Latest / The Breakfast Club / DeSean Jackson: Bigger Than the Game

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DeSean Jackson: Bigger Than the Game · The Breakfast Club

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: I'm the homegirl that knows a little bit about everything
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: and everybody.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: You hear that exclusive?
• 0:06
  Speaker 3: You know she don't lie about that, right?
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Lauren came in hot.
• 0:10
  Speaker 4: Hey y'all, what's up? It's Lauren LaRosa and this is
• 0:12
  Speaker 4: another episode of The Latest with Lauren LaRosa. This is
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  Speaker 4: your daily dig on all things pop culture, entertainment news,
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  Speaker 4: and all of the conversations that shake.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: The room, baby.
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  Speaker 4: Now today we are going to get right on into
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  Speaker 4: a conversation that I know will shake the room.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: I told you guys that.
• 0:29
  Speaker 4: It is homecoming season at Delaware State University.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Our homecoming is this upcoming weekend.
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  Speaker 4: Actually, it starts Friday, October 9th, which is tomorrow. Our
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  Speaker 4: big homecoming football game is Saturday, October 10th. So that's
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  Speaker 4: the day where everybody will be out on the Greek
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  Speaker 4: plots and, you know, supporting the football game and the
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  Speaker 4: homecoming court and just all the things. It is such
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  Speaker 4: a festive season. It's the welcome home and return home season.
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  Speaker 1: But it's like a family reunion.
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  Speaker 4: I kicked off my homecoming season a bit different this year.
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  Speaker 1: Not with a pregame. Okay, we won't get to all that.
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  Speaker 4: But I kicked it off in conversation with Deshaun Jackson
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  Speaker 4: and his brother, Byron Jackson for his that he has
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  Speaker 4: available right now on Amazon Prime called Go Deep. It's
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  Speaker 4: the story of his life, his career, his journey, Deshaun Jackson,
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  Speaker 4: from being a kid, six years old, playing football, you know,
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  Speaker 4: and trying to figure things out with the help of
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  Speaker 4: his dad and his brother to becoming one of the
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  Speaker 4: best known, widely known, greatest Philadelphia Eagles of all time. And,
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  Speaker 4: you know, dominating on other football teams as well, too.
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  Speaker 4: But it's really a story about family, about a black
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  Speaker 4: father and his fight to really, really ensure that his
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  Speaker 4: family understood the greatness that he saw in them, even
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  Speaker 4: though he wasn't perfect and kind of what that dynamic
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  Speaker 4: created in some of the family ups and downs that
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  Speaker 4: they experienced. So I got a chance to be in
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  Speaker 4: conversation with them at the Biggs Museum of American Art
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  Speaker 4: down in Dover, Delaware, to kick off the Delaware State
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  Speaker 4: University homecoming. For those of you guys who may not know,
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  Speaker 4: Deshaun Jackson decided about a year or so ago that
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  Speaker 4: to come to Delaware State University and be our head
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  Speaker 4: football coach after he had decided to retire from football. So,
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  Speaker 4: you know, it's been such a journey and an amazing
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  Speaker 4: journey to watch him, you know, matriculate through that, but
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  Speaker 4: also to watch the transformation that is going down on
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  Speaker 4: Delaware State University, my HBCU's campus. You know, when you
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  Speaker 4: put more eyes on the school and you get some
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  Speaker 4: support behind the school, there are amazing things and resources
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  Speaker 4: that become available and our Black students need it. So
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  Speaker 4: I'm all here for it. Let's get into the conversation
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  Speaker 4: right now. Now, important to mention when I talk about
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: transformation at HBCU, Delaware State University is currently under a
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  Speaker 4: huge transformation campaign.
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  Speaker 1: And it's bigger than just football. It's bigger than just athletics.
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  Speaker 4: It's about ensuring that all of our students across these
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  Speaker 4: HBCUs have the proper resources and facilities they need to
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  Speaker 4: achieve greatness in all pursuits, whether it's academic, athletic.
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  Speaker 1: Whatever the case may be. So currently.
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  Speaker 4: Delaware State University is raising money because they want to build.
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  Speaker 1: They are going to build.
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  Speaker 4: They said by fall 2028, Deshaun Jackson will be coaching
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  Speaker 4: in a new stadium. They call it Alumni Stadium. Their
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  Speaker 4: current fundraising goal is $ 10 million. Now, currently, Delaware State
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: University needs $ 5 million more to help complete a $ 55
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  Speaker 4: million stadium and fieldhouse redesign. Now, that's important for the students,
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  Speaker 4: for the athletes, and even for them getting the proper
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  Speaker 4: support when it comes to athletics. Because the facility matters,
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  Speaker 4: the workout systems, the rehabilitation, all of that stuff matters.
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  Speaker 4: And for a lot of students, athletics is their life
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  Speaker 4: in college, and it's the way that they are literally
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  Speaker 4: changing their families' lives. So we want to support that.
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  Speaker 4: $ 2. 5 million is for the health and science scholarships that
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  Speaker 4: they will be giving out under this $ 10 million campaign.
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  Speaker 1: And $ 2. 5 million is.
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  Speaker 4: Local engagement, particularly in the area around youth sports and
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  Speaker 4: things that they want to go out in the community
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  Speaker 4: and do on behalf of Delaware State University students. within
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  Speaker 4: youth sports. Now, if you guys are alumni, I am
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  Speaker 4: challenging you to give. The stadium is literally called Alumni Stadium.
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  Speaker 4: And last night, I talked to the president of Delaware
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  Speaker 4: State University, Dr. Tony Allen, who told me currently there's
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  Speaker 4: only one alumni who's donated, and it's called Alumni Stadium. Now,
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  Speaker 4: I know I got a lot of Delaware State University
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  Speaker 4: Hornets that tune in that are my lowriders. We got
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  Speaker 4: to take over this campaign, y'all. As much as you can,
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  Speaker 4: as little as you can, every number counts. You can
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  Speaker 4: go to desu.edu to figure out a way to give.
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  Speaker 4: And after this conversation, I think you'll understand why investing
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  Speaker 4: in a student, even if it's one student at a time, really,
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  Speaker 4: really matters.
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  Speaker 1: And they come back, they give back, and they continue
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  Speaker 1: to change lives. Let's get into the convo.
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  Speaker 5: Good evening, everyone.
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  Speaker 6: Good evening.
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  Speaker 7: Hi, and welcome to the Swartz Center for the Arts.
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  Speaker 7: My name is Linden Campbell, and as a student here
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  Speaker 7: at Delaware State University, I am excited to welcome you
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  Speaker 7: to Go Deep, Give Back. Tonight will be more than
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  Speaker 7: just about football, more.
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  Speaker 2: Than just a film.
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  Speaker 7: It is about where we come from, the people who
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  Speaker 7: shaped us, and what it means to use our experiences
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  Speaker 7: to create opportunities for generations to come. That field is
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  Speaker 7: especially meaningful right now at Delaware State University. There's a
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  Speaker 7: lot of momentum around Delaware State Athletics, including the Athletic
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  Speaker 7: Transformation Campaign and the work being done to invest.
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  Speaker 8: In our student athletes, our facilities, and the future of
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  Speaker 8: our programs.
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  Speaker 7: As students, we get to experience firsthand what that kind
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  Speaker 7: of investment can mean to our university. It creates opportunities,
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  Speaker 7: builds pride, and gives us even more reason to be
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  Speaker 7: excited about where our university is headed.
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  Speaker 8: That momentum also extends beyond our campus.
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  Speaker 7: The partnership between Delaware State University and the big museum,
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  Speaker 7: American Art, is bringing new arts, cultural, education, and community
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  Speaker 7: programming here to the Swartz Center. Together, these programs are
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  Speaker 7: creating opportunities to connect athletes, music, film, art, education, and
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  Speaker 7: culture while bringing Delaware State University students and the greater
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  Speaker 7: Dover community together in new ways. And it matters that
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  Speaker 7: this is happening right here in downtown Dover. As downtown
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  Speaker 7: continues to grow and evolve, spaces like the Swartz have
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  Speaker 7: the opportunity to bring students.
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  Speaker 8: Families, artists, athletes, and community members together.
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  Speaker 7: Activating this historic theater and creating reasons for people to
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  Speaker 7: come downtown are more important than the larger work around
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  Speaker 7: downtown Dover. Tonight is a great example about how those
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  Speaker 7: different pieces can come together. We'll begin the night by
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  Speaker 7: watching around 20 minutes of the scenes from Go Deep,
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  Speaker 7: the Deshaun Jackson story.
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  Speaker 8: These scenes will give us a look at.
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  Speaker 7: Coach Jackson's journey through football, family, challenges, and the experiences
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  Speaker 7: that have shaped his life beyond the field. Following the
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  Speaker 7: film segment, we'll transition into a panel discussion exploring the
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  Speaker 7: stories behind the documentary, its creation, leadership, family, football, and
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  Speaker 7: the importance of giving back. We'll then open the conversation
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  Speaker 7: to all of you for an audience.
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  Speaker 9: Q & A.
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  Speaker 7: Thank you guys for being here and supporting Delaware State
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  Speaker 7: University and for being a part of what is happening
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  Speaker 7: here at the Swartz Center in downtown Dover.
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  Speaker 8: Now, we invite you.
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  Speaker 7: To enjoy some selected scenes from the Go Deep, the
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  Speaker 7: Deshaun Jackson story.
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  Speaker 8: So, I'm hoping you can see this.
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  Speaker 4: Gave you guys.
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  Speaker 7: A glimpse of not only Deshaun Jackson's career, but also
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  Speaker 7: the family, relationships, experiences, and the people behind his journey.
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  Speaker 7: Now we have the opportunity to hear from some of
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  Speaker 7: those people and learn more about the stories behind what
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  Speaker 7: we just witnessed.
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  Speaker 8: First, please welcome Coach Deshaun Jackson. Deshaun, Deshaun, Deshaun. Head
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  Speaker 8: football coach here at Delaware State University.
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  Speaker 7: Joining him will be his brother, Byron Jackson. Byron drew
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  Speaker 7: over 35 years of personal footage just for this documentary.
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  Speaker 9: And we are also joined by Carlos Carter, an educator
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  Speaker 9: and academic advisor who worked alongside Coach Jack and Byron.
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  Speaker 7: And of course, leading tonight's conversation is fellow Delawarean, Lauren LaRosa.
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  Speaker 4: Y'all got real quiet. Hey, everybody. If you see me
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  Speaker 4: pull out my phone, I took some notes while I
• 9:52
  Speaker 4: was watching the doc. This is my second time seeing it.
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  Speaker 4: How'd y'all feel about it?
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  Speaker 5: About it?
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  Speaker 4: So let's get into the conversation. So let's start with
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  Speaker 4: the film itself. Deshawn and Byron, this documentary comes from
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  Speaker 4: years of personal footage and experience, 35 years, right?
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  Speaker 8: Is it 35 years plus.
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  Speaker 10: Now, right?
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  Speaker 2: 35 years plus. Yes, okay.
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  Speaker 4: Over 35 years at this point. At what point did
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  Speaker 4: you guys realize that this was more than just a
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  Speaker 4: family archive and that it was something that you needed
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  Speaker 4: to put out until you were able to make a
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  Speaker 4: full documentary around?
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  Speaker 5: Actually, I felt when he got drafted in the second round,
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  Speaker 5: I started trying to get it out then. All along,
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  Speaker 5: once he got the cow and started blowing up as
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  Speaker 5: a superstar, I knew it was something special. You know,
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  Speaker 5: and I was trying to, when he was at Cal,
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  Speaker 5: I was already talking to people at ESPN. And by
• 10:49
  Speaker 5: the way, I worked for Fox Sports for like 23 years.
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  Speaker 2: So throughout this journey, I was working in television.
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  Speaker 5: First started out in news at Channel 13 in L.A.,
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  Speaker 5: local news station.
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  Speaker 2: Then I went over to Fox Sports. So the whole time,
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  Speaker 2: Deshaun has been around both sides. He's been around the
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  Speaker 2: media and he was on the football field.
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  Speaker 11: So, I mean, I went in this to try to
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  Speaker 11: make a documentary, so.
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  Speaker 12: The whole time I've been trying to do it on
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  Speaker 12: this big screen.
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  Speaker 4: Talk to me a bit about the moment that we
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  Speaker 4: see where you take Deshaun to practice with the Chiefs, right?
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  Speaker 4: And for you, it's like 10 years, I'm coming back,
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  Speaker 4: this was once a part of your life, maybe not
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  Speaker 4: your dream, but now you're there and you are passing
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  Speaker 4: the gauntlet to your younger brother. Emotionally, what was that
• 11:31
  Speaker 4: like for you that we maybe didn't get to see
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  Speaker 4: just in the couple minutes of the film that we saw?
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  Speaker 2: It was very emotional.
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  Speaker 5: I mean, going back to the area where I had
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  Speaker 5: a lot of Sweat, blood, tears, and a lot of fear.
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  Speaker 5: When I got to the NFL, it was kind of like, wow,
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  Speaker 5: what the heck am I doing here in the NFL?
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  Speaker 2: So it was kind of overwhelming.
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  Speaker 5: So to go back there like 10 years later, it
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  Speaker 5: was like deja vu.
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  Speaker 11: I mean, I had to pitch myself, like I said
• 11:58
  Speaker 11: in the video. But it was all on purpose.
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  Speaker 2: My whole thing was, you know.
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  Speaker 13: Sean, a little kid, trying to teach him the mindset
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  Speaker 13: of a pro.
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  Speaker 2: So I was like, let me take him to actually see.
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  Speaker 11: Some pros, you know.
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  Speaker 5: And I thought it was going to really inspire him
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  Speaker 5: and make him humble, but it didn't.
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  Speaker 11: It made him feel like, man, I can do this.
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  Speaker 11: I was like, Sean, get back.
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  Speaker 2: Don't go on the field.
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  Speaker 5: Like, before they called him on the field, he was
• 12:22
  Speaker 5: already inching his way to the field.
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  Speaker 2: So I was like, stay back. And Sean was like, nah, man,
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  Speaker 2: I belong out here.
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  Speaker 5: So it backfired, but it was backfired for a good reason.
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  Speaker 5: He actually felt like he belonged here.
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  Speaker 4: I'm curious to know how you guys' relationship approached how
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  Speaker 4: you I mean, not recorded, because you seemed like you
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  Speaker 4: recorded everything, but how you chose and selected to.
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  Speaker 2: Tell this first part of the story.
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  Speaker 5: Well, basically, I was a television filmmaker in college, so
• 12:52
  Speaker 5: I used to read, like, study about filmmaking, and one thing,
• 12:57
  Speaker 5: one particular thing that stuck out to me, one of
• 13:00
  Speaker 5: my professors said, you can't just roll a life.
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  Speaker 11: I'm like, well, I can't.
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  Speaker 2: And I basically did that. I just kept rolling on
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: John's whole life. And as you can see, walking around
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: the camera, I never stopped. So, I mean, I.
• 13:15
  Speaker 12: Was in, my whole intent wasn't to do a movie
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  Speaker 12: from day one.
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  Speaker 5: It was just a matter, in my opinion, it was
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  Speaker 5: just a matter of time that this made.
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  Speaker 12: A big change.
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  Speaker 11: I love that.
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  Speaker 4: Deshawn, what was it like to see your life reflected
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  Speaker 4: back through your brother's perspective? Was there ever a moment
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  Speaker 4: where you had things that happened to you and you're
• 13:36
  Speaker 4: watching it and it affects you differently seeing it on
• 13:38
  Speaker 4: screen than it did in real life?
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  Speaker 12: I think just overall to be young and in the moment.
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  Speaker 14: I tell people all the time, being a young kid,
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  Speaker 14: I just had the inspiration to just be great.
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  Speaker 12: It was just a.
• 13:51
  Speaker 14: Niche that seeing my older brother make it to the NFL,
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  Speaker 14: I I think a lot of times someone's like celebrities
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  Speaker 14: or people that make it are like unreal.
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  Speaker 2: Like they're not real.
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  Speaker 14: So for me, I feel like to have my brother,
• 14:03
  Speaker 14: somebody close to me that I was.
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  Speaker 12: Like, man, he actually made it. It's a motivation for
• 14:07
  Speaker 12: me and inspiration. Like I was like, I can touch him.
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  Speaker 2: I can feel him.
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  Speaker 12: I'm like, all right, he's real.
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  Speaker 2: He made it.
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  Speaker 12: So that gave me kind of like hope.
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  Speaker 14: And not only hope, it was just like growing up,
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  Speaker 14: I just used to always turn on TV.
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  Speaker 2: I think at that time it was like Channel 2
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: or Channel 4 and.
• 14:22
  Speaker 12: Sunday games used to just always be on, and it
• 14:24
  Speaker 12: was something about football.
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  Speaker 14: I'm like, that's what I want to do. So as
• 14:28
  Speaker 14: an early age, I know we got young kids in
• 14:29
  Speaker 14: this room. At an early age, there was nothing you
• 14:32
  Speaker 14: couldn't tell me that I wasn't going to play in
• 14:34
  Speaker 14: the NFL one day, and I think that was my
• 14:36
  Speaker 14: vision and my motivation every step of the way.
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  Speaker 2: Now, was it hard?
• 14:40
  Speaker 12: Was it a lot of obstacles?
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: Yes.
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  Speaker 14: There was a lot of times in my life where
• 14:44
  Speaker 14: I wanted to stare off and go do other things,
• 14:46
  Speaker 14: and as you can see, for those of y'all who've
• 14:48
  Speaker 14: seen the whole documentary, I know this was only 20 minutes,
• 14:50
  Speaker 14: but for those of y'all who've seen it, My dad
• 14:53
  Speaker 14: and my brothers and my family was on me. And
• 14:56
  Speaker 14: they were hard on me. And as a young kid,
• 14:58
  Speaker 14: I couldn't really understand it. As a kid and youth,
• 15:00
  Speaker 14: you're probably not going to understand why your parents are
• 15:02
  Speaker 14: on you to eat and to go to sleep early
• 15:04
  Speaker 14: and to work out and stay away from negative people.
• 15:07
  Speaker 12: But the older you get, you know, the more you're
• 15:09
  Speaker 12: going to start understanding.
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  Speaker 14: And I think for me, I was like, hey, all right,
• 15:13
  Speaker 14: now I get it. But it took me to get
• 15:15
  Speaker 14: to my 20s to say, like, all right, now all
• 15:17
  Speaker 14: that stuff, that nonsense, hard-headed stuff, I was a hard-headed,
• 15:20
  Speaker 14: bad little kid.
• 15:21
  Speaker 12: I'm like, now I'm starting to know why.
• 15:23
  Speaker 4: I think that's the sentiment of a family structure, especially
• 15:36
  Speaker 4: a black family. We don't give up on each other.
• 15:38
  Speaker 4: And the repeated, repeated, repeated thing that I remember after
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: watching documentary in full, I'm like, wow, you guys dad,
• 15:46
  Speaker 4: like he knew from the beginning that greatness was in
• 15:48
  Speaker 4: his household and he didn't care about How he had
• 15:51
  Speaker 4: to go out and get it for y'all, he was
• 15:52
  Speaker 4: going to bring it back into the household so that
• 15:54
  Speaker 4: you guys understood that as well too, which was amazing
• 15:56
  Speaker 4: to see a black father in that perspective as well.
• 16:02
  Speaker 4: When I talk about things like that, I think about
• 16:04
  Speaker 4: some of the principles that this documentary centers on. Desire, dream, vision, belief, power.
• 16:11
  Speaker 4: If each of you had to choose one of those
• 16:13
  Speaker 4: five principles that best describes where you are in life
• 16:15
  Speaker 4: right now, which one would you choose and why? And
• 16:18
  Speaker 4: I can repeat them.
• 16:20
  Speaker 11: You need me to?
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 16:22
  Speaker 12: I'll go first. I don't think I can just pick one.
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  Speaker 14: I'm honestly feeling like I think all characteristics of five
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  Speaker 14: words you just said. Like, in my daily life, I
• 16:35
  Speaker 14: hold with every day.
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: Sometimes I have to.
• 16:37
  Speaker 14: Even remind myself of what's my purpose, what's my vision,
• 16:40
  Speaker 14: why am I desired to do this, you know? How
• 16:42
  Speaker 14: do I continuously carry my power, you know, within the youth,
• 16:46
  Speaker 14: with my players, with... you know, my peers and, um,
• 16:50
  Speaker 14: you know, just having a vision and setting a goal
• 16:53
  Speaker 14: that almost is unrealistic. Like for me, I feel like
• 16:56
  Speaker 14: I set goals that are unrealistic. So then when I
• 16:58
  Speaker 14: made it and I accomplished it and it's like, wow,
• 17:01
  Speaker 14: I just did something that's like bigger than anybody can
• 17:03
  Speaker 14: ever imagine. So I think, you know, young kids in here,
• 17:06
  Speaker 14: like set a goal that y'all almost think is impossible.
• 17:09
  Speaker 14: And then when you make it or you accomplish it,
• 17:11
  Speaker 14: then you got to keep going. Like you can never
• 17:13
  Speaker 14: be content. And, uh, I think my dad did that,
• 17:16
  Speaker 14: like you said, at an early age. I want to
• 17:18
  Speaker 14: speak on two briefly. I think fathers in the black community,
• 17:24
  Speaker 14: they don't get enough credit, right?
• 17:26
  Speaker 12: They're not active. I just feel like.
• 17:38
  Speaker 14: The stigma is black fathers are not active, they're not present.
• 17:42
  Speaker 14: And I think it takes a village to raise a
• 17:45
  Speaker 14: young kid and a young man in today's society. So
• 17:48
  Speaker 14: I do want to tip my hat off and I
• 17:50
  Speaker 14: do want to credit the fathers that are present that
• 17:52
  Speaker 14: are there that don't get the credit they deserve. And
• 17:54
  Speaker 14: I feel like it's a stigma to push fathers away,
• 17:57
  Speaker 14: you know, because we are dominant and we are voicing
• 18:00
  Speaker 14: our opinions. And, you know, they want to deal with
• 18:02
  Speaker 14: the mothers because maybe they don't have to deal with
• 18:04
  Speaker 14: that type of aggression and anger. Like my dad used
• 18:07
  Speaker 14: to say to coaches that didn't give me the ball
• 18:10
  Speaker 14: or wasn't giving me the ball enough.
• 18:12
  Speaker 12: You know, so for me, I just, like I said,
• 18:15
  Speaker 12: I credit that.
• 18:15
  Speaker 14: I took my hat off, and that's why I'm a father,
• 18:18
  Speaker 14: a loving father, and a present father. And not only
• 18:20
  Speaker 14: to my kids, but to any young man that will
• 18:23
  Speaker 14: grow up and that.
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: I'm, you know, encountering on a daily basis.
• 18:27
  Speaker 14: I don't know if y'all have.
• 18:31
  Speaker 4: Anything y'all want to add.
• 18:32
  Speaker 11: Well, when you talk about the principal, is this a
• 18:35
  Speaker 11: story behind the principal?
• 18:37
  Speaker 5: You guys saw the part where my dad was at
• 18:39
  Speaker 5: the beach, and he picked up that rock, and he
• 18:40
  Speaker 5: asked the guy to touch it. That became the lead
• 18:43
  Speaker 5: to the, I call them principles, but I also call
• 18:46
  Speaker 5: them disciplines. And this first one is desire. Our dad
• 18:49
  Speaker 5: had a lot of desire for football, for sports, but
• 18:52
  Speaker 5: he didn't get to pursue his passion, which was sports.
• 18:57
  Speaker 5: He had to work in the steel mills, he had
• 19:00
  Speaker 5: to drive buses. But his desire got suppressed. So I
• 19:04
  Speaker 5: made that first rock, the discipline of desire. With me,
• 19:10
  Speaker 5: anything you desire, you've got to go in the right direction.
• 19:12
  Speaker 5: You've got to get advice. You've got to get kind
• 19:14
  Speaker 5: of like tutelage. That's one reason why I took Deshaun
• 19:17
  Speaker 5: to Kansas City, so he can get the tutelage and.
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: Get that experience and that guidance.
• 19:23
  Speaker 5: And if you don't have guidance and you try to,
• 19:25
  Speaker 5: you know, rob the system or try to lie and cheat,
• 19:28
  Speaker 5: your desire goes in the opposite direction. You start lying
• 19:32
  Speaker 5: and cheating, and your dream becomes a nightmare if you
• 19:35
  Speaker 5: keep doing it the wrong way. So that's... That desire,
• 19:38
  Speaker 5: that rock kissing up to God was pretty much the
• 19:42
  Speaker 5: start of the discipline.
• 19:43
  Speaker 4: I don't know if you have anything you want to add, Carlos.
• 19:48
  Speaker 10: That's a great question, Lauren. Thank you for the leadership
• 19:50
  Speaker 10: for having me. Thank you for having us. I don't
• 19:53
  Speaker 10: think we dream enough anymore.
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: The clips that you see here.
• 19:58
  Speaker 10: As an example were from when the documentary was called
• 20:01
  Speaker 10: The Making of a Father's Dream. And that father's dream
• 20:04
  Speaker 10: became the dream of his sons. We can easily reference
• 20:08
  Speaker 10: from a historical standpoint, Dr. King had a dream that
• 20:11
  Speaker 10: his dream became all of ours. And so in my opinion,
• 20:14
  Speaker 10: we don't dream enough anymore. And so we want to
• 20:17
  Speaker 10: urge folks to engage in dreaming because your dreams, as
• 20:20
  Speaker 10: a result of these young men, can actually come true.
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: So dream would be my selection.
• 20:25
  Speaker 4: Well, speaking of dreams, I know you guys have a
• 20:28
  Speaker 4: sports rhythms academy. And the curriculum there, it asks young
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: people to create an individualized dream plan and turn aspirations
• 20:36
  Speaker 4: into tangible goals What changes when we stop simply telling
• 20:40
  Speaker 4: people to dream big and actually give them a structure
• 20:42
  Speaker 4: of figuring out how to get there? Because that's important.
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 20:46
  Speaker 10: Well, you know, I think one of the things that
• 20:48
  Speaker 10: we have to incorporate into that dreaming is the reality
• 20:52
  Speaker 10: of the work that's required to bring it to fruition.
• 20:55
  Speaker 10: And one of the things that Bill did not snack
• 20:58
  Speaker 10: on was the work.
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 20:59
  Speaker 10: Okay. And so we can dream all we want, but
• 21:03
  Speaker 10: dreaming without work or that faith that we have, the
• 21:07
  Speaker 10: desire without work, as we all know from a biblical.
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: Standpoint, is nothing.
• 21:12
  Speaker 10: And so we want to implement an understanding of the
• 21:15
  Speaker 10: discipline that's required to really bring forth that.
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: Reality of the dream that we're having.
• 21:21
  Speaker 5: And a lot of times we say, and I got
• 21:24
  Speaker 5: this term probably from Carlos, but there's a famous.
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: philosopher named Dr. Harry Edwards.
• 21:31
  Speaker 5: And he always say, dream with your eyes open. And
• 21:33
  Speaker 5: there's a clip that's not in the documentary, but we
• 21:36
  Speaker 5: actually brought the clip. When I took Dashaun to Kansas City,
• 21:41
  Speaker 5: the head scout told Dashaun, you got to dream with
• 21:43
  Speaker 5: your eyes open. And so that kind of resonated with me,
• 21:46
  Speaker 5: and it kind of comes on top of what Carla said.
• 21:48
  Speaker 5: You could dream all day long, but if you don't
• 21:49
  Speaker 5: put the work in, it ain't going to happen.
• 21:51
  Speaker 11: I love that.
• 21:55
  Speaker 4: That curriculum that we're talking about is intentionally designed to
• 21:57
  Speaker 4: reach students way far beyond just aspiring athletes. It goes
• 22:02
  Speaker 4: from middle school through college age. Why was it important
• 22:06
  Speaker 4: that lessons from Deshaun's story not be limited just to football?
• 22:10
  Speaker 4: And what can a young artist, entrepreneur, educator, or student
• 22:14
  Speaker 4: take from this story? What can the world take from
• 22:16
  Speaker 4: this story?
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: I'll address that.
• 22:19
  Speaker 10: So we oftentimes hear the term student athlete, but These
• 22:23
  Speaker 10: gentlemen are examples of how the athlete tends to get
• 22:27
  Speaker 10: more of the limelight than the student. We want to
• 22:30
  Speaker 10: urge folks to really focus on that student component. One
• 22:33
  Speaker 10: of the things that Uncle Bill talked about when he
• 22:36
  Speaker 10: talked to me, when Deshaun came to Cal, I was
• 22:39
  Speaker 10: working at Cal at UC Berkeley.
• 22:41
  Speaker 11: At the time.
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: And one of the things we wanted to.
• 22:42
  Speaker 10: Emphasize was the importance of the academic pressures that oftentimes
• 22:47
  Speaker 10: college students face, and student athletes from the pressure of
• 22:50
  Speaker 10: focusing on both areas. That academic focus can be transitioned
• 22:56
  Speaker 10: into other areas.
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: It's called transferable skills.
• 22:59
  Speaker 10: And we want to make sure that student athletes and
• 23:01
  Speaker 10: all students understand that those transferable skills will be applicable
• 23:05
  Speaker 10: to different avenues throughout the rest of their lives. And
• 23:08
  Speaker 10: you should also strive to develop in that area just
• 23:11
  Speaker 10: as you're investing in the development as an athlete, so
• 23:14
  Speaker 10: too should the.
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: Focus be development of a student because.
• 23:17
  Speaker 10: The actual student in you will carry you a lot
• 23:19
  Speaker 10: farther than.
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: The athlete will.
• 23:27
  Speaker 4: Talking about the students, Deshawn, you went from your own
• 23:30
  Speaker 4: football career, being iconic at what you do, to now
• 23:33
  Speaker 4: helping other young athletes pursue their careers and being responsible
• 23:38
  Speaker 4: for helping them as they pursue their careers, either on
• 23:41
  Speaker 4: the field and off the field, right? I was having
• 23:43
  Speaker 4: a conversation today at work about how a lot of
• 23:46
  Speaker 4: times when it comes to athletes or artists, People don't
• 23:49
  Speaker 4: understand that, like, your life outside of how you're performing
• 23:53
  Speaker 4: on that field matters just as much as what's happening
• 23:55
  Speaker 4: on the field because mentally you've got to be together.
• 23:58
  Speaker 4: What are you doing every single day, and what have
• 24:00
  Speaker 4: you learned is important in the success of young people
• 24:04
  Speaker 4: off the field that's just as.
• 24:05
  Speaker 12: Important as something on the field?
• 24:07
  Speaker 14: Yeah, I think, you know, to piggyback too off what
• 24:09
  Speaker 14: Ricardo said, my dad was, he was all sports, but
• 24:15
  Speaker 14: it was, like, You had no looks, you got no looks.
• 24:19
  Speaker 12: That was his motto.
• 24:20
  Speaker 15: He was always saying, I ain't going to share a
• 24:22
  Speaker 15: coat or nothing, because he was like, well, you're going
• 24:23
  Speaker 15: to do what you're going to do on that football field.
• 24:25
  Speaker 14: But he was like, you better make sure you're doing
• 24:27
  Speaker 14: what you need in the classroom. So I think at
• 24:29
  Speaker 14: an early age, my dad wasn't really the smartest. And
• 24:33
  Speaker 14: he was like, I'm going to be the sportsman. Your
• 24:35
  Speaker 14: mom is going to be all the books.
• 24:36
  Speaker 12: But he made it a priority.
• 24:38
  Speaker 14: He always felt the need to say, if you don't
• 24:41
  Speaker 14: finish your homework, If you don't do what you need
• 24:44
  Speaker 14: to do academically, you're not going outside. I'm not taking
• 24:46
  Speaker 14: you to practice. So he made it a standard early
• 24:48
  Speaker 14: in my life. And, you know, to say now, I
• 24:51
  Speaker 14: tell my players all the time, like, if you can't
• 24:53
  Speaker 14: get your grades, you can't play. We're not in the NFL,
• 24:56
  Speaker 14: for one. This is college football. And young guys, like,
• 24:58
  Speaker 14: you got to understand this. Coaches are not going to call.
• 25:00
  Speaker 14: They're not going to insist on asking about you on
• 25:03
  Speaker 14: the football field or any athletic sport you play if
• 25:07
  Speaker 14: you're not handling your grades. So I think you got
• 25:09
  Speaker 14: to set it. early on, you gotta understand that the
• 25:12
  Speaker 14: responsibilities it takes is hard. Let's just say this, a
• 25:16
  Speaker 14: regular student got all the time in the world to
• 25:18
  Speaker 14: just do academics. Being an athlete, your days are that
• 25:23
  Speaker 14: much longer. You gotta go to practice, you gotta go
• 25:25
  Speaker 14: to meetings, you gotta work out.
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: And you gotta go back to meetings again.
• 25:30
  Speaker 14: And then to go to school, so you gotta set
• 25:33
  Speaker 14: your schedule straight. If you don't have a schedule, and
• 25:36
  Speaker 14: you're not making your priorities, I'm telling you now, it's
• 25:38
  Speaker 14: gonna be hard to be successful playing sports because back
• 25:43
  Speaker 14: then you had to have your SAT, ACT. I know
• 25:45
  Speaker 14: us older folks had it now. It's like, you don't
• 25:47
  Speaker 14: really worry about that. But it's like, if you don't
• 25:50
  Speaker 14: have the curriculums to make sure that you're getting your grades,
• 25:53
  Speaker 14: I'm telling you now, I'm a head coach and I
• 25:55
  Speaker 14: ain't gonna look at you. So young man, make sure
• 25:57
  Speaker 14: your grades are right.
• 25:59
  Speaker 11: I'm telling you now. I gotta tell some of my players.
• 26:04
  Speaker 14: Because I'm like, man, y'all getting some bad grades and
• 26:06
  Speaker 14: they just think they can go out and play.
• 26:07
  Speaker 12: I'm like, it don't work that way, man, because... At
• 26:10
  Speaker 12: the next level, these.
• 26:11
  Speaker 14: Coaches, they ask what type of person is he off
• 26:13
  Speaker 14: the field? How is he when he's walking to class?
• 26:15
  Speaker 14: How does he talk to adults? How does he talk
• 26:17
  Speaker 14: to his peers? You've got to be respectful and you've
• 26:21
  Speaker 14: got to do what you're asked to do. If you're
• 26:23
  Speaker 14: not doing it, you're just going to chuckle.
• 26:28
  Speaker 5: Back to our dad, he was over the top with
• 26:32
  Speaker 5: pushing us in sports, but he was just the same with.
• 26:36
  Speaker 11: Academics, with Not just academics, and this clip, if.
• 26:40
  Speaker 5: You want to show a clip, I got a clip
• 26:42
  Speaker 5: of my dad talking about life skills, and he said
• 26:46
  Speaker 5: when Deshaun gets in the NFL, he don't need nobody
• 26:49
  Speaker 5: signing his checks for him and stuff like that. So
• 26:51
  Speaker 5: he was a very advocate of us having life skills,
• 26:55
  Speaker 5: and that actually is why I tried to transition all
• 26:58
  Speaker 5: of this work into a curriculum, because that's something my
• 27:01
  Speaker 5: dad really spoke highly about, helping kids have character and
• 27:05
  Speaker 5: stuff like that.
• 27:06
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think that's the word. It's like the character,
• 27:08
  Speaker 4: like the cloth that you're the cut from, or like
• 27:10
  Speaker 4: you develop the mentors and, you know, different things. Carlos,
• 27:13
  Speaker 4: you have something you want to say?
• 27:15
  Speaker 10: Yeah, you know, I think it's important to know that
• 27:17
  Speaker 10: when Deshaun was making his decision to go to college,
• 27:20
  Speaker 10: I remember late one night, I was working at UC Berkeley, and.
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: Pop was on the phone.
• 27:25
  Speaker 10: And he talked about making sure that Deshaun can survive.
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: Academically at Cal. At the time, I had no affiliation
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: with athletics.
• 27:33
  Speaker 10: I wasn't as successful in my athletic endeavors as these
• 27:37
  Speaker 10: two men were, and so I had to pivot my
• 27:38
  Speaker 10: thoughts and become just as competitive academically, and so it
• 27:41
  Speaker 10: landed me a job at UC Berkeley, and so when
• 27:45
  Speaker 10: University of California Berkeley, also known as Cal, one of
• 27:48
  Speaker 10: the number one research institutions in the world, and so
• 27:51
  Speaker 10: when Deshawn was preparing to come there, Pops was calling
• 27:54
  Speaker 10: and saying, I want to make sure my son can survive.
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: And so I linked him.
• 27:57
  Speaker 10: With our then director of academic athletics, Dr.
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: Derek Van Reenen, who was already working with a player
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: named Marshawn Lynch. Okay?
• 28:08
  Speaker 10: And so we linked him with Deshawn to assure that
• 28:11
  Speaker 10: there was just as much support from an academic standpoint
• 28:14
  Speaker 10: as he would receive academically to provide that balance for success.
• 28:19
  Speaker 4: And that was, you know, one of the things that
• 28:21
  Speaker 4: echoes to when I hear y'all talk and I watch
• 28:23
  Speaker 4: the documentary, it's the way that y'all surrounded Deshawn. It's like,
• 28:27
  Speaker 4: you know, I think you come to an HBCU one
• 28:31
  Speaker 4: of the biggest things I tell people all the time
• 28:32
  Speaker 4: is like the tribe and the, you don't even know
• 28:35
  Speaker 4: they're doing it, but the way that your school and
• 28:37
  Speaker 4: when they see it in you, they surround you and
• 28:39
  Speaker 4: they build you up. That is so important. And a
• 28:42
  Speaker 4: lot of times you need it and you don't want
• 28:43
  Speaker 4: to ask for it. Now, when we speak of community
• 28:47
  Speaker 4: and tribe at Delaware State University, I will say I
• 28:49
  Speaker 4: have never been as involved at Delaware State University athletics
• 28:52
  Speaker 4: as I have in these recent years. But shout out
• 28:55
  Speaker 4: to my uncle, Tony Tucker, who's here as well, too.
• 29:00
  Speaker 4: It's been an amazing thing for me to get more
• 29:02
  Speaker 4: involved in and learn about because there's such a world
• 29:05
  Speaker 4: of community there. And their HBCU experience is just as
• 29:09
  Speaker 4: vast as just the students who are... I always thought
• 29:12
  Speaker 4: athletes didn't really have an experience because they're always practicing
• 29:15
  Speaker 4: or always traveling. And I'm learning through everything now that
• 29:18
  Speaker 4: it's completely different. And it makes me think about the
• 29:22
  Speaker 4: larger athletic transformation that is happening right now at Delaware
• 29:24
  Speaker 4: State University.
• 29:25
  Speaker 14: Thank you.
• 29:27
  Speaker 4: What do you guys want that transformation to mean beyond
• 29:30
  Speaker 4: just the wins and the losses? And when the students today,
• 29:34
  Speaker 4: and student athletes today specifically, look back five, ten years
• 29:39
  Speaker 4: from now, what do you hope they say changed the
• 29:42
  Speaker 4: most during this period?
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: I'll speak on that. I think it's deserving.
• 29:49
  Speaker 14: And the reason why I say it is because if
• 29:50
  Speaker 14: you look at all the other HBCUs, for one, compared
• 29:54
  Speaker 14: to Delaware State, it's a far advantage.
• 29:58
  Speaker 12: A lot of, you know, Howard's, Morgan.
• 30:00
  Speaker 14: State's, like all these colleges have ice stadiums, ice locker rooms,
• 30:04
  Speaker 14: you know, and rehabilitation to.
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: The area on the campus.
• 30:09
  Speaker 14: When I first came here, it was hard because I'm
• 30:13
  Speaker 14: walking into this area, I'm like, dang, high schools look
• 30:15
  Speaker 14: better than Delaware State. So I feel like, you know,
• 30:19
  Speaker 14: I'm sorry.
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: I'm sorry I got to come to state.
• 30:22
  Speaker 4: I understand what you're saying, though, because when I started
• 30:25
  Speaker 4: visiting other HBCUs, I was like... Dang, we made it.
• 30:28
  Speaker 11: We got it.
• 30:29
  Speaker 4: We got through it.
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 30:31
  Speaker 14: So I just want y'all to sit with me and
• 30:33
  Speaker 14: feel me for a second. So when I come in,
• 30:36
  Speaker 14: I'm seeing it. And it's like they almost not showing
• 30:38
  Speaker 14: me certain stuff because they don't want me to see it.
• 30:39
  Speaker 14: I'm like, I want to see it. Take me to
• 30:41
  Speaker 14: where it's bad.
• 30:41
  Speaker 11: I'll take you there.
• 30:43
  Speaker 4: I'll take you there.
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: I'll take you there. It was crazy.
• 30:48
  Speaker 12: I'm going to tell the truth about this. What's crazy
• 30:50
  Speaker 12: is where they was trying to put me.
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: I didn't even want to go there.
• 30:52
  Speaker 12: I said, man, take me to where y'all don't want
• 30:53
  Speaker 12: me to be. That's where they was.
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: Coaching us at.
• 30:55
  Speaker 16: So.
• 30:56
  Speaker 14: It just shows the characteristic of me because I knew
• 30:59
  Speaker 14: coming into this, I said, I want this to be
• 31:01
  Speaker 14: a better place. If I leave in five years, ten,
• 31:04
  Speaker 14: whenever my time is that God wants me to be
• 31:06
  Speaker 14: here and it's another destination, I'll say this.
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: I'll say, when I come in here, I'm going to
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: transform this university.
• 31:14
  Speaker 14: It's going to be better when I got here.
• 31:16
  Speaker 12: But to just be honest, like, It was hard to
• 31:20
  Speaker 12: hire a coach.
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: I had to hire a coach. Let me see the facilities.
• 31:22
  Speaker 12: I'm like, nah, coach, just come in and come see me.
• 31:26
  Speaker 12: That's what the office looked like.
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: I'm like, don't worry about the office.
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: Just come see me. I know I'm joking about this,
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: but I really feel a sense of need.
• 31:35
  Speaker 12: So we got to all come together, man.
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: And it's deserving.
• 31:38
  Speaker 12: Because these athletes, I know, we got the, how do
• 31:41
  Speaker 12: I say it?
• 31:43
  Speaker 4: Equestrian team.
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: Equestrian team. Equestrian team.
• 31:46
  Speaker 11: Equestrian team.
• 31:46
  Speaker 10: Equestrian team.
• 31:47
  Speaker 12: Equestrian team.
• 31:48
  Speaker 14: Equestrian team.
• 31:48
  Speaker 8: Equestrian team.
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: Equestrian team. Equestrian team.
• 31:53
  Speaker 12: Equestrian team.
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: Equestrian team. Equestrian team. Equestrian team. Equestrian team.
• 31:57
  Speaker 12: Equestrian team.
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: Equestrian team. Equestrian team.
• 32:01
  Speaker 14: Equestrian team. Equestrian team. Equestrian team.
• 32:04
  Speaker 5: Equestrian team.
• 32:11
  Speaker 4: Deciding that Delaware State University is where you want to
• 32:13
  Speaker 4: begin your coaching career. Because the way that I saw
• 32:16
  Speaker 4: it go, y'all can please clap for that.
• 32:19
  Speaker 8: How many.
• 32:22
  Speaker 4: Of you guys are actually from Delaware?
• 32:24
  Speaker 11: People from Delaware?
• 32:25
  Speaker 4: So if you're from Delaware, you understand what I'm talking about.
• 32:28
  Speaker 4: Because resource-wise, just being from Delaware, I feel like I've
• 32:32
  Speaker 4: always had to explain to people that, no, we got it.
• 32:35
  Speaker 4: It might not be on a national platform, but we
• 32:37
  Speaker 4: have it. And then coming to Delaware State University, I
• 32:40
  Speaker 4: always felt like there's so many talented people here. Our
• 32:42
  Speaker 4: friends were doing so many things, but people just don't know.
• 32:45
  Speaker 4: And the resources and support isn't there. And when, you know,
• 32:48
  Speaker 4: the athletic program and, you know, Dr. Tony Allen and
• 32:52
  Speaker 4: everybody that, like, figured out a way to make all
• 32:54
  Speaker 4: of this happen, we were on this stage and in
• 32:57
  Speaker 4: this conversation. And I was like, finally, people can understand
• 33:00
  Speaker 4: that being at Delaware State University Hornet makes you, you
• 33:04
  Speaker 4: can go out and conquer the world. And we need
• 33:06
  Speaker 4: the conversation to start the transformation. So we appreciate you
• 33:11
  Speaker 4: being here and going through all the places they didn't
• 33:14
  Speaker 4: want to take you to.
• 33:14
  Speaker 8: We appreciate you.
• 33:17
  Speaker 4: But I want to get back to the film a bit, too,
• 33:21
  Speaker 4: because when you talk about transformation and just, you know,
• 33:24
  Speaker 4: this is history right now. We are literally living in
• 33:26
  Speaker 4: Delaware State University history and Delaware history, football history, as
• 33:30
  Speaker 4: we watch you matriculate through this career as a coach.
• 33:33
  Speaker 4: And the film preserves a lot of your family history.
• 33:37
  Speaker 4: But putting it on the screen turns that history into
• 33:39
  Speaker 4: something other that people.
• 33:41
  Speaker 11: Can learn from.
• 33:42
  Speaker 4: That's also something museums, universities, and cultural institutions do every
• 33:47
  Speaker 4: single day. Byron, this question is for you. Do you
• 33:50
  Speaker 4: see filmmaking as a form of education or cultural preservation
• 33:55
  Speaker 4: almost as much as entertainment?
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: I think both. I mean, definitely education.
• 34:03
  Speaker 5: I mean, if you think about it, I filmed probably
• 34:05
  Speaker 5: close to 10,000 hours of our lives, and you might
• 34:10
  Speaker 5: see 91 minutes. So you see one layer. There's a
• 34:15
  Speaker 5: lot of layers to pull back. Some of the things
• 34:17
  Speaker 5: you don't really get to see is our dad surrounded Deshaun,
• 34:21
  Speaker 5: not just with a big brother, but a team. All
• 34:24
  Speaker 5: of my friends became his big brothers, from Travis to
• 34:28
  Speaker 5: Derek to Booker to Coach T.
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: He had a track coach.
• 34:32
  Speaker 5: We had a whole team, and we went around saying
• 34:35
  Speaker 5: Team Jackson. That was Deshaun's team. And hopefully this documentary
• 34:39
  Speaker 5: can see that. And I know that even complete this documentary,
• 34:43
  Speaker 5: everybody give me the credit for filming all this, but
• 34:45
  Speaker 5: it took a team.
• 34:47
  Speaker 11: It took my partner Travis to help me film when
• 34:50
  Speaker 11: I wasn't here. It took a good editor. It took
• 34:52
  Speaker 11: a director.
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: It took line producers.
• 34:55
  Speaker 5: I had to add Adam McKay to the credits just
• 34:58
  Speaker 5: to get it to Amazon.
• 34:59
  Speaker 11: So it took a whole team of people to.
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: Help You know, they should get up here.
• 35:04
  Speaker 5: So hopefully people can see this story and know that,
• 35:07
  Speaker 5: you know, it took a team, and hopefully they can
• 35:10
  Speaker 5: build that whole team approach. And I think that's part
• 35:12
  Speaker 5: of what Carly asked, you know, the academic team, and he.
• 35:16
  Speaker 11: Brings that into our curriculum.
• 35:18
  Speaker 5: We want families around the country to have their own
• 35:20
  Speaker 5: Team Jackson approach to helping their kids.
• 35:22
  Speaker 11: Thank you.
• 35:23
  Speaker 4: And I think they want it. The families are here.
• 35:25
  Speaker 4: I see a lot of the students here.
• 35:27
  Speaker 14: Thank you.
• 35:30
  Speaker 4: This question can go for any of you guys sitting
• 35:31
  Speaker 4: up here with me right now. When we talk about
• 35:34
  Speaker 4: Team Jackson and the community that you guys built, which
• 35:36
  Speaker 4: is very apparent, I really urge you guys to go
• 35:38
  Speaker 4: and watch the full documentary on Amazon Prime. You will
• 35:43
  Speaker 4: literally see, there are times where the shop is even
• 35:45
  Speaker 4: in the car, but I don't know if it's your
• 35:47
  Speaker 4: friends or your family, and they're like, we going here,
• 35:49
  Speaker 4: don't you got to work out in the morning? Everybody
• 35:52
  Speaker 4: is making sure that the goal is accomplished. But when
• 35:56
  Speaker 4: you think about the role that that type of community
• 35:58
  Speaker 4: played in your own successes, Who showed up for you
• 36:01
  Speaker 4: guys before there was any guarantee that that dream was
• 36:03
  Speaker 4: going to work out? And how does that influence the
• 36:05
  Speaker 4: way you think about giving back today?
• 36:09
  Speaker 10: Can I address that, B? So easily are we able
• 36:14
  Speaker 10: to reference the phrase, it takes a village.
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: But that village is not traditional anymore.
• 36:24
  Speaker 10: When we talk about the deconstruction of the family household,
• 36:28
  Speaker 10: Bill's resourcefulness is not marketed as much as it should be.
• 36:33
  Speaker 10: He recognized that he could not, and his wife Gail
• 36:37
  Speaker 10: could not do it alone, and so they brought in
• 36:39
  Speaker 10: and created Team Jackson. And as a result, what you
• 36:43
  Speaker 10: see here is the result of that, which is to
• 36:47
  Speaker 10: whom much is given. Much is required and expected. And
• 36:52
  Speaker 10: so when these men experience their respective successes, and I
• 36:55
  Speaker 10: experienced my success, our job now is to pay it forward.
• 37:00
  Speaker 10: And regardless of what we get in return, financially or otherwise,
• 37:04
  Speaker 10: the job is to pay it forward. Because it's bigger
• 37:07
  Speaker 10: than just us as individuals and our individualized success or
• 37:10
  Speaker 10: the success of our families. It's a collective experience and
• 37:14
  Speaker 10: a collective experience of success that needs to take place.
• 37:18
  Speaker 10: The resourcefulness of Bill Jackson and being able to bring
• 37:21
  Speaker 10: in people that were not able to contribute to either
• 37:24
  Speaker 10: of his sons, everything that he was able to give,
• 37:27
  Speaker 10: I think is under-merited.
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: I agree.
• 37:31
  Speaker 14: I do.
• 37:33
  Speaker 4: Especially for the time period that this takes place in
• 37:36
  Speaker 4: and how you guys figured it out every single time.
• 37:41
  Speaker 4: It makes it look effortless, but I know that it wasn't.
• 37:44
  Speaker 4: I know 100% that it is not easy to achieve
• 37:46
  Speaker 4: a dream as a black family that is just trying
• 37:49
  Speaker 4: to figure some things out. Now, we're having this conversation
• 37:53
  Speaker 4: here in the theater. We're using film and storytelling to
• 37:56
  Speaker 4: talk about athletics, education, family, your father, community. What can
• 38:02
  Speaker 4: arts and culture reveal about athletes that statistics, highlight reels,
• 38:07
  Speaker 4: the interviews, scoreboards just can't do? So what is it
• 38:17
  Speaker 4: that a film or documentary like what we just watched
• 38:20
  Speaker 4: can reveal about an athlete and their journey that when
• 38:23
  Speaker 4: I watch a highlight reel, I watch ESPN, I watch
• 38:26
  Speaker 4: the sit-down interviews, I watch the Club Shea Shea, they
• 38:29
  Speaker 4: can't do that.
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: What can.
• 38:32
  Speaker 4: This type of work did.
• 38:33
  Speaker 12: I think it's a portion of being vulnerable.
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: Like you said, watching a highlight.
• 38:41
  Speaker 14: If you put up a Deshaun Jackson highlight, it's going
• 38:44
  Speaker 14: to be a long highlight with a whole.
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: Lot of touchdowns.
• 38:49
  Speaker 11: First and foremost.
• 38:51
  Speaker 14: But I think having a project or a documentary or
• 38:55
  Speaker 14: potentially a future film, hopefully one day we can make
• 38:58
  Speaker 14: a future film of this, I think it just really
• 39:01
  Speaker 14: shows the layers. We brought our curriculum, and we have
• 39:05
  Speaker 14: this handwritten book, and we feel like if you follow
• 39:08
  Speaker 14: those steps on that book, it ain't guaranteed, but pretty much,
• 39:13
  Speaker 14: it's a model to the success. And like he said,
• 39:18
  Speaker 14: to lose much is required, right? Much is expected as well, too.
• 39:22
  Speaker 14: So you got to put in the work, and you
• 39:24
  Speaker 14: have to have responsibilities in your life. I think the
• 39:27
  Speaker 14: goal set, and like he said, dreaming with your eyes open.
• 39:31
  Speaker 15: You being able to see a documentary is not gonna
• 39:34
  Speaker 15: show you the things I had to go through about
• 39:36
  Speaker 15: a coach mentioning me for whatever reason, right?
• 39:39
  Speaker 14: Or my friends getting into a fight and I'm young
• 39:41
  Speaker 14: and trying to figure out how do I manage to
• 39:44
  Speaker 14: not let that fight change my trajectory of me being
• 39:51
  Speaker 14: a first rounder it's just a lot of things and
• 39:53
  Speaker 14: layers that you can learn from when you watch an
• 39:56
  Speaker 14: interview when you watch footage from way back I would
• 39:59
  Speaker 14: assist all you young guys if your parents ain't here
• 40:01
  Speaker 14: man pick up that camera and film them young dudes
• 40:04
  Speaker 14: you never know who's going to.
• 40:06
  Speaker 12: Make it at the end of the day I feel
• 40:07
  Speaker 12: like I knew I was going to.
• 40:08
  Speaker 14: Make it and it's crazy because you can go back
• 40:10
  Speaker 14: to hoop dreams or any documentary there's no footage from
• 40:14
  Speaker 14: a six year old being cocky and hard headed and
• 40:16
  Speaker 14: saying I'm going to do this and that, and looking
• 40:19
  Speaker 14: at 35, 36 years old, and everything happening and planning out.
• 40:23
  Speaker 14: So I think just being a visionary and just being
• 40:26
  Speaker 14: vulnerable and understanding life is not perfect.
• 40:29
  Speaker 12: It's going to be a lot of mistakes, but what's
• 40:31
  Speaker 12: going to determine you?
• 40:31
  Speaker 14: Are you going to allow those losses to become lessons,
• 40:33
  Speaker 14: or are you going to let those losses become defeats.
• 40:36
  Speaker 12: Where you know what you gave up and you quit?
• 40:38
  Speaker 14: You've got to bounce back from every loss in your life,
• 40:40
  Speaker 14: and I think that art or that project that you're
• 40:43
  Speaker 14: able to learn from helps the future.
• 40:46
  Speaker 5: I agree. I also think this film, I think everybody
• 40:56
  Speaker 5: out here, tell me if I'm wrong, can see themselves
• 40:59
  Speaker 5: in this film.
• 41:01
  Speaker 11: At some point in your life, you can see in
• 41:03
  Speaker 11: this film.
• 41:04
  Speaker 5: Hopefully, I want this film to show everybody that we're
• 41:09
  Speaker 5: no different than everybody else. We just kept the course,
• 41:12
  Speaker 5: and we kept doing it, and I kept filming.
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: I feel like filming every day is special, even today.
• 41:19
  Speaker 12: Whatever you did today is special.
• 41:21
  Speaker 5: Just as special as last week. So you just got
• 41:24
  Speaker 5: to take every day like it's your last day and
• 41:27
  Speaker 5: make the most out of it.
• 41:28
  Speaker 11: And I think that's what.
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: This show shows.
• 41:31
  Speaker 11: You got to make the most out of every day,
• 41:32
  Speaker 11: even today.
• 41:33
  Speaker 5: I think every day is special, so I want to
• 41:36
  Speaker 5: document something.
• 41:36
  Speaker 12: Special about today.
• 41:38
  Speaker 10: I love that.
• 41:40
  Speaker 4: And that was no knock the club shit shit either.
• 41:41
  Speaker 4: Y'all recording, y'all post that. Don't get me viral in
• 41:44
  Speaker 4: here for no reason. One of the things that stood
• 41:48
  Speaker 4: out to me a lot in his doc, and they
• 41:50
  Speaker 4: saw it in the preview of it, there was a
• 41:52
  Speaker 4: part where you were filming Deshaun and the voiceover says,
• 41:57
  Speaker 4: you guys see him as mild-mannered and respectful, but the
• 42:00
  Speaker 4: world may not always see him as that, as a
• 42:01
  Speaker 4: young black man walking into the world, right? And preparing
• 42:04
  Speaker 4: him for what these next levels of his career will
• 42:06
  Speaker 4: be like. For the parents in the room, the coaches
• 42:09
  Speaker 4: in the room, mentors, educators in the room, what's that
• 42:14
  Speaker 4: real-life conversation you have with these athletes when that is
• 42:19
  Speaker 4: a real thing about how the world will view them
• 42:21
  Speaker 4: a lot differently than the people who love them?
• 42:25
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 42:31
  Speaker 10: You've prompted a lot of thoughts to run through my head,
• 42:34
  Speaker 10: but what reflects for me is the first camp that
• 42:37
  Speaker 10: we did in 2012. We had an organic situation take
• 42:42
  Speaker 10: place where Deshaun and Byron have all of the participants
• 42:46
  Speaker 10: on the field. And generally speaking, when you have a camp,
• 42:50
  Speaker 10: parents may sit in the stands and read a book
• 42:53
  Speaker 10: or they may run some errands and so on. But
• 42:56
  Speaker 10: we decided to take advantage of the presence of the
• 42:59
  Speaker 10: parents and we created what was resulted from that was
• 43:02
  Speaker 10: a concept called parent university. So while Deshawn and Byron
• 43:06
  Speaker 10: have student athletes on the field in our respective camps
• 43:09
  Speaker 10: that we've done over the country, we have the parents
• 43:12
  Speaker 10: participate in a parent university concept in a classroom. And
• 43:16
  Speaker 10: we're teaching them some of the same principles that their
• 43:19
  Speaker 10: students or their youth are experiencing on the field. It
• 43:22
  Speaker 10: becomes a collective approach so that the village can receive
• 43:27
  Speaker 10: the information and not just the participants. And so we
• 43:30
  Speaker 10: have to get back, in my opinion, to really understand
• 43:33
  Speaker 10: how it's important to feed the entire household with the
• 43:38
  Speaker 10: information that we have. Just as Bill was resourceful in
• 43:41
  Speaker 10: bringing in information that he wasn't necessarily initially in possession of,
• 43:45
  Speaker 10: but he wanted both his sons to be in possession
• 43:48
  Speaker 10: of that.
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: We thought it necessary.
• 43:50
  Speaker 10: To create something greater in the form of camps than
• 43:53
  Speaker 10: student athletes participating and walking away with a t-shirt and
• 43:57
  Speaker 10: a picture with a pro athlete. We have a curriculum
• 44:00
  Speaker 10: that we developed that this was the original one.
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: I thought it necessary to bring it. This was the
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: original one.
• 44:05
  Speaker 10: But it's more into this now in the form of
• 44:08
  Speaker 10: Brian's book and giving you something to walk away with
• 44:11
  Speaker 10: so that you can have work that's continuously being done.
• 44:15
  Speaker 2: And not just on the day of participation.
• 44:17
  Speaker 10: We're continuously working to continuously develop ourselves, develop our abilities,
• 44:22
  Speaker 10: contribute to our communities, et cetera. But it has to
• 44:25
  Speaker 10: be a comprehensive approach, and we have to have this
• 44:28
  Speaker 10: panoramic lens, if you will, and not be one-dimensional.
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: I'm going on a tangent here because so many things
• 44:33
  Speaker 2: are going.
• 44:33
  Speaker 10: Through my head about how we've come to where we are,
• 44:36
  Speaker 10: and that dream coming to fruition is in my head
• 44:39
  Speaker 10: right now about us being on this stage sharing with
• 44:43
  Speaker 10: the masses how we have come to this point.
• 44:46
  Speaker 2: But more importantly, to.
• 44:47
  Speaker 10: Answer your initial question, Lauren, being able to have this
• 44:51
  Speaker 10: comprehensive approach and not a one-dimensional approach, these young men
• 44:56
  Speaker 10: will be contributing to society for the rest of their lives,
• 44:59
  Speaker 10: and it doesn't have to be on a football field
• 45:02
  Speaker 10: scoring a touchdown for.
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: Your favorite team.
• 45:04
  Speaker 10: So too should be the case of us educating our
• 45:07
  Speaker 10: youth One of the things that I'm able to do
• 45:09
  Speaker 10: is share with you how important it is to pivot.
• 45:12
  Speaker 10: Although I didn't get to participate in pro athletics like
• 45:15
  Speaker 10: they did, I'm a professional in education. And so it
• 45:19
  Speaker 10: becomes important for you to know that although you can't
• 45:21
  Speaker 10: be the next Byron or Deshaun Jackson, you can be
• 45:24
  Speaker 10: the best you that you can be and develop yourselves
• 45:27
  Speaker 10: to contribute in whatever way.
• 45:28
  Speaker 2: You see best fit.
• 45:31
  Speaker 4: So, Byron, this question is for you. When we talk about,
• 45:34
  Speaker 4: you know, the greater conversations that you guys have in
• 45:37
  Speaker 4: your curriculum and that, you know, have to happen, how
• 45:39
  Speaker 4: did you decide which footage was just going to be for, like,
• 45:43
  Speaker 4: your family to, like, have as you guys' own keepsake?
• 45:46
  Speaker 4: And then the footage that you were going to take
• 45:48
  Speaker 4: and put in this documentary because you knew it was
• 45:50
  Speaker 4: a conversation of a larger audience around the world, wouldn't.
• 45:53
  Speaker 2: You, Dad? Yeah, that's a good question.
• 45:56
  Speaker 5: And just to be totally honest, I directed a documentary
• 46:00
  Speaker 5: that I completed it in 2011, 12, and I didn't
• 46:07
  Speaker 5: get no distribution deal. And I thought it was a
• 46:09
  Speaker 5: great documentary, and all of my people around me thought
• 46:12
  Speaker 5: it was great, but it just didn't make it to
• 46:16
  Speaker 5: the big screen.
• 46:17
  Speaker 2: I didn't stop.
• 46:18
  Speaker 11: I just kept going.
• 46:19
  Speaker 2: I kept filming.
• 46:20
  Speaker 5: I used that documentary to try to create this curriculum,
• 46:23
  Speaker 5: and I just kept filming. And eventually, I realized I
• 46:26
  Speaker 5: needed to hire a director. I needed to get somebody
• 46:29
  Speaker 5: from the outside to look at everything I had and
• 46:33
  Speaker 5: to help me tell a story that was impactful and
• 46:36
  Speaker 5: that was real. I think I kind of sugar-coated a
• 46:38
  Speaker 5: lot of things in the first documentary just because.
• 46:41
  Speaker 11: I was trying to protect my family. Exactly.
• 46:43
  Speaker 5: And I had to find a director that I trusted,
• 46:46
  Speaker 5: because I literally filmed a lot of stuff that I didn't.
• 46:50
  Speaker 11: Want out there.
• 46:51
  Speaker 2: So I had to find a director.
• 46:52
  Speaker 5: That I really had a lot of trust in, and
• 46:55
  Speaker 5: he had to explain to me a lot of things
• 46:58
  Speaker 5: that he wanted to use that I wasn't really ready
• 47:00
  Speaker 5: to use. So it took finding the right director that
• 47:05
  Speaker 5: saw my vision, but Also, outside of me, could stand
• 47:09
  Speaker 5: away from it and say, you need to use this
• 47:11
  Speaker 5: because this is powerful.
• 47:13
  Speaker 11: That type of thing.
• 47:15
  Speaker 4: Did the director have to get the okay from the
• 47:17
  Speaker 4: family too?
• 47:19
  Speaker 2: Yes, definitely.
• 47:20
  Speaker 17: It was a couple shots where I wasn't ready to show,
• 47:26
  Speaker 17: so I had to call my executive producer to the
• 47:30
  Speaker 17: scene and get his opinion.
• 47:32
  Speaker 4: But yeah, definitely.
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: What you shaking?
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: Did Sean shake?
• 47:38
  Speaker 4: He's like, uh-oh.
• 47:40
  Speaker 14: There's a lot of stuff that was not approved by
• 47:42
  Speaker 14: Mama Jackson.
• 47:44
  Speaker 2: Oh, your mom.
• 47:45
  Speaker 4: It wasn't you.
• 47:46
  Speaker 2: It was mom. It was mom.
• 47:47
  Speaker 12: I'm a coach now.
• 47:48
  Speaker 14: We're putting out all this stuff, but I think they're
• 47:51
  Speaker 14: able to learn.
• 47:51
  Speaker 5: I was young.
• 47:54
  Speaker 14: I said all the time, you can't really judge a
• 47:56
  Speaker 14: young guy that's that age, but it's a perception that's
• 47:58
  Speaker 14: put out there. At the time, when I was 17,
• 48:01
  Speaker 14: 18 years old, I just had grown into things, but
• 48:03
  Speaker 14: I think the biggest thing is we sat in the
• 48:06
  Speaker 14: same theater and I showed my players and, you know,
• 48:09
  Speaker 14: I was open and I was vulnerable, but I told
• 48:11
  Speaker 14: them at the same time, like, you know, you guys
• 48:14
  Speaker 14: can learn from mistakes. That's why I'm coaching right now.
• 48:16
  Speaker 14: You know, that's why I'm in this position. I feel
• 48:18
  Speaker 14: like I was putting in because I'm able to, you know,
• 48:20
  Speaker 14: give these young men, you know, rights and wrongs and
• 48:23
  Speaker 14: do's and don'ts because I know what they're looking for
• 48:25
  Speaker 14: at the next level. And it's a small percent of
• 48:27
  Speaker 14: guys that make it, but, you know, regardless if it's
• 48:30
  Speaker 14: in life, like Merle said, it can be daily characteristics
• 48:32
  Speaker 14: that you take on in your life that may not
• 48:35
  Speaker 14: even be on the field in between those white lines.
• 48:37
  Speaker 14: So I think that's the bigger picture and just opening.
• 48:40
  Speaker 12: Up to all the footage. But it was definitely a
• 48:43
  Speaker 12: lot of stuff that was like, ah.
• 48:45
  Speaker 14: But when we signed our name, when we did the
• 48:46
  Speaker 14: deal with Amazon, like, we forgave all the rights.
• 48:51
  Speaker 12: So we couldn't really say no.
• 48:52
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and you guys, I mean... You guys only saw
• 48:55
  Speaker 4: a bit of it here. That's why I encourage you
• 48:57
  Speaker 4: to go watch the full documentary on Amazon because you
• 49:00
  Speaker 4: guys do share a lot. It gets really personal. It's
• 49:02
  Speaker 4: like your father and, you know, his passing and, you know,
• 49:06
  Speaker 4: just the family dynamic and your first calls. It felt
• 49:09
  Speaker 4: like there's a lot there that you do share. But
• 49:12
  Speaker 4: I think that a lot of the student athletes and
• 49:15
  Speaker 4: younger athletes, when they watch it, they're going to see
• 49:17
  Speaker 4: somebody they relate to. And I think that that matters.
• 49:20
  Speaker 4: Kids got to believe you in a real way because
• 49:23
  Speaker 4: they're facing so many real things, especially like our young
• 49:25
  Speaker 4: black men or black boys. They're babies that are out
• 49:29
  Speaker 4: in this world. So I, you know, some of the
• 49:31
  Speaker 4: things that you guys did leave in, I commend you
• 49:33
  Speaker 4: for being brave enough to do that. And I think
• 49:34
  Speaker 4: it will save a life. It'll change a life too.
• 49:38
  Speaker 4: I want to talk about the history of HBCUs at
• 49:42
  Speaker 4: Delaware State University. Because Delaware State University is an HBCU
• 49:45
  Speaker 4: with a deep history, but it's also an institution that
• 49:49
  Speaker 4: is thinking about the future. How do you balance honoring
• 49:52
  Speaker 4: the traditions and the people who built an institution or
• 49:55
  Speaker 4: a community while still being able to transform it? Like,
• 49:59
  Speaker 4: you guys came in and you fit within the family.
• 50:03
  Speaker 4: And it didn't feel like you were outsiders coming in
• 50:06
  Speaker 4: to change our world in a way that we didn't
• 50:08
  Speaker 4: want it to happen. It's always been love and support.
• 50:11
  Speaker 4: How did you guys figure that out and navigate that?
• 50:16
  Speaker 2: Thune Cookman.
• 50:18
  Speaker 11: Thune Cookman.
• 50:18
  Speaker 4: Your HBCU, go ahead.
• 50:20
  Speaker 10: No, ma'am.
• 50:21
  Speaker 2: Oh, okay.
• 50:22
  Speaker 12: I'll touch on this quickly and then Brian can take it.
• 50:26
  Speaker 14: I think the biggest thing is just having the standard
• 50:29
  Speaker 14: remain the standard. Regardless of what it looks like, Y'all
• 50:33
  Speaker 14: may be a younger form or y'all may be able
• 50:35
  Speaker 14: to relate to the players a little more just because
• 50:37
  Speaker 14: of my age gap. But, you know, for me, just
• 50:40
  Speaker 14: allowing the players to be authentic and, you know, unique
• 50:43
  Speaker 14: to who they are. I never came in and said, hey,
• 50:45
  Speaker 14: I was your dad or, you know, I'm a police officer.
• 50:48
  Speaker 12: Like, you know what, I accept every player for who
• 50:50
  Speaker 12: they are.
• 50:51
  Speaker 14: And I think, you know, when you're trying to break
• 50:54
  Speaker 14: a cycle or you're trying to break, if you want
• 50:56
  Speaker 14: to just call it what it is, a loser mentality
• 50:59
  Speaker 14: or a loser mindset, like, you had to peel back
• 51:02
  Speaker 14: the layers. And for me, when I came in 2025, like,
• 51:06
  Speaker 14: it was a very talented team. Like, those that knew
• 51:09
  Speaker 14: about the Delaware State Hornets around those times I came in,
• 51:14
  Speaker 14: they were in five games that they lost.
• 51:17
  Speaker 12: In the fourth quarter, they was actually winning.
• 51:19
  Speaker 14: And it just came down to, like, my own head mistakes, undisciplined, fatigue.
• 51:25
  Speaker 14: So when I came in, I'm like, man, you guys
• 51:27
  Speaker 14: are actually talented.
• 51:28
  Speaker 11: You know what I'm saying?
• 51:29
  Speaker 12: And the brand of Delaware State football, like, it was
• 51:31
  Speaker 12: a good brand of football.
• 51:32
  Speaker 14: I just had to trigger just their mindsets.
• 51:35
  Speaker 12: I have three characteristics that I preach on a daily basis.
• 51:40
  Speaker 2: It's mindset.
• 51:41
  Speaker 14: One is your mindset, how you attack things, how resilient
• 51:44
  Speaker 14: you are in anything happening, and then your dog mentality.
• 51:49
  Speaker 14: I think that's the same culture and the same, in
• 51:51
  Speaker 14: other words, it was back.
• 51:52
  Speaker 12: In 2007 when they won the NBA championship.
• 51:57
  Speaker 14: For me, it's just kind of just peeling back layers
• 51:59
  Speaker 14: and just having them understand that Yeah, you have a
• 52:01
  Speaker 14: young coach who may do things a little flashy.
• 52:03
  Speaker 12: Maybe I may have a jury and a dominance in
• 52:05
  Speaker 12: my team, but at the end of the day, it's
• 52:07
  Speaker 12: one way to win. You've got to work hard. That's
• 52:09
  Speaker 12: the only way you can be a champion.
• 52:11
  Speaker 14: It's only one champion for one reason, because what team
• 52:14
  Speaker 14: is going to do it the most consistent throughout the season?
• 52:16
  Speaker 14: So I just think putting that, you know, the principles
• 52:19
  Speaker 14: on your team and, you know, on your kids and
• 52:22
  Speaker 14: just making them live that every day regardless of the service.
• 52:28
  Speaker 12: Definitely, that's a good answer.
• 52:29
  Speaker 5: Basically, This documentary and coaching football and how I coach football,
• 52:35
  Speaker 5: I'm a coach.
• 52:36
  Speaker 2: Too, just being fundamentally sound.
• 52:39
  Speaker 5: Whatever you do in life, be fundamentally sound. Have the
• 52:42
  Speaker 5: fundamentals down to a science. From running, these are also principles.
• 52:46
  Speaker 11: Running, jumping, throwing, catching and hitting.
• 52:48
  Speaker 2: You've got to know the basics.
• 52:49
  Speaker 5: You've got to know the fundamentals and you've got to
• 52:51
  Speaker 5: master them. Every day of your life, you've got to
• 52:53
  Speaker 5: master the details. And if you can do that in sports,
• 52:57
  Speaker 5: why can't you do it in life? Mastering becoming a
• 52:59
  Speaker 5: good person. Mastering being respectful. I mean, we as coaches,
• 53:04
  Speaker 5: we know how to build winning traditions. Let's try to
• 53:07
  Speaker 5: build that winning tradition with society. And that's what this
• 53:11
  Speaker 5: curriculum is about, trying to build a winning culture as
• 53:14
  Speaker 5: far as kids off the football field.
• 53:18
  Speaker 4: I love that. Well, we are at the end of
• 53:22
  Speaker 4: the conversation. And to close, first I want to thank
• 53:25
  Speaker 4: you guys for being here.
• 53:26
  Speaker 11: Thank you guys for.
• 53:27
  Speaker 4: Being such an attentive audience. I want to bring us
• 53:36
  Speaker 4: back to the title, though, Low Deep Give Back. If
• 53:39
  Speaker 4: there's a young person sitting in this audience tonight who
• 53:42
  Speaker 4: has a dream but doesn't yet know the path to
• 53:45
  Speaker 4: get there, what is one thing you want to leave
• 53:48
  Speaker 4: them with when they leave this room and you want
• 53:51
  Speaker 4: them to believe it and you want them to be.
• 53:52
  Speaker 2: Ready to do it?
• 53:53
  Speaker 4: I mean, like, start tomorrow.
• 53:55
  Speaker 2: What is that one thing? I think we all should
• 53:57
  Speaker 2: speak on this. I'm the first.
• 54:00
  Speaker 12: Being dedicated, man. Dedicate yourself.
• 54:04
  Speaker 2: Be consistent.
• 54:05
  Speaker 14: I think consistency is something that, regardless of what you
• 54:08
  Speaker 14: do in life, the more you're consistent, the better you'll be.
• 54:11
  Speaker 12: And don't take no for an answer.
• 54:13
  Speaker 14: Like, if somebody doubts you, if you have a teacher
• 54:16
  Speaker 14: or a father or, you know, somebody you look up to,
• 54:19
  Speaker 14: a mentor, if they say you can't do something, prove
• 54:21
  Speaker 14: somebody wrong.
• 54:22
  Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying?
• 54:23
  Speaker 14: I think, you know, at the end of the day, man,
• 54:25
  Speaker 14: believe in yourself regardless of what anybody else says.
• 54:27
  Speaker 2: Put the expectation on yourself.
• 54:28
  Speaker 14: Set those unrealistic goals for yourself so when you do
• 54:32
  Speaker 14: accomplish them you can say forget everybody that doubted me
• 54:36
  Speaker 14: and uh you know just have fun man whatever whatever
• 54:39
  Speaker 14: it is that your heart tells you just do it
• 54:41
  Speaker 14: a thousand percent i ain't gonna say a hundred percent
• 54:43
  Speaker 14: do it a thousand percent and uh and when you
• 54:45
  Speaker 14: do reach your goal or when you do do something
• 54:47
  Speaker 14: that you accomplish don't get content complacency is something that
• 54:52
  Speaker 14: no one deserves to have in their life because at
• 54:54
  Speaker 14: the end of the day the most good let's say uh.
• 54:58
  Speaker 2: What's his name uh Nope, not Gates. The Tesla dude,
• 55:02
  Speaker 2: what's his name? Elon Musk.
• 55:05
  Speaker 14: He's a trillionaire almost, and he's still figuring out ways
• 55:08
  Speaker 14: to get money. So young kids, go get quadruple what
• 55:12
  Speaker 14: he got.
• 55:12
  Speaker 2: It's doable.
• 55:22
  Speaker 5: I would just start with the number one principle. Find
• 55:25
  Speaker 5: your desire. Once you know what you really desire, go
• 55:28
  Speaker 5: find a mentor. Go find a teacher. Go find some
• 55:31
  Speaker 5: type of guidance to try to get your desire. Because
• 55:33
  Speaker 5: if you try to do it by yourself, you'll hit
• 55:36
  Speaker 5: your head.
• 55:36
  Speaker 2: A lot of times and your dreams will become a nightmare.
• 55:39
  Speaker 5: So try to find the right guidance towards your passions
• 55:42
  Speaker 5: and desires.
• 55:45
  Speaker 2: Thank you. God is so good.
• 55:53
  Speaker 11: Yes, he is.
• 55:56
  Speaker 10: I started working in higher education August. I shared with Sean,
• 55:59
  Speaker 10: we were talking backstage before we came. I started working
• 56:01
  Speaker 10: in higher education August of 1998. And what I've learned
• 56:04
  Speaker 10: about youth is they don't care how much you know
• 56:07
  Speaker 10: until they know how.
• 56:07
  Speaker 2: Much you care.
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: Can you say that again?
• 56:14
  Speaker 10: I won't take credit for the support that I borrowed
• 56:17
  Speaker 10: from somebody.
• 56:18
  Speaker 4: And you can borrow it again. Just say it again.
• 56:20
  Speaker 6: It mattered.
• 56:20
  Speaker 4: My high school.
• 56:21
  Speaker 2: Principal was here. Where's Dr.
• 56:22
  Speaker 11: Edney?
• 56:23
  Speaker 2: I appreciate that.
• 56:25
  Speaker 4: But I literally was talking to her about that today.
• 56:26
  Speaker 4: When I saw her, I felt like I was a
• 56:29
  Speaker 4: kid back in high school and I was just with
• 56:30
  Speaker 4: someone who loved me so much. But it's so needed.
• 56:33
  Speaker 8: It's so important.
• 56:35
  Speaker 10: And Pops, the rest of Paradise Pops, brought people into
• 56:41
  Speaker 10: the lives of his sons that cared. And so when
• 56:44
  Speaker 10: Byron is referencing the importance of finding a mentor, make
• 56:48
  Speaker 10: sure you are resourceful enough to get someone who is
• 56:51
  Speaker 10: just as invested.
• 56:52
  Speaker 2: As you are in yourself.
• 56:55
  Speaker 10: Make sure you're shooting someone that's just as invested in
• 56:57
  Speaker 10: you as you are in yourself.
• 56:59
  Speaker 2: The family structure is no longer traditional.
• 57:05
  Speaker 10: Our grandparents are raising children, we have children in foster care,
• 57:08
  Speaker 10: et cetera, but it doesn't mean that you don't have
• 57:11
  Speaker 10: the ability to be just as successful as any of
• 57:13
  Speaker 10: us on this stage, and I'll include myself.
• 57:15
  Speaker 2: And you as well, Sister Lori.
• 57:17
  Speaker 10: We have to be resourceful in getting people who dream
• 57:20
  Speaker 10: like we dream and believe in us as we believe
• 57:23
  Speaker 10: in ourselves. So choosing a mentor is extremely important, but
• 57:27
  Speaker 10: being resourceful, if we're parents, single parents, et cetera, like
• 57:31
  Speaker 10: I was raised, and Warren raised in Savannah, Georgia, shout
• 57:33
  Speaker 10: out to Savannah, being resourceful and bringing in those who,
• 57:38
  Speaker 10: being humble enough to bring in those who can't give
• 57:40
  Speaker 10: what you can give and realizing that God don't make mistakes.
• 57:44
  Speaker 2: They bring people into your life for a reason.
• 57:47
  Speaker 18: Okay.
• 57:48
  Speaker 2: At this.
• 57:51
  Speaker 4: Time, we're going to open it up for audience questions.
• 57:53
  Speaker 4: I'm looking for some direction. Okay, so we have some
• 57:58
  Speaker 4: microphones that they're going to set up. they're going to
• 58:01
  Speaker 4: set them up down here actually and then you guys
• 58:03
  Speaker 4: can I believe just come up to the mics and
• 58:04
  Speaker 4: we go mic to mic and it'll let me know
• 58:08
  Speaker 4: a time that we have to go we have about
• 58:11
  Speaker 4: 10 minutes 10 minutes okay so yeah you guys can
• 58:14
  Speaker 4: come and line up at the mics down here and
• 58:16
  Speaker 4: we'll just try to get it as much as we can.
• 58:18
  Speaker 8: What's up.
• 58:27
  Speaker 2: What's up pooch man.
• 58:30
  Speaker 11: I have more of a statement than a question.
• 58:32
  Speaker 19: I want you guys to know that when I first
• 58:34
  Speaker 19: met Coach Jack last year, he told his partner, Coach Trapp,
• 58:38
  Speaker 19: to take my number and to stay connected with the community.
• 58:42
  Speaker 2: And I've done my best to keep the football team
• 58:45
  Speaker 2: connected with the community.
• 58:47
  Speaker 19: Now I'm asking the community to stay connected to the
• 58:50
  Speaker 19: football team. If we can do one thing, right, make
• 58:54
  Speaker 19: sure we show up to these football games.
• 58:55
  Speaker 2: Coach is putting us all out there.
• 58:58
  Speaker 8: Like, We need to show up to these football games.
• 59:00
  Speaker 2: We need to support the team. We need to support
• 59:03
  Speaker 2: athletics a little bit more. But it's probably, I don't know,
• 59:06
  Speaker 2: maybe a little over 100 or so people in here.
• 59:08
  Speaker 4: If everybody can bring four or five people.
• 59:10
  Speaker 2: To a game, you understand, I mean, we're going to
• 59:13
  Speaker 2: be able to pack the stadium.
• 59:14
  Speaker 19: It's doing us no good for Coach to be putting
• 59:17
  Speaker 19: out all these blood, sweat, and tears, right? I mean,
• 59:19
  Speaker 19: think about this. His brother flew in this morning. I
• 59:21
  Speaker 19: called his brother at 9 o'clock. I said, hey, did
• 59:23
  Speaker 19: you make it? He said, yeah, I'm waiting on Carlos
• 59:25
  Speaker 19: to come in. That was at 9 o'clock this morning.
• 59:27
  Speaker 19: Now they're here doing this thing. Right, so they're giving it,
• 59:29
  Speaker 19: they all, they're giving the community, they all, I think
• 59:32
  Speaker 19: that the community gotta pay that back.
• 59:34
  Speaker 2: So can we please start showing up to these football games?
• 59:37
  Speaker 4: Can we please start supporting our players? You gonna go
• 59:44
  Speaker 4: over to the other side, yeah?
• 59:46
  Speaker 20: Hello, my name is Sheila Davis, and I'm an alumnus
• 59:49
  Speaker 20: of Delaware State University, and I'm also a member of
• 59:53
  Speaker 20: the Alumni Association, National Alumni Association. I want to say
• 59:58
  Speaker 20: thank you for not considering me, Robert, to come to
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 20: Delaware State University and.
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 8: Also to give back to the community, to let us
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 8: know you are real.
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 20: So it's not, as you say, about the chains and everything.
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 8: And I've also been a seasoned boxer.
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 20: Of Delaware State University, whether we're winning or not.
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 10: So.
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 2: is how do we get.
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 8: A copy of the book? How do we buy it?
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 11: Thank you.
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 2: I appreciate that.
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 5: It's not for sale today, but in a couple weeks
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 5: it'll be for sale.
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 2: And you can find it at Sports Rhythms. Instagram. So
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 2: you're teasing us. You should have had it written.
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 3: Thank you so.
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 8: Much for giving back.
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 12: To Delaware State.
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 11: Thank you.
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 2: Good evening.
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 6: My name is Fabian Thorne, alumni, play football.
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 2: Here, Hall of Fame 2022.
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 6: One thing I wanted to say to you, I wanted
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 6: to salute you for actually coming here and giving your blood, sweat,
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 6: and tears because that's what you're doing The other thing
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 6: I want to say to.
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 2: You is this, and this question.
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 6: What is your why since you was a kid that
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 6: kept you going? Because my why was my mom's. She
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 6: took me to play football when I was seven. I
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 6: went to four, five different doctors to get approval. The
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 6: first four said no. The fifth one said yes. And
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 6: for my mother, that wasn't an athlete, but saw something
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 6: that I needed, She took me to five doctors in
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 6: one day. I lost my left eye to a cancerous
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 6: tumor when I was two. When I came, I played ball, football,
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 6: saved my life. And that was my why. What's your why?
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 21: God bless you. My why is my family. I think
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 21: that's why I do what I do.
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 2: Growing up, my.
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 14: Mother and father really didn't have too much, nothing. You know,
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 14: they had to struggle.
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 12: To put, you know, food on the table.
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 14: So growing up, I always was like, you know what,
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 14: I'm going to make it so my parents ain't got
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 14: to work no more. And I put that on my
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 14: shoulders and I was able to accomplish that. So, you know,
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 14: everything I do in my life is all about family.
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 12: I'm a huge family, well-mannered young man.
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 14: And I think, you know, just really motivating my family because.
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 2: It was a lot of, it was a lot of
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 2: beef with my family. You know, my dad had kids from, what,
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 2: four different ones? I'm just calling it what it was.
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 12: My dad was Rolling Stones, so, you know, it was
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 12: a lot.
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 2: Of mixed emotions and feelings with the family.
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 14: But the kids, and I think when I was playing football,
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 14: it brought everybody together, and I was in a happy place. So,
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 14: for me, I just felt like, you know, my brother
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 14: didn't get along with my dad. My sister was into him.
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 2: Like, everybody was.
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 12: Into him, but at the football game, everybody was like,
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 12: we're here to support Sean. So, I think family was
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 12: just always big in my sense.
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 4: And also, to jump on top.
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 2: Of that, I know you might not care about my why, but...
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 2: We care about your why.
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 4: If it wasn't for your why, I don't know if
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 4: my brother would have cared as much about his own why.
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 5: But to piggyback off of Lauren, my why is through
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 5: this art of filmmaking and television, we can really make
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 5: an impact.
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 2: On the world. I mean, I think the media has.
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 5: Uses propaganda to cause wars and I think with my
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 5: art form, I want this form to be a way
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 5: where it can bring people together and make people understand.
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 2: And that's my why.
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 8: What made you coach DSU?
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 4: Well you gotta introduce yourself first and tell us about
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 4: your team.
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 12: I'm Nishan.
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 21: My name is Joshua Grayson.
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 4: What made you want to coach BSU?
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 14: What made me want to coach BSU? I was coaching
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 14: high school football. And we'll go back before that. My
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 14: first year I retired.
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 12: Was in 2023.
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 14: And I sat back for a whole year and I
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 14: was taking my kids to school.
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 12: Just enjoying the the benefits of not having to work.
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 12: I played 15 years in the NFL, and I was like,
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 12: I feel like I deserve to sit back and do
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 12: nothing for a whole year.
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 14: So after sitting on the couch for a whole year,
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 14: getting bored, I was like, I got.
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 12: To figure out something to do.
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 14: And I just started coaching with Coach Travis, who's our
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 14: assistant head coach. And after the first week, the first
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 14: week was crazy. Like, it was all starstruck. I said, oh,
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 14: my God, Deshaun Jackson's coaching me. But after that first week,
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 14: I could just see, like, everything I was pouring into him,
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 14: how much of a difference it was making in these
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 14: young men's lives and You know, it kind of, for me,
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 14: I regained my passion.
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 12: Because I didn't really know what was going to be
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 12: next for me after football.
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 21: I was like, I played all these years playing football,
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 21: and I was like, now I'm retiring.
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 12: Like, what am I going to do?
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 21: So I couldn't just sit around and do nothing.
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 12: So I jumped into coaching. And after my first year,
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 12: I got a call.
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 14: From a friend of mine that was asking, would I
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 14: be interested in coaching college football?
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 12: And I was like, no. I was like, no.
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 14: Because at the time, I used to always say, I
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 14: played all these years.
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 12: I did not.
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 14: Retired to go back to having a longer schedule than
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 14: I had planned.
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 12: So I think I said no the first three times.
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 14: And then after that third time, I was like, you
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 14: know what, let me give it a chance. And I
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 14: called Coach Andy Reid, Sean McVay, and Deion Sanders. And
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 14: I was just like, man, how do you think I
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 14: would be as a head coach? And they was like,
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 14: I think you'd be a heck of a head coach.
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 14: But two days before Christmas, I'm on a flight coming
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 14: to Delaware State or coming to Delaware to meet with
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 14: Tony Tony.
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 21: Allen, Dr.
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 12: Allen, and it was like, I don't know.
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 2: How the heck this happened.
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 12: I came in with my brother and Coach Travis, and
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 12: it was like, it's not.
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 2: A formal, it was an unformal meeting.
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 14: It's like, man, it's not how it usually goes, but
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 14: I think, you know.
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 12: God just put me in this position.
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 2: Honestly, that's why.
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 20: And also, my question was, what can I do to
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 20: get to your level?
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 12: What can you do to get to my level?
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 2: Well, one thing I'm going to tell you this.
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 14: You're smarter, right? I was smaller too, but guess what
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 14: they told smaller dudes? That we couldn't make it. So
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 14: don't get into the stigma that you look too small
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 14: and football is a big man sport because at the
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 14: end of the day, your heart is what matters. As
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 14: long as you got a heart, man, you believe in yourself,
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 14: don't nothing else matter. And work hard and listen to
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 14: your parents and do good in school.
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 2: That's the three things.
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 4: So what position do you guys play? What position do
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 4: y'all play on the team?
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 2: Running back, DB.
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 7: I play running back, block receiver.
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 12: Block receiver.
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 2: Anybody, safety. Safety.
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 4: He's a sports person, okay?
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 8: What do you play?
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 2: Let me guess, hold on, let me guess your position.
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 7: Safety?
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 14: Free safety?
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 2: Wide receiver? Okay, wide receiver, what else?
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 4: Linebacker, starting.
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 2: Starting?
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 11: Linebacker.
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 2: He's a linebacker too. Linebacker, okay, so you like to hit.
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 2: And what about you?
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 4: I'm a running back and a linebacker.
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 10: Got you.
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 4: What's the best advice you've got.
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 14: And what advice can you give me? Best advice I've got?
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 12: What's your passion? I'm going to ask you that first.
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 12: Do you have a passion?
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 2: You don't know?
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 14: It's okay, but I would say if you don't have
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 14: a passion, find your passion first. Find your passion, and
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 14: once you find your passion, go 1,000 miles per hour
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 14: at it, and don't.
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 12: Stop until you accomplish it.
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 11: Did you hear me? My name is Wanda.
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 3: I want to first of all thank you for your
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 3: humility and for paying it forward to everyone, not just
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 3: here in this community, but in New Jersey.
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 2: I came all the way from New Jersey just.
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 11: To thank you. Yes, this is fun.
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 3: I wanted to just let you know that as a
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 3: leader of a youth organization in South Jersey, listening to
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 3: you and bringing some of my lead out to your premiere,
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 3: they're still talking about it. And hopefully I can do
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 3: something for the rest of the kids who didn't get
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 3: to see it.
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 2: But I've watched your film three times.
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 3: Already And because it's so inspirational, because your five principles
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 3: are really, really, they really resonate with me and to
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 3: make sure that I lead these young kids. My organization,
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 3: when we started Something New in New Jersey, we feed
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 3: our kids after every practice to make sure they get
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 3: a home-cooked meal after practice and making sure their parents
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 3: can be involved in the practices with their children, not
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 3: just drop them off.
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 2: And we tutor them an hour prior to it.
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 3: School just started, but they are students first and athletes second.
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 3: And when you spoke that today, it really resonated with
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 3: me to make sure that I know that I continue
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 3: pushing forward for the young kids that are on.
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 2: My athletic program.
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 3: So thank you so very much for all that you
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 3: do for our community and for this world.
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 4: Thank you.
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 2: Thank you for the TV. Hello, everybody.
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 18: So my name is Entrio Kitson, and I'm I'm with
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 18: a program called Young Men of Value, and we mentor
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 18: young men from ages 6 to 18.
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 2: I have some of my members here, and my son
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 2: is here as well.
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 18: So I have two questions for both of you, for
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 18: Coach Jackson and Byron. So the first question I would have,
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 18: when you were deciding to do the documentary for the
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 18: 35 years you said you were doing the documentary.
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 12: For, what would you say was the light bulb.
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 18: Or that spark that clicked in your mind and said,
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 18: I'm going to be committed, I'm going to be 100%
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 18: locked in because this story needs to be told. And
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 18: for you to take it as far as you did
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 18: for it now to be what it is today, which
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 18: is a documentary for us to watch, what would you
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 18: say was that initial spark that drove you to take.
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 12: It that far?
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 13: I think I had a professor in college, a film professor,
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 13: and he always told me about the impact you can
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 13: make by doing films. And I always, deep down in
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 13: my heart, knew that I was going to be able
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 13: to make an impact by doing a film. Didn't know
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 13: necessarily it was going to be this documentary, but I
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 13: think just living with that thought in my head that
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 13: filmmaking can really change the mindset of young kids. So
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 13: I think that was a burning thing inside of me
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 13: that drove me for 35 years to continue filming Deshaun
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 13: and filming, and.
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 2: Even now I'm still filming.
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 11: So I just feel like filmmaking can really.
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 2: Change the mindset of people.
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 11: You know, it can.
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 2: Create something that's magical.
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 11: So that's kind of been my burning desire.
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 18: And for Coach Jackson, so a lot of the films
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 18: wait for social media, wait for iPhone, cell phone footage.
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 18: It's like raw footage. While these things were going on,
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 18: In your mind, did you really.
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 2: See the big picture?
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 18: Did you see yourself one day saying, I'm going to
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 18: have memories to look back at and have reflections?
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 12: While you were in the moment, was that crossing your mind?
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 14: I'm always in the moment, so for me, my brother.
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 2: Always asks me, how does things feel when I'm in
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 2: the moment?
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 14: I feel like I really can't process it because I'm
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 14: so deep into what's going on and how hard I've
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 14: got to work for the moment at hand, so not necessarily,
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 14: but one thing I will say, my dad always used
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 14: to say, he was like, man, like the world, the
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 14: world don't know how great you were. Like he said
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 14: that at an early age and people thought he was crazy.
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 14: And as you see towards the end of the documentary,
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 14: he was like, people thought I was crazy. He said,
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 14: I knew all along that my boy was special. So
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 14: I think as a father, like believing in me and
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 14: investing in me like that, it just only made me
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 14: believe that much more in myself.
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 2: Excellent.
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 4: We've got time for one more. Maybe, girl, over here,
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 4: you're going to be our final question of the evening.
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 11: I'm sorry, y'all.
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 4: We only have time for one more. First, I just
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 4: want to say I'm a big fan of the Berkley Club. Girl,
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 4: why are you missing out to the Berkley Club? They
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 4: be talking about some crazy stuff on there. They, not me.
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 22: I didn't shoot.
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 2: They crazy.
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 4: No, I appreciate it, though.
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 2: Thank you. And I just.
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 23: Want to say, did you feel like you had some
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 23: kind of groove.
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 11: When you were just playing?
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 8: Did you, like, say your mind set?
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 2: That was a heck of a question.
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 12: I for sure feel like I have something to prove.
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 14: The reason why I feel like I have something to
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 14: prove is because I had a lot of doubters in
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 14: my life. It was like a lot of naysayers or
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 14: a lot of people that really never believed in me
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 14: because I was smaller or I wasn't the biggest football player.
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 14: I just believed in myself because the expectation my family
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 14: and what I put on myself. In life, I feel
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 14: like Other people's expectations shouldn't really matter. As long as
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 14: you know you believe in yourself and what you are
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 14: able to do with the work you put in, shouldn't
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 14: amount to anything anybody else would say. So that was
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 14: the self pressure that I put on myself just because.
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 12: I believed in me and I wanted to always prove
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 12: that my dad and my family.
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 11: Were right.
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 9: Thank you.
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 4: Thank you guys so much for coming out. This has
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 4: been a preview of Go Deep. Again, if you have
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 4: not already, go check out the full thing on Amazon.
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 4: It's available now. You can watch it. Yeah, we just
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 4: appreciate you guys for coming out. And I don't know
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 4: if there's anything else that I'm supposed to say before
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 4: I wrap.
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 11: I got you.
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 4: Yeah, okay, thank you.
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 24: My cards only go but so deep. Hey, let's give
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 24: it up for this panel. For the young people in
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 24: the room, I just want you to.
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 22: See these people, okay? You see a head collegiate football coach.
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 22: You see a media mogul in the making. You see
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 22: a filmmaker extraordinaire. And you see an exceptional educator. So
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 22: the kids in the room, you can be anything you
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 22: want to be.
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 2: All right, just like God.
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 4: And to all the.
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 2: Delaware State folks, just know... My.
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 23: Pastor tells me this all the time. Consistency beats intensity.
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 23: Consistency beats intensity. Since 2020, we have.
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 25: Bought a school, figured out a way to get free
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 25: tuition to all Delawareans, brought one of the best Eagles
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 25: ever to Delaware State University.
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 2: And hold on, look around. I just want you to
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 2: just look in this building, right?
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 23: To the young people, for 70 years in this building,
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 23: black people could only sit up there.
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 2: We own the place now, okay?
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 23: So when we talk about transformation, and if you're alumni
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 23: in the room, hear me, we are.
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 2: Demolishing in January. We will demolish in January.
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 16: We will build for a year and a half, and
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 16: by fall of 28, we will have a $ 55 million
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 16: new athletic facility with brand new fans.
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 26: So remember it's called, the only thing I would tell you,
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 26: it's called Alumni Stadium.
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 2: So far I got one alumni donor.
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 23: All right, do not let it be just the state
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 23: helping us out. If it's our university, then we have
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 23: to respect it, honor it, protect it, and fund it.
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 11: Okay?
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 12: Can I get an amen on that?
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 2: Amen. God bless you.
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 14: Thank you.
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 23: Remember, come to all the games, and don't forget the
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 23: game at the Lake October 31st.
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 2: Doc, can we get a picture with you on stage
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 2: with us, please?
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 10: Yeah, sure.
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 2: No problem. We just got here, bro. Hold on.
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 7: All right. Thank you.
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 8: God bless you.
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 14: Later.
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 11: Good night.
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 4: Now, that was my convo with Deshaun Jackson, his brother
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 4: Byron Jackson, and Carlos, who was an educator or is
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 4: an educator, but was a pivotal educator when Deshaun Jackson
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 4: went to UC Berkeley. And, you know, his whole world
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 4: changed there within that college room. You know, for me,
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 4: it's always about, like, how I'm utilizing my platform to
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 4: be of service to other people. I made a joke
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 4: yesterday while speaking to everyone there that, you know, Charlamagne
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 4: always is like, do you know you graduated from Delaware State?
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 1: Like, you don't like you're always there. You know, you're
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: not a student no more.
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 7: Right.
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 4: And I'm like, yes, I know I'm not a student.
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 4: But when people pour into you, you pour back. I
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 4: show up for Delaware State University because what the institution
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 4: did and what going to HBCU did for me and
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 4: how it developed me as a young woman that came
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 4: out into the world ready to get everything I deserved.
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 4: students deserve that. And I want that to continue. I
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 4: want more students to experience that. And we are at
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 4: a record high with our enrollment at Delaware State. Look,
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 4: I said we, like I work at the school. But,
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 4: you know, even if you did not attend Delaware State University,
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 4: HBCUs need support regardless, whether you went to a HBCU, PWI,
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 4: or you didn't go at all. Understanding what they do
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 4: for young Black students in the world is And all
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 4: the students that attend is important. So I hope this
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 4: conversation motivated you guys to also go watch the documentary, too.
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 4: It's a lot longer than, you know, just the clips
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 4: and the things that we talked about.
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: It gets very, very deep, extremely deep.
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 4: Deshaun Jackson and Byron Jackson actually lost their father to
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 4: cancer during Deshaun Jackson's NFL journey. However, the story is
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 4: so inspiring how he still, even in his passing, it
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 4: was a big motivator of them to keep going, to
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 4: keep giving back and keep doing the things that we
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 4: see them doing today.
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 1: I'm Lauren LaRosa.
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 4: This has been another episode of The Latest with Lauren LaRosa.
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 4: And I tell you guys every single episode, y'all could
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 4: be anywhere with any old body because y'all could. having
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 4: all of these conversations. But I appreciate you guys so much,
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 4: my lowriders, for being right here with me.
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 1: This has been the episode. I'll catch you in the
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 1: next one.