February 25, 2025 • 51 mins
From walk-on to the NFL, Don Thomas's journey is a masterclass in mental toughness, resilience, and relentless work ethic. He didn’t play football in middle or high school, but after his baseball career ended, he walked on to the University of Connecticut football team—eventually earning a scholarship, a starting spot, and All-Big East honors. He went on to be drafted by the Miami Dolphins, endured the struggles of a 1-15 season, and later played for the Lions and Patriots, even competing for a Super Bowl alongside Tom Brady.
In this episode, Don shares how his walk-on mentality—earning his spot, preparing relentlessly, and outworking the competition—shaped his career. He talks about the critical role mental toughness played in his journey, the impact of Bill Belichick’s culture, and how he’s now passing those lessons on as a coach and a father.
If you’re looking for a powerful story of perseverance, grit, and what it takes to succeed at the highest level, this episode is for you.
Are you an ATHLETE looking to take your training to the next level? Check out our website to learn more about 1-on-1 training opportunities:
mentaltrainingplan.com/athletes
Are you a COACH looking for an affordable year-round mental performance training program? Check out the MTP Academy available through our website:
mentaltrainingplan.com/academy
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, welcome to the Coaching Minds podcast, the
official podcast of MentalTraining Plan.
Today, very special guest, donThomas.
He was a walk-on at UConn whobecame an All-Big East player,
was drafted by the Dolphins andthen played for the Lions,
Patriots and Colts and is nowthe Director of Player
Development for Grand CentralSports Management.
(00:22):
Don, thanks so much for joiningus today.
Thanks for having me, man, Iappreciate it.
Those were some of thehighlights.
Maybe just give us a quickrundown of your story, kind of a
little bit of your backgroundand what led you to where you're
at today.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
All right.
Well, it's an interesting story.
I've probably told it a milliontimes ad nauseum.
It never gets old.
So I'm originally fromConnecticut.
I grew up, born and raisedYoungest of three, two older
sisters.
Mom was a school teacher.
Then she became a principal.
My dad worked for the BoyScouts in New York City, so he
(01:00):
commuted every day and you knowmy mom was super overprotective
of me growing up as far assports goes, and one of her
things was just football, whichjust wasn't one that she was
just keen on me playing.
And, um, you know, she taughtin the city that we grew up in
and she was a principal, and soone of her, one of her lines,
was that she just didn't want tosee the same people that she's
(01:23):
teaching and have them see overout there on Saturdays as well.
And as I grew up, I found outthat it was more of she was
scared for me to play football,and by the time that she did
give me the green light to playfootball, I was in high school.
In the high school I went todidn't have a football team and
I was pretty good in basketballand baseball was my number one
sport, and so that kind of wasjust like one of those things
(01:45):
where I was just so immersed inbaseball.
I just didn't care that wedidn't have a football team and
I just played baseball andbasketball in high school and I
got a couple of looks andsmaller offers for baseball
coming out of high school.
But you know, baseball is aweird sport where it wasn't full
scholarships and all that stuff.
Both my older sisters were incollege and so my parents are
(02:07):
like listen, it's still tooexpensive.
And I applied to UConn.
I got into UConn and they gaveme a ton of money for being in
state and you know all that goodstuff.
So I was like, well, uconn is abig school.
I always want to go to a bigschool.
It's an hour away from home.
You know, I'll take my shot atthat and try to play baseball at
(02:30):
UConn.
And, uh, went to UConn as aregular student, try to walk
onto the baseball team.
It didn't work out and I justknew my athletic career wasn't
over with.
Just something in me was likeyou know, you're not done yet.
There's no way you're not anathlete.
There's no way you're not gonnaplay an organized game ever
again.
That's meaningful, you know,you're 18 years old, like it
just wasn't it for me, like itwasn't like I was, I was not
satisfied with it being over andI think that was like the
biggest drive for me was wasknowing that it wasn't going to
(02:51):
be over and not accepting thatas the final answer, and I
wasn't going to let someone elsetake that for my future.
So you know, I became friendswith a few of the football
players on the team as this, asthe my first semester went on.
I met them and one day whentheir season was over, the whole
team was in the gym playingbasketball.
(03:12):
I go man following Saturdayopen gym and I was in there and
some of the other guys saw me.
They couldn't believe I went toschool there at that size,
right, I'm like 6'3", 6'4", 255,260.
That's like a guy on the teamheight and weight, right, and so
, like you go to, you know,usually playing football, I'm
like, well, I've never playedfootball before, let alone try
(03:32):
to play a division one level.
It's kind of a tall task.
So, thought about it went homefor um fall break and one of my
crazy one of my old teammates inclass, like that, went to high
school with me.
His older brother played atUConn and he was just finishing
up.
He was a fifth-year senior.
He was graduating in December.
So that was his last season andme and him went and worked out
(03:55):
like every day during Christmasbreak.
He was back, he was done withschool, he graduated and went
back to school and just lifted,ran every single day.
And then one day I saw CoachEdsel outside running he was a
head football coach at the timerunning on the track in the back
of the student gym and I threweverything down to the guys I
was living with.
I'm about to go talk to them.
I ran around the building, ranup on them.
(04:16):
I was out of breath.
I told him.
I was like hey, coach Edsel, myname is Don Thomas, you know,
play football.
I want to walk onto thefootball team.
He kind of looked at me andhe's like you go to school here,
right, you're a current studentat.
I was like, yes, yes, he's likeall right.
(04:38):
He just kept looking at me.
He's like, all right, we'llcome into the office, we'll,
we'll try to get somethingworked out for you.
At the time we didn't have thebig facility that we have now,
so there's a small office likeconnected to the student gym and
he I guess he had told like thecoaches hey, I ran into some
big kid, um you know, coming offthe track.
I told him to come in, and sothey all would pop their heads
out.
When I came in the office and,before you know it, like the
(05:01):
linebackers, coach, defensiveline coach, the coordinator and
coach, that's all came out.
They were talking to me.
They didn't say they were gonnaset you, set a workout up for
me in a couple weeks.
Come, you know, be here at thistime.
I went, worked out, ran a couple40s, did a couple drills and
they said they let me walk ontothe team and, um, I stayed up
and that was like right beforespring ball of my freshman year,
so this school's almost out,it's like April right before the
(05:23):
spring game.
And I stayed up on campus withone of my teammates that became
a really good friend of mine,danny Lansana, linebacker.
He played in the league for alittle bit as well, and so I
stayed on his couch and took aclass and started working out
training with the team.
And make a long story short,that was kind of like the setup
for it.
(05:44):
But you know, I was redshirtedmy sophomore year I got on the
field only on kickoff return.
My junior season, which was myredshirt sophomore season, and
then I earned a scholarship, mytrue senior season, and then, a
couple games into the season, mycoach asked me to come back for
a fifth season where he told meI'll be the starter at right
guard.
Believe it or not, I playedoffensive line.
(06:05):
A lot of people look at me nowand I'm like 265 and I was 315,
310 at the time.
So I lost a ton of weight sinceI finished playing.
But I came back, you know, Icame back for that fifth season
and, to be honest, quite honest,I'm like I'm on scholarship so
my parents want to pay for it.
I'm not ready to go out in thereal world yet and start working
for a living yet.
(06:26):
Like, let's prolong this for atleast another half a year, see
what happens.
And I did that.
And so I came back and Istarted all 12 games at right
guard and it was kind of awhirlwind man.
Before you know it I was, youknow, first team all Big East.
I got a Hula Bowl invite, goteast west shrine game invite.
I got a combine invite.
I was the number five rentguard.
(06:47):
Uh in the in in the draft orthe nation coming out uh, into
the draft.
I signed with an agent.
I was down and training down inatlanta getting ready for the
combine and before you know itI'm running a 40 at the combine,
like it was.
Like you know, everything'slike kind of like is this real
pinched myself?
This has been a long dream.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Yeah, man, six-round pick into the Dolphins and you
know I never looked back.
Started as a rookie from thesecond day of training camp on
Became the starter at rightguard and you know battle
injuries throughout my career.
But I played eight years,Started in Miami for two years.
I was in Detroit for a year,didn't play much.
(07:28):
Then I went to New England,played a ton, played in the
Super Bowl here in Indianapolisin 2012,.
And then signed a four-yeardeal in 2013 with the Colts and
did three years of that deal.
But I was battling.
I tore my knee up pretty badand was just battling, trying to
get back on the field andfinally decided that it was
enough.
And eight years is nothing tohang my hat at, knowing the the
story that it took for me toeven get to that point where
(07:50):
people are like man, I don'tknow how that happened, you
didn't play football growing uplike where, did like when, what,
how?
So great ride.
It was a great ride that'sawesome.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
I'd love to go back to just the you.
So here you are, getting readyto walk on a Division I football
program.
Nothing's guaranteed, you know.
You don't even know like, isthis really going to work out?
You never played organizedfootball up to that point.
To begin with, what was themindset that you think really
(08:24):
helped you succeed from fromthat moment?
Speaker 2 (08:30):
you know, to be honest, I I didn't care that I
was had all like everything youjust stated like had had I had
the whole deck stacked againstme, right like everything was
stacked against me, and I didn'tcare, like I just went out
there and I was, I was happy tobe there and I truly knew deep
down inside that, like I couldplay with these guys, I just had
(08:51):
to learn.
And so I just literally wasjust like all right, when I get
out to practice, I'm going toget in the back of the line
every single time and when we gothrough these drills I'm going
to watch the older guys watchthe footwork, watch their hand
placement, watch the pad level,watch all that.
And if coach says they did agood job, I'm going to try to
replicate that when it's my turnto go.
(09:11):
And if they didn't do a goodjob, I'm going to try not to do
what he just yelled at that guyfor.
And I think that's how Ilearned.
I had to learn the game.
So I was a sponge, I was humble,right.
I didn't have a big ego.
I knew deep down inside what mypotential could be, because I
truly honestly believe that andI didn't need to speak that to
(09:32):
anybody.
I didn't need to go out andtell anybody because the people
were like yo, you're crazy,you're a walk-on Like.
You know what the walk-onstipulation is, you know what
that whole deal comes with.
Like I was cool with that.
But I also knew what I could do.
And I've always had thatmindset of like when I'm on the
field.
Like I tell my kids all thetime like when you step on the
(09:53):
field, when you step on thegrass, you step on the hardwood,
when you step anywhere in thebuilding, when you have other
people that are your teammatesyou're competing against.
You need to understand.
You have the mindset I'm thebest person out here.
There's nobody better than me,right?
Like you have that mindsetyou're going to play well, right
, but there's a lot that goesalong with that before you step
on that field to have thatconfidence.
But I knew I was doingeverything I could.
(10:14):
I bust my ass, I ran as fast asI could.
I was always the first tofinish sprints.
I was always lifting.
I was, by junior year, goinginto my senior year, I was the
strongest on the team.
I had never lifted a weight inhigh school.
I started lifting weights whenI was 18, when I got to college.
You know what I'm saying.
So I really only had like threeyears of weight training to
(10:35):
have like one of the heaviestbench press, the heaviest bench
press on the team, probably topfive.
Top three or four squats on theteam and then a top three or
four you know power squats onthe team and then a top three or
four.
You know um, power clean on theteam, right and so like we
would do that, when you put allthe numbers together, I was
three, then I was two, then Ibecame one, right and so like
that was unheard of.
(10:56):
So it's just always a mindset oflike I'm competing.
Every single time there's film,I'm watching it harder than you
are.
I'm studying it more.
When we got to lift weights,I'm putting that weight on you
are.
I'm studying it more.
When we got to lift weights,I'm putting that weight on you.
Catch me if you can.
When we're running sprints,catch me if you can.
You know what I'm saying.
So like that alone was like I'mdoing all this.
So this hopefully translates tothe field.
Now I just got to learn to playthe game.
You know what I'm saying.
(11:17):
So I think that was my mindset.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
My progression was just to keep getting bigger,
better and faster every singleyear.
To see what happened.
Yeah, were there any momentsalong the way early on where you
, where you doubted yourself,where you came up short, where
you had to push through andfight through and battle through
some, some adversity and somefailure?
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Yeah, I mean my first year I wanted to quit.
I wanted to quit my first year,but I knew that I came too far
to do that.
Like I knew that it wasn't evena possibility.
Like I knew that if I did thatI would never live with that
decision.
It would still haunt me to thisday.
Right, like I knew that.
(12:00):
And I was 19 years old when Iknew that.
But it was hard, man, it washard, like my coach, my line
coach at the time.
He was relentless.
He was hard.
Like my coach, my line coach atthe time.
He was relentless, he was.
You know, he didn't care ifyou're a walk-on or he didn't
care if you're the starter.
But more so, the walk-ons gotit worse.
He was like quit, if you want,I don't care, it's one less guy
I gotta worry about that I tryto bring along right.
And so he just.
Everything I did was never goodenough.
(12:22):
Everything I did was bad.
Like I was getting beat.
I was to learn technique.
I was trying to get myfundamentals right.
Like you know what I'm saying.
There's times where I wanted toquit, but I knew that.
Like that wasn't me anyway.
Right, I'm not a quitter, likeso.
But there were.
I had those moments.
I tell, I tell guys all thetime like you don't have, like
we're human, you don't havethose moments you doubt yourself
(12:42):
, you know like you will.
But like what do you get out ofquitting Cause?
Like this is life lessons right?
Like this is like if I'm gonnaquit this, I'm gonna quit when
anything gets hard in life.
And so like I'm glad I stuckwith it, I'm glad I didn't quit,
I'm glad that I fought throughall that adversity.
Then I came out on top at theend.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
At what point did you realize you know, hey, I'm, I'm
not going to just make the teamlike I can continue playing at
an elite level.
What do you, what do you thinkkind of was maybe that moment
where you had that spark of yeah, I've got the confidence that I
know I can now take this to thenext level.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
You know, that happened truly like when my
senior season, once I got thatscholarship, I knew I could play
at the next level, or I'm notgoing to say the next level.
I knew I could play at theDivision I level, like be the
starter, and I still wasn't thestarter.
And so I still worked andprepared like I was going to be
the starter and they sprinkledme in a little bit.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
That was heading into your senior season.
You were still not the starter.
Okay.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Like, yeah, because I came back for a fifth year.
So, heading into my true senioryear, when I earned that
scholarship, that training camp,I knew I should have been
starting.
I knew it.
But I knew that there was twoseniors in front of me.
I knew that those guys hadstarted for a year or two ahead
of me.
I knew what it was.
Still, I knew that at anymoment if one of those guys went
(14:06):
down, I was the next to go in.
So that was enough for me to beready to go.
But what really did it was, youknow, coming out of that senior
year.
We went, we got through springball.
Spring ball was easy.
I was playing at a high level.
We had like our junior pro dayand I ran that.
We ran some 40s, did some stuff.
And actually the director offootball when I first went in
(14:34):
the office, when coach Edseltold me to come to the office my
freshman year in 2004, thatyear, um, he had left UConn.
He was now the director offootball, scouting for the, for
the Cardinals at the time, donCorzine, and so he came back as
one of the scouts to scout someof the guys and so I ran a 40
and I ran like a four eightsomething like it was crazy and
I've always been able to run.
So I ran like this four eightand I was probably like 299 at
(14:54):
the time, maybe just tipping 300.
And my mom forced me to go onspring break trips.
She's like you're going tospring break this year.
You never go.
Whenever you come home, youalways go back lift LA fitness
Like you.
Whenever you come home, youalways go back lift LA Fitness
Like you're going.
You need experience, have somefun in college.
So, reluctantly, I went I'mgetting on the plane flying from
New York to Miami.
Get on the plane and as I'mgetting on the plane, my phone
(15:15):
rings and it was Coach Corzinefrom the Cardinals.
He was like hey, you ran a good40.
You look good blah, blah, blah.
And I was like I appreciatethat.
And that's all it took forsomebody to tell me that,
somebody from the NFL level tellme that I may have a shot.
And I just took that and ranwith it.
(15:37):
And then my coach, when I cameback, we had spring ball,
because this was right.
Before spring ball.
We came back, we had springball and after spring ball my
head coach said hey, listen, ifyou do everything right this
year, you have a chance.
We'll let the see where thechips fall.
Let the chips fall where theymay, was the exact words that he
said to me, and that summer wasjust like hyper drive.
(15:59):
Like that summer I came back Isaid I'm going to be the biggest
, fastest, strongest guard inthe country.
You don't know my name now.
You will, by the end of theseason, promise you that anybody
that's on this schedule, anydefensive tackle, anyone that's
on the field with me, if I haveto get my hands on you.
You got hell to pay Because Iknew that I didn't have any film
.
I had zero film.
So every play was an auditionfor me.
(16:21):
So I knew that everything hadto be perfect.
I knew the level of play that Ihad to have.
I couldn't take a playoff.
I couldn't afford to be hurt.
I couldn't have a bad game.
A bad game was out of thequestion.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
So just by the grace of God, luckily, everything's
lined up.
I played 12 really good gamesin college and it worked out.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Yeah.
So now here you are, headinginto the draft which now you
know, now there's there's evensome more uncertainty.
You know you don't know whatthat's going to look like.
You're preparing, you know,you've you've got this thought
in the back of your mind thatthis guy from the Cardinals said
you got a shot, but stillnothing's guaranteed for you.
(17:01):
Still, you're going out and youknow, busting it every single
day, preparing with just a hopein the back of your mind what
was, what was that like andhow'd you handle that
uncertainty?
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Yeah, um, it was just a lot of unknown, like
everything every day was justlike gray, like when I looked at
a calendar it was unknown.
It was just like I'm just goinginto this thing day by day,
literally just take it and justtrying to seize the day right,
like, how good can I be this day, whatever is presented?
So if it's right now, it'sworkouts, right Like.
All right, let me dominatethese workouts.
(17:35):
I'm down here training for thecombine in Atlanta with, you
know, 25 other offensive linemen.
I got to stand out, I got to bethe best one.
I mean, these kids were fromClemson, virginia Tech.
You know.
You name it Bama.
You know all the big schoolshere.
I am just a kid from, you know,from Connecticut.
Walk on.
You know.
You know UConn, big East.
We're just getting the programreally people knowing about us.
(18:01):
We had a little Cinderellaseason at 07 year.
Can I compete at this level?
It was a lot of questions thatI that I that were in the back
of my mind that I just had toshut up all the time and just go
out there and know confidentlylike you can compete with
anybody.
You probably would have been ata bigger school, but you just
didn't play football in highschool, right?
So I think that's what I reallyheld on to.
And you know what gave me thatconfidence was, yeah, we played
(18:23):
some really good teams my senioryear.
Confidence was, yeah, we playedsome really good teams my
senior year.
But when I went to the eastwest shrine game I'm playing the
you know guys from Florida, youknow guys from Texas, guys from
all these super big programsand I'm competing against them
if not beating them, we'redominating them against in these
reps on one-on-one pass rush orteam periods.
I was like man, listen, let'sgo that's all I needed, yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
So now here you are, you're in the NFL.
What, what would you say, werethe biggest mental adjustments
going from college to the pros?
And?
And did you have maybe eventhat same experience where you
realized, oh I've, you know I'vegone from, am I gonna make it
to, I belong here.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Yeah, you know, rookie minicamp was easy just
because it was rookies againstrookies and it was no different
than, you know, being at anall-star, you know all-star game
for college.
So that really wasn't thechallenge.
I was mentally fine, I didn'tstruggle.
We got to OTAs and you knowthat first year we went well.
(19:28):
My senior year of college Idrafted to Miami, right, so they
went one at 15.
So they cleaned house brand newcoaching staff, brand new front
office.
Bill Parcells was the VP, he'sthe one who drafted me.
It was a whole new mindset andthey were like, hey, you're
going to run with the twos tostart off this thing.
(19:49):
I'm like, all right, like twos,all right, the second team,
fine, whatever.
And it was just like the leagueis.
I tell people all the time likeit's faster, but it's not that
much faster than high-levelDivision I football.
What it is is yourdecision-making has to be faster
.
You have to be precise on your,all your techniques and you
(20:10):
have to read things very, veryfast and dissect them very fast
to make the right move, theright step, the right decision
on the field.
And that's what separates guysto be able to play at that next
level.
Because, yeah, we see athleticguys all the time.
You look at him like how is henot playing in the NFL?
How's he not playing in the NFL?
How is he not playing in theNBA?
How is he not?
But he can't make that splitdecision, that split-second
decision, to be effective.
(20:31):
And I think that's where a lotof guys struggle.
So for me it was justover-preparing.
I had to over-prepare.
I always kept that walk-onmentality when I got out there.
Before I got out there to watchfilm, know that, you know, know
, like my opponent watchpractice film from the day
before, even learn my teammatesand how they rush, how they, how
they, you know, play againstthe run, how the linebackers
(20:53):
read things, what tips them off,all those kinds of things, so
that when I got out there thegame could slow down, because
now I'm prepared for that, howthey're going to play it, what's
the next move, what's the call?
When I hear this, what are theydoing?
I think that's what helped meout.
So, like with that, and thenParcells, coach Parcells came to
me and told me you know, thefirst day of training camp, once
we got back, he was like listen, he was like there's no reason
(21:13):
why you shouldn't be the starter.
He told me this my rookieseason, first day of training
camp.
He pulled me aside.
We had a water break.
He's like we over to one-on-onepass rush.
Next he was like, all you haveto do is keep the guy in front
of you.
Nobody can beat you.
You use your strength, you use,you, use your, your leverage,
your long arms, no one can beatyou.
(21:35):
He's like, just keep him infront of you.
That's when you tell mesomething from like when someone
that I know, I, I revere, youknow trust what they're saying.
Like if you tell me that yousee something in me, right?
So like, that's all I need,right.
So I went over to one-on-onepass rush.
I was still going with the twosthe first day.
When I got in I just saw himcome on his golf cart.
(21:56):
He whipped around behind thedefense and he looked at me and
he's like.
He mouthed and he's like keepit.
I.
I just gave him a nine likethat and I won two reps in a row
and finished the day with thetwos.
I came in the next day, secondday, training camp, and they put
the depth chart up on the dryerase board and I looked and it
(22:20):
said 66, starting that rightguard.
Go with the ones.
Never took another.
Never took a twos or threes repever again when I was in Miami.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
That just wasn't what it was.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
So then you go, you go from uh being on a one and
you say one and 15, 1 and 15,yeah, 1 and 15 team to it's you,
your team and one other team inthe entire world left playing
football, here you are playingon a Super Bowl team.
What was that like?
Maybe the elevated pressure,the elevated expectation of, hey
(22:53):
, I mean, this is the game thatyou grew up as a child watching,
that everybody in the worldgrows up watching this game.
There's not a higher stage infootball.
What was the pressure like inthat moment?
Speaker 2 (23:14):
It was unreal.
I mean, like you know, I had amoment before the game like I
can't believe.
This is like I'm here, likeit's unreal.
But at the same time, you can'thave that moment distract you
from what the main objective is.
When you look at it from astandpoint of like I'm here at
(23:35):
the Superbowl, right Like you,you you have that moment where
you're in awe, but you also haveto dial it back in to be able
to focus.
It's like you know, every kidhas that moment in their
backyard or, you know, in themiddle of the street or with
their friends.
Like you know, for the SuperBowl, no time left on the clock.
You got one second left, oneplay to run.
It's fourth down.
(23:55):
You're down by five.
You got to get a touchdown towin the game.
You're just in it, man, but yougot to perform.
Like you know what I'm saying.
So it was a very surreal moment, a very surreal feeling, a very
crazy time to look back on it,that I'm just like man.
I can't believe I even wasthere to do that.
(24:17):
So it was just a coolexperience, but it was just one
of those that you never forgetto think that just a few years
ago, I was my first time evereven putting a helmet on to now,
here we are, the biggest gamein the world when it comes to
football, american football andyou're a very, very focal point
(24:38):
of winning a football game.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
It's crazy, yeah for sure.
So you know, kind of kind ofmoving on to to where you're at
today, director of playerdevelopment with with grand
central sports management, whenyou, when you now see these
athletes that are that are, youknow, coming through, that are
preparing to play at that nextlevel in your mind, what's the
(25:04):
biggest difference that you seementally between the elite
players and the average ones?
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Yeah, I love these questions you got.
You have some really goodquestions, by the way because
this is.
Yeah, this is what the peopleneed to understand.
Right Like, I love every guy.
We sign to our agency.
We hand select guys, we watch aton of film on them, I evaluate
them.
But you can't evaluatecharacter.
(25:32):
You can't evaluate that throughfilm.
Right Like, does that guy haveit or not?
Because a lot of guys can hidethrough just being talented.
If you're talented enough andyou can get through college,
youth sports college, highschool college, and then you can
get there.
But a lot of guys can get righthere it's about getting to that
(25:58):
next level.
What does it take, right?
And so it's kind of crazy.
I just talked to Chris Evansthis morning.
Ben Davis product, michigan,he's in Cincinnati and we talked
about it a little bit and it's,you know, it's not to, it's all
a mindset.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
You know I'm saying you got to have it, you got to
have it.
And so what separates guys forreal is a lot of it is mental.
A lot of it is mental Likethere's a lot of guys that can
play in the league, there's alot of guys that can you know.
You look at him like how's henot?
You know, how's he not thereright now?
Like he's got every athletictool known to man.
(26:35):
I wish I had his genetics blah,blah, blah, blah, blah.
But why is he not there?
And it's a mindset.
He just can't unlock what, whatneeds, what it needs to take to
truly be a professional athlete.
Your athleticism only gets youso far.
Like I said, thedecision-making, your mental,
how fast can you process?
Right, it's?
(26:56):
It's a chess game within achess game, right, and it's like
.
It's like you have to make itto where the game is.
Checkers, and I'm playing chessat all times, and that's when
you become a professional, justto stay in the game.
And so it's not easy for peopleto understand.
I think what helped me out, whatgot me through it, was just my
walk-on mentality.
At even year six, seven, eightin the league, I still was like,
(27:18):
hey, I gotta work, I gottaoutwork this guy.
I don't care how much moneyyou're paying me, yeah, because,
guess what, it doesn't matter,because you can get rid of me
tomorrow.
This is football.
This ain't, you know,guaranteed I'm making a 53, like
, yeah, I'm the guy for youright now, but if I'm not
performing, they will findsomeone else, and I think some
guys just don't get that, and aproblem with it is is a lot of
guys would get put on pedestalsgrowing up because they're so
(27:41):
good, they're gifted, they'retalented, but they don't
understand that, like everybodyelse has been put on that
pedestal too, and the guys thatare still there are the guys
that figured out how to workharder than the next man, and so
a lot of guys fall shortbecause of that.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
The first NFL player I ever worked with.
He had zero mental issues inhigh school football ever.
He was the best dude on thefield by far Zero issues in
college.
He didn't even have issuesreally for the first year and a
half in the nfl.
All of a sudden blows out hisknee.
Now he's trying to come back.
You know, here we are ninemonths later, year later, trying
(28:18):
to decide in his mind do I nowhave what it takes?
Can I still trust this knee?
Can I still turn, open up andrun the way that I need to?
Can I do I have what it takes?
Can I keep?
And he'd never.
You know he's a great.
Here's a grown man who's neverbeen put in this situation to
really ask himself and bechallenged on Do I have what it
(28:41):
takes in your mind?
Are there, are there skillslike that that you is there,
maybe like one or two thingsthat you wish, man, if guys
could just, at a younger level,learn how to do this, they would
be so much more prepared at thehighest level.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Well, you're talking to a guy who had nine surgeries
in his career too, right?
So you know a ton of surgeriesI had, and so you got to go
through something first.
You can't have the easy streetyour whole life.
Oh, that's good.
You got to have some adversity,you got to.
You have to go throughsomething.
It has to be hard at some point.
How bad do you want it?
(29:20):
How bad do you?
How, how like, how bad can youovercome these obstacles that
are in front of you, becauseeverybody's going to have
obstacles?
How big are the obstacles?
How assisted are you when youhit these obstacles is kind of
what's going to determine theman that you're going to be as
you progress in this sport, orfemale, in whatever sport you
choose.
But you've got to go throughsomething first.
(29:40):
It's important, it's imperative, right?
That's why, even with my sonand my daughter, I let them fail
.
No-transcript.
Beautiful, I loved it.
I didn't tell him that you gotto.
You got to.
You got to understand.
You're going to go throughsomething.
(30:01):
How bad do you want it?
How bad are you going to workharder to come back from this
failure that happened?
You're that, thisdisappointment, so that doesn't
happen again.
When I, when I tore my knee up,I just had a.
I went through rehab every day.
You're pushing.
It's mental.
There's days where you don'twant to be doing rehab.
You want to quit.
You want to.
It's too hard, it's not easy.
(30:23):
You know it hurts.
Do you trust the training staff?
Do you trust your body?
But then when you finally getback out there now you got to
play through that right, likeit's there.
Medical history shown that thisis the rehab You're good, you've
had enough scans.
Well, you just got to go outthere.
You got to forget about it.
You got to trust that it'sthere.
You got to go play at thatlevel that you know how to play
(30:45):
at.
Also, learning that your bodyis somewhat limited Now it's not
what it used to be.
Coming back from this injury,you got to learn how to adjust
and play with that, with insideof that right Like your, like
your knee.
You probably can't plant likethat.
You got to learn to plant alittle bit differently, right.
So it's just.
It's just all a learningprocess.
But if you don't have anyadversity before you hit those
(31:05):
big obstacles, it's a lottougher for you man and that's.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
You know, I was a, I was a high school, high school
coach, and I was a teacher for15 years before stepping out to
do this full time.
And just hearing that thatstory about your son man just
just hits home for me becauseit's like it.
In that moment, in thatsituation, there are so many
parents who their solution forthat would be go call the coach,
(31:32):
go send an email, go set up ameeting with the athletic
director, figure out why this iswrong, what you're going to do
to fix it.
Rather than, man, what anopportunity for your son to
realize you came up short.
So what are you going to doabout it?
And how much harder are yougoing to work If you really want
to go chase down, chase downthis goal?
(31:53):
I love, I love that.
That was the, that was the pieceof advice that you had.
So here you are.
You have the opportunity now tocoach your own son and to kind
of see this journey from theother side, from the coach
perspective and there'scertainly youth.
Sports now is certainly verydifferent than when you and I
(32:16):
played, and you know, obviouslyyou didn't even play football in
middle school or high school asyou go on this journey kind of
from the other side, from thecoaching perspective.
What are some of your thoughtson how today's athletes are
preparing?
Speaker 2 (32:35):
I think a lot of kids are overdoing it.
I think a lot of parents arelosing sight of what's important
and what's really going to getyour kid to that next level.
I think that is a huge piece ofit and I think that kids are
just getting burnt out.
You have a lot of kids with alot of potential, but they don't
have a time.
They have zero rest timethrough a calendar year.
(32:56):
They're doing something everysingle season.
They're have a time.
They have zero rest timethrough a calendar year.
They're doing something everysingle season.
They're playing a sport.
They're not getting home to 9,10 o'clock from training, from
doing this.
At some point you got to rest,you got to regroup.
You got to be a kid too.
You know you got to be becauseat 9 times out of 10, you know
professional sports.
(33:17):
You take 10, you take 10 people.
Nine of us ain't making it.
Maybe those 10 ain't making it.
That's how finite it is.
So we lose sight of life in a,in a sense, right Like like, and
I feel like a lot of kids couldbe better than what they are.
But just mentally they're worndown.
Physically they're worn down.
You know, their parents areriding them because they're
living through their kids and,um, you know, I'm just one of
(33:40):
those guys where it's like myson's got 19 games a year,
padded football.
That's all he's got.
So, fbu, don't call me aboutbringing him down to these
practices.
We're going and I don't careabout naples, I don't care about
, you know, like, the, the extrarankings and all that stuff.
That means nothing.
And so I think that a lot of itis like I think less is more,
(34:03):
less is more when it comes togetting to the next level,
because I can't have a burnt outathlete.
You're going to hit yourceiling junior year of high
school.
You got no potential to gobecause you're just burnt.
And then what happens?
You don't want to play anymore,you don't want to do this, you
don't want to do that, you don'twork as hard.
So now your potential is gonebecause you've given everything
(34:25):
you had when you were 12 to 16years old.
It's crazy.
I think that's something that'simportant that I really want to
stress to a lot of people,because I coach youth football,
I coach middle school Like it'sjust a lot.
So, like with these athletes, Ifeel like they just need to
understand that, like you don'tneed to play a million games a
year.
You need a rep, you need thereps, but we can get the reps
(34:48):
through film study.
We can get the reps through youknow what I'm saying?
Running conditioning.
We can get the reps through.
You know what I'm saying?
You just being a student of thegame, however, it is right, but
you can't be physically outthere beating yourself down 12
months out of the year.
It's crazy to me.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
So let's say I'm a parent.
Let's say, you know, I've gotthis child who I care about more
than just about anybody else inthe entire world and I want to
do everything in my power tohelp them achieve these goals.
Help them, you know.
If it's something that theywant to run down, I want to put
(35:26):
them in a position where they'regoing to have the best chance
of doing that.
How do I decide when there'sall these voices and there's all
this?
You know, if you don't try outfor this team and you don't make
that team, then that means youcan't do this and then you'll
never do that.
How do I, how do I separatethat noise of just?
You know, this is too muchversus well, but you do actually
(35:50):
still have to work hard and putin that time.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
Well, you have to prepare.
You also have to be smart,right, and I know everyone isn't
going to be able to tell thesame story.
From my journey I get that andI know that it's a one-off and
all that kind of good stuff, soI'm not blind to that.
There is a true saying thatless is more and you have to be
(36:19):
selective on what you choose toput your child into.
You have to look at who'sinstructing these teams, who's
coaching these teams, what kindof organization is it?
Are the events that you'regoing to?
Are they organized?
Are they worthwhile for you tobe involved with?
(36:40):
You know all those things arefactors.
And then you also have to lookat my child's played a ton of
games, but has he truly learnedfrom last season?
Has he gotten better?
Has he worked on those thingsthat were weaknesses in his or
her game from last year?
When did we take the time toactually fix those problems and
go into next year?
Are we just going to go from myschool team to this organized
(37:03):
travel team and we have a coupleof practices a week and we're
just playing four or five games,you know, on the weekends and
we're traveling here, we'retraveling there and we're
playing against, quote unquote,the best competition in the
country.
But did you take time to buildthose fundamentals, to really be
dominant, to really get better?
Did you take the time to reallywork on your flexibility?
(37:24):
Did you take the time to workon your speed, your athleticism?
Because each year is aprogression?
I had to get bigger, faster,stronger Once I got to the
league.
It just didn't stop.
When I got to the league, I hadto get better every single year
, and every year I took the timeafter the season to go back
through every game, every snapthat I played, get feedback from
my coach right on my exitinterview.
What do I need to work on?
What do I need to get better at?
(37:44):
Okay, I need better ankleflexibility, all right.
Well, we're going to work onthat this offseason.
I need to get more explosive.
We're going to work on thatbecause, guess what, there's
guys coming up behind you thatwill take your job.
But when it comes to the youthlevel, you got to take a step
back and think about okay, howam I really getting my child
better?
Am I just putting them in awhole bunch of stuff?
And that's going to be the roadto success?
Well, guess what?
Everybody's a whole bunch ofstuff at this point.
(38:05):
Hey, I need to go back into thelab, I need to go back into the
dungeon.
Like I say, go back and go towork to fix what my
inefficiencies were the seasonbeforehand.
And I think parents need tounderstand, like you don't need
to have your kid in every single.
You can't go from you knowpadded football to seven on
(38:25):
seven, back to padded in thespring to go back to a you know
padded.
Fall season is crazy.
There's some.
There's such things as calledyou know concussions there's.
The body wears down.
You think these kids areinvincible because they're
growing, but over time, you knowbefore you know it.
Now you start seeing littlethings compiling to big things
and you start seeing surgeriesat earlier dates and you'll see
(38:49):
a kid that's been freshman incollege and he's already had two
knee surgeries.
Right, like it's becoming to bethe workloads too much.
You got to be smart.
You got to look at it fromscience, right, science.
You got to go back and just besmart with your kid, because no
one loves your kid, like yousaid, more than the parent does.
Right, you think your kid's thebest in the world, but
sometimes you got to berealistic too, right, I love my.
(39:10):
I love my kids more thananybody ever will, but I also
not going to throw them outthere and say they're going to
get better that way.
We got to go back.
We got to fix things first andwe got to take steps to put that
whole complete package together.
So when it's time to go, you'rethe one who rises to the top.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
Yeah, I just I'm thinking about all, the, all the
time, the hours, the travel,the money, the commitment that's
involved in participating insome of those things after the
season.
And if you legitimately satdown with your high school
position coach and you went,play by play, through every snap
that you had that previous yearshoot, even if you were, even
(39:45):
if you weren't, a starter on thefield, and you just said, hey,
I want to watch all these cutups, will you watch film with me
?
I mean, most high schoolfootball coaches would do
backflips, like absolutely I'llwatch film with you because you
don't see that anymore.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
Like you don't see.
Like and that was another thingtoo Like I was a student of the
game, like I watched film adnauseum.
After practice, I'd bring theiPad home and sit there and
watch film.
When I was, I'd be holding myson in one arm and watch a film
on the iPad and the other.
You know what I'm saying.
(40:20):
Like because I knew that my wayto prepare was to know in every
possible situation, in whateversituation, what the outcome is,
what are the?
And once I figured that out, Iknow there's only one to three
things you can do in thissituation.
It's third and short.
We're in the red zone.
You're blitzing.
You're a 65% blitz team.
Now what are your blitzes?
You're going to stunt the line.
You're going to Blitz the guy.
You're going to Blitz the wheeloff the edge.
(40:40):
You're a stunt team.
So I expect TE with a Mike Blitz.
You got double mug backers.
You don't show that.
I know those two guys aredropping out, so I'm just going
to set to my three technique.
I'm not worried about him notmaking a call to the bat.
Slide him to have him go, tryto chip the three technique and
not waste my time on a backerthat dropped into coverage.
(41:02):
Those are the things that makeyou a better player, because now
you've eliminated the guessinggame, you can go play fast and
you know what's going to happen.
And I think that guys have tounderstand.
You've got to watch a ton offilm, you've got to know your
opponent better than he knowshimself, because that's the way
that you're going to beat him.
Right, it's not just physical,it's a mental game.
It's so much more mental.
I remember little giants when Iwas a kid.
(41:24):
When that came out and theysaid football is 80 mental, 20
physical.
I'm like that doesn't make anysense.
And then, as I started playing,I'm like yo, that's so true.
Yeah, and it is.
You got to have the physicalpart about it.
Right, you got to have, but yougot to know what's about to
happen too, and you got to knowhow to beat your guy before the
ball snap.
You know what I'm saying.
That is the key to being asuccessful athlete, especially
(41:45):
in football.
Speaker 1 (41:46):
Absolutely Got two more questions for you as we
wrap up here, just kind oflooking at a little bit larger
perspective now.
A little bit larger perspectivenow.
So we've done a lot of talkabout individuals, whether
(42:10):
that's you, whether that's otherplayers.
Being a veteran now I've beendoing this for a while Tell me a
little bit about how importantis all of this, the mental
toughness in terms of a teamculture, not just an individual
being able to achieve the goalsthat he or she has set for
themselves.
But now we, collectively, aregoing to come together because
nobody's winning a Super Bowl,national championship, state
(42:33):
championship you fill in theblank without that.
What do you think is mostimportant when it comes to team
culture?
Speaker 2 (42:43):
Culture is everything .
You look at the Eagles theyhave good culture.
You look at a team like Detroitthey have a growing culture.
It's growing, it's going to getthere.
They're going.
Growing culture, it's growing,it's going to get there.
They're going to be achampionship team very soon.
You know, guys have got to firstoff, it starts with the leader
(43:07):
leader of the team, with thehead coach.
He's got to instill the cultureinto everybody that steps into
that program, from everyassistant coach to the trainers,
to the, to the, to the interns,to every player, to the, to the
.
Everyone has to buy into theculture.
Once everyone buys into theculture, right Now we're all
(43:31):
moving towards a common goal.
Everybody has that.
I don't care if it's thejanitor cleaning the toilets.
I can say this when I was inNew England, I bought into the
culture.
The first day I walked into thebuilding you could feel the
culture change.
I came from Detroit.
We were four and 12, so we went14 and two.
That very next season, when Iwent to New England, right, the
(43:52):
culture was different.
Everybody that was in thelocker room had the same common
goal Nobody missed meetings,nobody skimped out on workouts.
Nobody didn't get treatmentwhen they needed treatment.
No one cut corners.
Everybody believed.
The coaches were in there at 5o'clock in the morning.
We're watching film at 6.30 onthe run game install and nobody
(44:13):
complained.
Brady was in the room with usgoing over the run checks
against these different frontsand these.
If we see this blitzes we'regoing to check out of this, how
we're going to block it from thecourt.
Everybody was in.
So culture is so important inteam building at these youth,
youth ages.
This youth level is superimportant.
With how much bonding time canI get with these kids?
(44:35):
Just not in, you know,conditioning, strength
conditioning, but outside ofthat, right, like I got to get
these guys to become brothers, Igot to get this group to become
siblings so that we all believein each other, so that we all
can go out there and have eachother's back at any given moment
.
Yeah, I think that's the mostimportant part about, you know,
(44:57):
culture and winning and winningteams is is building and
creating that and having theright people in there how much
of that, or maybe what?
Speaker 1 (45:06):
what's the role there of the head coach?
What's the role of all theassistant coaches?
And and then what's the role of?
Yeah, but the player's alsogonna buy.
The coach can preach all hewants, but at some point, if the
guys don't buy into it, that'snot gonna work.
What, what's?
What's been your experiencewith that?
Speaker 2 (45:27):
so it changes from level to level to level, right.
So, like, when you look at itfrom like, let's just go from
high school right from likewinning programs in high school
the coach has to also be afather figure, right.
More importantly, he's more ofa father figure than he is x's
and o's, in my opinion.
(45:47):
Right like.
He's the guy that these, theseyoung men are or or young women
are are around for a greatpercentage of the day once
they're out of you know school,and they need someone else to
look up to, to guide and leadthem in the right direction.
They have to believe in thatperson, that they know what
they're doing and they havetheir best interest at heart.
You get to college, it's nodifferent, but now you're
(46:10):
coaching young, budding men andwomen that are going through
different changes in life andyou have to know how to adjust
into, how to adapt to those.
Right, but you have to alsoknow what you're talking about
and really teach them the game,the fundamentals, to become a
better player on the field,court, whatever it is, but also
in life.
Right, you're setting real,true life examples to where the
(46:33):
aha moments come in, whenthey're 25, 26 years old and
they're faced with someadversity.
Remember what their coach toldthem, either from the youth
level or from college.
And then, when you get to thepro level, right, you got to be
a guy that the BS is over with.
Yeah, like these are adults now.
These are legitimate adultsthat are either he's a fraud or
(46:57):
he's real.
He cares about me, but I alsoknow that it is a business.
But how much is he going totake care of me and how much do
I see everybody else believingin this man?
Right, so that I can fall inline and believe in him as well?
And so that's what you see.
It's hard sometimes where yousee a coach that's trying to be
a player's coach and there'scoaches that are just like, hey,
I'm going to coach you, right,this is how it's going to be.
(47:19):
And then you have to find that.
But the real true successfulones are the ones that find that
fine line.
You look at a Dan Campbellright, a guy that played.
Now he's a coach.
But guys know that he knowswhat he's talking about.
They believe in what he'stalking about.
When I was in New England withBelichick, like you knew that he
knew his X's and O's, but youalso knew that he was going to
take care of you from astandpoint of a player as well,
(47:40):
and he could relate to you.
He knew how, even though he waslet's just call it like it is
he was 60 something years old,old white guy that could talk to
a 22 year old young black kidfrom the inner city.
It just was what it was, butyou respect him because was
talking about and he was fair.
(48:01):
I think fairness is.
Another key point for coachingtoo is to be fair.
I'm not saying play time fair,I'm saying being truthful and
honest with your players so theyknow the true expectations of
what to expect when they're outthere.
Right, being fair, right, nothaving favorites.
Who's going to go in there,who's going to perform?
That's the guy who's going toplay for me and that's who I
know I can count on when it'stime for the count on it.
Look, he has.
He's showing the results tomake that a credible case.
Speaker 1 (48:23):
Yeah, love that.
So the last question I alwaysask guests as we start to wrap
up here, knowing what you knownow, if you could go back and
give that that first year walkon version of yourself one piece
of advice, what would thatpiece of advice be Never doubt
(48:44):
yourself.
Speaker 2 (48:46):
Never doubt yourself.
You're better than what you orwhat's being projected of you.
You got this far.
You got this far already.
Like I kind of get worked upabout it a little bit I'm an
emotional person but like if Icould go back and tell myself
that, like that's what I'll tellmyself.
(49:06):
Like, never doubt yourself.
You can do far more than youcan even imagine.
You got to believe it first andforemost, though, because guess
what?
You're the only one that'sgoing to believe it to be true,
like everyone else is like yeah,prove it, show me, I know I can
do it.
Go out there and be the guy whoyou know you can be.
(49:26):
Never doubt yourself.
If you know, if you think thatyou truly believe in your heart,
you can do something.
Go do it Right.
Like in my career, like I feellike now, looking back on it now
you know, I try to get mypeople like the kids I coach and
my and my children tounderstand is like I did
(49:47):
everything, day by day, right.
I just went out there and triedto perform as good as I can, as
hard as I could, for what wasgiven to me, but if I truly
never doubted myself, like Idon't know where my career could
have been Like barring injuryif I truly knew my potential and
how good I was playing at thetime, and really believing and
trusting and understanding thatyou never know what could happen
(50:09):
.
But just don't doubt yourself.
We're all going to have thosemoments.
We're not going to win everyrep.
Get back up and go harder thenext time.
Yeah, it's a learningexperience, but don't doubt
yourself though.
You got this far for a reason.
Just keep pushing, keep pushing.
Speaker 1 (50:29):
Love that Well, don.
Thank you so much for joiningus today.
Wish we could just sit and talkball for another hour or two,
but this has been absolutelyfantastic.
Appreciate you stopping by.
Speaker 2 (50:39):
Man, anytime I could talk ball, I'm down, so I
appreciate you having me brother.
Speaker 1 (50:44):
As always, if you've got questions, want to learn
more about how mental trainingplan can work with your team,
don't hesitate to reach out tous.
Visit mentaltrainingplancom.
Fill out the contact us form atthe bottom.
If you've got topics you'd liketo hear about in the future,
send those our way.
And until next time, make yourplan and put it to work.
Hey, welcome to the Coaching Minds podcast, the
official podcast of MentalTraining Plan.
Today, very special guest, donThomas.
He was a walk-on at UConn whobecame an All-Big East player,
was drafted by the Dolphins andthen played for the Lions,
Patriots and Colts and is nowthe Director of Player
Development for Grand CentralSports Management.
(00:22):
Don, thanks so much for joiningus today.
Thanks for having me, man, Iappreciate it.
Those were some of thehighlights.
Maybe just give us a quickrundown of your story, kind of a
little bit of your backgroundand what led you to where you're
at today.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
All right.
Well, it's an interesting story.
I've probably told it a milliontimes ad nauseum.
It never gets old.
So I'm originally fromConnecticut.
I grew up, born and raisedYoungest of three, two older
sisters.
Mom was a school teacher.
Then she became a principal.
My dad worked for the BoyScouts in New York City, so he
(01:00):
commuted every day and you knowmy mom was super overprotective
of me growing up as far assports goes, and one of her
things was just football, whichjust wasn't one that she was
just keen on me playing.
And, um, you know, she taughtin the city that we grew up in
and she was a principal, and soone of her, one of her lines,
was that she just didn't want tosee the same people that she's
(01:23):
teaching and have them see overout there on Saturdays as well.
And as I grew up, I found outthat it was more of she was
scared for me to play football,and by the time that she did
give me the green light to playfootball, I was in high school.
In the high school I went todidn't have a football team and
I was pretty good in basketballand baseball was my number one
sport, and so that kind of wasjust like one of those things
(01:45):
where I was just so immersed inbaseball.
I just didn't care that wedidn't have a football team and
I just played baseball andbasketball in high school and I
got a couple of looks andsmaller offers for baseball
coming out of high school.
But you know, baseball is aweird sport where it wasn't full
scholarships and all that stuff.
Both my older sisters were incollege and so my parents are
(02:07):
like listen, it's still tooexpensive.
And I applied to UConn.
I got into UConn and they gaveme a ton of money for being in
state and you know all that goodstuff.
So I was like, well, uconn is abig school.
I always want to go to a bigschool.
It's an hour away from home.
You know, I'll take my shot atthat and try to play baseball at
(02:30):
UConn.
And, uh, went to UConn as aregular student, try to walk
onto the baseball team.
It didn't work out and I justknew my athletic career wasn't
over with.
Just something in me was likeyou know, you're not done yet.
There's no way you're not anathlete.
There's no way you're not gonnaplay an organized game ever
again.
That's meaningful, you know,you're 18 years old, like it
just wasn't it for me, like itwasn't like I was, I was not
satisfied with it being over andI think that was like the
biggest drive for me was wasknowing that it wasn't going to
(02:51):
be over and not accepting thatas the final answer, and I
wasn't going to let someone elsetake that for my future.
So you know, I became friendswith a few of the football
players on the team as this, asthe my first semester went on.
I met them and one day whentheir season was over, the whole
team was in the gym playingbasketball.
(03:12):
I go man following Saturdayopen gym and I was in there and
some of the other guys saw me.
They couldn't believe I went toschool there at that size,
right, I'm like 6'3", 6'4", 255,260.
That's like a guy on the teamheight and weight, right, and so
, like you go to, you know,usually playing football, I'm
like, well, I've never playedfootball before, let alone try
(03:32):
to play a division one level.
It's kind of a tall task.
So, thought about it went homefor um fall break and one of my
crazy one of my old teammates inclass, like that, went to high
school with me.
His older brother played atUConn and he was just finishing
up.
He was a fifth-year senior.
He was graduating in December.
So that was his last season andme and him went and worked out
(03:55):
like every day during Christmasbreak.
He was back, he was done withschool, he graduated and went
back to school and just lifted,ran every single day.
And then one day I saw CoachEdsel outside running he was a
head football coach at the timerunning on the track in the back
of the student gym and I threweverything down to the guys I
was living with.
I'm about to go talk to them.
I ran around the building, ranup on them.
(04:16):
I was out of breath.
I told him.
I was like hey, coach Edsel, myname is Don Thomas, you know,
play football.
I want to walk onto thefootball team.
He kind of looked at me andhe's like you go to school here,
right, you're a current studentat.
I was like, yes, yes, he's likeall right.
(04:38):
He just kept looking at me.
He's like, all right, we'llcome into the office, we'll,
we'll try to get somethingworked out for you.
At the time we didn't have thebig facility that we have now,
so there's a small office likeconnected to the student gym and
he I guess he had told like thecoaches hey, I ran into some
big kid, um you know, coming offthe track.
I told him to come in, and sothey all would pop their heads
out.
When I came in the office and,before you know it, like the
(05:01):
linebackers, coach, defensiveline coach, the coordinator and
coach, that's all came out.
They were talking to me.
They didn't say they were gonnaset you, set a workout up for
me in a couple weeks.
Come, you know, be here at thistime.
I went, worked out, ran a couple40s, did a couple drills and
they said they let me walk ontothe team and, um, I stayed up
and that was like right beforespring ball of my freshman year,
so this school's almost out,it's like April right before the
(05:23):
spring game.
And I stayed up on campus withone of my teammates that became
a really good friend of mine,danny Lansana, linebacker.
He played in the league for alittle bit as well, and so I
stayed on his couch and took aclass and started working out
training with the team.
And make a long story short,that was kind of like the setup
for it.
(05:44):
But you know, I was redshirtedmy sophomore year I got on the
field only on kickoff return.
My junior season, which was myredshirt sophomore season, and
then I earned a scholarship, mytrue senior season, and then, a
couple games into the season, mycoach asked me to come back for
a fifth season where he told meI'll be the starter at right
guard.
Believe it or not, I playedoffensive line.
(06:05):
A lot of people look at me nowand I'm like 265 and I was 315,
310 at the time.
So I lost a ton of weight sinceI finished playing.
But I came back, you know, Icame back for that fifth season
and, to be honest, quite honest,I'm like I'm on scholarship so
my parents want to pay for it.
I'm not ready to go out in thereal world yet and start working
for a living yet.
(06:26):
Like, let's prolong this for atleast another half a year, see
what happens.
And I did that.
And so I came back and Istarted all 12 games at right
guard and it was kind of awhirlwind man.
Before you know it I was, youknow, first team all Big East.
I got a Hula Bowl invite, goteast west shrine game invite.
I got a combine invite.
I was the number five rentguard.
(06:47):
Uh in the in in the draft orthe nation coming out uh, into
the draft.
I signed with an agent.
I was down and training down inatlanta getting ready for the
combine and before you know itI'm running a 40 at the combine,
like it was.
Like you know, everything'slike kind of like is this real
pinched myself?
This has been a long dream.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Yeah, man, six-round pick into the Dolphins and you
know I never looked back.
Started as a rookie from thesecond day of training camp on
Became the starter at rightguard and you know battle
injuries throughout my career.
But I played eight years,Started in Miami for two years.
I was in Detroit for a year,didn't play much.
(07:28):
Then I went to New England,played a ton, played in the
Super Bowl here in Indianapolisin 2012,.
And then signed a four-yeardeal in 2013 with the Colts and
did three years of that deal.
But I was battling.
I tore my knee up pretty badand was just battling, trying to
get back on the field andfinally decided that it was
enough.
And eight years is nothing tohang my hat at, knowing the the
story that it took for me toeven get to that point where
(07:50):
people are like man, I don'tknow how that happened, you
didn't play football growing uplike where, did like when, what,
how?
So great ride.
It was a great ride that'sawesome.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
I'd love to go back to just the you.
So here you are, getting readyto walk on a Division I football
program.
Nothing's guaranteed, you know.
You don't even know like, isthis really going to work out?
You never played organizedfootball up to that point.
To begin with, what was themindset that you think really
(08:24):
helped you succeed from fromthat moment?
Speaker 2 (08:30):
you know, to be honest, I I didn't care that I
was had all like everything youjust stated like had had I had
the whole deck stacked againstme, right like everything was
stacked against me, and I didn'tcare, like I just went out
there and I was, I was happy tobe there and I truly knew deep
down inside that, like I couldplay with these guys, I just had
(08:51):
to learn.
And so I just literally wasjust like all right, when I get
out to practice, I'm going toget in the back of the line
every single time and when we gothrough these drills I'm going
to watch the older guys watchthe footwork, watch their hand
placement, watch the pad level,watch all that.
And if coach says they did agood job, I'm going to try to
replicate that when it's my turnto go.
(09:11):
And if they didn't do a goodjob, I'm going to try not to do
what he just yelled at that guyfor.
And I think that's how Ilearned.
I had to learn the game.
So I was a sponge, I was humble,right.
I didn't have a big ego.
I knew deep down inside what mypotential could be, because I
truly honestly believe that andI didn't need to speak that to
(09:32):
anybody.
I didn't need to go out andtell anybody because the people
were like yo, you're crazy,you're a walk-on Like.
You know what the walk-onstipulation is, you know what
that whole deal comes with.
Like I was cool with that.
But I also knew what I could do.
And I've always had thatmindset of like when I'm on the
field.
Like I tell my kids all thetime like when you step on the
(09:53):
field, when you step on thegrass, you step on the hardwood,
when you step anywhere in thebuilding, when you have other
people that are your teammatesyou're competing against.
You need to understand.
You have the mindset I'm thebest person out here.
There's nobody better than me,right?
Like you have that mindsetyou're going to play well, right
, but there's a lot that goesalong with that before you step
on that field to have thatconfidence.
But I knew I was doingeverything I could.
(10:14):
I bust my ass, I ran as fast asI could.
I was always the first tofinish sprints.
I was always lifting.
I was, by junior year, goinginto my senior year, I was the
strongest on the team.
I had never lifted a weight inhigh school.
I started lifting weights whenI was 18, when I got to college.
You know what I'm saying.
So I really only had like threeyears of weight training to
(10:35):
have like one of the heaviestbench press, the heaviest bench
press on the team, probably topfive.
Top three or four squats on theteam and then a top three or
four you know power squats onthe team and then a top three or
four.
You know um, power clean on theteam, right and so like we
would do that, when you put allthe numbers together, I was
three, then I was two, then Ibecame one, right and so like
that was unheard of.
(10:56):
So it's just always a mindset oflike I'm competing.
Every single time there's film,I'm watching it harder than you
are.
I'm studying it more.
When we got to lift weights,I'm putting that weight on you
are.
I'm studying it more.
When we got to lift weights,I'm putting that weight on you.
Catch me if you can.
When we're running sprints,catch me if you can.
You know what I'm saying.
So like that alone was like I'mdoing all this.
So this hopefully translates tothe field.
Now I just got to learn to playthe game.
You know what I'm saying.
(11:17):
So I think that was my mindset.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
My progression was just to keep getting bigger,
better and faster every singleyear.
To see what happened.
Yeah, were there any momentsalong the way early on where you
, where you doubted yourself,where you came up short, where
you had to push through andfight through and battle through
some, some adversity and somefailure?
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Yeah, I mean my first year I wanted to quit.
I wanted to quit my first year,but I knew that I came too far
to do that.
Like I knew that it wasn't evena possibility.
Like I knew that if I did thatI would never live with that
decision.
It would still haunt me to thisday.
Right, like I knew that.
(12:00):
And I was 19 years old when Iknew that.
But it was hard, man, it washard, like my coach, my line
coach at the time.
He was relentless.
He was hard.
Like my coach, my line coach atthe time.
He was relentless, he was.
You know, he didn't care ifyou're a walk-on or he didn't
care if you're the starter.
But more so, the walk-ons gotit worse.
He was like quit, if you want,I don't care, it's one less guy
I gotta worry about that I tryto bring along right.
And so he just.
Everything I did was never goodenough.
(12:22):
Everything I did was bad.
Like I was getting beat.
I was to learn technique.
I was trying to get myfundamentals right.
Like you know what I'm saying.
There's times where I wanted toquit, but I knew that.
Like that wasn't me anyway.
Right, I'm not a quitter, likeso.
But there were.
I had those moments.
I tell, I tell guys all thetime like you don't have, like
we're human, you don't havethose moments you doubt yourself
(12:42):
, you know like you will.
But like what do you get out ofquitting Cause?
Like this is life lessons right?
Like this is like if I'm gonnaquit this, I'm gonna quit when
anything gets hard in life.
And so like I'm glad I stuckwith it, I'm glad I didn't quit,
I'm glad that I fought throughall that adversity.
Then I came out on top at theend.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
At what point did you realize you know, hey, I'm, I'm
not going to just make the teamlike I can continue playing at
an elite level.
What do you, what do you thinkkind of was maybe that moment
where you had that spark of yeah, I've got the confidence that I
know I can now take this to thenext level.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
You know, that happened truly like when my
senior season, once I got thatscholarship, I knew I could play
at the next level, or I'm notgoing to say the next level.
I knew I could play at theDivision I level, like be the
starter, and I still wasn't thestarter.
And so I still worked andprepared like I was going to be
the starter and they sprinkledme in a little bit.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
That was heading into your senior season.
You were still not the starter.
Okay.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Like, yeah, because I came back for a fifth year.
So, heading into my true senioryear, when I earned that
scholarship, that training camp,I knew I should have been
starting.
I knew it.
But I knew that there was twoseniors in front of me.
I knew that those guys hadstarted for a year or two ahead
of me.
I knew what it was.
Still, I knew that at anymoment if one of those guys went
(14:06):
down, I was the next to go in.
So that was enough for me to beready to go.
But what really did it was, youknow, coming out of that senior
year.
We went, we got through springball.
Spring ball was easy.
I was playing at a high level.
We had like our junior pro dayand I ran that.
We ran some 40s, did some stuff.
And actually the director offootball when I first went in
(14:34):
the office, when coach Edseltold me to come to the office my
freshman year in 2004, thatyear, um, he had left UConn.
He was now the director offootball, scouting for the, for
the Cardinals at the time, donCorzine, and so he came back as
one of the scouts to scout someof the guys and so I ran a 40
and I ran like a four eightsomething like it was crazy and
I've always been able to run.
So I ran like this four eightand I was probably like 299 at
(14:54):
the time, maybe just tipping 300.
And my mom forced me to go onspring break trips.
She's like you're going tospring break this year.
You never go.
Whenever you come home, youalways go back lift LA fitness
Like you.
Whenever you come home, youalways go back lift LA Fitness
Like you're going.
You need experience, have somefun in college.
So, reluctantly, I went I'mgetting on the plane flying from
New York to Miami.
Get on the plane and as I'mgetting on the plane, my phone
(15:15):
rings and it was Coach Corzinefrom the Cardinals.
He was like hey, you ran a good40.
You look good blah, blah, blah.
And I was like I appreciatethat.
And that's all it took forsomebody to tell me that,
somebody from the NFL level tellme that I may have a shot.
And I just took that and ranwith it.
(15:37):
And then my coach, when I cameback, we had spring ball,
because this was right.
Before spring ball.
We came back, we had springball and after spring ball my
head coach said hey, listen, ifyou do everything right this
year, you have a chance.
We'll let the see where thechips fall.
Let the chips fall where theymay, was the exact words that he
said to me, and that summer wasjust like hyper drive.
(15:59):
Like that summer I came back Isaid I'm going to be the biggest
, fastest, strongest guard inthe country.
You don't know my name now.
You will, by the end of theseason, promise you that anybody
that's on this schedule, anydefensive tackle, anyone that's
on the field with me, if I haveto get my hands on you.
You got hell to pay Because Iknew that I didn't have any film
.
I had zero film.
So every play was an auditionfor me.
(16:21):
So I knew that everything hadto be perfect.
I knew the level of play that Ihad to have.
I couldn't take a playoff.
I couldn't afford to be hurt.
I couldn't have a bad game.
A bad game was out of thequestion.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
So just by the grace of God, luckily, everything's
lined up.
I played 12 really good gamesin college and it worked out.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Yeah.
So now here you are, headinginto the draft which now you
know, now there's there's evensome more uncertainty.
You know you don't know whatthat's going to look like.
You're preparing, you know,you've you've got this thought
in the back of your mind thatthis guy from the Cardinals said
you got a shot, but stillnothing's guaranteed for you.
(17:01):
Still, you're going out and youknow, busting it every single
day, preparing with just a hopein the back of your mind what
was, what was that like andhow'd you handle that
uncertainty?
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Yeah, um, it was just a lot of unknown, like
everything every day was justlike gray, like when I looked at
a calendar it was unknown.
It was just like I'm just goinginto this thing day by day,
literally just take it and justtrying to seize the day right,
like, how good can I be this day, whatever is presented?
So if it's right now, it'sworkouts, right Like.
All right, let me dominatethese workouts.
(17:35):
I'm down here training for thecombine in Atlanta with, you
know, 25 other offensive linemen.
I got to stand out, I got to bethe best one.
I mean, these kids were fromClemson, virginia Tech.
You know.
You name it Bama.
You know all the big schoolshere.
I am just a kid from, you know,from Connecticut.
Walk on.
You know.
You know UConn, big East.
We're just getting the programreally people knowing about us.
(18:01):
We had a little Cinderellaseason at 07 year.
Can I compete at this level?
It was a lot of questions thatI that I that were in the back
of my mind that I just had toshut up all the time and just go
out there and know confidentlylike you can compete with
anybody.
You probably would have been ata bigger school, but you just
didn't play football in highschool, right?
So I think that's what I reallyheld on to.
And you know what gave me thatconfidence was, yeah, we played
(18:23):
some really good teams my senioryear.
Confidence was, yeah, we playedsome really good teams my
senior year.
But when I went to the eastwest shrine game I'm playing the
you know guys from Florida, youknow guys from Texas, guys from
all these super big programsand I'm competing against them
if not beating them, we'redominating them against in these
reps on one-on-one pass rush orteam periods.
I was like man, listen, let'sgo that's all I needed, yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
So now here you are, you're in the NFL.
What, what would you say, werethe biggest mental adjustments
going from college to the pros?
And?
And did you have maybe eventhat same experience where you
realized, oh I've, you know I'vegone from, am I gonna make it
to, I belong here.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Yeah, you know, rookie minicamp was easy just
because it was rookies againstrookies and it was no different
than, you know, being at anall-star, you know all-star game
for college.
So that really wasn't thechallenge.
I was mentally fine, I didn'tstruggle.
We got to OTAs and you knowthat first year we went well.
(19:28):
My senior year of college Idrafted to Miami, right, so they
went one at 15.
So they cleaned house brand newcoaching staff, brand new front
office.
Bill Parcells was the VP, he'sthe one who drafted me.
It was a whole new mindset andthey were like, hey, you're
going to run with the twos tostart off this thing.
(19:49):
I'm like, all right, like twos,all right, the second team,
fine, whatever.
And it was just like the leagueis.
I tell people all the time likeit's faster, but it's not that
much faster than high-levelDivision I football.
What it is is yourdecision-making has to be faster
.
You have to be precise on your,all your techniques and you
(20:10):
have to read things very, veryfast and dissect them very fast
to make the right move, theright step, the right decision
on the field.
And that's what separates guysto be able to play at that next
level.
Because, yeah, we see athleticguys all the time.
You look at him like how is henot playing in the NFL?
How's he not playing in the NFL?
How is he not playing in theNBA?
How is he not?
But he can't make that splitdecision, that split-second
decision, to be effective.
(20:31):
And I think that's where a lotof guys struggle.
So for me it was justover-preparing.
I had to over-prepare.
I always kept that walk-onmentality when I got out there.
Before I got out there to watchfilm, know that, you know, know
, like my opponent watchpractice film from the day
before, even learn my teammatesand how they rush, how they, how
they, you know, play againstthe run, how the linebackers
(20:53):
read things, what tips them off,all those kinds of things, so
that when I got out there thegame could slow down, because
now I'm prepared for that, howthey're going to play it, what's
the next move, what's the call?
When I hear this, what are theydoing?
I think that's what helped meout.
So, like with that, and thenParcells, coach Parcells came to
me and told me you know, thefirst day of training camp, once
we got back, he was like listen, he was like there's no reason
(21:13):
why you shouldn't be the starter.
He told me this my rookieseason, first day of training
camp.
He pulled me aside.
We had a water break.
He's like we over to one-on-onepass rush.
Next he was like, all you haveto do is keep the guy in front
of you.
Nobody can beat you.
You use your strength, you use,you, use your, your leverage,
your long arms, no one can beatyou.
(21:35):
He's like, just keep him infront of you.
That's when you tell mesomething from like when someone
that I know, I, I revere, youknow trust what they're saying.
Like if you tell me that yousee something in me, right?
So like, that's all I need,right.
So I went over to one-on-onepass rush.
I was still going with the twosthe first day.
When I got in I just saw himcome on his golf cart.
(21:56):
He whipped around behind thedefense and he looked at me and
he's like.
He mouthed and he's like keepit.
I.
I just gave him a nine likethat and I won two reps in a row
and finished the day with thetwos.
I came in the next day, secondday, training camp, and they put
the depth chart up on the dryerase board and I looked and it
(22:20):
said 66, starting that rightguard.
Go with the ones.
Never took another.
Never took a twos or threes repever again when I was in Miami.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
That just wasn't what it was.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
So then you go, you go from uh being on a one and
you say one and 15, 1 and 15,yeah, 1 and 15 team to it's you,
your team and one other team inthe entire world left playing
football, here you are playingon a Super Bowl team.
What was that like?
Maybe the elevated pressure,the elevated expectation of, hey
(22:53):
, I mean, this is the game thatyou grew up as a child watching,
that everybody in the worldgrows up watching this game.
There's not a higher stage infootball.
What was the pressure like inthat moment?
Speaker 2 (23:14):
It was unreal.
I mean, like you know, I had amoment before the game like I
can't believe.
This is like I'm here, likeit's unreal.
But at the same time, you can'thave that moment distract you
from what the main objective is.
When you look at it from astandpoint of like I'm here at
(23:35):
the Superbowl, right Like you,you you have that moment where
you're in awe, but you also haveto dial it back in to be able
to focus.
It's like you know, every kidhas that moment in their
backyard or, you know, in themiddle of the street or with
their friends.
Like you know, for the SuperBowl, no time left on the clock.
You got one second left, oneplay to run.
It's fourth down.
(23:55):
You're down by five.
You got to get a touchdown towin the game.
You're just in it, man, but yougot to perform.
Like you know what I'm saying.
So it was a very surreal moment, a very surreal feeling, a very
crazy time to look back on it,that I'm just like man.
I can't believe I even wasthere to do that.
(24:17):
So it was just a coolexperience, but it was just one
of those that you never forgetto think that just a few years
ago, I was my first time evereven putting a helmet on to now,
here we are, the biggest gamein the world when it comes to
football, american football andyou're a very, very focal point
(24:38):
of winning a football game.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
It's crazy, yeah for sure.
So you know, kind of kind ofmoving on to to where you're at
today, director of playerdevelopment with with grand
central sports management, whenyou, when you now see these
athletes that are that are, youknow, coming through, that are
preparing to play at that nextlevel in your mind, what's the
(25:04):
biggest difference that you seementally between the elite
players and the average ones?
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Yeah, I love these questions you got.
You have some really goodquestions, by the way because
this is.
Yeah, this is what the peopleneed to understand.
Right Like, I love every guy.
We sign to our agency.
We hand select guys, we watch aton of film on them, I evaluate
them.
But you can't evaluatecharacter.
(25:32):
You can't evaluate that throughfilm.
Right Like, does that guy haveit or not?
Because a lot of guys can hidethrough just being talented.
If you're talented enough andyou can get through college,
youth sports college, highschool college, and then you can
get there.
But a lot of guys can get righthere it's about getting to that
(25:58):
next level.
What does it take, right?
And so it's kind of crazy.
I just talked to Chris Evansthis morning.
Ben Davis product, michigan,he's in Cincinnati and we talked
about it a little bit and it's,you know, it's not to, it's all
a mindset.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
You know I'm saying you got to have it, you got to
have it.
And so what separates guys forreal is a lot of it is mental.
A lot of it is mental Likethere's a lot of guys that can
play in the league, there's alot of guys that can you know.
You look at him like how's henot?
You know, how's he not thereright now?
Like he's got every athletictool known to man.
(26:35):
I wish I had his genetics blah,blah, blah, blah, blah.
But why is he not there?
And it's a mindset.
He just can't unlock what, whatneeds, what it needs to take to
truly be a professional athlete.
Your athleticism only gets youso far.
Like I said, thedecision-making, your mental,
how fast can you process?
Right, it's?
(26:56):
It's a chess game within achess game, right, and it's like
.
It's like you have to make itto where the game is.
Checkers, and I'm playing chessat all times, and that's when
you become a professional, justto stay in the game.
And so it's not easy for peopleto understand.
I think what helped me out, whatgot me through it, was just my
walk-on mentality.
At even year six, seven, eightin the league, I still was like,
(27:18):
hey, I gotta work, I gottaoutwork this guy.
I don't care how much moneyyou're paying me, yeah, because,
guess what, it doesn't matter,because you can get rid of me
tomorrow.
This is football.
This ain't, you know,guaranteed I'm making a 53, like
, yeah, I'm the guy for youright now, but if I'm not
performing, they will findsomeone else, and I think some
guys just don't get that, and aproblem with it is is a lot of
guys would get put on pedestalsgrowing up because they're so
(27:41):
good, they're gifted, they'retalented, but they don't
understand that, like everybodyelse has been put on that
pedestal too, and the guys thatare still there are the guys
that figured out how to workharder than the next man, and so
a lot of guys fall shortbecause of that.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
The first NFL player I ever worked with.
He had zero mental issues inhigh school football ever.
He was the best dude on thefield by far Zero issues in
college.
He didn't even have issuesreally for the first year and a
half in the nfl.
All of a sudden blows out hisknee.
Now he's trying to come back.
You know, here we are ninemonths later, year later, trying
(28:18):
to decide in his mind do I nowhave what it takes?
Can I still trust this knee?
Can I still turn, open up andrun the way that I need to?
Can I do I have what it takes?
Can I keep?
And he'd never.
You know he's a great.
Here's a grown man who's neverbeen put in this situation to
really ask himself and bechallenged on Do I have what it
(28:41):
takes in your mind?
Are there, are there skillslike that that you is there,
maybe like one or two thingsthat you wish, man, if guys
could just, at a younger level,learn how to do this, they would
be so much more prepared at thehighest level.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Well, you're talking to a guy who had nine surgeries
in his career too, right?
So you know a ton of surgeriesI had, and so you got to go
through something first.
You can't have the easy streetyour whole life.
Oh, that's good.
You got to have some adversity,you got to.
You have to go throughsomething.
It has to be hard at some point.
How bad do you want it?
(29:20):
How bad do you?
How, how like, how bad can youovercome these obstacles that
are in front of you, becauseeverybody's going to have
obstacles?
How big are the obstacles?
How assisted are you when youhit these obstacles is kind of
what's going to determine theman that you're going to be as
you progress in this sport, orfemale, in whatever sport you
choose.
But you've got to go throughsomething first.
(29:40):
It's important, it's imperative, right?
That's why, even with my sonand my daughter, I let them fail
.
No-transcript.
Beautiful, I loved it.
I didn't tell him that you gotto.
You got to.
You got to understand.
You're going to go throughsomething.
(30:01):
How bad do you want it?
How bad are you going to workharder to come back from this
failure that happened?
You're that, thisdisappointment, so that doesn't
happen again.
When I, when I tore my knee up,I just had a.
I went through rehab every day.
You're pushing.
It's mental.
There's days where you don'twant to be doing rehab.
You want to quit.
You want to.
It's too hard, it's not easy.
(30:23):
You know it hurts.
Do you trust the training staff?
Do you trust your body?
But then when you finally getback out there now you got to
play through that right, likeit's there.
Medical history shown that thisis the rehab You're good, you've
had enough scans.
Well, you just got to go outthere.
You got to forget about it.
You got to trust that it'sthere.
You got to go play at thatlevel that you know how to play
(30:45):
at.
Also, learning that your bodyis somewhat limited Now it's not
what it used to be.
Coming back from this injury,you got to learn how to adjust
and play with that, with insideof that right Like your, like
your knee.
You probably can't plant likethat.
You got to learn to plant alittle bit differently, right.
So it's just.
It's just all a learningprocess.
But if you don't have anyadversity before you hit those
(31:05):
big obstacles, it's a lottougher for you man and that's.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
You know, I was a, I was a high school, high school
coach, and I was a teacher for15 years before stepping out to
do this full time.
And just hearing that thatstory about your son man just
just hits home for me becauseit's like it.
In that moment, in thatsituation, there are so many
parents who their solution forthat would be go call the coach,
(31:32):
go send an email, go set up ameeting with the athletic
director, figure out why this iswrong, what you're going to do
to fix it.
Rather than, man, what anopportunity for your son to
realize you came up short.
So what are you going to doabout it?
And how much harder are yougoing to work If you really want
to go chase down, chase downthis goal?
(31:53):
I love, I love that.
That was the, that was the pieceof advice that you had.
So here you are.
You have the opportunity now tocoach your own son and to kind
of see this journey from theother side, from the coach
perspective and there'scertainly youth.
Sports now is certainly verydifferent than when you and I
(32:16):
played, and you know, obviouslyyou didn't even play football in
middle school or high school asyou go on this journey kind of
from the other side, from thecoaching perspective.
What are some of your thoughtson how today's athletes are
preparing?
Speaker 2 (32:35):
I think a lot of kids are overdoing it.
I think a lot of parents arelosing sight of what's important
and what's really going to getyour kid to that next level.
I think that is a huge piece ofit and I think that kids are
just getting burnt out.
You have a lot of kids with alot of potential, but they don't
have a time.
They have zero rest timethrough a calendar year.
(32:56):
They're doing something everysingle season.
They're have a time.
They have zero rest timethrough a calendar year.
They're doing something everysingle season.
They're playing a sport.
They're not getting home to 9,10 o'clock from training, from
doing this.
At some point you got to rest,you got to regroup.
You got to be a kid too.
You know you got to be becauseat 9 times out of 10, you know
professional sports.
(33:17):
You take 10, you take 10 people.
Nine of us ain't making it.
Maybe those 10 ain't making it.
That's how finite it is.
So we lose sight of life in a,in a sense, right Like like, and
I feel like a lot of kids couldbe better than what they are.
But just mentally they're worndown.
Physically they're worn down.
You know, their parents areriding them because they're
living through their kids and,um, you know, I'm just one of
(33:40):
those guys where it's like myson's got 19 games a year,
padded football.
That's all he's got.
So, fbu, don't call me aboutbringing him down to these
practices.
We're going and I don't careabout naples, I don't care about
, you know, like, the, the extrarankings and all that stuff.
That means nothing.
And so I think that a lot of itis like I think less is more,
(34:03):
less is more when it comes togetting to the next level,
because I can't have a burnt outathlete.
You're going to hit yourceiling junior year of high
school.
You got no potential to gobecause you're just burnt.
And then what happens?
You don't want to play anymore,you don't want to do this, you
don't want to do that, you don'twork as hard.
So now your potential is gonebecause you've given everything
(34:25):
you had when you were 12 to 16years old.
It's crazy.
I think that's something that'simportant that I really want to
stress to a lot of people,because I coach youth football,
I coach middle school Like it'sjust a lot.
So, like with these athletes, Ifeel like they just need to
understand that, like you don'tneed to play a million games a
year.
You need a rep, you need thereps, but we can get the reps
(34:48):
through film study.
We can get the reps through youknow what I'm saying?
Running conditioning.
We can get the reps through.
You know what I'm saying?
You just being a student of thegame, however, it is right, but
you can't be physically outthere beating yourself down 12
months out of the year.
It's crazy to me.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
So let's say I'm a parent.
Let's say, you know, I've gotthis child who I care about more
than just about anybody else inthe entire world and I want to
do everything in my power tohelp them achieve these goals.
Help them, you know.
If it's something that theywant to run down, I want to put
(35:26):
them in a position where they'regoing to have the best chance
of doing that.
How do I decide when there'sall these voices and there's all
this?
You know, if you don't try outfor this team and you don't make
that team, then that means youcan't do this and then you'll
never do that.
How do I, how do I separatethat noise of just?
You know, this is too muchversus well, but you do actually
(35:50):
still have to work hard and putin that time.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
Well, you have to prepare.
You also have to be smart,right, and I know everyone isn't
going to be able to tell thesame story.
From my journey I get that andI know that it's a one-off and
all that kind of good stuff, soI'm not blind to that.
There is a true saying thatless is more and you have to be
(36:19):
selective on what you choose toput your child into.
You have to look at who'sinstructing these teams, who's
coaching these teams, what kindof organization is it?
Are the events that you'regoing to?
Are they organized?
Are they worthwhile for you tobe involved with?
(36:40):
You know all those things arefactors.
And then you also have to lookat my child's played a ton of
games, but has he truly learnedfrom last season?
Has he gotten better?
Has he worked on those thingsthat were weaknesses in his or
her game from last year?
When did we take the time toactually fix those problems and
go into next year?
Are we just going to go from myschool team to this organized
(37:03):
travel team and we have a coupleof practices a week and we're
just playing four or five games,you know, on the weekends and
we're traveling here, we'retraveling there and we're
playing against, quote unquote,the best competition in the
country.
But did you take time to buildthose fundamentals, to really be
dominant, to really get better?
Did you take the time to reallywork on your flexibility?
(37:24):
Did you take the time to workon your speed, your athleticism?
Because each year is aprogression?
I had to get bigger, faster,stronger Once I got to the
league.
It just didn't stop.
When I got to the league, I hadto get better every single year
, and every year I took the timeafter the season to go back
through every game, every snapthat I played, get feedback from
my coach right on my exitinterview.
What do I need to work on?
What do I need to get better at?
(37:44):
Okay, I need better ankleflexibility, all right.
Well, we're going to work onthat this offseason.
I need to get more explosive.
We're going to work on thatbecause, guess what, there's
guys coming up behind you thatwill take your job.
But when it comes to the youthlevel, you got to take a step
back and think about okay, howam I really getting my child
better?
Am I just putting them in awhole bunch of stuff?
And that's going to be the roadto success?
Well, guess what?
Everybody's a whole bunch ofstuff at this point.
(38:05):
Hey, I need to go back into thelab, I need to go back into the
dungeon.
Like I say, go back and go towork to fix what my
inefficiencies were the seasonbeforehand.
And I think parents need tounderstand, like you don't need
to have your kid in every single.
You can't go from you knowpadded football to seven on
(38:25):
seven, back to padded in thespring to go back to a you know
padded.
Fall season is crazy.
There's some.
There's such things as calledyou know concussions there's.
The body wears down.
You think these kids areinvincible because they're
growing, but over time, you knowbefore you know it.
Now you start seeing littlethings compiling to big things
and you start seeing surgeriesat earlier dates and you'll see
(38:49):
a kid that's been freshman incollege and he's already had two
knee surgeries.
Right, like it's becoming to bethe workloads too much.
You got to be smart.
You got to look at it fromscience, right, science.
You got to go back and just besmart with your kid, because no
one loves your kid, like yousaid, more than the parent does.
Right, you think your kid's thebest in the world, but
sometimes you got to berealistic too, right, I love my.
(39:10):
I love my kids more thananybody ever will, but I also
not going to throw them outthere and say they're going to
get better that way.
We got to go back.
We got to fix things first andwe got to take steps to put that
whole complete package together.
So when it's time to go, you'rethe one who rises to the top.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
Yeah, I just I'm thinking about all, the, all the
time, the hours, the travel,the money, the commitment that's
involved in participating insome of those things after the
season.
And if you legitimately satdown with your high school
position coach and you went,play by play, through every snap
that you had that previous yearshoot, even if you were, even
(39:45):
if you weren't, a starter on thefield, and you just said, hey,
I want to watch all these cutups, will you watch film with me
?
I mean, most high schoolfootball coaches would do
backflips, like absolutely I'llwatch film with you because you
don't see that anymore.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
Like you don't see.
Like and that was another thingtoo Like I was a student of the
game, like I watched film adnauseum.
After practice, I'd bring theiPad home and sit there and
watch film.
When I was, I'd be holding myson in one arm and watch a film
on the iPad and the other.
You know what I'm saying.
(40:20):
Like because I knew that my wayto prepare was to know in every
possible situation, in whateversituation, what the outcome is,
what are the?
And once I figured that out, Iknow there's only one to three
things you can do in thissituation.
It's third and short.
We're in the red zone.
You're blitzing.
You're a 65% blitz team.
Now what are your blitzes?
You're going to stunt the line.
You're going to Blitz the guy.
You're going to Blitz the wheeloff the edge.
(40:40):
You're a stunt team.
So I expect TE with a Mike Blitz.
You got double mug backers.
You don't show that.
I know those two guys aredropping out, so I'm just going
to set to my three technique.
I'm not worried about him notmaking a call to the bat.
Slide him to have him go, tryto chip the three technique and
not waste my time on a backerthat dropped into coverage.
(41:02):
Those are the things that makeyou a better player, because now
you've eliminated the guessinggame, you can go play fast and
you know what's going to happen.
And I think that guys have tounderstand.
You've got to watch a ton offilm, you've got to know your
opponent better than he knowshimself, because that's the way
that you're going to beat him.
Right, it's not just physical,it's a mental game.
It's so much more mental.
I remember little giants when Iwas a kid.
(41:24):
When that came out and theysaid football is 80 mental, 20
physical.
I'm like that doesn't make anysense.
And then, as I started playing,I'm like yo, that's so true.
Yeah, and it is.
You got to have the physicalpart about it.
Right, you got to have, but yougot to know what's about to
happen too, and you got to knowhow to beat your guy before the
ball snap.
You know what I'm saying.
That is the key to being asuccessful athlete, especially
(41:45):
in football.
Speaker 1 (41:46):
Absolutely Got two more questions for you as we
wrap up here, just kind oflooking at a little bit larger
perspective now.
A little bit larger perspectivenow.
So we've done a lot of talkabout individuals, whether
(42:10):
that's you, whether that's otherplayers.
Being a veteran now I've beendoing this for a while Tell me a
little bit about how importantis all of this, the mental
toughness in terms of a teamculture, not just an individual
being able to achieve the goalsthat he or she has set for
themselves.
But now we, collectively, aregoing to come together because
nobody's winning a Super Bowl,national championship, state
(42:33):
championship you fill in theblank without that.
What do you think is mostimportant when it comes to team
culture?
Speaker 2 (42:43):
Culture is everything .
You look at the Eagles theyhave good culture.
You look at a team like Detroitthey have a growing culture.
It's growing, it's going to getthere.
They're going.
Growing culture, it's growing,it's going to get there.
They're going to be achampionship team very soon.
You know, guys have got to firstoff, it starts with the leader
(43:07):
leader of the team, with thehead coach.
He's got to instill the cultureinto everybody that steps into
that program, from everyassistant coach to the trainers,
to the, to the, to the interns,to every player, to the, to the
.
Everyone has to buy into theculture.
Once everyone buys into theculture, right Now we're all
(43:31):
moving towards a common goal.
Everybody has that.
I don't care if it's thejanitor cleaning the toilets.
I can say this when I was inNew England, I bought into the
culture.
The first day I walked into thebuilding you could feel the
culture change.
I came from Detroit.
We were four and 12, so we went14 and two.
That very next season, when Iwent to New England, right, the
(43:52):
culture was different.
Everybody that was in thelocker room had the same common
goal Nobody missed meetings,nobody skimped out on workouts.
Nobody didn't get treatmentwhen they needed treatment.
No one cut corners.
Everybody believed.
The coaches were in there at 5o'clock in the morning.
We're watching film at 6.30 onthe run game install and nobody
(44:13):
complained.
Brady was in the room with usgoing over the run checks
against these different frontsand these.
If we see this blitzes we'regoing to check out of this, how
we're going to block it from thecourt.
Everybody was in.
So culture is so important inteam building at these youth,
youth ages.
This youth level is superimportant.
With how much bonding time canI get with these kids?
(44:35):
Just not in, you know,conditioning, strength
conditioning, but outside ofthat, right, like I got to get
these guys to become brothers, Igot to get this group to become
siblings so that we all believein each other, so that we all
can go out there and have eachother's back at any given moment
.
Yeah, I think that's the mostimportant part about, you know,
(44:57):
culture and winning and winningteams is is building and
creating that and having theright people in there how much
of that, or maybe what?
Speaker 1 (45:06):
what's the role there of the head coach?
What's the role of all theassistant coaches?
And and then what's the role of?
Yeah, but the player's alsogonna buy.
The coach can preach all hewants, but at some point, if the
guys don't buy into it, that'snot gonna work.
What, what's?
What's been your experiencewith that?
Speaker 2 (45:27):
so it changes from level to level to level, right.
So, like, when you look at itfrom like, let's just go from
high school right from likewinning programs in high school
the coach has to also be afather figure, right.
More importantly, he's more ofa father figure than he is x's
and o's, in my opinion.
(45:47):
Right like.
He's the guy that these, theseyoung men are or or young women
are are around for a greatpercentage of the day once
they're out of you know school,and they need someone else to
look up to, to guide and leadthem in the right direction.
They have to believe in thatperson, that they know what
they're doing and they havetheir best interest at heart.
You get to college, it's nodifferent, but now you're
(46:10):
coaching young, budding men andwomen that are going through
different changes in life andyou have to know how to adjust
into, how to adapt to those.
Right, but you have to alsoknow what you're talking about
and really teach them the game,the fundamentals, to become a
better player on the field,court, whatever it is, but also
in life.
Right, you're setting real,true life examples to where the
(46:33):
aha moments come in, whenthey're 25, 26 years old and
they're faced with someadversity.
Remember what their coach toldthem, either from the youth
level or from college.
And then, when you get to thepro level, right, you got to be
a guy that the BS is over with.
Yeah, like these are adults now.
These are legitimate adultsthat are either he's a fraud or
(46:57):
he's real.
He cares about me, but I alsoknow that it is a business.
But how much is he going totake care of me and how much do
I see everybody else believingin this man?
Right, so that I can fall inline and believe in him as well?
And so that's what you see.
It's hard sometimes where yousee a coach that's trying to be
a player's coach and there'scoaches that are just like, hey,
I'm going to coach you, right,this is how it's going to be.
(47:19):
And then you have to find that.
But the real true successfulones are the ones that find that
fine line.
You look at a Dan Campbellright, a guy that played.
Now he's a coach.
But guys know that he knowswhat he's talking about.
They believe in what he'stalking about.
When I was in New England withBelichick, like you knew that he
knew his X's and O's, but youalso knew that he was going to
take care of you from astandpoint of a player as well,
(47:40):
and he could relate to you.
He knew how, even though he waslet's just call it like it is
he was 60 something years old,old white guy that could talk to
a 22 year old young black kidfrom the inner city.
It just was what it was, butyou respect him because was
talking about and he was fair.
(48:01):
I think fairness is.
Another key point for coachingtoo is to be fair.
I'm not saying play time fair,I'm saying being truthful and
honest with your players so theyknow the true expectations of
what to expect when they're outthere.
Right, being fair, right, nothaving favorites.
Who's going to go in there,who's going to perform?
That's the guy who's going toplay for me and that's who I
know I can count on when it'stime for the count on it.
Look, he has.
He's showing the results tomake that a credible case.
Speaker 1 (48:23):
Yeah, love that.
So the last question I alwaysask guests as we start to wrap
up here, knowing what you knownow, if you could go back and
give that that first year walkon version of yourself one piece
of advice, what would thatpiece of advice be Never doubt
(48:44):
yourself.
Speaker 2 (48:46):
Never doubt yourself.
You're better than what you orwhat's being projected of you.
You got this far.
You got this far already.
Like I kind of get worked upabout it a little bit I'm an
emotional person but like if Icould go back and tell myself
that, like that's what I'll tellmyself.
(49:06):
Like, never doubt yourself.
You can do far more than youcan even imagine.
You got to believe it first andforemost, though, because guess
what?
You're the only one that'sgoing to believe it to be true,
like everyone else is like yeah,prove it, show me, I know I can
do it.
Go out there and be the guy whoyou know you can be.
(49:26):
Never doubt yourself.
If you know, if you think thatyou truly believe in your heart,
you can do something.
Go do it Right.
Like in my career, like I feellike now, looking back on it now
you know, I try to get mypeople like the kids I coach and
my and my children tounderstand is like I did
(49:47):
everything, day by day, right.
I just went out there and triedto perform as good as I can, as
hard as I could, for what wasgiven to me, but if I truly
never doubted myself, like Idon't know where my career could
have been Like barring injuryif I truly knew my potential and
how good I was playing at thetime, and really believing and
trusting and understanding thatyou never know what could happen
(50:09):
.
But just don't doubt yourself.
We're all going to have thosemoments.
We're not going to win everyrep.
Get back up and go harder thenext time.
Yeah, it's a learningexperience, but don't doubt
yourself though.
You got this far for a reason.
Just keep pushing, keep pushing.
Speaker 1 (50:29):
Love that Well, don.
Thank you so much for joiningus today.
Wish we could just sit and talkball for another hour or two,
but this has been absolutelyfantastic.
Appreciate you stopping by.
Speaker 2 (50:39):
Man, anytime I could talk ball, I'm down, so I
appreciate you having me brother.
Speaker 1 (50:44):
As always, if you've got questions, want to learn
more about how mental trainingplan can work with your team,
don't hesitate to reach out tous.
Visit mentaltrainingplancom.
Fill out the contact us form atthe bottom.
If you've got topics you'd liketo hear about in the future,
send those our way.
And until next time, make yourplan and put it to work.
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