Orlando Franklin

Orlando Franklin’s unconventional path to the NFL started in Jamaica. He was born to a single mom who wanted a better life for her and her sons. She applied for Visa’s in three countries and only one accepted her: Canada. So, Orlando’s path went north.  

His mom married, but then widowed when her husband tragically passed away. That life change put Orlando and his family in a women’s homeless shelter for a year. Next was Section 8 housing. Then he found football and loved it.  

Not only did Orlando find football, he found trouble. He ran with a crowd that made some bad choices and was arrested for the first time when he was 12. The second time he was arrested, his mom told him she wouldn’t bail him out unless he made a contract with her to turn his life around. He did and she still has that contract.  

Big O and his mom moved to Florida soon after. He got letters from over 70 colleges, and he chose the Miami Hurricanes. From there, he was the Broncos 2nd round draft pick in 2011. Over the next four years, he started 70 of 71 games. In 2015, he thought Denver was going to resign him, but they never called. Begrudgingly, he went to San Diego and Washington over the next few seasons. He called it quits in 2018 to be a very present father to his kids, something he didn’t have growing up.  

Listen to Orlando’s story and conversation with @susiewargin on the Cut Traded Fired Retired Podcast. Links to listen on your favorite podcast platforms in the @ctfrpodcast bio!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Judge gave me bail on Monday morning. My mom said, I'm not bailing
you out. Your brother has alreadyruined his life. You're getting ready to
ruin your life at this point,you're fourteen years old. What are you
doing. I'm not going to continueto run behind you to bail you out
in and out of jail. Thatnight, I called my mom. I'm
like, hey, what's up?Like, what exactly what do you need
me to do? What exactly isgoing on right here? And she said,

(00:23):
listen, like, I need youto write me a contract. Right
We're going to execute a contract betweenme and you, and you know what
needs to be in that contract isthat you're going to change your life.
You're going to turn your life around, and I'm going to do whatever I
can to make sure that you're successful. But you're going to have to make
me some promises that you're not goingto continue doing this. Welcome to Cut,
Traded, Fired, Retired, apodcast featuring conversations with professional athletes and

(00:47):
coaches who have experienced some or allof the words in the podcast title.
They've been cut, traded, fired, and or they're retired. I'm your
host, Susie Wargen. I've knownthis episode guests since he was drafted by
the Broncos in twenty eleven, butI had no idea what went into the
makeup of Orlando Franklin before we hadour conversation. Like being born in Jamaica

(01:11):
and his single mom looking for abetter life elsewhere and eventually landing in Canada.
Or like his Canadian stepfather tragically passingaway, forcing Orlando and his family
to live in a homeless shelter inCanada for a year and then moving into
Section eight housing. Or like findingan outlet in football at the age of
eight, but also another outlet withtrouble making and getting arrested for the first

(01:33):
time at the age of twelve.Thankfully, Big O' had a few guardian
angels along the way, like counselors, coaches, and his family who helped
guide him to the straight and narrowthrough high school, college and the NFL.
Today, Orlando is sober, workingin media, being a doting dad
and a husband. Ladies and gentlemen, Orlando Franklin, Orlando Franklin, here

(01:56):
we are Finally. I've been tryingto get you as a guest for very
long time. You're a very popularman. How are you. I'm doing
great, Yeah, traveling. Imake a joke with my wife each and
every day that you know, summertimeis right now when the kids are running
around and every morning we're trying torush them through the door. And people

(02:16):
tell me, if you ask meevery single day, what do you got
going on today? What do yougot going on today? I tell people
there's a glorified uber driver for mychildren. So wherever they're taking me today,
that's where I'll be going. Isn'tthat the truth? Yeah? And
it just keeps going. I mean, you get your littles are what six
and four, so it's going tokeep getting wait, and then when they
turn sixteen, then you worry aboutthem all the time when they start driving

(02:38):
on their own. But it isa little freeing when that happens. So
yeah, I've already told my oldestthat as soon as you turn sixteen,
buddy, that you're going to goget your learners permit for us for yes,
or the household, yes, notfor you, it's for us,
so you could drive your little brotheraround and take some responsibility off of me
and mommy. Yep, Well,thank you for coming in. I appreciate
it. It's great to have you. You've been around this community for a

(03:00):
very long time, not only withyour time with the Broncos, but living
here, forming roots here, andyour family here, and so we'll get
to all of that, but let'sstart with you growing up born in Kingston,
Jamaica, and then from there goingto Toronto at age three and then
eventually come into the US. Sotalk about your childhood as far as growing

(03:20):
up into other countries before getting hereand kind of how you got into sports.
It's kind of unique, right,I mean very much so when you
look at Jamaica, what we callfootball in Jamaica soccer. But you know,
I remember trying to explain to auntsand uncles and my grandmother, like,
hey, so this got drafted forthe NFL and I'm going to be
playing football and everybody thinking like,you don't look like a football player,

(03:40):
right, you know. So youknow that's the unfortunate reality when you come
from a third world country. I'mactually getting ready to go to Jamaica here
in the next couple of weeks andI'm bringing my kids there for the first
time. Partnered up with this foundationcalled Helping Hands and Food for the poor.
So I've built six schools in Jamaica, Oh my gosh, and we're
going on July thirteenth. We're goingdown and this will be my kid's first

(04:02):
school bill. They're going to godown there and we'll help build this school.
And when it's all said and done, there'll be this plaque outside of
the school and they'll have their nameon it forever. Right, my three
and a half almost four year old, we'll have this right and be able
to kind of understand it a littlebit more as he grows up. But
definitely felt it was very much timefor them to kind of see the real

(04:26):
world. You know, I've workedmy butt off to be able to create
a lifestyle and make sure that mykid's okay and mommy's okay, and I'm
okay. But you know, andhow you grew up exactly right, you
know. You know you talk aboutJamaica and I grew up there poorer,
and I left Jamaica when I wasthree years old and we moved to Toronto,
Canada. Well, the reason whywe went to Toronto was because my

(04:47):
mom had actually applied for visas forthe UK, which would have been London
America and Canada and was denied avisa in America, denied a visa in
the UK, and just had gotaccepted for her visa in Canada. So
mom moved there, left me witha lady that kind of that she met

(05:08):
like a couple of months before andwas like, hey, you know what,
I'll find a way to send yousomething each and every month to watch
over my child. So left youin Jamaica, left me in Jamaica.
This is when I was two yearsold. But my mom was able to
get to Canada, found, youknow, my stepfather. They quickly got
married, filed for me, andI was back with my mom a year

(05:30):
later. So three years old,now moved to Toronto, Canada. I'm
there. It took a little bitlonger for my older brother. It took
him about a year and a half, so he ended up coming up the
following year. Oh my gosh,you had that, all that separation from
your family early on as a toddler. Yeah. Well, his family,
his dad was a little bit moreinvolved in his life and where my father
wasn't from the get go. It'sunfortunate. Yeah, you know, at

(05:53):
the end of the day, youknow, my mom was my father's maid.
My father was married. My fatherhad me out of wedlock, and
it is what it is. Atthe end of the day. I don't
look back at anything and have anyregrets personally because I know what it took
for me to get drafted. Iknow what it took for me to find

(06:14):
success at the college level, orpush through on those dark days, or
pushed through with injuries. And Iused my father in my situation for a
lot of things. You know,that's a big tip. Yeah, when
I was in college or strength andcondition to coach Andrew s waysee who was
at the University of Miami training arod you're seeing and guys like you know
the rocks. There all these differentguys coming back to the University of Miami

(06:35):
to train, and it was alwaysfor this one trainer named Andrew Sways,
and he always would say, understandwhy you run. And at first,
when you're eighteen years old, youdon't know why you're running. You don't
know anything. But for me,when I wanted to quit, and I
used the little things and the thingsthat my mom has told me and the
fact that my father wasn't in mylife. I use those little things to

(06:57):
kind of burst down those doors andcontinue going. Right, it has a
little bit of motivation. But Iknow we're jumping all over the place.
But okay, yeah, growing upin Toronto, Toronto, it was beautiful,
It was amazing. Stepfather was absolutelyan amazing human being. But one
day, you know, unfortunately,had a couple of drinks too many,
slipped in the bathtub, ended uphitting his head, got a concussion,

(07:18):
did not go to the hospital thatnight, ended up going to sleep that
night and passed away. In tosleep, you know, sleeping on his
back, vomited, ended up chokingon his vomit passed away. Wow,
it's about seven years old when thishappened. My goodness. Yeah, I've
been through a lot, been throughquite different things, you know, but
all these things have made me whoI am, right and I continue to

(07:41):
tell people all the time. Wouldn'tchange anything for the world, just would
not. But yeah, stepdad,Teddy passes away. He leaves behind a
couple of kids, Me and mybrother there as well, my mom's there.
You know. At this point,we're renting. So what happens at
that point we have to move intoa homeless shelter. We all kind of
go our separate ways. His kids, step brother, stepsister, go with

(08:01):
his old wife, me and mymom and brother. We end up in
a homeless shelter. Thank goodness.It was a shelter for kind of women,
and so we weren't exposed to everythingthat we could have been exposed to.
But still we were exposed to somecrazy things in that situation and was
there for a year while they weretrying to find this placement. You know,
we lucked up gotten into a reallygreat community over there, a Victoria

(08:24):
Park and Shepherd in Scarborough and Toronto. From there. I'm eight years old
after the one year in the homelessshelter, and at this point, I
have no idea what football is,Susie, to be honest with you,
and I'm sitting there. One day, a couple of weeks after we moved
into this new apartment building in Canada. Did Section eight vertically right? They

(08:45):
tried to get as much people alikein the same situation and make it go
vertical because you could fit more peoplein situations like that. So I remember
I was outside one day I seenthe kids walk in. They had these
weird looking pants on and they hadthese weird shoes on them. I'm like,
what is that that looks so weird? And they're walking around with this
T shirt that's kind of wrapped aroundthis padded thing and they're holding something in

(09:09):
between. But I don't know whatthis is because I've never seen it before.
And I run up to them.I'm just like, hey, what
is that? And he said thisis football? Said, okay, what
is football? Because I didn't getto watch my mom got to watch TV.
We didn't get to watch TV,right, we watched what my mom
was watching, right. I meanI could tell you what Jerry Springer was
back in the day, well beforeI could tell you what football was,

(09:31):
right or MARII right. So youknow, these kids actually put on their
equipment and demonstrated what they do withthis equipment on and I was like,
oh man, this is super interested. And they said you should try out.
You should come and play where we'relooking for more people where it's the
sign up period right now. Iwas like, well, how do you
guys get there? And they said, oh, my mom takes us and

(09:52):
this is the next practice. It'llbe this coming tuesday. So like I
ran upstairs now and to my momand like, you know, pressing the
elevator button we'll get in the elevator. Got to wait and then get on
the sixth floor and sprint to mydoor six o two. Right, Mom,
these kids are outside and they playedthe sport called football. They said
I could try out, and Iwas like, well, I don't have

(10:13):
no money for that, so whatdo you mean you could try out?
And I was like, they said, I don't need any money to try
out and I could just try out. And she was like, okay,
how does that look? How areyou getting there? I was like,
well, they said their mom bringsthem there. I was like, well,
their mom needs to confirm that youwill take you as well. So
I run back downstairs and I'm like, hey, my mom said that I
could go, But are you surethat your mom's gonna be okay with taking

(10:35):
me? And they're like absolutely.So I run back upstairs to my mom.
I'm like, hey, they saidyeah, and I was like all
right, cool, sounds good.Right. So the Tuesday rolls around and
I go to my first football practiceand I have no idea what's going on,
but you know, I'm sitting thereand I'm watching it, and you
know, at this point, youknow, I was looking for a way
out I was looking for something whereI could harness my energy and my frustration

(10:58):
and be able to take it out, And you know, I kind of
found that in football at a veryyoung age, where it didn't really matter
that we were dirt poor, didn'treally matter that I had these thick glasses
that people made fun of me about. It didn't matter that every single day
that I had to eat leftovers fromthe night before for lunch at school,

(11:20):
didn't matter about holes in my shoesand things like that. I got on
that football feel and I was equaland if I wasn't equal, I was
better than a lot of people.And I stood out and you know a
lot of people are like, who'sthis kid? Right? So the football
became an escape for me at avery young age, and I quickly learned
that this is something that I wantto do and if I could play this

(11:43):
sport for a very long time,or if I could play the sport as
much as possible, like I'm alwaysgoing to get some kind of recognition out
of it. Wow, I thinkwe're done. Just WHOA. That is
an incredible story. Yeah, soyou start playing at the age of eight
in Canada, where football isn't reallyI mean, hockey is their main sport.

(12:05):
You played hockey too, didn't you. Yeah? Yeah, I could
probably skate better than I could workclicks. And that's the crazy thing about
it. I skate two to threetimes a week. Both my kids play.
My oldest plays at du plays hockey, and my youngest is in a
snowplow three. We're trying to gethim to do the forward swizzles with one
foot, and his problem is heisn't like listening. We have a joke

(12:28):
in the house, Old Kylo doeswhat Kyla wants when color. So it's
interesting how one of those Okay,so you're playing football, you're playing hockey.
When do you then come to theUnited States and go to Florida.
Yeah, I'm playing football and thingsare going great and the unfortunate, and
I become a product of my neighborhoodand product of my environment. Actually,
everybody kind of in that building andin that community, we all grew up

(12:52):
without fathers. These shelters were alllike single women, right, and then
they would give them placement. Sothere wasn't a lot of father figures around
where we ended up growing up inthis building. My brother had his set
of friends, and I had aset of friends, and I was the
youngest, one of the younger kidsin my set of friends. And unfortunately,
when you're growing up in those situations, not a lot of us have

(13:16):
a lot. And then all ofa sudden, you start seeing some friends
that they're having a little bit more, and you're wondering, how are they
getting these little bit more. They'rein the same situation as you. You
know that they're trust as poor asyou, if not poor, right,
we're all struggling. And then youstart finding out that they're doing things that
not necessarily the right things. Right. They're stealing. They're stealing cars,

(13:37):
you know, they're running by,they're stealing people's purses, they're going into
op doctor's offices, stealing handbags orjackets and going outside and finding a car,
you know, you know, pressingthe button until the car beeps and
goes off. So I started doingthat, right, and man, it
became a product of my environment.I get arrested for the first time when
I'm twelve years old, oh man, and with a couple of my buddies

(14:01):
that are from the neighborhood, andthere's these two kids, and it's like
a little fair and I'm like,no, we should not do anything to
these kids, because one of themlooks somewhat familiar and right, not an
hour line of like like look likethey're buying like cotton cant, like the
little things. We didn't have thesethings growing up, right, No,
they're buying cotton candy. Look,he has a ten dollar bill. Man,

(14:22):
I would beg for a ten dollarbill, right, So we ended
up sticking up this little kid.Give me your money. Right. We're
literally like twelve years old, sonobody's hitting nobody like. It's not a
nobody has anything like it. Justgive me your wallet, right and running
away, right, And then Iknew the kid looked familiar. It turns
out the kid went to my school. So I get arrested the next day

(14:45):
for this stupidness, and you know, I get arrested. My mom comes
and bails me out, and she'slike, hey, listen, I don't
know what you're thinking, but we'renot going to do this. Right.
Your older brother he's already kind ofgoing down this path. My older brother
six years older than me, Soat this point he's eighteen, I'm twelve,
and you know, I go throughthe court system. They give me

(15:07):
a second opportunity, no charges.It was just like, hey, we're
going to put you on probation.Well a couple of years later happens again,
product of my environment doing the sameexact thing. At this point,
I'm in high school, We're doingit on a bigger scale. I have
these friends where I show up toschool and we leave. As soon as
we get to school, We're like, nope, not going to first period.
Let's go find a car. Rightin Canada, it's a lot colder.

(15:30):
People will turn on their cars andleave them on and run back in
the house to go make coffee andlet the car heat up. So ended
up getting arrested for the second time. This time I got arrested for a
robbery possession of a stolen vehicle,and my mom was livid. He was
just absolutely furious. So I gotarrested on a Friday. My mom showed
up to court for me on Mondaymorning. Judge gave me bail on Monday

(15:52):
morning. My mom said, I'mnot bailing you out. It doesn't matter
what the judge says. Your brotherhas already ruined his life. You're getting
ready to ruin your life. Atthis point, you're fourteen, years old.
What are you doing. I'm notgoing to continue to run behind you
to bail you out in and outof jail. I looked at her,
I said, I don't know whatthat means, but Okay. That night

(16:14):
I called my mom. I'm like, hey, what's up? Like,
what exactly what do you need meto do? What exactly is going on
right here? And I just said, listen, like, I need you
to write me a contract. Right, We're going to execute a contract between
me and you, and you knowwhat needs to be in that contract is
that you're going to change your life. You're going to turn your life around,
and I'm going to do whatever Ican to make sure that you're successful.

(16:36):
But you're going to have to makeme some promises that you're not going
to continue doing this. And atfirst I had no idea what to even
write, right, but I startedthinking about my athletic ability. Now,
I've always knew that I was oneof the best, like even being like
a bigger dude, Like in elementaryschool, I was the last runner on
my real a te I have trophiesfrom the four by one and the one

(16:56):
hundred meter dash and things like that, Like I've always been super athletic.
So my plan was at that point. Coincidentally enough, there's actually a buddy
of mind who's he's here. He'shere in Colorado. I grew up watching
this guy. His name is CliftonDawson. Clifton grew up in Toronto,
Canada. He's about six years olderthan me, and he was the first

(17:17):
person that I saw with my eyesgrowing up playing for Scarborough Thunder get a
scholarship and be able to move tothe States, like on a full scholarship.
He went to like Northwestern and thenwent to like Harvard, and I
was like, oh my goodness,gracious, Like here's the model. This
can absolutely happen. Yeah, andyou know, kind of told my mom.
I was like, listen, I'mreally good at football, like good

(17:38):
enough to go to college for sure, not any problem. I don't know
that I could get there playing here. Like if I moved to the States,
I should be able to get tocollege. Now I'm like, literally,
quitter job, move to Florida.Like literally. It was like wow,
okay, Like that's your plan,that's what you want to do.

(17:59):
Okay, Like I said, sodid you write a contract saying that?
Write it up? Stated she hasit. It's in her house in Jamaica.
Idiness many times, but moved andyou know, for the following year,
I dealt with the back and forthof the court system and all these
different things, and ultimately all thecharges were dropped and I was able to
leave. And I remember when thatfinal chargers dropped and I didn't want to

(18:23):
go at that point, but therewas so much work behind the scenes that
went into that moment that I reallydidn't have a choice. So it's this
fifteen year old kid that doesn't wantto go, doesn't want to leave,
but I have to no choice,right I've already committed to this, and
my mom has changed her whole lifefor it. So I moved to Florida

(18:45):
in two thousand and four. Igot to Florida academically ineligible because the arrest
and all these different things, notgoing to school, and you also had
to really work that junior year.We take a lot of classes, you
know, medical school, yeah,summer school, credit lab. Never forget
God. His counselor, MRSA.Fontaine, had a really huge impact.

(19:06):
She was the one that I satwith and she was like, Hey,
you got to take this class.You need you need to have at least
this grade and and like worked withme to really help me and just change
my life. And I opened upto her and told her like what I
was going through and all the differentthings. And even with that, got
to Florida and you know, unfortunately, still was doing some things that necessarily

(19:27):
work to write things. You know, at some point when you're seventeen and
there's so much, you feel likethere's so much on your plate at a
full school load. I got thepressure from my mom. I'm retaking two
classes. Some days I'm just like, man, I want to go to
class today, I just don't wantto. And my high school coach,

(19:48):
Chris Bean, he called me intohis office one day and I go into
his office and he was the peteacher, and he said, listen,
man, you're super athletic, you'resuper gifted, honestly, or Land you
can be able to do kind ofwhatever you want to do in this world.
But if you keep on messing aroundlike you're going to ruin your life.
And he brought me into light thegym and he said, listen,
at this point in your life,and he stood right behind me. He

(20:11):
said, if you go down thisroad and like reached his hand over my
right shoulder and pointed in the direction. He's like, if you go down
this road, you're gonna end updead. And he grabbed my shoulder and
spunned me a little bit. Hesaid, you go down this road,
you're gonna end up addicted to drugsfor the rest of your life. And
he grabbed me, he spuned me. He gave me a different scenario,
and gave me multiple different scenarios,right, and all of them were freaking
tragic, right, right. Andthen he said, listen, but if

(20:33):
you go down this road, yougo to college for free, you'll be
able to get a degree, andyou'll have an opportunity of going to the
NFL and creating generational wealth. Butit's up to you, right. You
know. I've had some really reallycool people very just you just happened to
kind of fall into my life,thank goodness. Yeah, and they were

(20:55):
able to kind of catch me atthe right time and kind of just redirect
me and make me into the personthat I am today. Yeah, there's
a lot of people I've talked towhere it's just taken that one person that's
come into your life and you're like, how did I get so lucky that
you were there when I needed youthe most and then put me on this
different path because I was going insuch a wrong direction. That's amazing,

(21:15):
Orlando. Yeah, so really quickthough, after I retired, right,
I started doing radio and stuff likethat. I had heard like Clifton might
be in Colorado, right, Andone day, you know, I'm like,
this is after we had our firstchild, say, and then one
day, like I'm doing a showand my wife's like, hey, do
you know the name Clifton Dawson.In the middle of the show, I'm
like, like, I pressed mesent a voice and I'm like, yeah,

(21:37):
I know exactly who that person is, Like how do you know that
name? Like, why do youknow that name? Right? Right?
So, Clifton's wife, Analise,is a dermatologist, and my son was
having some exma flara and one ofmy wife's friend recommended Annalise as the doctor.
So they start talking and my wifefinds out that she has a kid
and her kid's name is Kingston,and my wife's like Kingston and since my

(22:00):
husband's from Jamaica and he's from Kingston, and if she's like wait, my
husband's also from Jamaica and that's whywe named our son Kingston, right,
And then was like, my husbandalso grew up in Canada, and she's
like, hold on, wait aminute, my husband's also grew up in
Canada, right. So then theytell each other who their husbands are and
they have no idea that me andClifton know exactly who is. Right that

(22:22):
you're so connected, Oh my gosh, that's cool. So it's super cool.
That's awesome. Wow. Okay,so you obviously get redirected by your
high school football coach in a veryvery good way. You end up going
to the University of Miami. I'massuming there were more schools than just the
you that were looking at you.What made your decision for Miami and what
other schools did you look at seriously? Got a lot of buds, a

(22:44):
lot of attention, had over seventyDivision one offer. The schools that took
serious were Ohio State, Michigan,Florida, University of Georgia, University of
Miami. Those were the schools thatI really were taking seriously going on those
it's going to these different schools.Ultimately, for me, it was the
connection that I had with the coachesat the University of Miami. The head

(23:08):
coach right now for the University ofMiami recruited me. Mario Kurspaul that's there
right now, recruited me back intwo thousand and six. He was a
tight end coach and I had sohappen to be in this district back then.
But the iceing on the cake forme was really understanding who I was.
Remember I told you I had todo credit live, I had to
retake some classes. I didn't wantto fall into a situation where it was

(23:30):
too much to handle. So lookingat you, while I was there from
two thousand and six to twenty ten, the biggest class I ever had at
forty one students in it. Wehad under ten thousand undergrad students during that
time. Even right now it's Ithink it's like thirteen thousand, not even
like this massive number. I thinkthat was huge. People think that it's

(23:52):
massive because you know, it's theU and all that, but it's a
private school, so it's not asbig as what people think. You know,
and for me, I knew thatif I wasn't in class, the
teacher needed to know that I wasn'tin class. Like forty Yeah, the
teacher needed to say something the nexttime they saw me, Like, and

(24:12):
that was just me call it,you know, being a baby or whatever
you got to call it. Iknew that I kind of needed that,
being away from my support system andjust people that relied on me because I
hadn't be in high school, rightMersa Fontaine, if I missed schools,
she'd be like, hey, excuseme, where you at? Like what
are you doing? She's called meShrek, Shrek where you at? Like
literally, and like that was herway of just teasing me, you know,

(24:34):
And I knew that Mersa Fontaine woulddo anything for me. She held
yeah, and you know, Chrisbeing the exact same thing, right,
you know, my mom. WhenI first got to the University of Miami,
Jeff Stoutlin recruited me there as welland became my offensive line coach because
they had fired Larry Cocher and everybody. I get there and one morning we
used to practice a five third inthe morning, so practice and go back

(24:57):
to the room. I'm tired,so I went to sleep and Jeff Stalin
calls me at like eleven am,and he's like, hey, where you
at? I said, Coach,I'm on campus. I'm in class.
I'm lying to him. I'm inbed at this point, so I'm just
like, yeah, coach, I'min class. I'm I'm I'm walking around
going to class. And he's like, hey, man, I want you
to come visit me in the heckand that's the athletic facility. I'm like,

(25:17):
yeah, absolutely, coach, I'llbe there in a little bit.
And he's like what time. Iwas like, give me an hour.
I'll be there. He said,okay, cool. So I'm headed there
for noon. I walk into hisoffice. Hey, stout, what's up.
He's like, hey, oh,how you doing. Sit down real
quick and sit down, and he'slike, hold on one second, and
he starts dialing the number while lookingat his cell phone. He's downing number.

(25:38):
I'm sitting there. I'm just like, wow, this is weird.
Coach wants me to come into hisoffice and just hang out for him to
make a phone call. The phonestarts ringing and I hear, hello,
it's my mom on the other linethat just answered the phone. And I'm
wondering, why the hell am Iin this coach? Why am I in
my coach's office? And he's like, hey, Sylvia, and Jeff's stout
the office of line coach that youhave. You know, I was in

(26:00):
your living room. I recruited theheck out of your son. I looked
you in your face, and Ipromised to you that your son was going
to get a college degree. Igot a report right here saying that your
son has missed some classes over thelast couple of weeks. And he's in
the office right now with us,and I want him to explain to both
of us why he's been missing somany classes. And I'm just like,

(26:22):
are you kidding me? Like myjaws on the floor here in this situation.
Right So, I always tell people, you know, great coaches understand
what motivates each individual. A coach'sjob is the hardest job if they're doing
it the right way, because yougot to understand what makes that person,
what motivated. He could have satthere and told me to go ryn.

(26:42):
Guess what I would have been like, shuk oht, no problem. He
could have sat there and made mego to fat camp or whatever we want
to call it, where you gottado updowns of five o'clock in the morning.
I would have did that crap witha smile on my face that would
have never phased me. But nowyou call my mom. Okay, that's
gonna make me do a complete differentreaction. So you know, another great

(27:03):
romandel, great person that guided methrough my life. Just you say,
do you remember what you said thathad me dead to right? I just
have to apologize. I said,listen, I'm sorry, and it won't
happen again, and I'll make surethat I start going. My mom was
like, all right, it soundsgood. Just Outlands right now is the
offensive line coach for the Philadelphia Eagles. It's been off of the line coach
for the last twelve years. Evenwith all the turnover all that he's still

(27:23):
that off of the line coach.Wow, heck of a coach, heck
of a man, heck of aperson. Okay, so you go to
Miami, you played tackle and guard. When do you get the nickname big
Oh? Is that there or wasthat notun till you came to the NFL.
I've always big oh yeah, evenin high school high school as well.
Yeah, okay, I feel likewhen you're six six right, three

(27:44):
hundred plus bounds, Yeah, they'regoing to be big something, right,
and you're very different now, Imean Obviously you've lost a ton of weight
since retiring. Was it hard foryou to keep that on to stay that
big? And how difficult is it? I think for offensive I'm in too,
and I've seen many that have gonethrough transformations and become a lot slimmer

(28:06):
as you get done with football.It wasn't really that hard. I just
ate what I wanted. Like whenI was an NFL I didn't watch my
weight. I watched my weight inthe off season because I wasn't really running
right and if I had to geton it operating table and you have a
surgery, like I really had tokind of pay attention during that time.
But from the time we showed upfor OTA's in middle of April till the

(28:26):
end of the year, I atewhatever I wanted. That was just reality.
So for like three months at theyear, I watched what I ate.
But you know, some guys theyhad to force feed theirself and things
like that. But if I atetoo clean, I would drop too much
weight, really, and I alwayshad to show up to training camp.
So like I wanted to play atthree point fifteen, I had to show

(28:48):
up at three twenty five because nomatter what I was going to drop ten
pounds in training camp and you justcan't help, you know, when you're
practicing twice a day and dads andsweating. Yeah, you're just going And
it doesn't matter how credit you Youcould eat whatever you giving you and you're
still going to drop that way,all right. Broncos draft you in the
second round in twenty eleven and youplay here for four seasons. You start

(29:11):
seventy out of seventy one games,including regular and postseason, which is just
incredible, Orlando, as a rookiethat you started all those games that first
year. What we're the lockout too? Yeah, that's right. Yeah,
well, I mean what was itlike as a rookie coming in. Most
rookies don't get to start like thatand play in every single game. Yeah,
that I had an interesting real andI really owe it to them,

(29:33):
to be honest with you. They'rethe reason why. You know, Chris
Cooper is one of my best friends. I would do anything for Coop.
I would do anything for that family. I don't think he liked me my
rookie year. But you know we'vegot past that as now we are a
little bit more mature. But Icome in the year of the lockout,
and we don't know when the season'sgoing to start. We don't know if

(29:56):
we're going to have a season.You're talking about combine the I'm bind in,
I show up, I fight inshape, three thirteen, feeling great.
Life is amazing, right, gettinginto the best shape of my life.
Oh I after that, you know, right after the combine, I
remember, like it was yesterday.I had twenty wings downstairs with the Philly
cheese, steak and French fries.I flew back. I had to layover

(30:21):
in Georgia. I got a doublewhopper with cheese from Burger King. There
was a large drink and large fry. I flew back to Miami that night.
I got ten wings of big macinfries. Right. So I started
indulging and hanging out and eating.And by the time the league recertified because
we didn't know that we were goingto have a season at that point,
I got up at three hundred andthirty five pounds. So a couple of

(30:44):
days in the training camp, DaveMagazine was like, excuse me, how
much do you weigh? Hat doesnot work for us. You were three
thirteen at the combine. We're gonnaneed you to get back down there,
but Coop held my hand. Man, my rookie year, Coop, you
know, sat there and it waslike there was you can Spanish out there.
You know. I got here inDenver, they said, hey,
rookies, you guys got to getout the building because you guys haven't signed

(31:06):
your contract yet. I signed mycontract the next morning. Within an hour
of me signing my contract, I'min a meeting. Thirty minutes after that
meeting, I'm outside. I'm juststarting right tackle over the Denver Broncos.
Like, the right guard is ChrisCooper, the left tackles Ryan Clady,
the centers JD. Walton, theleft guard is Zane Beatles. Like I
am taking first team reps and they'resaying deuce and I'm like, what does

(31:27):
deuce? Like, what does thatmean? This is how it sounds to
me. Kyle Orton is in thehoodies, blah blah blah blah blah blah
blah. I'm too ready break.I get up to the line of scrimmage
and Coop's like, hey, blockninety two, that's what he's telling me,
Like block doom And he's not sayingdoom because I don't know these guys'
names. Hey, block number ninetytwo, that's it. And you know

(31:48):
I struggled my first couple of days. I struggled here, right, And
then you know you got doom Avillecoming off the edge, Robert air Is
coming off the edge, Miller comingoff the edge. And I'm thinking in
my head, like I'm gonna bethe first person in the history of the
NFL that they're going to literally cutafter training camp, the first second round

(32:08):
pick where they're gonna say, Nope, we don't want them, we can't
deal with them. And I knowthat I'm heavy at this point too.
I'm a lot heavier, so I'mnot moving that well, and I'm just
thinking, like, so dang,what am I going to do? And
then we put in this play Tallasthirty eight Gator and it's where this tackle
pulls and it gets to kick outthe corner. So, like I said,

(32:29):
this is like day five or daysix of training camp. So Kyle
Orton calls this play and I'm like, I look out there and I see
at number twenty four, I'll say, yes, there's the first time I
get to go hit a little corner. I'm about the latest corner out I've
been getting cussed out every single day. I'm getting cussed out in the past
game because Voon's running around me.I'm getting cursed out unless it's a run
play. I'm literally getting my butthanded to me in all these meetings because

(32:52):
you know, I'm going against theones and they're speaking Spanish out here.
I don't understand this terminology, soI'll break the hudd on. I just
literally started licking my lips. I'mlike, man, this twenty four guy,
I'm going to light him up.I'm on them like I'm coming off
the ground. I'm gonna hit thisguy so hard. This is going to
go be one of those ooh moments, right. I get in my stance

(33:13):
of car, order gets in thecadence and he says so hu and I
pull out there and I'm humping itand I'm literally I'm like, I'm biting
the heck out of my mouthguard.I'm about to hit this guy so hard.
Twenty four looks at me like literallylooks inside, looks at me,
and then he turned to the sidelineand sprinted out of bounds, and I
was like, what that's weird.He says, hey, hey, big

(33:37):
Franklin because we have the name tagson our helmets. Right. John Fox
was the first time had coach atthis point. He said, hein't big
Franklin. I say, hey,what's up? He said, Man,
you look like you were coming outhere getting ready to do something. I
said, absolutely absolutely, I wascoming out here to light you up.
He said, Listen, I don'tcare what your coaches tell you. Said.

(33:57):
You see this number twenty four.Do not touch me. Do not
touch me out here, do nothit me, do not touch me,
do not even come nowhere near me. And I was like, what,
No, Like, if that's theplayer, I player, I was gonna
leave my feet and everything. Iwas gonna light you up. He said.
I'm telling you do not touch me. He said, And if you
don't believe me, go ask yourcoaches. Do not touch me? And

(34:19):
a job back to the huddle andgo, hey, cool, Hey twenty
four just told me do not touchhim. And Coop looks up over so
it's like, yeah, that's chamBailey. Do not go nowhere near him.
And I was like, oh,okay, that sounds good. You
had no idea, No I did, no. I mean, this is
five days in the training camp,right, you know, I'm trying to
make a name for myself. Ifeel like I'm getting cursed out. I

(34:43):
feel like, like I said,I feel like I'm not even gonna make
this football team, right. Iwas just looking at champ as an opportunity.
Absolutely, yeah, no, don'tcome nowhere near me. Oh my
gosh. But you so you makethe team. Were you surprised that you
made it then? Or did thingsget better as training? So, like,
you know, you play the firstpreseason game, right, you know,

(35:04):
get in training camp when I'm likeday like fourteen, we play our
first preseason game. We play againstDallas, and Dallas are playing their ones
just like we're playing our one forthe first two series, and I was
just like, oh, those guysare just really really good. I could
play in this league. And likeif you get an opportunity at a d
Wear at this point, right liked you where is a part of Dallas?
So you know, you just realizedlike how good like von Miller and

(35:25):
Elvisdomanville really were. So at thatpoint, like I kind of knew I
was going to make the team afterplaying that first preseason game and like getting
graded out and it's like, hey, graded up pretty well. Right,
and that was like the first likestepping stone. That's the first building block
to turning me into who I wasand how I played the game of football.
Year and obviously everything changed to whenPeyton Manning comes to town, and

(35:46):
I know you and Peyton became veryclose and you're still close today too.
Yeah, I remember that, youknow, you go do that year my
rookie year, we had Kyle Ortonand then we went to Tim Tebow TVA
like installed the whole new playbook.We're trying to figure out how we're winning
football games each and every year.Everybody was trying to figure it out out.
We get Peyton, and I'll neverforget Me and Clady were in Miami

(36:07):
during the time, and we wereflying back to Denver for whatever reason,
weren't like in Miami in International Airporttogether and the announcement comes out that Peyton
just became Denver Bronco. Me andClady are running around Miami International high fiving
like we are kids, talking abouthow football is going to be so much
more easy now because you're running theball fifty plus times with Tim. So

(36:31):
you're like, man, this can'tbe life. My body's gonna break down.
And you know, you get superexcited with Peyton and thinking it's going
to be that much easier, butit wasn't. It was so much more
harder mentally because you're responsible for thewhole entire playbook. With Peyton. It's
not no week to week and here'sthe game plan for this week. You
know, Peyton could call something thatyou haven't ran in eight weeks and say,

(36:52):
oh, my said, hu,you better know what they're doing in
that play because if you mess up, you're going to get what chewed out?
Right? Yeah? Did you feellike you were learning Spanish all over
again when Peyton came to town atfirst? Yes? And then like we
started putting together like this value menu, right, and you know I've heard

(37:12):
about the value menu. It's simplein aspect, right when you go to
mcdonawal's, you want a big macand a medium five medium coke, you
say, let me get a numberone medium, right, yeah, and
make it a coke. So thevalue member was very simple. Biggie was
to the right, Small was tothe left, and that idea was you
had me and Lewis Basquets on theright, and yeah, I was bigger
than Ryan Clady, Lou was biggerthan Zane Beatles right, small was to

(37:36):
the left with the smaller guys.And like, for instance, one would
be like Warren Moon right. Youcould say one, which is great,
but then Peyton thinks that they mighthave heard one too much, so now
we have to say like Warren orMoon right, and you know, like
eight would be like Archie Mannon,So like you say eight, which is
great. But like when he startedusing the names, like that's when at

(37:58):
that point, as all of theline were just like, hey, listen,
whoever remembers it, just spit itout and tell us all right.
So it's like, you know,Biggie, you know, Archie was like
hey eight eight, or they'll justsay the play right, like hey we're
running pistol a pistol or whatever thething may be. But to help everybody
out, But yes, it wasa very complex in that sense, but

(38:21):
there was always codes in the wordsthat helped you right and and helped you
remember and like the word association,if you learned it the way that Peyton
learned it, and that it wasbeing taught and that's how you forced yourself
to learn it, and you wouldhave it like it was the back of
your head. All right, Sofour seasons here in Denver and then in
March of twenty fifteen, you signa five year deal with the Chargers.

(38:45):
What happened in the transition from Denverto San Diego? Were you a free
agent at that point At the endof the day, I don't know what
happened, because my last year herein twenty fourteen, Well, first of
all, I found out on socialmedia going into my last year here that
I was moving from right tackle toleft guard. That pissed me off.
So, you know, I tookto social media, did something that you

(39:06):
never probably should do, right,you know, I aired my business out
on social media because I was frustrated. Started every game but one game for
an organization, and now I'm findingout through social media like people are sending
me articles and it's saying like I'mmoving and nobody had talked nobody had talked
to me. So it got frustrated. It kind of blasted out something on

(39:27):
social media. Patrick Smike he calledme, you know, I explained exactly
why my frustration was and then Italked to Elway and then talked to John
Fox, talked to Dave Magazine,and after talking with everybody. I was
cool with it. You know,I'm going to do whatever I can for
the organization. I'm never going tobe a me guy. But when you
hear something at this point twenty thirteen, I'm one of the top three right
tackles in this league. At thispoint. You know, I was a

(39:50):
bad boy when I played right tackle, so this is what it is,
and that type of game that Iplayed right So I look at things like
that, and of how that wentwas, Hey, you know, when
you scratch our back, we're goingto scratch your back. You know,
we want you to do this.And and I'm telling Lebroncs like, I
don't want to do this. I'mone of the best right tackles in the
league. I'm trying to stay herelong term. And they're flat out basically

(40:13):
say hey, like you do this, and like we're going to look to
keep you here long term. Thisis not a death sentence, Like we're
not trying to ship you out,like we're trying to keep you here.
I'm like, okay, cool,Like I'll do it. And ultimately that's
not what happens, right, Imean, yeah, you know they tell
me that, and I do it. I do it. With a smile
on my face, have a greatyear, and shout out to Terrence Knight
pot Ropes. Me and him.We had such a great working relationship.

(40:37):
That's why when I was here,that's why we were so good. Guys
like Dware d Weeist was amazing.Yeah, Like if I got beat in
practice, we had conversations on whyyou got beat, like immediately right after,
Like I remember like being at theline of scrimmage and being light on
my hands and Dware being like,hey, y'all, oh's pulling, Oh's
pulling, and sure enough, likethis is the play where I'm getting ready

(40:59):
to pull. I don't know howhe knows that, but he tells me
after like how he knows it right, which now I'm able to correct it
because if I'm able to correct it, this is going to make us a
better team. So the chemistry wasso phenomenal. So you do that for
this organization thinking like, okay,let me do it, and with a
smile on my face, and I'mgoing to do it to stay here.

(41:19):
Ultimately, you know, do itand I have a really good year and
now I'm more versatile. I couldplay both positions right tackle, left guard,
and you know. I remember talkingto Lway and Alway telling me like,
yeah, you know, we're lookingto bring you back, and you
know, we love what you didfor us this year. It was a
great year. We're really sorry thatit just didn't work out. You know,
we all were shocked when we lostto Indianapolis in fourteen, Like that

(41:44):
was a blow. Like everybody wasshocked after that game. And then you
know, you kind of fast forwardand free agency rolls around. Still no
offer. As soon as free agencyopens up, charges off for me the
first contract. Tell my agent,Drew rosenhow says that call the Broncos out
take less. I'll take less tostay like I wanted to stay. It

(42:05):
wasn't no, Hey, I'm tryingto leave the demo. No, like
I wasn't into the whole. Hey, let's go get this. No,
my family was here at this point. My wife used to be a Turner,
Bobby Turner's doctor. I'm married tohis youngest daughter, Like she's from
here. And I loved Colorado,loved it. I grew up in Toronto,
Canada. I love the fact ofwhen it's December, there's no December,

(42:29):
like it's cold, like when Iwas like in South Florida, and
I hated that. So I toldmy agent. I said, hey,
listen, tell the Broncos. I'lltake us. And this was like the
start of free agency. I endedup getting a lot more money. And
the reason why I ended up gettinga lot more money is because when my
agent calls back to Broncos, theysaid, there's no offer. We're not
offering them anything. And I'm like, are you kidding me? Like sow

(42:50):
the last year, the finding outthat may I'm moving from right tack of
the left guard, the last yearof everything that you guys have been telling
me at the end of the season, how great of the season it was,
and you're great, our second bestoff of the lineman, and we're
looking to absolutely bring you back.And there was no offer and there's nothing.
You can't even low bone me,like it's not even like worth that.

(43:10):
But I was here for four yearsand it worked out. I missed
one game of four years whatever youguys that whatever they asked, like whatever
shot weeks where I'm shooting up andI'm coming out of that thing, I
can't lift my arm like at all, right, and I miss one game
the whole entire time, not anoff or so it hurt. It hurt,

(43:31):
it may be pissed off. Man. There was people for the longest
like I just wanted to see themanywhere and just ask them like, how
could you like because I just believein like just being honest. Right at
the conversation was Hey, you knowwhat, we love what you did is
going to be tight this offseason,trying to bring you back, but you

(43:52):
know, we're going to see ifwe can't. If that would have been
in conversation, I could sleep betterat nighttime. But it was, Hey,
we love what you did. Youwere absolutely amazing. We are going
to bring you back. That's theconversation. And to see the Broncos win.
I'm happy for the city. I'mhappy for this fan base. Absolutely

(44:13):
is It was that next year thenthat they go to the Super Bowl and
win. Yeah. But I walkedinto that Vegas strip for the offensive line
after they won Super Bowl fifteen,I was like, who the hell are
you? Like like half the guysin that room, I was like,
I'm one of the foundation blocks ofthis thing. Like this makes no sense.
You know. I could call itsalty, called it what it is,
but I just hate being lied to. Maybe that's why the Broncos don't

(44:36):
follow me on social media. Itmight be it is what it is.
Well, every guy has the storyof when it becomes a business, and
that is so hard, especially whenyou've poured your heart and soul into something
and done everything and then all ofa sudden they just go, yeah,
it's dollars and cents, and it'sreally really hard to swallow. So when

(44:57):
you go to San Diego Orlando,they you do a five year deal,
you're there for a couple of years. Is it completely different? Is it
as fun? I mean, isthere anything that's the same. Probably not.
Man, this was night and day. And the thing about it is
like I go to the Chargers thinkingabout there being some familiarity. Right,
we got Mike McCoy's the head coach. Heck, even one of the new

(45:20):
head athletic trainer, James College.He was here with the Broncos way back
when under under Steve Antonopolis, underGreed. So I'm going to the Chargers
looking for a little bit of familiarityand I don't find any of that.
They literally don't you know my office, the line coach, he's trying to
change everything about me. I shouldhave knew something was going on when I
go on my visit to sign mycontract and the offensive line coach is nowhere

(45:43):
to be found, and I'm thebig free agent acquisition and he's not even
in the state when I'm there.So I should have knew something was going
on. And maybe Mike was hidingJoe Dallas Senger away from me at this
point. But you know, itwas completely different rehab to the how it
was ran. You know, Iwas spoiled with the Broncos. The Broncos

(46:04):
are a first class organization. Theyare mister b He set the tone of
how to run an organization and whatthe players needed and how to go about
the day to day where that wasmy expectations with being dressed to Broncos like
everybody does this, and unfortunately thatwasn't the case. And you know,
I've heard some things have changed aboutthe Chargers and since they've moved up to

(46:25):
LA and they're doing things a littlebit better. But it was night and
day back back in twenty fifteen whenI left the Broncos and went to the
Chargers for sure, and then theyreleased you in May of twenty seventeen.
Yeah, they were Hey, we'removing to La. I said, no,
you guys are moving to La.I won't be moving La. That
is not what I signed up for. So at that point I knew that,

(46:47):
hey, you know what, ifI go somewhere else, go in
a different direction, I'm going tobe perfectly fine. So it has to
be released. At first that werelike no, nope, nope, noe.
And then I was like, listen, like, at least let me
start looking for a trade. Theysaid, hold on, let us see
what happens in this draft. Ifwe're able to get somebody that we're trying

(47:09):
to get, will release you.So even when they released me, I
had some guaranteed money on my dealat that point. That year was guaranteed
as well. That was part ofthe kind of reason why I kind of
released myself, got myself released upout of that situation. I'm not wasn't
trying to move an hour up thestreet, and I hated going to Las.

(47:30):
Yeah. LA's just different than SanDiego. Yeah. Yeah. We
would drive up to Anaheim games andall the time, or we go up
to like basketball games, and itjust wasn't really for me, like that
type of lifestyle. So yeah,I got released and twenty seventeen into being
a rough year, get like fivedays with the Saints. Well, I
blew my knee out, so I'vegot I get released and then I signed

(47:52):
with the Saints, like twenty fourhours after I get released, and training
cam rolls around and I blow myknee out and they're trying to put me
on IR and I'm like, hellno, my wife's pregnant. She's just
finishing the first trimester. I said, listen, y'all can release me.
I'm good. I got this guaranteedmoney from the Chargers, so I'm straight.

(48:15):
I'll go to Denver. I'll havesurgery in Denver, I'll rehab in
Denver and everything, and I'll bethere for my wife's pregnancy. So come
back here to Colorado, here forthe pregnancy, rehab and everything. Get
back right towards the end of theyear, Washington brings me in, signs
me for the last couple of gamesof the season. Play well, and
you know, they signed me immediatelyas soon as the season's over, signed

(48:37):
back with them. And you know, following year now, my first son's
born March twenty fifth, we hadan emergency sea section. So the plan
was we were going to have Zayto hear and then have a doctor out
there and kind of move the familyout to DC. But we end up
having an emergency sea section because everytime Keana's happening to constractions, a's heartbeat

(48:58):
gets going really low. The samething happened with my first ye have a
C section. So the doctor's like, hey, we got to go get
him, and we're happy with thisdecision and all that, but I didn't
realize on the back end what travellooked like, so they weren't allowed to
travel with me, which the wholeentire plan was Kean and Zay will travel
with me, will be out inDC together. So when OTA start,

(49:22):
I'm flying back every Thursday night tookDenver. I'm here for the weekend,
and then I take the last flightout on Sunday night back to Dallas with
a newborn. That's tough and forme, I just I couldn't do it,
Like the way I grew up,my father not being in my life.
The white I told myself the wholeentire life, like, whenever I
have children, I'm going to bethere for them. I'm going to be

(49:45):
one of the last people they seeevery single night. And be one of
the first persons they see every singlemorning. Like, I just couldn't do
it. So I did it forabout seven weeks, ultimately decided that I
was going to walk and you know, my agent didn't really loved that,
and he was like, listen,dude, you're going to miss it.
And this is not I said,I said, Drew, listen, man,
I said, this is not somethingthat's popped in my head last week.

(50:07):
I said, I'm dealing with thisfor the last seven weeks, and
like, this is not who Iam as a person, Like I've always
told myself the type of father I'mgoing to be, and right now this
is not a part of the plan. So I gotta do this, Like
my heart's not in this right now. So you know, walked away because
of it. Good decision. Ohno, I wouldn't change it for the

(50:27):
world, absolutely, and especially likeyou said, with where you came from
and how you were brought up,and that is I mean so commendable that
that was a huge thing for youto be a dad and be there and
a husband and be there and helpKeana as well too. But then you
get home and after retirement and she'slike, hey, you're going to get
a job. Yeah. My retirementlasted two weeks. Two weeks. Two

(50:51):
weeks, said Hey, what's yourplan? I said, what the heck
do you mean? What's my plan? What's your plan? Honestly my hat
goes off account and because had sheallowed me to do what my plan was,
and my plan was to take ayear, maybe a me in eighteen
months before doing anything, right,you know, play seven years in the
NFL. Right, then I haveto go out thigure and get a job

(51:14):
immediately. Right. Could have reallykind of took a step back and hung
out for a little bit, butshe was just like, no, you
can't do that. Having you aroundis like having two children, and rightfully,
so, you know, she forcedme to kind of get back out
there. And that was the bestthing for me because the way my mind
operates, you need a yes,like I really needed that. So it's

(51:37):
good that it worked out that way, for sure. And you did some
radio, you did some TV.You shed over one hundred pounds, And
what do you like better radio orTV now that you've done both? You
know, depends on what market,to be honest with, yeah, right,
and what you're doing with the fanand that market of Broncos all day

(51:57):
every day. Well, when you'rewilling to Stanley and you know a lot
about hockey, why the heck doyou want to talk about the third round
guard that the Broncos us drafted andkind of being forced down that forced to
be hey you got to talk aboutthis, you got to talk about that.
So your hockey talk was great whenall that was going on, it
was fantastic, you know. Unfortunatelycertain people ruined that for me in that
station and how they went about thingsand being forced to talk about even being

(52:22):
forced to go at other stations likehey, the blackouts and we have to
talk about it. Why I havefriends over at that station? Why do
I have to talk about that?Like being told like, hey, this
is what we have to talk about. It was just like, why are
you trying to make it be this? So like that was pissing me off,
and that started making me not likeradio a lot because of it.

(52:44):
But now I do radio with ESPN, I'm able to talk all sports and
I absolutely love it. Again.Right in the TV aspect, it's another
animal, right and you know,we get our assignment Sunday night, and
it's a grind. It's a scramble. You're on a production meeting on Monday.
On Tuesday doing graph It's Wednesday,you're talking to the visiting team.
Thursday, you're traveling. Friday you'regoing to the home team's practice and you're

(53:05):
talking to the coaches and the players. And then Satndaday you're calling the game.
So you know, I like thatbecause it challenges me, right,
and it's never really sitting still.But I'm really happy and content with where
I'm at right now because I don'tfeel like I'm being forced to do anything
where for a long period of timeof being forced to put out a certain
type of content which really wasn't me. This is me. I want to

(53:30):
I want to well rounded. Iwant exactly and I want to talk about
all sports. If lacrosse is what'sgoing on and there was a big game
last night, I want to talkabout lacrosse. Yeah. I'm just happy
with how everything worked and at theend of the day, build good luck
over there, right, Almost ablessing in disguise the way that happened,
right, because then you're able tobe free and do the things that you

(53:52):
want to do. Absolutely, that'sawesome, Orlando. All Right, So
you're being husband, you're being dad, You're loving retirement right now as I
wrap this up with you, Andyou've gone through a number of ups and
downs, especially as an early earlychild, which we heard about. What
is your advice when you talk topeople and when you talk to your kids
you're going to take them to Jamaicaand kind of show you know where your

(54:14):
roots are and how things are inother places. What do you tell people
when they have those down moments onhow to keep going forward? Because you've
had to do it many times wherepeople have pointed you in a different direction.
You've had to pick yourself up alot of times. I truly believe
that we could be anything that wewant to be in this world. You
know. I believe that I'm aliving testament of that. But it comes

(54:36):
down to how hard are you willingto work? And when are you willing
to sacrifice? You know, Ichallenge people all the time, like constantly
remind yourself that whatever you want,you can't obtain it. How hard are
you willing to work and what areyou willing to sacrifice in order to obtain
that? And I think if weall keep that in the back of our
mind, and they're constantly working towardswhat we want. That's how we've become
successful at the end of the day. Absolutely, Orlando, this amazing.

(55:00):
Thank you for all the stories likethis is just I could sit here and
talk to you for another hour andhear more of your stories. But it's
uh, this was fun. AndI've known you for a long time.
Did not know all of that background, which I think is pretty fascinating.
I don't know that a lot ofpeople do know a lot of that.
So thank you for opening up andtalking about all that. That's hard.
Yeah, no, thanks for havingme like people that know me, they

(55:22):
know a lot about me. Becauseif I could tell a story or if
I could impact one person, right, we went through all of that.
What we didn't go through is I'mover four years so right, that's how
I lost the weight, right right, you know. So you know,
if I'm able to have a conversationwith one person about something that I've been
throughing and just changed their outlook andmake them better, that makes it worth

(55:46):
it for me. So and congratulationsfrom that too, because that's a big
feat. Yeah, yeah, no, thank you. I appreciate it.
Yeah, don't miss it at all. Shout out to my friends on that
too, because honestly, getting soberwith something that I knew that I needed
to do if I had wanted tolive longer and just feel better. But

(56:07):
I wasn't really doing it because Ithought that, you know, I had
to have a couple of drinks inorder to be sociable one and just be
funny, and people wanted to bearound me. You know, when I
sat down with a couple close friendsof mine and told them to, hey,
this is my plan, Like theylaughed. They were like, oh,
you thought like we were gonna judgeyou, Like are you kidding me?

(56:27):
Come on, dude, of coursewe support you, Like, how
can we help you? I learnedthat I had some really awesome people in
my life when I started that journeyover four years ago and just continues to
go. And that's something that forme was very important for me, a
right, I was getting ready tohave a second child and things like that.
And you know, my only regretis that I didn't do it earlier.

(56:47):
Yeah, I should have did itright when I retired. I wasted
two years of feeling really really badby not saying, man, alcohol a
thing of the past. I don'tneed that anymore. Congraduates, Thank you,
thank you. This is awesome.Appreciate you got it. Thanks Orlando.
Wow, those are some stories,aren't they. Well, if you're

(57:08):
hearing this, you have listened tothe entire episode. First of all,
thank you. Secondly, I hopeyou enjoyed this episode and the others.
If you did, can you dome a favor? Please rate and review
this on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.New episodes Have, Cut, Traded,
Fired, Retired are released on Tuesdayson nearly every podcast platform. Get social
with the podcast on Twitter and Instagramat CTFR podcast, and check out the

(57:31):
website ctfurpodcast dot com. I'm yourhost, Susie Wargen. To learn more
about me, visit susiewargin dot com. Again, thanks for listening, and
until next time, please be careful, be safe, and be kind. Take care