The Unconditional Dad: Rich Watts on Family, Sports, and Supporting Your Kids' Dreams

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What does it truly mean to support your children unconditionally in their athletic journeys and life paths? Former Pittsburgh Pirate and UC Davis Hall of Famer Rich Watts opens up about his philosophy of fatherhood that has guided his two Division I athlete children through both triumphs and challenges.

Rich takes us deep into his family story, sharing how his own upbringing by a tough-as-nails former college football player father and dedicated mother created the blueprint for his parenting approach. The parallels between his childhood sports experiences and watching his own children navigate their athletic careers reveal timeless truths about resilience, support, and knowing when to step back. "You never quit anything," Rich recalls as a fundamental rule from his youth – a value that would later help him guide his son through the challenging transition from high school sports to a junior college path during COVID and eventually to a national championship.

The conversation explores the rapidly changing landscape of college athletics with transfer portals and NIL deals, offering both cautionary perspectives and nuanced insights from someone who has experienced these systems from multiple angles. Rich thoughtfully examines how these developments affect not just the business of college sports, but the fundamental character-building aspects these institutions have traditionally provided.

What truly sets this episode apart is Rich's vulnerable reflection on what matters most in the parent-child relationship. "If you have to push your kid, then your kid doesn't love it enough," he observes, challenging listeners to reconsider how they support their children's passions. His stories of catching footballs with his son echo his own father's dedication, creating a generational thread of showing up rather than merely telling.

Whether you're raising athletes or simply seeking to be more present in your children's lives, Rich's perspective offers both practical wisdom and emotional resonance that will transform how you think about your role as a parent, mentor, and guide.

Please don't forget to leave us a review wherever you consume your podcasts! Please help us get more dads to listen weekly and become the ultimate leader of their homes!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Hi, I'm Riley and I'm Ryder and this is my dad show.
Hey everybody, it's CaseyJaycox with the quarterback dad
cast.
Welcome to season six, and Icould not be more excited to
have you join me for anotheryear of fantastic episodes and
conversations really unscriptedand raw and authentic

(00:25):
conversations with dads.
If you're new to this podcast,really it's simple.
It's a podcast where weinterview dads, we learn about
how they were raised, we learnabout the life lessons that were
important to them, we learnabout the values that are
important to them and really welearn about how we can work hard
to become a better quarterbackor leader of our home.
So let's sit back, relax andlisten to today's episode on the
Quarterback Dadcast.

(00:45):
Well, hey, everybody, it'sCasey Jaycox with the
Quarterback Dadcast.
We are in season six and thisnext gentleman again, it's just
the power of being curious andthe power of connection.
And I met the one and onlytalented, rich Watts, through
his amazingly talented sister,who I've yet not to be in person
, but I met her on Zoom.
And I met Abigail through herfriend, tracy, who I met at a

(01:07):
conference in November.
So if you tried to follow thatone, that might be random, I
actually call it serendipitous.
So power connection.
Rich is an attorney at PetersonWatts.
He's a former Sun Devil, turnedUC Davis Aggie.
He might still have the highestbatting average for UC Davis as

(01:27):
a catcher we might find thatout.
He's in the Hall of Fame at UCDavis.
He's a former Pittsburgh Pirate, played some minor league
baseball We'll hear about that Ahockey guy and a golfer, but,
more importantly, a dad, andthat's why we're having him on
today to talk about Rich Zadadand how he's working hard,
continues to work hard, to bethat ultimate leader of his
household.
So, without further ado, mrWatts, welcome to the

(01:48):
Quarterback Dadcast.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
Thanks so much for having me, Casey.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
How about that intro?

Speaker 1 (01:52):
That was a lot, I was impressed.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
I didn't have a the smoke machine.
It broke right before I wasgetting it recorded because I
really wanted to get some energyand bring the noise.
Oh, that's funny.
I wish this episode wassponsored by Zen too, but it's
not.
But maybe they're out there Allright?
Well, we always start eachepisode with gratitude, so tell

(02:15):
me, what are you most gratefulfor as a dad today?

Speaker 1 (02:17):
Oh, definitely most grateful for my family, my kids
and all the effort that theyprovide to be amazing children
and contributors to our society,and I'm truly blessed with an
amazing wife who kind of runs itall.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
We have that in common Most good marriages we
marry up and they quickly theirmother's intuition and the mom
game.
They read the defense betterthan most.
They see problems happeningbefore us.
Dads, I'll speak for myself.
My wife's even more handierthan I am, which doesn't say a
lot.
But I'm grateful today for Ithink, right before we record,

(02:56):
we just talked about the journeyof high school sports, just the
journey your kids go on, andI'm just grateful for taking a
back seat.
Taking a backseat, um, usingcuriosity as a superpower and
just watching them, them, grow.
And even though I think aboutmy well, you got kids in college
.
But like that first few monthswhen you're, when your kid goes,
like the, the amount ofmaturity I've seen from my son

(03:18):
from like the summer till hishalfway through his freshman
year, I'm like whose kid is this?
It's like I just am blown awayby how much he's changed.
And I know people warn me but Ijust I didn't realize it until
now.
It's happening, but I'm very,very grateful for that Awesome.
Well, bring me inside the Wattshuddle and, you know, in terms
of the family, talk a little bitabout each member of the squad

(03:40):
and how you and your wife met.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
Sure.
Well, the story with my wife isshe was an all-conference
basketball player at UC Davis.
We actually met in the trainingroom.
I can take my bad knee and herbad back at the time for that
introduction.
We were introduced by achildhood friend of mine who
happened to be on her team, whoI didn't even know was at the
school.
I was a transfer myself fromArizona State and after that

(04:05):
we've been college sweetheartsand married since 1996.
So we're pushing 30 years hereand we've just had an incredible
journey together.
We were planners, probably backin even to our days she loves
to joke about when we went onour first real date.
I was telling her that someday,if I have a son, he's going to

(04:26):
be named Richard M Watts III.
He's not, he's Richard C Watts,but we planned that far back.
I mean, that's how we've doneit, and we started out as two
broke college kids, gettingmarried very young, getting a
couple of grad degrees she hasan MBA and I went and got a law
degree and we built a lottogether and that's been, I

(04:50):
think, something we're extremelyproud of.

Speaker 2 (04:53):
Very cool, and then each of your kids talk about
that a little bit.

Speaker 1 (04:57):
So my son, richie, is 22, our first.
He's an incredible personality.
He really lights up a room,controls a room when he walks
into it.
He's an incredibly dedicatedathlete and student.
He gets excellent grades bothmy kids do, but he's probably

(05:19):
the more emotional of my twokids but they both have an
incredible fire.
He's a football player at CalPoly.
He's a quarterback there.
In his second year there hetransferred from University of
Buffalo and he had transferredto there from a junior college
where he won a nationalchampionship at the College of
San Mateo.
So he's had a really fun timein college and his high school

(05:40):
career.
I mean we were talking earlierabout going and going to the
games.
I think probably my favoritetime of being his dad was Little
League baseball.
It was pure, it was our town,it was playing against your
buddies and from that pointforward things got more intense.
My kids a little too old forthe big travel ball deal.

(06:01):
We didn't really do a lot ofthat, but I do miss going to the
games.
Gosh, that was pretty much oneof my favorite things to do is
Monday, tuesday, wednesday,thursday.
We usually had something goingand my daughter, alexa, is a
outside hitter at Murray Statein Kentucky.
She is purely a volleyballplayer.
She was an excellent swimmergrowing up.

(06:22):
She is intense, a littlequieter than my son, but she's
definitely as competitive asthere is out there.
That comes definitely from bothmom and myself.
Outstanding student and trulyone of the most loving people
you're ever going to meet inyour life.

(06:43):
I mean, she may be relativelyquiet but, um, when you're in
her circle you're in for life.
She's an amazing girl.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
Love it, and um, how good is it to have a tough
daughter.

Speaker 1 (06:56):
Oh, it's it.
It's a huge relief.
I mean, I know, uh, we all tryto teach our kids, especially
our daughters, um to be theirown advocates and to be tough
and to do those things and standup for yourself.
And, um, I don't exactly knowhow it worked, it just did that.
She is, um, she's just notafraid to advocate for herself

(07:18):
and she's extremely strongpersonality, um, in
interpersonal relationships, andI know that, um, she's going to
never back down in the standupfor herself.
She's a lot like her aunt, uh,abigail, who you introduced us.
She's another tough one.

Speaker 2 (07:34):
I uh, do you think it's because of the brother to
older brother a little bit?

Speaker 1 (07:37):
I think so.
I mean, I think there's some ofthat.
Um, I'm not sure if that's whatcreated the dynamic with
Abigail and I, but I thinkthere's some of that.
For sure.
I think a lot of it comes fromher mom.
I mean, she got to see her momwhen we had COVID out in
California and they locked usdown and shut down sports for
the kids.
My wife was on the front lineson the news often and as much as

(08:00):
she could get the message outto advocate for kids getting
back on the fields, she couldget the message out to advocate
for kids getting back on thefields, and so she saw that
firsthand and she's seen.
You know there's the sayingmama bear is probably taking it
too light with my wife.
She's more like a terrifyinglion if you do something to her
kids, and so my, my wife's beena great example for that to my
daughter.
And of course my daughteralways knows she can ring the

(08:23):
bell and I'll come running.
But I don't know how much sheneeds that too much anymore.

Speaker 2 (08:27):
She's pretty dang tough three dribble max.
He couldn't score in the paint.
That was, that was the rule andI was the, I was the ref and I

(08:47):
obviously let it go a little bit.
Well, there's one time, I mean,he literally fouls the living
shit out of her like, flies herinto the house and like I'm like
what are you doing, dude?
And she's like dad, I'm fine,I'm like that.
He that's like a doubleflagrant t.
Yeah, you should be ejected.
But like I think, like it wassome days we'll talk about that
now as a family and thosememories are playing backyard
one-on-one.

(09:08):
And she says a lot of mytoughness comes from Ryder, from
COVID.

Speaker 1 (09:13):
Oh, there's no doubt some of her toughness comes from
her brother.
I mean, she stood up forherself plenty as a kid, but
he's also pretty darn protectiveof her.
So I think her high school,while he was there, there wasn't
a lot of fear of anybodymessing with her.
Put it that way.
I think, I saw an interview withone of the Diaz, with Nate Diaz
, and he was talking about.

(09:34):
The guy asked him have you everbeen?
Were you bullied in high school?
He said no, I got a brother andhis brother just happens to be
a world champion fighter.
But I think that's how Alexawould look at it.
I mean, she always knew thatand I think everybody in high
school knew that you don't messwith Alexa because her big
brother's coming if you do So-.

(09:54):
Love it but she didn't needmuch of that yeah.
And what does your wife do?
My wife stays at home.
She worked for five years sixyears, no, actually longer than
that, about 10 years when we gotmarried in corporate, corporate
world to be a full-time mom,and she is beyond what I could
have ever expected as a mother.

(10:32):
She's of Greek descent and ifyou know any Greek people, they
will.
A mother in that world is theultimate caretaker and caregiver
.

Speaker 2 (10:42):
Love it.
Yeah, it's fun.
We were similar journey verygrateful and I it.
Yeah, it's fun, it's um, wewere similar journey very
grateful when my and I'm glad itwas my wife's decision, not
mine um, and when she hung upthe cleats, um, I don't know
what age it was, maybe when thekids were like like five and
three or four and two orsomething like that.
And, uh, for me is when I was incorporate.
It was like this relief becausethen I know that I still try to

(11:03):
get home as early as I could tobe, you know, have family
dinners, but like knowing thatif someone they were sick, I
could still go work, absolutely,you know.
And they just took so muchpressure off and she's actually
now gone back to work, which iskind of cool.
She got a job during COVID forone of my it's kind of funny
story One of my clients thathired me to coach one of their
sales executives.
They ended up hiring her to dolike operations work and she's

(11:24):
been there shoot over four yearsand got the job like during
COVID.
Yeah, it's kind of fun.

Speaker 1 (11:28):
Yeah, my wife's life now is a little more dedicated
to uh to me, obviously, becausenow I'm the only one she takes
care of and she definitely hasto take care of me.
I'm a real pain, um, but youknow she's she's really, uh
still heavily invested in thekids.
I mean, we talk to the kidsprobably every day, but she is a

(11:52):
fitness buff and she's inincredible shape and she works
out harder than I possibly canimagine at this point in my life
and I think her emphasis, sheput her time in as a as the
full-time mob.
You know that's a 24 seven job.
So now she gets to enjoy hersemi-retirement so now she gets
to enjoy her semi-retirement.

Speaker 2 (12:08):
Wow, our, uh, our stories are similar, man.
I I have.
My wife is um.
See, my fitness goals at thisage are don't get fat, don't get
hurt, and hers she's stilldoing freaking power, cleans and
deadlifts.
I'm like a hard pass on that.
Yeah, yeah, I want to go togolf joking.

Speaker 1 (12:20):
The other day someone was asking me about my workout
routine and what you know, whatmy, what my squats were these
days, and I said well, I cantell you this, my last day of
baseball with the PittsburghPirates, I told myself I was
never going to do a power cleanagain the rest of my life and I
was never going to do squats.
Now I've done some squats andI've done some power cleans, but
it's not something I enjoy.
And she's out there doing thesame thing Deadlifts, power

(12:41):
cleans, deep lunges.
I'm like.
I'm just like you said, tryingto stay healthy and not get
heavy.

Speaker 2 (12:47):
Yep, a hundred percent.
All right, man.
Well, I always liketransitioned it to, to dad stuff
, now Like.
But I like ask my guests to goback in time to try to reflect
on what was life like growing upfor you and share a little bit
about how your, the impact yourparents had on you.
Now that you're a dad.

Speaker 1 (13:02):
Sure.
Well, I think my dad saidsomething to me when I was
pretty young.
I never forgot it.
He said you know you're nevergoing to know how much I love
you until you have your own kid.
And no doubt I learned that andI think I appreciate it.
You know my dad was a littlemore old school kind of not a
big disciplinarian, but you knewyou didn't want to disappoint

(13:24):
him.
That was.
That was the biggest threat.
It wasn't about getting spankedor even grounded, it was just
hearing that rotary phone on thewall where my mom called him at
work and knowing he was cominghome and you'd have to talk
about something you messed up.
So he was there for me insports always.
He was an incredible dad,taught me how to fix things and
work on things.
Never missed anything he could.

(13:46):
If dad taught me how to fixthings and work on things, never
missed anything If he couldmake it somehow some way.
He did and he was just amazingsupport and someone who I still
call for any complex question Ihave in my life.
I'm going to call and ask himthat question.
And my mom was truly anamazingly dedicated mother, a
lot like my wife, where therewas food always ready to go.

(14:10):
There was.
If I needed to learn flashcards, she was going to sit down at
the table with me and we weregoing to learn flashcards.
She's more emotional than mydad was, so she showered us with
love.
Not a big thing in my dad'supbringing I don't think that
there was a lot of the word lovebeing used, but you knew he did
.
But she was sort of theemotional one who shared that

(14:34):
with us and, frankly, I tookthat part from her and continued
to do that with my kids fromday one.
I just felt like they need toknow it.
Like I said, I never didn'tthink my dad loved me, but he
didn't have to say it, but Isaid it and I made sure my kids
understood it and understand itto this very day.

Speaker 2 (14:53):
We close every call with I love you, that's how we
do it.
That's two.
That's so good.
When is your?
Is mom and dad still with us?

Speaker 1 (15:06):
Mom and dad are still here.
They live in Georgia.
They are, you know, obviouslyvery retired now and loving all
their grandkids.
And you know my dad loves to goride on an airplane when
someone asks, do you havegrandkids?
Because he gets to talk aboutall of them.
And my, as you probably know,my sister's son plays in the NFL
or other son plays at Syracuse.
My oldest niece was a Startrack star.
Probably could have kept going.
She ran at Marshall for a shorttime and then focused on her

(15:28):
education.
Both my kids play Division Onesports.
My brothers both played collegefootball and it's just a crazy
story.
So I think my dad's favoritething is to sit on an airplane.
He'll always tell you at theend of telling you about these
conversations and just know whathe's going to believe you.
But it's pretty neat what theybuilt as a set of grandparents

(15:50):
and I think every one of theirgrandchildren just absolutely
adores them.
My dad is far more touchy,feely with his grandkids.
I mean, the guy will hug theheck out of them and I'm like I
never got those as a kid.
He still has a hard time when Ipull him in and give him a big
hug because it's just not theway he was raised, but just

(16:11):
amazing, and I probably talkedto my parents at least three or
four times a week, sometimesmore.
It used to be every single day.
And they'll say and they talkto four kids every day, almost
every day.
We all call.
So that shows how much of animpact they had on us.

Speaker 2 (16:27):
That's awesome, that's you know, it's it's
you're making me think about.
I hope that what you describedis what I have later with my
kids, cause I lost my dad in2020, uh, 2021, december 29th
2021.
My mom, um, she's 75, 75.
Um, they live in EasternWashington.
I talk to her every couple ofdays, you know, and she's like

(16:50):
obsessed with watching mydaughter play high school
basketball.
And then she's obsessed with,you know, she's the grandma that
like, if, like, the high schoolwebsite didn't update when our
games changed, but I'm tellingher the games changed, she's
like, no, you're wrong.
I'm like mom, I know, I justtalked to Riley Like she change,
but I'm telling her the gameschange, she's like, no, it,
you're wrong.
I'm like mom, I know, I justtalked to riley, like, she's her
games, I know.
But I'm looking at the websiteand it says I go, I, I get it,
mom, but that's not updated.

(17:11):
And so, like, she's like thatintense about it.
Um, that's what we know.
They care and but like, but myson will.
I'm on snapchat now, rich, whatI never thought in my wildest
dreams I'd ever be on Snapchat,but that's me and my son every
single day and, to your point,we always end each other,
whether it's my daughter's goingto school.
Hey, love you honey.
You know same thing and and Iwant that should be normal.

(17:32):
It shouldn't be, absolutely.
You know.
And but my dad, he was born in42 and kind of the same thing
you talked about, didn't?
I don't remember a lot of youknow.
I knew he loved me and hedidn't miss one of my college
football games never missed one.
But I mean, I don't know ifit's more like why this now,
because we didn't have that, sowe want to make sure that we,

(17:53):
our kids, have it, or if it'sjust generationally.
I don't know, but it'sinteresting to think about.

Speaker 1 (17:57):
I think it's a combination of you know your
upbringing with your both yourparents.
For me, at least, it certainlywas that.
You know, I saw the things thatthat I tried to take from both
my parents the positives, and weall have our negatives, but I
tried to focus on the thingsthat I appreciated as a child
and there's no doubt that that Iappreciated how much I knew my

(18:18):
mom would love me because she'dtell me and I knew my dad would
love me.
I mean, no doubt, but it wasjust a different way to express
it, right.
So I think, taking those thingsas generations move forward, I
mean it's, I think there's a lotof positive things.
I think one of the things thatconcerns me is sort of the
taking the manhood out of theman, out of manhood in the last

(18:40):
20 years, and I still think offather's role as a protector.
But I think you can also sharesome of that nurturing side as
well.
I mean, I love lions.
I think they're the mostamazing animals and they're very
similar to us, right, you havethe females that feed the cubs

(19:00):
and they do all the daily stuffand then if there's a cry, you
know, out of the bush comes dadto come save the day, but
they'll also lay on the groundand let the cubs bite their ears
and do all that stuff.
I think that's you know, ifyour kids know that, that you're
behind them and you're going tobe there for them, that's step
one.
If you can show it to them,that's a great step and I think

(19:21):
it's a positive step that we'veseen in our society.
I really do appreciate that mywife and I have different roles.
I can't do what she does.

(19:41):
I simply don't have thebandwidth to to care, to give,
to share the emotion as much asshe does.
She just has an ability to doit as a mother that I just don't
have, just has an ability to doit as a mother that I just
don't have.
Um, and but I think you know we, we move forward, we grow as a
society and but I I stillbelieve in, you know, I don't
know it doesn't necessarily begender roles, because someone
can.
Whoever works works.
That doesn't bother me, but Ithink it's great when you can
have um, you know the father bea father and talk to his son

(20:04):
about those things, and then andmy wife talks to my daughter
about things I don't talk about.
You know there's lots of thosethings.
So I think the evolution hasbeen an interesting thing, but
I've definitely kept some of theold school values that I think
are valuable as a father.

Speaker 2 (20:16):
No, that's cool.
I appreciate you sharing that.
Um, what, what did mom and dad?
Well, what did dad do for a job?

Speaker 1 (20:23):
My dad worked for AT&T for a very long time in the
evolution from PacificTelephone out in California to
what became AT&T he consultedfor many years.
After he retired from AT&T, mymom stayed at home.
She worked a little bit.
She has a degree from Cal.
She went back to school when Iwas a kid, which was a great

(20:43):
example to set for us.
I mean, she went and got adegree while raising four kids
and graduated with amazinghonors from Cal Berkeley.
So that was pretty awesome.
But so you know, dad was a suitand tie guy.
Every day when I was a kid, youknow he'd take the bus into San
Francisco and work downtown fora long time and we my sister

(21:05):
and I would go out and meet himat the bus stop and carry his
briefcase home, and that waspretty much daily event when we
were little.
We'd we'd walk over to do that.
So he was a.
He was a corporate guy for avery long time, but he's also,
you know, former collegefootball player went to camp
with the Atlanta Falcons andI'll never forget this.

(21:26):
I was probably in eighth gradeand they were tearing down the
high school football locker roomto rebuild it for the varsity
room and one of the guys who wasfour or five years older than
me I mean, these guys don't knowI'm an eighth grader comes in.
Oh my God, your dad is ananimal.
And I said, well, why is that?
Well, he pushed over the entirelocker set by himself and took
it right off the bolts and I waslike, well, that sounds like my

(21:49):
dad.
That's the kind of guy he was.
But he, to this day, is still ahuge human being.
I mean, he's muscular.
At almost 80 years old, hestill lifts weights.
Wow, what position did he play?
He played middle linebacker, sohe't.
He had a.
He had an interesting he mygrandfather was.
It was a tough lineman and so,uh, they're raising a

(22:10):
quarterback was a veryinteresting transition, so they
just didn't get it.
I mean, this is a differentworld.
I didn't want to smash people,I wanted to to throw touchdowns
and put my hands up in the airlike joe montana that's.

Speaker 2 (22:22):
You know, it's interesting, my college college
teammate, one of my roommates.
He was a lineman, Just theangriest lineman, the epitome of
a judgmental.
He's that lineman, A littleundersized which made him even
more chippier.
His son was a freaking studquarterback.
Up in the Bellingham area heplayed JC ball.
Then he got hurt.

(22:43):
But yeah, same thing.
I'm like how the hell does africking hog upfront raise a
quarterback?

Speaker 1 (22:49):
You know, I think it was kind of nice because my dad
didn't know anything aboutplaying that position.
So and I was, you know, latermy emphasis became baseball.
But my dad wasn't one tocriticize how I played.
But he caught thousands offootballs at the high school
field for me as spot catchingballs and I did the same exact

(23:12):
thing and still do it to thisday for my son.
But he didn't really know thejob.
So it was kind of nice and Ithink it was something I tried
to keep with.
Me is to.
The best I could is to nevergive input on how my son played.
Certainly he would ask and Iwould share it with him, but I
never.
I can't recall a time when Istarted with the conversation

(23:32):
saying, hey, I don't think youplayed well today.
My dad never did that, I justknew he was there Most of the
time he was.
I was the one who wasself-critical and he would have
to talk me out of me thinking Iplayed a bad game and my sons
carried on.
Both my kids kind of carriedthat on.
I'll tell them great game.
I mean, you played amazing.
Well, I missed this ball or Imissed this throw or I missed

(23:52):
this.
So I think that's kind of anice thing about having a father
that didn't play the position.
I don't know anything aboutvolleyball, barely can follow
the game with all the rules theyhave, but I've been trying to
learn for a long time.
But, um, I'd just love to watchmy daughter play um quarterback

(24:13):
.
I know a little bit more aboutthat, so with my son I'll share
my stuff.
But the position has evolved somuch in the last 25, well 30
years since I played it thateven the way you throw the
football is not the same.

Speaker 2 (24:23):
So it it's like a sidearm.

Speaker 1 (24:25):
It's like a three quarter motion now and they've
got all this.
You know they just changed alot of the mechanics, and so
that's been pretty interestingto see and learn from him.

Speaker 2 (24:37):
Yeah, they.
Well, you're back to your dad.
That's like a lineman's dream.
He gets to run routes for hisson.
Like this is like he's nothitting the sled, he's actually
catching balls.

Speaker 1 (24:45):
Oh it was great, I have great memories of doing it
and a few times I will say mydad said, hey, you know, are we
throwing today, you know?
And I was like, oh, I want togo to the pool with my buddies.
But I never regretted it and tothis day I appreciate every one
of those throwing sessions.
I never tell my son, no, everI'll go, I'll come home from
work, whatever it is, I will gocatch footballs Cause.

(25:06):
So only so many times you getto do that in your life.

Speaker 2 (25:10):
I'm going to miss rebounding and we have a little
putting green outside our househere.
It's like we have a chippingcontest where there's a
scoreboard back here that'stracking me and my son, like we
have this little game, but it'slike I know those times are
going to be gone before I knowit.
So it's like same thing, man,if I get a chance to rebound or
go chip and putt, I'm in.

Speaker 1 (25:28):
It's all in, every time.

Speaker 2 (25:30):
Okay.
So I want to go.
I want to go back real quick tolike values that were that your
parents that were like superimportant to you.
I'm obviously I don't want toassume but I'm guessing you know
hard work, grit, resilience,all those things.
But if you can think back tolike a couple that really stand
out, maybe with a story of howyou had to learn them that
you've now transitioned intoyour role as a dad like, tell me

(25:51):
what comes to mind.

Speaker 1 (25:52):
I think um, and I've I've kind of talked about this a
long time in my life that umfirst rule was you don't quit.
You never quit anything.
That was just pretty much thestandard rule.
You don't quit anything.
You start, you're going tofinish it.
Whether you like it or not,you're not quitting the team.
Uh, you're, there was.
I would never even considerquitting in a game, um, and in

(26:14):
competition, I'm not sure howmuch they had to.
I think there's just some ofthat you're just born with, but
that was something.
And then the other thing wasbeing able to.
My dad's big thing always was totreat every challenge as an
opportunity to grow.
And specifically for me, I hada really bad injury in eighth

(26:34):
grade and when I was going upprior to eighth grade, I was, I
was a pretty good baseballplayer and everyone sort of
talked like this guy was goingto go to the big leagues, he has
all this stuff as a 12, 13 yearold and they would tell my
parents stuff like that.
And then I broke my arm and hada nerve injury.
I had a really serious injuryand things.
It was, frankly, probablylooking pretty bleak from their

(26:58):
perspective as this kid whosewhole life was going to be.
Sports is now maybe never goingto play again and and from you
know, both my parents were werevery essential in teaching me
that this is an opportunity togrow.
This is an opportunity tofigure out who you are.
And it I recovered and I wasable to do the things I did
athletically later in life.
But I never forgot that and Ithink I took and along my career

(27:20):
I had challenges and schoolchange and a sport change.
My sport was football for myfreshman year and then after
that I never played it again.
So, taking each littlechallenge and saying how do I A
learn from this and what do I doto fix this and how can I get
better from having this thinghappen, and I think that was
just an overall theme that myparents taught us how to be I

(27:43):
don't want to say chameleons,because that's not the word but
how to adjust to adversity andto treat each adversity as a
potential opportunity for apositive change.

Speaker 2 (27:55):
Have you ever asked your, your mom or dad like how
difficult that was watching yougo through that injury?

Speaker 1 (27:59):
You know it's funny, we, we?
I don't think we've talkedabout it in a long time, but I
think at the moment you know,you know, you, you're a kid you
can tell what the look on yourparents' faces when the doctor
comes in and says, well, heshould be able to have use of
his hand again, comes in andsays, well, he should be able to
have use of his hand again.
And I mean it didn't pass overme.

(28:21):
I'm sure they were devastated.
And then what was the identitygoing to be of me after that
point if I could never playsports again?
Reality was they never even putthat in my mind.
It was never an issue that Iwasn't going to play again.
It was just when and what wasgoing to take to get there.
And frankly, it was sort oftheir message even then and I
think it still continues to thisday today was you're just not
going to accept this situationas the end.

(28:44):
And maybe I would have been asports caster or something
different if I couldn't haveplayed.
But they didn't even go to thenext.
If you can't do this, we'regoing to do this.
They're just you're going to dothis, you can do this.
And that was sort of the focus,I think.
You know the last time.
I kind of remember talkingabout it.
It was sort of like, oh well,you, just we knew you'd get
better, and I'm sure they didn'tthink that when I was laying in

(29:07):
the hospital in Oakland.
But you know, at the same time,um, they just didn't permit me
to accept anything less thangetting to what I wanted.

Speaker 2 (29:17):
Yeah.
Power of the mind yeah no doubt.
Is an untapped resource.
A lot of the work I do in mycorporate I guess my business
job is I just have, like, eithermindset work for executives or
just teaching sales teams.
So like, if you don't havebelief, hence the sign behind me
, it's like you're alreadylosing.
Yeah, and the words we saymatter.

(29:38):
I'm a big I will guy thatphrase.
It's amazing how just writing Iwill before a goal will
dramatically impact the chanceof you actually achieving it,
versus anxiety-based language,like anybody who says I need to
lose weight or I need to startworking out, they never do.
Yeah, you know, to lose weightor I need to start working out.
They never do.
Yeah, you know.
Um, but I?
The reason I ask is uh, I my, Imean, I squeezed every ounce of

(30:02):
athletic ability out of me toget to like I would have been
probably a one double a orthat's why I end up playing d2
guy.
But I broke my foot.
Senior year was out for I mean,and then I had to go watch a
guy who I beat out my junioryear now have to go play.
He ends up having thisfantastic high school career
sets, all the records I wassupposed to break and I had to
just watch, yeah, and I can'timagine, as a parent, how

(30:25):
difficult I mean, I know it'shard on me and I learned about,
true, what it means to be a goodteammate.
I learned about vulnerability,humility.
I learned that we're allreplaceable, um, but like as a
parent, um, you know, I've everit's funny my mom, like they,
they knew, I mean, they, theyremember it, but they don't
remember Like I remember it,which is kind of interesting.
Like for me, I, I'm 48 yearsold and I still remember that,

(30:48):
like yesterday, oh yeah, youknow, um, do you have your kids
ever gone through anythingsimilar like that, where you're
like, oh, I mean sure, I thinkCOVID was the first thing.

Speaker 1 (31:00):
My son had a pretty darn good junior year.
We were talking to a lot ofschools and it was looking like
you know, he was going to get ascholarship out of high school
and he was going to have anopportunity to play and it it
was not it wasn't all theperfect schools, but there was a
lot of really goodopportunities.
And then when COVID happened,we didn't play football in
California until basicallyalmost May of his senior year.

(31:22):
I mean, you're looking at wewent from talking to really good
FCS schools and kind of the FBSschools that were not the elite
top 25, but other schools thatwere really good schools to, oh
God, he's going to juniorcollege if he wants to play
football, and it's crazy to senda 4.3 student to junior college

(31:43):
so you can go play football.
But it felt crazy.
But it was probably thegreatest learning opportunity he
could have ever had in hislifetime.
So I remember to this dayshowing up at College of San
Mateo and meeting the coachingstaff.
It was windier than I've everseen anywhere in California and
they talked about how he wasgoing to play well there.

(32:05):
And then, after his first, whenhe got there there were seven
quarterbacks in the room at atwo-year school and they told us
after like the second week thatyou, you know, like they had,
we had been warned that mostjunior college players are going
to gray shirt and they have areally good program that mean
you don't enroll in full classesand doesn't burn eligibility.
And they and I we were kind ofa little shocked by it.

(32:29):
And when the coach called us hesaid well, he's going to win us
a championship.
It just won't be this year.
And I remember just thinkingman, he's stuck going to a
junior college away from home.
You know, junior college isdefinitely no free pass.
It is like being in the minorleagues, it is a grind.

(32:50):
And watching him go through youknow the period of the gray
shirt year and then reallystepping in and taking ownership
of the position the next year.
And then, you know, winning astate national championship for
junior college was probably oneof the most proud things I've
ever had in my life, because Iknow where that started.
I remember the phone call, theZoom call, with the coach of the

(33:12):
junior college going gosh.
This is where we're at now.
We're talking to junior collegecoaches.
Now.
Would things have been differentif he hadn't had COVID happen?
I think they would have been.
I think we were on a reallypositive path.
But the lessons he learned atthe junior college I don't think
he would have learned anywhereelse.
And the group of kids, thebrotherhood they shared at

(33:32):
College of San Mateo, issomething that I've never seen
anywhere else.
I never experienced it.
It was something just nextlevel, and it's partly due to
Coach Tulloch and CoachDovenberg and Sakona and all the
guys that run that program.
Coach Green, they're amazingmen and they raise, they take
18-year-olds and turn them intomen there.

(33:53):
But I don't think he would havelearned that anywhere else.
I just think that was amazingfor him to get that experience.

Speaker 3 (34:01):
Hello everybody.
My name is Craig Coe and I'mthe Senior Vice President of
Relationship Management forBeeline.
For more than 20 years, we'vebeen helping Fortune 1000
companies drive a competitiveadvantage with their external
workforce.
In fact, Beeline's history offirst-to-market innovations has
become today's industrystandards.
I get asked all the time whatdid Casey do for your

(34:23):
organization?
And I say this it's simple.
The guy flat out gets it.
Relationships matter.
His down-to-earth presentation,his real-world experience apply
to every area of our business.
In fact, his book Win theRelationship and Not the Deal

(34:43):
has become required reading forall new members of the Global
Relationship Management Team.
If you'd like to know moreabout me or about Beeline,
please reach out to me onLinkedIn.
And if you don't know CaseyJaycox, go to CaseyJaycoxcom and
learn more about how he canhelp your organization.
Now let's get back to today'sepisode.

Speaker 2 (35:01):
Isn't it funny how your mind can easily go down the
path of oh, but this or thatand Uncle Rico and that would
have been a hot tub soulmate,but it's like no, that happened.
For I look at these.
I'm a definitely believer ofthings happen in life for a
reason.
Sometimes it's like you know,bad stuff happens.
Like I don't ever wish to eatbad stuff on people, but like,

(35:22):
like even COVID is horrible, asCOVID was for like it brought us
closer as a family.
It gave us more, it slowed usdown to have more family dinners
.
It brought my son and mydaughter closer together.
I'm very lucky, like we're verylucky our kids were younger.
I can't even because my niecewas a covet.
She got same thing kind of.
Her college basketballexperience got totally changed

(35:43):
because of that.
Um, sometimes I still think,like, did we really go through
that?

Speaker 1 (35:49):
it's like it's been what five years now and we go
from almost five years to the tothe day and you go from the
where you say this is going tobe a couple of weeks.
This is weird to watching them.
You know, my son went to vertand daughter went to virtual
school for a year, yeah, andthen when he finally got in the
classroom it was the, you know,wearing masks and all this stuff
.
But I think you're right.

(36:10):
No doubt when COVID happenedand we were all locked down, it
was kind of nice.
I mean, we did have theslowdown.
We didn't have volleyballtournaments every weekend and we
didn't have a seven on seventournament every weekend, but
but we did.
I think I'm missing out on, mywife and I especially, the joy
of just watching our kids play.
I don't even care what they doon the field, but just to watch

(36:34):
them play gives us so much joyand you know, as the clock
starts ticking down here, we'retreasuring every single moment
no doubt Do you guys try totravel to a lot of the games.
Yeah, we did a ridiculous travelschedule last year.
You know we went to Cal Poly's,five hours from us, so we would
drive there.
We went back to see my daughterplay in Kentucky, where Murray

(36:58):
is, and we also saw her play inChicago.
The harder thing withvolleyball is you can travel
across the country to go toMurray and they'll do a
three-game sweep and the game'sover in an hour and the next day
they do the same thing andthat's it.
You travel 4,000 miles for that,or six to 8,000 round trip, but
everything's on ESPN plus forus, so we're able to watch.

(37:21):
We don't miss anything.
We watch every single game,whether it's either kid.
In fact, my son's firsttouchdown he scored in college
at division one level was wewere what we watched it on my
iPad at, and I think UIC or oneof the schools that we were
visiting watching our daughterplay.
So we don't miss it.
We're nuts, we are.
But we traveled and we plan ontraveling for 11 weeks starting

(37:45):
at the end of August and we havea great house sitter and we're
gone pretty much Friday,saturday, sunday for 10 weeks.

Speaker 2 (37:53):
Love it.
So you guys are a few yearsahead, but we're about to enter
that journey.
And um, my son, he plays golfin college at a small school
called Southern Oregon.
And um, my daughter, she's anaspiring um, we'll see what
happens.
She's just, she's finished upher junior year right now.
Um, but yeah, just like the, thejoy you get is, and for people

(38:13):
I know, I know what you're, Iknow, I know what you're going,
I know what you're talking aboutbecause I'm experiencing it too
and it's it, it even itsurpasses any joy as a, as a
former player, at least for me,like I love the experience.
But seeing your son or daughterdo something like I get, I was
telling my daughter too, like ifmy dad was still alive, like my
dad was the guy he droppedcrazy gd bombs.
You know, just freak out in thecrowd and sometimes bad,

(38:36):
sometimes good, but more goodthan bad.
But like he, if he watched mydaughter play hoop, like because
she's just like this tasmaniandevil, never gets tired, really
good shooter, but like does notback down anybody, he would just
be like loving it I mean it's,it is amazing and we enjoy it.

Speaker 1 (38:52):
Um, highs and lows.
You know the there it's.
The one thing I try to explainto people about college sports
is getting there is really hard,then having a career is really
hard and then just being acollege athlete even compared to
.
I was just talking about thisyesterday with someone you know
my freshman year of college.

(39:13):
We showed up as freshmenbeginning in August.
We had a freshman camp.
We started, the season seasonended and then we didn't come
back to actual practice untilspring ball.
We had weight training in theoff season and voluntary
workouts.
Nowadays the season ends, youget your Christmas off If you're
not in a bowl game, then youcome back and you're at 6 am

(39:33):
workouts.
Then you start spring ball andthen you have 6 am workouts
again until you start summerball and then that starts the
whole season over again.
It's a real grind and you know,my dad told me this about when
he showed up at the Falcons.
He said he looked around thelocker room.
He said everybody in here wasthe best player on their team in
college.
And that's pretty much whatcollege sports are like
Everybody in there was the bestplayer on their high school team

(39:55):
, some of the best players intheir leagues or in their
counties, and you're competingwith those people for playing
time.
So it is definitely a grind.
You're going to have coachesyou love, you have coaches you
don't like so much.
You've got to deal withpersonalities, but I think the
lessons that are learned incollege athletics translate
directly into the workplace inlife.
I mean, that's just how it is.

(40:15):
Adversity is just like I said.
It's another opportunity tofind another path or a way to
get success.

Speaker 2 (40:22):
A thousand percent Before I got.
I want to ask about your kidsagain.
But how?
Where do you think you strikeme?
Even though we've never metbefore?
You strike me as a guy thatreally embraces kind of like
mental toughness and power ofthe mind.
Where do you think that waseither learned or taught, yeah.

Speaker 1 (40:42):
I I'm not sure how much it was taught at all, I
think, growing, you know, justeven talking to my parents about
how I was playing little kidssports, it was it just came from
my parents and I think there'sa lot of that where it was just
innately I'm innatelycompetitive, I'm pretty goal

(41:02):
driven.
My dad definitely was a personwho who, just in talking to him,
you knew that if you wanted todo something bad enough, you
just have to work hard enough toget it and and that's that's
the example he showed us,particularly in the sports world
, was there's just the conceptthat if you want it bad enough

(41:25):
and you're willing to sacrificeenough to get it, you'll achieve
your goals.
Now, I didn't achieve all mygoals for sure.
I didn't play in the bigleagues, I didn't make it past A
ball, I was stuck where I was,but it just led me to the next
chapter of my life and to takethose things, those skill sets
that I learned playing sportsand that my dad taught me.
That I learned playing sportsand that my dad taught me.

(41:47):
That mental toughness is astrange thing, because I think
that phrase is kind of ambiguous.
Right, it can mean lots ofdifferent things, but for me, I
think not accepting somebodyelse's evaluation of what my
limits might be is certainly oneof those things I've always
felt.
I had a coach tell me one time abasketball coach, Coach
Kitchens where it's the effectof you know, all I have to do to

(42:09):
make you do something is sayyou can't do it.
And I definitely that's true.
I think that's with both mykids.
I think you know, knowing howhard it is to get to the next
level.
They both worked incrediblyhard.
I mean, they sacrificed so muchto get to where they are today.
I think they they can continueto, to keep that practice in

(42:31):
their lives yeah, it'll be funto see.

Speaker 2 (42:35):
I mean, obviously you more as uh taught when they see
it, I mean we can talk aboutwhen they, when your kids see it
.
Um, you know, it's like extra.
My kids work out all the time.
Now that's not even.
That's just what they do.
You know and it'll be know it'slike extra.
My kids work out all the time.
Now that's not even not.
This is what they do, you know,and it'll be interesting to see
, like the lessons, I mean ayour family's.
The freaking lineage is likeinsane to see how many d1

(42:56):
athletes you guys have, but it'spretty crazy right now yeah
it's insane.
Then you got pro athletes, yougot your pops, but like those
skills, they're going to bebeasts in business world.
Yes, I hope so, and if theydon't decide to be a beast
business world, there'll be abeast in something else.

Speaker 1 (43:09):
Yeah, and it may be being a beast as a as like my
wife, I mean I it's funny.
I wouldn't call her a beast,but she's definitely terrifying.
You don't want to mess with herBeast in a good way.
Yeah, Well, my daughter's mydaughter, Well, my daughter's my
daughter.
We used to always call herbeast mode because when she
played basketball, I mean shewas, she was 5'11 in eighth
grade and very strong, she was aswimmer.

(43:31):
So I mean her rebounding was.
I have a video that I love tothis day and I send it around
once in a while, where she got arebound.
A girl was hanging onto theball and she, full on,
tomahawked that girl onto theground just ripping the ball,
and I remember watching it andmy wife did on the video here
and go, oh, and I just likeshe's good, yeah, she's, she's

(43:53):
fine, She'll be fine at whatevershe wants to do.
Oh, those are the best.

Speaker 2 (43:59):
Okay, I'd love to transition.
So obviously a hot topic rightnow.
And if kids in college is likeNIL, which is completely changed
college sports Transfer portal.
I don't know if it was meant tobe what it is, but I definitely
it seems like at times it canbe completely out of control.
There's horror stories, there'ssuccess stories.
I just maybe I'd love to knowyour experience as a dad, like

(44:22):
going through it, lessonslearned that maybe other dads or
moms might be able to learnfrom your guys' experience.

Speaker 1 (44:27):
Yeah, I mean it's funny because I, when I went to
Arizona state to play football,I ended up playing baseball as
well.
There I played on the JV teamand I went through a transfer to
play I mean, they weren't goingto let me play both there and I
was told that one of our JVgames by the then Montreal Expos
that you know, if you go tojunior college we'll draft you

(44:49):
next year.
I said, well, that's fun, butmy next, this is probably my
last baseball game.
I'm, I'm, you know, going tojust play football.
And he said that's a mistakeand I was left handed.
Catcher is 220 pounds.
You know, six foot two kid, youknow I was a big kid.
So I did go into the.

Speaker 2 (45:05):
I transferred but it wasn't a portal.

Speaker 1 (45:13):
I didn't get to put my market myself or put it out
there for the world to see I'mavailable, but I benefited from
a transfer.
I think today and part of mealways was concerned that
coaches have the flexibility toleave whenever they want and you
can get recruited by a guywho's gone.
Not even by the time you getthere he's already gone, and now
you're playing for a guy whodidn't recruit you and maybe

(45:33):
doesn't see your skill set asfitting into his vision for his
offense or his defense or hisbaseball lineup or whatever.
So I kind of welcomed theconcept of the transfer portal.
I thought it was a good idea.
I think what happened that Ithink is negative for college
sports today is the combinationof the transfer portal with NIL,
and NIL money is great.

(45:53):
It's great, I think, to supportathletes beyond a scholarship.
When you're at a school andyou're on a scholarship, you're
living pretty poor, I mean,unless your parents can
supplement it, and a lot ofkids' parents can't.
Poor, I mean unless yourparents can supplement it, and a
lot of kids' parents can't.
And when my brother played atCal, the scholarship money the
lieu check for in lieu check fortheir living expenses wouldn't
cover a one bedroom apartmentanywhere in Berkeley.

(46:16):
You had to live in the worstpart of town.
And that is nice with NIL thatyou know your jersey's hanging
in the bookstore.
You might as well get somemoney for it, right With your
number on it.
But I'm afraid of what it'sbecome today, because now every
if you're not a top 25, maybe 30football team, even those teams

(46:37):
are poaching their players withNIL.
But if you're anybody outsideof that world, you have to be
terrified that each one of yourgood players is going to go for
a paycheck and leave.
And my son's team had happenedthis year.
They lost a pretty darn goodplayer, offensive lineman, and
he ended up going to Michigan.
My understanding is he got alot of NIL money to do it.

(46:58):
Would he have gone in theportal without it?
Maybe he got to play at a topschool?
But I think the combination ofthose two things has created a
unintended circumstance thatevery college athlete's a free
agent year to year and good, bad, I'm not sure.
Yet I I think you can seewhat's already happening now,

(47:19):
where when you watch a collegefootball broadcast they say well
, this kid was at this schoollast year.
The year before that he was atthis school and it's just that
was a foreign concept when I wasgrowing up.
So good, bad, not sure yet, butI'm not sure that I think the
worry I have about NIL is theHabs being having so much power
and money that they're going totake you know the Boise States

(47:43):
who went a bowl game years ago.
Take you know the Boise Stateswho who went a bowl game years
ago, they're going to just goingto be non-competitive because
they're good players, are justgoing to be gone the next year.
And we're seeing it.
I mean, we're seeing greatplayers on on from Mac schools
or from Mountain West schoolsjust being poached and playing
one year, two years, a coach'sinvestment in you as a young 18

(48:05):
year old and two years lateryou're off playing for somebody
else who wouldn't even talk toyou in high school.
But my son, he went in theportal after Buffalo, Loved the
new staff there, Loved the guysthat recruited him there.
But after a California kidmoving to Buffalo, New York, I
think we thought it was going tobe a fun adventure.

(48:25):
But living in Buffalo, New York, I think we thought it was
going to be a fun adventure, butliving in Buffalo, New York,
was pretty tough between October.

Speaker 2 (48:33):
That's not sunny in 70.

Speaker 1 (48:35):
Yeah, I mean, and that's what he lives in today at
Cal Poly, and when he went intothe portal, one of the things
we talked about was wasgeography.
He wanted to be in a locationthat was going to make him happy
, and he is so happy today, Imean, he lives in paradise but
he benefited from the portal.
I think it was a great you knowtool for him to find a place to
go play for a good staff orguys that that seemed to

(48:59):
appreciate him, in a place hewanted to be in on a, in a
school which had academics thatwere going to be going to be.
In a school which had academicsthat were going to be very,
very strong I mean, some of thestrongest in our state and an
opportunity when you're doneplaying, because everybody's
going to end playing someday,whether you play in the NFL or
you finish in high school, theday it's over.
You want to have a future and Ithink that was a big part of

(49:21):
why he chose Cal Poly.
It was just this is going to bea place that's going to set me
up for life.
Yeah, it's just, this is goingto be a place that's going to
set me up for life.

Speaker 2 (49:26):
Yeah, it's funny Like I've not gone through the
portal at all yet, but, like I,the thing that concerns me and
my thoughts might be naive, butit seems like if you're starting
, I look at like you know CalebWilliams, who went from Oklahoma
, starting quarterback Oklahoma,like why would he need to
transfer to USC?
It's like you're still thestarter, so now that just it
just shakes up recruiting andnow it's like it impacts like

(49:48):
high school kids are going to gothere and I just don't know if
the positive, the economicspositively, if it outweighs the
negative.

Speaker 1 (49:57):
And, yeah, that to me is actually kind of shocking
and that's where I my.
My take on the NIL pool wouldbe that if you're at Oklahoma
and you have 105 players on yourroster, the NIL pool gets
shared amongst 105 players.
In my opinion, that would be away to stop this, because, yeah,

(50:19):
I might go from Fresno State toOklahoma because my NIL pool
money will be $100,000 more,maybe more than that, but it
takes away the ability to gopurchase a starting quarterback.
And I think that's the sadthing is like Caleb Williams is
a very good example.
I mean, the amount of money hemade at USC.

(50:40):
It's almost like why would youeven want to come out and go to
the NFL?
You're going to make less moneyunless you're like what he
ended up being the first pick inthe draft.
But for everybody else, I mean,you're going to make more money
.
A lot of these quarterbacks.
Quinn, you're a perfect exampledown in Texas.
He can make more money stayingin college as a transfer guy
getting an L money than he canas a as a first year NFL player.

(51:01):
So how do you stop that?

Speaker 2 (51:04):
I know.

Speaker 1 (51:04):
So I do like and Major League Baseball has a.
I don't know if they still do,but when I was playing had the
licensing fund and everybody whohas who meets the minimum time
in the big leagues got a shareof it, and it was a big number.
It was probably more than theleague minimum back when I was
playing.
You're all contributing to it,so that's one way at least on a
team-wide basis you could evendo it by conference, I think,

(51:28):
making it so it's harder tooffer one guy all the money.
Very few players on these teamsare making the money that we
hear about.

Speaker 2 (51:36):
There's guys that are getting $10,000, $20,000.

Speaker 1 (51:43):
One of my son's best friends kicked at a Pac-12
school.
It was really minimal money.
He was a startingall-conference player,
outstanding kicker.
I mean really, if you wanted to, you could probably go to the
NFL at least get a shot at it,and he was that good.
But he was making barelyanything.
You know getting some free golfhere and there, whatever.
But there were kids like thequarterback was making 2 million

(52:03):
bucks and how do you have thatdisparity amongst two very
valuable players on your team?
I mean, the left tackle isn'tgetting the money that Caleb
Williams got.
He was just as essential toUSC's success that year, so I
think it needs to be reworked.
I'm not sure who's going to doit.
I think the NCAA is now apretty toothless entity.
I'm not sure they're even goingto exist in 10 years.

(52:26):
You know one of these superconferences like you keep
hearing about.
You know the SEC breaking offand creating a super conference
and just having, you know, sortof a it's not even amateur
anymore, but a NFL light withthe SEC.
I mean, you know they're justgoing to be minor league players
before they go to the NFL, andI don't think that's good for

(52:48):
college sports, I don't thinkthat's good for the kids that go
to college and don't playsports Well, the college
experience you lose.

Speaker 2 (52:55):
Absolutely, I mean the growth you know it's like
maybe.
And one thing I talked to mybuddies about maybe it's okay,
you're going to get NIL money oryou got to sign a two-year deal
.

Speaker 1 (53:09):
Yeah, you can't transfer unless you got to be
there two years unless you gethurt or something.
And I think you're going tostart seeing more sophistication
from the boosters that give theNIL money and doing things like
that and maybe that that mighthelp.
But I also someone alsomentioned the concept to me that
you know if there's NIL moneygiven to an athlete.
But I also someone alsomentioned the concept to me that

(53:33):
you know if there's NIL moneygiven to an athlete, they should
only get the money if theygraduate and incentivize a
degree, and so you can give thema portion of the money, like
20% of the money, you know,month to month, whatever but
then when they graduate they getthis money from that
institution.
I mean that would be a bigincentive to keep people to stay
Because you, if you go to theNFL your junior year great,
you're going to go get paid.
You don't need the money, butfor the rest of the people that
this is the end of the road.
It's a heck of a good start tohave a half million dollar check

(53:56):
waiting for you in a trustaccount.

Speaker 2 (53:59):
Yeah, crazy man, it is crazy.

Speaker 1 (54:02):
It's a wild West out there right now.

Speaker 2 (54:04):
Oh, it's going to be interesting to see as it just
evolves.
As you know, my kids furtherget older in this journey.
But if we, if you were tosummarize kind of what we've
talked about, we talked a lot ofgood stuff that dads can take
from our episode that they can,or conversation they can say.
Man, I learned a couple ofthings today and I can apply
these, maybe two or three thingsfrom Rich and Casey's

(54:25):
conversation that allow me to bekind of hopefully maybe a
better leader, my huddle, betterleader, my, my team or my
family Tell me, tell me whatcomes to mind, rich.

Speaker 1 (54:33):
I mean, I think for me, in looking back on where
we've gone so far and wherewe're at right now, I think the
biggest thing for me as a fatherhas been to support the kids
just, and that's maybe it's toomaybe the catch-all statement,
but whatever they decide to do,if it's, you know, my son, I, to
this day, I have every one ofmy college teammates will say

(54:55):
why isn't he pitching?
I mean, he's almost 6'4", he's220 pounds, he throws gas.
Why isn't he throwing abaseball?
Well, because he chose not to.
And I'm supporting him in thatjourney and I'm going to support
him in whatever journey hetakes in his life.
But I think being there foryour kids unconditionally you
know they're going to makemistakes, they're going to make
decisions you don't agree with,but being there unconditionally

(55:17):
is probably the most valuablething I think I can be as a
father and yeah, I probably havedone more than I should have
from time to time and helping mykids get out of trouble or
whatever, but I don't regret anyof it.
I mean I want to make surethey're safe and happy and
they're going down the rightpath.
I know they have the rightvalues, because they show it to
me all the time.
But I think support's a hugething.

(55:38):
I think sharing from anathletic side of it, I think the
outcome is far less importantthan the experience side of it.
I think the outcome is far lessimportant than the experience.
I think I mean, sorry, theexperience is far less important
than the outcome.
I think seeing my kids gothrough the college experiences

(55:58):
and high school experience asathletes the games are great,
winning and losing is importantto consider.
But I played a lot of games.
I don't remember.
I mean I remember a lot of theplays still to this day, but I
don't really remember all thegames I won or lost.
I remember the guys I playedwith or played.
It was crazy that I missed thelocker room to this day.

(56:20):
That's why I played adulthockey was I got to compete
again and be in a locker roomand share the wins and losses
with teams and all the otherthings that go with it.
But I think being supportiveand unconditional support, if
they have a bad game, I don'treally care.
I'm usually there as atherapist to try and get them to

(56:40):
say, okay, next one, I don'tcare what the outcomes.
I want them to win.
Sure, I really do.
I want them to have successAbsolutely.
But if it doesn't happen, when?
it doesn't happen because itwon't happen from time to time.
What can be learned from it?
How can I best support my sonor daughter?
I don't need to make them feellike if they had a bad game.

(57:02):
They don't need me to tell them.
That's probably the mostimportant thing is just
unconditional support.
I mean, there's going to be aday when you know my son's going
to decide it's over, or it'sover because it times out, and
then I'm going to be anunconditionally supportive
grandpa or you know, at hiswedding or whatever.
It's going to be and same thingwith my daughter.

(57:23):
So I think the most importantthing to me as a father is it's
going to be and same thing withmy daughter.
So, um, I think the mostimportant thing to me as a
father is is it's really justbeing there, and it doesn't mean
physically, cause sometimes youcan't be, but to know that they
can.
If they text me, I'm going tocall them right back, or if they
call me, I'm picking it up.
I will walk out of a meetingand go pick up a phone call to
make sure that everything's okay, and that's what my job is for

(57:46):
the rest of my life.

Speaker 2 (57:48):
It's gold dude.
I, um, you know, I think it's.
I think it's something allparents, specifically hopefully
there's a younger dad listenedto.
It's like right now they get sowrapped up in the outcome about
.
And it's funny, where I playgolf, I've become buddies with a
younger dad.
It's probably like 10 years, 10years younger in terms of like
where they're at in life.
And we had breakfast, a few sodapops one day and I was like, if

(58:09):
I can give you any advice, dude, just chill the F out.
Oh, no, no, and just, you haveno control over what's going to
happen.
I mean, you do in a little bit,but at the end of the day, if
they're going to be reallyreally good, they're going to be
really really good.
If they're going to be reallyreally shitty, they're going to
be really really shitty.
And you getting involved,talking to the coach, talking to
the refs, it's just like dowhat you exactly just did, Like

(58:32):
your journey is not theirjourney, their journey is their
journey, and just let it happenand support them.
You know, if they want to goplay catch, go play catch, but
if you're the, one alwaysdriving it, they're not going to
want to do it.

Speaker 1 (58:47):
There's no doubt I've coached a lot of kids that were
really good athletes and I'veseen burnout where the dad says
I can kind of close with thisstory because I thought it was
ridiculous.
I was at the gym and a friendof mine said hey, I want you to
meet this guy.
His son's a really goodbaseball player.
And he starts to talk to meabout his son.
He played 140 games last year.
I'm like wow, he's like 17, 18,must've played in a bunch of

(59:10):
travel teams, all this stuff.
He was a kid, he was like 11years old, and I remember
looking up years ago when Icoached Little League.
I looked up the odds of aLittle League or making the big
leagues it's like one in 11,000or 12,000.
The odds of a high schoolplayer, it's like one in 6,000,
making it just to get into proball.
And I remember thinking I toldhim look, man, you got to let

(59:32):
your kid love this game, forwhat it is Like make him play
140 games.
I promise you you want to goplay with his buddies.
And I watched, I waited, andthat kid didn't even play high
school baseball.
He shut it down in like ninthgrade.
He's just like that's enoughbaseball for life.
Let the kids be do things.
Play lots of sports if you can.
It's harder today than it wasbut touch them all.

(59:53):
I mean, my daughter didn't wantto play volleyball she.
I tried to bribe her to try outfor the volleyball team in
seventh grade and she only triedout because the PE coach said
I'll let you be my TA if you doit.
And it ended up being somethingthat got her a scholarship to
go to college and a game shetruly loves, and I had nothing
to do with that.
Don't my attempt fail to pushher into that?

Speaker 2 (01:00:14):
It took somebody else .

Speaker 1 (01:00:15):
But yeah, I mean the experience.
I'm not going to say I've neveryelled at a ref, I've yelled at
a few um you know, and and but Iwill say as a coach a lot of
the kids I coach, the ones I sawwhose parents had to push If
you have to push your kid, thenyour kid doesn't love it enough.
If you don't love the gameenough, you're you're going to

(01:00:35):
have a plateau.
That's going to come up prettyquick because you got to want to
go shoot those baskets in thedriveway and take a hundred free
throws before you go to bed orhit off the tee or throw the
football to your dad.
You know, on Saturday afternoonwhen your buddies are at the
pool, you got to love the gamefor that.
And you can't I can't, dadscan't, moms can't you can't make

(01:00:58):
your kid love the game.
That just happens and I've seenit happen.
I've seen it blow out.
I've seen kids just decide yeah, dad, I know this is what you
love, but I don't.
And you got to accept that.
That's just the way it goes.

Speaker 2 (01:01:12):
Yep, and I was going to say, and that's okay, and
it's not failure, it's justbecause they don't want to do
what you want them to do.
I remember throwing three picksin a college game.
I don't remember my mom sayingyou piece shit, you suck.
I mean they were like hug me,like it was just no big deal.
Yeah, like I already knew Ithrew three picks, I don't need

(01:01:32):
anybody, like I mean, yeah, likeI'm gonna hear from my coaches
the next day we watch film.
Last thing I need to do is myyou know my unathletic dad
trying to tell me what I shouldhave done I shouldn't do.
It's like it's not my you know.
So, yeah, I, I love this isreally good to kind of just
reinforce hopefully not formyself hearing what you talked
about today, rich, but I hopethat there's a parent that
listened that just let them,let's let it play out and and

(01:01:57):
and.
Um, there's, you won't regretit, man.
I'll tell you that if youchoose this path of parenthood,
no doubt um greatest thing in mylife Before I learn a little
bit more about your work stuffhow does one guy, a California
kid, get into ice hockey frombaseball?
That's actually a funny story.

Speaker 1 (01:02:14):
So I as a kid growing up in the Bay Area in San
Francisco Bay Area, there wasBerkeley Iceland used to have a
deal for a dollar you couldskate all day and I thought
hockey looked cool.
You know, I thought the gearwas cool, those gloves were
awesome, and so I'd go out withmy buddies and we skated.
In fact I dug my best friend'stwo front teeth out of the ice
at Berkeley Iceland with ascrewdriver and I knew how to

(01:02:35):
skate pretty well.
And then I was taking.
A friend of mine said, hey, I'mtrying out for this adult
beginner hockey deal.
I said that sounds fun and Iwent and watched them play a
game.
Oh man, this looks really fun.
But I was like, ah, whatever, Idon't know how to play the game
.
I'm not going to do it.
Then I took my daughter to askating trip to the local ice
arena, saw the sign, said I'mgoing to go do this.

(01:02:58):
So I signed up to play at thelowest level hockey and just
love the game and I can skatepretty well.
Couldn't do all the hockeyskating yet, but I learned it
pretty quickly.
And then, frankly, being abaseball player, it's a heck of
a lot easier to hit a puck onthe ice than it is to hit a
baseball coming at you at ahundred.
So I had some success early andI loved, absolutely loved, every

(01:03:19):
one of my teammates I playedwith.
We played at outrageous times11 o'clock at night on Sunday
night, you know, 10 o'clock onMonday night and I couldn't wait
all day to go play.
I played it as long as I could.
I definitely enjoyed gettingback into contact and that was
an absolute blast.
But at some point I started tojust get old and that sucked and

(01:03:42):
I couldn't do what I wanted todo and I started to get a little
banged up and I'm like, okay, Ican't come to work where I
can't walk for three days fromthis game.
So, but it was a blast.
I actually think it was one ofmy favorite things.
I did as an athlete was to playhockey.
It was so much fun.

Speaker 2 (01:03:57):
I, so I'm a new, I'm going to.
I've never.
I can't skate worth of shit,but I love.
Hockey is probably my favoritesport.
I'm a diehard Seattle Krakenfan.
Oh, that's awesome.
I watch every game Me and myson love it.
I actually interviewed JohnForslund, who's our play by play
NHL guy, on the podcast before.
Oh nice, that was a I when Igot him.
I'm like you gotta be kiddingme.
Um, I just love the.

(01:04:27):
I think it's just some of thebest athletes in the world.

Speaker 1 (01:04:30):
I think it's one of the the my my favorite things
I've ever done in sport isjumping over the wall with my
two line mates to go out on ourshift and know I'm going to go
out there for a minute.
I'm going to skate till myheart's going to explode and I'm
going to come and collapse onthe bench and I get in two
minutes.
I'm going back out and it wasabsolutely.
I had so much joy playing thatgame, so much.

(01:04:52):
I still have my bag packed.
It's in the garage.
I just saw it the other day.
My bag's packed and ready to go55 and over.
Leagues coming quick.
I might be out there again, whoknows.

Speaker 2 (01:05:01):
I think you just announced your.
This is like a press conferencefor you on the podcast.

Speaker 1 (01:05:06):
We're coming back, baby.
Yeah, I'm unretiring like Brady.

Speaker 2 (01:05:10):
Tell us about Rich Watts, the attorney.
How can people learn more aboutyou and your work?

Speaker 1 (01:05:15):
I mean, I'm a real estate transactional attorney
for the most part Do some realestate litigation, new business
work.
I got into this.
I was a real estate broker.
Another broker burned me.
I was really young, didn't haveany money and I said I'm never
going to let this happen again.
I went to Borders Books, boughtthe LSAT prep book and went to

(01:05:36):
law school with the intent onbeing a real estate broker with
a legal background and offeringthat.
And then that changed.
It's been 23 years ofpracticing law.
I love what I do.
I'm working for my clients,making deals.
It's still very competitive inmy world.
I've got a.
I really I'm kind of blessedwith a group of really brilliant

(01:05:56):
real estate minds who I workfor or work with.
I've learned a ton from them.
I'm just out here doing my joband enjoying it.
But one of the things I loveabout it is the flexibility it
gives me to work from a hotelroom and knock out some
documents for a client and thengo out later that day to watch
my kids play.
So good, Really fun.

Speaker 2 (01:06:19):
All right, well, I'll make sure.
If you want, we can tag that inthe show notes to make sure
people can.
They want to learn more aboutPeterson Watts, they'll learn
more about the firm and we cansend people your way if they're,
if they're interested in that,what you shared, rich, it's now
time to end with a lightninground, which I go completely
random on you.
I'm going to show the hits.
I've taken too many hits, notbong hits, but football hits

(01:06:42):
against.
Cal Poly, we're at a concussionin college and UC Davis, which,
against Cal Poly, were at aconcussion in college and UC
Davis, which I had anotherconcussion, ironically, and
that's the mighty CentralWashington University.
My job is I mean your job is toanswer these questions,
hopefully as quickly as you can.
Your job, my job, is to get agiggle out of you All right go
for it.
Okay, true or false, you oncebeat Wayne Gretzky in a skating
race.

(01:07:02):
False, okay.
You got inducted through the UCDavis hall of fame for
squatting 600.

Speaker 1 (01:07:09):
Maybe true.

Speaker 2 (01:07:12):
Uh, if I came to your house for dinner tonight, what
would we have?

Speaker 1 (01:07:15):
We would have Turkey burgers, pasta and a salad Cause
.
My wife's helping me get backto my playing weight.

Speaker 2 (01:07:23):
Okay, there we go.
Um favorite movie of all timeis back to my playing weight.

Speaker 1 (01:07:27):
Okay, here we go.
Um favorite movie of all timeis Ooh, that's a tough one.
I'd probably say red Dawn.
Uh, just because I will yellWolverines at the end of
anything, um, I'll have to stickwith that one.

Speaker 2 (01:07:36):
Favorite comedy.

Speaker 1 (01:07:38):
Oh it's, I have to be careful, but I'd say dumb and
dumber probably.

Speaker 2 (01:07:44):
Okay, that's a good if you're telling me there's a
chance.
Last book you read.

Speaker 1 (01:07:50):
Last book I read was the most recent Mitch rap book.
Can't remember the title but Ilove the author.
Vince Flynn passed away.
But these ghost writers amazing.
And I read those Mitch rapbooks religiously.
I've read every single one.

Speaker 2 (01:08:03):
Very cool If I went into your phone.
What would be the one genre ofmusic that might surprise your
kids?

Speaker 1 (01:08:09):
The one.
Well, they wouldn't besurprised only because they know
about it.
But I listened to East coast.
I'm sorry East Bay rappers andSouth Bay rappers from the Bay
area that my brother, my son,played with and you can find
them on Spotify.
Do a shout out to lace IV Loveyou, bud.
Awesome, that would be themusic.

Speaker 2 (01:08:29):
There we go, love it.
Um, okay, if there was to be abook written about your life,
tell me the title.

Speaker 1 (01:08:35):
Ooh, I would just say just driven.

Speaker 2 (01:08:41):
Now Rich when we're traveling on these airports, um,
and I'm going to, I'm going onmy Amazon, uh, I'm going to the
Barnes and Noble.
I can't find driven, becausethe thing's selling out like
crazy.
Everyone, everyone wants a copyof this bad boy.
So now Hollywood's found outabout it and they're going to
make a movie out of it.
You're the casting director.
I need it.
I need to know who's going tostar you in this critically
acclaimed, hit new movie.

Speaker 1 (01:09:08):
I'm, I'm, oh man, that's a tough one.
I'd, I would say Brad Pitt, youknow, but I'm a little better
looking than him.
Um, I don't know, I I've.
I've heard many times that I'vegot a little uh, um, bradley
Cooper in me.

Speaker 2 (01:09:16):
So I'd love to see that you do a thousand percent.
Dude, I was like shallow, let'sgo.
Yeah, there you go.
You a hundred percent.
Could pull off a Bradley Cooper, you got you a hundred percent.
Could pull off a Bradley Cooper, I, you got to run with that
one man.
I had to hear it before he didso yeah, he told me he's got to
get off here.
Stop copying you.
He's copied me.
Um, okay, and then lastquestion Um, tell me two words
that would describe your wifeFreaking amazing.

(01:09:38):
There we go Lighting roundscomplete.
We got a teeny of me, which itmeans I lose again, which tends
to happen.
I laugh at my own dad jokes.
Um, dude, this has been so fun.
I love learning about yourstory.
Um, fantastic information forso many dads to take and learn
from.
And um, I just really, reallyappreciate abigail trusting the
guys she never met, but I'm likeyou and your brother got me and

(01:09:59):
my, you and my brother got tomeet.
I think you guys will like eachother so I've enjoyed it.

Speaker 1 (01:10:02):
A ton casey and uh, you know I, you know I would
just, you know we.
There's no right way to do thisjob of being a dad.
But you know, if you're all in,I think you're going to do it
All right.

Speaker 2 (01:10:12):
So good.
Thank you to our sponsors,thank you to everybody who
continues to listen.
If this episode has touched youor impacted maybe your mindset
today, please share it withsomebody else.
If you um have not left us acomment, wherever you consume
our podcast, please go ahead anddo so now.
Find us on YouTube, spotify,apple or, mainly, wherever you
will able to consume yourpodcast Thanks to my friends

(01:10:32):
over at Buzzsprout and Zencaster.
But, rich, thank you again somuch for your time.
Brother, it's great talking toyou and hopefully our paths will
be able to cross and meet inperson one day.

Speaker 1 (01:10:40):
It'd be fun, absolute pleasure, casey.
I've loved every minute of it.

Speaker 2 (01:10:43):
Awesome.