Eddie George

Published Feb 6, 2023, 10:30 AM

Eddie George is here! The former Titans RB, and current head coach at Tennessee State University stops by Club Shay Shay to talk with Shannon about his playing career as well as his journey to becoming a head football coach. The 1995 Heisman Trophy winner, NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year and 4x Pro Bowler dives into what it's like coaching at an HBCU, and how Deion Sanders and Ed Reed's departures may change things.

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I hated y'all, especially hated you because you caught that wheel route. Yeah, and I said, what they kid school, y'all had one hundred and twelve yards of offense and won the game. All my life, the grinding all my life, sacrifice, hustle back, pricing, right, want a slice? Got the prowler dice swath all my life. I've been grinding all my life up, all my life, the grinding all my life, sacrifice, hustle, back, pricing, Want a slice? Got the bro dice swath all my life. I've been grinding in all my life. Hello, Welcome to another additional club Shasha. I am your host, Shannon Sharp. I'm also the proprietor of Club Shashay. And the guy that's stopping by for conversation on a drink today is a Heisman Trophy wearing a Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year, College Football Hall of Famer, NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year, a four time Pro Bowler, First Team All Pro A Titans ring of art in duct team has his number twenty seven retired for the Tennessee Titans and the Ohio State Buckeyes. Actor producer, entrepreneur and the head football coach of an HBCU Tennessee State, Hedy George Man, what's rock dog has man? Man, I'm glad, I'm great man, blessed, can't complain. God is good. Glad to have you on your show to try this outstande do it to much success. Yes, sir, past and future. Amen, let's do it. M hm oh yeah, oh yeah, that's yeah, Yeah, that's movie. That's move. Have been man, I've been good brother, just chopping wood, trying to get these kids and check. You know. Now, I'm coaching Ohio Tennessee State, right, been there for two years, going on my third year. Right, I'm trying to get the right bodies in the building that being on the field, uh, anybody that touches football. But there's academics, nutrition, uh, sports performance raising money. You know. One of our biggest deals that we're doing now, I'm trying to get football operations building built where we have everything there from our meeting rooms, training room, weight room all in one spot. Right now, we're just spread out all the place. Yeah, right, yeah. There's been a lot of negativities dealing with HBCUs. We saw the situation where Dion coach Prime he lay Jackson State goes to Colorado. We see the situation playing out right now with Ed Reid and Bethune Cookman. You so, how about some positivity? Yeah yeah, yeah. The atmosphere, the ambiance, the pageantry that comes along with being an HBCU. How much did you know about an HBCU before you took the job at Tennessee State And what did you learn once you get got there? Oh? I knew about HBCU football growing up. I mean I was a big college football fan. It knew about Eddie Robinson, Gramblin right, FAMU, Tennessee State, Vannah State, Okay. And I went to a Forkney military acay in Virginia, Okay, where a lot of my teammates went to hbc Hampton Yeah yeah, and my cousins went to So I grew up in the culture, Okay, and living in Nashville. Uh. We before we moved from Hugh. When we moved from Houston to Tennessee, we actually practice at Tennessee State the first couple of years, but within the dorms, right, So, I was very familiar with Tense State then and over the years I had friends and went to Tennessee State. I've had various projects at Tennessee State. So I knew of everything about the university and struggles, the great history they had with football, of some of the great alumni that come through there, with Oprah Winfrey, the mission just one person, yes, indeed, So it's it's it's a very strong brand when it comes to that. So I knew of both the positives and the negatives walking into that situation. Did you always want to coach? Because I mean I played against you. Yeah, I know your a little bit. Yeah I didn't. I didn't see the coaching bug biting you. When did you get the coaching bug? And what made you say? You know what, after all the things that you've done. I mean, you're on Broadway. We're gonna discussed that a little later. You know what, I'm gonna I'm gonna throw my hat into the coaching ring. You know what, Man, it fell in my lap, Okay, And here's how it is. You know, Like I said, I was, I was happy, you know, playing golf, working on my nine iron. I was enjoying that. I was watching my sons grow up. My son actually goes to the film school out here at usc Okay. My youngest is a high school football. I was joining being a dad. My wealth managers. My wealth managing business is booming. So I'm meeting clients and building that business up. And ironically President Glover, who is the president Tennessee State, is also the president of the AKA Foundation. Okay, who I do business with? Wealth management side. So it was right around COVID in twenty twenty and everything shut down, right, and I'm not acting, you know, I'm at home, you know, just just figuring out. Okay, what's what's life going to be? Like I went and went if godless? Right. So she calls me one day out of the clear blue says hey, or text me. She says, hey, I need to talk to you about something very important. So immediately I'm looking at Okay, let me look at the accounts to make sure everybody right exactly. I don't want her to pull anything out. I'm like, okay, let's see look at the accounts. Everything fine. In fact, it's growing because born the COVID everything was rock Oh good. She probably was adding more money, right like our beautiful give her a call and say, hey, the president, gover, how are you doing? One house? Everything? What's going on? It's goods? Accounts good. I see it is growing us. Are you're thinking about adding more to it? Right? So say no, no, not quite. I just want to I just want you to have an open mind about this. Oh, I said, Okay, you're calling me. She probably wants me to do some fun Reid for the Universal. Okay, that's not my next name. Well asked me for a donation, So I it's okay, we'll shoot it. What you got, says Well, I'm I'm thinking about making a change, and I want you to consider being the next head coach for Tennessee State. And it was a long pause, and automatically I'm like offended. I'm like, woman, don't you I'm financial advised, I'm not trying to raise money. Will ask me to be a head coach? Right? And this is off the heels of what Dion has done. Right, So I said, before I give a hard no, I want to keep the business relationship open. I'm gonna you know, let me think about it. Let me pray you on it, right, said, let me let me pray it out. So I got, I get off the phone. Didn't give us a second thought, and uh, talk to my wife. I said, Okay, listen to this. This ridiculous ass idea. Thend the glover called me, wanting me to be the next head coach for Tennis State. Knowing I never had a coaching experience, right, she says, well why not, baby, she sees something in you you don't see in yourself. I said, well, I'm doing all this stuff. I've been acting. I've been trying to do this, build my business. I don't have time to I can help or find one, but I'm they just probably want me to be you know, the next flash and the news I had no interest in that says, well, at least look into it. So as an exercise, I said, all right, if I'm going to start a program, how would I do it right? And that's when everything started rushing right. I said, okay, man, I can implement a financial literacy course, education, right, this is what I bring in this coach to do this, and the strength conditioning program, nutrition and all all these ideas is going is keeping me up? And now I said, oh no, you got five right, right, right, right, exactly power ideas. But that's where it came down to. So long story short, I put some things out there, you know, said well if I do this, this is what I'm gonna need my budget has to look like this. You must make a commitment to these key areas. What are your plans to build out facilities, cost of attendance, addressing all the things that we're currently talking about. Now, what is your plan? Because if you think I'm gonna come in here just you know, as a bleep on the radar or a day, you know, just something that's going to be a flash in the pan, have zero interest in that, right. But if you want to do something elite, long term, long term, I'm good because I am putting some stuff on the side. For my side, I don't need to do this right, I'm you know, I'm I'm sacrificing some things I want to accomplish because I want to pour back into the game that gave me so much right and pour into these kids and give them something in prime. What he did at Jackson State was inspirational, and I said, you know what, and I talked to him about it, Man, you can absolutely do it right. And that gave me the boot of confidence. And once I committed to that idea of being a coach, it just took on from there. Hasn't been more difficult than you oh stop right, yes, yes, but anything worthwhile is uphill. Right, what you do is uphill. I see, I've seen the battles that through upstairs and on the court, all that, I mean, all that comes with it. But you know, it's it's it gives me the tenacity that I have to see is succeed. The vision that I have for this program outweighs all of that, you know what I'm saying. I mean, there are days when I'm driving home like, man, you know what, maybe this wasn't a good idea. You know what I'm saying. Things don't move as fast as we would like at BCUs they're antiquated policies and operations that you gotta work through. It's an old way of thinking, so you've gotta I choose to approach it completely different than then, you know, blasting it out there. I have. I like to influence people to get ultimately move us in the right direction. That's progress, Okay, that's to move it to an elite status. So that's that's kind of the approach that I've taken. When you look at it, obviously, when a coach comes in, there's a lot of players that's already implemented, and they say, well, I'm gonna need like two to three years to get the players that I want, that I need to understand my ideology. Yes, I'm gonna work with some of the current players, obviously knowing that I'm gonna run some of them jokers off. Yeah, but give me a little while to get the players that I want. Now, you're heading into your third year. Have you turned that corner yet? Are you starting to get some of the players that you want that can implement yourself. Absolutely? I mean you get kids that fall off because of graduation. Some kids are not going to make it because they're ineligible, Some kids can't pass the drug tests. Some kids don't want that structured environment. You know what I'm saying, There's some non negotiables that I'm just not going to wave wrong. Right. You know, there's you play the game at a very high level, You're very disciplined. You've been under some great coaches throughout the entire you know what that looks like. Yes, for inside now and so and so do I. So I'm not going to change or compromise how I was raising this game because I'm cut from a different clause, right, But I'm also going to have an ear of understanding and listen to these kids. But some of it has got to go. So to your point, yes, we came in, had to implement a strength and conditioning program, number one, better nutrition. We've seen somebody's change, but the mindset didn't change. Right, what I'm saying bodies change, but the mindset still have to work on that. So I'm getting in those kids, whether it be from Juco or from the portal in high school, to come in and I have to mold them into what I want them to be. Right. Yeah, I read where you talked to coach Tomblin about how the best way about to go about this job. What was some of the advices that Coach Tomlin gave you? He said that, first of all, be yourself, Okay, don't try to emulate you know, somebody else like the Belichicks or Saving you know, those are those they're who They're very successful men. Be who you are. Come from your strengths and my strengths right now. And I'm not going to call draw up ISO and I'm there to inspire. I'm there to bring in the resources coming from that perspective, and that I could you know, absolutely be the CEO of the football team, right, That's what I am right now. You know, I'm there to bring in the right people, the right resources. I know, I know what a good run play looks like. I know what kind of defense I want to install. I know the mentality that I want to have, and I delegate that the exits and those to my officeive coordinator and my defensive coordinate and my special team's coach and let them do their thing. And the moment that that I see issues within that that they're not doing their job, that will be addressed. Right, you see what I'm saying. The most important thing to me. The biggest hire that I made Shandon, was having a chief of staff, Okay, someone that came from the world of academics and academia and building a program already, right, young man that went to Georgia State helped build that program up, and he came along board. He was out there in New Mexico, so he understood the language, the pitfalls, the everything. He was my guiding lights and he was the buffer, the buffer between myself and some of the administration, so it was never any friction there. So that was very important for me to have on my staff. So to answer your question, we are turning the corner in the right direction, and I think I think we're you know, hopefully we can have our first winning season. Our resources. The biggest hurdle that you feel you've got to overcome or hbc us need to overcome, it's that, you know what, brother, it is so much deeper more than that. It's it's very deep because it's systemic. Okay, it comes down to something that's been in place for one hundred for fifty seventy five, one hundred years, and you're trying to change it, and it's not gonna be able. You're not gonna be a football coach, is not going to be able to change it. It goes into politics, all right. Tennessee State just got awarded two hundred and fifty million dollars of land grant money that was old to them over the last five decades. Should have been five hundred millions, right, So they just get the money. But here's the catch. It has to go, they said, it has to go toward existing buildings. The two hundred and fifty million, the buildings that must be demolished. No, that shouldn't happen. They should be we should be able to dictate where the money go. How you gonna tell me we're gonna play your salary, but we're gonna tell you need to spend it on clothes. They don't tell that the University of Tennessee in the other school, right, But why Tennessee State, see what I'm saying. Yeah, So why can't they say, hey, here's our money. Third can go into an endowment, a third can go to an annual front. Another third can go to a new new facility. Right. But no, that's and that's the problem to because it because they still try to control examstance from a distance. So that's that's the stuff that I'm seeing and what stops us from truly growing and truly being elite, right, you know what I'm saying. And on the flip side of that, we've got to take those funds and manage it appropriately because stewards of that money and have systems that are transparent to show, hey, it went to X, Y and Z, here's the return on your investment, right, whatever capacity that is. I hear critics, says celebrity head coaches because they look at you coach prime as former NFL players Adie rob you play with Adie Robber, Yeah, amabam mistake. And they say, well, the problem is is that they don't understand the the the inner workings of an HBCU. They went to Power fives. There are these big names, and so they don't really understand what it's like to be out of an HBCU. And you say, what I do, because I've had so many family members and I do understand. I understand it's gonna take a long time, but I'm willing to put up, roll up my sleeves, right, get dirty, and help steer this thing in the right right. I don't understand it. I don't and that's why I choose not to go in making declarations on what needs to be done right, so I can understand to listen, Okay, then come up with a compromise of how we move this in the right direction. Right. You know, with all those issues, how have things been done before? Okay? You know what I'm saying. I choose to be to listen and then to be understood, right, and that in that regard, So, yes, things are are different at hpc US. The value system is different, everything about the experience is different from a Power five institutions. Let's be real with it. Some of the things are great, but some things need to be updated and polished off and moved in the right direction, because that's that's you know, Tennessee State has their own issues right. But then there are other HBCUs that are doing things right. Right. You look at fam use facilities, Yeah great, the best in fcs really. Oh yes, wow. You look at their weight room, you look at their their locker room. The facilities are topknots Alabama State, same thing. So there are some hpecius that are they're doing things right. So each institution is difffferent issues and different of these issues. It's correctly right. When you heard and like I said, you play with Eddie Robinson Jr. You know Eddie rob very well. I used to work out with him. When he's said Prime for whatever reason, they have issues. You know Prime said some things. Maybe Eddie rob said some things. They met it midfield to shake hands, and you know they brushed each other off when you're here, coach Rob says Prime. Coach Prime isn't swat what was your immediate thought? And then did you get on the phone and table Rob, We can't come on right you know what, I laughed. I mean to me that that's it's kind of entertaining, you know. I think it's you know, coaches have that they're competitive, right, you know what I'm saying, Dion mind up winning the game. He didn't appreciate some things that happened in the game, you know. And when Dion did, he flipped it. He turned into as all, yeah, it was viral. You know who Hey, sweat baby. I mean that was that was genius. But you know, I think I talked to Eddie about it, and he understood, you know, it was the heat of the moment, and he wanted to let him know where he stood in terms of, hey, you know, you're not gonna come in here and disrespect me, disrespect the conference, and and and and so forth. So you know, I look at that as being the competitor, right much much like you know, how we get down between the white lines, right, how we when Baltimore came to Tennessee, it was no love law. If you died that day, congratulate exposed to die. You did what you headed it. So that's that's how I look at that, right. Yeah. When I look at the situation with the sponsorship, because it was a genius what coach, what George Pryme was able to do. He took some of his partners and he leveraged them. Yes, the Walmart, the American Airlines. He had a great relationship with Michael Strahan, and he was able to get so these guys looked like they were well together. They didn't look like an all tournament team. Some guys in gans, some guys in slack, some guys in hoodie. Uh you know. Beats came in and did a deal with the nil deal with his son and they were able to get headphones. That's something that you're trying to do some of your partnerships, you're trying to leverage and says hey, guys, look this is what I need. Can you help me do this? And can you help me do that? Absolutely, he provided the blueprint of success, and I'm gonna take that same blueprint of success and put my thumb print on it, okay, and leverage that into hopefully what we can get at Tennessee State. Right. No, he again, Dion or coach Prime went into Jackson State with the plan right a to Z. Moment he stepped in the door, he knew exactly what was getting himself into. He had everything lined up, you know, reality show, he had sponsorships, He's gonna turn it into a phenomenon, which and he put a hell of a product on the field, right, you know what I'm saying, And that to me was everything. So yes, my plan is to, in fact, the next couple of weeks, meet with some corporations in Nashville, which is a oh god, you got a call. Got yeah, you know you gotta kill my boy been on your coach, yeah, yes, coordinator. But but Nashville, they have uh some fortune five hundred companies that would love to partner with us, and that is my plan to see how they can lend their resources help us, you know, get us to a level where we're elite. And I think that's possible. I know you're playing Notre Dame and the opener first time Notre Dame has played in HBCU. Coach Prime, I listen to him talk. He said, look, God, we gotta start. If we're gonna take a money game, make sure it's a money game. Yes, don't take four hundred thousand dollars. And then you can use your four hundred thousand dollars to travel and they gave you four hundred thousand, make them pay for travel. Take them also bring the band to travel, and make sure they played for the whole room and board for every excuse me, for hotel rooms and food for everybody that's traveling. Because if you just use your four hundred thousand that they paid you, and you gotta play for travel and you gotta play for hotel, you ain't got no money come out on backing. Yes, and you may also yes here in the rand right right, So you just said know the name right, So yeah, we're good on that, okay, Yeah, And that was and that was negotiated as such. I think it's a it's a wonderful opportunity for our brand to be to have more recognition, to be seen in that regard NBC the only game on NBC first time, like you mentioned, and at NORDER Dame two historic programs, and it gives us a chance to show who we are a program I mean, like you said, you know, thirty four Hall of Famers are from HBCU yes, three or four are from Tennessee state. Correct, so Richard din Claude Humphrey h to name a few. So and allows us us to show where we are going as an institution and as a football team and as a program. So you know, that's a wonderful opportunity to go compete at a very high level, to prepare and to show off you know what we who we are and what we're about to do. I don't know if you have, but I know one of your goals. I don't know if it's how a ready happened? Is the move from SCS to FBS. Has that happened or that what you know? No, we we've looked at various scenarios of what that looks like, what needs to happen, and that's a much bigger play for everybody. It's not just the football team goes the FBS. Yes, everybody have to go off baseball and we there's and there are some sports that we don't have yet to be FBS eligible. We got to institute the baseball you gotta get Maybe you know our ad Mickey Allen, phenomenal god, big thinker. He's thinking about bringing hockey to HBCU. You know, because they were we have the pretlers in town, so they've had conversations wow about that happening. So there's some creative ideas being floated around in terms of HBCUs and US going to the FBS level. We are sitting on, you know, some major bones at Tennessee State, not to mention you know, nine hundred acres of undeveloped land. Wow. And that's the last real big parcels in Tennessee in terms of development, and that's where the growth is going. So there's some opportunities there for sure. You mentioned that you had no idea, that you had no interesting coaching and then it kind of fell into your lap. Did you come out with it? Did you just say, well, I want to stay two years, don't want to They stay four years, they't wanna stay five years? Is there a plan in their timeline? And how long you want to stay or want to or what you want to accomplish while you're there. Well, the decision was easy for me because I didn't have to uproot my family and leave somewhere else. It's literally in my backyard right. I'm fifteen minutes away already from Tennessee State from where I live. My son's high schools around the corner. So my thing was, hey, you know, I have a five year contract. My goal is I'm ten toes down. I'm gonna be present where I am right now and get this program in a direction where I needed to go and leave it better than when I got it. Okay, there will come a time when I won't be the head coach, right, That's that's obvious. When that is, I'm not sure, and I don't know what that looks like for me. I don't know if you know a power of five schools the next move for me. I don't know if the NFL is the next move for me. Do you want to coach at the next movie? Do you want to coach? Absolutely? I would love that. So the coaching bug has betten you. You do. I'm dp, I'm not going in something I'm all in. I mean, I commit to that thing, and I'm all in. So yes, you know, I would. I would look at opportunities outside of that, because I understand, you know, what Prime was talking about, and for him to give everything he had to that university and to then getting the criticism that came along. But this, of course, they tried to get him in the stay though. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean he's done here. I mean to two under defeated seasons, and I mean that's that's that's never been done in school's history. Right, But he has to think about the miles and the lives of his coaches that because you gave them, they gave him his life. This staff gave them their lives for two years being underpaid and on favors. So it's time for them to cash in on their opportunities as well. And I think it's awesome that he can take his son, develop him at Jackson State and now take him up to a power of five school. Say, okay, that Hodsman Trophy is now real, right, that National championship is now real. This platform is now real. You know what I'm saying. And you have to respect that right. You have to respect it. How did you go about putting your staff together? I remember Hugh Jackson was on your staff, who have tons of NFL experience, got the job at Grambling. As I mentioned, my one of my best friends, Keith Burns on your staff, playing a number years in the NFL, has been on special teams coach at Washington. How did you go about putting your staff together? Because a lot of times you're putting people on your staff, you don't really have a whole lot of working relationship with them, guys that you don't really know. These guys, I didn't know a single soul outside of Joe Bowden, who I played with, Brandon Fisher, who I was on the sidelines when I was playing. I relied heavily on Jeff Fishers to guidance that I didn't have a roll of decks of coaches come come roll with me. You know. I was just thinking, Okay, who can I call on to help me constructors together? So Jeff Fisher, my first year was on my staff, is a senior advisor, and he was an architect to help me piece together who was doing what and so I'll get my sea legs underneath me. In terms of that, he did a masterful job, you know. And and in terms of the great coaches that are out there, interviewed quite a few guys. Hugh came up with some NFL experience, Burns, who was probably, you know, the gift in the building. I would never tell him that that's my dude, because he brings so much joy to it. He makes it fun to come to work. It makes it fun to come to work. He loves what he does. He's not there for a paycheck. No, yeah, you can see that, and I appreciate it about him, and he's he got your back, He got your back. Ye, He's a dog through and through. Joe Bowden again linebacker coach played with me with the Titans, Brandon Fisher. I mentioned on the offensive side of the football was Keenan Smith, who was a wide receivers coach who's now going on to other opportunities. H Cory Harkey who got with the Buffalo Bills last year who was not gonna get a ring, but led them to a great season last year. So I relied heavily on Jeff's guidance with that, And now the second and third go around and iteration of coaches, I've kind of taken control of that to see, you know, who can fit in, who can fight the piece to the puzzle. You know, it's got to be a certain type of guy that can come in coach these kids, but also mesh with the chemistry of the coachy staff. Obviously, if the game is a lot different because you're not just relying on high school guys. Now that transfer a portal and a lot of teams are getting guys out of the transf reporter. They're doing more of the transfer reporter than they are recruiting, no question, school kids. How how have you been able to navigate that? It's it's it changes minute, the minute, moment the moment. Two years ago, it was, Hey, we're going to go forty forty, you know, twenty in terms of our our ratio breakdown portal Juco High School, all right, and you know we're going to identify these body types. Well, the kids that we've gone after and Juco are going up to FBS. You know, I'm like, whoa, you know kids are getting the offers from Austin p and you know us and you know a fam you are going to Florida State and Ohio State. Wow, oh okay, okay, So we gotta find we gotta be very creative and how we do it now. So now because of the portal is literally free agency. Yes, you're seeing somebody go from Alabama, which is crazy to me to Homer right like, well, what are you looking for? You know what I'm saying, like this whole nil thing is. It's still perplexing to me. But from our perspective, we're having to go more on younger in terms of high school and development because there's a plenty of high school kids that are out there that are not getting recruited. A lot of quote unquote four star, three star kids that are being overlooked. And what's happened for us. We've developed like three defensive linemen that we inherit it and they're at FBS programs. Wow, one with the West Virginia, another one went to UAB, another one went to Akron. So it tells me we're doing the right things right. We're doing the right things. We're developing these kids. Now, we just got to figure out a way develop developing, keep them, but use it, you know, to your advantage. Say hey, you come here, let me get you, let me get your program for two years, give me two years, let me develop you. Get you ready for the next level of whatever that is, right FBS or even the NFL, you know what I'm saying. So it's incouraging to see what we're doing and doing it right. But we always have to shift with the current trend and recruiting and constantly finding what that is. That's the number one name of the thing in the game right now is it's recruiting. All Right, I'm a five star and you gotta come into my grandmother's house, and you gotta sell my grand you gotta sell me. What's your pitch? Oh lord? First of all, let's get a ship with this. Let's let's let's do that. First of all, five star. Before I get my pitch. First of all, I want to know what it is you want to accomplish. Ideally, I want to graduate, and then I got to go to the next level. Because you see the house you're sitting there. In four years, my grandmother's not gonna be sitting absolutely, and that's and that's my number one goal. So how how soon? How well can you develop me academically, football wise, make me a better man, and get me to the next level. Well, the first of all, you know, Tennessee State has a great is a great institution in terms of academics. I mean you look at some of the great minds and great people have come through there. I have a great business school. I don't know what your interest is. We assume as criminal, a criminal justice. I would be a criminal. I want to be a lawyer, criminal justice major. We can we can get definitely, Can you can over me a gift basket? Gift basket? I'm I can I can see what I can do. I think I can open it. Gets your gift basket and a book, all right, I know you love to read. I'm coming there. But overall, man, I would you know I'm not wanting to sell or pitch. I I really I really had like to try to engage myself in a conversation with him, man, and find out what's important to him. Because if that's what you want, I can develop you. I know what that looks like. How much is it conversation with the young man as opposed to selling mom or grandma? It's reading the room, Okay, find out finding out who the decision maker is. Okay, you know what I'm saying. Because the young man's gonna be influenced by somebody. So if it's mom, I was like, okay, you want to see your baby, right right? Yeah? So you want to go down to Jackson State and take a bus and the plane, or you want to come directly to the International Airport in Nashville, Tennessee, fifteen minutes from campus and come see him play. Right you know what I'm saying. So location, the ability to see our child play and knowing that our staff when you come to Tennessee State, it is what it is. Our staff really sells it, right. You know, when you got guys like you said, Burns and Joe Bowden, Brandon and and and Farren Ahs down the hall who was our officeive coordinator, you feel the love, you feel the family. You know, you know you're gonna get hart coached hard, right, but it's going to come from a place of love. How different and it because when you and I played, we didn't have some of the pitfalls that these young guys have now, which is social media. How difficult is it to coach? And the social media aide were licks and like and going viral are more important than becoming a great young man being a great football player. Hey man, you see it all the time. Man, everything's about the instant gratification. It's about clicks and likes and how many followers do I have? And it's it's very difficult because kids are now looking at hell. You know, you got Louis Bags at the at your facility, right what you want with the You're not getting that? You know, that's my I heard that, But you know it's it's very difficult now to navigate through that. But I know personally I have to do a better job to figure that out to attract some of these kids to some degree. But you know, I'm not I'm not about that. I'm not about the flash. I'm about action, you know, I'm about I'm about the work, you know. I'm about you know, getting my hands dirty and and hitting that iron, you know, iron sharp as iron, right, about the results. You know, I'm not into selling fluff. So but there is a balance that I must strike in terms of attracting a kid to come see who we are and what we do and to get him the door to stay. Have you stopped Have you thought about becoming more active on social media? Oh? Yeah, absolutely, I think about it all the time. I'm constantly trying to figure out ways to put our message out there, to put my platforms out there in a very authentic way that's not forced, that's not you know, scripted. It has to be very organic for me. And and I'm not going to strike until it's right. You know, I'm not not going to continue to do something that's just to just to do it and it comes off as fake, right, not not who I am, right, But it has to it has to be. It has to be real for me. I'm looking at you like your son. You're coaching your son. You have one of your sons at USC and you mentioned in film school and now you're coaching your son. Are your coach when you're coaching? Are your coach or your dad? I'm coach when I'm coaching. Okay, he knows that. And it's it's gonna be hard. It's gonna be hard and and but fair, right and and I coached my kids my team anyway, like there my sons, right, so it's not gonna be anything different. And you know, I'll be dad and drive home. But when he was getting recruited, I think it came down. It came down to two other schools. I was Navy and and Firman. And I thought he was gonna go to Firming, right. I wasn't gonna coach tomorrow. I said, this is your life, this is your decision. You know what I'm about you seeing us grow from year one to year two. You've been around it, even on the sidelines and so forth. But he said, Dad, you know I want to come play for you. I said, well, why? Said well what number one? I want to help you build this right? Wow? And I believe in what you're doing and you know, if I want to if I want to go to grad school, get my masters in business, I'm gonna do that. And if things to work out in football, I want to get the communications. I want to talk about football, you know, talk about the game. So he has a plan, right as a high school senior, right, there's some kids that don't even think that way. That's that's twenty two, twenty four years old, right, you know, still chasing the football dreams. So I said, okay, let's let's do it. And now it's you know, it's now with real skinning the game. Yeah, he's coming there. It's got to be right, right, I got I got to see it through. Do you ever worry about him going home and say, Mom, Dad, Dad tripping? Dad, have tripping at practice to day. I don't know what Dad was all. Nah, that happens already. I'll be at this wrestling matches already, lead lead on, you know, yeah, I'm at this wrestling matches. I'm already doing that and the stands already. So you know, I don't worry about that. I worry about my wife more than anything else. You know, she's she's she's she's the tough one right. Yeah, looking at your upbringing. You're born in Philly, you go up, Yeah, we're your ego fan. Oh who up? Bleeding Eagle Green h Roger Warski, Steve spack Noa grew up hating Dallas, stating the Giants in Washington. Michael Coms. I used to sell hot chocolate at the stadium. Oh yes, yes, it was Eagle Philadelphia. It was Eagles playing wash the Redskins, and I was I didn't make no money that day. I was a big football fan. I only took the job so I can watch the games. But they had membering ghost Busters. We had these packs on our back of hot chocolate and we had cups on the side. So I was up in the upper decks and I'm selling hot chocolate and the plays going on, and I'm looking and I go to pool it and I'm pulling out the hot chocolate. I'm shaking and shaking it and it wasn't coming out. So finally I shouted out and hot chocolate slatting everywhere right, and it was on this woman's white meat coat. Ah many, she didn't notice it. Everybody looked at me. I looked at them. I stuff down the steps I can't. I can't afford to pay for that joy. But yeah, I grew up a big Philadelphia fan. I love I love my Sixers like we love the Lakers, love the Flyers of everything about Philly sports. Now, yeah, high school football. You remember you said that, I think your sophomore year, your mom sent you to military school. Yeah, going into my junior year? Yeah? What what was that like? And why why did she do that? Were you hard hited? Oh? Listen, I had a one point three g PA in high school. So you get in prisoned with that grade. I couldn't get in prison. I was gonna go to Garson, was going to pay a running back at Penn State. Okay. And you know I was kidding myself. I wasn't alaala Land. And my mother could see where my life was headed. Okay, you know what I'm saying. And she said, Okay, I can make this move. Now, get him out of Philadelphia. Get him in an environment where he can begin to thrive and to begin to see his pot you were hanging with, Oh, I was it was? It was. I was a product of my environment. You know what I'm saying. There was a lot of drug use, a lot of depression, the kids, you know, drinking, smoking, you know, stealing. Yeah, and I wasn't that type of kid. I've never I don't like to get highway. I'll drink every now and again, but you know, I was being influenced in other ways and and and she said I had to you had to get out of there. So at the age of fifteen, she sent me down the Forking Military Academy. Wow, in the middle of Noting. Literally, like Charlottesville is thirty minutes east or west, Richmond is about another ninety miles uh uh east and smack dab in the middle of Forking Military Academy. And when you talk about culture shop, man, it was tough. I didn't I did not adhere to any other rules when I first got down there that he had every second, every second of the day was accounting for. Yeah, he was doing something, chores, studying, working out, doing something. And I thought, you know, this was you know, uh freelance willie, you know, doing whatever I wanted to do. But I had to learn real quick that yes, I had to do my chores. I gotta sweep the hallways, I gotta wax, and I gotta buffet, I had to clean the bathrooms. I gotta do all that stuff. And once I committed to the process of that, that's when things began to flourish. So I went there, man, I went to Fork Union, and you talk about some dudes. I believe it was about eighteen guys that we got division on scholarships out of four King Dogs went to North Carolina, Clemson, Florida State, or Savannah State, Virginia Union, Youngstown State, all over the country, some dudes. And I had to I went down to six feet one hundred and seventy eight pounds, and I had to get bigger, stronger and fast. And that's and that's what I did. How big were you were? You were you with anybody in your family military to the father My father was was he served in the army, My uncle, his brother served in Vietnam. My grandfather served in the military as well. So you have some you have the general knowledge of what military structure was like, but but no parts of that where you had to do. You know, hospital corners every day, two space fingers, with your with everything. Everything they say six thirty eight, don't you come in that Thai. Everything is a regiment. And so I did that for two and a half three years and I will never forget it. Man. After my true senior year, I rushed for like thirteen hundred yards. I was all prep but my grades. You know, I had to really work on my grades. I didn't have had zero scholarship offers. I had a partial offer to Edinburgh and this was going on my senior year and I'm like, what am I going to do? You know? So luckily they have a postgraduate program going back for second year again other year, and I developed and I worked on my my grades, and that's where I got really into reading, you know, Thanking Real Rich by Napoleon Hill. Okay, you know I was reading that every day and just having a positive mindset and just believing because I didn't have a place to go to it all. So I went back hoping that I can come back and garner some attention from some major schools. And I did just that. Man. So it was it was a blessing of disguise that my mother, because she didn't have much money, and I always wondered how did she pay for it? And it wasn't until nineteen ninety six when I got drafted that she drove back down to four key Military Academy and gave them that final check for my installment to pay off my entire school. Wow. Yeah, she's sacrificed. He worked seven six seven jobs man as a model, flight attendant, waitress, you know, god knows what else. It was just me and my sister and she worked their ass off to put me through there, and it was it was definitely life changing for me. So you get you're getting offers. Where was oh? I mean, it was all the state the obviously it wasn't the only offer, but did once they offered, did you know you were going to Ohio State? I wanted to go to Penn State. Penn State fan, right, my father, you know he was. He was a big football fanatic, love running backs, and I wanted He was on drugs at the time, and I wanted him to get clean. I felt like if he saw me thriving, being successful, he would come to my games. It would give him the incentive to get clean, clean life and relationship. So my goal was to go to Penn State and be a running back. Yeah, because they have him great with Frank oh Harrithly, Mitchell, DJ John Yeah, yeah, yeah, they had some dudes and I wanted to where that black and white, right that blue and white, so black shoes. And so I'm getting recruited at that time. You know, I got Louisville b B YU, Nebraska came on the scene, and one other school, Virginia BA. And I was really thinking toward Virginia. But there was a guy that was that went to Ohio State, who was at Fourth Union, who was my opportun sergeant a year ago, who was a trainer that taped ankles, and he would call me from time to time and I hated him because he drove me crazy. I'm like, Danny, Danny Ozmys. Danny kept calling me. He's finding out, you know, how are you doing and you know and playing uh in my high school years and he was like, you're having a great season. What do you think about coming to Ohio State? And I was like, oh man, that would be great. You know, they got Robert Smith, Demond Harris Butler, but they got some news too. All one it was opportunity. So he says, well, I'm gonna talk to the head national recruiting coordinator and let him know about you a trainer. So I'm like, all right, whatever. So calls me two weeks later, tells me send up a tape. I send him a tape. They look at it, calls me back to Eddie. They actually love you. Send another tape. I send another tape. Dude, this three or four more times. I'm like, I have no more tape the show. But finally they came down. Ron Hudson recruited in the area. A quarterback coach checked out the you know if I was six three, looked at the dimension and see if I was the right fit. I went up there. It was the worst visit of my life because it didn't take me out the show. All the goods they you know how they match you with personality, so they think I was a military guy. I was a military dude. So I sat in their apartment watching movies Man and Ohio State. I got twenty four hours. I'm like, look, show me where the women, show me the j I want to see the steps show but terrible. So it wasn't until I went into Ohio Stadium before I went to the airport the shoe and I walk in there and I'm like, oh, you get chilled. I gets hills now. I said, this is something about this feels right and I just felt it and I started, Yes, Yes, I said, Archie Griffin was played. Yes, yes, Chris Carter, you know all the greats, the great games. I said, just just give me an opportunity. I mean, I'm willing to compete. I don't care who's ahead of me, whether you know these guys are in the NFL. Just let me compete. And Coach Cooper offered me right on the spot. I said, I commit right here and then't waiver, and the rest is history. I'm looking at the freshman year, your f we had a problem with bumbling onto the poop poble. You're fumbling twice. I think it was against Michigan Illinois, Illinois. Yeah, and you lose that game because you're fumbed twice inside the five yard lane. Your siph Moore year, your third string, you barely even play. Yeah, you get back on the field your junior year fourteen hundred yards, twelve touchdown, and then your senior year you go crazy. Yeah, how what was it like at your lower's point your freshman year? Yes, everybody's boy, they would kill you. I have a lot they would kill you. Hey sharp, hey saying, hey dog, you know how y'all are right? You gott mess up. You gotta start cracking on a butterfingers. Yea, yeah, yeah, I'll carry my trade. They holding their hands beneath the trade like it was the trade. I mean it was. It was bad, and I was. I think in the one publication said I was the worst running back to come through Ohio State in the history house. Wow. And I didn't know. I wasn't good up the dog house. And I thought about transferring. I really did, because I had success early prior to those two fumbles. I had three touchdowns. When national television get Syracuse right, it was naturally ranked it and I was the goal iron specialist. And when that happened, I got shelved for two years and I went in the tank. I got depressed, scourged. My mother kept said, hey, see it through you know, persist without exception, and I never forgot that. And I said, okay, I can leave Ohio State. I can jump in the portal and run from this, or I could plant my two feet down and fight it off and embrace, embrace it and become back. And that's when I won the Heisman, and my freshman in my sophomore year, when I made that commitments begin. So I began to work out twice a day. You know, hey, we used to lift and run, so we will run four hundreds, two hundreds time laps all that. I would do that twice. I will study film. I would watch the grades. I remember watching Thurman Thomas and Barry Sanders, Emmitt Smith taking pieces of what they do with the hand. Hands had hands tight, hands blocking. You know how he reads the whole, how he read the inside zone, outside zone. What was his swift work on ISO? You know all those little minute details. So I can create my own style. You know what I'm saying. And I committed to that. And when I got the opportunity. You know, my junior year, my senior year played with some dogs, you know, Orlando Pasting, Terry Glenn certainly help you, and Ricky Dudley definitely helped. But we committed to that. I committed to excellence and in the brest resist me with that. What so give me your mouth, your name some of the great running back, Give me your mouth rushmore of college running backs of college. Yeah, I'm gonna throw if you you got Barried bow Dreck, Henry Errol campbell O, j Tony d Herschel, Ricky Williams run Day, Reggie Busch, Marcus Salen. But you gotta miss Eric Dickerson, Okay, yeah, nineteen with the horse, Yes, that nerong man. Well you gotta well Barry to me, you know what he did in eleven ball games. No one has still the extra games. They're not gonna do that anybody. Anybody rusing twenty yards and then don't count the ball game. Come back, the ball didn't count. He rushs two hundred and five the right right, So that ain't mean so I say, Barry Sanders, oh Man, bow Jack was nasty. Let me think here. I'm gonna say Derrick Henry Marcus was awesome. God, Marcus was great. First two Herschel, I know. But Marshall Falk, I mean mad Brand Marshall San Diego State. He was special, not all black. Oh yeah, he was special. Talk about the rivalry Michigan Ohio State? What makes it special? And did you know did you feel, I mean without even playing in it, did you know what it meant? Do you know what it wrong? Yeah? Yeah, I mean again, I studied college football growing up. I knew about that rivalry and everybody. That's the greatest rivalry in all of sports. You could say Yankees and Red Sox. You can say, you know North Carolina basketball, right, that's Alabama, all burn Us the UCLA, But that one there completely different ball game. You know, bow and Woody and and and even. It goes back to how the business schools were all set up, you know. So that's that is a a vicious rivalry and that was probably outside of the Baltimore games that we had. Yeah, that's that's that's what I Oh, no question, Michigan, Ohio, state of Baltimore, Tennessee. You know what's funny? Then Burns was just talking about this the other day, Yes, yesterday, he said, from his perspective, that was the baddest defense ever. Yes, it was four three y'all right, a four three cover two beat it. They beat it, and they had a young Ray Lewis coming down here. Man. And what you say, y'all said listen? Marma said, how many points y'all? Yeah? Six? Six field goal? You think it was? Today? Like give us ten? I like, Marba ten, I'll give us seven. I'm like, but you know, they legislated that brand of football out. You can't play. You can't beat that physical anymore because they i mean, they literally went to the ball game trying to knock they're gonna be a leven start, but eleven the finish. It was bulleyball and its finest. And you know what, man, I hated y'all, especially hated you because you caught that wheel route. Yeah, and I said, what they can't school y'all had a hundred and twelve yards of offense and won the game. It really was discipline. Uh, there was not one week leak on it from corn to corner. Yeah, you know, you can find one somebody. There was nobody. There was nobody. And that's and that's what you know with those wars that we had, you know what, something out of me because the week of you know, playing Baltimore, it's like, all right, listen, nobody's coming to town, right, don't don't bother me this week because there's a spiritual preparation that you gotta get ready for. It's spiritually because the moment that you that you shudder or wink or or have a shadow of a doubt, you're done. Yeah, you're done. It was it was grown men on that field, right, you know what I'm saying, And it was it was nothing to play with and uh, it really forced me to raise my level of play every time faceball. I think it also helped that the two head coaches didn't like each other. Oh yeah, yeah, Jeff Fish and Brand did not like each other, and so they spent time taking shots for each other. He read what Jeff fan and I'm sure Jeff oh blood pressure going up on the Wednesday, like all right, if we can, we can get it on today. It wasn't it was like that, but you know those rivalries, man, I'm so honored that I was able to play and be a central figure in that. You know that Bishop when I played at Ohio State, we'd be Michigan one time. That's the time that they owned us, right. We couldn't we couldn't figure out the way to beat them that when you had that master game. But I think Bianca Patuca we went for like three hundred three, three ten, three thirteen. Yeah, I remember all They lost to Produe the week before we even watch that film, so we didn't know who we were going to see. They came out there, you know against us, catch one hand, catches, laying out extra effort, you know, Biakapatuka went off, We got we got him. You know, he got drafted that day. I had top ten against us. But that's how that's what that game, that's the rivals about. You did you play? I think, oh yeah, I'll make a side. Fine, So what what made you? Because they always tried to get me to play, and I couldn't do it because I'm like, you know, I had me a nice ride. I had that clue. You know, I had a brother to league. Yeah. Yeah, I couldn't let nobody. I won't bet on the way with I'm just you know what, I'm curious. You know what, I'm gonna say this. I'll let you ask the question. You have Kappa Kappa Kappa tendencies, but you're a dog Obga side, no question, probably, no question. And I definitely stand on the ship. Yes, absolutely so. My my sophomore year, I was going, I was going in the process, okay, And for some strange reason, you know, the process never happened. Okay. Uh. And once I my my playing career took off my junior year, I said, I don't have time for that, right, I gotta go get this paper. I gotta go take care of my family. Dreams to try to go get But I always had the back of my mind if there, if there were ever a time for me to go back and do it, I was gonna do it. So COVID was that time. And you know what I said? You know what, Hey, it's it's great in the brotherhood is good. Yeah, it's a great friendship. The network is vast. You talk about the Jordan of the Mega Slap five, Shock Mego Slapi five and being on the HPC cam. Yeah, it's different. Different, it's a different It's different. It's different. It's different. I thought if my knees wasn't so bad right now, I promise, I know, I know how stay with the band the Eye. But there's something about that pageantry at the games, that band, the fans dancing down stop and the man m they're coming down. Man. It's a different animal. Our homecoming game was what uh about nineteen thousand we played Jackson State and Memphis was fifty thousand fans, man and a great game against Prime Andent. But again they hear their band and our band going at it. That's what it is about. The band's not supposed to play when the other team got the ball, but but they don't give it. The pay when you got right cloud to cloud non stop that. But that's that's right. That's what you start out in Houston, and then I think Houston, you ninety five, ninety six, ninety seven, and I think ninety eight. When y'all moved to Nashville, they moved the ninety seven seven rookie year, right, so we moved the ninety seven played in Memphis, right, but still was crazy, right, every day every game was like away game. Right. Then we played in Vanderbilt, right, yeah, yeah, it was hot that day. I do remember I see that when I saw the Waves, I see them boys hot. So yeah, it was played there and we had subpar seasons, had the fan fare. We couldn't give away a ticket those games. People walk by Vanderbilt and a Sunday thinking as a church revival. They couldn't. It's like, who's here. But it wasn't until the two thousand when we changed the name. The Colors sold out every PSL and and just took off from there. Man. We we really appreciated having that because it finally felt like we were playing in the NFL. Prior to that, we were no mad. You know, you realize that when your first round draft picked there the expectation. But when you win the Heisman Trophy as a running back, the expectation is greatly increased. So they expect you to come here and do exactly what you did to see that you wasn't hide of the trophy. And if you don't, they're like, well, what I mean, what I mean, how hard is it? Right? Not? My thing was now, I'm here to dominate, man, I'm here to make my mark on on on the NFL, right, whatever capacity that is. And that was my mindset. It wasn't. I put all the distractions aside. I got me a nice department on Holly Hall. It's awesome Houston, by the way, anyway, cheers that htown, yeah, man, whom Yeah, But I got an apartment you know, was locked in on my craft and Ronnie Harmon was on our team, okay, and he took me under his wing and showed me how to be a professional, how to prepare, taking notes, looking, how to run routes, you know, all the little minute things slowing down, you know, on my steps to the approaches the whole a certain way. Mel Gray, same thing told me about stocks and bonds, you know, things to read, how to read the stock market. So getting around those guys early on left an indelible mark on me in terms of how to be a professional and wanting to do more right. No shit, I watched you work, you know at Denver, you know your work ethic. I mean, I wanted to be talked about among the greats. What was my goal when I wanted to start off fast? And you did? I mean did? I mean? You rush for ten thousand yard in their career, never missed the start, joining Jim Brown and Walter Payton as the only started consecutive regular season game. You had one hundred and thirty one hundred and thirty contacutive to start rush for a thousand yards all but one season. When it was time to leave Tennessee, how difficult of a decision was that it was very difficult. It happened faster than I thought. You know, I signed a big deal two or three years prior to that hurt. My toe still played in the games that we still had a small window with that particular team to win, and I didn't want to miss that, you know, I wanted to be a part of that. Those my boys. So it came down to I think five hundred thousand dollars, and that five hundred thousand dollars was symbolic to say, Okay, I'm willing to take a pay cut, but don't don't be disrespectful. Right, that's I want to stay, don't you if if I take it down to a certain level, now you can get rid of me, right, I mean, that's just that's business. So we never saw out of eye on that. I left with the Dallas. Who did you blame that on? I know one, that was my decision. That was strictly my but you feed it with disrespectful good They had already asked you to take a pay cut and you said yes, and then they wanted to give you a shave you here. You know what I think it was was the organization was Bud Adams, it was Floyd Reese, it was Jeff Fisher. I mean, I get the business side and how they've done players in the past, you know, Steve and me, and it was it was It wasn't with dignity because my vision was, damn you know how I was gonna leave the game was at a press conference. You know, my boys in the crowd and cameras pop right whatever that is, and and go out on my own terms. But it didn't happen that way, right, So watching them when I was in the Dallas Cowboy uniform, watching the team that I helped build, you know, was painful, and it was hard for me to love the game the same way I saw the business side of of of the game, and I could not adjust to it because I did not play for that. I did not play for money. I played for the Camaradoie, the love. That's what I missed the most. You mentioned Steve and you guys had a great relationship and unfortunately he died tragically in a murder suicide. How did that impact you, because I know you guys were so close. Yeah, it's not There's not a day I don't think about him, you know what I'm saying. I dream about him a lot, actually, wow. And in the dream is like where out of the practice field, I can hear his laugh, so to see his distinct laugh, and he's laughing, he's joking with me, and I say to him, and see you're not dead. I wake up and I'm like, damn, you know, he's physically gone. But I think it's a way his way of telling me that I'm not right I'm on the other side. It's a different phase of life. But I'm not watching him become, you know, the player that he became to be. That's awesome, al Corn to MVP leading the team to the super Bowl, but in his dark moment, still Shannon like. It was some tough times when the fans booed him, yes, when he couldn't throw a five yard out with confidence, when he wasn't Ara McNair. You know, he was a manager, and he was selfless in the point where he didn't say much. He knew his role. But once he committed to his craft and dedicated to being the quarterback that he wanted to be, he was awesome. And I watched him go from you know, not being able to throw a five yard out to being masterful calling plays within the play you know on the football field, want five wides and checking the plays, you know, manipulating defense with his eyes and safety, I mean all that stuff. It was awesome to watch that. The watching him go from that to MVP was was awesome. Man. I read where you say you struggle after leaving the game, you felt with depression, you felt at one point in time. I think, if I'm correctly you can correct me if I'm wrong that you thought your suicidal at points. I wouldn't. I wouldn't say I wouldn't say that depressed, but definitely majorly depressed. And because I didn't, I didn't I didn't know what was next, man, I mean, uh, I was hoping for another opportunity, right. It never it never came, and I never had the proper closure with that, you know what I'm saying. It never never had that that goodbbe you was preparing for the opportunity, but not for the opportunity to exit. So you didn't have anything set up like, Okay, this what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna go business, I'm gonna do ye, none of that. It was none of that there, you see what I'm saying. It was that wasn't there, So I had to go create it, right, And that's when I got into acting. Okay, okay, because right around the time I started doing TV and I was getting some opportunities actual y'all here a Fox Fox Studios, and I did a couple of audition best enforce. Yeah. So I did an audition for I think it was I Think Alive. It was terrible, oh man, cast director took off a shirt. I'm delivering these lines. I'm saying, you know, hey, you can't make me do that. I'm stupid, I don't know, but it was terrible. I said, Okay, you know what, if I'm gonna do acting, I'm gonna go and get acting lessons. I'm gonna learn the craft. I'm appreciate it. And when I found by that by going through by acting class work with a young young lady, a woman by the name of Animal Reamka short Italian ladies no longer with us for for seven years, and we would sit in her house and she would make this Italian soup and we would sit there and read pages of of of of of of ads, you know, and acted out and reading Shakespeare and reading all of these novels and I'm adding character and learning the art of acting Uda Hogan reading these all these books and just to be able to write. And I found that it was cathartic for me because all of that that pain and disappointment and discouragement and depression and frustration, I was able to filter that out through a character and even through my own writing, and it was healing. And I was like, oh wow, this is this is awesome. So then I got on stage. Did my first play failed terribly Broadway? I mean, no, normally be like acting. I mean I don't really know how. I don't know anybody that's ever done it your way. But normally I'm thinking about actor. I'm thinking they're coming to Hollywood. I'm thinking they want to be on the big screen. But you went to Broadway. Why you know. I watched Denzel you know, so I'm gonna raising the Sun. Saw him offenses, yea, I saw him a couple of different deals. I love Broadway, but right at the time I was looking at other actors. This said, well, if you want to act, when your actor go to theater, you know, if you want to be a movie star, come out. They come out to Hollywood. And I thought about that, says, well, acting, you know, theater is for the actor because it's it's in real time, it's like right now, and it's so much that the stakes are high, and you have to be able to be real and imaginary circumstances and to be vulnerable and to really open up and go there. So that's what I did. I said, Okay, if I'm going to jump on screen, if I'm going to jump on the stage. I want to be prepared for that. I want to study the art of being an actor, not a movie star. So that way, hey, if I could jump in front of a camera, we could have this conversation. You know, it makes it's it's it's the doe joe. Okay, that's what I call it. The doe joe or the weight room right for getting the camera and so forth, because you're learning how to be truthful and how to deliver lines and the blocking on stage and all of that. So that kind of helped me, you know, and still does this day. For that, dude, one of the adrenaline rush. You come out in front of eighty thousand, you come out in the super Bowl where you got one hundred million people walking, and then you're on Broadway where you got two, maybe a couple of hundred people watching. What's the difference. The difference is it's intimate. On the football field, you know, you a few hundred yards away, you can fumble the boot. You know, you get up, you shake it off, you can impose your will, you know, to get back into it. On stage, if you're out there by yourself, all you can do is save yourself I remember I didn't play gods from Bones years ago and my lines. It was an ensemble and a lot going on. It was Judgment day, was the monologue, and it's it's all the stuff going on. There's African drums going on, they're streamers, Sun Moon all that. And I was supposed to say, And the God himself stepped down with the Sun of his right hand in the moon's left. The stars clustered up of his head and the earth under his feet, and God walked where he trode, hollow, the valleys out and bowls the mountains up. That's what I was supposed to say. So it was my turn. And much like these lights to heat the lights, I could feel the lights. Right. I walked down center stage and it's packed. Dude's packed one night only see Eddie, George, La La La right. And I can see my my ex teammates in the crowd. They're like that, like all you want to be let's see this, right. I can see the smirk on their faces. I see my my wife at the time. She's like, oh shit, he's gonna he's gonna crack. So I said, God himself stepped down the Sun's right hand, the moon is left, the wind is blowing, the grass is green, the animals are in the pasture, and God said that's good. And I walked off the stage and don't what, That's not what I supposed to say, No, exactly. So I learned how to improvide. The Assamba was like what did he just do? Right? Okay? And I had to deliver another monologue at the end. And from that point on, I said I'll never get back on stage again because I was terrible. But I said, you know what, I gotta go back, and we visited. I got comfortable and started doing Shakespeare. I did Raising the Sun. Actually I did a top Dog Underdog a couple of years ago. I did The whipping Man and another another drama show. So I've done over the years, various roles. And Billy Flynn for me on Broadway was just me, you know, going up there and and auditioning, and it prepared me for that moment. I said, damn, you know what, I'm be on Broadway. And so if that's something you want to continue or do you want to progress your way? What? What is more? What do you want to do more? You want to be a coach at a power five NFL or do you want to come to Hollywood? That is an excellent question. I think now is the time where the entertainment side is going to be a little different. You know, it may be not in front of the camera, might be producing it. Okay, the experiences that I'm experiencing now as a coach, that's a show like oh yeah, no, no, there's a lot of drama in that. You know what I'm saying. So you know, I'm taking notes and I'm doing some things that hey, I'm going to benefit you know. My acting side will be something I'm want to write in terms of my experience as a coach and my experience jumping into this. It's it's it all plays off of one another. So you know, I feel like, hey, you know, if, if, and when that coaching gig is up, I go to a Power five for five years and say, hey, thank you very much, I'm done. Come out to Hollywood and come drink with you. You know, write a couple of scripts, make some movies. But then Oscar and me, Grammy Tony be the first person when the he got is that? Is? That? Is that word? I know what he got is right? No, I don't know that you know what he got is right, no, mem okay, yeah, he got as a heisman, right, Yeah, you definitely gonna be over. You're definite gonna be that one. Well, I mean there's only been a handful of women that the people that want to immigrant. Yeah, yeah, I think Viola by uh no, no, I think Viola might be over. Yeah, I know comment is close. Yeah, I think he has to do a Tony Yeah. He was on Broadway right on the show this past year. Yeah, well, let's go back. I want to go back to the super Bowl because that was I mean in Atlanta, and you're so close, so so so so close, you're a yard away. And when you're so young like you guys, were you just like us afore goli you we've been back next year or the yeah after, but I mean and you never really got back again. And what do you remember about that moment? I remember as we were driving down to go score right the final drive, and Steve Steve did this thing. He uh pushed down Kevin Carter Doro that strike. I leave to Kevin Dyson to pick up the first dawn call the time out, and I'm dead tired. I'm like, because we didn't have that week off. You went straight from the championship game to there, and we was we were all out there there, right, and I said, this is why I ran all those hundreds, this is why I trained the way I do for this moment right here. And you couldn't tell me that we were not going to score, going over time to find a way to win this ball, right, And when Dison stretches out trying to get that ball over the goal line, immediately coffetti is on in the air and it's purpose what gold and blue, blue and gold, and the stage comes out and I'm standing there like damn, like it really over shit, like damn, like, h no, I can't. It's gotta be more time. It's gotta be more time. And I just walked over to the sideline. I sat there and I just watched it macause I didn't want to leave the field. Right there was still more out there, and I said, all right, you know what, You're supposed to go to the Pro Bowl the following day. And I told Jeff Fisher, I said, you know what, man, I don't think I'm gonna go. I think I'm gonna take a couple of days off and I'm on that hill. Tomorrow we start working. I got, I got, I got to get back there because you've been there. You know what it's like, You've been on the winter side of right. So I said, I've got to see that confetti in the sky and dedicated the whole year to train and to put my best year together to get his back, and of course y'all ruined it. But you know, I think about that now as a coach, like, maybe God has put me back into the game in this capacity. So I may not fisk across their goal line, but these young men will. Maybe it's a championship. Maybe it's the goal line of their realizing who they are, the potential, getting that great education, changing their lives, saving their lives, whatever that is. And that's the gratification I can get, you know what I'm saying. And that's that's kind of how I see this opportunity because I didn't ask for it, wasn't searching for it. But when I search searched my heart in the moment and really meditating on that four months, it felt like this was the move I had to make. Right. Do you think the running back has lost value? Yes, and it's unfortunate but in order to win a championship, you need a running game. How now, isn't that ironic? You know everybody talks about, oh, you can just put anybody in at the running back was really ask Josh Allen that at the Buffalo, right, Yeah, we see what that looked like. You know the teams that are now when it has some some sort of running I think the days of the one running back that can do everything is done. Derrick Henry is that last one that can total it in thirty and thirty out and still be dominant. But it's very hit or miss with the rest of these guys. One day, the hot nest of the cold is not consistent. And I don't think I think the game has changed now THEE RPO it's quarterback centric. You know, the quarterbacks do win everything. So yeah, towards the end of my care where there was more, you know, two running back system. Now we're seeing three and four running back. A specialist. You know, guys that can run routes, guys that can run the outside and another one that can run the inside zone, one that can run pin pool, another one that can run fly sweet. I mean, there's not that one guy that can do it at all, And I think that's that's a travesty because there was a point in time when the running back was revered, right, you know, much like a quarterback. You know you had t D right, you know what I'm saying. Without TV, I don't think that win champiship, no championshipapp Do you think we'll ever see another running back win the MVP. I think it'll happen. It can happen again once you probably he'll have to break the record to do it. It would have to be because because the quarterbacks and throw it for five thousand and forty touchdowns every year, So he's gonna have to be somebody. You have to be twenty or close to it. Yes, I mean we we've seen Justin Jefferson almost get two thousand and he may not win it. No, he's not going. So it's it's it's definitely a quarterback award. That's this point I'm looking at. So who would you say is the best running back? And tightened But it's kind of like Oilers Titans because they kind of like, let's say we'll mix it all together. Got you Chris, Chris Johnson, d Henry, Earl Campbell, for me, this is just me personally speaking. I'm gonna say I'm gonna take me out of there, quicks, I'm always gonna say me. But Earl Campbell EC especially all right, I mean he can do it all. He can do what Chris Johnson did and Derek Canby did and then something or he would obliterate linebackers. Oh yeah, he run run ran, So I'm gonna say EC But damn Derek man, he's so special. Like he had he didn't get hurt two years ago. I think he breaked the record. Oh without a doubt. He had nine hundred yards eight games in. Yeah, and he was on pace and he's gonna do it because he was durable. But but Chris Johnson, god man, he lets be crazy. He's outside. Barry Shandon is the greatest home run hitter in the NFL period. Speed was ridiculous. Yeah, it was. It was. It was crazy with Let's go back to that that one matchup because that's the matchup and we had some great battles we played. You guys, people don't realize this that what you and I we used to be in the same division. It was the Ravens twice a year twice a year US Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Cleveland Jacksonville in Jacksonville in the same division. But everybody wants to talk about that divisional game in which we came there. You guys were you guys were the number one seed in division. We had beat you guys, and we're the first team to beat you at Yeah, we're the first team, and so we felt very confident going back. What do you remember about that game? Everything? I remember everything. I remember something that came out in the article about me laying down be being scared of ready, right, yeah, and that robbed me the wrong way. That brother be the one. I was quiet the entire entire week. Okay, and I said okay, and I knew, and I think everybody knew, whoever won that game was going to superwar. Your body was going. I think we might have had the best scoring defense. Number one, y'all were number two. We had the best scoring defense, y'all had the best totally total defense. Yeah, that's that's what it was. Yes, So I just remember going into that game. You know how typically come out during warm up and said, hey, dog, how are you doing? Bla bla The ap pounding love that tone was set. Yeah, the tone was set. It was gonna be a war, and I just remember it was back and forth and it was bloody, It was nasty, it was painful. You scored, we wanted we scored, and it was nipping. The team that made that mistake was gonna lose. We kicked, try to kick a field goal, got blocked, went back, took all the wind out because to drive on that defense, it was it was difficult with now now now that y'all were like a python. Yeah, once you got the bike, rap was done on a matter of time. Yeah, and without without a scooping score a pick six yeah yeah. And the thing about that defense, but they were creating turn over. Yeah, grit pool hammer, Sarah Goose is big behind ye hit the quarterback without the ball? What's the flag? Nothing? I'm looking at you. What you've done since you retired from the NFL. You got a match of degree and landscape architect from Ohio State, earned an NBA from Northwestern appeared on Broadway, owns a restaurant eighty George Barr and Grill twenty seven owns a landscaping company and a wealth management firm. Talk classes at Ohio State. Fisher college and business? Why do so much? Did you feel like your life wasn't fulfilled? Did you feel like you had not checked the left boxes? No, I had nothing to do with checking boxes. Landscape architecture. That was my major in school, okay, And I was going to get my degree, and I was challenged by the fact that somebody said, hey, you're not gonna do nothing with it. I said, why should build a business? And I started my own landscape architecture firm in two thousand and three, okay, and I wanted to grow that business. Uh. So I went through some hiccups, didn't quite understand the nomenclature associated with business spreadsheets and this and that. So I said, okay, then we'll get my masters in business to understand. I understand why. I'm not going to allow somebody to tell me anymore or or or uh, what's what am I looking for? To sit over my shoulder and explain to me what's going on? I want to look at the numbers and know what I'm looking at and articulate that right educated way. So I went. I decided to get my masters in business, and while I was there, I figured that, hey, I probably can't grow my landscape architecture business to a billion dollars. So I got a lot out of that. And then I said, okay, what can I do that I can, you know, have flexible time, you you use my network of people that I know build a business is going to have a recurring revenue model. But also I'm passionate about helping others. And it was wealth management. I said, there was a situation that happened to me early in my career where a financial advisors almost all all my money. And I said, well, I can help young athletes with financial literacy and give them a plan of success financially speaking. So I got my series seven, my sixty six license about around the same time I was studying the Going Chicago. So I had this idea that I was going to work with my three ES and my three es or Entertainment, Entrepreneurship and education okay, and to teach. So that's what I was operating in was to act and tell stories, build my business, and then to teach this to young people so they can be set up for success financially speaking. That's when I was teaching the house the NFL inby did you in to speak at the rookis and posts I have over the years, I have, and I talked about various things and talked about my transition leaving the game. Matter of fact, when they had that Cleveland at that spot there, I can't think of the name, but I've gone there. And what's crazy is everything that I've done up until this point has prepared me to become a head coach. You know, as an actor, the ability to listen, listening actively is what you do as an actor, and then you respond. So to listen to these kids, to truly listen to them and what their issues are and to figure out what they really want and how to get them to from point A to point B. You have to listen. You have to listen to what others are saying about the university and stuff to figure out where the problems are. So that was one, and then to be build the ability to teach teach life, to teach life lessons, to teach whatever that is in the moment, and to be organic as a teacher says helped me. So all of that preparation, what I've done over the years wasn't about checking boxes. It was preparing me, right, you know, for what I'm doing Now I thought you were on a path to be the next rock athlete turned actor. Why why did why don't you? Did you not devote the time because a lot of I've made a lot of the opportunity to getting an opportunity, whether the opportunity was at the time, what transpired that all of a sudden you know you're because it seemed like you were a lot of movies. I'm looking here, You're the Best Man Holiday with Take did Mill Longs and not Later? Regina hold more Chance, Nut Game, LANs started Rock, you were, you were in some movies, you know, taking a hiatus, taking you go to get back at it. But you say, but it might not be in front of the camera. It might be behind the camera. I mean as a production company, right and producing stories? Right? You know again, my son's at usc Film School, and I can get it. I can always jump into his movies. You do you like telling stories? I do? I really do this the art of telling it And to get the point across you, as a storyteller, you're trying to do something to the character that you're playing across from. You're trying to do something to invoke and in motion into the audience. You're trying to get a message across, right, and that may be so that that the ability to do that, I think it's very powerful in terms of telling a story and getting to influence people to do something, to call a call of action. Yeah. Married, you've been married a long time, yes, sir, married detaj former member f WV. How have you ever, how have you been able to keep she's a public figure, your public figure obviously? How have you been able to keep your marriage so private? Who? I didn't think it was private? Keep well, you know what, I try to keep my name out the streets, right, you know, and lo and behold, I haven't been very good at that time. I can, I can. I can admit that, you know what I'm saying, Like, Hey, I'm no angel. She knows that we've had our wars, We've had our moments, but that's what marriage is. And I've learned to grow through that. I mean, she she is a woman of grace and compassion and forgiveness and and I appreciate it. And she has my back, you know. And I've learned over the years as I've evolved and I've grown that in order for me to be res my full potential. I've got to be a hunter, you know, with her all the time. And and that's and that's what makes it work is communication for us and just being very very honest with one another and where we are. And I think that's helped us go from one stage to the next stage. So give me some of your keys. What's some of your biggest keys? Getting married and staying married? Getting married, it's understanding they're the right time to get married. No, I mean you could always say yeah, you know, thirty five and a half. No, forty now, you're never ready. I think it's a commitment. And I'll say this, there's no formula. You can read all the books you want. Each person is uniquely different, So you have to take the time to get to know that person, the time to be willing to go through all the highs and lows. And love is an action word, right, You have to choose to love. That's not a now, it's an action. So you have to wake up saying hey, I'm going to love my wife today. That means I'm going to make the right decisions. That means whatever she says you do, you're gonna do and say yes. Right if she says Hey, baby, do I look good in this dress? And she's bloated. You say, yes, baby, you look good. That's what that's learn So you know it's it's all of that and uh, but she's my best friend. We still laugh together. We I make I make it a point to prioritize my time for her all that I'm doing. I do this every single Sunday. I didn't do it this week, but out here doing my thing. But I listened to a sermon at night, or the game might be on, and I'm plan out my entire week. And I'll start with me first, and I always start with my private time in the morning, my meditation. Then I'll go into my workout. I'll swim out of weights, whatever that requires me to do that week, yoga, whatever. And then I go down to the next phase of my life, that's being a husband and father. Date night. I schedule that in. I'm playing that in that time. So I intentional about the time that I spend with my wife, whether it's fifteen minutes, an hour, four days. I may plan a trip three or four months down the line, but I try to create those moments with her because she's busy, she's still traveling, she's still singing, still doing her things. She's doing a reality show now and Atlanta she was down. So we have to be intentional about how we're spending our time together. Right. I read somewhere says that when you get married, I'm married, the man must date his wife every single day. Yes, every day. You gotta have patience. And it's it's it is. It is work. Yes, it is works. So it's working. So it's it is Anything worthwhile is uphill. Right, you know what I'm saying. I always say that, and I always believe that. And it has its ups and downs. It can get monotonous. You gotta do things to keep it fresh, right. You know what I'm saying. It's like, okay, you want to be a redhead or a blonde tonight, Right, what I'm saying, Hey, that's him talking. You know I'm talking. You know, you know. So fitness, You're almost fifty and you're you're still in great shape. That's something that you little. Hey, you listen, you are the dog you are. You are killing it man the fashion game, great man. Your your Twitter or your Instagram. You're still throwing up iron a spot four fifteen and you you d M and say, bro, get spot you did? I said, listen, I gotta find out who your stylist is. Though, Dog, I'm like, yo, Shannon, you gotta be looking right. You got that's what you wore to night? Yeah? Yeah, you got a lot of what it was traded. Man, This's what it got me in trouble too. Yeah. So what do you so? What what are your fitness routine? What? What do you eat? I mean, obviously we can't eat like we ate when we played because we don't work out like we worked out when we played. Yeah, and I can't. I can't run like I used to, so my knee is issues. So I swim Okay, I try to swim twice a week. Okay. My goal has been, you know, trying to get them at least a mile in of the breaststroke, backstroke, I'm doing the dolphin kicks well. So so that getting that car deal basclar and for me is good. And now that we have a weight room at a Tennessee State, get my weight coaching me were planning, you know, condition day. So I try to hit the iron. I just got my shoulder done, so I'm trying to get back into build my shoulder back up. So I do that, try to lift at least four days a week. My rest day consists of yoga, stretching, and massage. Right, so my eating is sporadic. So I still trying to plan. Eat every three hours. Yeah them coaches, coaches don't have they have don't have a regular schedule, so you eat the odd times. It is frustrating because you know, I don't want to eat the oreos, but you know I'm starving. Eat them. We got to get down. Yeah, I appreciate it. I appreciate you start by the club having a conversation. Best of luck this year and everything you do moving forward. I appreciate it. Man, thank you, George, lady and gentlemen. All my life and running all my life, sacrifice, hustle back to price, Want a slice? Got the broller, dice to swap all my life. I've been grinding in all my life. Us all my life and running all my life, sacrifice, hustle bad to Price, want a slice? Got the brother dice to swallow all my life. I've been grinding in all my life.

Club Shay Shay

NFL legend Shannon Sharpe—3x Super Bowl champion and member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame—sits do 
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