August 9, 2023 • 30 mins
Welcome to Unbreakable! A mental health podcast hosted by Fox NFL Insider Jay Glazer. On today’s episode, Super Bowl Champion Michael Oher, whose life inspired the Oscar-nominated film The Blind Side, shares his inspirational journey from the streets of Memphis overcoming the most challenging times, to the NFL and what he's doing now to help others.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is Unbreakable with Jay Glacier, a mental health podcast
helping you out of the gray and into the blue.
Now here's Jay Glacier.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Welcome back to Unbreakable mental health podcast with Jay Glazier
and our guest today is an unbelievable human being. A
story fantastic and he really epitomizes the type of guy
who isn't a victim by what's happened to him. Instead,
he's using his own experience as an adversity to turn
around and help teach others, which what we all need
to do.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
But I think in.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Today's day and age, where it's an even harder day,
stories like this are even more valuable.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Before I get to him.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
If you're like many people, you may be surprised to
learn that one in five adults in this country experienced
mental illness last year. I'm definitely one of them. You're
far too many failed to receive the support they need.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
Carolen.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Behavioral health is doing something about it.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
They understand that behavioral health is a key part of
whole health, delivering compassionate care that treats physical, mental, so emotional,
and social needs in tandem. Carolyn, behavioral health raising the
quality of life through empathy and action.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
With that, I want to.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Welcome in Michael or you guys may know him his
story from the blind Side.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
He's won a super Bowl first round pick.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
He's played for years and years, and now he actually
just came out with the second book as well.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
How are you the guy?
Speaker 4 (01:22):
Well, great, Jakey, appreciate you having me on.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Hey before I get into your new book. You have
a rough story growing up. What's it like watching it
played by other people on TV?
Speaker 4 (01:34):
Well, I've always been a movie guy, even before The
Blindside came out. But you know, for me, it was
kind of funny. It wasn't that big of a deal
because I knew how how much more pain and how
rough of a story and the things that I actually
went through that you couldn't get you You weren't gonna
(01:55):
feel the amount of things that I went through in
that movie. I understood that right off the bat, you know,
from from watching the movie the first time I saw it.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
So no, I didn't.
Speaker 4 (02:07):
I didn't look at it as a bigger deal as
everybody else did, because I knew whoever saw that wasn't
gonna understand who I was and what I actually went through.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
What were there some of the things that were more
difficult that maybe weren't in the movie that you actually
had overcome.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
To be honest with you, I would say, you know,
from the ages of three to twelve years old, I
was on the streets, I was in shelters, I was
in foster care, and I from eleven to twelve, I
lived a year and a half on the streets by myself,
running from the authorities after I ran away from the
from foster care foster home that I was living in.
(02:46):
So you know, from your first memory being homeless and
just having to survive and go through all of that
from three to twelve years old, And people don't understand
that that actual three lights times that you've lived already
and where you are mentally at that stage, you're already
thinking on the streets as an adult. So from the
(03:10):
point to going to college and NFL everything like that,
that's a bonus. But when you're eighteen, you know, coming
from where I came from, you know, you're just happy
to be alive and surviving.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Around that time, three to twelve, wats is when you're
supposed to learn from like your mom and dad.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
You know, those years had to become a young man
to becoming a man, and you didn't have that. What
did you take from what you did learn those years
for you now to teach your owsom man.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
I really learned what not to be and what not
to do, just do the total opposite. I learned to
basically whatever everything that I wanted in a father, in
a family. That's what I'm doing now being there every day.
I hate when I have to go off to another
city or stay to leave the house. You know, implementing
(03:59):
what are work truly is what it's like to you know,
half character, what not to be and you know how
to go out here and be a law abouting citizen
and just not to be a statistic and do the
right thing every day and to go out and chase greatness.
So you know, I mean, it's it's something that I
can't explain. I try not to talk about too much
(04:20):
because that's the last thing that I have. You know,
everybody think that they know who I am. That's all
I have left for me. But being a feminine man
of fathers everything to me, it's nothing. It's not a joke,
and you know, it's just something that everybody should do
and go through.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Now listen, I think because what you went through.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Listen, our scars make us who we are, right, Forget
the accolades, forget all the other shit.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Like I never walked in a room and be like, yeah, man,
I'm gonna keep you all a fan. I don't do
that yet. I walk in the room like, man, I've
had seven back.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Procedures because of fighting, and you know, got my gleango
broke twice and my another seven times.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
And this cut off, like my scar or something.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
I could always hang my hat on to make me
special and different the rest of the room out there.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
Can you do the same thing? Can you look at it?
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Because because I know you have some look, you're gonna
have some anger and animosity built up and whatnot. Could
you now switch it and be like, no, this is
what that's my currency. My scars are my currency.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
Man, I say that all the time. It's nothing better nobody.
I mean what, I wouldn't have a story if I
didn't go through the things that I went through. So
who in the heck wants to I don't want to
go to a I don't want to go through all this,
go through nothing and be successful. I mean, what we
got to talk about you know, we need to we
need to be I like to be one with you.
(05:38):
I like to talk about man, you know, all the
battles and the homeless, nice to starve and the change
in the mindset where you're you're about to go down
one path and you go down another. You got saved
right here because someone helped me out. So you know,
that's what I like, And that's I love being around
people who are tougher, smarter, better shape because I know
(06:01):
I can be me, because I like, I've been through
so many struggles. I know that I can but just
be me now, you know, and I've been through the works.
I've been through everything that you can imagine. So I
just I like being around those type of people man,
where I can just men, I can just be just
be me, happy about just being around just positivity. So
(06:21):
you know, I love it.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
So a guy like me, dude, my mental health issues
will always tell me I don't deserve shit, Like I'm
not deserving anything, you know, So when good things tend
to happen to me, I tend to either sabotage them
or run away from them. I'm not like that anymore
because the work I've done on myself or years ago,
that's what.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
I would done.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
I pushed every girl ever had away from me until
a beautiful woman i'm with now. When that happened with
you and your high school coaches of coaches wife brought
you in, were you able to receive it and be like, oh, yes,
yes I deserve.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
It, or were you like I don't know about this
right here now, I've never Man, it's I hate being.
I mean, it's a it's a tough world of being.
I hated you, I really hate it for I don't
know who I hated for me.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (07:08):
Man, when you've been like I said, you wouldn't do
so much, been in the street for so long, you
I guess you're expecting it not to be true at
those times or it's gonna end here pretty soon. Man,
That's that's tough. It's just like winning the super Bowl,
not being able to celebrate fully like a person that's
thinking normally normal would celebrate. Uh. Not, Man, so many
(07:34):
achievements you really don't feel feel it because it's almost
like you're numb and uh something you can't heal from
you just uh, I think you see the joy and
everybody else and you try to. For me, I try
to live the joy that people are giving me. I
try to live through that joy through seeing them happy.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
But no, I don't.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
When you took so many losses, you feel so much
and you just like birthdays, Christmas, gift everything like that.
It's just I like seeing everybody else.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
Happen for me. You have faith in your life now.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
Most definitely are you saying faith in what faith in? Uh?
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Just faith in your life? Like man, I deserve good ship, now,
you know, I've always Man, that's a hard question, right, I.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
Think we all deserve something. What I think I'm I
don't know. I'm gonna just keep working man towards something.
I don't care what that is. And I've never quite
knew the journey that I was going on. So I
think for me, I've always wanted to be humble. I've
always tried to. You know, I feel that you're afraid
you're gonna jacent. You just hit it on the head
(08:43):
and you felt when you failed so much, like I said,
when you failed and constantly failed, and when you think
you reached the pinnacle and you're still on the other
side of that failure because of the negativity and people
judging you, misunderstanding you, and you wishing for other things.
So I just let it happen. I just let things happen.
(09:05):
And that works for me, you know. I just keep
working for a keep working until something happened, you know.
If not, I'm just keep going. But if it doesn't,
you know, I don't. I don't feel that I don't
want to mess it up.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
I used to be in the same way, and I
always think, man, I don't want to jinx it. I'm
not going to do this.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
And then one day, man, it's like I got an epiphany, Like, man,
the universe conspires.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
To help us in against us.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
And once I started kind of believing that I was
able to I think things are right in front of
my face that I hadn't been able to see before.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Now I can see him.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
And it's also like I don't want to live in fear,
so we start living in faith not fear.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
That's a much better way for us to live.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
I gotta start using that that faith. Uh, you know, fear.
I think what drove me all my life is fear.
That's I want to go back and I want to
feel I want to see everybody else succeed and not fail.
So I think that that's what I I'm driven by fear,
running away from things. Faith that's a that's a hell
(10:04):
of a thing too, right there. When I preak, I'm
a big energy person. Yeah, I love energy, pray a
lot of energy is everything to me. And I think
I've always given out great energy and always been positive
and won't ever. I'm a big cheerleader of people, and
like I said, every everybody else's success is that's success
(10:27):
to me. But uh, you know with the energy, energy
is everything for you.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Interest I'll tell you something else. I don't want to
just be like therapy session, but you know you gotta
share with your teammates, right. But something that really helped
me man I was out in Thailand last year, went
for thirty five days for this mind body spirit thing.
Fought moy Thai in a jungles for thirty five days.
That was a hat all like anti inflammatory foods.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
But I work with these monks.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
We're like our therapists, but they just come at a
different angle and they're like, hey, we don't want you
to talk for anybody, anybody for like three day, all right,
three days I got adhd I can't not talk to anybody.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
For three days. That's painful, right.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
And they're like, what we want you to do is
for three days, we just want you to sit in
your own pain. And I said, I sit in my
pain every day. I said, no, you experience your pain
every day. We want you to sit in that pain.
And said, what do you call yourself?
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Growing up? Was it Jaday? I said no, it was Jason.
I want by Jason. So we want you to.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Sit in your pain and hold little Jason's hand, just
show him some compassion because he probably never felt like
you had it, and he was always on the run,
and just love him up, like, just love him up.
And man, I did that for three days. Brother, it
was and I still do. Like every day I'll go out,
I'll lay on my couch out here, I'll meditate.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
I'll start look at a little Jason. I put my
arm around him. I'm like, hey, it's gonna be all right.
So that want to be something I could you can
benefit from.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
Man, that's great stuff.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Right.
Speaker 4 (11:53):
Every day I sit in the sun. I sit in
the sun every day. So I mean it's thirty forty
five to hours, nothing like three days. But that's that's
a help of a thing. Something I definitely looking uh,
the trauma, the trauma that you go through, I mean,
it never goes away mentally, it's always there. And I
think for me and for a lot of people who's
(12:16):
running from the past or if they've been through all
these struggles, that's what's stopping you from reaching that pinnacle
and chasing greatness because you can't get over the fact
that you didn't have anybody there to hold your hand,
the whole little Jacent's hand, the whole Little Michael's hand,
to show them away. So you're you're you're pissed off,
(12:37):
you're angry still. You know, a bunch of people, even
if it could be you, the person that you've become now,
you should have been there for little Michael, for little Mike. So, man,
that's a great thing and it's something a lot of
people can benefit from.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Start doing it.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
Gonna put that.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Into arsen he's got, he's got. You got to heal
him because he deserves it. And then you know your
warrior Michael to be like, hey, I got you now,
nothing else is gonna happen.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
Ever again, I go, Warrior j got you, dude, We're
good I got you. And when I start feeling myself
go off the reservation.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Sometimes I go off to the sign outside and I
start doing I just start taking care of him and going, oh,
he's the one that's that hurt right now, are gonna
do take care of him?
Speaker 3 (13:19):
And I don't know how long that's gonna be in
my life, but definitely helps me.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
Man.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
I think it could help you a lot down.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
No, I definitely will help. I think it'll be it'll
be around forever, because I mean, you living a life,
you live in life. You pissed off. I've been pissed
off for a long time. You know, you put it
away here?
Speaker 3 (13:37):
How do we get you not to be pissed off? Man?
Better existence? Right? How do we get you not to
be pissed anymore?
Speaker 4 (13:42):
It's it's there what you said, right there, it's uh
doing away with those damons and those those paths that
passed trauma right there, man, and moving on. And you
got to understand too. For me, it's bigger than you
people who are going through still. You went through all.
I went through everything that I went through and basically
(14:04):
came out on the other side. Not a lot of
people are gonna come out on the other side. So
for me what I think now, So I'm doing it
for everybody behind, everybody who doesn't have that fight to
look at whatever you're going through in the eye and say, hey,
I'm about to knock you, you know, on your anus and
you know, push you where you can't get them anymore.
(14:26):
So I think that's the biggest thing, man, is inspiring
that next generation and the people who can't do it.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
But that's why you got to do it, not in
a pissed off way, because yeah, you got to look
at yourself down and go, man, I can't help all
these all these kids. You're being of service. You're doing
such great things, way grand than any super Bowl you
could have wont to do. He close, right.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
People get lucky you on the team they win the
super Bowl, but they can't do.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
The stuff that you're doing. Now your story, how many
other people can help out. I want that to empower you, man,
I want that to get you to start moving forward.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
Every day. Go talk my life is great.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Now I get to do this and help kid and
help that person, help that family that the life will lift.
Speaker 4 (15:04):
You just hit it on the head right there. When
when I was going through everything that I was going
through mentally trying to come back from it because of
being the president, you know, going through all these things,
and I mean, you got everything that you ever wanted.
You you're living in this huge house, you got all
the money, just everything, and you're wondering what's going on,
(15:25):
and you come out the dumps, you come out those
you come out that dark place because for me it
was Man, it's bigger than you. It's not even about
you anymore. It's about what you just said. It's about
so many of these other people who can't do it.
And you're playing a game bigger than football.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
You know that.
Speaker 4 (15:43):
That's why you have a sense of duty because you
were given this platform for a reason nobody could. And
you don't have anybody that go to graduate high school.
You don't have anybody that's going to work every day.
You don't have anybody that's positive anything in your life.
But you're at eleven, twelve years old, You're going to
(16:03):
school on your own, you're getting a job on your own.
You're mean life halfway and trying to get to a
point of being successful because the high power news is
bigger than you. And that's what you know what you
just said, looking back and understanding that you have a
sense of duty and you can't give up mentally, physically,
(16:26):
you gotta become You gotta keep chasing graveness. And that's
and that's everything. Man, It's bigger than the game. It's
not a game. It's life.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
And then do you are beloved?
Speaker 2 (16:36):
It's just not by what we grew up thinking we're
gonna be loved by mom and don the brother. It's
just you're so beloved that you need to see you
got you gotta give yourself a break. It fill you up, man.
That will be much better. Just the better you are here,
the more people you can help. Right, the less we're
fighting with ourselves, the less energy. You know, it'll free
(16:57):
up energy for us to help other people. That's great stuff.
That's great stuff.
Speaker 4 (17:01):
And it's some, uh, it's some Like I said, you
can't you've been programmed. You get programmed. And you know
it's another topic. It's another some other stuff that I
like catting to myself, but you can't for me. It's
hard to accept when you've been you know, in this struggle,
you've been told that you can't, you've been told that
(17:24):
you won't for so long and it's hard to accept.
It goes back to that, but you did You did
it exactly exactly.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
The fuck what they said.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
You did it one hundred percent of loving yourself up
for that one hundred percent correct. Man, You've got to
give a phrase and that's and that's a part of
breaking up, breaking that barrier, going toward greatness. So yeah,
it's something I'm definitely definitely be moving forward now.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
People want to love.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
You up, man, let them love you up, right, let
them love you up. It's way better to be walking
this walk with people. And I know it's probably real
hard for you to trust people, but man, it's you know,
you know you will be alone if you definitely don't
let them in. If you let people love you up,
maybe there's a chance you won't be along right and
we'll have a bigger team.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
I mean, the team is everything. You're not the worst thing.
Your circle, Man, you gotta get a new circle.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
You can keep.
Speaker 4 (18:15):
You can keep the same people. The circle that you
confine then needs to grow a little bit. But you
know you're hitting it on it. You can't continue to
fight the love and the positivity, man, it holds you back.
So I think we all can be great at that
and you know, get the word we want to be.
So it's definitely something we all can work on an
hour for sure.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
What was your favorite thing about playing in the league.
Speaker 4 (18:40):
I think everybody says for me, it just goes back
to it goes down to the locker room. That and
not even that. You can just be yourself. You know
in football you got a bunch of monsters, man and
a bunch of men. You know, I've always been a
leader of men, and you can be yourself. You don't
have to put on and nobody you when someone's looking
(19:01):
at the foot. In college, you have to you have
looking at the Scallet report. You have to look at pictures.
You have to look at these monsters on the Scallet report.
In the NFL, you have to look at these monsters
and then you have to go run them, run them
over on Saturdays and Sundays. So it was no egos.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
It was no time to.
Speaker 4 (19:19):
Uh, who's who's the most popular? Everybody in that locker room.
Everyone every man is himself and you can be comfortable.
You can get joked on. You can, you know you can,
you can just tell you can. Everybody is chasing that
one thing. Everybody's chasing the championship. But outside the locker room,
you know, being things, you people go their separate paths.
(19:41):
But you know, inside the locker room, man, it's you're
talking about personalities that you don't see in the public
and just people just uh being themselves.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
And all problems all solved.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
And it's so many it's so many misunderstood people that's
in that lock the room that you you won't even
recognize and they can be themselves because everybody else is
telling them that what they aren't. So you know, that's
one thing that.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
I always say, if the rest of the world acted
like an NFL locker room, we won't have so many problems.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
Like it's the only place you canna have a big.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Fat, white racist lineman being the best man of the
young thuck black guy's wedding, right.
Speaker 4 (20:22):
No one, ain't nobody, races, ain't nobody everybody's you won't
show it. I can tell you that.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
There's color you care about, that's silver, that rid, that trophy,
that is it and being a good person.
Speaker 4 (20:36):
You know, that locker room will turn you into a
hell of a guy too, So it'll bring out all
your great traits and qualities.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
You can't be selfish in the locker room. You got
to be behold on your brother and right left.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
That's it right there. So that that's one of the Uh,
that's one of the things I missed more than anything.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
I had started charity years ago called MVP Merging Vessent Players.
We're same thing.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
I was taking football players and putting together a combat
that's for when the uniform came off.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
Because losing that locker room sucks. I know it's the
I know they do different jobs, but the loss of
the locker room is the same suck for both.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
So I'm like, hey, let's put them together, train together,
and have these mental health talks together.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
We're now in eight cities in eight years, and I'm
really proud of.
Speaker 4 (21:17):
It, guys and nas.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Proud of We're not Nashville yet, but we're on Zoom
each week. Also look it up, but that's some players
dot Org.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
I'll check it out.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
Yeah, we're definitely experiense pretty cool.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
You know, football, especially in the NFL, is not about physical.
It's not about physically at all. There's all of them.
That's what I tell people every day. You from six
to six man you got to be locked in mixley
every single sacking, and the ones who can do that
the best, those are the ones who last the lungs.
And I think it holds true when you're done playing football,
it's PDSD as well because of the mental everything you
(21:52):
had to go through mintically every day.
Speaker 5 (21:54):
Man, you know, definitely aligned. So yeah, I got a
couple more questions. I let you go, But what was
the coolest thing? And when you talk about your new book,
what was the coolest thing when the movie came out?
Speaker 2 (22:06):
Like your coolest experience from it?
Speaker 4 (22:10):
The coolest experience, man, I probably you know, having a
movie made about you. I think for the most part,
a lot of the times, the person that plays in
the movie looks a lot better than the real character.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
I don't know if that was the case this time.
Speaker 4 (22:28):
Yeah, I was about on the scale of one to team,
about a five or six, man, I instantly went up
to about nineteen once it came out. The difference right
there was tremendous.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
But did you have any good stories of being on
any of the red carpets? We're like, holy fuck, this
person's here.
Speaker 4 (22:47):
To be honest with you, I didn't go. I didn't
go to any red cars. I didn't go to. I've
never met Sandra Bullock. I've never met Tim McGrath, I've
never met any I met the actor who played not
he came to a game. I mean, that's a that's
another story for us. But in my mind, my head
was in the game. Man, I'm gonna come back and
share it with you in a few months and we'll
(23:10):
we'll we'll talk a little bit more openly.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
But uh, my friend was your producer. Molly Smith was
a producer. Okay, yeah, her brother is the head coach
of the Falcons right now.
Speaker 4 (23:21):
Yeah, Colin's Collins, the sister. Yeah he's married the author's brother.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
Yeah, yes, yes, yes, yeah, great family. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (23:31):
Yeah, my head was in the game. My head was
in the game. I was locked in. Football was what
got me to where I wanted to be in where
I thought I wanted to be in life. So I
had to be locked in man.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
Interesting, all right, tell me about your new book you
got coming out.
Speaker 4 (23:45):
When You're Backs against the Wall. It's it's a continuation
from my last book, I Beat the Odds. It's picking
up where I last left off with the with I
Beat the Odds, and where I am right now with
my foundation and coming back from what we're talking about now,
Mimi help depression and dealing with life's obstacles.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Man.
Speaker 4 (24:04):
And when people say, how can we fix poverty? How
can we fix everything that's going on in the world,
and people who are the people who don't want to
be greater and just want hand doubts, And what I
tell those people is, you have to fix yourself first,
and you have to heal yourself first into before someone's
fut before you can meet someone else halfway, and we
(24:25):
can fix this thing as a whole. And you know,
for me, it's looking yourself in the mirror and understanding
that every answer you won't if you want to be successful, great,
whatever you want to be, is in that mirror. And
for me, I won't gonna blame anyone. I won't gonna
blame anyone for me being homeless as a kid or starving.
So I looked myself in the mirror and said, hey,
(24:46):
you got all the tools, and you from the time
you're six years old, you understand. I understood once I
touched that fire that it was hot, so I knew
right from wrong then. So it's just a it's a
continuation on that and what I'm wrong with my foundation
and then you know, helping disadvantage youth. Man. So uh,
that's mentally. Not a lot of people can get through
(25:07):
these hurdles, and I was fortunately, unfortunately, I was one
of the ones who could. So just trying to give
them a playbook on on this life, on this thing
called life. Telling the name again, when your backs against
the wall.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
When your backs against the wall, all right, love it? Uh,
last two things. So it's funny you and I had
a DM exchange right a couple of months ago.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
I'm like, where the fuck is this coming from? So
we kind of got into it a little bit, and
I want you to know from all this now you
can see like, man, don't let the roommates in your head.
Speaker 4 (25:35):
Don't believe what they tell you.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
You know I do too all the time.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Man, I'm thinking like this motherfucker's angry at me, and
I started telling these stories that aren't real.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
And a lot of people love you, so.
Speaker 4 (25:48):
I will know I appreciate that.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (25:51):
No I knew, no, I knew you were a hard
ass and your tough guy. Man. Uh, but you know
it's for me, you know, when you've been misunderstood. I'm
trying You're gonna One thing I got is my name.
I'm trying to defend. And I know you're a tough,
hard ass guy. Hey, I'm ready of the class with you.
Any time.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
I was just like, where the fuck is this coming?
Trouble and you're like, hey, you were looking at me wrong?
One damn look at you wrong? What that talking about? Say?
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Man, I'm on edge all the time, so I was
probably edging the ship for something else.
Speaker 4 (26:21):
That's another thing man, mentally that that's those things you're
talking about it and it helps, it helps right there. Man,
I can't wait to use that uh coping mechanism you
talked about earlier. That right there, I can. I can't
wait to get back home, man, and just get that
to going, because you never you never know who who's
going through something and who can use that. Yeah, you
(26:44):
just got to keep on spreading that word right there
and putting that out there. Millions of other people need
to know just that right there, what you told me,
and may it all kind of light bulbs went off
right there, and you know, just saying man, and even
if people people shit everybody, I don't you don't have
to be anything to have hate or to think someone
(27:04):
hates you. Man, you can be a great guy. Like
you got to start speaking that love and that uh
that that that positivity into your life and putting the
home around that younger you. Wait, man, I've learned a lot. Man,
just uh, this is a little time right here and
can't wait, so implement that. So that's good stuff.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
I want you to d m me and then tell
me how it's going, what you've been Well, it took
me about three days and that first time and it
was like it was hard. And then like that third day,
it was almost like God in the universe talk to
me like, no one hates you, grow for you, but
we needed you to feel this kind of pain so
you can help others with theirs you like in the
same time when you do to see we made all
(27:46):
your other dreams come true to keep you afloat or
you haven't seen that. Once you can understand and see
that and see why you're in this pain, then you'll
kind of be ready to go to that next step.
And then it was everything. It just changed my life, dude,
and I still got working. I'm working progress. I'm a
fucked up dude.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
I'm a working progress.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
Man.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
I'm fucked up, but I'm good with my fucked up,
no question.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
Man.
Speaker 4 (28:11):
If I didn't, if I didn't try to have good sense, Man, Jesus,
I think that's on the fact that every god it's
uh with doing it for you know, like we just
like I said earlier, is for the other people, man,
who can't handle it.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
We can.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
We're able to deal with that right there and still
get the job. A lot of other people give up.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
My last question for.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
You, I asked every single guest of ours before I
let him go, give me your unbreakable moment, that moment
that should have broken you and didn't, and you came
through the other side of that tunnel. As a result,
you were stronger forever.
Speaker 4 (28:46):
Man, it's uh, sure you got a luck. Yeah, it's
a ton, but I would say probably uh dealing with
the concussion, dealing with your depression in the darkest space
I've ever been in, because I've been able to. I've
been through every injury. I should have said it out.
I don't know how many games and life from a
young kid, but when everything you've read, everything you've seen,
(29:07):
and you're going through that, going through that, man, and
it was I'm the heaviest I've ever been, bad, out
of shape, and just you're thinking about You're thinking about dying.
You're just thinking about it. It's it's going to be
the night every night. Your head is pounding, You're you're
just you're at peace and ready to give up. But
something you wouldn't let me give up. Kept fighting because
(29:31):
I felt that it was I was doing it for
other people. I was doing it for a bigger cause.
So and you walk out on that balcony, walk out
on your pool deck and just a breath of fresh
fresh air just comes over you, and you know everything
is all the baggage is off you. So just going
through that time right there, it was one of the
(29:52):
toughest coming out. On the other hand, I appreciate everything
about war. I'm headed and one becoming that like you said,
and it's even greater than what you thought you were chasing.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
I appreciate you. I love you, dude for battle buddies. Now,
if you still want to fight, man, I'm in no problem.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
We're good. Hey, good dude.
Speaker 4 (30:13):
Basically physically I can't get it done.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
Man.
Speaker 4 (30:15):
I appreciate you, and you look forward to doing it again.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
Hey, tell me how it goes.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
To keep in touch with me, right, and then as
you're doing this journey where you're helping other people, lean
on me for shit, and I'll kind of help guide
you there too, And I may come lean on you
for something one day too, because it's my job, man, to.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
Help as many people as I can.
Speaker 4 (30:34):
Most definitely, well, you definitely helped me, man. I appreciate you.
I'll talk to you so. I love you. Man.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
Let's keep walking this walk together.
Speaker 4 (30:41):
We'll do it.
This is Unbreakable with Jay Glacier, a mental health podcast
helping you out of the gray and into the blue.
Now here's Jay Glacier.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Welcome back to Unbreakable mental health podcast with Jay Glazier
and our guest today is an unbelievable human being. A
story fantastic and he really epitomizes the type of guy
who isn't a victim by what's happened to him. Instead,
he's using his own experience as an adversity to turn
around and help teach others, which what we all need
to do.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
But I think in.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Today's day and age, where it's an even harder day,
stories like this are even more valuable.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Before I get to him.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
If you're like many people, you may be surprised to
learn that one in five adults in this country experienced
mental illness last year. I'm definitely one of them. You're
far too many failed to receive the support they need.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
Carolen.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Behavioral health is doing something about it.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
They understand that behavioral health is a key part of
whole health, delivering compassionate care that treats physical, mental, so emotional,
and social needs in tandem. Carolyn, behavioral health raising the
quality of life through empathy and action.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
With that, I want to.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Welcome in Michael or you guys may know him his
story from the blind Side.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
He's won a super Bowl first round pick.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
He's played for years and years, and now he actually
just came out with the second book as well.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
How are you the guy?
Speaker 4 (01:22):
Well, great, Jakey, appreciate you having me on.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Hey before I get into your new book. You have
a rough story growing up. What's it like watching it
played by other people on TV?
Speaker 4 (01:34):
Well, I've always been a movie guy, even before The
Blindside came out. But you know, for me, it was
kind of funny. It wasn't that big of a deal
because I knew how how much more pain and how
rough of a story and the things that I actually
went through that you couldn't get you You weren't gonna
(01:55):
feel the amount of things that I went through in
that movie. I understood that right off the bat, you know,
from from watching the movie the first time I saw it.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
So no, I didn't.
Speaker 4 (02:07):
I didn't look at it as a bigger deal as
everybody else did, because I knew whoever saw that wasn't
gonna understand who I was and what I actually went through.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
What were there some of the things that were more
difficult that maybe weren't in the movie that you actually
had overcome.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
To be honest with you, I would say, you know,
from the ages of three to twelve years old, I
was on the streets, I was in shelters, I was
in foster care, and I from eleven to twelve, I
lived a year and a half on the streets by myself,
running from the authorities after I ran away from the
from foster care foster home that I was living in.
(02:46):
So you know, from your first memory being homeless and
just having to survive and go through all of that
from three to twelve years old, And people don't understand
that that actual three lights times that you've lived already
and where you are mentally at that stage, you're already
thinking on the streets as an adult. So from the
(03:10):
point to going to college and NFL everything like that,
that's a bonus. But when you're eighteen, you know, coming
from where I came from, you know, you're just happy
to be alive and surviving.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Around that time, three to twelve, wats is when you're
supposed to learn from like your mom and dad.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
You know, those years had to become a young man
to becoming a man, and you didn't have that. What
did you take from what you did learn those years
for you now to teach your owsom man.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
I really learned what not to be and what not
to do, just do the total opposite. I learned to
basically whatever everything that I wanted in a father, in
a family. That's what I'm doing now being there every day.
I hate when I have to go off to another
city or stay to leave the house. You know, implementing
(03:59):
what are work truly is what it's like to you know,
half character, what not to be and you know how
to go out here and be a law abouting citizen
and just not to be a statistic and do the
right thing every day and to go out and chase greatness.
So you know, I mean, it's it's something that I
can't explain. I try not to talk about too much
(04:20):
because that's the last thing that I have. You know,
everybody think that they know who I am. That's all
I have left for me. But being a feminine man
of fathers everything to me, it's nothing. It's not a joke,
and you know, it's just something that everybody should do
and go through.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Now listen, I think because what you went through.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Listen, our scars make us who we are, right, Forget
the accolades, forget all the other shit.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Like I never walked in a room and be like, yeah, man,
I'm gonna keep you all a fan. I don't do
that yet. I walk in the room like, man, I've
had seven back.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Procedures because of fighting, and you know, got my gleango
broke twice and my another seven times.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
And this cut off, like my scar or something.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
I could always hang my hat on to make me
special and different the rest of the room out there.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
Can you do the same thing? Can you look at it?
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Because because I know you have some look, you're gonna
have some anger and animosity built up and whatnot. Could
you now switch it and be like, no, this is
what that's my currency. My scars are my currency.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
Man, I say that all the time. It's nothing better nobody.
I mean what, I wouldn't have a story if I
didn't go through the things that I went through. So
who in the heck wants to I don't want to
go to a I don't want to go through all this,
go through nothing and be successful. I mean, what we
got to talk about you know, we need to we
need to be I like to be one with you.
(05:38):
I like to talk about man, you know, all the
battles and the homeless, nice to starve and the change
in the mindset where you're you're about to go down
one path and you go down another. You got saved
right here because someone helped me out. So you know,
that's what I like, And that's I love being around
people who are tougher, smarter, better shape because I know
(06:01):
I can be me, because I like, I've been through
so many struggles. I know that I can but just
be me now, you know, and I've been through the works.
I've been through everything that you can imagine. So I
just I like being around those type of people man,
where I can just men, I can just be just
be me, happy about just being around just positivity. So
(06:21):
you know, I love it.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
So a guy like me, dude, my mental health issues
will always tell me I don't deserve shit, Like I'm
not deserving anything, you know, So when good things tend
to happen to me, I tend to either sabotage them
or run away from them. I'm not like that anymore
because the work I've done on myself or years ago,
that's what.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
I would done.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
I pushed every girl ever had away from me until
a beautiful woman i'm with now. When that happened with
you and your high school coaches of coaches wife brought
you in, were you able to receive it and be like, oh, yes,
yes I deserve.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
It, or were you like I don't know about this
right here now, I've never Man, it's I hate being.
I mean, it's a it's a tough world of being.
I hated you, I really hate it for I don't
know who I hated for me.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (07:08):
Man, when you've been like I said, you wouldn't do
so much, been in the street for so long, you
I guess you're expecting it not to be true at
those times or it's gonna end here pretty soon. Man,
That's that's tough. It's just like winning the super Bowl,
not being able to celebrate fully like a person that's
thinking normally normal would celebrate. Uh. Not, Man, so many
(07:34):
achievements you really don't feel feel it because it's almost
like you're numb and uh something you can't heal from
you just uh, I think you see the joy and
everybody else and you try to. For me, I try
to live the joy that people are giving me. I
try to live through that joy through seeing them happy.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
But no, I don't.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
When you took so many losses, you feel so much
and you just like birthdays, Christmas, gift everything like that.
It's just I like seeing everybody else.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
Happen for me. You have faith in your life now.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
Most definitely are you saying faith in what faith in? Uh?
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Just faith in your life? Like man, I deserve good ship, now,
you know, I've always Man, that's a hard question, right, I.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
Think we all deserve something. What I think I'm I
don't know. I'm gonna just keep working man towards something.
I don't care what that is. And I've never quite
knew the journey that I was going on. So I
think for me, I've always wanted to be humble. I've
always tried to. You know, I feel that you're afraid
you're gonna jacent. You just hit it on the head
(08:43):
and you felt when you failed so much, like I said,
when you failed and constantly failed, and when you think
you reached the pinnacle and you're still on the other
side of that failure because of the negativity and people
judging you, misunderstanding you, and you wishing for other things.
So I just let it happen. I just let things happen.
(09:05):
And that works for me, you know. I just keep
working for a keep working until something happened, you know.
If not, I'm just keep going. But if it doesn't,
you know, I don't. I don't feel that I don't
want to mess it up.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
I used to be in the same way, and I
always think, man, I don't want to jinx it. I'm
not going to do this.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
And then one day, man, it's like I got an epiphany, Like, man,
the universe conspires.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
To help us in against us.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
And once I started kind of believing that I was
able to I think things are right in front of
my face that I hadn't been able to see before.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Now I can see him.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
And it's also like I don't want to live in fear,
so we start living in faith not fear.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
That's a much better way for us to live.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
I gotta start using that that faith. Uh, you know, fear.
I think what drove me all my life is fear.
That's I want to go back and I want to
feel I want to see everybody else succeed and not fail.
So I think that that's what I I'm driven by fear,
running away from things. Faith that's a that's a hell
(10:04):
of a thing too, right there. When I preak, I'm
a big energy person. Yeah, I love energy, pray a
lot of energy is everything to me. And I think
I've always given out great energy and always been positive
and won't ever. I'm a big cheerleader of people, and
like I said, every everybody else's success is that's success
(10:27):
to me. But uh, you know with the energy, energy
is everything for you.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Interest I'll tell you something else. I don't want to
just be like therapy session, but you know you gotta
share with your teammates, right. But something that really helped
me man I was out in Thailand last year, went
for thirty five days for this mind body spirit thing.
Fought moy Thai in a jungles for thirty five days.
That was a hat all like anti inflammatory foods.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
But I work with these monks.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
We're like our therapists, but they just come at a
different angle and they're like, hey, we don't want you
to talk for anybody, anybody for like three day, all right,
three days I got adhd I can't not talk to anybody.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
For three days. That's painful, right.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
And they're like, what we want you to do is
for three days, we just want you to sit in
your own pain. And I said, I sit in my
pain every day. I said, no, you experience your pain
every day. We want you to sit in that pain.
And said, what do you call yourself?
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Growing up? Was it Jaday? I said no, it was Jason.
I want by Jason. So we want you to.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Sit in your pain and hold little Jason's hand, just
show him some compassion because he probably never felt like
you had it, and he was always on the run,
and just love him up, like, just love him up.
And man, I did that for three days. Brother, it
was and I still do. Like every day I'll go out,
I'll lay on my couch out here, I'll meditate.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
I'll start look at a little Jason. I put my
arm around him. I'm like, hey, it's gonna be all right.
So that want to be something I could you can
benefit from.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
Man, that's great stuff.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Right.
Speaker 4 (11:53):
Every day I sit in the sun. I sit in
the sun every day. So I mean it's thirty forty
five to hours, nothing like three days. But that's that's
a help of a thing. Something I definitely looking uh,
the trauma, the trauma that you go through, I mean,
it never goes away mentally, it's always there. And I
think for me and for a lot of people who's
(12:16):
running from the past or if they've been through all
these struggles, that's what's stopping you from reaching that pinnacle
and chasing greatness because you can't get over the fact
that you didn't have anybody there to hold your hand,
the whole little Jacent's hand, the whole Little Michael's hand,
to show them away. So you're you're you're pissed off,
(12:37):
you're angry still. You know, a bunch of people, even
if it could be you, the person that you've become now,
you should have been there for little Michael, for little Mike. So, man,
that's a great thing and it's something a lot of
people can benefit from.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Start doing it.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
Gonna put that.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Into arsen he's got, he's got. You got to heal
him because he deserves it. And then you know your
warrior Michael to be like, hey, I got you now,
nothing else is gonna happen.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
Ever again, I go, Warrior j got you, dude, We're
good I got you. And when I start feeling myself
go off the reservation.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Sometimes I go off to the sign outside and I
start doing I just start taking care of him and going, oh,
he's the one that's that hurt right now, are gonna
do take care of him?
Speaker 3 (13:19):
And I don't know how long that's gonna be in
my life, but definitely helps me.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
Man.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
I think it could help you a lot down.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
No, I definitely will help. I think it'll be it'll
be around forever, because I mean, you living a life,
you live in life. You pissed off. I've been pissed
off for a long time. You know, you put it
away here?
Speaker 3 (13:37):
How do we get you not to be pissed off? Man?
Better existence? Right? How do we get you not to
be pissed anymore?
Speaker 4 (13:42):
It's it's there what you said, right there, it's uh
doing away with those damons and those those paths that
passed trauma right there, man, and moving on. And you
got to understand too. For me, it's bigger than you
people who are going through still. You went through all.
I went through everything that I went through and basically
(14:04):
came out on the other side. Not a lot of
people are gonna come out on the other side. So
for me what I think now, So I'm doing it
for everybody behind, everybody who doesn't have that fight to
look at whatever you're going through in the eye and say, hey,
I'm about to knock you, you know, on your anus and
you know, push you where you can't get them anymore.
(14:26):
So I think that's the biggest thing, man, is inspiring
that next generation and the people who can't do it.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
But that's why you got to do it, not in
a pissed off way, because yeah, you got to look
at yourself down and go, man, I can't help all
these all these kids. You're being of service. You're doing
such great things, way grand than any super Bowl you
could have wont to do. He close, right.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
People get lucky you on the team they win the
super Bowl, but they can't do.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
The stuff that you're doing. Now your story, how many
other people can help out. I want that to empower you, man,
I want that to get you to start moving forward.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
Every day. Go talk my life is great.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Now I get to do this and help kid and
help that person, help that family that the life will lift.
Speaker 4 (15:04):
You just hit it on the head right there. When
when I was going through everything that I was going
through mentally trying to come back from it because of
being the president, you know, going through all these things,
and I mean, you got everything that you ever wanted.
You you're living in this huge house, you got all
the money, just everything, and you're wondering what's going on,
(15:25):
and you come out the dumps, you come out those
you come out that dark place because for me it
was Man, it's bigger than you. It's not even about
you anymore. It's about what you just said. It's about
so many of these other people who can't do it.
And you're playing a game bigger than football.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
You know that.
Speaker 4 (15:43):
That's why you have a sense of duty because you
were given this platform for a reason nobody could. And
you don't have anybody that go to graduate high school.
You don't have anybody that's going to work every day.
You don't have anybody that's positive anything in your life.
But you're at eleven, twelve years old, You're going to
(16:03):
school on your own, you're getting a job on your own.
You're mean life halfway and trying to get to a
point of being successful because the high power news is
bigger than you. And that's what you know what you
just said, looking back and understanding that you have a
sense of duty and you can't give up mentally, physically,
(16:26):
you gotta become You gotta keep chasing graveness. And that's
and that's everything. Man, It's bigger than the game. It's
not a game. It's life.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
And then do you are beloved?
Speaker 2 (16:36):
It's just not by what we grew up thinking we're
gonna be loved by mom and don the brother. It's
just you're so beloved that you need to see you
got you gotta give yourself a break. It fill you up, man.
That will be much better. Just the better you are here,
the more people you can help. Right, the less we're
fighting with ourselves, the less energy. You know, it'll free
(16:57):
up energy for us to help other people. That's great stuff.
That's great stuff.
Speaker 4 (17:01):
And it's some, uh, it's some Like I said, you
can't you've been programmed. You get programmed. And you know
it's another topic. It's another some other stuff that I
like catting to myself, but you can't for me. It's
hard to accept when you've been you know, in this struggle,
you've been told that you can't, you've been told that
(17:24):
you won't for so long and it's hard to accept.
It goes back to that, but you did You did
it exactly exactly.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
The fuck what they said.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
You did it one hundred percent of loving yourself up
for that one hundred percent correct. Man, You've got to
give a phrase and that's and that's a part of
breaking up, breaking that barrier, going toward greatness. So yeah,
it's something I'm definitely definitely be moving forward now.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
People want to love.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
You up, man, let them love you up, right, let
them love you up. It's way better to be walking
this walk with people. And I know it's probably real
hard for you to trust people, but man, it's you know,
you know you will be alone if you definitely don't
let them in. If you let people love you up,
maybe there's a chance you won't be along right and
we'll have a bigger team.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
I mean, the team is everything. You're not the worst thing.
Your circle, Man, you gotta get a new circle.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
You can keep.
Speaker 4 (18:15):
You can keep the same people. The circle that you
confine then needs to grow a little bit. But you
know you're hitting it on it. You can't continue to
fight the love and the positivity, man, it holds you back.
So I think we all can be great at that
and you know, get the word we want to be.
So it's definitely something we all can work on an
hour for sure.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
What was your favorite thing about playing in the league.
Speaker 4 (18:40):
I think everybody says for me, it just goes back
to it goes down to the locker room. That and
not even that. You can just be yourself. You know
in football you got a bunch of monsters, man and
a bunch of men. You know, I've always been a
leader of men, and you can be yourself. You don't
have to put on and nobody you when someone's looking
(19:01):
at the foot. In college, you have to you have
looking at the Scallet report. You have to look at pictures.
You have to look at these monsters on the Scallet report.
In the NFL, you have to look at these monsters
and then you have to go run them, run them
over on Saturdays and Sundays. So it was no egos.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
It was no time to.
Speaker 4 (19:19):
Uh, who's who's the most popular? Everybody in that locker room.
Everyone every man is himself and you can be comfortable.
You can get joked on. You can, you know you can,
you can just tell you can. Everybody is chasing that
one thing. Everybody's chasing the championship. But outside the locker room,
you know, being things, you people go their separate paths.
(19:41):
But you know, inside the locker room, man, it's you're
talking about personalities that you don't see in the public
and just people just uh being themselves.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
And all problems all solved.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
And it's so many it's so many misunderstood people that's
in that lock the room that you you won't even
recognize and they can be themselves because everybody else is
telling them that what they aren't. So you know, that's
one thing that.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
I always say, if the rest of the world acted
like an NFL locker room, we won't have so many problems.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
Like it's the only place you canna have a big.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Fat, white racist lineman being the best man of the
young thuck black guy's wedding, right.
Speaker 4 (20:22):
No one, ain't nobody, races, ain't nobody everybody's you won't
show it. I can tell you that.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
There's color you care about, that's silver, that rid, that trophy,
that is it and being a good person.
Speaker 4 (20:36):
You know, that locker room will turn you into a
hell of a guy too, So it'll bring out all
your great traits and qualities.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
You can't be selfish in the locker room. You got
to be behold on your brother and right left.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
That's it right there. So that that's one of the Uh,
that's one of the things I missed more than anything.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
I had started charity years ago called MVP Merging Vessent Players.
We're same thing.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
I was taking football players and putting together a combat
that's for when the uniform came off.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
Because losing that locker room sucks. I know it's the
I know they do different jobs, but the loss of
the locker room is the same suck for both.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
So I'm like, hey, let's put them together, train together,
and have these mental health talks together.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
We're now in eight cities in eight years, and I'm
really proud of.
Speaker 4 (21:17):
It, guys and nas.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Proud of We're not Nashville yet, but we're on Zoom
each week. Also look it up, but that's some players
dot Org.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
I'll check it out.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
Yeah, we're definitely experiense pretty cool.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
You know, football, especially in the NFL, is not about physical.
It's not about physically at all. There's all of them.
That's what I tell people every day. You from six
to six man you got to be locked in mixley
every single sacking, and the ones who can do that
the best, those are the ones who last the lungs.
And I think it holds true when you're done playing football,
it's PDSD as well because of the mental everything you
(21:52):
had to go through mintically every day.
Speaker 5 (21:54):
Man, you know, definitely aligned. So yeah, I got a
couple more questions. I let you go, But what was
the coolest thing? And when you talk about your new book,
what was the coolest thing when the movie came out?
Speaker 2 (22:06):
Like your coolest experience from it?
Speaker 4 (22:10):
The coolest experience, man, I probably you know, having a
movie made about you. I think for the most part,
a lot of the times, the person that plays in
the movie looks a lot better than the real character.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
I don't know if that was the case this time.
Speaker 4 (22:28):
Yeah, I was about on the scale of one to team,
about a five or six, man, I instantly went up
to about nineteen once it came out. The difference right
there was tremendous.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
But did you have any good stories of being on
any of the red carpets? We're like, holy fuck, this
person's here.
Speaker 4 (22:47):
To be honest with you, I didn't go. I didn't
go to any red cars. I didn't go to. I've
never met Sandra Bullock. I've never met Tim McGrath, I've
never met any I met the actor who played not
he came to a game. I mean, that's a that's
another story for us. But in my mind, my head
was in the game. Man, I'm gonna come back and
share it with you in a few months and we'll
(23:10):
we'll we'll talk a little bit more openly.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
But uh, my friend was your producer. Molly Smith was
a producer. Okay, yeah, her brother is the head coach
of the Falcons right now.
Speaker 4 (23:21):
Yeah, Colin's Collins, the sister. Yeah he's married the author's brother.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
Yeah, yes, yes, yes, yeah, great family. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (23:31):
Yeah, my head was in the game. My head was
in the game. I was locked in. Football was what
got me to where I wanted to be in where
I thought I wanted to be in life. So I
had to be locked in man.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
Interesting, all right, tell me about your new book you
got coming out.
Speaker 4 (23:45):
When You're Backs against the Wall. It's it's a continuation
from my last book, I Beat the Odds. It's picking
up where I last left off with the with I
Beat the Odds, and where I am right now with
my foundation and coming back from what we're talking about now,
Mimi help depression and dealing with life's obstacles.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Man.
Speaker 4 (24:04):
And when people say, how can we fix poverty? How
can we fix everything that's going on in the world,
and people who are the people who don't want to
be greater and just want hand doubts, And what I
tell those people is, you have to fix yourself first,
and you have to heal yourself first into before someone's
fut before you can meet someone else halfway, and we
(24:25):
can fix this thing as a whole. And you know,
for me, it's looking yourself in the mirror and understanding
that every answer you won't if you want to be successful, great,
whatever you want to be, is in that mirror. And
for me, I won't gonna blame anyone. I won't gonna
blame anyone for me being homeless as a kid or starving.
So I looked myself in the mirror and said, hey,
(24:46):
you got all the tools, and you from the time
you're six years old, you understand. I understood once I
touched that fire that it was hot, so I knew
right from wrong then. So it's just a it's a
continuation on that and what I'm wrong with my foundation
and then you know, helping disadvantage youth. Man. So uh,
that's mentally. Not a lot of people can get through
(25:07):
these hurdles, and I was fortunately, unfortunately, I was one
of the ones who could. So just trying to give
them a playbook on on this life, on this thing
called life. Telling the name again, when your backs against
the wall.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
When your backs against the wall, all right, love it? Uh,
last two things. So it's funny you and I had
a DM exchange right a couple of months ago.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
I'm like, where the fuck is this coming from? So
we kind of got into it a little bit, and
I want you to know from all this now you
can see like, man, don't let the roommates in your head.
Speaker 4 (25:35):
Don't believe what they tell you.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
You know I do too all the time.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Man, I'm thinking like this motherfucker's angry at me, and
I started telling these stories that aren't real.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
And a lot of people love you, so.
Speaker 4 (25:48):
I will know I appreciate that.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (25:51):
No I knew, no, I knew you were a hard
ass and your tough guy. Man. Uh, but you know
it's for me, you know, when you've been misunderstood. I'm
trying You're gonna One thing I got is my name.
I'm trying to defend. And I know you're a tough,
hard ass guy. Hey, I'm ready of the class with you.
Any time.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
I was just like, where the fuck is this coming?
Trouble and you're like, hey, you were looking at me wrong?
One damn look at you wrong? What that talking about? Say?
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Man, I'm on edge all the time, so I was
probably edging the ship for something else.
Speaker 4 (26:21):
That's another thing man, mentally that that's those things you're
talking about it and it helps, it helps right there. Man,
I can't wait to use that uh coping mechanism you
talked about earlier. That right there, I can. I can't
wait to get back home, man, and just get that
to going, because you never you never know who who's
going through something and who can use that. Yeah, you
(26:44):
just got to keep on spreading that word right there
and putting that out there. Millions of other people need
to know just that right there, what you told me,
and may it all kind of light bulbs went off
right there, and you know, just saying man, and even
if people people shit everybody, I don't you don't have
to be anything to have hate or to think someone
(27:04):
hates you. Man, you can be a great guy. Like
you got to start speaking that love and that uh
that that that positivity into your life and putting the
home around that younger you. Wait, man, I've learned a lot. Man,
just uh, this is a little time right here and
can't wait, so implement that. So that's good stuff.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
I want you to d m me and then tell
me how it's going, what you've been Well, it took
me about three days and that first time and it
was like it was hard. And then like that third day,
it was almost like God in the universe talk to
me like, no one hates you, grow for you, but
we needed you to feel this kind of pain so
you can help others with theirs you like in the
same time when you do to see we made all
(27:46):
your other dreams come true to keep you afloat or
you haven't seen that. Once you can understand and see
that and see why you're in this pain, then you'll
kind of be ready to go to that next step.
And then it was everything. It just changed my life, dude,
and I still got working. I'm working progress. I'm a
fucked up dude.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
I'm a working progress.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
Man.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
I'm fucked up, but I'm good with my fucked up,
no question.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
Man.
Speaker 4 (28:11):
If I didn't, if I didn't try to have good sense, Man, Jesus,
I think that's on the fact that every god it's
uh with doing it for you know, like we just
like I said earlier, is for the other people, man,
who can't handle it.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
We can.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
We're able to deal with that right there and still
get the job. A lot of other people give up.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
My last question for.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
You, I asked every single guest of ours before I
let him go, give me your unbreakable moment, that moment
that should have broken you and didn't, and you came
through the other side of that tunnel. As a result,
you were stronger forever.
Speaker 4 (28:46):
Man, it's uh, sure you got a luck. Yeah, it's
a ton, but I would say probably uh dealing with
the concussion, dealing with your depression in the darkest space
I've ever been in, because I've been able to. I've
been through every injury. I should have said it out.
I don't know how many games and life from a
young kid, but when everything you've read, everything you've seen,
(29:07):
and you're going through that, going through that, man, and
it was I'm the heaviest I've ever been, bad, out
of shape, and just you're thinking about You're thinking about dying.
You're just thinking about it. It's it's going to be
the night every night. Your head is pounding, You're you're
just you're at peace and ready to give up. But
something you wouldn't let me give up. Kept fighting because
(29:31):
I felt that it was I was doing it for
other people. I was doing it for a bigger cause.
So and you walk out on that balcony, walk out
on your pool deck and just a breath of fresh
fresh air just comes over you, and you know everything
is all the baggage is off you. So just going
through that time right there, it was one of the
(29:52):
toughest coming out. On the other hand, I appreciate everything
about war. I'm headed and one becoming that like you said,
and it's even greater than what you thought you were chasing.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
I appreciate you. I love you, dude for battle buddies. Now,
if you still want to fight, man, I'm in no problem.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
We're good. Hey, good dude.
Speaker 4 (30:13):
Basically physically I can't get it done.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
Man.
Speaker 4 (30:15):
I appreciate you, and you look forward to doing it again.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
Hey, tell me how it goes.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
To keep in touch with me, right, and then as
you're doing this journey where you're helping other people, lean
on me for shit, and I'll kind of help guide
you there too, And I may come lean on you
for something one day too, because it's my job, man, to.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
Help as many people as I can.
Speaker 4 (30:34):
Most definitely, well, you definitely helped me, man. I appreciate you.
I'll talk to you so. I love you. Man.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
Let's keep walking this walk together.
Speaker 4 (30:41):
We'll do it.
Fox Sports Radio News
Host
Jonas Knox
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