Fred Taylor talks Being Called "Fragile," Girl Dad Power, his Podcast Pivot

EP #26: Fred Taylor, one of the toughest running backs to ever play in the NFL, joins Peanut and Roman on the pod. They’ve competed against each other and on the pod they share stories of how they all succeeded in the league with their brains as much as their brawn. Fred may not be in the Hall of Fame now, but he’s got a compelling case and he shares it here. But he’s also more than a football player. Fred shares his journey in and out of the game, and how becoming a #girldad is what unlocked his true strength as a man. He also gets candid about the pitfalls when doing business with friends, but how deal gone wrong led to a major pivot that’s led to major success. Listen to the full pod here.

Watch Second Acts on YouTube:  https://bit.ly/3ikkR2Q

Follow Roman Harper on Instagram: @Harp_41

Follow Peanut Tillman on Instagram: @peanuttillman

 

Topic timeline:

2:22 – The play where Fred suffered his worst career injury

4:25 – The demanding style of coach Tom Coughlin 

10:26 – Why Fred believes he’ll eventually get into the Pro Football Hall of Fame 

12:42 – How Fred’s career would’ve gone differently if he had a “Hall of Fame” mentality

20:08 – The business decision in trying to tackle Fred Taylor

21:05 – Why Fred would “do numbers” in today’s NFL

23:47 – The specific aspects of the game Fred misses

27:14 – Why Fred hates being called “Fragile Freddy”

28:18 – the moment Fred knew it was time to retire

33:22 – How Fred attacked life after football

41:07 – The fallout that led to the creation of “The Pivot Podcast”

50:10 – Fred’s first splurge purchase when he got the bag

57:30 – Fred’s top-5 running backs of all time

58:50 – Fred’s favorite current running backs

1:01:45 – Fred gets emotional talking about the people who made him the man he is today

 

*NOTE: timecodes are approximate.

NFL Players Second Acts podcast is a production of the NFL in partnership with iHeart

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:12):
I'm Peanut too, man, and this is the NFL Player's
Second Acts podcast. And I got my pastor with me,
Roman Harper, what's up wrong?

Speaker 2 (00:20):
What's up?

Speaker 3 (00:21):
Baby?

Speaker 1 (00:21):
And I want to tell all of our listeners out there,
m viewers, please give us click that button like, give
us a five star rating, hit subscription, tell a friend
to tell a friend to tell a friend. Anywhere you
listen to your podcast, whether it's Apple Podcasts or iHeart,
please give us a liking review.

Speaker 4 (00:38):
Hey, one of our guests was Fred Taylor, Dope Interview.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Give it a listen.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
We got a good guess.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
Reach off some of these highlights, real quick first round
pick and ninety eight draft number nine.

Speaker 3 (00:55):
Overall, it's a lot of repick.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Yeah, that's a good one. Thirteen year NFL.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
That running back seventeenth on the all time rushing list,
got eleven thousand, six hundred ninety five yards, Jaguars all
time leading rusher. He's in the Jaguars Ring of Honor.
My guy, my good friend, Fred Taylor, what's up boss?

Speaker 3 (01:15):
What's up? Man? What's up? What's up? Listen?

Speaker 1 (01:17):
That was?

Speaker 3 (01:19):
That was That was a great open. I appreciate it.
Thank you for reading off the only disagreement. You said
it's an oldie, but goodie. I get offended by that
word old. I'm very sensitive. Well, I apologize, you know,
because what do you do with old stuff? You threw
it out?

Speaker 1 (01:35):
No, you're not necessarily you drink old wine, so you
should call him anti.

Speaker 3 (01:38):
But it's not necessarily old wine, like it's vintage maybe okay,
or seasoned.

Speaker 4 (01:47):
I apologize.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
When we all when this is all overdone, I'm gonna
redo that intro and we got an antique over here.
It's antique.

Speaker 3 (01:57):
Good antique. Well, antiques are kind of like part of
my career. You know. They called me fragile Fred for
we can get into that antiques. When I think antiques,
I think it's easily broken, you know what I'm saying.
So I don't know if I like that even at
that broken.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
What have you broken?

Speaker 4 (02:19):
I mean you were you a tell back, I mean
you are a legend uh in Jacksonville?

Speaker 2 (02:26):
What what have you broke?

Speaker 4 (02:27):
What was like one of the best best shots you
took or best shot you dished out?

Speaker 3 (02:33):
Oh man, there's a ton of them. But you know
what I can say, playing against our hated rival, still
to this day, I believe they might not consider it
so much as a rival because we're on the way
on the bottom end in terms of UH wins against them.
In order to be a rival has to be.

Speaker 4 (02:56):
What team is that the Titans, Tennessee Titans.

Speaker 3 (03:01):
I believe it was in the year nine eleven happened
and just a simple zone left play. I did a
crazy jump cut back to the right in traffic. I'm
blame Bishop, and I tore my growing off the bone
right right there on the spot in that play, and

(03:22):
it hurt so bad. I grabbed my leg. I tossed
the ball and I grabbed my growing. So I threw
the ball to my close friend Tomorrow Roll. So my
coach thought I was probably point shaving because the night
before he was like, you and samorriw, y'all shouldn't be
playing those video games. We were at SA Mari's. I
was playing Madden and Coach Coughlin gave me a warning
for fratnizing with the opponent that he didn't play that.

(03:47):
But that was my friend from childhood. So I tossed
Samri the ball and I just was, you know, down
on the ground and agonizing pain. The worst pain I
ever felt, you know, my tire career because usually if
you have chronic growing, procedure is they go in there
and they snip it, no doubt, right, and then they

(04:07):
let a scar and heal and all of that. But
I did that on the field with no anesthesia, so
I never broke anything, per se. I had a ton
of injuries, but that was the worst.

Speaker 1 (04:17):
And you had classical issues a couple of labors, like
you've done a lot to your body. I want to
talk less about the injuries and more because I remember
playing against you, But I want to talk more about
the Tom Coughlin I would say what you would hear
about outside of the building. I was never in the
building with him, had you had to be there a
couple of minutes early, like these are real hardcore rules

(04:40):
that I've heard are legendary.

Speaker 3 (04:41):
Old school right right, certainly old school. They wouldn't fly today.
For example, they didn't necessarily fly with Jalen Ramsey and
a few other the younger guys that were in the
building when Tison came back around. But I can say
this before I get into a few stories. In terms
of developing you know, boys to men right and being

(05:05):
appreciative of that, I think players would appreciate that more,
you know, as they get older, right, because that's all
he wanted. He wanted you to come in and understand
and learn how to be a man and approach his
game as a business, which is what it is. And

(05:25):
when you carved the fat off, he wanted to make
sure you were extremely focused on your job. And so
he tried to make sure he just carved off all
the distractions and anythings that was going to hinder your
you know, your push, you know, to try and be
successful as an individual and as a team collectively. But yeah,

(05:46):
all of those stories are true. You know, even before
I got there. I arribbed in ninety eight. They had
a few camps a few years before I got there,
so they started in ninety six. TC. They spoke about
the three of days, you know, spoke about double padded practices,
spoke about uh, the breaks that you were supposed to have.

(06:10):
He would take those away and just make you no naps,
a whole lot of stuff. Uh. We had a concentration
line where you entered the field, you couldn't step on
the on the on the white line. Uh, you have
to turn around and go do it again. All the
little stuff Yeah, it's all the little stuff, right, but

(06:31):
he really tried to create this sense of awareness and
extreme focus.

Speaker 4 (06:35):
Did anybody ever quit like that?

Speaker 3 (06:38):
Was?

Speaker 2 (06:38):
Because it's all I mean, this is a lot. It's
a whole lot.

Speaker 3 (06:42):
No, it's a lot. But I don't recall, at least
not in my time. We we he coached. He coached
me for five years. So in my time, I never
had anybody that quit. Had a few guys close on
the brink. Hell I was one of them, but just
some crazy stuff. Let me say this, so it is

(07:05):
true being punctual. He didn't mess around. He had his
own TC time meetings was at eight. You had to
be there seven fifty. Yeah, so or you were, you
would get fined and he find you for everything. Two
outrageous quick stories. I remember Marlins Leroy, he played at Georgia,
young defensive lineman. He placed the bet with Keenan mccardeal

(07:29):
back in the day. Keenan was an older vet, always clean. Yeah,
the nicest suits on the teams, great, great wide receiver
and great coach now as well. Keenan bet Marlows that
Florida would beat Georgia, and the Florida Georgia game and
if Florida won, he would have to let Keenan pick

(07:50):
out a suit for Keenan would pick out a suit
for at Marlos. So Keenan picked out the brightest orange
suit for Marlows to travel with for game day. Coach
Coughlin saw that guy on the plane. Find him like
ten grands because he didn't have on our team, you know,
business type travel. He had on a bright orange suit.
So TC didn't play that. And the other story is

(08:14):
Tavian Banks and Cordell Taylor. We had a Saturday nightteen
meeting and they were driving across this bridge in Jacksonville
Main Street bridge. There's a slip regrading on the bridge,
so if you if it's raining and you break the
wrong way or too fast, your cars lose control. Those

(08:35):
guys lost control. The front of the car was on
top of the bridge, almost was going to go into
the Saint John's river glass. The windshield broke out. Those
guys are all cut up. They got fined for being
late to the team meeting.

Speaker 2 (08:50):
You know, these are the legendary stories. I was. That's
why I had that. I've heard a couple of I've
heard them.

Speaker 3 (08:55):
These were like these guys almost lost their lives. They
didn't show up. They didn't make the eight o'clock Saturday
night the day before the game team meeting. They both
were fine. Conduct detrimental because they just were rushing. They
were going to be laid anyway, is what he said.

Speaker 4 (09:09):
Oh I think I'm gonna I'm feeling that one.

Speaker 3 (09:11):
I'm taking what he learned the game is about adaptation
of adjusting. He leaves Jackson Mill goes to New York.
A lot of savvy vets in that lockdown, starting with
Stray and those guys, he learned that he needed to
pipe down a little bit. He changed his approach and
he was able to really get the attention those guys
and went on and went to Super Bowl.

Speaker 1 (09:32):
Fretti, you know, Peanut read off all your accolades, talked
about all the yards, seventeenth all time, You've been a
Hall of Fame semifinalists the last couple of years. Yeah,
how does that feel? First of all to be mentioned
with all of the greats, but then also coming up short?

Speaker 3 (09:46):
How does that?

Speaker 2 (09:47):
At what point do you almost reached this two?

Speaker 3 (09:50):
Like?

Speaker 1 (09:50):
Am I just done? At this point of frustration? Let
me know, Like, how does that feel? I haven't got
my name.

Speaker 2 (09:55):
I don't even care, but I don't.

Speaker 3 (09:56):
Know how you feel. I'm appreciative right that I'm even
considered and just starting right there. It's a lot of
great players, man, a lot of guys that have done
amazing things. So each each year let them back up.
I'm like, all right, this is an opportunity, you know,
if nothing else, it is an opportunity. I would love

(10:19):
that moment when we're able to get in the finalist room.
So then there they're able to do a deeper dive
into you know, my achievements, the things I've done, and
really being able to compare those two the other guys
that are already in the Hall of Fame, whatever those
criterias are, being able to stack them up. You know. Unfortunately,

(10:43):
I never had the best timing throughout my career in
terms of putting together back to back yearly campaigns which
would have got my name consider and more Pro Bowl talks.
You know, I had, you know, but they weren't back
to back to back like some of these guys. But

(11:04):
I had years while I outrushed the best backs from
the previous year, so forth and so on, even starting
with my with my rookie year more than the Hall
of Fame talks. I think in the class of ninety eight, myself,
Peyton Manning, marsh I mean not Marshall or Randy Moss.

(11:29):
And when you look at the final tally of the
Rookie of the Year voting, I believe there's a better
argument for my case for Rookie of the Year then
Randy wonted than my argument for the Hall of Fame.
But I was trapped in a smaller market, correct. You know,
Randy had certain attentions on him coming in, right, and

(11:54):
he had two great games the rookie year Green Bay
in Dallas. And if you have a made in games
against the typically the media is gonna tilt or that
way a bit more as opposed to looking at my
body of work, my rookie year in terms of touchdowns
overall numbers. So I go back. They're probably a little
bit more disappointed about that than the Hall of Fame

(12:17):
because a lot of those young guys they come in
with the mindset, Hey, I want to be a Hall
of Famer, you know. And I think that if I
had thought that way coming in, as opposed to just
being excited to be drafted, to the NFL and just
being able to compete each Sunday. I think if I
had that mindset, I would have done things a bit differently.

(12:38):
It would have created a certain structure, you know. But
I never thought that.

Speaker 2 (12:42):
Tell me two things that you think you would have
done differently.

Speaker 1 (12:45):
I love just preparation because I was like you, I
was just happy to get my name right right.

Speaker 3 (12:49):
But more for me, just looking back, preparation, you know,
taking care of my body a bit more understanding that
my body is the one thing that's gonna make break me. Beforehand,
I never I never considered taking care of my body.
I didn't think about nutrition, you know, I didn't put
health first. You know. If I felt, you know, a

(13:11):
toe or something that was hurting, I'm still gonna go
to Miami and hang out, you know, and go in
the offseason, go with my you know, go hang out
with my people and my buddies and just ready to
get away from the season, as opposed to doing the
little things, you know, to achieve the end goal. So
I never had an end goal. Yeah, I wanted to win.

(13:31):
I wanted to win the super Bowl, but in terms
of the big the highest achievement from an individual standpoint,
although team success is at but from an individual standpoint
would be you know, can, And I just never had
that thought process in place until later in my career.
I was like, oh, this is attainable. Yeah, you know,
when they started talking about the ten thousand yard Russian Club,

(13:54):
when I became the twenty first running back to do
it in the history of the league, I was all right,
this is let's go. This is attainable. And then Jim Brown,
Jim Brown, you know, putting his numbers, you know, in
my sight, said this is the guy idolized the most
in this game. I want to outdo his numbers. You know.

(14:16):
Unfortunately my last two years didn't go the way I
wanted them to in New England, but I thought it
would have helped. But again, if you set your bar high,
you know, even if you fall just under it, you
know you've you've gotten really close. And I just never
set my bar high enough. So yeah, so those talks, man,
I'm appreciative of them. God's timing is the best. You know,

(14:42):
when it happens, you know it'll be a good moment.
And I think it can happen, you know, I think
it will happen. My teammate Tony Boselli just conducted after
so many years. But the guys I've played against, the
old school guys that have played my position, that have

(15:04):
mentioned certain things about my career and my style of
play while I was playing, even now that I'm done,
those guys that are Hall of famers. The fact that
when I retired and even now, my numbers are better
than half of the backs that are in all the
fame still, so I think I have some argument there.
So when it happens, it'll be a good moment.

Speaker 4 (15:26):
But your former teammate, though, Tony Basili, he spoke about
that though, he was like, I think Fred is probably
one of the most underrated backs out there, and I
don't think that people I personally, I don't think that
people talk enough about you and your stats, Like does
that do you feel underappreciated?

Speaker 3 (15:43):
Like, like, not underappreciated, No, not underappreciated, because the numbers
are what they are. You know, you can line them
up against some of the best Again, of the one
hundred you know, years or so that you know, this
league has been around, there have been thousands of running backs,

(16:06):
guys that have played the running back position, And when
I was done. I was fifteenth all time. Yeah, you
know I'm somewhere. I mean we're talking about one percent
or h half that, So, I mean, I know I
had a very good career. I missed out on those things.
I missed out on some of the hardware, you know,
that sticky Lombardi, maybe a few other Pro Bowls due

(16:28):
to you know, certain marketing. And I know, I know
I deal with this with Ryan.

Speaker 4 (16:34):
Klass Yeah, but trust me, I deal with it all
the time. Wrong, he's always throwing shade my way because
I lost to Super Bowls and he won one, Like
he's always he's constantly just throwing it.

Speaker 3 (16:47):
Well, I mean I get it. So yeah, we certainly
get it. So it's a prestigious class, you know, to
be a part of man and congrats, right, don't do that.
So yeah, but it was great to hear Tony take
away from or to add that to his Hall of
Fame speech. It just shows what he thinks of me.

(17:09):
And that's what it's about, right, what my peers and
the guys I lined up against every Sunday you talk
to Ray Lewis, very those guys who led the Ravens defense,
that old AFC Central they know what I brought to
the table. I brought him work. Pittsburgh Steelers, they know
what I brought to the table. Work. I mean. So,
it's so many other guys that are in the Hall

(17:30):
of Fame, defensive grats, Derrick Brooks, Warrens, just Troy Pomalu.
So when they go out and they say we wanted
to stop him first, that's how we stopped Jacksonville, you know,
and then their moments where they would consider me the
first or second best player in team history behind it's
either me or Tony that speaks volumes.

Speaker 1 (17:51):
I kind of feel like, once you make the Hall
of Fame, you should get a Hall of you should
you the Hall of Famer, should get a vote.

Speaker 4 (17:58):
I don't necessarily like to say that. It's always left
up to the media to vote the player in.

Speaker 2 (18:04):
It's almost considered like like the Heisman, Yeah, because they.

Speaker 3 (18:07):
All get a vote.

Speaker 4 (18:08):
I was talking to Robert griff RG three. I was
talking to Robert about that and he was like, oh, yeah,
I still get my vote, And me personally, I think
it's dope because no disrespect to people in the media,
but they you haven't played that game. You don't really
know all of what these players go through or what
it takes to get to that level. And then if
you look at recent years, I feel like certain players,

(18:31):
like Hall of famers, get mad when some Hall of
Famers is like, well what did he do? You know
what I'm saying, So I kind of, you know, leave it,
leave it to the greats, the yellow jackets to see.

Speaker 3 (18:42):
Who you want or see who.

Speaker 4 (18:43):
They want in their club.

Speaker 3 (18:44):
Like the hard part is, you know, how do you
identify what the criterias are? You know, if there were
a certain set of guidelines, then it would probably make
it a little bit easier because if it's Pro Bowls,
then what do you do now in this era, right
when the Pro Bowl game is you know, let touching.

Speaker 4 (19:05):
Yeah, it's all yeah.

Speaker 3 (19:08):
And even then, you know, even back then, you know,
guys don't attend to Pro Bowl, but it's still in
their book. Then you got alternates that come in and
then now that's considered a Pro Bowl and all these
different things. But what's the high criteria? And it's so
so much inconsistency, and it becomes opinionated by these guys

(19:30):
who consider themselves historians of the game or teachers or
is it statistics? Like, so what is it?

Speaker 4 (19:38):
It's their bias though too, though, because I honestly, I
personally think that to should have made it should have
been a first ballot guy, or second at least second ballot.

Speaker 2 (19:47):
So it's all the politics behind it, for sure, and
it shouldn't It shouldn't be though. That's the frustrating.

Speaker 3 (19:52):
Politics are only involved if you're not a first ballot, correct,
But t O should have been a first ballot then,
and he doesn't have to do the campaign trail and
the letters of recommendation and all that.

Speaker 2 (20:05):
It was a lot that went into it.

Speaker 1 (20:08):
Fred t Man, you talked about your peers how much
they respected you, and I'll just flat out be honest.
You were the first Jacksonville Jaguars. My second year of
the league was the first time I went into a
game with a quote unquote tackle plan. All right, you guys, Yeah,
because they had two different running backs. You had Fred Taylor,

(20:28):
who if I went against Fred Taylor, I had to
make sure I tackled him low. He had a knee
brace on. He didn't like people going at his legs.
He was trying to sweep the leg like well that
was the best way he was Yeah, anything's ness. I
had to go at his legs and like that was
the plan. Anytime Fredd Taylor has ball, go with his legs.
When you have Maurice Jones Drew get the ball, you
better tackle him up high, kiss him almost, and so

(20:51):
try to because he was so short, you tried to
go low. You not, that's where his power is. So
number one, all right, that was the respect that I
had for you. It was the first time I ever
had to implement this into my game. Is a tackling plan.
So would your running style how would you think it
would go or how would it bode well in today's
game where it's more space, it's not so much power downhill,

(21:15):
maybe more shotgun runs. How would you think your style
of play would transition in today's game.

Speaker 3 (21:21):
I think I'll do numbers in today's game. We all
got to think that, right, I think.

Speaker 2 (21:27):
Overall though, and why would you do numbers?

Speaker 3 (21:30):
It's a lot of space. You know, I'm gonna give
you the business in space. I mean I understand tempo,
you know, I understand bursts, I understand how to make
guys miss options. And I can run you over, I
can run past you, I can shake you, spin moves.
So I had a ton of options.

Speaker 4 (21:49):
But how long did it take you to figure all
that was was gonna be?

Speaker 2 (21:52):
How long?

Speaker 4 (21:53):
How long did that take to figure out? You know,
to be the guys slow down, get to flow? Like,
how did you.

Speaker 1 (21:59):
Know that a lot running back is the easiest transition
from college to pro I mean, but what you're saying is,
I don't think it's.

Speaker 3 (22:08):
I mentioned that we were talking about b Jon Robinson.
The running back is the probably the easiest position to
transition to the league from a natural rawability standpoint. But
the hardest thing for it back is past protection, correct,
and they won't play? And why see that?

Speaker 4 (22:23):
Why is it?

Speaker 3 (22:23):
Why is past protection so hard from because you got
to understand the different calls. You have to be on
point with communicating with the quarterback the points from the center,
and things can change so fast and they don't necessarily
do that as much, you know, in college, so the
communication has to be there. Uh, And then that's one part.

(22:44):
Then actually going out there attacking your back and when
there is a blitz, once you put your keys into
play and understand rotation and guys that look like they're
not coming, but you know they're coming. But you still
got to go up there and make the block. Because
in today's game, the quarterbacks are getting fifty plus million
a year. You gotta protect you gotta protect them. And

(23:06):
if you don't protect them, I don't care how great
you are of a runner. You can't play because you're
a liability. But I learned those other keys later in
my career. I could say the first five years of
my career, I was just running off natural ability. I
would see the film I understand the fronts over under

(23:29):
where guys were blitzing from understood that, but it was
our reactionary. But after a few injuries, you know, and
just trying to maintain that same level of play right
and so there wouldn't be a drop off. I had
to get smarter and started to really think the game.
And that's the part of the game that I missed
the most, is the preparation for the opponent. People say

(23:51):
you missed the game. I have moments where when I
hear a young linebacker, oh this, oh that I wish
I could show himself. But more than actually going out
there to compete the exes and o's is what I
fell in love with like and if I you know,
wasn't there to raise my four boys and you know,

(24:15):
be there for my family. I certainly would be coaching,
you know, because I love the exes and o's And
when I watch the game now, I watch it from
a situational standpoint. Yeah, not just that they're dropping back
throwing the ball. They should be doing this. I would
be doing this. So I'm actually scripting and running plays
in my mind as I would see it based on,
you know, the time of the game and down the distances.

Speaker 4 (24:37):
I probably say my my first COPLE years were like yours.

Speaker 3 (24:41):
I was.

Speaker 1 (24:41):
I was just just young, raw talent, just playing the
game and didn't really know about third and one or
third and five or third and.

Speaker 4 (24:49):
Ten, like I'll just play it all the time. I'm just
playing it all the same, right, And then one of
my coaches came and he sat me down and it
was just like, hey, here's how they're attacking you. You
gotta know the And once I understood the game, it
was like the matrix, like I could slow everything down.
I knew what was happening. I knew how you were
attacking me. Okay, I don't have to try to just
shoot and make it well, No, I got my d

(25:11):
n right there. So I got outside leverage.

Speaker 1 (25:13):
I'm just I'm gonna contain and I'm gonna just you
got time. Were you like that or did you just
play or you I did just play a lot, And
then all of a sudden, I had a couple of
really good VET guys and some coaches like, just teach
me the game and where it's like, all right, leverage
as a secondary player is huge. Know where your help
is at, understanding like you're talking about down in distance

(25:34):
situations in the football game after a turnover from forty
to forty shot play. Yes, it's gonna be like these
little things you never think about, right, but you know
it's coming.

Speaker 3 (25:44):
And the evolution of the game, like I mentioned the
speed of today's game, and I truly believe that it's
gonna only get faster because where the game is even
you look at something as simple as Madden and what
they're doing. When I started, you know, with video games,
it was like tenyard fight. I remember that back it

(26:05):
was like block moves like that. But now everything's so realistic.
And when you sit down and you talk talk to
these kids on the youth level, in the high school level,
and you see them out there in seven and seven.
They understand coverages inside out right, they understand you know,
the jargon, you know. So their knowledge for the game
and their IQ levels was so high, which, in my opinion,

(26:28):
when they adapt that even more, is just going to
continue to you know, speat this game up. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (26:33):
So I know they called you fragile Freddie. I had
my fair share of injuries and elbows and ribs and
puncture lungs.

Speaker 2 (26:41):
I think you toy your ACL.

Speaker 4 (26:43):
I think my last year I ended up tearing my ACL,
like the eighth ninth game of the season, sat out
a couple of weeks, played some more, tore my ACL
literally the last regular season game in the twenty fifteen season,
And for me, I was like, yeah, I'm thirty four.
I ain't really taken on corner thirty four with with

(27:04):
torn a cls. I think it's time to call it
a day. Father time, Yeah, you got me. He's undefeated.
When did you realize it was time to retire?

Speaker 3 (27:14):
Oh man? Uh, just touching on the fragile frad part
really quick. I just played a game reckless. Yeah, you know,
I just was reckless. Didn't necessarily I had a few
years of uh, just bad luck. And but that was
due to my style of play and uh, hanging out

(27:35):
in you know, Miami and doing certain things in the
off season didn't necessarily help. But you know, at some point,
you know, something turns on you say, all right, this
is what I got to do to take care of myself.
And so I had a stretch of really good seasons
without injury, without a single injury for that matter, for
about four years. Uh. And and the last thing as

(27:58):
it relates to that you know, unsolicited nickname is you know,
to throw it back in their faces. I played for
thirteen years. Yeah that was averages three. So some sort
of toughness and perseverance and all that good stuff in there. Uh,
but pin, I think the moment I realized that it

(28:21):
was time to hang it up for me. After leaving Jacksonville,
I went to New England, signed with the Pats, got there,
won the starting job both of those years. My first
year there, I had a severe high ankle sprain slowed
me down some, so I would sit back like man

(28:42):
and I want to play. Plus, as I mentioned earlier
in the show, I had an agenda. I wanted to
win a super Bowl, which is why I chose the Pats,
and the other part was I wanted to push those
numbers up and catch up with Jim Brown. Before I
got to New England, I was a thousand yards shy

(29:02):
of passing Jim Brown. None of that happened my second
year there. Uh, I had turf toe, and I used
to tease people that turf toe, right, so hey, I
remember they talked about Dion having turf toe back in
the day and uh, Ladanian and I was like, turf toe,

(29:23):
it's a toe, it's turn toe. So I got a
turf toe in one one foot on one side, and uh,
like the very next week through trying to compensate for
this one, I got tackled and I got turf toe
on the other one like back to back weeks, and
uh the second one was very extreme. So I'm in
and out, in and out. So that was my thirteenth year.

(29:46):
And as the season's going, you know, it's super cold
in New England and I don't mind the coal.

Speaker 4 (29:52):
You're not used to being a Florida board on.

Speaker 3 (29:54):
If you look at my stats, I break. I love
the like from a game. I love the cole you know,
hanging out in the col I enjoyed that. Even my
two years there living and down in Providence, I adapted,
I embraced it. I really enjoyed it because it's some
sort of football toughness that comes with it. Especially being

(30:15):
a Florida boy. You gotta show him I can do this.
So that's what I did, and I know so I
but there would be practices where you know, you're out there,
you gotta do the dog and pony show for the media,
and you're like, I know, I'm not practicing the day,
but that's just part of the Patriot way, right, So

(30:36):
they don't tip off too much, and everybody's always fifty
to fifty questionable. You don't know who's gonna play.

Speaker 2 (30:43):
Brady was on the injury list for like years.

Speaker 3 (30:45):
Right, so those moments I would just sit back there.
I'm like, man, some of the things I used to do,
I don't know if I could do him still, you know,
because of the injuries. At this point in my career.
Now I got a drink, you know, an energy drink
on a fast Friday. When before I could just go

(31:06):
out there and it's fast Friday, get excited, you're out
of there. But now when you got to rev that
engine up beforehand just to make it through. You're like, okay,
And then you know, I started saying, all right, I
want to compete on the other side. I wonder what's
that that's going to be like? You know, that transition,
what is that going to be like? So there's a
certain intrigue that set in, you know, about the statistics

(31:32):
they throw at you in terms of the fel rate
of guys making the transition out of the game, the
divorce rate of guys making a transition. I said, this
is my new competition. You know, I'm not going to
be one of those statistics. So I started to develop
this mindset, in this excitement, you know, in the intrigue

(31:53):
about what is that going to be like? I don't know,
but I want to attack it head on. So after
my thirteenth season, I was like, lucky, thirteen thirteen is
a good number. But then that was right along the
time that the CBA happened in two thousand and eleven.
Then that's the CBA. I was like, all right, I'm

(32:15):
gonna get back. I'm gonna go do another year because
I was training a lot of the great young running backs. Yeah,
so I stayed away from training I forced myself to
stay away from training down in South Florida. But we
would have Matt fort T, Jones, Drew, you know, Frank Gore,
a lot of the young great backs and I would

(32:37):
go there and I will try to show them up,
you know, because we would train together each and every
year prior to my retirement. So I was like, if
I go train, I know I'll play a fourteenth season.
I know I'll get picked up somewhere eventually and I'll play.
So I just purposely stayed away. And then they announced
the CBA. I was like, you know what, maybe I
shouldn't retire. Just hit for about a week on my own,

(33:02):
and then I was like, nah, I'm gonna give it up,
and I just shut it down.

Speaker 1 (33:17):
So, I mean, you said that this was your next
goal or the next thing you were going to attack.
Maybe share with us, how was that transition for you
when you did finally hang it up. You're not training
for it so many of us, me and Peanut talk
about it all the time, and this is what this
whole podcast is about. It's about that second acting.

Speaker 2 (33:34):
So how to did you have a plan.

Speaker 1 (33:38):
I know you said you had a goal, but did
you have a plan to help you achieve that.

Speaker 3 (33:42):
Well, the only plan I had was to not ever stop,
never become dormant, stay busy, stay active, keep moving, stay engaged,
take advantage of the relationships that that were created over
the course of my career. Just stay in the face

(34:04):
of the people in the NFL. Because for years I
would get opportunities earlier in my career to do you
autograph signings or brand opportunities that I would turn down,
you know, five ten thousand dollars opportunities, and that's great money,
but you know, I wanted to be with my family

(34:28):
before I had a family like my mother, brother, sister,
and my friends. So I turned down a lot of stuff.
Then eventually, at a certain point while I was playing,
I understood that it's about showing up, you know, and
allowing people to understand that they can call on you
that you're going to show up. It wasn't about the money,

(34:50):
It's just about being there. So that mindset from a
latter part of my career and then into retirement, I said,
I want to maintain that, you know, I want to
stick close to the Jaguars, you know, and take advantage
of the hard work and the name and the brand
that I built in the local market. So I wanted
to get out in front of that, the bad investments

(35:13):
that I had. You know, how can I speak, get
on the speaking circuit and speak to you know, the
young guys, how to steer clear of these different things.
So all the different things, the bad things that I
can see, the things I consider bad that happened in
my career. I took those and I sort of formed
a mindset that I wanted to use this and be

(35:33):
able to use that to help me give back, and
you also use that to steer clear and help me
direct myself, you know, on the right path by by
always sharing. So I wanted to get better at investing,
you know. So that was intriguing. So I started to
study little things, you know. I started to do the

(35:57):
opposite of what I would do when people would approach
me about investments. For example, I learned just a simple
terminology investment talk. I just got downloaded Investorpedia when that
was around, in order to communicate you outa understand you know,
speaking the definition of words. So if I know I'm

(36:18):
going to be in that space, I know I want
to continue to invest, you know, uh in private funds
and stocks and all that stuff. Go and teach yourself.
So that's what I did. And I also you know,
leverage the relationships and people uh to use them, uh
to help myself even more there created a company, started

(36:41):
create another minority company, uh, and really just started leveraging
those relationships to try to build uh from there. Uh.
So I've had some better investments, you know, in my
second career because I don't call a retirement, I just
called a career change. Yeah, because because this is not

(37:04):
what retirement is supposed to feel like, or at least
what we've been taught that it was supposed to feel like.
So it's a career change for me. I will never retire.
I don't think I will. But every every step, every day,
it's a different uh intrigue for me. It's a different
competition for me, and I embraced that, you know now

(37:25):
doing the pivot with Ryan and Channing. I love our grind,
I love our hustle. Just being able to continue to
learn from Ryan, you know, someone who actually majored in journalism,
I do.

Speaker 2 (37:39):
It totally makes a lot of sense. Though he's great,
makes it.

Speaker 3 (37:42):
He is so good at what he much if you
learned from him. I really really just because I never
really talked a lot.

Speaker 1 (37:49):
Yeah, you got like a low got like a little
Morgan Freeman junior voice going on.

Speaker 3 (37:54):
You know, people do love my sexy voice.

Speaker 4 (37:56):
You know it's a slow key Morgan Freeman.

Speaker 3 (38:00):
You know. Yeah, yeah, hey, the voice over bad time.
I'm all for that. But no, just really, I think
what I've learned from Ryan because I still have to
be myself. I have to be my authentic self and
that I'm very I'm not afraid to be vulnerable age

(38:25):
and I think that's what creates the safe space on
our show. And I'm extremely transparent, you know, I want
to lead with that, and and I try also to
be as unbiased as I can. That's the part that
I learned from Ryan. In order to be in this space,
you have to be able to tap into uh and

(38:46):
be unbiased respectfully, you know, when you engage with the
subject our guests. UH. But I also want to make
sure that I give people their flowers, which is you
know what I do. But Ryan, just being able to study,
you know, study beforehand, not just going in there just
talking and slang. Like we come in there really prepared

(39:09):
and we do our homework. So learning that from Ryan
the hardest working I'm like, I don't know how you
do it. He has so many different hats that he wears,
not just in the media, but with his family, his
son Jordan. Back at ASU, he was coaching all the dbs,
coaching the dB so you that grind, that hustle, you know,

(39:31):
being able to sacrifice when need be. All of that
comes into play once. I actually met Ryan away from
the field, because on the field I wanted to tear
him in half when he was a Steeler. But now
you know, we're really good friends. We have the same
amount of respect for each other, and that we have
one agenda, you know, no no drama and just make

(39:54):
the pivot. You know, one of the best podcasts out there.

Speaker 4 (39:56):
Well, it's it's kind of the blueprint though, like you
guys are, I mean, it's us. I want to be
like y'all when I grew up. I want to be
like y'all.

Speaker 1 (40:04):
I want to I want to we try to set
that that that tone like y'all and how.

Speaker 4 (40:08):
Y'all ask the questions? And you don't just do athletes
like you have everybody on musicians, athletes, artists.

Speaker 3 (40:17):
Like we'll consider it. Uh, you know, lifestyle, Yeah, sports, entertainment,
just the just really a safe space where now you
have celebrities and their PR teams actually reaching reaching out
to us because we're trying to tell a great story,
but we're trying to allow to guests that space and

(40:38):
that leverage to tell their stories as they want and
not just how the media, the traditional media right wants
to traject their their their stories.

Speaker 1 (40:49):
I got two questions for you. Number one, how'd you
guys come up with the name of the pivot? And
then number two, you know, the first time we talked,
you talked about this vulnerability in this safe when you
guys had your show and the first time and you
talked about the pitfalls and some of the things the
mistakes that you guys made early. Could you maybe share
with the mistakes you made and then also what you

(41:12):
guys have learned from that and how it's different in
the pivot.

Speaker 3 (41:15):
And I think those questions will overlap because we can't
have the pivot without having the second part, the second question.
So I'll start with the second question and get us
got back to the pivot. Yeah, So we started during
the pandemic with another podcast and really just there we

(41:37):
just wanted to talk about We just wanted to really
get out of the house right during the pandemic. It
was during the pandemic. It was everybody was home, so
we were all neighbors. It started with myself, Reggie, Wayne,
Brandon Marshall, and Channing Crowder and we said, let's just

(41:57):
go and talk about current events, you know, and we
started there, but it took off so fast. It was
nothing to do during the pandemic, but people were trying
to find everything to do at home. So podcast was
like perfect, you know, time to birth the podcast, and uh,
it just took off.

Speaker 1 (42:18):
It did really just you guys had all you had
Channing who was talking crazy Mark half the time.

Speaker 3 (42:24):
Yeah, we did not know that you know, it was
going to do that, but we all had some input.
And then you know, Reggie sort of uh got tied
up in his life, you know, and I don't want
to go into too much details there out of respect
for everybody involved. But then they inserted Cho Sinko, which

(42:47):
was another you know, uh character alongside Channing, but it
just made the podcast a little bit more uh entertaining,
you know for everyone that was watching. But again, the
business button up. No paperwork had necessarily been signed, and
there had been some discussions, but as friends who respected

(43:09):
each other, we thought we were on the same plan
fill playing field, and we thought it was one of
those things that didn't necessarily have to be communicated. But
then an agenda sort of took over that when the
success showed up, certain agendas kind of showed up, and
then there were you know, whispers and looking around like

(43:33):
all right, well this isn't fair, this isn't fair, Well
this should have happened. Equity ownership, revenue sharing, all this
stuff started to kind of take shape and the numbers
didn't add up. So Channa and I we had a conversation,
and I would always use the word just you know, pivot,

(43:58):
just all the time, just everyday life, you know. I
remember hearing the song jay Z had some lyrics. He's
like posting pivot, redistribute and some other stuff, and I
would always just naturally say, man, it's just time to pivot.
We gotta it's a wrap, you know, it's time to go.
We gotta pivot. So Channing and I we went to
had one big meeting and see if we can come

(44:20):
to an agreement for the old podcast didn't necessarily work out.
So Channing and I we went behind the scenes and say,
all right, man, what you want to do? What do
you want to do? It's like, I don't think it's
gonna work out for me personally, so much like the
end of my career, I kind of sat back and
saw some things unfolding that I necessarily wasn't too happy about.

(44:44):
So I just kind of accepted it for about three
or four weeks and that season three of that old podcast,
and I was like, Nah, this isn't going to do it.
So we went silent and we just went black for
a while, myself Channing while they were trying to make
their minds up and how they wanted to do stuff.
We just went dark. But during that time we were plotting,

(45:06):
so we said, all right, what are we going to do.
We got with Alicia Zubakowski, who's our producer on the podcast,
thirteen times Emmy Award winner. She's a monster at what
she does. We got on the phone with our seat,
he said he was down. We formed our team and

(45:26):
we said, the one thing we're going to do is
get the business right. First structure, from the pivot the
company to our own entity amongst the talent, and how
it was going to pay out, the distributions, just everything.
We shaped up, We got the account, we just shaped up,
and the last thing was what's the name? What are

(45:47):
we going to name it? And we just you know,
one day, I said, let's just call it. How about
the pivot? Because that's what Channon and I that's what
we're doing. We're about to pivot. And that's what everybody
in the pandemic was doing. We all had to pivot, everybody,
you know, and they're going to always be moments in

(46:07):
all of our lives where everybody at some point is
going to have to pivot and there'll be pivotal moments
that create good and bad time. So it just stuck
and we went and trademarked our stuff and you know,
made sure that part of it was solid and the
rest is history.

Speaker 1 (46:27):
Well I'm a fan.

Speaker 2 (46:28):
I'm a big fan.

Speaker 3 (46:29):
I appreciate it. I watch it. All is good. I
like I like what y'all doing.

Speaker 4 (46:33):
Y'all are y'all definitely setting the tone.

Speaker 3 (46:35):
Trying to get it right.

Speaker 1 (46:38):
What are you guys hoping to accomplish with it? And
when it's all said and done, you're like, you know what,
this was a success or do you not even have that?
You guys got over seven hundred thousand subscribers and so
you are at the top, well, one of the top
podcasts that the nation even has. And so when would
you say, all right, this is what we were trying

(46:58):
to accomplish or do you did you guys even set
up the goal? Because you did everything else?

Speaker 3 (47:02):
We like, we're we're we surprise ourselves a lot of
the times. We just talked about it last night, you know,
with the YouTube NFL Sunday ticket thing, like we were like, whoa,
that's a big partnership, you know, for us to achieve.
But yeah, I think long term obviously, you know, we

(47:26):
want to be able to have our content you know
where it's license and you know now we're being paid
for it, even you know, fifteen twenty years from now.
But we look at models like the Breakfast Club, you know,
the consistency and the sustainability, and we want to achieve
that first. We want to maintain our consistency and as

(47:50):
long as we do that, everything else is going to
take care of itself. I think where people mess up
is when they take too many breaks and then there's
some uncertainty and you know, then your fans don't know
what you're gonna do. Uh, And we said, that's not
what we're gonna do. So consistency is the first thing
that will help create the sustainability and keep us there

(48:13):
for the years to come. We're independent now, we we
we've had some offers you know here and there from
some of the bigger you know, companies that are eventually
going towards you know, podcast platforms and stuff. But when
those numbers you know, come in the right way and

(48:35):
certain aligns with certain partnerships, then that'll be the right
moment where we're able to carve off, you know, a
piece of our ownership you know, for partnership, and then
maintain some ownership, but always really just right now controlling
complete ownership of the pivot and licensing our shows to

(48:57):
go forward because they're going to live on that forever.
It's going to always be valuable information. But long term,
we just want to make sure that we're giving back,
Like we don't have a complete, I guess business agenda

(49:18):
to just dump it and run with money. We want
to keep servicing the people because people make podcasts, you know,
what I'm saying, like, that's what we believe in people,
the viewers, you know, subscribers. However, they make podcasts. If
they don't sit there and tune in and listen, you're relevant.
So we want to make sure we're servicing them. That's

(49:41):
always our first mindset that we want to do good conversation,
good content. You have certain guests that going to spike
your numbers, and that's cool, but it's not always about that.
And I tried to explain that on the other podcast,
that it's about building bridges, right and just having dope,

(50:01):
super dope conversations and content. You don't always need an
A lister as a guest, just need great conversation with that.

Speaker 4 (50:09):
So we're gonna pivot switch to another topic right right.
We're gonna ask you some quick hitter questions real quick,
rookie year, get that contract you sign probably, I know
for me, I bought me a nice little I bought
a nice little I had some rims, you know what
I'm saying. I had that speaker, I had to screens
falling from the ceiling, I had to screen in the river,

(50:30):
you know, single note kids. So all my money went.

Speaker 2 (50:33):
Some tee from Florida. You know you had that.

Speaker 4 (50:35):
So he has to tell me though, like what was
one of the first things he splurs though.

Speaker 3 (50:39):
Oh, man, all right. So the first thing got splurged
on after I got my contract was I bought my
grandmother one hundred and fifty thousand dollars house because my
promise to her when I was around in sophomore in
high school. Didn't know how I was going to do it,
but I told I was going to buy her home
if we were in a two bedroom apartment she raised,
you know, me and my other four siblings, So I said,

(51:03):
maybe I'm going to buy your house. So that was
the first major thing that I bought. And then after
I got hurt secured, I blew some money on some jewelry,
some rims, you know, a bins or two. Stuff that
I look back on now and you see some dumbs.
It doesn't make doing, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (51:21):
You know, I mean it.

Speaker 1 (51:22):
I know it doesn't make sense because it's a lot
of dollars. But at the end of the day, man,
it's what young people do.

Speaker 3 (51:27):
That's true. But that's also a part of where we
come in as guys that have been there, you know,
to try to I know, the money's different because I
was a ninth pick in ninety eight and I think
my total contract package was around sixteen million total to
be able to go up to around twenty with incentives,
and these guys getting that year in a year. But

(51:51):
they're exposed to so much more, right, But I think
they're also exposed to having a lot of good people
around them that can tell them not to make certain frivolous,
you know, purchases and decisions that are in you know,
in a in a year, two years from now, you're
not gonna like it won't even be around.

Speaker 4 (52:11):
Did you have someone when you were making those purchases
help you out or it was just like, no, this
is what I'm doing.

Speaker 3 (52:17):
They helped me write to check. They didn't say, hey,
you you shouldn't do that. No, And but that's another thing,
you know, learning from those things. You know, they're good,
great financial advisors, and they're ones that are you know,
predatory right and and aren't great. So I believe my message,

(52:41):
whether it's the uh, the this platform, our platform, on
the pivot, or just speaking engagements, you're seeing these young guys,
like at the draft at different places, be smart with
your money. It's a constant reminder like, don't make certain
you're gonna have fun. Yes, but everything can be calculated.
Make sure you keep the main thing the main thing.

(53:04):
Learn how to take your interest or shoe deals or
you know, appearance moneys and stuff. And if you want
to go crazy with that, you can kind of, you know,
justify certain means by with that. But creative plan, you
know whatever, that plan looks like creative plan. But I

(53:24):
think it's our duty, you know, as vets guys that
have been around, guys that have made those mistakes, because
we can look back on them and say it was
but it was stupid, right unnecessary. I think at one
point I had maybe five cars in my and my driveway.
It's only me. But then I got buddies. Hey, take this,
Take this. You know.

Speaker 1 (53:47):
It's funny because at some point most guys had an
extended career orth or grew up in a certain way
like that is what we wanted. Like I remember the
Trick Daddy video where I wanted a don't like that's
all I wanted.

Speaker 2 (54:00):
That had to have rims and I wanted this on but.

Speaker 3 (54:02):
That I went at the end of my career, towards
the middle of my career. I got because I always
wanted one. Yeah, and I mean I probably put seventy
five thousand in that car. Old School had the best
of everything in it, and the guys loved it. The
engine five oh two big block, the guys on the team,
they loved it. And I only pulled it out on
game day. The other days during the week, it probably

(54:23):
didn't even crank, probably didn't even start, and I smelled fumes,
fumes all down the street and parked of my garage.
My wife was like, we got to get rid of that,
you know. And I ended up selling it to a
teammate for like forty thousand. So I took a thirty
five thousand dollars haircut and he showed it probably four

(54:44):
months after that for like twenty five I should have
sold it back to me.

Speaker 4 (54:48):
But yeah, just a lot of Do you have an
old school right now currently?

Speaker 3 (54:51):
Of course not? Of course not. Okay, so I have.

Speaker 2 (54:56):
Guessed that I would not have guessed it either.

Speaker 3 (54:58):
No, I do not have an old school. It's actually
it's one old school in my garage and I've been
trying to get rid of it for years. It's a
two thousand and eight col five point fifty. It was
only like five of them ever made beautiful interior. It's
like this deep Hunter green. I bought it for my

(55:18):
wife back then. I bought it for her. She's the
Saint Patrick's day baby. So her favorite color is green, green, green,
Mark seventeen green. Everything. She will not let me get
rid of that. I've been trying to get rid of
that coffee, like, hey, you need to get rid of it.
But a good thing is it's been paid off. Yep,
it's eight It only has like fifty thousand miles, so

(55:41):
it's perfect condition right from the outside, you know, Deans,
it's perfect. I'm just tired of looking at it. But
the blessing in disguise is our oldest son. He's twenty
now and we have a seventeen year old. They can
drive it and they drive it to work and this
and that, so it's not as bad. And then I
don't have to got to check to pay for them

(56:02):
a car because they like driving a bend. Still. Uh
So that's the one old school that's in the garage.

Speaker 1 (56:10):
Well, I'm just glad we all can openly admit that
we all have purchased rims and old schools.

Speaker 4 (56:14):
Oh my god, I had had those free wheels, had
those the god the spinners.

Speaker 3 (56:20):
If rims ain't coming on the car now, like they
come standard on certain they do it. We have a
range Rover. If it doesn't come on, I ain't buying.
I'm with you, Like I'll personally some stop from the
from the dealership. Right. But if I'm not going to
a person to buy twenty three twenty, I'm not doing.
But if I can get some stuff, I'll even get

(56:40):
a car. I've gotten cars over the years where I'll
just take the vehicle in there and I'll get them
factory coded.

Speaker 1 (56:48):
Oh yeah, that's what I do now, Yeah, powder cold
black powder, coat them like factory rim.

Speaker 3 (56:53):
I don't care to be seen. I prefer not to
be seen. Throw some tent on my car, make them illegal,
make the they kind of legal. T But I'm going
to go to my dermatologist and I'll teach you that. Yeah,
in Florida, you know, I got some skin condition. I
gotta have dark tents. So work with me here just

(57:13):
in case I get pulled over due to my tent.
But yeah, I don't want to be seen in the vehicle.
Like I don't care about that sort of stuff and
it's just you know, all superficial stuff. So sorry, we
have a hard question.

Speaker 2 (57:29):
All right, Top five running backs of all time? You're list?

Speaker 3 (57:33):
Oh boy, this thing changes all the time.

Speaker 4 (57:36):
We keep pivoting.

Speaker 3 (57:37):
That's what it's about so much. I fell in love
with the game watching Walter Payton Love Sweetness. I would say,
Jim Brown totally get it. I love Marcus Allen.

Speaker 2 (57:53):
I wouldn't expected I wouldn't either.

Speaker 3 (57:55):
I love Marshall Falk, I.

Speaker 2 (57:57):
Love that one.

Speaker 3 (57:58):
And La Danny and town Alison my guys. But and
I do this and it's no any no particular order.
Those are the guys that I absolutely love. But sweetness,
Jim Brown, Barry Sanders, Marcus Allen, and marsh Fault those

(58:20):
are my guys. Yeah, I love I just love La
Danian's game, just his all around ability. You know, Fault
I felt like in my career I was I wasn't
the receiver that he was, but in terms of you
know that and that I was a bigger, you know,

(58:41):
faster that you know. But yeah, those are the guys
that I admire. Uh and I believe, in my opinion,
those are my favorite follow up.

Speaker 1 (58:52):
How about in today's game. Who are like your top
or favorite running backs to watch in today's game?

Speaker 3 (58:57):
All right? I just love his explosiveness. He's extremely dynamic, strong,
he's as probably the best jump cut in the game. Yeah.
He gets from a gap to C gap like that
and gets back vertical. He wastes no time lateral. I
like Christian McCaffrey. He's gives that fulk version, you know,

(59:20):
so he gets it done. I like Jonathan Taylor over Andy.
You know when I see that twenty eight in the
Taylor running down the field kind of bring back memories, right.
I like Alvin Kamara. You know a k Is he's
a dog. Uh. And I admire a lot of the young,

(59:41):
the young running back. I like my Florida boy, Dereck Henry.
You know, he's different.

Speaker 2 (59:48):
They don't build him like him.

Speaker 3 (59:49):
They don't build him like him. He's Eddie George, you joke,
Eddie George three point zero.

Speaker 4 (59:57):
I saw him this morning when he was leaving George.

Speaker 2 (59:59):
Still he looks good. He can still give you. So.

Speaker 3 (01:00:04):
I mean, I admire so many, so many of the
young backs out there. Man, just uh how great they
are and how versatile they are. They can do it all,
you know, but it starts again with what youth sports
is and how that's continuing to evolved from flag you know,
and then seven on seven you know, and now it's

(01:00:26):
developing these guys how to be great receivers, you know,
how to have that, how to be extremely agile. Then
they carry it over to you know, the running back
position and just really being able to think the game
line up, the x's and o's. I think those things
are gonna be what separate the greats, the guys that

(01:00:48):
are going to be future Hall of famers at that
position versus the guys that are going to be really
good at that position, that high level i Q and
how they see the x'es and o's. I don't think
it will be too many more ten thousand yard rushers
because of how the game is evolved. It's more of
a past dominant game now.

Speaker 2 (01:01:10):
Running back, so nobody in the.

Speaker 3 (01:01:11):
Running back position isn't valued as great. There are some
that that forced the issue there, right, but those are
the special guys. But I think that you won't see
as many ten thousand yard rushers because they're splitting carries,
two headed monsters and stuff like that. So those opportunities
won't present themselves. Doesn't mean they're not great from an

(01:01:34):
ability standpoint, it's just from the opportunities. I don't think
they'll get as many opportunities.

Speaker 4 (01:01:40):
Yeah, so another pivot, another serious question. Our journeys require
great guys, and through my journey of life, I've had
numerous guys that have helped me along the way. And
if you could have your mount rushmore of guides or
people that are helped you to get to where you

(01:02:02):
are right now, who would those people be?

Speaker 3 (01:02:06):
All Right? No, I always I would. I would definitely
start with my grandmother first, man, just to see what
she had gone through to raise us. And uh yeah,
I don't know if I can get to the other
three because I'm fighting back tears just thinking about her.

(01:02:30):
Uh yeah, wrong for that, Yeah, my grandmother first. And
then my dad. You know, he came to my life later,

(01:02:52):
but he was sort of forced out of my life
early on, but he came back into my life later
and he did what dads are supposed to do and
he helped me become, you know, a better person from
a brotherly approach, and then just a you know, a

(01:03:13):
couple of mentors. Coach Pola you know my running backs
coach who I got towards the end of my career,
just his fatherly approached, how he kept me on track
and how he you know, uh, continue to reinforce things
that were most important. And lastly, I would just say

(01:03:39):
my my daughter Natasha, because she was the one who
initially broke me from you know, all of the knuckleheaded
stuff you would do and the decisions you would make
without thinking. My first baby girl, she she made me
man right. And just really all of those you know,

(01:04:03):
people as a collective, and I've never thought of it
that way, but now since y'all put me on the spot, yeah,
those people that have been the most influential and helped
me pivot and become the person that I am today.

Speaker 1 (01:04:22):
So yeah, well, fred Man, I appreciate that vulnerability, bro,
And I can attest to the last statement, your daughter,
you're firstborn.

Speaker 2 (01:04:33):
I'll never forget.

Speaker 1 (01:04:35):
I was doing a lot of the same knuckleheaded stuff
when I first met Peanut at PEO and my girlfriend
who's now my wife at the time, was she asked
me a really really hard question, was that would you
want your daughter to date you? And that really hurt
because it really makes you look at that man in
the mirror and say, I really need to like focus

(01:04:58):
on what I'm trying to do and who I'm trying
to represent. And the people you love are the ones
that you can hurt the most. And so it's really cool.
I appreciate you being I wanted it vulnerable and sharing
that too.

Speaker 3 (01:05:09):
Yeah. I want to also really quick before I get
kicked out of my own house. Man, we're gonna do
a mount rushmore plus one. Let's do my wife, Let's
do it, because you know, I think about in that moment.
You know, I really, uh, every everything that I lead

(01:05:30):
with from getting out of you know, the hanging out
mode in Miami and uh uh making sure I would
take care of my body and not going club and
all the time and stuff. It was. It was it
was her. Yeah, my wife pretty much changed, you know,
as a single person, changed the direction of my career

(01:05:52):
because I would hang out, like I saying in the
off season all the time, and you know, she was,
you know, saying, look, this is what you're going to
have to do in order to you know, if you
want to be great, So this is what you're going
to have to do. So a hard relationship. You know,
we've been together for twenty plus years. But she's the

(01:06:13):
one who helped me pivot and get back on the
path that I thought I could be on as a player.
But it also made me a better person, made me
a responsible person. So yeah, so she, for lack of
I guess pun intended, she took me out the streets,

(01:06:35):
but from hanging out and learning structure and just really
just developing, you know, sort of a a guideline for
my life. And so she deserves as much credit as
the other for that.

Speaker 2 (01:06:54):
That's also why you're not giving her that bends.

Speaker 3 (01:07:00):
Want to get rid of that car so bad? Man,
that's crazy. Man. Hey, next time, y'all got to have
some nap. I could have dabbed that away, man.

Speaker 4 (01:07:10):
That was my Oprah moment.

Speaker 1 (01:07:12):
It was beautiful though.

Speaker 4 (01:07:13):
Man, it's beautiful.

Speaker 3 (01:07:16):
Because I think about her, man, and she's battling dementia,
and to see her like that's you know, that's that's
heavy on me. Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 4 (01:07:25):
He appreciate you for coming out, man, Thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:07:28):
Pleasure appreciate y'all, thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:07:35):
Guys for listening.

Speaker 4 (01:07:36):
You know, with every show we do, in every guests
we have, we try to make it very authentic and
just be vulnerable and open and secure and make this
a safe place for these guys to talk. And you
guys have been awesome for supporting us. We can't thank
you enough.

Speaker 2 (01:07:49):
We are here to educate and entertain.

Speaker 1 (01:07:52):
So make sure, like always and I always ask you,
make sure you hit the subscribe button, give us a
five star rating, Tell a friend to tell a friend
to do we put tell a friend.

Speaker 2 (01:08:03):
Make sure anywhere.

Speaker 1 (01:08:04):
You get your Apple, your podcast where it's Apple or
iHeart linked in.

Speaker 2 (01:08:09):
Appreciate y'all.

Speaker 4 (01:08:11):
Give us a listen, hit that button, click it.

Speaker 2 (01:08:14):
I think he needs to stop now