantly, but like,
if you make it to that level, you're good enough to find a
way to figure it out. Obviously, if you get the in the NFL,
you're on the roster. You're noton the roster yet, but you're
invited to some sort of a campthat gives you an opportunity to be on
the roster. As there's guys whoare vets, maybe they got traded from

(05:12):
team to team, maybe they werefree agents, they got picked up,
but had been in the league afew years. As you try to chisel
out your spot and your role onthat team, what did you do to
separate yourself from the pack to makethat fifty three the first fifty three.
Yeah, that's a good question becausethe talent level just goes up and up

(05:32):
and the spread is so much smaller. So the difference between the guy who's
just making the team and the guywho is absolutely elite is so small compared
to everywhere else that everything's under microscope. You know. For me specifically,

(05:54):
like I said, I was neverthe best athlete at my position or on
my team ever. On any teamthat I played on, I was slightly
below average speed. I was averageheight, average size, average strength.
So I had to make up forthose things with uh, with never making

(06:19):
mistakes and with you know, aggressionand effort UH and then focus on I
guess my strengths were like hands andyou know, I guess you would say
intelligence or maybe uh, stubbornness,so you know, studied a lot,
you know that kind of stuff,and so never making a mistake was usually

(06:42):
my way of crawling up the depthchart if I had to go there.
It sounds like, and we sayon this all the time, like control
the controllable. It sounds like youliterally had the bull by the horns on
the control ball of saying like,listen, like, it's not that I
have to be so great to makethe team. Necessarily, I'm gonna do

(07:05):
everything in my power so perfect towhere they can't not put me on the
team. Almost type situation that angle. Yeah, I understand completely. It's
it's very difficult and I and againit's it's why you say as an adult
now, it's like you gotta finda way figure it out. In sports,

(07:25):
you do things you didn't even thinkyou could possibly do. You do
it. Once you're like, howdo I do that. You figure it
out again, You come back toreality a little bit, You do it
again. You realize, Okay,I I got something going here a little
bit and before you know it,there's there's things that you didn't think were
possible. That you're doing it ona regular basis at this point. And

(07:46):
and to be able to process thatand do it at the highest level,
which is the National Football League,very impressive and and and transitioning before we
get into you know, your nextseries of the NFL. Got to quick
shout out to our friends at apistachio roers. You got their shirt on
today, APG. If you wantto perform like the pros, eat your
pistachios. Eat those nuts kids.Uh spok. My next thing I was

(08:09):
going to get into with super Bowls, But do you think eating pistachios helped
you in your athletic care at all? Maybe helped you get to super Bowl
at some point, but potentially Iowe everything's pistachio Eat those nuts kids,
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(08:30):
between. You know, you gotyour lunch. You want to grow big
and strong. Put some pistachios inthere. You want to play division football,
go eat some goshaios. Okay,shout out to APG, but seriously,
spak kudos to you on, youknow, overcoming that adversity, on
making that fifty three man roster asan undrafted free agent, finding a way
controlling the control ball. Talk tome about two thousand and six. Though

(08:52):
you're you're, you're, you're nowyou overcome some adversity, mores come on
your way or cut. I lovethis topic. You're not on a roster.
How hard is it to watch thatseason just kind of happened? Well,
you're not deep in it? Yeah? Mentally yeah, I love this.

(09:13):
So all my life I was likethe humble, hard work you know,
quiet but serious, like hard workerthat had to, like, like
I said, make up for lackof like elite athleticism with hard work and
effort. Somehow in two thousand andfive, early two thousand and six,

(09:43):
somehow something creeped in that I thoughtI was different than that, or or
I forgot where I came from,if that makes any sense. So I
think that for a moment there Iwasn't. I didn't come in as ready
in two thousand and six as Idid in two thousand and five, if

(10:07):
that makes sense. And it showedon the field. Yeah, and it
showed on the field. And soand it was just just a little tiny,
you know, the tiniest bit,and that's all I had to lose,
you know what I mean. So, yeah, I got let go.
And I thought, honestly, inmy head, I thought I'll be

(10:28):
picked up in no time. Thatwas really what I thought. I thought
I'll be picked up in no time. And uh, the the reality of
that is just it's it's not alwaysthat. And so and I had a
workout within you know, a fewdays or whatever. I had a workout
scheduled, went to the Seahawks,worked out. I thought, oh,

(10:50):
it got me. When I showedup, I thought I was gonna I
thought I was going in for liketo get signed, right, But when
I showed up, there was sixothers it ends there. Oh. So
they worked us all out, includingtheir practice squad guy. So like,
they worked us all out and theydidn't sign anybody. They kept their dude

(11:11):
that they had on the practice squadand sign anybody. So I was like,
okay, you know, go home. Nothing went on. Six more
workouts that year. Wow, nevergot picked up and nobody got picked up
on any of the workouts that Iwent on, and it was like,
you're running forties. You're doing itwas basically like little pro days on half

(11:33):
of these. On half of themit was little pro days. And you're
like, I mean it took metill the third one or whatever. I
was like, I got run offorty, Like you know what that was
like, like your training to runforty, Like the takeoff is like ninety
of it. And I heard it'sit's not I do all the time,
right, It's not something you doall the time, but forty yard dash.

(11:54):
So uh, I mean it wasa different mindset suddenly that I had
to settle in into of Like Igot to be in like workout shape.
What was your forties different my forties? Let's not we don't need to talk
about that. Dude. You're inthe force. You know, people are
laughing. I was in the force. I was on the forest, keep

(12:16):
going all right. I was justin the Luckily I have to run one
after I blew my knees. Sobut yeah, so yeah, I went
through that entire season, didn't getpicked up, got a call, got
a couple of calls at the endof the year to get like a future

(12:37):
contract for the next season, andso I took one of those, which
seemed like my best opportunity. Thecoach actually told me I was going to
make the team. He had beena coach with the Eagles with me,
and then went in there. Sothat was that was kind of that that
year there, didn't didn't end upmaking the team. The next year,

(13:00):
Uh, they he I was toldI'd make the team, and then they
signed two guaranteed contracts a tight endlike a month later. And yeah,
is there any sense though that?And I know we got a lot more
of your career to get into afterthis play. Is there a sense of
was there a day in there whereyou said I maybe maybe I got to

(13:22):
go find another job. Yeah?So then that that following year, sure,
Uh, played with the Vikings throughthe through training camp, got let
go final final cuts, back tothe drawing board, right back home,
doing some personal training to make somecash on the side, and and uh

(13:43):
and still training to you know,still with the dream of coming back,
going to workouts, not getting signed, going to workouts not getting signed.
Had four or five of those,including one on Thanksgiving that I flew out
to Washington. It was probably thebest workout I ever had. I was
in great shape. It was probablythe best workout I ever had. There's

(14:07):
only one other guy there, andhe was an older guy. I thought
he was old as hell. Hewas probably thirty years old, and I
thought he was a keyser. ButI mean, I had a really good
workout and they took him instead becausethey knew him and he had a good
relationship with the coaches or whatever.Coming home from that the day after Thanksgiving

(14:33):
or on thanks the night of Thanksgiving. After that, and being out my
second year in a row, thatwas where I was like, like,
where is this going. You know, I've been on eleven workouts or whatever.
Now I've been through two camps ina row and didn't make the team.

(14:54):
But I knew I could play,sure because I had played that entire
first year, so I knew Icould do it. I had that in
the back of my mind, youknow. So I was like, look,
if I get another if I getanother shot, you know, at
another futures contract, I'll give youone more, one more go, you
know. So that kept me goingfive am workouts, you know, So

(15:18):
that I could work during the daybecause by then I'd only had one season
of minimum salary, which I'm notsaying it's not good money. I'm just
saying for one season of minimum salaryand it's not gonna last forever. So
at that point I decided to keepit going for a little bit longer.

(15:41):
And you know, Lady Luck,the Patriots had some problems at tight end.
They happened to be thirteen and ohat the time, and I worked
out with them earlier in the yearand had a good workout, so they
brought me back in and uh andI came in on a Wednesday, played

(16:03):
thirty two snaps on Sunday. Yeah. Who was the coach at that time?
That was one Bill Belichick. Who'sa quarterback that year? That was
Tom Brady. Yeah, how wasthat? So that was that was kind
of neat man, That was like, that was like starstruck coming in there.
Dude. That wasn't like yet threeSuper Bowls, no, I know.

(16:27):
Yeah, that was probably the coolestof like going into like a Patrick
Mahomes if you're a modern day yeah, modern day be like rolling into the
Chiefs. Yeah, yeah, rollingto the Chiefs and they're thirteen and oh
yeah, like they're on the road. Yeah, you're kind of like about
after after every game it was likewhat does it feel like to be fourteen?

(16:49):
And oh yeah, another one bythe dust on the radio. It
was like every game I was like, holy, I've heard so we interviewed
Danny Woodhead. I haven't had loganmakings on yet. Maybe you could put
a good word in. I gothis jewey, sure, But I hearing

(17:10):
about like the Patriot Way and allthat and you and you got to play
in the league enough to where youmight is there a Patriot Way? You
could confirm is there a Patriot Way? Yes? Especially at that time that
was like what's what? Like?What's that? Was? What the what's
the elevator? I mean, youhear a lot of the catchphrases and stuff

(17:33):
like that. But well, I'llsum it up. Let's bring up Tom
Brady example. Sure, Okay,so I played on a lot of teams,
right, I ended up playing onsix teams, right, and with
not shabby quarterbacks, talking about youknow, Donovan McNabb other than Tom Brady,
like Donovan McNabb na that, yes, exactly, Kurt Warner pretty good

(17:56):
quarterback. So there were some dudesout there that I played with, and
I'll tell you you go into anyof these other places and they're protecting the
quarterback and he deserves it, rightquarterback quarterback needs to be protected and needs
to be kind of revered and respected, right, And so I agree with

(18:18):
that. I'm not downplaying this.These are you know, professional organizations.
They're they're not doing it wrong.This is just a difference. Is if
there's a ball that's thrown at yourfeet or you get you know, your
tips of your fingers on it,or like it's if it's a little off.

(18:44):
Let's just say. The vernacular inthe meeting room is that's your fault,
right, that is your fault.You got to have those And it's
like silence. It's like yes,sir, because like what are were you
supposed to say that? Yeah,exactly. I'll tell you. I went
into I went into New England andit's like Tom throws a throw that's a

(19:07):
little off. It's like, Tom, we need a better throw than that.
There he goes, yes, sir, Like, yeah, well catches
the ball. If it touches yourhands, you should catch it. That's
always been the rule of thumb.Totally and it's like, Hey, I'm
not gonna complain quarterbacks throwing me theball. He's throwing me the ball.
I'm not I'm not mad that they'rethat they're throwing me the ball. So

(19:30):
if you're if you're gonna go complainwhen a quarterbacks throwing you the ball,
like he's not gonna throw you theball at the ball? Thanks anyways?
I mean so okay, So you'renot gonna complain quarterbacks throwing you the ball.
That's a good thing, right andyou should catch it, period Tom

(19:52):
Brady. But you cut a passfrom Tom Brady. I did, Yes,
it was thanks tears some Brady anyway, continue Patrick, So, Patrick
Way, nobody's safe. Yeah,I guess that's that's the thing, Patrie
Way. Nobody's safe. And notonly are you not safe, you're gonna

(20:15):
get called out in stadium seating infront of everybody. Uh. Up on
the big board. Uh so youknow what highlights are? Well, Bilichick
puts up low lights. I don'tknow if you're hear this. I've okay.
So Bill Tick is a low lightsguy, so he puts up you're

(20:36):
just hoping you come in the meetingroom and you're just hoping to God that
and you're just like this, Youknow, you don't want to be on
that. You don't want to beon that film in the team meeting room
because it means you screwed up.You screwed up some and like the odds
of people who don't know what lowlights are, basically you're in a team
meeting. Uh, they're putting onthe film where somebody messed up hard enough

(20:59):
to where the coach is going toexpose you and try to probably make it
like we can't have this moment ora teachable moment or whatever you want to
call it. Regardless, you're gettingput on blast. You're getting put on
blast. It is a very negativeexperience. It's not top ten exactly.
That is exactly what it is.All the not top ten from the day
before at Patriots practice. And sohe's gonna sit there and call you out,

(21:23):
and you're on thin ice and he'sgonna call anybody out. He doesn't
care who you are, he reallydoesn't. And so who are some of
the big names at that point,Tom uh So, Tom, Randy Moss,
that's a big one. Yeah,let's see who on defense, Junior

(21:47):
Seout, Richard Seymour. Was Teddystill there? Yeah, Teddy Bruski Vrabel
was there, yep. Yeah,the team was stacked. Yeah. Was
Wes still was there? Yes?Wes Walker. Do he had eleven catches
in the Super Bowl? Yeah?My guy, even Julian's my guys.

(22:07):
Anyways, continue you love the shortslot receivers, boy, yeah, guy,
yep. So yeah, dude,that was Patriot way so going in
there and then leading up to theSuper Bowl. Talk to me about that.
Okay, okay, leading up tothe Super Bowl if you're sixteen and

(22:33):
oh right, so we finished sixteenand oh undefeated in the season because back
in the day we only played sixteengames, and we had beat the Giants
in New York and we were losing, I think by two scores in the
fourth quarter something like that, andthere was like a bomb to Randy for

(22:53):
a touchdown which broke like all ofthe records, the passing touch on record,
the receiving touchdown record, you know, all the record on the same
play. It was like it wasit was incredible, and then we won.
So like you feel like you havethe world, man. Yeah.
Yeah, Tom Brady's a quarterback.The Patriots undefeated, can't lose. I

(23:17):
remember we were down by two scoresin the fourth whatever we were down by
I think it was two scores inthe fourth. And he's walking down the
months ago you were on your couch. Now you're freaking on the super Bowl.
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah God. And then and then I'm standing
there on the sideline and Tom Brady'spacing and going, we don't worry,

(23:38):
And he's looking everybody in the eyesand going, we don't worry, we
don't worry, we don't worry,like we got this. We're not worried.
And then they came out and threwthat ball and won the game.
Yeah. It was insane. Yeah, so then you lost playoffs. Yeah,

(24:00):
it's that, it's playoffs. Yeah. And that was the first time
I had a playoff experience. Soplayoffs, Yeah, you think that going
from like training camber preseason to regularseason. I'll tell you what, when
you're new in the NFL and yougo through a preseason, you think you
know what the speed is like sure, and especially if then you like make

(24:23):
the team, then it's like,oh yeah I got this. Yeah,
regular season starts and it's a wholestep up. I mean, it's it's
way more intense, everybody's going faster, everybody's going harder. It's just like
it's a it's a totally different levelplay and then there's another It just seems
like there's another level in the playoffs, just more intensity, greater detail.

(24:48):
It's it's just another step up,right. So yeah, so I got
my first playoff experience, got toplaying the AFC Championship game against against the
Chargers. Were against Chargers in theAFC Championship game, running the clock out,
you know, So I was inthere, so, uh, we're

(25:11):
running the heck out of the balland and uh yeah, and then we
finished that game two months earlier.I was on my couch like you said,
and then suddenly like we end thatgame and I'm going to the super
Bowl with the undefeated Patriots day.So it's like, what's what's in and

(25:32):
and I know what's the Patriots?I mean, what what's the super Bowl
experience? Like, I know,you have to be part of two Yeah,
with the super Bowl, it's akind of a long two weeks.
Yeah, it's kind of a longtwo weeks. College ball season a little

(25:52):
Yeah, it's that feel for sure. Yeah, college bull season recreates that
little. Yeah. Yeah, soit's it's kind of long, and I
think being a part of two SuperBowl teams that both lost really tight games,
I think that there's there's the dangerof being overconfident in that in that

(26:18):
time. I'm not saying that youo, those teams were overconfident. I'm
just saying I think there's a dangerin in just barely just the tiniest bit
of losing focus. So I thinkthat's the biggest to me. What I
took from that was that's the biggestchallenge of what super Bowl week, right,

(26:40):
it's staying focused on the actual Somany distractions, Yeah, a lot
of distractions exactly. I mean,it's arguably the biggest sporting in that in
the world. I mean, what'sit should be. It's the best game
in the world. Yeah, Iwould say it's only second place to maybe
the Olympics. Yeah maybe, Idon't know, like in other countries or
whatever. Yeah, World cuple Olympics, and in the super Bowl. I

(27:02):
would personally rather go to a superBowl than any of those. But h
totally Yeah, America, baby,come on, come on, it's a
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(28:07):
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(28:30):
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(28:52):
go use prize picks dot com.Super Bowls lost one of the Patriots.
We talked about the Patriot way.Uh, how hard is it to
lose a Super Bowl? Oh?Sucks? At that point in your life,
wor stay of your life? Youthink up there is it like look

(29:14):
how far we've come. We enjoyit because we were their type thing?
Or is it I'm sure it's gotnothing left but that at the end of
the day. But yeah, thedown is pretty significant. We can imagine
a guy like Randy Moss who hada decorative Hall of Fame, potentially best
of all time career, and hewent to New England's like win a ring?

(29:40):
Right that had I mean that hadthat. I'm sure that hurts him
a different kind of way almost,Yeah, probably, yeah, But for
you were just like Wish who wonthat game obviously, Well, yeah,
I mean it was an abrupt Itwas like driving one hundred miles an hour
and then suddenly hit a wall.You know, really locker room after what's

(30:04):
the locker room after? Like deadsilence? Yeah, dead silence, I'm
sure, yeah, a lot ofyeah, And that was one of the
few times that I've seen uh Billwith not not much to say, because
he's There's different types of coaches,you know, like Andy Reid's man a

(30:27):
few words, or at least hewas when I was coached by him,
you know back in two thousand andfive and six, his team meetings were
two sentences, right, and thenyou're gone, Yeah, uh Bill Belichick's
meanings are forever, and you're justkind of hoping that he isn't call on
you or something like that, youknow, But yeah, after Super Bowl

(30:48):
loss, it's just, yeah,a couple of couple of things, and
that's it, because I mean it'sit's hard. You've all put so much
effort into that. After football,now you talk about, you know,
your passion of what you currently are, you know, you're you're in the
finance game a little bit, nota little bit, you're in the finance

(31:10):
game. How do you think fromyour last game of playing football and that
journey has led you to the pointyou're at now and feel free to discuss
of where you're at kind of nowas much as you like. Yeah,
so coming out, there's still,like I said, there's that period right

(31:33):
when you're when you're done with thegame and uh, you're there's there's still
so much it's such an unfamiliar territoryright that there's still an element of of
like where you're finding yourself. Evenif you know what you want to do,
you're still finding out what that's like. Because when you're playing football at

(31:56):
high level, whether it's college,professional, whatever, especially professional, you
feel like you can do anything else. You look at other people who are
in their career and you're like,well I could do that, And then
you look at other people that arein a different career and you're like,
well I can do that. Andyou think you can do anything as you
should because sure, and and youtry things that like, I mean,

(32:21):
you do little of whatever, whetherit's I don't know, jiu jitsu or
another sport or something like that orwhatever. Golf, well, golf,
Golf is a little humbling. Golf'sa little different for me. Maybe it's
maybe it's easier for you. Butno, golf is a good example of
what I'm about to say. Butyou try a lot of things and you're
really good at that, or youcan get good at them fast, right,

(32:42):
because you're in that mode and you'reyou're a high level athlete. I'm
fast, I'm strong. I actuallystart wrestling like, yeah you can,
you can watch Yeah, oh Ican be a UFC fighter. Well you
know, not everybody could do that. Yeah, And golf is a good
example, like because that's a veryspecific thing that only very few people are
are elite at. Well, you'rean athlete, you think all you do

(33:04):
is sit there, hit a ball, should be no problem, right,
I think that. Yeah, youthink that. Then you start golfing and
you realize you sun Right. Sothe real world is kind of like that
in a lot of ways, Likeyou haven't been trained unless you have if
you have a background doing something orsomething at some guys, but the vast
majority of people who suddenly their careerends and they're in their twenties right.

(33:28):
It's it's like they don't have youdon't have a most people don't have an
upbringing, you know, and soyou're you're you're finding your identity there and
it takes it takes some time.And if you've been playing football until you're
thirty years old, then you're probablyfive, six, seven, eight years
behind. A lot of people arethe same age as you that are in

(33:49):
the career that you're going. Theyfinish in Sigma kai and now they're working
last eight, right, and youjust finished with the you know, Jaguars,
and all of a sudden you're like, okay, I gotta figure this
out one right, yeah, exactly, yes, And so you may have
some advantages that come with you know, there's oh if I was you,

(34:10):
you know, then I would thisand that and the other. You hear
you hear that a lot when you'recoming out of the NFL, even if
you're a rookie at what you're doing. But you're a rookie at what you're
doing, and so you have toput your time in and take the same
and if you don't take the sameor a similar mindset towards the way you

(34:30):
were when you were just starting out, then it can be really challenging because
it's it's hard to get by.Man. No, it's I think I
think once you said, though,is very accurate about like so using that
same mindset, it's one of thosethings. That's why I said, it's
kind of like a slippery slope here. You either it's a fork in the

(34:52):
road either going to go left orright, and I don't wish ones which,
but whether you know it or not, if you got through a certain
level of athletics, and I saythis, you know, if you if
you have a when I meet somebodyand they say they played Division one,

(35:14):
Okay, your wife wasn't a questrian, right, she's great. But what
I'm saying is you understand a senselike I know, like there's a sense
of accountability of like I know youstruggled going to workouts, practice meetings,
challenging yourself and competing at a highlevel division you're you're a Division one athlete.

(35:37):
So if I carry a level ofrespect. If if I meet someone
at an airport and I'm just judgingthem by their appearance and they go,
yeah, you know, judge people'sfirst to a minute, first a minute,
I just know by their shoes,I just told by their wit their

(35:57):
teeth man like like like like I'msorry, Like whether you like it or
not, it's part of the game. You make these assumptions. Now,
I backtrack right away and say,don't judge a book by its cover,
but natural assumptions. When someone's walksin, if they smell a little weird,
I'm kind of like it, it'sprobably this guy from with this guy.
But what I'm getting at is whenyou find out their Division one athlete

(36:20):
there and this is from this isa podcast where there's a divisional athlete and
other visual athlete having to play forthis Visual one program, It's like,
I automatically have a little bit ofrespect for you, no matter how big
of a piece it might be,because you found a way to get through

(36:42):
that. And I know and youknow, you can't just get You can't
just buil your way completely through that. You might be able to cut some
corners, you might not make thebus, and you might not do this
that the other. But if youplayed four years of culturable guess what you
went through four fault. You wentthrough some wins probably because nobody goes oh

(37:05):
to forty, and you went throughsome losses. So where there's all this
going on to the point where Iunderstand you've overcome adversity and you've also you've
lost to it and you've beat it. So your mind is built some type
of way, whether you know itor not. Right now, taking that
and saying, hey, that wasgreat. That was a great period of
my life. I'm now going todo this, that and the other.

(37:30):
It's very freaking hard. It's almostimpossible. Now. If you could do
it fast, more power to you, because guess what, you're twenty three
years old, twenty four years old, twenty five years old, and you're
hungry with all this, Like,hey, I put all this mind into
learning so and so's offense and scoutingagainst you know, Boise or San Diego
State or whoever the hell it isthat week two. I don't have to

(37:54):
physically hit somebody get hit, cutback and forth and ruin my legs,
put too much weight on my back, Like, I don't have to do
all these things. They sound likea burden. I miss them every day.
But I'm saying I have to mentallyoutwork my competition. And I'm not
saying that competition is necessarily you know, a sigma kai frat guy. I'm

(38:16):
not gonna I'm not trying to degradethem at all because they're smart and they're
great. But you're wired or certaintype of way of you know, you're
a triggered dog almost of see thetarget, attack the target, go go
go win, win, win,find a way get after it. Go.

(38:39):
Whatever their competitive advantages, how amI going to squish that and make
it to where I now have thecompetitive advantage? And I think that inner
dog deep in your soul, makea clip out of this, somebody,
that inner dog creep in your deepin your soul. It starts coming out,
and I'm saying, like it's crazybecause you look at athletes, former

(39:01):
athletes that now own businesses or higherup in companies. I don't about you.
I'm not a company owner yet,but my family farms, and I
would love to hire former athletes asassets because of a lot of things.
They know what it's likes to bea part of a team and help that
team win. They know what it'slike to be accountable and have to be
somewhere every day on time, preparedand do their job. And it's two

(39:25):
oundred twenty three where people aren't ontop of their and it's hard to find
good people in your corner. Andjust like a good team, you all
good people around you, right,Yeah, I work with Yeah, it
is hard. I work with alot of business owners and the recurring theme
that I hear it is hard tofind good help. It's hard to find

(39:46):
people that want to work. AndI mean it might sound like an old
man or something, but these days, young folks, if you are if
you got what he say, gotthat dog, get that dog. Yeah,
if you want to work and you'redown to work, you have a

(40:10):
huge advantage absolutely over ninety at leastpercent of people out there, because there's
not a lot of intermotivation out therethat I see from young people, which
I don't know, it is whatit is. Well, also stop there
Presdo state players guys who have playedwith and I think any current player on

(40:34):
the roster President State were small sizeof Texas and California. It's where if
you are a Fresdo State player currentlythey've had success the last few years enough
to where if you say, hey, you go to a business spock,
you're a businessman. If a FresdoState player comes in there, maybe he's
got a degree in uh finger painting, and but he tucks his shirt in

(41:00):
right, comes in there, seriouswith with with with. Maybe he's a
folder of what he's done. Maybehe just says, you know what,
sir, I've never had a jobin my life. I just played football.
And he shakes your hand with adecently firm grip and says, listen,
I don't know much about this industry. I'm very interested in it.
I want to do what I canto be an asset to help your team
win. You're hiring him. That'ssomebody you want to give your team,

(41:25):
and you're hiring you want get itdone on your team. That's what you
want. And I think as muchas degrees matter, and as much as
experience matters, people are who youhire. And if I'm a company owner
or if I'm a man trying towin, I need assets on my team,

(41:46):
not liabilities. I understand, fireme up. Want athletes out there
and in the workforce, baby takeoverSpock. My last question, I already
know the answer to it. Ijust got to ask it because every Fresher
State fans asking what's the most hypeplay ever in your career? Oh Man,

(42:07):
yep, yep, yep. Senioryear bro go ahead. Yeah.
Senior year, we got to playVirginia. We had the opportunity to choose
to either play again in the SiliconValley Classic for the umpteenth year in a
row and play I don't know who, or to go to NBC Computer's Bowl
and play Virginia. And so wedecided that we wanted to play Virginia.

(42:30):
I remember voting on it as ateam because just a vote, wow,
vote on it as a team.Who did we want to play? And
where did we want to go?Who was the other team? I don't
want to, like, you know, anybody or something. I can't I
can't remember. I think it was. I don't know. It was some
It doesn't matter. It wasn't anACC team. You're playing Virginia. Yeah,

(42:52):
we're playing the number one defense inACC and good yeah, good,
yeah. And man, the vernacularwas, oh, two yards is a
win on a run play, andwe were all like, no, two
yards not win on a run.So we ran for two and fifty yards
on them, I think, butyeah, uh no. We we pushed

(43:15):
it to overtime. I think wewere down twenty one seven and we came
back, pushed it over time,and we drew up a version of a
play that we'd never done. Asideline s threw it up on the sideline
because we were running the ball uptheir gut and uh and uh, yeah,
we drew the play up that wehad never run and uh never practiced.

(43:35):
Coaches like Spock, you got theB line. I'd never run a
B line in my life. Andthen I was like, yep, I
got it, and uh we cameout. I think it was all right,
it'll come back to me a second. But anyways, yeah, we
faked the run. They've been onit, and I got to catch the

(43:58):
touchdown to end the game and anduh it a got charged by the whole
team. It was pretty cool.Yeah, by moment they said it was
a touchdown anyway, but you getin record books, according to the record
books, right, But we're luckywhen you when you went down where you're
like when yeah, when I wasgetting turned around, uh, like I

(44:21):
fell over the guy right yeah,and uh I knew I knew it was
close. I knew it was close, and you know how it is right
there right good? And uh andI looked at the ref and he was
like, yeah, yeah, theteam charge. Yeah, it's pretty bad.

(44:44):
You have it. It was away to go out. Steven spoked,
everybody spoked before I close up.Anything you want to say to bring
the nation. A lot going ontoday, man, just always always bring
the juice. Always always bring theanything is can I say? Oh yes,

(45:05):
yes, yes, go for it. Okay, let's ask you can.
Let's see how fast you can say. Hey, Sherry, this for
you, shout out. This previousdiscussion was attended for general information purposes only.
No portion of this discussion serves asas a receipt of, or as
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(45:30):
learn more and to view our disclosure, please visit opinionwealth dot com. Thank
you, Thank you. Anyways,Up, I see what's walk? Everybody
go dogs can't can't, can't preachyou enough. Unsubscribed resubscribed by our merch.
Get after it. We got acollege game day coming soon, gonna

(45:52):
be electric free beer, more juice, extra juice, spicy juice, all
the juice, bring the juice fire, get your pope next week. Yeah,