The Journey of Cam Worrell

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Episode Transcript

(00:02):
All right, all right, allright, welcome back to Bring the Juice.
I'm your host, Frank to Landa. Today on the pod. We
got a lot of grits, alot of valley grits. I got Presdo
State Bulldog, a lot of otherthings. Cam were well, Cam,
this is overdue. Well people,bring the juice. Brother Man finally finally
talking about it for a while.Schedules haven't worked out, but Man,

(00:22):
happy to be here. Here weare. I appreciate you coming. Yeah.
Uh, I'm just gonna come outof the gate being a valley guy.
I just want to say the wordChowchilla. Okay, chow Chilla.
Growing up in Chowchilla, was italways the dogs? Was it always I
gotta play at President State? Talkto me about just growing up at chow
Chilla playing ball and then your firstjourney of getting to Fresno State. Yeah,

(00:46):
I was playing. It was playingbasketball at Presno State. That was
the dream, honestly, Like mygrandpa and uncle had season tickets to sell
and arena. So I didn't goto my first football game President State football
game until I was like in eighthgrade. I didn't really play football growing
up. I didn't really care aboutit. So I was a basketball player.
Man, I played baseball, Iplayed basketball. So I would go

(01:07):
to four or five Fresno State basketballgames at Celand Arena and they were live.
I heard live. It was insane, it was it was. Man.
You think about the atmosphere that isstarting to build around Fresno State football
now, and it was there inthe early two thousands when I was playing,
like we were sold out. Studentsection was packed, like the atmosphere

(01:29):
that exists in Bulldog Stadium now orValley Children's Stadium. Selling Arena was sold
out every single game. It wasloud every single game. And I experienced
that for as long back as Ican remember. So, man, I
love loved Fresno State. Love FresnoState. Always went to games. I
was a big Tark fan UNLV wasthey were in the heyday of Target UNLV

(01:53):
during you know, my teen years, So I was a huge fan.
So yeah, I always loved FresnoState. Wanted to play basketball, and
then kind of just it really justkind of lucked into football. Had a
JV baseball coach who became the varsityfootball coach at chow Chilla recruited me to
play football. Love that, andit kind of tricked me into playing football,

(02:14):
honestly, and I don't know.The rest is history. It was
just a game that fit me.Like I played. I was a little
bit of a football player on thebasketball court, right, physical totally,
and football you're celebrated when you're physical. You run as fast as you can
into somebody and hit him as hardas you possibly can, and people cheer
for that. So at that timein my life, it was perfect.

(02:35):
Man. It was a great outletfor all the rage and violence that I
had going on at sixteen seventeen yearsold. And luckily Pat Hill year two
here, you know, offered mea walk on spot. I had no
real offers at all, and itwas perfect. You saw, So,
wait, what was your first yearof actually playing like tackle football? Then

(02:55):
I played a couple of years ofpop Warner. I was really bad.
So my first year in high schoolwas my junior junior year. I didn't
play a freshman, you know,it didn't play till I was a junior.
It didn't start until like halfway throughthe season. We had like two
running backs get hurt. So Istarted ran for one oh five or something,
and the rest was kind of history. Worked really hard that offseason,

(03:16):
had a really good senior year.Just I was I was raw, Like
I didn't understand football. I didn'tplay defense. I played corner a little
bit, but really I was justa running back. So in high school,
you only played running back. Ionly played running, but I played
a couple of games of corner.I played one my last game my senior
year, I played safety, andit was really like I got recruited more

(03:38):
off of that game at safety thanI did any other game in my career,
because guys were like, why didn'tyou play this position all the time.
Yeah, so I don't know.I was carrying the ball twenty five
times a game. You know Idid it. I didn't go both ways.
I was a returner, so theytried to kind of hold me and
be an offensive weapons. Was itweird? I asked this because I'm opposite.

(04:00):
When I was a sophomore, Ionly play defense. And then they
said, like, you're never gonnaplay offense for me. And I'm like,
you know, Anythony ghost in He'slike, You're never going to play
offense for me. I need someoneto play corner. And at the time,
I practiced all sophomore year on JVballing out a wide receiver. I'm
like, okay, I guess I'mcalled up playing good. We played Edison

(04:24):
and the screamage like three little touchdownsand the guy's like, who's this white
boy? All right? And I'mlike, okay, let's all getting called
up great, one hundred and fifteenpounds, five foot four, right,
and he goes, I needed toplay corner for me, and I'm like,
dude, I don't. I nevereven played corner before. I played
a little bit JV. Yeah,yeah, And sure enough, I'm I'm

(04:49):
all all these great experiences of playinghigh schootball, I go and play offense
in college. So, Warren,you found out that they wanted you to
played defense in college. Were youkind of like, hey, I don't
have that much experience there yet,or like, what was the vibe?
Was the vibe? I came hereas a running back, so I was

(05:10):
recruited as a running back, andprobably the first maybe week, maybe four
or five practices my freshman year,I was a running back. But I
got here with Derek Ward, whoplayed seven or eight years in the NFL
would have been one of the alltime great Bulldogs had he not add some

(05:30):
academic issues. Josh Levi, whowas a highly touted recruit from down south
Paris Gaines, was here. MichaelPittman had just left. So I'm looking
at all these guys who are playingthe running back position, and I was
watching what was going on, andI thought, you know what, I

(05:51):
would rather hit people than be hitby the types of people that I see
making contact because you know, Iwas one hundred eighty five pounds coming out
of high school and didn't think thatI ever had a future as a running
back. I would have been okay. If I would have stuck with it,
I would have been okay. Youknow, I would have played.
I'm sure I ran hard. Iwas shifty. But it took about four

(06:14):
four days and then I moved tocorner. So I was a corner for
a couple of weeks and then movedto safety, and safety was just kind
of the fit. I like tohit, and Kevin Coyle was here at
the time, Wily liked the waythat I approached playing in the safe position.
I was just raw. So redshirted came in at about one eighty
two. By you know, whenwe red shirted that freshman year, we

(06:38):
we wouldn't meet, we would gowork out. So we were working out
like five days a week. Sofrom when we reported in August till like
midway through the season, I wentfrom like one eighty two to like two
ten. Oh wow. And theywere like, how big do you think
you can get? Your coach SteveSabonia. Oh my god, yeah Steve
Sabonia, Yeah, yeah, totallyman. He was my trainer my whole

(07:00):
NFL career. Yeah, he waswhen I got there, he was the
man. So he was just grindingus in the weight room. So I
got up to two ten and Coylewas like, you think you can get
to two twenty five and play willlinebacker? And I was like, I
don't know, I'll try. SoI got up to about two fifteen and
they were like, now, let'slet's just keep you at safety. So
red shirted didn't play my my redshirt freshman year and then flunked out,

(07:26):
had to go to Fresno City,which was really, I mean, the
most important year of my adult life, you know. Without that year,
no success, really just totally humbling. I had beaten out a returning all
wax safety my sophomore year. Iwas going to start at Ohio State,
Like that's what I was lined upto do and didn't take care of the

(07:47):
classroom work, so it wasn't eligible. Went to Fresno City, played one
season. We went ten and o. It was a great season. But
Tony Cavillia, who's still the headcoach there, like he there's no sugar
coat, you know, like thisis why you're here, and these are
the things you need to do toget out of here. If you do
them, you can get out ofhere. If you don't, you're never
getting out. Like all the possibilitiesof your football career are done if you

(08:13):
don't handle the business that you haveto take care of. And like I
said, that was the most educationalgrowth year of my entire adult life.
And I think coach c to thisday for the lessons that he taught me
during that year. When you're andI'm just I'm thinking from my personal experience,

(08:33):
like when you're a walk on it, you just get the opportunity.
And I mean, Cam, Idon't know how to tell you this,
like it's hard to make d one. Did you feel like you were you
trusted, you doubled down on yourselfto say, hey, I have this
d one opportunity. I'm going togo to JC. There's guys who do
that, they never come back.Yeah, what what was your And I'm

(08:54):
sure it was all business, butwhat was your approach saying, Hey,
I'm going to leave President State andgo make this Fresno city decision to ultimately
get back. Yeah, I meanI really had no choice. There was
no like I was ineligible to playDivision one football, Okay, right,
so I couldn't Like I was astarter and I was ineligible, Like that's

(09:15):
what Kevin Coyle drove me from Fresnoto my dad's apartment in Chowchilla to meet
with myself and my dad to tryto figure out if there were anything we
could do for me to become eligiblethat fall, and we couldn't, like
I was too far behind to makethose classes up. But he he tried

(09:41):
so hard, like he was suchhe was always in my corner, so
I mean, I love him tothis day. But he literally drove me
from President to Choa Chilla to tryto to try to help me out,
and it just didn't work out,and I had no real option. And
my my grandfather was friends with BillWaite, who was a tennis coach at
Fresnoe City. Somehow he found outI was ineligible, and Coach C called

(10:03):
me and it was like, hey, I heard you're ineligible. Like come
check us out and see what we'reabout. And I thought, oh,
man, you know, it's kindof like I'm getting recruited by a junior
college. Right. So I walkedinto Coach C's office and it was like,
look, man, if you comehere, it's not easy. We
we this is a hard program tostay in. We have academic standards.

(10:26):
If you're not going to live upto them, don't come right. If
you do, I'll help you getback on the road to being a Division
one football player. But you haveto do You have to do the hard
work. If you're not going todo the hard work, don't come.
And I was like, okay,this is what I need. You know,
this is what I need. Andit was honestly the best year of
mine. I would not have goneback to Fresno State, which that was

(10:50):
the goal. I got recruited byother schools, you know, UCLA,
I talked to them quite a bit, but I was going back to Fresno
State. That was the goal Iwas getting back. I was taking what
I had earned the first time andgave up. I was taken that back
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(12:01):
So we're working hand in hand together, Iron Sharp and Zion shout out
to f FB bank. I feellike a good ad read well done,
well done. No, but Cam, I mean, like that's it.
There had to be some like darkdark thoughts going through that whole area.
There were there were dark times forsure. What did you and And like,

(12:24):
I bring this up because like Ithink everyone, every human being has
their own vice. Whether it couldlook like they have a perfect life,
trust always pretty, it could looklike they're obviously maybe they're not that great
and they're not. You could seeit a little bit on the outside.
But I think, you know,especially athletes, you go through so much
adversity, whether it's between uh,you know, injuries, just things not

(12:52):
going your way. Necessarily they bringin someone else that that coaching staff recruited
them, so they're getting a littlebit of an advantage. We'll get into
how you went undrafted. Obviously,a first round draft pick is going to
have more more leeway to f upbasically than an undrafted guy trying to make
fifty three. You're face with theseadversities, and it sounds like that that

(13:16):
year at City, you face somedemons. What did you do to basically
say, hey, I need toclick something in my head to get back
to D one, Like what wasthe what was the mental part? Because
I understand that, you know,I don't understand the game plan. Yeah,
Like the physical part was taking careof us. So like I had
a great spring, I really beatout on all that safety was Like I

(13:37):
said, it was going to startthe horseshoe Ohio stay as a sophomore,
Like it was a big deal.I had done all the work physically,
but I just I wasn't responsible enoughas an adult to handle my business Like
that was it. I wouldn't wakeup early to go to class, I
wouldn't study, I wouldn't do asign Like literally, it's not that difficult

(14:00):
to do, right, But youhave to be responsible. You have to
understand that you can't just excel inone area of your life. You have
to excel in all areas of yourlife. You have to put effort into
everything that you do if you're goingto have success in any portion of your
life. Like they're they're not disassociated, right, you can't be an excellent

(14:24):
football player and not put the sameeffort into the classroom or at least put
in enough effort to do the minimum, which sometimes the minimum is enough,
right, And I didn't even dothe minimum, so you know, didn't
have to work necessarily hard in theclassroom at chao Chilla to be like a
three point zero student, So Ididn't really have any study skills. I

(14:48):
was not responsible. I should nothave lived on my own at eighteen years
old. Like I graduated on Friday. I lived on my own on Monday,
like I was out from cha Chilato Fresno. I could just I
was not responsible enough to handle theresponsibilities of being a college athlete. And
that's what it came down to.I was not able to self motivate enough.

(15:13):
I knew it was at stake,and I still wouldn't take care of
business. You're you're gonna lose everythingthat you've worked for. You're going to
lose every potential opportunity as a footballplayer that you have if you don't start
being a responsible adult and that slapin the face when you're man, I'm

(15:33):
gonna start at the horseshoe versus OhioState too. I'm a backup at Fresno
City because I just got there aweek before a camp started and they've been
working out for four months. Likeyou don't just walk in because you were
at Fresno State and start in thatprogram. That's not how it works.
So you know, like I said, best, that's the best experience that
I had as a irresponsible young adultto becoming a responsible adult. I'm just

(16:00):
visually like a car wash for somereason, like you came in not dirty,
I'm not gonna say dirty, Likeyou came in with certain things.
Fresno City was your car wash.You came out and you came out though,
and you pulled that that nice Percedesright into Fresno State. And so
talking about the second the second timeat Fresno State was what was your second
first day? Land? Pat Hillmade me he made me walk on again.

(16:25):
Right, He didn't offer me ascholarship, but it took me about
a week and a half into trainingcamp and and he offered me a scholarship.
So but he made me work forit, right, He made me
show, right, he made meshow. Hey, you did it at
Fresno City. You took care ofyour academics. Okay, that was the
minimum that you had to do.Now what are you going to do when
you step on this football field?How are you going to work over the
summer? Is that going to translateto the season, and it did.

(16:49):
Like I was ready to go,man, I was motivated. I had
worked with we had a great Imean that was two thousand and one,
that was you know, four gamesin Dave cars on the cover Sports Illustrated,
right. We knew that we hadall of this talent, and most
of that talent had been building fouryears. So I was ready to go.
I was. I was disciplined.I took care of everything, you

(17:11):
know, I understood the playbook,everything I needed to do, I did
at a high level. And abouta week and a half in get offered
a scholarship. Was great because Iwas poor, you know, like even
back then, five hundred and twentynine bucks a month was a lot to
me at that time. So itwas a huge weight lifted off my shoulders.
And then I was just able toball, you know, And then

(17:32):
I was just able to play footballand didn't start my junior year. Probably
should have talked to JD about that. J D Williams, who was the
dB coach at the time back then. But you know, played a lot,
played in the nickel packages, playeda lot of special teams, had
a lot of positive plays, andthat two thousand and one season was fantastic.
You know, we should have finishedit off. We didn't. But

(17:53):
then, you know, Pati usedto sit us down at the end of
every season with every single coach onthe other side, trainers, you know,
strength and conditioning, every assistant coachwho has any input with you at
all, and it's there's nothing heldback. And it was basically like,

(18:14):
you know, you had a goodjunior year, but here are all the
things that you don't do well likeand it was and we had Bryce McGill
as a starter, and then you'rehere and every other safety's hunting for your
job. And I was like,all right, I get what's going on.
And that's so that was another kindof wake up call, like all
right, it's time to step upwhat I did last year and become a
leader. And became a leader.I had a good senior year all whack,

(18:38):
you know, over one hundred tackles, five picks, took into the
house, took all of the thingsthat had been taught to me that were
hard to get through, really absorbedall of them that year and played like
the leader of a unit. That'sno. I mean, it's cool because

(19:00):
like I I know, it's noteasy, and it's and I could say
that on a podcast, but likeit really isn't easy. Like you you
can't, you know, forty fiveminutes to an hour podcast can't describe like
the demons you face of facing thatadversity, whatever it might be, like
I said, and for you tohave to get just to get there,

(19:22):
because I'm thinking of the cam andchow Chilla, who's like, dude,
I just want to kind of Iwant to play ball. Yeah, you
get your shot, you get tothe point where it's like, hey,
it's in front of me, itgets taken away, and again, all
you can do is control the controble. You you get to go into a
program like Freso City, which isa respect in your colleague by the way,

(19:45):
go through the gauntlet, come backcoach Hill, toughest Nails gets you
in the basically just primes you topolish you and have this breakout senior season.
You have some great you know momentsin that two thousand and one year
as well. And like it's toughbecause like you just like ripped off,

(20:08):
you know, like a couple ofstatistics which regulations by the way, but
I'm saying, you know, peopledon't see the the other parts of it
necessarily, and like the growth partof like that two thousand and one and
you're like, yeah, maybe youare running down on kickoff instead of being
the starting safety necessarily, Like okay, all right, own your role.
Figure it out, find which youdid, and it kind of leads me

(20:33):
into asking the next question of everypiece of the journey you've talked about so
far, you've found a way.Adversity struck, you figure it out.
You find a way. Sometimes ittakes more time than others. But for
as to say it's over and yougot NFL, you know on your mind,
talk to me about becoming undrafted yetmaking the fifty three for the Bears?

(20:57):
Man, what was the mindset?Like, okay, you did Pro
Day Yeah, and then it's like, what happened? What was your journey?
What was your journey? Yeah?I did, I did. We
had a couple of Pro day's backthen, and I ran okay, worked
out well. Everything else was good. I just I wasn't a track guy,
right, so I didn't really knowhow to run. So low four

(21:21):
six, high four five went justdecent as a safety. Film was good.
I talked to There were three daysof the draft. Back then,
I talked to four teams the morningbefore that third day, which I think
the third day was rounds four throughseven, Right, so it's still that
four or five, six, seven? Oh it is it is again now
because they have the the Thursday night, Round one and then round two.

(21:44):
Yeah, so it used to betwo three yeah, yeah, one two
right? Right. So I talkedto the Bears, the Dolphins, the
Bengals, the forty nine ers,all four of those teams the morning before
the draft started. Every two toeighteen. Every single team told me you're
on our draft board. If wedon't draft you, we're going to call

(22:04):
you towards the end of the draftbecause we'll probably sign you as an undrafted
free agent. Right. That wasfour conversations the morning of the draft.
Yes, four rounds go through,it gets towards the end of the draft.
My phone doesn't ring. The draftends, my phone doesn't ring.
Do you have a draft party?Yeah, small draft party. I did
have a small draft party. Yes, yeah, yeah, like yeah,

(22:26):
yeah, like I thought I was. I thought I was, like I
had talked to these teams consistently throughoutthe process, right, so I I
thought I had a good idea ofwhere I was. Didn't hear from anybody
the whole night, No team,my agent, nothing, nothing, like
I'm absolutely devastated, right, devaslike my career is over. This is

(22:48):
like I went. I was soexcited to be drafted or at least get
a call and sign as an undraftedfree agent, to like not even getting
an opportunity. So it wasn't untilthe very next day. How was sleep
that night? Not at all?I mean it was I was devastated,
Like I was completely my world waswas over, like everything that I had
worked for, everything for, youknow, from the end of the season

(23:11):
to April. Like I had onething on my mind, and that was
become an NFL football player, rightgone. Yeah, So the next morning
I get a call from Marty Barrett, who was a regional scout with the
Bears. He's now like head ofI think he's head of college recruiting for
the Rams, but been in thegame forever. Hey man, I really

(23:34):
really fought hard for you, couldn't. They ended up signing Julius Curry,
a safety out of Michigan for fourguy punt returner. I fought for you
hard. I couldn't get you anundractored free agent opportunity. The only thing
I could get you was a minicamp tryout. So we have a mini
camp tryout. We have a minicamp this weekend. We'll fly you in,

(23:55):
we'll pick you up, we'll bringyou to mini camp. If you
get hurt, it's on you,right, you sign a waiver, it's
on you. But it's an opportunity. So I call my agent that's what
the bears just called me with andhe's like, you can't do that.
Like if you tear your a clyour career is over. You have to
pay for this, Like here,it's twenty grand like you. And I'm
like, I'm walking around with thatthing, right, I'm like I have

(24:18):
literally nothing to lose, right,nothing to lose at all. So I
go out. I go out tomini camp the morning. So it's like
we get there Thursday, two practices, Friday, two practices, Saturday,
one practice Sunday. Before that Sundaypractice, they take me upstairs. Hey
man, you've done a great job. We want to sign you to a
three year deal, which is basicallylike rookie contructs price like you know,

(24:41):
nothing guaranteed at all, no signingbonus, like you're making league them,
You're gonna get to come back herein three weeks and work out in the
off season and you'll be there fortraining camp. Cool because I came out
here with nothing. There's nothing atall, So I was like, yeah,
let me be signed right here,let's go. So, you know,
went out there, accomplished that thatgoal, went back out for the
summer, worked out with the Bearsall off season, went to training camp

(25:04):
as the sixth safety. Took melike a week and a half to jump
over the fifth safety who was theundrafted free agent from Michigan that they had
signed, just because you know,I was there with a single mindset period,
Like the only thing I can controlis every time I'm on the football
field, I'm going to impress somebody, whether it's with execution, whether it's

(25:26):
making a play, whether it's witheffort, Like everything that I can control,
I'm going to put everything that Ihave into that, and I did.
First preseason game. I'm on thesidelines for the first three quarters,
I get no snaps, nothing,fourth quarter starts go in, make like
four tackles in the fourth quarter.But I'm ready right like the lights are

(25:49):
on and I'm flying around. Sothe next day we're watching film. My
buddy Taught, who's a really goodfriend of mine. Now, Todd Johnson,
he was a fourth round pick fromfloor or to we were rookies at
the same time. He was afree safety. The last play he was
in, the last play of thethird quarter was a punt. He got
cracked backed and broke his jaw.So he breaks his jaw. He's out

(26:14):
for six weeks. So all thosereps that he was getting as the number
two free safety are now my repsis the number two free safety. Because
in that fourth quarter, I wasflying around like a good man. You
jumped from five to three. Iwas getting third team reps, maybe a
couple of reps out of ten.Right, and and Todd's the fourth round

(26:37):
draft pick. They have plans forhim. Now he's out. But here
the two yeah, and now realquick, and now I'm backing up Mike
Brown. Yeah, right, who'sa Pro Bowl safety. So yeah,
from from no reps until the fourthquarter, and just circumstances dictated that,
like I had an opportunity, I'mstarting on all the special teams. The
second preseason game, I'm getting youknow, two and half quarters worth of

(27:00):
reps and I ball out. JohnBaxter had me so prepared to go into
the NFL as a special teams player, so prepared, have a great game
two, Game three, We're gettingon the plane to go to New England
to play our last preseason game,right, suit, bag everything. Jerry

(27:21):
Angelo the GM pulls me into atrainer's room and said, Cam, you've
done such a great job this preseason. We just don't have enough room on
the roster for you. But we'regonna cut you, but we want to
sign you to the practice squad rightnow. Another team can claim you can
pick you up on waivers. Theyhave every right to do that, but
if not, we would love tosign you. It's a negotiation you can

(27:44):
make the same as a rookie onthe active roster. Literally, as I'm
getting onto the plane to go toNew England the day before our last game,
so I'm like, I have fourquarters the ball. Yeah, I'm
going to ball right, Somebody's gonnawatch this tape and think that I can
play for them, right, SoI ended up with like fourteen tackles.

(28:04):
I scoop a fumble, take itto the house, just like like it's
almost a storybook, storybook game.But the GM just told me I'm getting
cut, right, So that wasFriday, cuts her on Sunday. So
I'm sitting in my apartment in Chicagoall day Sunday just waiting to get a
call to get called into the Bear'soffice. You know, hey, we

(28:26):
cut you, but we want toresign. You never got a call.
Turn the radio on. This ishow old it was. Two thousand and
three, right, turn the radioon. Two o'clock was like the time
that cuts had to be made andofficial turn the radio on and they list
off the Bears cuts and I wasnot was not a part of the was
not a part of the cuts made. The made the fifty three man roster,

(28:47):
you know, as a as theonly one that season to make it
as an undrafted free agent. Yeah, yeah, yeah, crazy. I've
interviewed enough NFL dudes to have beencut and they call them the grim Reaper
and to hear and honestly, it'swhat do I I I face adversity in
the sports world, so I understandlike the highs and lows, the moments

(29:08):
that people don't see. It's abusiness. At the end of the day.
College football's high school footballs become abusiness man. I mean crazy these
days. But I will say thisand people don't. They don't realize it,
Like they just see it on Twitternow, it's like, oh,
so and so got cut. It'slike this dude just got fired from his
job. Like this, a man'sgot fired from his job. Hey,

(29:30):
some of my best friends like mykind of error. Guys, they're kind
of going through right now. Ofthey've been in the league. They've had
blurreds of success here and there.You get cut. You're like, I'm
gonna get picked up next week?Is my phone dead? Yeah? And
I've I you know, I supportthem, I love them. I want

(29:51):
to reach out to be supportive whateverI can do, be an asset and
I and I want to set itup to where once they are done playing
football and we'll get in this later, what's next. What's the plan?
How you're gonna take that same mindsetand attack it. But everyone thinks I'm
crazy for this idea or some youknow, knowledge of or what if I

(30:12):
did this blah blah blah. AndI'm like, Okay, that's crazy.
I was like, but what ifit hits in every book you read,
every story about anything? And youyou you've been involved with plenty of businesses
to know like it takes some riskto make it totally. It just does
totally. And I think with sports, like you said, like you got

(30:37):
to just double down on yourself.You got to bet. Say you know
what, man, And if youhad to ask somebody who doesn't think like
you, they'd be like, Idon't know if that's a good move,
blah blah blah. But you finda winner who let's they're saying pretty much,
they'll be like, send it,bro, go for that. Now
be calculated, right, because especiallycan you play it safety like the worst

(30:57):
trying of safety to be I playedsafety thatf in high school. You don't
want to just be blindly running downhilllike a torpedo. Gotta watch the double
move. So I think controlled chaos, controlled intensity. It is the secret
recipe of being like this is myjet fuel, to put my rocket ship

(31:22):
jetpack on and just go to themoon on whatever venture might be. And
again that is a lot of thingsmuch easier said than done. But I
relate to you a lot, andwe're just we're not normal. Like things
are intense. Man. I tellmy family, I want to throw a
boxing match at Table Mount Casino.What are you doing? What are you

(31:44):
doing? I said, I don'tknow. I think it's a good event.
I think it'd be profitable for ournonprofit. I think there's some good
things there. I think we couldbring in a crowd. Okay, we'll
figure it out. Guess what,man, they loved it. They had
a great time. Everyone had agood time. And it's like now,
but I can't sit still. Itold myself, I'm not going to throw

(32:06):
an event for another year. I'mdrawing rodeo. But when you can't sit
still, I think it's not abad thing. I'd rather be too intense
and live life too hard than justbe boring. Yes, yeah, I
work by nine to five o'clock inclock out. My family goes to Disneyland
once every five years. Like yeah, some people, you know, some

(32:31):
people have that outlook on life.It's just never been mine, you know,
it's it's not it's not the waythat I'm wired. I probably do
way too much. Like I takebeing a father extremely seriously. I put
a ton of effort into my family, time, energy, emotions, eighteen
year old and fifteen year old daughter, Like you know, it's it takes

(32:51):
a lot of just emotion. It'san emotional house that we live in just
because you know, and I've alwayssupported them. I was at gymnastics today.
It's just it's a huge part ofmy life. But there's like sitting
around and being passive. It's justnever It's never fit me, man,

(33:13):
it just has it. I've alwayswanted to do more. I'm curious on
other things, and I think peopletry to put former athletes into a box,
right. They try to define usand they try to make us fit
what their concept of a former athleteis or what their concept of a successful
person is. And I've kind offound like I don't really fit a lot

(33:35):
of boxes. I'm with the companynow, the Kaya Group Fantastic, Like
they get it. There's a lotof similar mindsets. It's a growth oriented
company. You can kind of dowhatever you want as long as you're successful.
They don't care, you know,take care of people. And it's
hard to find those places that allowyou to just grow and be yourself because

(33:57):
man, it's so threatening to alot of people that right they can't handle
it exactly, and especially if youcome into like a bowl in China shop
where you're just like they're like,oh, I got my degree in this
and I got fifteen years and thisfield, and there's value to that totally.
Yeah. It's like listen, atthe end of the day, you're
either a winner or you're and eitherway you're gonna maybe I don't know this

(34:19):
field yet, but like I'm gonnafigure it out, ya, gonna find
a way. Like anything, especiallyin sports, best way to learn,
you make a mistake, you learnfrom it, you don't do it again.
Maybe you get burnt twice, Okay, I know now, yeah,
all right, Now, the higherup you get the margin for airs razor
thin, Yeah, you know you'reif you if you were if you were

(34:40):
an undrafted free agent at that minicamp and you got you know, Randy
Moss caught four balls on you,it's like, all right, bro,
you know, yeah, it's luckilyI was a well established veteran dunked on
me a couple of times when Iwas in Miami. But yeah, like,
yeah, your your margin for erroris is smaller. The more established

(35:00):
you are, the more room forarea you may have. But man,
the more impact for your decisions areand the more negative you know effects could
come from those. But it's beena it's been a cool journey, man.
I can't playing for Pat Hill andJohn Baxter and Kevin Coyle and JD

(35:21):
were all the coaches that were here, and then Lovely smith Dom Capers was
such a huge you know, impartedso much to me as a defensive mind.
All these all these teachers that werefocused on football taught me so much
more about life than than football becauseof the way they taught football, because

(35:42):
of their passion, because of theirattention to detail. And I've taken that
and I've applied it to every singleaspect of my life. Like I was
a pretty good football player, youknow, I'm trying to be better as
a businessman. I'm trying to bebetter as a father, as a husband,
as supporter of the Central Valley.Like I'm trying to take all of
those lessons and and impart them intoevery single aspect of my life. Take

(36:06):
the elite mindset to chase greatness.I couldn't agree more. Before my last
question, you got to quit shotto our friends at American Pistachio Growers.
If you want to perform like thepros, each your pistachios, eat those
nuts. Kids. Yeah, isthat your car, I don't know going
on, dude. I was like, it's all right. At the at

(36:27):
the college game day we did onSaturday, uh, I had Marcus on
the set and everyone behind us startedgoing like Marcus. They were like,
do this emotion. And I'm lookingand I'm kind of like trying to keep
the show going, and I'm like, I'm like trying to read these sign
languages form these random people. Andthen I'm like, I just I was

(36:49):
like, what, like, Marcus, your car is getting towed. And
we turned back and Marcus's Chrysler's on, he gets out. We got we
gotta clip that right. We gotthe whole The video marker store Criticul Fraro
over the Oh my god. Hetexts me. He's like, Yo,
He's like, we're cool, bro, I'll be back in like five minutes
for the next segment. I'm like, jeez, manzh Anyways, Camp,

(37:15):
my last question. You know we'reboth dogs guys, and I know you're
very invested in close with the teamright now and I want to get in
to that. But with all theconference realignment, the nil the hoopla will
call it that, right now,what does Fresdent State need to do to
take the next step to become thatthat national brand almost and they need to

(37:36):
pass Number one. They need topass the county text that's going to be
on the ballot in March, Measuremeasure. It's the only way. It's
it really is the only way thatthe there's no possible way to immediately have
three hundred million dollars available to putback into this athletic program just by giving

(37:57):
one penny for every four dollars thatyou spend in Resno County. I mean
an insignificant amount of You will notnotice ever, Yes, right, how
many people pick up a penny onthe street right now? It's dirty?
I mean very few, right,one penny for every four dollars. So
Number one, if they pass MeasureE, that allows them to put dollars

(38:20):
into the infrastructure that is lacking rightnow on campus, a football only facility
in the stadium, upgrade the stadium, you know, all of the things
that they need to do. MeasureE is the tickets, do that and
then private support will come on topof that. But there's just not The
Central Valley is not economically it's noteconomically viable to support two hundred and fifty

(38:47):
million dollars worth of project. It'sjust not it's just not gonna happen.
No, And I mean I meancam like we've been involved in, uh
you know, blog foundation fundraisers,understanding the dynamic on the inside of that
at and ils come up. There'sbulldog bread, there's all these things.
There's all these these dynamics on howyou could give money. And I think
at the end of the day,all but set aside. It needs to

(39:09):
be known that you you do.Even if you have, you could pay
your guys nextra you know, twogrand a month. You gotta get the
infrastructure, like you said, totallyyou need. You need the stadium and
not just a saying you need rightnow. Our cafeteria for the football team
it is in three or four trailersput together behind the baseball field in the

(39:37):
locker room. Yeah, don't about. The chefs are awesome. The food
is delicious in there. I actuallymiss Friday morning all the bar ever so
often I'm like Mac, how arethe almost these days? And but like
dude, we're a ranked program,we win championships in bowl games, and
we got a lum in the NFLthat are you know, I mean Davon

(40:00):
Joam's say what you want with youdebate all day. Janty has the best
pot receiver the NFL. Yeah yeah, talk to me about it, but
comment on this. But like Iat the end of the day, it's
like, what what can be done? And I think it all starts there
and the only way it happens it'snot it's not ten people donating fifty thousand
dollars. That's not going to getthe job done. That's great, but

(40:22):
I don't think that's the long termanswer. Something like measure E not something
measure he needs to pass essentially notan official ad here, but but pretty
much. And then you know,on top of that, it's just it's
just how how are you going todo your part? You know a Freendsdo
City coach. I didn't play forthe city, but he came and spoke
to us one time and he justsaid the term do your one eleventh when

(40:45):
you're on the football field, andthat stuck with me because it's like they
always say, do your job,do your one eleventh. Everyone does their
job, then do it. AndI get there's people in the valley who
maybe they don't support presdo state,they don't like what we're about. They
don't like winning football programs and funand good degrees and all that. But
then like degrees giving back to thesituation isomic, Like eighty percent of the

(41:09):
degrees that come from President State giveback to the battle economically. I mean,
I said all the times, withoutFresno State President is not Fresno and
without friends State football president was toBakersfield at that point, right, But
I it's a situation of just likethere is no right answer necessarily, but
there is a wrong one. Andthe wrong one is you got we got

(41:30):
to keep growing. And you know, through the Bulldog Foundation, as a
young alum who is trying to saveup money to go to nice sinners,
ever so often it is trying topay off a house as a car bill,
blah blah blah. Like I'm adulting. I want to get back to
Fresde State, but I don't havea thousand dollars checked right right now,
I don't, right, But theycreated through the Bulldog Foundation, now you

(41:53):
can still give back and like,hey, I'm going to donate ten dollars
a month, twenty dollars a month, eighty dollars a month is one thousand
dollars a year almost give or takeright, eighty dollars a month. That's
the equipal length of I mean campus going to get beers for two hours,
right, So either don't go getbeers for two hours or say,

(42:15):
you know what, I can handlethat my adult life now. Yeah,
and I'm gonna, I'm gonna I'mgonna do an extra beer run. But
I've done any to Fresno State,and I think there's a lot of creative
ways you can go about it.Get the community there. But I'm I
don't know, man, I justI want it to happen. Yeah,
and like we're there, I'm youknow, a painny for every four bucks

(42:36):
to to to grow not just theathletics, but to grow the academic side
of Like Fresno State educational facilities arein that they're as far behind other institutions
as athletics is behind other high levelinstitute. That's just the way that it
is, right, you don't getdefer maintenance money and you have to put

(42:57):
these things off. The campus willbenefit it greatly. And I mean you
said it perfectly. Without Fresno State, the economy in Fresno is not nearly
as vibrant as it is with FresnoState. Fresno State needs to continue to
put infrastructure together to support the academicprograms that are a huge part of the

(43:19):
central Valley. Without Fresno State,the central Valley is not the Central Valley.
There's agriculture, there's not a lotelse. Fresno State brings all of
this other economic activity to the centralValley. So I mean, obviously I'm
biased. I play there. Ilove Fresnce State, right, I mean,
I love Fresno State. But justfrom a community standpoint, Fresno State

(43:40):
does so much outside of athletics.It does so much outside of maybe the
benefit that you or I see fromit, because the economy grows because of
Fresno State, of lums, thatgrows, the tax base that helps the
roads get repaired, need to getrepaired. All of the economic activity that
Fresno State spurs needs to be supported. And given a penny for every four

(44:04):
bucks is not a lot to askeighty bucks a month. A lot of
people can't afford eighty bucks in thatmonth. And I get it right,
get it a penny for every fourdollars for the huge the billion dollars that
it will generate in upgrades for FresnoState. Man, it's I just I
hope people support it. I hopethey don't look at it as a tax
and I'm against taxes. Like theCentral Valley will be better because Measure E

(44:29):
passes. Yes, Cam, lovethis before I wrap it up, You've
had a great story, great experience, bringing all the juice. Anything you
want to say to bring the juicebefore we rap this, cow Man,
I'm glad that we finally got towork. How we've been talking about it
for so long. It took footballseason to make it all work out.
But love what you're doing. Keepdoing it. I think it's great.
It's a great platform. Keep bringingdues on and just you know, letting

(44:52):
them tell their story, talk aboutwhatever they want to. I think that
the valley loves it, obviously whenyou put on a public event and it
goes. So keep doing that andkeep and keep using the energy that you
have to do the things that youwant to do. Man, I think
we had a good conversation about wedon't fit in everybody's box, and that's

(45:14):
sometimes it's hard, right, Sometimesit makes you doubt where you are a
little bit. But if I've takenanything from like forty almost forty four years
of life. It's like, youlook great. You know, appreciate it.
It's just the best thing that youcan do is be your authentic,
genuine self all the time. It'shard. It's hard for me, I

(45:34):
have forty four to be that allthe time. But the more that you
can give that to the world,the better this world's gonna be. So
keep doing what you're doing. Man. Okay, I appreciate the kind of
words guys Camerell. Follow him onthe Gram, listen to this episode.
Let's subscribe. Resubscribe by the merge, do it all. We'll see you
at the Dogs Games. Fire meup, bring the juice, and we

(45:57):
will see you next week.