March 19, 2025 • 33 mins
Like a lot of young people, Bradie Ewing dreamed of playing college and professional football. He became one of the few to achieve that dream, but all too soon, the dream ended. Bradie discusses how to reset your life, your goals, and your dreams. Bradie Ewing is a National Account Coordinator for Kelley Supply, Inc. He is also a motivational speaker, sales professional, and former college and professional football player who played with the University of Wisconsin before moving into the NFL with the Jacksonville Jaguars and Atlanta Falcons. He can be reached at https://www.instagram.com/bradie.ewing/
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Mike (00:12):
Welcome, everybody.
This is Avoiding the AddictionAffliction brought to you by Westwords
Consulting and the Kenosha CountySubstance Use Disorder Coalition.
I'm Mike McGowan.
We dream, we work, we hopefully achieve.
Then one day, we needa change in direction.
What happens when the dream ends?
Where do we find purpose?
(00:32):
Well, that's the message my guesttoday shares when he speaks to
groups all across the country.
Bradie Ewing is a National AccountCoordinator for Kelly Supply Incorporated.
He is also a motivational speaker, salesprofessional, and former college and
professional football player who playedwith the University of Wisconsin before
moving into the NFL with the JacksonvilleJaguars and the Atlanta Falcons.
(00:56):
Welcome today, Bradie.
Bradie (00:58):
Thanks, Mike.
I appreciate you having me.
Mike (01:00):
I love that you're doing this and we'll get to the, how we know
each other in a little while, buta lot of young people, Brady, have
a dream of being a pro athlete.
I did, tons of us did.
And I got to ask you, maybe thisdidn't happen, but when you were
young, there had to be people to get,go for it, Brady, support your dream.
But there have to also be people thatwanted to rain on your parade and think
(01:23):
they were doing you a favor by tellingyou how the odds were stacked against you.
Right?
Bradie (01:28):
I can remember one instance in particular where in grade school you have
that exercise of writing what you want todo or some dreams that you have, things
you want to accomplish when you're grown.
And one of the things like itsounds like you as well, I wanted
to be a professional athlete.
I don't recall if I put basketballplayer or football player, but I
(01:49):
could remember that specific teacherdoing what you said, kind of squashing
the dreams and minimizing it.
And wanting me to think beyond sports,which in hindsight, I can respect that.
But at the same time, I think so manygreat things can come from our dreams.
I think dreams give us a vision ofwhat we want to accomplish, but then
(02:10):
can motivate us in the day to day too.
And so I guess that's my messageto people is dreams are awesome.
I love dreams.
I dreamt as a young athlete, a youngstudent, and finding ways to pursue that
dream on a daily basis, that's goingto help you in all aspects of life,
whether you end up achieving that dream,making its professional, it's really the
(02:32):
journey in the process along the way.
That's going to make you into a betterperson and hopefully help you find your
purpose as you go on pursuing whatever itis and hopefully accomplishing that dream.
But really, it's the process.
Trying to get there.
Mike (02:48):
Give me an example of somebody who supported... how did they support your
dream because you had to have a ton ofpeople that also supported and drove you.
Bradie (02:57):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Thanks for circling back for that.
Yeah, I think my familyfirst and foremost.
My parents the way the opportunitiesthey gave our family and us kids,
a lot of it was around athletics.
So being able to play basketballand go to these football camps
and they didn't push me to workas a middle school, high school.
(03:17):
I did towards the end of my high schoolcareer, but they allowed me to use
summers as a chance to try to work on mybody and the weight room and eating and.
I'm just so grateful for that and theydidn't have to do that, but they wanted
to give us opportunities that they didn'tnecessarily have when they were younger.
Mike (03:32):
You're younger than I am, obviously.
You have kids, right?
How many, who do you have?
Bradie (03:38):
Yeah, I got four boys.
My wife and I, my wife'sfrom Richland Center as well.
And so we started dating when we wereboth in high school and yeah, just super
grateful to have four boys healthy from10 years old down to four years old now.
Mike (03:51):
Okay, so you're in the middle of it now.
I'm what you just said made me smilebecause when my kids got involved in that
and every weekend was somewhere, right?
Bradie (04:00):
Oh, yeah.
Mike (04:01):
A tournament here, a tournament there, going here.
There's one weekend, Bradie, whereall three of my kids were involved in
something and there was like 12 events.
I made 11 of them inthree different cities.
Bradie (04:12):
Oh my goodness, wow!
Mike (04:14):
But I had a blast.
I know there's parents that complainabout, that's why I bring it up.
I can't believe we're doing this.
It sounds like your parentswere like, yeah, this is great.
Let's go for it
Bradie (04:24):
Oh, they they dove all in and i'm the third of four kids and so a lot
of my younger years were Before I gotinvolved were chasing my older brother
and my older sister being being a gymrat, just, you know, going to their
basketball tournaments and wrestlingtournaments and all, soccer tournaments,
whatever they were involved in.
I was just chasing them trying to keepup, but my parents were definitely
(04:48):
the family that hit that in strideand try to give us every opportunity
if they needed to divide and conquer.
They did it.
To your point, it sounds like you made ita priority as a dad to be at everything
you possibly could, which is awesome.
I can remember in middle school and as Igot older, my dad traveled for work and
he found a way to get to every singleevent and even through my college career.
(05:10):
And as a young athlete or just ayoung person in general, I always
remember looking in the stands if hewasn't coaching, he coached a lot of
our stuff, but looking in the stands.
And seeing him and my mom.
And again, it just gave me a senseof peace of, okay, they're here now.
Let's go have some fun.
Let's go out and perform.
So I try to do the same thing as a dadnow and coach a lot of my kids stuff,
(05:31):
and it's just absolutely love it.
It's a little crazy as more ofthem get involved, but it's fun.
I love it.
Mike (05:37):
Well, it's a blast.
My philosophy was as long as Igot to be at these tournaments,
I might as well coach them.
Because sitting in the standswith complaining parents
wasn't going to be my gig.
Bradie (05:47):
No doubt.
Mike (05:48):
When you played at Madison, for those of you that don't know,
it's one of the stadiums in theUnited States that always has the
most amount of attendance on average.
I think it's 80,000,something like that, right?
Could you pick them out even whenyou're on the sideline there?
Did you know where they were sitting?
So could you glance up and even see themin the stands in an 80,000 seat stadium?
Bradie (06:08):
I would.
So that was one of the first things,whether it was my now wife, my parents,
my siblings would come to a lot of games.
Depending on the home stadium.
Absolutely.
You knew the general areathey were going to be sitting.
And away games, typically you couldtell by the colors in the stadium.
There was one little section with red andwhite, the Iowa colors or Michigan colors.
(06:33):
And so, yeah, I would alwaysmake a point to point them out.
I usually would just raise my fistto them and, and recognize that
we saw each other and then hit theground running, going into the game.
Mike (06:42):
Oh, that's awesome.
Bradie (06:44):
It's cool that those are just some little things I experienced, but each
player kind of has those little ritualsor traditions that they do as well.
So it's neat to see some of those asyou get exposed to different guys.
Mike (06:57):
I'm going to circle back to your college experience in a minute, but you
had to have been, I mean, I can't evenfathom, this never came close to me.
You had to be pumped to havebeen drafted in the NFL.
And then what happened in August?
Bradie (07:14):
(chuckle) Yeah, it was a roller coaster.
We talked about, I had alwaysdreamed about being a professional
athlete and let alone a collegeathlete at your home state school.
And so to go be a Badger.
Live that experience as a walk onturn scholarship, team captain, and
then to be able to do senior bowl, NFLcombine, which is going on right now.
Mike (07:38):
Yeah.
Bradie (07:38):
Drafted, sitting in my living room, received that call on
the third day, drafted in the fifthrounds to the Falcons and received
that call and be there with myfamily, my grandparents, my wife.
Was just a special experience and kindof a culmination of all the journey
that was college athletics and just,even going back to when I was younger.
(08:01):
So it was pretty cool, butit wasn't a destination.
It was kind of like the beginningkicking off the pro career.
And then that led into O. T. A.'swith the team down in Atlanta,
led into preseason training camp.
And then yeah, like you said, that firstpreseason game in August at the Georgia
Dome and ended up facing some adversitythat kind of rocked my world a little bit.
(08:24):
And I ended up tearing my ACL, I think,on my fifth or sixth play of that
first preseason game of my NFL career.
And led to a ton of emotions,not really knowing what was next.
I didn't really understand theNFL and how injury worked and how
injured reserve worked at the time.
And ended up learning alot through that process.
(08:46):
I take a step back.
I don't know how, how farwe're going to dive into this.
Mike (08:50):
That's what I wanted to ask you is, all right, that happens, right?
So that's a ton of adversity.
You're going from super high to, Ohmy God, what's going to happen to me?
How do you maintain yourmotivation through that adversity?
I mean, how do you get yourselfout of the surgery back into
the weight room with optimism?
(09:10):
That you can come back from thatbecause you were a fullback, right?
Bradie (09:14):
Yep, played fullback in special teams.
This injury actuallyhappened on special teams.
And so how do you do that?
I would say there's a lot ofdifferent ways that I had to do.
And that, and I didn'tdo it great all the time.
I'd say there was a low pointwhere, you start questioning things.
There's a lot of emotions.
There's a lot of concern aboutwhat the future looks like.
(09:37):
But what I learned through that, it'slike just getting back on the horse and
taking daily action helped me a ton.
And so that's what I talk about a lot now.
What else helped?
I mean, my wife, my family, the supportnetwork that, whether it's my immediate
family, friends, all of that, but also thecommunity back home at Richland Center.
(09:58):
Just the amount of people that wouldreach out, touch base, and encourage me.
At that point, other than someof the lows there initially after
surgery, it was like, let's go, Iwas jumping back in the boat.
There was anothergentleman that was injured.
Croy Beerman, he tore hisachilles that same game.
And so to be able to walk through rehab,kind of totally different injuries, but
(10:21):
walk through rehab side by side withhim and for us to motivate each other
and hold ourselves accountable to theprocess of the journey of getting back
to be healthy and be out competing again.
That helps.
So really, it's not only some ofthose external factors of the people
around you to help keep you motivated,but it was a reflection on myself.
(10:41):
I think that was really the first timefrom a football perspective where I
started to realize that my life isbigger than the game of football.
Like I was at the level competingI wanted to be at, got hurt.
It was just a roadblock and therewas more to my life than football.
So while I was still going all in,chasing that dream, chasing to be a
(11:02):
part of it, chasing to help the team,I was also reflecting that there's
more to life than football too.
Whether that be my faith, whetherthat be my family, family that
was about to grow and just gettingperspective around some of that as well.
Mike (11:17):
It would be nice if it was like, yeah, that was the
only injury, but (laugh) no, no,it's a violent game, right so.
Bradie (11:25):
It is, yeah, it's a violent game.
So each of my years, I ended up beingin the NFL for three years, which is
right around the average NFL career.
Mike (11:32):
Right.
Right.
Bradie (11:33):
And each of my years I ended up on injured reserve at some point.
So I battled back from the ACLinjury surgery, had a sports hernia
surgery that off season as I wasrehabbing and starting to do more.
And I had had some issueswith that back in college.
And then was able to get back to fullstrength, made the team my second year.
(11:56):
Got through the preseason regulars,started the regular season in
my second regular season game.
I caught a pass fromMatt Ryan in the flats.
I was running, went to stiffarm, a guy from the Rams.
And ended up dislocating a shoulder I hadalready had surgery on and kind of retore
all the fixes that the doctor had done.
And it was something that wasgoing to need immediate surgery.
(12:18):
And so again, another low point,another chance of adversity that it's
like, okay, just went through this.
Now, how do I approach this?
So again, falling back on those samethings you talked about and battling
back to try to get to a hundred percentand continue to pursue the dream.
Mike (12:37):
That's hard though.
I mean, because you cameback, you're enthused again.
And then it's like therehas to be a, Oh, why me?
Bradie (12:47):
There was.
Yeah.
I mean, there was definitelymoments of questioning things.
It's like, okay, I was doingeverything in my control.
I was working, I wasseeing a massage therapist.
I was seeing chiropractors.
I purchased a hyperbaric chamberto help with my recovery, both
from surgery and from training.
You do all this stuff, the hot tub, thecold tub, the activation, the rolling.
(13:08):
It's like, okay, I'm gonna do everythingin my control and then I'm going to
leave the rest in the powers that be.
And for me, I believe that ismy Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
And so it's like, okay, I'm gonnawork like it's all up to me.
Pray like it's all up to himand see where the chips fall and
enjoy the journey along the way.
So kind of started that process aftermy first year, but really after the
(13:30):
second year, another surgery, anotherending season started to reshape my
mindset and continue to pursue it.
But also I doubled down on the factthat my life's bigger than football.
We'll see how long this can last, butI felt like I was starting to be pushed
into a different direction long term.
So after that year, I rehabbed.
(13:51):
I got healthy.
I got released by the Falconsand then I was claimed by the
Jacksonville Jaguars off of waivers.
The general manager downthere was the director.
A player personnel when Igot drafted to the Falcons.
And so he knew me, he wanted mekind of as a locker room guy.
At the time, the Jaguars wereone of the youngest teams in the
(14:11):
NFL, hadn't had a lot of success.
And so my wife and I packed up,headed down to Jacksonville.
And as I started to reshape my mindsetaround football and just life in
general and kind of try to lose someof the football identity that I had.
I had been so wrapped up through collegeand trying to pursue that dream that
(14:34):
some of my identity got lost in that.
I became just a football player versusBradie that happened to be a football
player, happened to be a husband.
So at that point I was havingso much fun playing football.
It's like I started to lose someof the worry, that going into that
second year, I was so worried.
It's like, okay, I got to stay healthy.
I got to do everything I can.
(14:54):
It's like, Hey, I'm justgoing to go have fun.
I'm going to pursue this.
I'm going to do what I can.
In that third year was so fun.
It was a fun lockerroom, a fun organization.
And probably the best I've felt sincemaybe sophomore, junior year of college,
it felt like I was getting my bodyback underneath me and just excited
for what that next year could bring.
Mike (15:13):
That's great.
You weren't a fullback going into college.
Bradie (15:17):
Correct.
I was running back.
Mike (15:19):
So accepting your role.
Bradie (15:21):
Yeah.
Mike (15:21):
And having other people see you differently than you see yourself.
Now we're talking sports here, but this isrelatable to a workplace and doing it with
enthusiasm is not as easy as it sounds.
Some people see you differentlythan you see yourself.
How do you accept your role when peoplecome to you and say, yeah, you know
that running back thing, you're goingto be blocking for him this time.
Bradie (15:44):
(laugh) Yeah.
It was a change in mindset.
I think, for me, I think it dependswhere, you know, we're talking a
lot about purpose, but where yourpurpose lies, like, for me, it was
about helping the team and aboutbeing a part of the Wisconsin program.
So when they asked me to make thatchange, it was.... Tactically, it was
(16:05):
tough, but mentally it was like, Hey,if this is my opportunity to play
and to help the team, I'm all in.
Now the transition of taking theskill set I had learned and harnessed
as a running back and being ableto transition to that to fullback.
That was tough.
But the fact for me, the buying ofswitch and trying to help the team.
(16:26):
That was that was the easy part.
Then it was how do I transitionthe physicality of a running back
to the physicality of a fullbackand kind of harness that mindset
that, snap to whistle mindset.
I always tried to pride myself on of justdoing the dirty work and doing it to the
best of my ability from snap to whistle.
But yeah, I think oftentimes people,we might have a vision of ourselves on
(16:48):
what we think our role is or outcome.
But sometimes people canprovide perspective to that too.
Sports is one example, but just inlife people... Not that we need to
take everybody's opinion and guidanceas gold standard because there's
probably only a few people in lifethat can really speak to that for
you that are really close to you.
(17:10):
But oftentimes people have a visioninto our lives on what strengths we
have, what makes us unique that wecan't really see ourselves that time
or are kind of blinded to I think.
Mike (17:22):
What was your 40 at the combine?
Bradie (17:25):
Four seven six.
Mike (17:26):
(laugh) That's the full back in you right?
Bradie (17:30):
That's right.
Yeah, not a 4 4.
That's for sure.
(laugh)
Mike (17:33):
In one of your videos on social media, and by the way, I will post
the link to Bradie's social mediapresence for those of you listening.
You talk about goal setting anddeveloping achievable daily habits.
That's so important togetting things done.
Bradie (17:49):
It is.
Yeah, I think it's easy to setgoals, whether it's make it to the
NFL or I want to be all conference.
I want to be the starter here andthere, but it's like, okay, what are
you actually going to do with this?
How are you actuallygoing to accomplish that?
So, you know, a lot of people haveheard of the smart goal framework
of making specific measurableattainable, results driven goals.
(18:11):
I mean, that's really the gist ofit, but what can you do today that
you can... I call it habit stacking.
I don't know if that's like a, I think I'dmentioned that on one of my social media.
Mike (18:20):
Yeah, you did.
Bradie (18:21):
It's like, just do one thing, find one thing that you can do today
that's going to create momentum.
Create momentum and then once you masterthat and that becomes a true habit,
go ahead and add something different.
But I think there's power in feelinglike you're making progress and
that creates momentum and thatcreates consistency that's going
(18:43):
to actually drive the end result.
So I love that.
I think the football programs I was apart of, especially at Wisconsin was so
disciplined oriented and just a lot ofcultural things that related to that.
And that really helped me have successis just that daily attack of the
details that's going to ultimatelydrive the end result that you want.
Mike (19:04):
Our line of work is different, right?
But habit stacking, I love thatterm because it's so applicable
to mental health and recoveryfrom substance use disorders.
Get to a meeting, get to a meetingtomorrow until like you would
say you feel comfortable in that.
You're now successful in that part of it.
Bradie (19:22):
Right.
Mike (19:23):
Now add something else and I think that's the way people
get better all the way around nomatter what it is in their life.
Bradie (19:29):
Yeah.
When I go speak to schools and youdo a lot in that realm to it's...
I speak from the place of athleticsbecause that's my experience.
And you know, people see that.
They watch the NFL, theywatch college athletics.
So I speak from those experiences.
But to your point, I think thesementalities and these frameworks
apply to all aspects of life, whetherit's school, whether it's your job,
(19:52):
whether it's as a parent, as a husband.
As a potential addict, it's likethere's these frameworks and these
consistent processes that can helpus in all aspects of our life.
And I try to draw that correlationfrom my athletics experience to
wherever these student athletes orbusiness people I get the chance to
interact with might be in their life.
Mike (20:11):
Bradie, I was thinking about you every time, well, it's hard
to read the news nowadays, right?
For me because it's so fractured.
I mean, I do this a lot and there's peoplethat don't even talk to their own family
members because of differences of opinion.
And I was thinking about you.
You're part of a team.
How many guys were on the team at Madison?
(20:33):
What do they carry?
Bradie (20:35):
At the time, it was like 120 or 125.
Mike (20:39):
Yeah!
And then the roster inthe NFL is, is it 53?
Bradie (20:43):
53 active and then there's some practice squad guys and all that.
Mike (20:47):
Okay, so here's my question.
Everybody, you're part of a hundredperson organization plus the coaches.
53 in the NFL.
Everybody's got a divergent opinionon a bunch of different stuff.
How do you come togetherfor an achievable goal?
Bradie (21:08):
I love that.
I mean, yeah, you're right.
You come together with people fromdifferent parts of the country, different
parts of the world, different upbringings,family background, cultures, religions.
And it's really cool.
So how do you cometogether to pursue 1 goal?
It's natural in the athletic realm becauseyou already are all chasing 1 goal.
(21:33):
And that doesn't mean that it's perfect.
Like there's Clicks within the team, youknow, whether that be position groups,
guys tend to gravitate to people thathave similar backgrounds and experiences.
But what it does, at least collegeathletics is changing, but at least
college athletics back in Wisconsin,when I was there, it was very much,
you were committed for four to fiveyears and Wisconsin was a developmental
(21:57):
program where most guys didn't comein their first year or two and start.
You knew you were going to be there1, 2, 3 years developing, getting
better, sitting behind a starter andthen going into play and have your
chance, your junior, senior year.
And so I think that framework that wehad established and that vision to chase
(22:17):
one goal to have success and uphold thesuccess that had happened before us.
That common ground creates a environmentwhere you can have conversations with
guys and when you disagree on things...At the end of the day, you can value
the other person's opinion becausethey're a valued member of your team.
(22:39):
They're a valued member of your team.
You're already pursuing that endgoal together and being able to set
those differences aside and respecteach other's opinion, learn from the
other person's perspective, and thenultimately still go out in the field,
still go work your butt off next toeach other, side by side to each other.
The old cliche of blood, sweat, and tears.
There's a ton of reality to that,and that work side by side tends
(23:03):
to bond you with people and allowyou to chase that dream together.
And it gives you a different perspectiveon somebody's life to where you listen
to them a little bit more, you hear whatthey're saying, and you're able to share
and have good quality conversation.
I remember Coach Bielema at the time, ourhead coach, challenged us when we would
eat dinner as a team after practice tofind somebody new to sit with every night.
(23:28):
It's a big team.
It'd be easy to sit at the sametable with the same general guys,
your position group or the clickthat you might be hanging out with.
But he challenged us tospend time with other people.
And he gave us a framework of questionsto try to intentionally breed this
collective cohesive team unit.
And even going as far as during fall camp,I think it was my junior or senior year.
(23:52):
We, at the time we didn'tgo do a offsite camp.
We just did it at camp Randall andyou'd stayed in your normal apartment.
But we went for a few days throughoutcamp and stayed in a hotel and they
paired you up with somebody withbasically on the other end of the spectrum
of where you might've been in life.
And you had to actually go through alist of questions and it was a little
(24:13):
forced, but ultimately led to goodconversation where you were forced to
have a great conversation with guysabout things outside of football that
didn't have direct correlation tofootball is just relating with people
and having meaningful conversationwith them and those relationships
create a foundation to then go chaseyour dreams together and have mutual
(24:35):
respect for one another along the way.
Kind of got on a tangent there, butI'm super passionate about that.
Mike (24:40):
No, that's perfect because what the converse of that is that you don't
have that mutual respect or communicationand you're not going anywhere as an
organization, a team, or a family.
Or a country.
Bradie (24:55):
Exactly.
And I think there's so much to be learnedfrom athletics and not every athletic
team is as good at this as others, but.
In our workplace, in our communities,in our families, how can we
have respectful conversations?
Like people differ on opinion on allsorts of stuff, like in the grand
scheme of things, that is a good thing.
(25:16):
If we all believe the same thing and we'reall robots marching to the same drum,
like that'd be a pretty darn boring world.
I think having different opinionsand being open to, you don't have to
believe that opinion, but have respectfor that person that has a different
perspective and try to understandwhat in their background or their life
or experiences might've shaped that.
(25:37):
And I think that's where I flippedmy mindset in college of I might have
a different opinion on this topicthan this person, but I can see why
they would have that opinion basedon their experiences or upbringing.
And it's eyeopening and also superfun too, just to hear those stories.
And, and also yeah, justdevelop those relationships.
(25:58):
Pretty cool.
Mike (25:59):
You mentioned coach Bielema.
You've had a lot of coachesand bosses in your lifetime.
What's the difference between agood leader and a poor leader?
Bradie (26:08):
I think being able to convey that, like, I look at what coach Bielema
did in some of those examples that I gaveyou, like, although a little bit forced
and a little bit cliche or cheesy attimes, he understood and you know, you
look at it from this perspective, it'sa little twisted, but he understood that
(26:28):
personal connections, those were goingto serve us well long term as a team.
So if you have this vision of where youwant to go and being able to inspire
and lead and do it from a place ofexample, I mean, coach Bielema used
to bounce around dinner tables too.
And sit with different guys.
He didn't just go sit with thecoaches and he encouraged everybody
(26:50):
to lead by example on that.
So I think leaders in my mind are the onesthat can one, exemplify themselves and put
their headspace in a place where they canlead from a place of example, I guess I've
never been a huge, I talk now, you know,at some of these speaking things, but I
never was a big rah rah speaker guy asfar as being a team captain or a leader,
(27:15):
but I just tried to lead by example.
And so I always respect leadershipthat comes from that vein that's
lead by example and have a visionfor where you want to go, but yet be
intentional about the daily actionyou want to take to try to get there.
Mike (27:29):
You got to walk the walk.
Bradie (27:30):
Exactly.
Mike (27:31):
Yeah.
A lot of players, you said theaverage career in the NFL, I think
is 3.3 years or something like that.
Right?
Bradie (27:38):
Yep.
Mike (27:38):
And even knowing that going in to all, people aren't prepared.
There's a lot of athletes that weread about who sink into depression,
malaise, they don't have apurpose, substance abuse disorders.
You kind of talked about italready, but how did you find your
why in order to transition into adifferent head space and life space.
Bradie (28:00):
Yeah, that's a big topic in a, and a crucial one for a lot of guys.
I was fortunate in that my careerwas a roller coaster in the NFL.
And I think it may, let meslow down that roller coaster.
I shared about it, but helped me makethat transition gradually where I was
(28:23):
seeing the writing on the wall coming.
I just couldn't compete at that leveland stay healthy like I needed to.
There's other guys that are on the otherend of the spectrum that are eating
Cheetos every meal and still going outand competing at the very highest of
levels and staying healthy all year.
Maybe dislocating a fingerhere and there, but stuff that
generally doesn't slow them down.
(28:43):
So I was fortunate in that Istarted to see my identity beyond
football throughout my three years.
And started to see the writing onthe wall to where when I flipped that
switch and I went on injured reservemy last year at Jacksonville in the
preseason again, and still stayed withthe team that year on injured reserve.
(29:04):
But I knew once I was cleared once Iwas probably going to get released.
And for me, I knew that itwas time to turn the page.
And so I was fortunate and gratefulthat, I always talk about gratitude.
It's like gratitude is a great way todeal with stress, deal with anxiety
because our brains can't be in astate of gratefulness and a state of
(29:25):
anxiety or stress at the same time.
So how do we foster like a stateof gratitude in anything we do,
whether that's through an injury,through adversity, you might
be dealing with your family.
And so I was grateful that I had that easeof transition and kind of reestablishing
my why throughout my NFL career so that.
When I decided to retire I was excitedto see what was next, where a lot of
(29:50):
guys really, really struggle with that,their identities, football or athletics
or work or whatever that is for people.
And as you transition and as that'sstripped away from you, because
the NFL career is very short.
A lot of guys deal with not havingthat structure anymore of workout,
(30:11):
meetings, film, practice, dinner.
Your schedule as a professionalathlete is laid out for you.
And you lose that identity, you get outof the spotlight a little bit, and guys
revert to different, different things intheir life that try to cope with that.
And I'm thankful that I didn't, butI've seen a lot of people, a lot of
(30:32):
teammates, a lot of friends go throughthat transition and try to be a resource
for them and try to support them as theyreestablish their identity, their why,
their purpose beyond the game of football.
And it is difficult.
And I'm grateful that mytransition was eased that way.
And I was welcoming a youngfamily at the time with my wife.
(30:55):
And just my purpose really lies in thatis my family, my faith, and trying to
then use the experiences I've had tohelp others go chase their dreams and do
things better than I did along the way.
Mike (31:10):
Yeah, and now go to tournaments on the weekend and coach your kids, right?
Bradie (31:14):
That's right, we got a basketball tournament tomorrow morning.
Mike (31:17):
Yeah, see, every weekend, Bradie.
I'll let you go with this.
You've already sort of talked about,you and I are going to be together
in a small, small school districtin southwestern Wisconsin, Seneca.
Bradie (31:29):
Yeah.
Mike (31:30):
Who has a long standing wellness day that they've done for a long time,
and you're the keynote speaker at it.
What do you hope that kids inplaces like Seneca, or wherever you
speak, take away from your talk?
You've kind of talked about it,but put it into a summary for me.
Bradie (31:49):
Yeah, I think a couple things.
I think first and foremostis that it's okay to dream.
You know, it's, this is goingto be their wellness day.
I'm going to put a littlebit different spin on.
I think it's okay to dream.
Your geography on where you're at,whether that's Richland Center, Wisconsin,
where I grew up, Seneca, Wisconsin, orwherever, like that has no bearing on
(32:10):
what dreams you can go accomplish and theimpact that you can make in this world.
So I think that's first and foremost.
And then secondly, I would say ifthere's one other thing I want them to
get out of the day is start thinkingabout what your purpose is now.
What motivates you, whatgets you up in the morning.
When your back gets against the wall,who are the relationships you can
lean on, what's that internal driver,not the external motivation, Mike.
(32:33):
Winning championships or being thestarter, but what's the internal
motivation you have that's goingto help motivate you and drive
you to go chase your dreams, chaseyour goals day in and day out.
I'm going to cover a ton more than that,but I'd say if they can have hope and
a vision that they can make an impactthemselves and they can start looking and
having a purpose to what they do, whetherthat's athletics, whether that's chasing
(32:56):
a future job that they want to get after.
Or, you know, other end of thespectrum, just taking care of their
family, supporting their family.
I hope they have inspiration.
I hope they have purposeand then daily action.
I mean, those would bethe top three things.
Mike (33:10):
Outstanding.
Bradie, I'm so glad you couldtake the time with us today.
I look forward to seeing you there.
Bradie (33:15):
Thanks mike.
Mike (33:16):
I already mentioned there's links to Bradie's stuff.
We appreciate you all listeningand anytime you can listen,
we would invite you to do so.
Until we talk to you next time.
Please stay safe and wherever you are.
Hope you find your why.
Welcome, everybody.
This is Avoiding the AddictionAffliction brought to you by Westwords
Consulting and the Kenosha CountySubstance Use Disorder Coalition.
I'm Mike McGowan.
We dream, we work, we hopefully achieve.
Then one day, we needa change in direction.
What happens when the dream ends?
Where do we find purpose?
(00:32):
Well, that's the message my guesttoday shares when he speaks to
groups all across the country.
Bradie Ewing is a National AccountCoordinator for Kelly Supply Incorporated.
He is also a motivational speaker, salesprofessional, and former college and
professional football player who playedwith the University of Wisconsin before
moving into the NFL with the JacksonvilleJaguars and the Atlanta Falcons.
(00:56):
Welcome today, Bradie.
Bradie (00:58):
Thanks, Mike.
I appreciate you having me.
Mike (01:00):
I love that you're doing this and we'll get to the, how we know
each other in a little while, buta lot of young people, Brady, have
a dream of being a pro athlete.
I did, tons of us did.
And I got to ask you, maybe thisdidn't happen, but when you were
young, there had to be people to get,go for it, Brady, support your dream.
But there have to also be people thatwanted to rain on your parade and think
(01:23):
they were doing you a favor by tellingyou how the odds were stacked against you.
Right?
Bradie (01:28):
I can remember one instance in particular where in grade school you have
that exercise of writing what you want todo or some dreams that you have, things
you want to accomplish when you're grown.
And one of the things like itsounds like you as well, I wanted
to be a professional athlete.
I don't recall if I put basketballplayer or football player, but I
(01:49):
could remember that specific teacherdoing what you said, kind of squashing
the dreams and minimizing it.
And wanting me to think beyond sports,which in hindsight, I can respect that.
But at the same time, I think so manygreat things can come from our dreams.
I think dreams give us a vision ofwhat we want to accomplish, but then
(02:10):
can motivate us in the day to day too.
And so I guess that's my messageto people is dreams are awesome.
I love dreams.
I dreamt as a young athlete, a youngstudent, and finding ways to pursue that
dream on a daily basis, that's goingto help you in all aspects of life,
whether you end up achieving that dream,making its professional, it's really the
(02:32):
journey in the process along the way.
That's going to make you into a betterperson and hopefully help you find your
purpose as you go on pursuing whatever itis and hopefully accomplishing that dream.
But really, it's the process.
Trying to get there.
Mike (02:48):
Give me an example of somebody who supported... how did they support your
dream because you had to have a ton ofpeople that also supported and drove you.
Bradie (02:57):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Thanks for circling back for that.
Yeah, I think my familyfirst and foremost.
My parents the way the opportunitiesthey gave our family and us kids,
a lot of it was around athletics.
So being able to play basketballand go to these football camps
and they didn't push me to workas a middle school, high school.
(03:17):
I did towards the end of my high schoolcareer, but they allowed me to use
summers as a chance to try to work on mybody and the weight room and eating and.
I'm just so grateful for that and theydidn't have to do that, but they wanted
to give us opportunities that they didn'tnecessarily have when they were younger.
Mike (03:32):
You're younger than I am, obviously.
You have kids, right?
How many, who do you have?
Bradie (03:38):
Yeah, I got four boys.
My wife and I, my wife'sfrom Richland Center as well.
And so we started dating when we wereboth in high school and yeah, just super
grateful to have four boys healthy from10 years old down to four years old now.
Mike (03:51):
Okay, so you're in the middle of it now.
I'm what you just said made me smilebecause when my kids got involved in that
and every weekend was somewhere, right?
Bradie (04:00):
Oh, yeah.
Mike (04:01):
A tournament here, a tournament there, going here.
There's one weekend, Bradie, whereall three of my kids were involved in
something and there was like 12 events.
I made 11 of them inthree different cities.
Bradie (04:12):
Oh my goodness, wow!
Mike (04:14):
But I had a blast.
I know there's parents that complainabout, that's why I bring it up.
I can't believe we're doing this.
It sounds like your parentswere like, yeah, this is great.
Let's go for it
Bradie (04:24):
Oh, they they dove all in and i'm the third of four kids and so a lot
of my younger years were Before I gotinvolved were chasing my older brother
and my older sister being being a gymrat, just, you know, going to their
basketball tournaments and wrestlingtournaments and all, soccer tournaments,
whatever they were involved in.
I was just chasing them trying to keepup, but my parents were definitely
(04:48):
the family that hit that in strideand try to give us every opportunity
if they needed to divide and conquer.
They did it.
To your point, it sounds like you made ita priority as a dad to be at everything
you possibly could, which is awesome.
I can remember in middle school and as Igot older, my dad traveled for work and
he found a way to get to every singleevent and even through my college career.
(05:10):
And as a young athlete or just ayoung person in general, I always
remember looking in the stands if hewasn't coaching, he coached a lot of
our stuff, but looking in the stands.
And seeing him and my mom.
And again, it just gave me a senseof peace of, okay, they're here now.
Let's go have some fun.
Let's go out and perform.
So I try to do the same thing as a dadnow and coach a lot of my kids stuff,
(05:31):
and it's just absolutely love it.
It's a little crazy as more ofthem get involved, but it's fun.
I love it.
Mike (05:37):
Well, it's a blast.
My philosophy was as long as Igot to be at these tournaments,
I might as well coach them.
Because sitting in the standswith complaining parents
wasn't going to be my gig.
Bradie (05:47):
No doubt.
Mike (05:48):
When you played at Madison, for those of you that don't know,
it's one of the stadiums in theUnited States that always has the
most amount of attendance on average.
I think it's 80,000,something like that, right?
Could you pick them out even whenyou're on the sideline there?
Did you know where they were sitting?
So could you glance up and even see themin the stands in an 80,000 seat stadium?
Bradie (06:08):
I would.
So that was one of the first things,whether it was my now wife, my parents,
my siblings would come to a lot of games.
Depending on the home stadium.
Absolutely.
You knew the general areathey were going to be sitting.
And away games, typically you couldtell by the colors in the stadium.
There was one little section with red andwhite, the Iowa colors or Michigan colors.
(06:33):
And so, yeah, I would alwaysmake a point to point them out.
I usually would just raise my fistto them and, and recognize that
we saw each other and then hit theground running, going into the game.
Mike (06:42):
Oh, that's awesome.
Bradie (06:44):
It's cool that those are just some little things I experienced, but each
player kind of has those little ritualsor traditions that they do as well.
So it's neat to see some of those asyou get exposed to different guys.
Mike (06:57):
I'm going to circle back to your college experience in a minute, but you
had to have been, I mean, I can't evenfathom, this never came close to me.
You had to be pumped to havebeen drafted in the NFL.
And then what happened in August?
Bradie (07:14):
(chuckle) Yeah, it was a roller coaster.
We talked about, I had alwaysdreamed about being a professional
athlete and let alone a collegeathlete at your home state school.
And so to go be a Badger.
Live that experience as a walk onturn scholarship, team captain, and
then to be able to do senior bowl, NFLcombine, which is going on right now.
Mike (07:38):
Yeah.
Bradie (07:38):
Drafted, sitting in my living room, received that call on
the third day, drafted in the fifthrounds to the Falcons and received
that call and be there with myfamily, my grandparents, my wife.
Was just a special experience and kindof a culmination of all the journey
that was college athletics and just,even going back to when I was younger.
(08:01):
So it was pretty cool, butit wasn't a destination.
It was kind of like the beginningkicking off the pro career.
And then that led into O. T. A.'swith the team down in Atlanta,
led into preseason training camp.
And then yeah, like you said, that firstpreseason game in August at the Georgia
Dome and ended up facing some adversitythat kind of rocked my world a little bit.
(08:24):
And I ended up tearing my ACL, I think,on my fifth or sixth play of that
first preseason game of my NFL career.
And led to a ton of emotions,not really knowing what was next.
I didn't really understand theNFL and how injury worked and how
injured reserve worked at the time.
And ended up learning alot through that process.
(08:46):
I take a step back.
I don't know how, how farwe're going to dive into this.
Mike (08:50):
That's what I wanted to ask you is, all right, that happens, right?
So that's a ton of adversity.
You're going from super high to, Ohmy God, what's going to happen to me?
How do you maintain yourmotivation through that adversity?
I mean, how do you get yourselfout of the surgery back into
the weight room with optimism?
(09:10):
That you can come back from thatbecause you were a fullback, right?
Bradie (09:14):
Yep, played fullback in special teams.
This injury actuallyhappened on special teams.
And so how do you do that?
I would say there's a lot ofdifferent ways that I had to do.
And that, and I didn'tdo it great all the time.
I'd say there was a low pointwhere, you start questioning things.
There's a lot of emotions.
There's a lot of concern aboutwhat the future looks like.
(09:37):
But what I learned through that, it'slike just getting back on the horse and
taking daily action helped me a ton.
And so that's what I talk about a lot now.
What else helped?
I mean, my wife, my family, the supportnetwork that, whether it's my immediate
family, friends, all of that, but also thecommunity back home at Richland Center.
(09:58):
Just the amount of people that wouldreach out, touch base, and encourage me.
At that point, other than someof the lows there initially after
surgery, it was like, let's go, Iwas jumping back in the boat.
There was anothergentleman that was injured.
Croy Beerman, he tore hisachilles that same game.
And so to be able to walk through rehab,kind of totally different injuries, but
(10:21):
walk through rehab side by side withhim and for us to motivate each other
and hold ourselves accountable to theprocess of the journey of getting back
to be healthy and be out competing again.
That helps.
So really, it's not only some ofthose external factors of the people
around you to help keep you motivated,but it was a reflection on myself.
(10:41):
I think that was really the first timefrom a football perspective where I
started to realize that my life isbigger than the game of football.
Like I was at the level competingI wanted to be at, got hurt.
It was just a roadblock and therewas more to my life than football.
So while I was still going all in,chasing that dream, chasing to be a
(11:02):
part of it, chasing to help the team,I was also reflecting that there's
more to life than football too.
Whether that be my faith, whetherthat be my family, family that
was about to grow and just gettingperspective around some of that as well.
Mike (11:17):
It would be nice if it was like, yeah, that was the
only injury, but (laugh) no, no,it's a violent game, right so.
Bradie (11:25):
It is, yeah, it's a violent game.
So each of my years, I ended up beingin the NFL for three years, which is
right around the average NFL career.
Mike (11:32):
Right.
Right.
Bradie (11:33):
And each of my years I ended up on injured reserve at some point.
So I battled back from the ACLinjury surgery, had a sports hernia
surgery that off season as I wasrehabbing and starting to do more.
And I had had some issueswith that back in college.
And then was able to get back to fullstrength, made the team my second year.
(11:56):
Got through the preseason regulars,started the regular season in
my second regular season game.
I caught a pass fromMatt Ryan in the flats.
I was running, went to stiffarm, a guy from the Rams.
And ended up dislocating a shoulder I hadalready had surgery on and kind of retore
all the fixes that the doctor had done.
And it was something that wasgoing to need immediate surgery.
(12:18):
And so again, another low point,another chance of adversity that it's
like, okay, just went through this.
Now, how do I approach this?
So again, falling back on those samethings you talked about and battling
back to try to get to a hundred percentand continue to pursue the dream.
Mike (12:37):
That's hard though.
I mean, because you cameback, you're enthused again.
And then it's like therehas to be a, Oh, why me?
Bradie (12:47):
There was.
Yeah.
I mean, there was definitelymoments of questioning things.
It's like, okay, I was doingeverything in my control.
I was working, I wasseeing a massage therapist.
I was seeing chiropractors.
I purchased a hyperbaric chamberto help with my recovery, both
from surgery and from training.
You do all this stuff, the hot tub, thecold tub, the activation, the rolling.
(13:08):
It's like, okay, I'm gonna do everythingin my control and then I'm going to
leave the rest in the powers that be.
And for me, I believe that ismy Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
And so it's like, okay, I'm gonnawork like it's all up to me.
Pray like it's all up to himand see where the chips fall and
enjoy the journey along the way.
So kind of started that process aftermy first year, but really after the
(13:30):
second year, another surgery, anotherending season started to reshape my
mindset and continue to pursue it.
But also I doubled down on the factthat my life's bigger than football.
We'll see how long this can last, butI felt like I was starting to be pushed
into a different direction long term.
So after that year, I rehabbed.
(13:51):
I got healthy.
I got released by the Falconsand then I was claimed by the
Jacksonville Jaguars off of waivers.
The general manager downthere was the director.
A player personnel when Igot drafted to the Falcons.
And so he knew me, he wanted mekind of as a locker room guy.
At the time, the Jaguars wereone of the youngest teams in the
(14:11):
NFL, hadn't had a lot of success.
And so my wife and I packed up,headed down to Jacksonville.
And as I started to reshape my mindsetaround football and just life in
general and kind of try to lose someof the football identity that I had.
I had been so wrapped up through collegeand trying to pursue that dream that
(14:34):
some of my identity got lost in that.
I became just a football player versusBradie that happened to be a football
player, happened to be a husband.
So at that point I was havingso much fun playing football.
It's like I started to lose someof the worry, that going into that
second year, I was so worried.
It's like, okay, I got to stay healthy.
I got to do everything I can.
(14:54):
It's like, Hey, I'm justgoing to go have fun.
I'm going to pursue this.
I'm going to do what I can.
In that third year was so fun.
It was a fun lockerroom, a fun organization.
And probably the best I've felt sincemaybe sophomore, junior year of college,
it felt like I was getting my bodyback underneath me and just excited
for what that next year could bring.
Mike (15:13):
That's great.
You weren't a fullback going into college.
Bradie (15:17):
Correct.
I was running back.
Mike (15:19):
So accepting your role.
Bradie (15:21):
Yeah.
Mike (15:21):
And having other people see you differently than you see yourself.
Now we're talking sports here, but this isrelatable to a workplace and doing it with
enthusiasm is not as easy as it sounds.
Some people see you differentlythan you see yourself.
How do you accept your role when peoplecome to you and say, yeah, you know
that running back thing, you're goingto be blocking for him this time.
Bradie (15:44):
(laugh) Yeah.
It was a change in mindset.
I think, for me, I think it dependswhere, you know, we're talking a
lot about purpose, but where yourpurpose lies, like, for me, it was
about helping the team and aboutbeing a part of the Wisconsin program.
So when they asked me to make thatchange, it was.... Tactically, it was
(16:05):
tough, but mentally it was like, Hey,if this is my opportunity to play
and to help the team, I'm all in.
Now the transition of taking theskill set I had learned and harnessed
as a running back and being ableto transition to that to fullback.
That was tough.
But the fact for me, the buying ofswitch and trying to help the team.
(16:26):
That was that was the easy part.
Then it was how do I transitionthe physicality of a running back
to the physicality of a fullbackand kind of harness that mindset
that, snap to whistle mindset.
I always tried to pride myself on of justdoing the dirty work and doing it to the
best of my ability from snap to whistle.
But yeah, I think oftentimes people,we might have a vision of ourselves on
(16:48):
what we think our role is or outcome.
But sometimes people canprovide perspective to that too.
Sports is one example, but just inlife people... Not that we need to
take everybody's opinion and guidanceas gold standard because there's
probably only a few people in lifethat can really speak to that for
you that are really close to you.
(17:10):
But oftentimes people have a visioninto our lives on what strengths we
have, what makes us unique that wecan't really see ourselves that time
or are kind of blinded to I think.
Mike (17:22):
What was your 40 at the combine?
Bradie (17:25):
Four seven six.
Mike (17:26):
(laugh) That's the full back in you right?
Bradie (17:30):
That's right.
Yeah, not a 4 4.
That's for sure.
(laugh)
Mike (17:33):
In one of your videos on social media, and by the way, I will post
the link to Bradie's social mediapresence for those of you listening.
You talk about goal setting anddeveloping achievable daily habits.
That's so important togetting things done.
Bradie (17:49):
It is.
Yeah, I think it's easy to setgoals, whether it's make it to the
NFL or I want to be all conference.
I want to be the starter here andthere, but it's like, okay, what are
you actually going to do with this?
How are you actuallygoing to accomplish that?
So, you know, a lot of people haveheard of the smart goal framework
of making specific measurableattainable, results driven goals.
(18:11):
I mean, that's really the gist ofit, but what can you do today that
you can... I call it habit stacking.
I don't know if that's like a, I think I'dmentioned that on one of my social media.
Mike (18:20):
Yeah, you did.
Bradie (18:21):
It's like, just do one thing, find one thing that you can do today
that's going to create momentum.
Create momentum and then once you masterthat and that becomes a true habit,
go ahead and add something different.
But I think there's power in feelinglike you're making progress and
that creates momentum and thatcreates consistency that's going
(18:43):
to actually drive the end result.
So I love that.
I think the football programs I was apart of, especially at Wisconsin was so
disciplined oriented and just a lot ofcultural things that related to that.
And that really helped me have successis just that daily attack of the
details that's going to ultimatelydrive the end result that you want.
Mike (19:04):
Our line of work is different, right?
But habit stacking, I love thatterm because it's so applicable
to mental health and recoveryfrom substance use disorders.
Get to a meeting, get to a meetingtomorrow until like you would
say you feel comfortable in that.
You're now successful in that part of it.
Bradie (19:22):
Right.
Mike (19:23):
Now add something else and I think that's the way people
get better all the way around nomatter what it is in their life.
Bradie (19:29):
Yeah.
When I go speak to schools and youdo a lot in that realm to it's...
I speak from the place of athleticsbecause that's my experience.
And you know, people see that.
They watch the NFL, theywatch college athletics.
So I speak from those experiences.
But to your point, I think thesementalities and these frameworks
apply to all aspects of life, whetherit's school, whether it's your job,
(19:52):
whether it's as a parent, as a husband.
As a potential addict, it's likethere's these frameworks and these
consistent processes that can helpus in all aspects of our life.
And I try to draw that correlationfrom my athletics experience to
wherever these student athletes orbusiness people I get the chance to
interact with might be in their life.
Mike (20:11):
Bradie, I was thinking about you every time, well, it's hard
to read the news nowadays, right?
For me because it's so fractured.
I mean, I do this a lot and there's peoplethat don't even talk to their own family
members because of differences of opinion.
And I was thinking about you.
You're part of a team.
How many guys were on the team at Madison?
(20:33):
What do they carry?
Bradie (20:35):
At the time, it was like 120 or 125.
Mike (20:39):
Yeah!
And then the roster inthe NFL is, is it 53?
Bradie (20:43):
53 active and then there's some practice squad guys and all that.
Mike (20:47):
Okay, so here's my question.
Everybody, you're part of a hundredperson organization plus the coaches.
53 in the NFL.
Everybody's got a divergent opinionon a bunch of different stuff.
How do you come togetherfor an achievable goal?
Bradie (21:08):
I love that.
I mean, yeah, you're right.
You come together with people fromdifferent parts of the country, different
parts of the world, different upbringings,family background, cultures, religions.
And it's really cool.
So how do you cometogether to pursue 1 goal?
It's natural in the athletic realm becauseyou already are all chasing 1 goal.
(21:33):
And that doesn't mean that it's perfect.
Like there's Clicks within the team, youknow, whether that be position groups,
guys tend to gravitate to people thathave similar backgrounds and experiences.
But what it does, at least collegeathletics is changing, but at least
college athletics back in Wisconsin,when I was there, it was very much,
you were committed for four to fiveyears and Wisconsin was a developmental
(21:57):
program where most guys didn't comein their first year or two and start.
You knew you were going to be there1, 2, 3 years developing, getting
better, sitting behind a starter andthen going into play and have your
chance, your junior, senior year.
And so I think that framework that wehad established and that vision to chase
(22:17):
one goal to have success and uphold thesuccess that had happened before us.
That common ground creates a environmentwhere you can have conversations with
guys and when you disagree on things...At the end of the day, you can value
the other person's opinion becausethey're a valued member of your team.
(22:39):
They're a valued member of your team.
You're already pursuing that endgoal together and being able to set
those differences aside and respecteach other's opinion, learn from the
other person's perspective, and thenultimately still go out in the field,
still go work your butt off next toeach other, side by side to each other.
The old cliche of blood, sweat, and tears.
There's a ton of reality to that,and that work side by side tends
(23:03):
to bond you with people and allowyou to chase that dream together.
And it gives you a different perspectiveon somebody's life to where you listen
to them a little bit more, you hear whatthey're saying, and you're able to share
and have good quality conversation.
I remember Coach Bielema at the time, ourhead coach, challenged us when we would
eat dinner as a team after practice tofind somebody new to sit with every night.
(23:28):
It's a big team.
It'd be easy to sit at the sametable with the same general guys,
your position group or the clickthat you might be hanging out with.
But he challenged us tospend time with other people.
And he gave us a framework of questionsto try to intentionally breed this
collective cohesive team unit.
And even going as far as during fall camp,I think it was my junior or senior year.
(23:52):
We, at the time we didn'tgo do a offsite camp.
We just did it at camp Randall andyou'd stayed in your normal apartment.
But we went for a few days throughoutcamp and stayed in a hotel and they
paired you up with somebody withbasically on the other end of the spectrum
of where you might've been in life.
And you had to actually go through alist of questions and it was a little
(24:13):
forced, but ultimately led to goodconversation where you were forced to
have a great conversation with guysabout things outside of football that
didn't have direct correlation tofootball is just relating with people
and having meaningful conversationwith them and those relationships
create a foundation to then go chaseyour dreams together and have mutual
(24:35):
respect for one another along the way.
Kind of got on a tangent there, butI'm super passionate about that.
Mike (24:40):
No, that's perfect because what the converse of that is that you don't
have that mutual respect or communicationand you're not going anywhere as an
organization, a team, or a family.
Or a country.
Bradie (24:55):
Exactly.
And I think there's so much to be learnedfrom athletics and not every athletic
team is as good at this as others, but.
In our workplace, in our communities,in our families, how can we
have respectful conversations?
Like people differ on opinion on allsorts of stuff, like in the grand
scheme of things, that is a good thing.
(25:16):
If we all believe the same thing and we'reall robots marching to the same drum,
like that'd be a pretty darn boring world.
I think having different opinionsand being open to, you don't have to
believe that opinion, but have respectfor that person that has a different
perspective and try to understandwhat in their background or their life
or experiences might've shaped that.
(25:37):
And I think that's where I flippedmy mindset in college of I might have
a different opinion on this topicthan this person, but I can see why
they would have that opinion basedon their experiences or upbringing.
And it's eyeopening and also superfun too, just to hear those stories.
And, and also yeah, justdevelop those relationships.
(25:58):
Pretty cool.
Mike (25:59):
You mentioned coach Bielema.
You've had a lot of coachesand bosses in your lifetime.
What's the difference between agood leader and a poor leader?
Bradie (26:08):
I think being able to convey that, like, I look at what coach Bielema
did in some of those examples that I gaveyou, like, although a little bit forced
and a little bit cliche or cheesy attimes, he understood and you know, you
look at it from this perspective, it'sa little twisted, but he understood that
(26:28):
personal connections, those were goingto serve us well long term as a team.
So if you have this vision of where youwant to go and being able to inspire
and lead and do it from a place ofexample, I mean, coach Bielema used
to bounce around dinner tables too.
And sit with different guys.
He didn't just go sit with thecoaches and he encouraged everybody
(26:50):
to lead by example on that.
So I think leaders in my mind are the onesthat can one, exemplify themselves and put
their headspace in a place where they canlead from a place of example, I guess I've
never been a huge, I talk now, you know,at some of these speaking things, but I
never was a big rah rah speaker guy asfar as being a team captain or a leader,
(27:15):
but I just tried to lead by example.
And so I always respect leadershipthat comes from that vein that's
lead by example and have a visionfor where you want to go, but yet be
intentional about the daily actionyou want to take to try to get there.
Mike (27:29):
You got to walk the walk.
Bradie (27:30):
Exactly.
Mike (27:31):
Yeah.
A lot of players, you said theaverage career in the NFL, I think
is 3.3 years or something like that.
Right?
Bradie (27:38):
Yep.
Mike (27:38):
And even knowing that going in to all, people aren't prepared.
There's a lot of athletes that weread about who sink into depression,
malaise, they don't have apurpose, substance abuse disorders.
You kind of talked about italready, but how did you find your
why in order to transition into adifferent head space and life space.
Bradie (28:00):
Yeah, that's a big topic in a, and a crucial one for a lot of guys.
I was fortunate in that my careerwas a roller coaster in the NFL.
And I think it may, let meslow down that roller coaster.
I shared about it, but helped me makethat transition gradually where I was
(28:23):
seeing the writing on the wall coming.
I just couldn't compete at that leveland stay healthy like I needed to.
There's other guys that are on the otherend of the spectrum that are eating
Cheetos every meal and still going outand competing at the very highest of
levels and staying healthy all year.
Maybe dislocating a fingerhere and there, but stuff that
generally doesn't slow them down.
(28:43):
So I was fortunate in that Istarted to see my identity beyond
football throughout my three years.
And started to see the writing onthe wall to where when I flipped that
switch and I went on injured reservemy last year at Jacksonville in the
preseason again, and still stayed withthe team that year on injured reserve.
(29:04):
But I knew once I was cleared once Iwas probably going to get released.
And for me, I knew that itwas time to turn the page.
And so I was fortunate and gratefulthat, I always talk about gratitude.
It's like gratitude is a great way todeal with stress, deal with anxiety
because our brains can't be in astate of gratefulness and a state of
(29:25):
anxiety or stress at the same time.
So how do we foster like a stateof gratitude in anything we do,
whether that's through an injury,through adversity, you might
be dealing with your family.
And so I was grateful that I had that easeof transition and kind of reestablishing
my why throughout my NFL career so that.
When I decided to retire I was excitedto see what was next, where a lot of
(29:50):
guys really, really struggle with that,their identities, football or athletics
or work or whatever that is for people.
And as you transition and as that'sstripped away from you, because
the NFL career is very short.
A lot of guys deal with not havingthat structure anymore of workout,
(30:11):
meetings, film, practice, dinner.
Your schedule as a professionalathlete is laid out for you.
And you lose that identity, you get outof the spotlight a little bit, and guys
revert to different, different things intheir life that try to cope with that.
And I'm thankful that I didn't, butI've seen a lot of people, a lot of
(30:32):
teammates, a lot of friends go throughthat transition and try to be a resource
for them and try to support them as theyreestablish their identity, their why,
their purpose beyond the game of football.
And it is difficult.
And I'm grateful that mytransition was eased that way.
And I was welcoming a youngfamily at the time with my wife.
(30:55):
And just my purpose really lies in thatis my family, my faith, and trying to
then use the experiences I've had tohelp others go chase their dreams and do
things better than I did along the way.
Mike (31:10):
Yeah, and now go to tournaments on the weekend and coach your kids, right?
Bradie (31:14):
That's right, we got a basketball tournament tomorrow morning.
Mike (31:17):
Yeah, see, every weekend, Bradie.
I'll let you go with this.
You've already sort of talked about,you and I are going to be together
in a small, small school districtin southwestern Wisconsin, Seneca.
Bradie (31:29):
Yeah.
Mike (31:30):
Who has a long standing wellness day that they've done for a long time,
and you're the keynote speaker at it.
What do you hope that kids inplaces like Seneca, or wherever you
speak, take away from your talk?
You've kind of talked about it,but put it into a summary for me.
Bradie (31:49):
Yeah, I think a couple things.
I think first and foremostis that it's okay to dream.
You know, it's, this is goingto be their wellness day.
I'm going to put a littlebit different spin on.
I think it's okay to dream.
Your geography on where you're at,whether that's Richland Center, Wisconsin,
where I grew up, Seneca, Wisconsin, orwherever, like that has no bearing on
(32:10):
what dreams you can go accomplish and theimpact that you can make in this world.
So I think that's first and foremost.
And then secondly, I would say ifthere's one other thing I want them to
get out of the day is start thinkingabout what your purpose is now.
What motivates you, whatgets you up in the morning.
When your back gets against the wall,who are the relationships you can
lean on, what's that internal driver,not the external motivation, Mike.
(32:33):
Winning championships or being thestarter, but what's the internal
motivation you have that's goingto help motivate you and drive
you to go chase your dreams, chaseyour goals day in and day out.
I'm going to cover a ton more than that,but I'd say if they can have hope and
a vision that they can make an impactthemselves and they can start looking and
having a purpose to what they do, whetherthat's athletics, whether that's chasing
(32:56):
a future job that they want to get after.
Or, you know, other end of thespectrum, just taking care of their
family, supporting their family.
I hope they have inspiration.
I hope they have purposeand then daily action.
I mean, those would bethe top three things.
Mike (33:10):
Outstanding.
Bradie, I'm so glad you couldtake the time with us today.
I look forward to seeing you there.
Bradie (33:15):
Thanks mike.
Mike (33:16):
I already mentioned there's links to Bradie's stuff.
We appreciate you all listeningand anytime you can listen,
we would invite you to do so.
Until we talk to you next time.
Please stay safe and wherever you are.
Hope you find your why.
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