Latest / In Search Of Excellence / Arik Armstead: Jacksonville Jaguars & How to Spend Your First NFL Check | E106

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Arik Armstead: Jacksonville Jaguars & How to Spend Your First NFL Check | E106 · In Search Of Excellence

• 0:00
  Arik Armstead: A lot of my best plays I've made in my career.
• 0:02
  Arik Armstead: Were just from like me, watching film and preparing. I knew what they were doing, even like even the Superbowl. So I think it's all preparation for me and how I play. Like I said earlier, like, I wish I would have got out did more non football things. I still made it but I still feel like I should have done those things because even where I'm at right now, it's like, there's not going to be forever. I would say work hard, but be realistic, like, realize the opportunity that you do have and take advantage of it. Don't miss out on that opportunity to better your life.
• 0:43
  Randall Kaplan: You're listening to part two of my awesome conversation with Arik Armstead, the star defensive lineman of the San Francisco 40 Niners. If you haven't yet listened to part one, be sure to check that one out first. Without further ado, here's part two with the amazing Arik Armstead. So he gave your first contract four years $9.8 million $5.4 million signing bonus average contract$2,460,000 A year you ever motivated by money? And did you buy yourself something really sweet and nice and say Man, I've I've made it now this is incredible. wasn't
• 1:19
  Arik Armstead: motivated by money? Um, I think money is definitely a motivating factor for everyone in the world is
• 1:30
  Randall Kaplan: bullshit. When people tell me I'm not motivated by money by the way, those are the people you don't trust.
• 1:35
  Arik Armstead: I mean, money definitely isn't everything but a certain level basic of like food, water and shelter. You need money to do that. So definitely was a huge blessing.
• 1:50
  Arik Armstead: Getting that first contract I remember my first check was my signing bonus. I got it was two installments so the first one was 3 million. So I gotta check for 3 million I thought it but it was really 1.5 So it was 3 million and then they did the tax lines and then the bottom is at 1.5
• 2:13
  Randall Kaplan: Well, did you buy yourself anything nice?
• 2:16
  Arik Armstead: I really didn't know no watch. No, I didn't get nothing
• 2:21
  Randall Kaplan: you just putting this in the bank saving it for a rainy day.
• 2:25
  Arik Armstead: I really didn't know what to do with it. Yeah, I help help my parents get a house but I didn't really and then I you know got some like some clothes. Got some clothes for like this season just because like you know this just to look more presentable. But I really didn't splurge on anything my rookie year was
• 2:53
  Randall Kaplan: a dream come true to buy your parents a house had been incredible feeling.
• 2:57
  Arik Armstead: Yeah, definitely.
• 2:57
  Arik Armstead: Definitely was,
• 2:59
  Randall Kaplan: you know, a big cry.
• 3:02
  Arik Armstead: I don't remember.
• 3:03
  Randall Kaplan: Did you cry? No,
• 3:05
  Arik Armstead: I didn't cry. I didn't cry. But definitely, you know, crazy crazy moment crazy experience and just you know, realize how blessed you are to be in that position to be able to do something like that.
• 3:20
  Arik Armstead: Right?
• 3:21
  Randall Kaplan: So it became incredibly last 2020 rolls around. Five year contract extension $90,000,000.48 point 5 million guaranteed 17 and a half million dollar signing bonus.
• 3:37
  Randall Kaplan: Your life change you find private now you're driving a Bugatti.
• 3:41
  Arik Armstead: No, no, but God is the life change. Definitely a lot more comfortable. And I'd say definitely a lot more comfortable. And the sense of like, decision making as well to just like, you know, I'm not by any means the wealthiest person.
• 4:07
  Randall Kaplan: But you're pretty fucking wealthy.
• 4:09
  Arik Armstead: I'm doing I'm doing I'm doing solid man. I'm blessed. But uh, yeah, it's definitely life changing. That's what you that's what I have worked for. That's what all the sacrifice and you know, injuries and having to deal with so many different things to get to that point throughout my career and being rewarded for that and the type of player that I become being rewarded for that which definitely, was definitely special. And, you know, I always wanted to even as a kid, I always wanted to be a provider for my future wife and, and kids and so, you know, creating wealth for my, my kids and my family that I started it Making a better life for them was, you know, the greatest thing that the greatest part about that and that's something I dreamed of and have worked hard to do.
• 5:09
  Randall Kaplan: I remember right after you got your bonus or your signing bonus, we had a lot of conversations about what I think you should do with money. And it was basically find the best managers to manage your money.
• 5:21
  Randall Kaplan: So many bad apples around professional athletes who are unsophisticated, what was that process? Like? I mean, you got a ton of people now. Oh, you know, Eric, I mean, they're watching you anyway. Right? Because they knew that you're up for a big deal. Yeah. 10 sacks previous season. Right. So your stock had gone way up. And people were talking about big money. So at what point? Did all these managers come to you and start kind of flocking to you? And then I know, we talked and you got a lot of advice from different people. But what was that process? Like?
• 5:56
  Arik Armstead: Yeah, I think, you know, getting that amount of money comes with a lot, you know, it's not the same. Can't have the, I think your attention to detail. And, you know, your kind of system and process got it got to even increase a little more. So just vetted, you know, a lot of different people, to be honest, like, I didn't really like the I didn't really like the people who just work with athletes. I didn't, you know, want to work with someone who works with people, we're, we're I'm really trying to get to, you know, later in life. And so, yeah, that a lot of people I know, mean, you talked about, you know, just a Vanguard or, you know, just, you know, having a solid, you know, stock portfolio. And that's, that's the main thing of what everyone does. And it's not a whole lot more. You know, that's the bulk of what you do. But yeah, I found found some good people that I've been working with.
• 7:09
  Arik Armstead: Yeah,
• 7:10
  Randall Kaplan: I mean, I, we talked about investing in the index fund, s&p 500. And, you know, the thing that most people don't realize is, over a 30 year period, no one beats the s&p 500. I think there's two or three people alive. Yeah, we had that conversation, Warren Buffett, but you wouldn't have to be randomly meeting him in Nebraska in 1963, right, and it's not gonna light he's not gonna strike you, it's not gonna strike me. And we talked about the value of compounding, which is really the real way to create wealth, you know, put aside a lot of money. And here you are, you're blessed. You got I think, after tax, and I'm only going to mention this, because you've been very forthright about giving your checks online and explaining how it all works.
• 7:51
  Randall Kaplan: Everyone
• 7:52
  Arik Armstead: knows, right, Google, how much is
• 7:55
  Randall Kaplan: public, which is, you know, sucks, probably, but you know, you get $10 million, when you're 26 years old, you just put it away and put it in index fund that's gonna grow to two or $300 million, if you don't touch it by the time you're 60 years old.
• 8:09
  Randall Kaplan: And that doesn't even include the the salary that that you're making. So I think it's really important to educate people about money, athletes, non athletes, because you're really talking about your financial future. And like you said, very important to think about future family, I made a bunch of money when I was 30 years old. And I was planning for my future.
• 8:38
  Randall Kaplan: Actually, I was 33 years old, when a company went public. 3131 years old, when our company went public. And when our stock closed, at the first day of trading, our company was worth$14.4 billion. So Holy shit, you know, I'm looking at, you know, a bunch of money, paper money, by the way. It's not it's not not real on. I had planned for people to help me with my money.
• 9:02
  Randall Kaplan: Even though I was already financially sophisticated. I still wanted wanted some help.
• 9:08
  Randall Kaplan: But thankfully, I got a bunch of help. And I just think it's important. I was thinking about kids that I didn't have, you can do things from a financial planning point of view that we've talked about before as well. And I'm glad I had smart people around me who are more experienced than me. I think it's really important. Yeah,
• 9:27
  Arik Armstead: I would say for sure. Like, like having a liquidity event like that.
• 9:30
  Arik Armstead: That's real similar to being a professional athletes, like, get a lot of money. Were Young, it's like, Alright, what do I do with it now?
• 9:39
  Randall Kaplan: Scary? Yeah, it's
• 9:40
  Arik Armstead: definitely scary.
• 9:40
  Arik Armstead: And I would say at that time, I wasn't, you know, why I feel like I need advisors. For me he's, I'm not I don't have that, you know, that level of sophistication yet. You know, I might be able to get that to that point. To that point at some time, but making sure that you're, you know, with the right People and one thing I learned is like, you know, the more money you have, it opens up to another level of, you know, services and people that you can even work with to like, a lot of, you know, the top advisors and stuff wouldn't have necessarily been like the got minimums and stuff like that.
• 10:20
  Arik Armstead: And so it's like, seeing what it takes. And why that is, is because seeing what it takes to truly serve that amount of wealth at like a high level, you know, it takes, it takes time it takes, you know, you can't be spread too thin working with too many people. And so having the access to, you know, more knowledge that I've been able to, like pass down to people who may not even have that, that like access, about how that process should really work, or how that should really go. And I've learned, you know, a lot more things throughout the years. But interesting story. I didn't even tell you this, but
• 11:04
  Randall Kaplan: I love the story about
• 11:06
  Arik Armstead: I don't even tell you, I haven't even told you this, but when I stayed at your house, I saw you filling out your voting ballot. And this, this, you know, could be a great discussion, but it's like, I had never seen someone do that. Like you actually were taking the time to, you know, read and figure out who you wanted to vote for. I got seen, I know, like the I don't even remember, only I'm not even sure if it was presidency, but you know, I've been to like the, like registration, like, I've been to like a poll or whatever you call them before, but I had never seen someone in their home, like taking the time to like really like, and that opened up my eyes to in like, I started getting like the ballots to my house and like, reading over them. So I never told you that before. But I had never, I had never seen anybody do that before.
• 12:12
  Randall Kaplan: What was the lesson there that I wanted to research and understand what I was doing if I was gonna vote for something or not vote for something,
• 12:20
  Arik Armstead: that and just how different communities decide to you know, for whatever reason, importance, the time the input, you know, into it, not just like checking the box. And yeah, like, I don't know, maybe like thought process of like, you know, my vote like really? Like, it really matters. Versus like, Oh, I'm just one of, you know, millions of votes, like it's not gonna matter. Really, if I do it or not. And you took you took the time to do it. So I did that to the time like, it's hard bro.
• 13:03
  Arik Armstead: actually came with an idea from going through that process. But it's hard, bro.
• 13:07
  Randall Kaplan: So let's say idea.
• 13:09
  Arik Armstead: We got to talk offline. Okay,
• 13:10
  Randall Kaplan: we'll talk offline. Yeah, you know, I think I'm very proud to be in American citizen, I am grateful every day that I'm here. We live in the greatest country on Earth. It's a democracy. You can do whatever you want here. And it doesn't matter where you're born, where you come from what neighborhood and this is unlimited, but what you can do, and I think about on a regular basis, you know, think about all these people who are born into terrible conditions, dictatorships, they. I'm just very grateful. So I do take my vote seriously. I don't vote on all of the the bills that come forward, some of them are just not interesting to me, but I vote on most of them. And it's very complicated, by the way, how they present it sometimes.
• 13:58
  Randall Kaplan: So I actually will go online. If I don't get something and I do it on a regular basis. You know, what the hell was to say? It's way too complicated. And if I don't understand it, I'm guessing that a lot of other people don't understand as well.
• 14:09
  Arik Armstead: In the same way I felt when I was going through the process. I was like, if I don't understand this, a no way like the people I know where they come from, they know it, they understand it,
• 14:20
  Randall Kaplan: right. So they're making decisions based on negative advertisements on TV. negative bias, adverse events, really. So, alright, let's talk about when we're kids, there are millions of young kids out there who idolize professional athletes like you when somebody asked them what they want to do when they're older. They say they want to play football in the NFL or NBA or some other sport. These are amazing dreams. I want to go over some numbers and start with the NBA, or 30 teams and each team can have 15 players on their roster on their active roster, which equates to 450 players or roughly 500,000 high school boys basketball players United States at any one given time, of these, roughly 16,000, will go on to play at a college level a number that includes D one, D two, and D, three of the 16,000. Only 110 will ever play in at least one NBA game. That's a one and 3,333% chance or point, oh 3% of getting there.
• 15:18
  Randall Kaplan: Now let's look at professional football. There are 32 teams in the NFL, each team has 53 players on this roster for a total of 1696 players. There are 1093 234 high school football players in the United States.
• 15:38
  Randall Kaplan: And 6.5% of these are 71,060 will play in college. Of these only 1.2% or 853 people are drafted into the NFL point, oh 7%. The sum of all this is that 10s of millions of people want and try to become professional athletes, but only a few 1000 actually make it. We're going to talk about Brock pretty next in a minute. But before we do, what's your best advice to the 10s of millions of kids, or even college athletes who want to play professional sports but aren't predestined to do so like you who still want to beat the odds and be part of the 1% of 1%? Who make it?
• 16:21
  Arik Armstead: What is my advice to them? Yeah. Don't let anybody tell you what you can't do. So if you have a dream, I would fight for it, work hard, protect it, try to attain that dream.
• 16:35
  Arik Armstead: But also be realistic about your situation. Sometimes your blessing is just college. But like you were blessed to get to that point, it might not be that you're gonna be a pro. But your blessing was college. And if you are so consumed and not being realistic with your situation, of being a pro being a problem and a pro, and not being realistic about what is was the actual prospects for you, then you're gonna waste your blessing of being in college, and you're gonna let that go past. Like I said earlier, like, I wish I would have got out, did more non football things. And I, you know, quote, unquote, made it like, I still made it, but I still feel like I should have done those things. Because even where I'm at right now, it's like, there's not going to be forever, I should have took advantage of those opportunities more. So I would say work hard, but be realistic, like, realize the opportunity that you do have and take advantage of it. And don't try to don't miss out on that opportunity. That environment you're in the situation you're in opportunity to, you know better your life for don't let that go pass for trying to get a blessing that might not, you know, before you so mean it's very, it's very, like, situational. Like it's tough, because it's like, I feel like that is a lot on the people around the ecosystem, the coaches, the universities, these people who are around these kids, to not allow them to be so sports just worse, worse, worse, worse sports, because it does benefit the people that they're around. But most oftentimes, it doesn't benefit the player.
• 18:49
  Arik Armstead: Because like you said statistics show that that's not gonna be a reality for that's not going to be rallying for most. And kids get in this limbo of like, dang, what do I do now? Like you told me to be all in? You told me that I needed to do all these things. To be the best player I could be. When in the end that just served the people around you didn't necessarily serve you.
• 19:24
  Randall Kaplan: We got to talk about property for people watching the show are not pro football fans. There's seven rounds in the draft. Last guy chosen Mr. Irrelevant that's a title. I mean, they sort of have a party for that guy every year never gonna make it in the league. They got Brock Purdy, who's I think three or four on the depth chart. So what that means is he got your starter you got your backup player and there's usually a player to before they all get hurt. And here's this guy on her all that it wasn't supposed to make it I mean, no seven. No. None of these guys make it in the league ever and Harry is one of the best players in the NFL. He's stuck on a contract that pays him 800k A year can't re up until the end of next year because of collective bargaining rules. Is this the greatest story in professional football for the last five or 10 years? I mean, I love this guy I wrote for him every week, the underdog, I was an underdog and I root for the underdog. Great story and tell us something about him that we don't know.
• 20:29
  Arik Armstead: I think it is definitely a great story. You know, I don't understand the hate that he gets. You know, he was a last pick of the draft. So anything he does over me, like making the team was a success.
• 20:42
  Arik Armstead: So anything he does over that?
• 20:48
  Arik Armstead: It's like, you know, amazing.
• 20:48
  Arik Armstead: And so I don't understand, like, why people have been hating on him. But, you know, Brock is, rock is one of a kind. I feel like, um, how he carries himself, his, his, his presence, his like, calmness, you know, but also at the same time, like, he's reserved, but he's, like, knows when to, like, be assertive and like, you know, also be in command as well, too.
• 21:19
  Arik Armstead: And, you know, I think what makes him special is, is, you know, being able to, you know, take what Kyle wants him to do.
• 21:33
  Arik Armstead: Kyle
• 21:36
  Randall Kaplan: Shanahan as a coach for the people watching and listening who don't know,
• 21:40
  Arik Armstead: take what Kyle wants for him to do or take Kyle scheme and, and being able to execute that at a high level, but also being able to improvise and make plays that weren't necessarily like schemed up, like and that's what all the receivers have said is like, you know, in the past, it was like, Alright, if I was running around, I knew I was gonna get the ball, but we Brock site, you can be run around, and then next thing you look up, like, Hey, I'm not even in the progression, like, I'm not gonna get the ball thrown on me. But we're Brock's, like, you could be looking, looking up the balls just right there because he improvisers and plays on how he feels. And I think that's what has allowed him to be like successful
• 23:16
  Randall Kaplan: Detroiter, Detroit Lions fan, as you know, huge fan. The season we went on 16. I watched every play. So I root for the Lions every week. I root for you each week, except when you play the lions. So we're in the championship game before the Super Bowl. You guys are getting your ass kicked by the lions? What's the mood in the locker room during halftime?
• 23:39
  Randall Kaplan: We went we went in. We bought very good tickets. So we're in that lower level bowl. In fact, I saw you coming out by yourself. Say that text. And everyone in there, there's a lot of lions fan in there. And everyone's saying, oh my god, I were kicking their ass. It's so great. We're going to superveloce and then just chill, you know, don't jinx our team, what was the mood and and you had a great game, by the way. So big turnaround the
• 24:07
  Arik Armstead: mood was we got to get back to being ourselves.
• 24:09
  Arik Armstead: And I mean seasons on the line, like, what you want to do cry about it, be mad about it, go out there and play and, and do something. Like, everybody has that mindset to go out there and make a game changing player do something for the team. And when, you know, we were able to get it turned around. But I think winning the game like that. I think about like moments in games that people don't even think about, like I think about like 2017 When we're getting killed, we lost nine games in a row. And we're still playing hard. Like we're still fighting, scratching. Like and like a lot of not a lot. But like those bad years. And your team is still like, I think we lost like nine games in a row by like three, like three points or one possession or something like that. Like going through those moments, like makes, like moments like these, like, man, like we got opportunity to go subo our season on the line, like we've been through adversity before. Let's find a way to get it done. Really. So I think but I think those those like those moments and those, you know, those years, you know, not even just that year, but following years and you know, then having some success and dealing with that. You know, being a good team and fighting through adversity and finding ways to win. You know, 2021 barely get into the playoffs and you know those last five, six games of the season we had to win all of them to get in the playoffs. Like we've been in we've been in adverse situations and we're like made of the right stuff. So you just get it turned around in.
• 26:11
  Randall Kaplan: What are the so you make this Super Bowl? Most watch Super Bowl in history.
• 26:16
  Randall Kaplan: What was it like playing in the game? You know, describe him one or two sentences what it was like and what that week was like, Was it one of the except for the fact that laughs Was it one of the best weeks of your life? Um
• 26:43
  Arik Armstead: it's the pinnacle of our sport. But at the end of the day for us playing, it's just football. Like, how I was looking at it was like, yeah, all this stuff is cool. My second time being in the Super Bowl. So it obviously wasn't as like, this amazing as the first one. Or like, oh, like, we could, like I understood it more understood like that it's a taxing week understood that they have you busy all the time, I understood that. Like, I need to do a lot of my preparation the week before, because I'm not going to have a lot of time that week. I knew like the thing. So I was just really like locked in and focused on like the game because I have been through the process. And that was their, that was their fourth. So imagine how they were feeling like, that was a fourth and five years. So Madden, they're like seven other games at the Superbowl. We've been through this before her like we know what to expect. So that's kind of how I was feeling was like, this is cool. It's dope. This is dope moment. You know, Media Day was cool. Awesome. All right.
• 27:46
  Arik Armstead: Was the game coming? Like? Yeah, that's that's how I was feeling.
• 27:52
  Arik Armstead: Dope experience is pinnacle, like I said, of our game, but I was really just trying to be locked in and focus on what really matters the most because there's hundreds of millions of people watching, right? All these media, all this hoopla and events in Las Vegas. But really, what it boils down to is when we get between those white lines, blocking, running, tackling, catching, throwing, getting off blocks making tackles, is pretty simple. He
• 28:29
  Randall Kaplan: talked about preparation that lakes and Super Bowl. One of the topics that I've been teaching that I'm most known for something I call it's a different level of preparation called extreme preparation. And that means when I prepare when someone prepares one hour for something, I'm preparing for 10 or 20 hours. What are the ways extreme preparation have affected your life? Can you give us some specific examples where you've prepared anybody and it's led to tremendous success for you? Yeah,
• 28:58
  Arik Armstead: football, all that, you know, football all the time, like a lot of my best plays I've made in my career.
• 29:03
  Arik Armstead: Were just from like, me, watching film and preparing and like, I knew what they were doing. Like, like, majority of my best players were like, just from like, preparation really?
• 29:20
  Arik Armstead: Like? Yeah, even like even the Super Bowl. You know, different stuff that I had studied or learned, like, I feel good. In a game, I feel good in the game.
• 29:31
  Arik Armstead: There's like games, majority of my games. It's like 75% of the offense. I know, I know, if it's run I know if it's passed. And I would say like 75% I know. Like how guys are gonna try to like block me. So some games a little lower. Some games like It's like dang near like 100% I know, like, thinking or every play they're earning or not the actual play majority, a lot of the plays but I know exactly like, alright, that guard is coming to me. Alright, that guard is going that way that guard is going to pass it by guard is going to do this. So I think it's all preparation for me and how I play. I can't play like not knowing nothing, just go out there and be like, I'm gonna just winging it.
• 30:30
  Randall Kaplan: One of the top three ingredients of success, top
• 30:34
  Arik Armstead: three ingredients of success. Success means something different to everybody. So I think first is identifying what success means to you. And having that very clear. and not basing your success on what other people might think is successful. So you take an ownership over what success truly means for you. And sacrifice and determination. I felt like
• 31:20
  Randall Kaplan: if you got a wonderful wife Mindy, and two young kids one and a half and three, how important what what's the what's the right work life balance? I mean, in the offseason, you're not really working, you're training but during the season, what's it like when you're training you see your family that often? In season?
• 31:41
  Arik Armstead: Yeah, in seasons tougher, I mean, I'll be at the facility till you know, 6am, sometimes six to six sometimes.
• 31:53
  Arik Armstead: So, like that, that bath time before bedtime at seven is like big
• 31:59
  Randall Kaplan: for me. It's having right I mean, I love that time with my kids. Bedtime
• 32:04
  Arik Armstead: at six, before bedtime. And seven is like, big a big, big thing for me. But work work life balance. I mean, my wife Mindy, she's amazing.
• 32:13
  Arik Armstead: She's a physician. She's a child and adolescent psychiatrist as well, too. So she has her own career, I have my career. And we have these beautiful children.
• 32:25
  Arik Armstead: It's really, it's really tough.
• 32:25
  Arik Armstead: Um, I don't think things ever truly do balance out though. I think it's like certain seasons of 80%. You know, is here, and then not? I'm not talking about like football season or something like seasons of life.
• 32:48
  Arik Armstead: I feel like the was it a Venn diagram? The Venn diagram is just always, like moving in and changing. And it's never perfect. Really. Like, I always feel like I'm not doing enough.
• 33:08
  Arik Armstead: For my family, then St. Thomas, like, I'm not doing enough for my career. Then the same time I'm not doing enough for, like things that have to do outside of my career. So I never I never feel like I'm doing enough in anything. Really? I don't know, do you feel like you ever like do enough.
• 33:27
  Randall Kaplan: I mean, I've got like companies that I'm running, I've got sandy beaches company, we're building out for beaches, I have a real estate company.
• 33:33
  Randall Kaplan: I'm a investment firm. Working on a book called extreme preparation, I'm doing some paid training to do some paid corporate speaking on extreme preparation. I've got my pod, which I, which I love. And this has been great. And I have my philanthropy. So all in that's 75 hours a week. And then I got to find some time for myself.
• 33:56
  Randall Kaplan: And most importantly, I got to find some time for my family. So it's, it's hard to balance things. It's been a struggle for me. But as I get older, I mean, I come home for dinner every night with my kids no matter what. And if I have to stay up in my office till midnight, or one o'clock in the morning, that's what I'm doing. And I work seven days a week. I mean, I'll get up on Saturday, and Sunday, I'll be in my office at six. I'll finish at 1010 30. And then I'll go the day and my team will be getting emails from me all weekend long. It just is what it is. But yeah, sometimes I feel like I wish I could be in five places at the same time, especially when my kids have different conflicts, right? You got two things happen at the same time. Where do you go?
• 34:37
  Arik Armstead: Yeah, I struggle with that. I never feel like I'm doing enough. In any front regard always have that pressure always have that. Um, internal pressure, like I'm not, I'm not training and I'm not training like, enough. I'm not preparing enough. I'm not doing this enough. And then like, thing, I gotta be a football day. It's like, dang, I'm not I'm not being you know, they're from my wife enough. I'm not being there for my kids enough. But trying to, you know, provide a great life for them. But it was something that was never going to be enough in anything because yeah, it's just, it's just impossible.
• 35:30
  Randall Kaplan: Right? So I'll share with you a story that I never shared with you. And I went to one of your games to Boris was your teammate at the time and we got the passes to go. Let's uh, it's not backstage but you're hanging out with the players. You know, there's a special section you go down and all the players are there you go through security. I'm going through security, you know, There's a gate there that we all walk through. And the guy at the gate said, Oh, you're your son had a really good game today.
• 35:58
  Randall Kaplan: What do you think you were Jimmy Garoppolo is that my wife Madison said to me, like, that's a funniest fucking thing I've ever heard.
• 36:11
  Arik Armstead: So wasn't saying you You're good looking at it.
• 36:14
  Randall Kaplan: I mean, I don't know what he was saying. He just said we look alike. And when I when I brought up his face afterward, I mean, I guess a little bit but I've got he's got dark hair. I got gray hair, and I guess there's some resemblance, but I'm like, man, alright, that'd be old enough to be like, Guys, dad, and then, you know, I actually couldn't be the guy's dad. So technically, technically, I could be so that was. That was That was fun. And then No, I never played football growing up and never put a pads on and, and, but I can always throw the ball. So I'm not sure I Sure. So I didn't play varsity baseball in high school I was on the JV team wasn't a great athlete, but the highlight of my athletic career. We're going to this wedding. We're going to his wedding in the Bahamas. And Tom Brady was the best man at the wedding. I knew he was going to be there. And so this guy who was also going to be a stocky guy, you know a lot of John before and all the Alpha football. Yeah, you know, I can play football like yeah, you know, I can throw up pretty good myself. So we warm on the beach.
• 37:19
  Randall Kaplan: And you know, I'm just warming up my arm or just throwing you know, like arcing the ball over and he's throwing bullets like, oh, shit, you know, okay, Mr.
• 37:24
  Randall Kaplan: Tough guy. And so I kept saying, you know, backups a backup, he's like, okay, okay, whatever. Now we're like 30 yards deep, and so on and back, and suddenly his balls don't have quite as much zip. He's like, you know, definitely trying really hard to get it there. So now we're like 40 yards. And Giselle was the waters here. I'm here, the guys down there. Giselle is over there. And I can see Tom walking by and I can see he's gonna pass me right behind me and my wife, Madison sitting right behind me.
• 38:00
  Randall Kaplan: So I tell this guy JJ back out back up. It's like, whatever. So I waited for time is literally right here. I just let that fucking thing fly. I put it 15 yards way over the guy's head.
• 38:12
  Randall Kaplan: And Tom said to me, holy shit, won a cannon. And I said to my wife, and she said, I heard it.
• 38:23
  Randall Kaplan: I heard it. I'm never gonna hear the rest of my life. Yeah, that's that's that's that's that's the best it's ever gonna get. made you feel good? Yeah, made me feel good. So I can throw a ball 55 yards real ball 55 yards.
• 38:37
  Arik Armstead: That's that's pretty it's pretty impressive mean that you got the stamp from the goat. So
• 38:41
  Randall Kaplan: I yeah, I mean, that's the second best was Kliff. Kingsbury was at the wedding as well. He's also a very good friend. He's been on my show, it's actually my second guest on the show. And so we go on this boat. And there are pigs in the Bahamas on beaches. So we rented this boat to go with my wife and two of her girlfriends.
• 39:03
  Randall Kaplan: And I said, Hey, there's really cute guy. You can bring them and I said, Yeah, please, like, I don't want to be here. They're gonna all be talking together.
• 39:14
  Randall Kaplan: gapping together, I'm just be sitting there by myself. So the guy comes on the boat. Super nice guy, super chill, humble. I said, Oh, he asked me what I did, or what do you do? So I'm a coach said Oh, high school and said no, I'm a college coach and said, Oh, you know, like, offensive defensive head coach and like, oh, you know, D I mean, he just so chill. I said, Oh, you know, do the three whiskers. I know, Texas Tech.
• 39:39
  Randall Kaplan: And I said, Oh, shit. Yeah, that's pretty good. And that was cliff. And the story that I told on my show is we went snorkeling. So the guy he and I went one way the girls went another way. And Cliff and I, I mean, we're both in good physical shape. And we're sucking down water. I mean, the snorkel is off, you know, we're looking we're probably 500 feet from the boat and the captain on the boats, this little like, five, four guy. And we're just looking at each other. You know, this is ridiculous. And we start yelling at this guy, help health health. And this dude is five, four swims out with the orange buoy or whatever. And he's basically telling us back in and when you get to the boat, and you know, whites come back, you know, my wife and our friends come back, maybe 20 minutes later, like, Oh my God, what's the most refreshing thing ever?
• 40:31
  Randall Kaplan: And we're sitting there like, Man, oh, we're tired. We look like shit. And I we explained and and Cliff says most emasculating moment of his life.
• 40:40
  Randall Kaplan: But that's how we became super tight friends. But that led us to the second best my second best moment, which was, hey, you know, you aren't gonna toss the ball. on when you don't want to get off the boat, so we toss the ball around. And I mean, he was a Heisman favorite at Texas Tech going into his senior year. So he's going to win. He threw four picks his last game. And he finished 10th in the voting, but he said a bunch of division one records, some of which are still good today, and he can wing it right? And yeah, ball fucking hurts when it comes in at you, right? I mean, and so he's winging it and I'm I'm winging it, you know, pretty good. My arm is by by the way, it's like killing me after a while because I'm trying to keep up with them.
• 41:27
  Randall Kaplan: And the second best compliment was Where do you play your college ball? Like Damn, that's pretty good. I got I got to I got to in two days, man I'm I'm styling right
• 41:40
  Arik Armstead: to go and you got the the quarterback whisperer?
• 41:42
  Randall Kaplan: Yeah, I got the quarterback. whisperer. So that's, that's as good as it gets. Before we ended, I want to go ahead and ask more open ended questions. I call this part of my podcast, fill in the blank to excellence. You're ready to play? Yeah. The biggest lesson I've learned in my life is
• 41:57
  Arik Armstead: anything worth having is worth working for. My
• 42:01
  Randall Kaplan: number one professional goal is reach my
• 42:05
  Arik Armstead: full potential in not just football, but anything I have. I've been blessed. And I want to get everything out of out of my blessing. So reach my full potential.
• 42:21
  Randall Kaplan: My number one personal goal is to
• 42:23
  Arik Armstead: create a happy, healthy, loving home. For my family. My
• 42:34
  Randall Kaplan: biggest regret is no regrets. My biggest fear is seeing my loved ones pass away. Craziest thing that's ever happened to me is
• 42:47
  Arik Armstead: Oh, no. Next one.
• 42:47
  Arik Armstead: I really don't know. It's crazy to happen to me. I'm like, too crazy.
• 42:52
  Randall Kaplan: Craziest thing I've ever done is crazy thing I've ever done.
• 43:00
  Randall Kaplan: There's a filter right there.
• 43:00
  Randall Kaplan: Now there's a filter.
• 43:05
  Arik Armstead: This is not that crazy. I can't think of like, gone just gone anywhere. I'm like when I jumped off like a rock on vacation.
• 43:17
  Randall Kaplan: That's how you got a rock on vacation. Like 10 feet high. 20 feet high. I
• 43:21
  Arik Armstead: was crazy. I wouldn't be doing wild stuff, bro. I really don't. The one
• 43:27
  Randall Kaplan: thing I've dreamed of doing for a long time. But I haven't is
• 43:32
  Arik Armstead: one thing I dreamed of doing for a long time. But I have it starting a company starting starting a tech company I guess.
• 43:43
  Randall Kaplan: If you go back in time and give your 21 year old self one piece of advice.
• 43:45
  Randall Kaplan: What would it be? Trust your gut more? If you give me one person in the world who would it be? If I could be if you could meet one person in the world? Who would it be? Let's say Barack.
• 43:56
  Randall Kaplan: Everything about reaching Otto?
• 44:01
  Randall Kaplan: No, I
• 44:01
  Arik Armstead: didn't think about reaching out to his foundation though. Because they do a lot of Latin education.
• 44:09
  Arik Armstead: Like mine, but no, I haven't thought about reaching out to
• 44:11
  Randall Kaplan: him. The one question you wish I'd asked you but didn't is oh, I'm
• 44:16
  Arik Armstead: being a girl that being away being a girl Dad.
• 44:21
  Randall Kaplan: What's the girl then?
• 44:22
  Arik Armstead: A girl dad like being like having daughters? Oh, being a girl that Yeah, tell me about being a girl that Okay,
• 44:27
  Randall Kaplan: so what's that?
• 44:27
  Randall Kaplan: I'm a girl. I'm a four girl band. No. I've never thought about I've never heard that term before. Never heard a girl that I've never heard a girl dad.
• 44:35
  Randall Kaplan: That's it. I've never heard of a boy dad never heard a girl that is the thing. I guess I've been living under a rock I guess I don't know the lingo. Alright,
• 44:44
  Arik Armstead: it's like a whole this is a whole girl dad. Girl data like brands like hats and stuff to T shirts.
• 44:52
  Randall Kaplan: I think I have to pick something different.
• 44:54
  Arik Armstead: It's different being a girl that
• 44:57
  Randall Kaplan: so what
• 44:59
  Arik Armstead: tell me about being a girl. I feel like I love it. It's amazing. Having daughters has like, shaped me even more. And like, in the sense of just happened to think you know, from a female perspective and like, thinking about looking at our society in the world and like wanting to create, you know, a healthy, safe, inspiring environment where, you know, empower them to feel that they can You know, do what ever they set out to do or put their mind to and I don't know I love it. It brings out different side of me. I feel like I can just be just, you know, even more lovey dovey and yeah, just I just love it. We're about to
• 46:16
  Randall Kaplan: love it. I mean, I live my kids. I mean, you know, my kids I'm grateful first you wish for their health, obviously. And then people say what? You've had a lot of success in your life what's, what's the most important and most important, by a landslide is? Are my five kids and there's nothing I wouldn't do for them.
• 46:39
  Randall Kaplan: I live for them. You know, Al now is three I read to her and bed every night. You know, we snuggle? It's, it's fun. I was in first grade. I mean, they still call me daddy. You know, my my girls in college, you know, that ended when it was around 14. So I'll enjoy that as long as I can. Because that that will end at some point. And you know, my son, Charlie, who who you know, well, you know, you're, you're very good to my son. You took him shopping one day, I'm not rose and got some good garb. So he loves you. And you know, you're nice enough to take them to dinner when I you know, he goes to school up near where you live, you know, where you where you work. So grateful for that. I mean, I think one of the greatest ways to a parents heart is doing something nice for their kids. And you'll see this as you get older people are going to do some extraordinary things for your kids. And these are people who you'll just never forget it. And they won't forget it either. That's awesome.
• 47:47
  Randall Kaplan: You're one of the most philanthropic people not only in football, but in professional sports. You've been nominated for Walter Payton Man of the Year, four times. There's a video of you online coach telling you that you've been nominated for your team. Each team nominates one person. So you're sitting in the back of the room. They're the last guy it's a tiered tiered room i It's probably where you watch film, right? Or you meet together, team to meetings, and you're sitting there and he's making an intro. And you know, it's you at this point, you're sitting there just totally nonplussed just.
• 48:26
  Randall Kaplan: That's cool. And you're just so humble about the whole thing, what tell us about some of the work that you've done, how we can get involved, and what motivated you to be so dedicated to giving back to your community.
• 48:44
  Arik Armstead: So our organization is AAP Darmstadt academic project and I got into the education space because I feel that education equity would really solve a multitude of societal issues. When we look at the achievement gap and the poverty gap, and even down to policing in our communities, social injustice. situations.
• 49:17
  Arik Armstead: And I felt that if I didn't feel like it was fair that a kid's education was determined on where they grew up, or their zip code. And I didn't fight that that was fair. And I truly don't believe will function at the highest level in society. And so education is truly equitable.
• 49:48
  Arik Armstead: And every student no matter their socio economic status, has access to the same quality education that others do. And I wanted to make a difference in this. And so I started our organization, and we serve in a multitude of ways. I also don't believe in like reinventing the wheel. So we are kind of a we are a hybrid organization, where we have a lot of our own programming, but also we partner with organizations who are doing the work currently. And I lend my voice, my platform, my resources to make what they're doing even better, and serve more students. And so we focus on literacy with our elementary school students because we know that if students aren't reading at grade level I'm by fifth grade, that the percentage of them dropping out of high school will increase dramatically. And if they're not reading by grade level by fifth grade, the percentages of them being successful, decrease dramatically. So we focus on literacy there, because it's the foundation of your education. If you can't read, you can't do anything, you got to read your math problems, and you got to read in every foundation. So we start there. And then we focus on. We focus on with our middle school students, we focus with our STEM education. So we have had multiple partnerships throughout the years, offering STEM education to our middle school students. And that has been a lot of fun working with students who never really been exposed to that. And then really focus on career in college exploration with the highest with our high school students, which is all about, also feel that education school is a means to an end, that in our society, obviously, if you want to get you you need your education to get a good job. So whether that is going to college or getting a job out of high school. Kids need to know what's out there and understand how to get there.
• 52:31
  Arik Armstead: So we do college tours, we do career camps, I partner with organizations to bring students to businesses to learn how they operate, to learn the different career paths that they could get in, in certain businesses, and also to we follow that up with how do you get there? So if you want to work in this sector of this business, or in this sector in general, like what would you need to do in high school, in college, to get there, because we feel that that's very important. And, yeah, focus on college, you know, as well, too.
• 53:13
  Arik Armstead: And college tours, making sure that kids are, you know, have a plan and goals, to get to college, and assisted in that as well, too. So, it's been a lot of fun. We do, you know, a whole host of multitude of different things throughout the years, and I've been focused on some advocacy as well, too. In our state, with politicians and government and making sure that kids who their kids are accurately funded as well too, and that the students who needed the most are getting the funding to, you know, raise, raise the, the the floor, students are performing at an all time low rates and so doesn't make sense to me why the kids who do our doing better, or the kids who get the funding as well, too. So
• 54:17
  Randall Kaplan: what you're doing is awesome, I congratulate you on all the amazing things you've done your role model for so many people by the way, I love love your posts online and love what you're doing. So congratulations on all that precision. So I've never had a helmet on never had pads on.
• 54:32
  Randall Kaplan: Never been on a field before.
• 54:32
  Randall Kaplan: It's really that hard. Like I get a shotgun pass and I got good protection up front like guys, hit debo for a deep ball just on the timing route. And can I do that? Maybe once you think I'm gonna hit a touchdown pass even though I've never had to pass out of the helmet on.
• 54:51
  Arik Armstead: Um, no. I don't think so. How
• 54:55
  Randall Kaplan: come come on you're you're you're you're blowing my fantasy. I mean, when I'm out playing catch in my backyard, like all fuck, I can do this. Nah,
• 55:03
  Arik Armstead: yeah. It's not even about that actual like, one play. Like, you wouldn't even be able to, like, get to that one play. You know, let's
• 55:11
  Randall Kaplan: let's just assume. Okay,
• 55:13
  Arik Armstead: so we're just talking about you don't have to do anything. They just throw you in a game. Yeah, I'm
• 55:19
  Randall Kaplan: in the game.
• 55:19
  Randall Kaplan: It's like it's first intense. I mean, you kind of got a free down, do whatever you want. And I'm back there. I've got a helmet on which I've never had on before. I'm sure it's very restricted. I'm a little claustrophobic as well. You know, and I don't I like free range of my arms I've ever had the pads on but you can just kind of shotgun hike. Go go home. Yeah, just go ball on.
• 55:42
  Randall Kaplan: Yeah, yeah.
• 55:43
  Arik Armstead: I'm sure I'm sure you could pass
• 55:45
  Randall Kaplan: back ahead.
• 55:45
  Randall Kaplan: touchdown pass the NFL.
• 55:49
  Arik Armstead: I don't see. I don't see why. I mean you could throw right i I can throw Tom and Cliff confirm that yeah
• 55:55
  Randall Kaplan: yeah yeah call Tom up you know I mean I guess in theory
• 55:58
  Arik Armstead: I wouldn't I like go balls aren't high percentage.
• 56:02
  Arik Armstead: Regardless in general with like the best quarterbacks in the world throwing them yeah. So percentages. have you thrown a touchdown? Pretty low but I don't see like, long as you don't see why you couldn't do that.
• 56:18
  Randall Kaplan: Yeah I mean corner out to the endzone we just call them you
• 56:22
  Arik Armstead: don't see why you couldn't try to do that. I might you never know.
• 56:26
  Randall Kaplan: I will. Thank you for feeling the fantasy. I mean, I'm, I help you hit your fantasy of playing the NBA, so we could be sure that's been awesome. I appreciate you being here. You're a great guy. Super loud. We're super tight. Thank you for being so good. And my kids my family may appreciate you not
• 56:44
  Arik Armstead: proceed through.
• 56:44
  Arik Armstead: Thanks for having me. You got an amazing show here. Glad I was able to get on it. Keep going, Man I love I love what you're doing. I appreciate it.