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Chicago H.S. Football Legends Podcast · Bears Banter Talk Show

0:36
SPEAKER_03: Welcome to Chicago High School Football Legends.
0:39
SPEAKER_03: My name is Banal Mohammed.
0:40
SPEAKER_03: Tonight we got on the show Arthur and Roger Gray.
0:45
SPEAKER_03: You know, we call him Rod, so I ain't gonna be informal about this and just call him Rod.
0:50
SPEAKER_03: How you feeling tonight, T?
0:51
SPEAKER_01: I'm good.
0:52
SPEAKER_01: How's it going?
0:53
SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much for this great opportunity.
0:55
SPEAKER_01: I greatly appreciate it.
0:56
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, hey, this is as good.
1:01
SPEAKER_03: I know we first started talking about this at the beginning of August.
1:06
SPEAKER_03: We ain't gonna worry about that right now.
1:08
SPEAKER_03: Is uh, you know, when you first came out and you did this book right here.
1:14
SPEAKER_03: And uh hopefully y'all can see that book.
1:18
SPEAKER_03: But anyway, I was on this, you know, the Chicago High School Legends podcast is basically like people who play like football in the Chicago area.
1:27
SPEAKER_03: Um some of the guests have been like suburb, suburban uh players.
1:32
SPEAKER_03: But I want to go over some of the lists real quick of those who have uh been on this show.
1:36
SPEAKER_03: Matter of fact, one of them is your teammate, I believe it's Carl Williams.
1:39
SPEAKER_01: Uh yeah.
1:40
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Carl Williams.
1:41
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, me and Carl Williams played on the same side, strong side together.
1:44
SPEAKER_03: Okay, he he came on uh about maybe two years ago.
1:46
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
1:47
SPEAKER_03: Rocky Harvey, if he was in the Chicago area in the uh mid-90s and watched the University of Illinois football in the early 2000, uh he played for U of I.
1:58
SPEAKER_03: Uh he was from Dunbar.
2:00
SPEAKER_03: We had Sidney Payne, people know Payne in high school, named Sidney Mohammed.
2:04
SPEAKER_03: We had him on as a guest.
2:06
SPEAKER_03: We had Carl Judge Carl Boy played for Julian and I think my brother played against Carl Boy, yeah.
2:12
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
2:13
SPEAKER_03: Uh we also had James Marlborough who who played for Shur's High School, and he also played uh Eastern Illinois, and he played with uh what's the coach's name?
2:29
SPEAKER_03: Peyton.
2:30
SPEAKER_03: Um I can't think of it.
2:32
SPEAKER_03: He played he coached with Denver now.
2:34
SPEAKER_03: That was his quarterback at the time.
2:36
SPEAKER_01: Um Drew Peyton.
2:38
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
2:39
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
2:39
SPEAKER_03: Hopefully I didn't get his name wrong.
2:41
SPEAKER_01: But anyway, you you played high school football for four years?
2:45
SPEAKER_01: I played four years at semi-year.
2:47
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
2:48
SPEAKER_01: Two years of of JV.
2:50
SPEAKER_01: I went up and uh as a junior and played junior, started my junior, my senior year.
2:55
SPEAKER_01: Uh we ended up winning the Red South and both the CPS Championship, my senior season, which would have been the school year of 86-87.
3:07
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
3:08
SPEAKER_03: And you played what fullback?
3:09
SPEAKER_01: Played fullback and lineback.
3:11
SPEAKER_01: I started at linebacker, inside linebacker, and I was the second string uh fullback actually both years that I that I played at varsity.
3:20
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
3:21
SPEAKER_03: You know, uh I know you were a um champion.
3:25
SPEAKER_03: What was that spirit's like?
3:27
SPEAKER_03: What was it, city championship?
3:28
SPEAKER_01: City championship.
3:29
SPEAKER_01: We got a chance to play in the prep bowl, which we ended up losing to uh in November of 86, losing to Loyola 1412.
3:37
SPEAKER_01: It was it was great.
3:38
SPEAKER_01: After we lost to Chris Zorge and CBS, our junior year, we had kind of got together that night before we left the school and uh we decided that um our next season was gonna be different.
3:51
SPEAKER_01: We were gonna kind of dedicate um getting our mind and our bodies right in order to uh make a good run um at that at that crown.
4:02
SPEAKER_01: What was unique about our team is that most of our core seniors and even some of my undergraduates, either we knew each other growing up or we had an older brother that played before us.
4:15
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
4:16
SPEAKER_01: So we were kind of steeped in the tradition of uh uh the Simeon culture and the way Coach Al Scott did things.
4:27
SPEAKER_01: So it was just um a natural progression for us to kind of take the next step, so to speak, after they won that initial um CPS championship in '83.
4:40
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
4:41
SPEAKER_03: You know, one of the things about playing high school football, there's a lot of just football in general, there's a lot of lessons that a lot of us who play kind of carry on through life.
4:52
SPEAKER_03: I'm sure that from going through some of the things that you went through, you probably drew on some of those lessons and strengths from playing high school football.
5:00
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
5:01
SPEAKER_01: You know, um, we used to say if we can get through um being in that West Chatham field, having two of days and three a days in the summer, the dog days of summer, and uh in July and August before we got our season started, uh then we could pretty much get through anything.
5:18
SPEAKER_01: Those were the days where practices weren't regulated, you didn't have a whole lot of water breaks, uh, nobody was particularly um concerned if you got too hurt or anything like that.
5:30
SPEAKER_01: It was just the early days of football, and it made you tough.
5:33
SPEAKER_01: Uh, it made you resilient, um, but it also created the hunger in you that with the guys that you were on that field with creating that that dirt pile in the middle of West Chatham Park, that we can get through anything together.
5:49
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
5:49
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, okay.
5:50
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it took a lot of toughness.
5:51
SPEAKER_03: They didn't care about, I guess, really with like they had thinking about on east shows back then.
5:56
SPEAKER_01: One water break of practice, that was it.
5:59
SPEAKER_03: That was it.
6:00
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we we called them uh some schools called them double sessions, some schools called them uh two-a days.
6:05
SPEAKER_03: Two a days, yeah.
6:06
SPEAKER_01: That was exactly it.
6:07
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so you know to fast forward, so I can remember uh 1987.
6:15
SPEAKER_03: Well, 197, right?
6:16
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, okay, 1987.
6:18
SPEAKER_03: I went to Western Illinois.
6:19
SPEAKER_03: I was going into my senior year, but I did student orientation.
6:25
SPEAKER_03: And then I uh I looked out there and I always noticed they the black students that were in orientation.
6:31
SPEAKER_03: So uh I seen you and your brother slick, and I remember one thing I would always do is I would tell the black students, you know, look me up.
6:41
SPEAKER_03: So I don't remember if I had on paraphernalia or if he had on paraphernalia, but whatever way we got talking, he said, This is my little brother.
6:47
SPEAKER_03: He's coming, you know.
6:48
SPEAKER_03: I was like, okay, give me a call, right?
6:51
SPEAKER_03: I said, Call me when school starts, just look me up, right?
6:53
SPEAKER_03: Because all our numbers is in the phone book.
6:55
SPEAKER_03: And I know for those who are younger, you got cell phones now, but back then we didn't.
6:59
SPEAKER_03: The school actually signed you a phone number.
7:01
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
7:02
SPEAKER_01: And you had a phone book.
7:03
SPEAKER_03: We had a campus phone book.
7:04
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you had a campus phone book and it dialed the rooms, etc.
7:08
SPEAKER_03: And I think when you came, it was just shifting from the park party lines.
7:12
SPEAKER_03: So ironically, all the years that I did told black students there, you were the first one to actually call me when the school started.
7:20
SPEAKER_01: But that was something that my brother reiterated.
7:22
SPEAKER_01: He was like, if you if when you get on campus, find a brother.
7:26
SPEAKER_01: So you already got one number, so make sure you reach out and uh and see.
7:31
SPEAKER_01: And when I when I did that, I I saw, I got a chance to witness when I found you on campus the work that you and Zim or Emerson Bowie that you guys were were doing with the Black Student Association.
7:44
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, these brothers are heavy, you know, and I just got I I watched from a distance, but I knew that uh it was that's something I gotta be a part of.
7:53
SPEAKER_01: It was just electric.
7:54
SPEAKER_01: But it it let me know that at an early age, you guys don't have to be, well, people don't necessarily have to be that old to stand up and fight for your people.
8:03
SPEAKER_01: Uh you guys were fighting fire rights on campus, and it was duly noted.
8:06
SPEAKER_01: You guys set the blueprint for what we had to do, and and doing those same things when you guys left.
8:13
SPEAKER_01: So everything that we did, it just piggybacked on what you guys did and the trends that you guys set.
8:19
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
8:19
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you know what?
8:21
SPEAKER_03: That that was a to me, that was a learning experience, I guess for all of us, right?
8:26
SPEAKER_03: Because we are figuring out who we are and we on the college campus and we're trying to um make the best of life.
8:33
SPEAKER_03: And I would say me and Ermin decided to try to make life better for other students that were there, yeah, other black students, so that was a challenge.
8:41
SPEAKER_03: And also, I just want to know to uh the viewers out there, we had two cameras set up, but one thing about doing live feed in person, something always gonna go roll wrong.
8:50
SPEAKER_03: So you just had to adjust the second camera went out, so we just kind of squeezing in on this one camera, and then we had to kind of jest with the monitor to kind of so if we kind of look it down, we're looking at the laptop monitor because we don't have uh a monitor that's in time with us.
9:04
SPEAKER_03: But anyway, Rod, we come fast forward, you know, you meet your beautiful wife.
9:09
SPEAKER_03: I remember being at the wedding and etc.
9:11
SPEAKER_03: And you know, we both members of Omega Side Five, you know, those watching can see you got over here, and I believe it was what about two years ago when you went to the hospital.
9:23
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, 2044, yeah.
9:25
SPEAKER_03: 2024.
9:26
SPEAKER_03: I remember seeing an email, and I remember uh, you know, I know you have been like in and out a few times uh throughout the years, but sometimes it seemed like by the time I would find out you had went in, you out.
9:41
SPEAKER_03: So this time I kind of hearing that it was a little serious.
9:45
SPEAKER_03: So I was like, man, let me get up there.
9:47
SPEAKER_03: So text tonight went to go visit you at uh I guess it would be Engels now in to see.
9:54
SPEAKER_03: No, I guess it was Ingles now at the University of Chicago, and went to go see you.
9:58
SPEAKER_03: And I was like, wow, you know, I realized you weren't conscious and you know at the time.
10:03
SPEAKER_03: So I kind of went to the Q's text group and said, Hey, um, you know, I know what y'all been saying, you know, circulating.
10:12
SPEAKER_03: I said, go see him.
10:13
SPEAKER_03: Then it's couple people like, how's he doing?
10:16
SPEAKER_03: I said, I'm not gonna tell you, just go see him, you know.
10:19
SPEAKER_03: But anyway, you end up putting your experience on the book because there was a long roll for uh recovery.
10:25
SPEAKER_03: What made you write about your experience?
10:28
SPEAKER_01: Um, as I started to the end of that five months, and it became clear that I was getting better day by day, and I was going to make my transition to being home.
10:41
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and as I started to do rehab, when I walked out of the hospital, I didn't have any medical issues, you know, left at all.
10:51
SPEAKER_01: So um I was really just needed to learn how to walk.
10:57
SPEAKER_01: Uh and somebody, everybody that I run into would tell me that I had a testimony that I had to share it.
11:04
SPEAKER_01: And people start saying, You gotta write a book, you gotta write a book.
11:08
SPEAKER_01: And I um this one post that I made on Facebook when I really laid out uh that November of 24, everything for the first time, everything that happened to me, and a couple times I was near death, uh and my my had the tagline on that was But God Said Otherwise.
11:26
SPEAKER_01: And one of my um former co-workers of Work Sister, Tamara Waffert, um, she said, that's the title of the book, God Said Otherwise.
11:36
SPEAKER_01: And uh she was like, You gotta write your story.
11:38
SPEAKER_01: So everybody that I ran into told me that I had a testimony um to tell.
11:43
SPEAKER_01: And I thought about it and I was like, if my mother um was alive and we were still going to church, she'd be making me stand up at that testimony service before Thanksgiving and telling my testimony.
11:54
SPEAKER_01: I say, so I'm gonna write it.
11:56
SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna, you know, I won't stand up and say it, but I will write it so that I can share things that I've been through and hopefully someone will benefit from it, learn from it.
12:07
SPEAKER_01: Um, have some questions.
12:09
SPEAKER_01: I can be a source of source of information from all the things that I've been through.
12:14
SPEAKER_01: So that kind of what pushed me to write the book.
12:17
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
12:18
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I'm glad you shared your experience.
12:20
SPEAKER_03: I mean, it's it's a whole lot in that book, and you know, I mean no, my uh when I read a book, a book gets tore up with me, man.
12:28
SPEAKER_03: That's how I've been in the cover, I've been in the pages, you know, um where I'm at in the book, etc.
12:35
SPEAKER_03: And as soon as I got the book, uh the funny thing is I had an incident on the train where anyway I ended up stopping.
12:43
SPEAKER_03: So I ended up being stuck for like an hour.
12:46
SPEAKER_03: So the first day I the next day after I got it, I had an hour on the train where I was just stuck.
12:51
SPEAKER_03: So I got through about three-fourths of the book in one day, right?
12:55
SPEAKER_03: And I said, Man, let me follow up.
12:57
SPEAKER_03: I think that's the day I text you early August, hey man, we we gotta find a way to put you on high school football ledgers podcast.
13:03
SPEAKER_03: And I remember saying, Hey man, you need to do this, man.
13:06
SPEAKER_03: You need to get on.
13:07
SPEAKER_03: And I was like, get on Kendall Show.
13:08
SPEAKER_03: I'll just start telling you everything.
13:09
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I was like, make a video, make a 20, because I was just so hyped from reading your book.
13:15
SPEAKER_03: And I know people want me to tell more about the book.
13:18
SPEAKER_03: We'll get to it, but you know, some of the stuff I'm gonna cover is just things that that I read in the book, and also as men, I want to talk about being able to go up and down through those emotions that you experienced.
13:34
SPEAKER_03: And I I and I started with one emotion I had one day when I get there, and you you were still unconscious, you had the tube in your nose, and you was flickering your finger.
13:52
SPEAKER_03: And I'm just kind of like talking to you.
13:54
SPEAKER_03: I didn't know if you was conscious or not.
13:56
SPEAKER_03: I I could kind of see you moving, and I believe it was the nurse came in and said, uh, she said, he wants you to hold his hand.
14:06
SPEAKER_03: You're gonna make me cry.
14:12
SPEAKER_03: So, you know, as a man, you know, that that's a uh challenge, right?
14:17
SPEAKER_03: Uh first I thought for a second, like, what like what do you mean?
14:20
SPEAKER_03: Like, you know, like she said something complicated, right?
14:22
SPEAKER_03: You said say hold his hand, right?
14:23
SPEAKER_03: So for a minute, I'm thinking, like, what you mean, hold his hand, right?
14:26
SPEAKER_03: I'm just going through emotions, like, like, hold his hand, like like when we grab it, want me to pat it, when we shake it, right?
14:32
SPEAKER_03: I'm just all these thoughts going.
14:34
SPEAKER_03: She might have known that, right?
14:35
SPEAKER_03: Because it happened in a matter of 20, 30 seconds.
14:38
SPEAKER_03: I I grab her here because I process it.
14:41
SPEAKER_03: So I'm actually the whole visit, I'm holding your hand.
14:45
SPEAKER_03: And anyway, I wanted to talk about like let's go back to like you were waiting on the transplant.
14:52
SPEAKER_03: Can you share that?
14:52
SPEAKER_03: So I know some emotions came waiting on the transplant, and then we could go back into that story.
14:57
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um, you know, you finally go through the uh traversing uh the minefield of finding a hospital that will list you, and you do all of the workups that are necessary to get you listed, and after that, it's a waiting game.
15:17
SPEAKER_01: And the whole time while we're waiting, you're trying to keep yourself out of the hospital, stay well, and be ready when this phone call comes because you don't know when this call is gonna come, right?
15:33
SPEAKER_01: So we do all of the work, we get listed, and I go down.
15:39
SPEAKER_01: Now, the average wait time for a transplant is six years.
15:44
SPEAKER_01: I had been on dialysis since 2020.
15:47
SPEAKER_01: When I go down at 2024, theoretically I had two more years to wait in order to get a kidney.
15:55
SPEAKER_01: Um, turns out that some research had been done, and they had found out that African American kidney patients were um being evaluated with a different formula that measures kidney function than Caucasian patients, which made it seem like our kidney function was better than it was.
16:20
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
16:21
SPEAKER_01: So once they were discovered, they went back and looked at all of the African American kidney patients that were on the transplant list, and they recalculated what their kidney function was, and they looked back and decided to say, okay, this is when his kidney function or these patients' kidney function first started declining.
16:44
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and I say that meandering, but I'll get back to it on pop point.
16:47
SPEAKER_01: And once that was discovered, we get a call that says, listen, Tanay got the call first.
16:56
SPEAKER_01: Um, they told us what happened, they told us the research that had been taking place, they told us our case had been re-evaluated.
17:03
SPEAKER_01: So, based on my projections, they gave me almost three more years of wait time on the transplant list, meaning that as soon as I got out of the hospital and got well, I was ready for a kidney.
17:18
SPEAKER_01: Um, so Tanae just told me, she's like, Listen, your transplant coordinator is gonna call you.
17:23
SPEAKER_01: Just answer.
17:24
SPEAKER_01: I was like, What does she want?
17:25
SPEAKER_01: She's like, just answer the phone.
17:26
SPEAKER_01: I want you to hear this from her.
17:28
SPEAKER_01: And um, she um she called and she let me know that.
17:32
SPEAKER_01: So when we talk about the motivation, uh, and I'll it's a lot of motivations that I had, but that was one of the motivations to get well because she told me when I was still in long-term acute care, and that was last that October 24.
17:46
SPEAKER_01: Um, she said, when you get out and get stronger, you're at the top of the list.
17:51
SPEAKER_01: You might as well have your bag back.
17:52
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
17:53
SPEAKER_01: So at that point, uh, it gave me wind beneath my wings or sort of put a push behind my cells to kind of work to get better to get out of there.
18:03
SPEAKER_01: So that's that was you know the impetus for the whole transplant thing.
18:07
SPEAKER_01: Now after that, it was just you know a waiting game.
18:10
SPEAKER_01: Okay, okay.
18:11
SPEAKER_03: So I know there was uh for reading the book, there was times where you, you know, you were bumped off certain wait lists and had to kind of start over, and how you talked about persevering through that time.
18:24
SPEAKER_03: Uh, and I'm thinking about, you know, that's one of our fraternity words, perseverance.
18:30
SPEAKER_03: And, you know, and I'm proud of you to see, you know, when I'm reading that, right?
18:34
SPEAKER_03: You're going through that time, right?
18:35
SPEAKER_03: You really don't know what a person is going through.
18:37
SPEAKER_03: Because I know a lot of times we get together, like, hey man, let's go for some breakfast or stuff like that, right?
18:42
SPEAKER_03: You know, you kind of live a little bit, but you really don't know it uh to the fullest and you know, family members know, but yeah, you don't really know.
18:49
SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, I'm gonna talk about dialysis uh briefly.
18:54
SPEAKER_03: Um what what is can you explain like what is for those who are kind of novice where because they know people who live with people, they they know dialysis or what that is, but people who don't have narrow experience or don't have family members, they hear it and they may know what it is, but they may not still know what a person actually goes through when they're going through dialysis.
19:15
SPEAKER_03: I remember you talking about going through dialysis in the book.
19:17
SPEAKER_01: Sure.
19:17
SPEAKER_01: So when you're on dialysis, essentially what you have is you have a machine and an artificial kidney on that machine, uh, which is a filter that cleans your blood.
19:29
SPEAKER_01: So essentially it does the work that your kidney is not able to do, whether it be um take the waste out of your urine or can't clean all the impurities out of your blood.
19:41
SPEAKER_01: So, what happens during dialysis is that you have a caffeine or a fichula is what they call it, and you have two lines.
19:48
SPEAKER_01: One takes the blood from your body, runs it through the filter in the machine, uh cleans it, and sends it back.
19:56
SPEAKER_01: So it's doing two things at the same time.
19:58
SPEAKER_01: The machine is cleaning all the impurities out of your blood, and the second thing is it's taking the excess fluid out of your system that you're not able to adequately evacuate because your body does not, I mean, you might have your your urine function may have even stopped so that you're not able to uh remove yourself.
20:22
SPEAKER_01: That machine does it for you.
20:24
SPEAKER_01: So by doing these two things, clearing the blood and also pulling that fluid out of you, you can't go into dialysis uh at a session uh at one weight and come out five pounds lighter, you know, because of all of the waste and the fluid that they pulled from the system.
20:43
SPEAKER_01: Now, because this is happening, you are usually wiped out after those treatments.
20:48
SPEAKER_01: I was telling someone, if you saw me during those five years, I was on dialysis and you asked me how I was doing, and I was like, Oh, yeah, cool, I'm fine.
20:57
SPEAKER_01: I was lying.
20:59
SPEAKER_01: Every single day I felt like crap.
21:02
SPEAKER_01: Um, because you either recuperate from having a session or you're at a session, and it becomes all-consuming.
21:12
SPEAKER_01: Now, it has gotten better over the years, but it's still something that's really, really harsh uh on the body.
21:19
SPEAKER_01: So um, you know, it's a lot of things that I missed over the last five years, a lot of things that I did not have the energy to do, a lot of things that I did that I didn't enjoy because sitting there actually felt like crap.
21:32
SPEAKER_01: So um I did not want the kidney disease to cheat me out of my life or cheat my family, my kids, my wife.
21:43
SPEAKER_01: I said it in many baseball games through a lot of baseball games, sitting on a lot of bleachers, feeling like crap.
21:50
SPEAKER_01: Um, but it was something, and we talk about the word perseverance that I needed to do.
21:55
SPEAKER_01: And tonight my wife used to always tell me it's not gonna be like this, always.
22:00
SPEAKER_01: It's not gonna be like this always.
22:01
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna get your kidney in.
22:03
SPEAKER_01: We're not gonna have to go through this anymore.
22:05
SPEAKER_01: So perseverance is a word that that drove me through 24, especially 24 and 25, but also just from 2020 on.
22:19
SPEAKER_03: Um, yeah, perseverance.
22:22
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
22:22
SPEAKER_03: You know, I like to thank everybody who tuned in tonight to Chicago High School Football Legends.
22:26
SPEAKER_03: We make sure you hit the subscribe button.
22:29
SPEAKER_03: We're talking to Robert Gray, and we're talking about his book, God Says Otherwise, and he talks about his battle that helped scare that he had.
22:39
SPEAKER_03: And you know, he's still recovering, almost recovering, right?
22:42
SPEAKER_03: I mean, we as we age, right?
22:44
SPEAKER_03: Things just break down, right?
22:46
SPEAKER_03: I roll out every roll out the bed every day, and I'm like, man, why is it so hard?
22:50
SPEAKER_03: Uh why does this hurt?
22:52
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, right.
22:53
SPEAKER_03: But anyway, I want to mention that uh I'm gonna put the website down there where you can actually get a copy of it.
23:00
SPEAKER_03: But I want you to kind of the the viewers out there to get a real feel of the journey he went through and for other those others who go on through a similar journey that they should, you know, maybe share their experience, especially as black people in general.
23:15
SPEAKER_03: It's like we be secret about stuff that's not even like nothing, right?
23:19
SPEAKER_03: It would just be like, you know, and then we don't know like our family history sometime because you know, somebody may check out, and then you'd be like, What happened?
23:27
SPEAKER_03: Nobody won't even tell you, then you found out related that something we are notorious for keeping secrets.
23:34
SPEAKER_01: I think um Bernard has a lot to do with um vulnerability.
23:40
SPEAKER_01: Okay, I think a lot of times people don't want to allow people to see them in their diminished state.
23:48
SPEAKER_01: And I always say, I've been saying for a long time, and it really got to play out during this process that vulnerability is the price of friendship.
23:59
SPEAKER_01: So, me wiggling my fingers, and you coming in that room, and I don't even remember that.
24:04
SPEAKER_01: Let's me well, that's that was my thing because when bros came, I ain't want I couldn't do nothing but hold my hand.
24:11
SPEAKER_01: Hold my hand, let me feel your energy because we all just human balls of energy.
24:16
SPEAKER_01: Let me feel your energy and your vibes and your prayers flow through my arm, through my hand to my soul, touch my soul so I can get better.
24:26
SPEAKER_01: Um, we have to have these conversations when we're not doing well because we don't have to go through anything alone.
24:32
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, lean on your village, yeah.
24:34
SPEAKER_01: Lean on the people that's younger.
24:36
SPEAKER_01: I could, I Nuddy, I could set my watch on your visits.
24:41
SPEAKER_01: I knew when you were coming every week, and I would look forward to it.
24:45
SPEAKER_01: I knew when you were coming.
24:46
SPEAKER_01: I looked that day, I'd be like, but now I'm coming today.
24:50
SPEAKER_01: And I and I knew you were coming.
24:52
SPEAKER_01: So it was never a day in those five months that I was alone.
24:56
SPEAKER_01: And I appreciate my village, my family, those who did for me when I could not do for myself.
25:03
SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, I read a good book one time that says, friends do for you what you cannot gracefully do for yourself.
25:09
SPEAKER_01: So I had a lot of people combing my hair, putting lotion.
25:15
SPEAKER_01: I can remember Zim Zim came up and and uh my hands and my arms was rusty.
25:21
SPEAKER_01: And well, you know what he got the lotion out.
25:23
SPEAKER_01: I say, look at 84, lotion, lotion in my hands, our arms up, and I'm rusty, but that's that's those are things that you allow yourself to be in that state.
25:32
SPEAKER_01: I'm sitting there and I know I need to be cleaned up, but I got a room full of visitors.
25:37
SPEAKER_01: I don't care because I don't want these people to leave because I need their energy.
25:40
SPEAKER_01: So we have to get away from being secretive and keeping these secrets.
25:45
SPEAKER_01: We don't have to go through anything alone.
25:48
SPEAKER_01: We have a village.
25:49
SPEAKER_01: You have a village, you probably have more people that care about you than you think.
25:54
SPEAKER_01: And for those, when something happens to you, for those that are not there and they don't, they're not there, they wasn't supposed to be there until you be along for the ride.
26:02
SPEAKER_01: So don't focus on them, focus on the ones that are there, love on who love on you, but definitely embrace your village because it is the motivation to get better.
26:15
SPEAKER_01: I said um one of the things that motivated me is that I didn't want to let my village down.
26:21
SPEAKER_01: I know that these people were coming, spending their time with me and driving away to Indiana and you know, coming out here out south of people who don't live this way and taking their time away from their families to spend with me.
26:35
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna do everything that I can to repay that favor and get up on my feet and walk.
26:41
SPEAKER_01: And so I can walk up out of here.
26:43
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
26:43
SPEAKER_03: Hey, thank you everybody for tuning in.
26:45
SPEAKER_03: Make sure you hit the subscribe button, leave the notification bell on, and you we get more programming like this.
26:52
SPEAKER_03: Chicago High School Football Legend is one of the numerous programs that we have on this sports network.
26:57
SPEAKER_03: We actually expanded to a sports network this year.
27:00
SPEAKER_03: We not only we have Bands Banner, that's in season seven, we also have the two-minute drill, which is in season three.
27:08
SPEAKER_03: We just started a show with uh called Out of Bound with Dr.
27:11
SPEAKER_03: Quick.
27:12
SPEAKER_03: Make sure you look up that show.
27:13
SPEAKER_03: And we also have another show that comes on Saturday called uh Pastor Pull Picks with Sean Thompson.
27:21
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, he's a reverend for real.
27:23
SPEAKER_03: So he actually gives it like in a reverent tone.
27:26
SPEAKER_03: And you know, he's giving you fantasy uh uh football tips.
27:32
SPEAKER_03: But we do, you know, we plan to keep adding this into this, right?
27:35
SPEAKER_03: Well, to this is like a real it is a real network where you we have programmers just like you would have ESPN with different personalities and etc.
27:44
SPEAKER_03: And we do maybe about four of these uh Chicago high school football legends uh a year, and you had mentioned earlier about uh going through the dialysis, and I'm gonna kind of speed up through some of the questions I had, and you talk about how you felt physically.
28:00
SPEAKER_03: You were working during that time, and I know that had to be tough, and I can remember in your book you talked about the one that's he was a school teacher, correct?
28:12
SPEAKER_03: Yes, okay.
28:12
SPEAKER_03: I'm sorry, I should have mentioned that earlier for the um people watching that Rise is he was a school teacher, and just as he go he was going through dialysis, etc.
28:23
SPEAKER_03: In the book you talked about one time when you realized you had to uh you know let it go at the school.
28:31
SPEAKER_03: Can you share that experience that?
28:33
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, actually, it was it was two, and there's one that I didn't even talk about in the book.
28:38
SPEAKER_01: Um, so the the um the iron that they give you doing dialysis treatments really tears your stomach up, right?
28:45
SPEAKER_01: Um, so it was on my break at school, and I go to the bathroom, and I completely lose it, and I destroyed the bathroom, and I had you know waste all over my clothes, my shoes, my socks.
29:01
SPEAKER_01: Um, and I just happened to, I was, I was just I was disgusted with myself because I was in that state, but I was at a loss because I had to get out of there.
29:10
SPEAKER_01: I called one of my trusted um um co-workers and told her to bring me my bag.
29:16
SPEAKER_01: Um I wrapped old sweater around me and I walked out of there and came home.
29:21
SPEAKER_01: It was so funny, she didn't know when I got to the door.
29:24
SPEAKER_01: She looked at me and said, Where's your socks?
29:31
SPEAKER_02: She said, Where's your socks?
29:33
SPEAKER_02: And I looked at her and I put my head down.
29:36
SPEAKER_02: I shook my head and walked in.
29:37
SPEAKER_02: I couldn't say nothing.
29:38
SPEAKER_01: I was because my clothes were all everything.
29:41
SPEAKER_01: So I was getting too close to the end at that point.
29:44
SPEAKER_01: But I was, and it became increasingly more and more difficult to stay awake because I had been having this stomach pain, which ultimately led to my injury.
29:55
SPEAKER_01: I'd been having this stomach pain.
29:56
SPEAKER_01: So I would come down here, sit right here on the couch all night, and just sit up and rock because my stomach was hurting that night and I wasn't getting any sleep.
30:05
SPEAKER_01: Driving down Western, my school, Claremont Academy, is on 64th and Oakley.
30:10
SPEAKER_01: I'm at 79th and Western.
30:12
SPEAKER_01: Get to the red light.
30:15
SPEAKER_01: Next thing I know, I hear horns glaring.
30:19
SPEAKER_01: I'm rolling through the light and I am asleep.
30:23
SPEAKER_01: My chin is on my chest.
30:26
SPEAKER_01: Sleep.
30:27
SPEAKER_01: Roll through the light, roll through the light.
30:30
SPEAKER_01: I hear people cussing, blowing their horns.
30:32
SPEAKER_01: I get on the other side of 79th, stop, gather myself.
30:39
SPEAKER_01: A couple people stop and ask me, Am I okay?
30:42
SPEAKER_01: Said I was okay.
30:42
SPEAKER_01: Let the windows down, cut the music up, rolled to school, went right into my principal's office and said, I gotta stop.
30:50
SPEAKER_01: I can't do this anymore because um something is happening with me, and I don't I don't particularly know what.
30:58
SPEAKER_01: Um, but I got to stop this so I can focus on whatever it is that's going.
31:03
SPEAKER_01: Now, I didn't all the things we couldn't find out anything that was wrong with us, but I was sitting here where I am, pretty much where I am now.
31:13
SPEAKER_01: Tanae was sitting where she is right there.
31:15
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and one night we were sitting here watching TV, and I I planned out my funeral.
31:21
SPEAKER_01: I told her how I wanted everything to go, who I wanted to speak, who I didn't want to speak, give bros time to do their service, uh, the memorial service, um uh everything uh way it was supposed to be, Paul Bear's all that stuff.
31:37
SPEAKER_01: I went through everything because in my spirit I felt like I was being prepared for something that was gonna happen.
31:44
SPEAKER_03: Right.
31:44
SPEAKER_03: You know, I would like to uh bring, thanks for sharing that.
31:46
SPEAKER_03: I would like to bring Tanae in, if you don't mind.
31:49
SPEAKER_03: Sure.
31:50
SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna I'm gonna pull the camera out wider so viewers please.
31:53
SPEAKER_03: You know, I know we like said one of the cameras when we went live, it went out on us.
31:58
SPEAKER_03: So yeah, if you could just squeeze in a little bit more, I'll pull out a little wider to get you in the shot.
32:05
SPEAKER_01: Is that here cut off or you can go back some more?
32:08
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, there she is.
32:09
SPEAKER_03: There she is.
32:10
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
32:12
SPEAKER_03: Hey, thank you for sitting in with us for this interview.
32:17
SPEAKER_03: I mean, well, you know.
32:20
SPEAKER_01: Why are you asking that?
32:21
SPEAKER_01: 40th Street stand up, Loan, where we at?
32:26
SPEAKER_03: You know, that this woman showed a lot of uh courage and faith as you were going through this.
32:32
SPEAKER_03: And what part of the book I was looking at where there was like text message change.
32:38
SPEAKER_03: Can can you share how how did y'all I remember?
32:41
SPEAKER_03: I know everybody's communicating, but I thought that was very unique how he put that in the in the book.
32:48
SPEAKER_03: But what what what what was your feelings and some of your emotions that you wanted to share from that experience from the first time when y'all called the Am Lamps and had to take them?
32:59
SPEAKER_03: And I know I remember him saying, Don't take me the uh don't take me the eagles.
33:05
SPEAKER_01: They saved my life.
33:07
SPEAKER_01: They saved my life.
33:09
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
33:11
SPEAKER_00: Which am I looking?
33:12
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you could you could yep look yep look straight ahead.
33:14
SPEAKER_03: You find it.
33:15
SPEAKER_00: Um I think of some of the emotions that I felt, particularly that day when we ended up having to call the ambulance, was one was I was in disbelief.
33:28
SPEAKER_00: Um, because I couldn't believe that what we my son and I were witnessing was Rob was um just totally out of it.
33:38
SPEAKER_00: He was um lethargic.
33:42
SPEAKER_00: Um, he was not making sense when he was talking.
33:47
SPEAKER_00: And my son was like, Ma, call 911.
33:51
SPEAKER_00: So we ended up calling 911 and they came and got him, and his uh blood pressure, I think, was 80 over 40, it was something, it was like really low.
34:01
SPEAKER_00: And at that point, I told the uh EMTs, please take him to uh South Suburban, and they couldn't because with your pressure that low, they have to take you to the closest hospital.
34:13
SPEAKER_00: And for us, it's University of Chicago, um, Ingalls and Harvey, and he was very adamant about not going there.
34:21
SPEAKER_00: But like he said, they saved his life.
34:23
SPEAKER_00: So um a little bit of fear because we just didn't know what was going on, and we knew he had COVID.
34:28
SPEAKER_00: Um, but at that point, Rob was actually sepsis.
34:32
SPEAKER_00: He was sepsis um because um the he his um ulcers ruptured uh ultimately at you know, but at that apparently they were bleaking.
34:46
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
34:47
SPEAKER_00: Um, and so he was sepsis because he went to the hospital that Thursday, that Friday, um they gave him a CT scan, a second one, and that second CT scan revealed that his ulcers had ruptured.
35:02
SPEAKER_00: They called me, I was eating breakfast, um, getting ready to go to the hospital, and that's when the doctor said that they had to perform emergency surgery.
35:12
SPEAKER_00: Um, and the only reason the ulcers showed up on the CT scan that day was because they ruptured.
35:18
SPEAKER_00: So, so and his oh, the ulcer was on his small intestine on the back side.
35:24
SPEAKER_00: So he had had several CT scans.
35:26
SPEAKER_00: That's where the stomach pain was coming from.
35:28
SPEAKER_00: Um, two months.
35:29
SPEAKER_00: Like you said, he went two months and he was in pain, and we were going to the ER, the uh urgent care.
35:35
SPEAKER_00: And um, when they ruptured, that's when they finally showed up on the CT scan.
35:40
SPEAKER_00: Hence the reason you know he needed to have emergency surgery.
35:43
SPEAKER_00: Okay, okay, thank you.
35:44
SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
35:45
SPEAKER_03: I don't want to keep you standing there that long.
35:47
SPEAKER_03: I just wanted to let people see your face and I got everything boxed second right there.
35:54
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, okay.
35:56
SPEAKER_03: You know, what one that one of the things when you're going through something like that is we have so many emotions, you know, even when you just talking about planning out your funeral, you know, that that that is I'm sure that's a tough moment, right?
36:17
SPEAKER_03: Because that that's one of those realizations that we are human, right?
36:24
SPEAKER_03: Because then when we're younger, we feel invincible, right?
36:27
SPEAKER_03: There's this, I mean it's nothing that you know could hurt us.
36:30
SPEAKER_03: And I see somebody say uh referred to you tonight as like today is like my wife's superwoman.
36:39
unknown: Who said that?
36:40
SPEAKER_03: Uh was that Coleman?
36:41
SPEAKER_03: Who's that?
36:42
SPEAKER_01: Ricardo Coleman, my partner should bring me nice fried chicken.
36:49
SPEAKER_01: Love my people from Florida.
36:51
SPEAKER_03: Uh and Plank said, Hey Taney, glad to see you there.
36:54
SPEAKER_03: Welcome to the show.
36:56
SPEAKER_03: Um, Jay, Jay Beasley made a comment.
36:59
SPEAKER_03: I believe y'all was at Weston at the same time.
37:02
SPEAKER_03: He said, Congratulations, bro.
37:04
SPEAKER_03: You are definitely an inspiration.
37:06
SPEAKER_03: And I want to send um a shout out to Jay.
37:10
SPEAKER_03: He just actually experienced um no losing one in his ships, yeah.
37:16
SPEAKER_03: Uh dead cue ball a few months ago.
37:18
SPEAKER_02: Okay, great guy.
37:19
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you know, kind of kind of similar, you know, situation of you know, I don't want to get too deep into the uh the things.
37:26
SPEAKER_03: I want to make sure to get the camera a little bit more square.
37:31
SPEAKER_03: Sorry about y'all on this, but anyway, this show actually is going to be on Apple Music, it's going to be on uh uh AH Radio and Spotify.
37:48
SPEAKER_03: So people be able to catch it tomorrow if they miss the live.
37:52
SPEAKER_03: Can you can you uh I'm sorry, can you tilt the camera today this way just a little bit?
37:58
SPEAKER_03: I'll let you know.
37:59
SPEAKER_03: Yeah to my right to your to your right.
38:02
SPEAKER_03: Keep going a little more, a little bit more.
38:04
SPEAKER_03: There we go.
38:05
SPEAKER_03: Okay, okay.
38:06
SPEAKER_03: I think it's just a little bit later.
38:08
SPEAKER_03: Okay, Rob.
38:11
SPEAKER_03: I'm trying not to get too much of the book because look, I want y'all to go get this book.
38:15
SPEAKER_03: You know, um I mean I ain't getting no cliff notes to it.
38:18
SPEAKER_03: You know, we ain't giving no cliff notes.
38:21
SPEAKER_03: You need to go get this thing, man.
38:23
SPEAKER_03: I'm telling you, it's gonna motivate you.
38:25
SPEAKER_03: And if you got loved ones out there that's going through their friends going through something, I think this book would be able to let you know how much that means to people when they're going through this type of thing.
38:39
SPEAKER_03: And I know I like you know, when we get close to the end, there's some people who really just went beyond, you know, you when I say beyond, is they're they're doing stuff that they may be sacrificing time from their own family to actually do certain things, and you know, and I know I was uh observing some stuff from a distance, hearing people's names, and et cetera.
39:02
SPEAKER_03: But I think about reading the some of the text messages in the book where Tanae would constantly tell them that God got you and the setter and stuff like that.
39:13
SPEAKER_03: Uh, how much you how much does faith play into going into a situation like this?
39:21
SPEAKER_01: You know, it's huge, but um, I've always talked about faith in terms of it being strong.
39:32
SPEAKER_01: We know our greatest institutions um are built on faith, business churches, schools, and our homes.
39:39
SPEAKER_01: Um, but also faith is a driving force that allows you first to be vulnerable, but it also replaces fear.
39:50
SPEAKER_01: And the quote that I used to say all the time before I even got into this this whole thing was faith and fear cannot occupy the same space at the same time.
40:02
SPEAKER_01: Either you're gonna have faith and say it's gonna work out and it's gonna be okay, or you're gonna be fearful of it and you're gonna be scared every day.
40:11
SPEAKER_01: And all fear is that you are having anxiety about the unknown.
40:16
SPEAKER_01: We don't know if it's even gonna happen.
40:18
SPEAKER_01: Um, but we have that fear um that is there.
40:22
SPEAKER_01: So faith is um is really, really, really super important.
40:30
SPEAKER_01: Um, because when those days get their darkest, it allows you to um say, listen, this is tough right now, but I know it's gonna be all right.
40:41
SPEAKER_01: You know, I know it's gonna be okay.
40:44
SPEAKER_01: So um that's one of those things that you cannot you cannot get away from.
40:50
SPEAKER_01: You know, you can't get away from faith at all.
40:54
SPEAKER_01: It's there.
40:55
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it sure is.
40:56
SPEAKER_03: Hey, sorry about y'all walking back and forth in front of the camera.
40:59
SPEAKER_03: Like so when the camera starts acting funny, so we just wing at it with the one camera.
41:03
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, faith, faith, you know, that's one of the things that in life that your your faith is gonna be tested.
41:11
SPEAKER_03: You either gonna you're either gonna believe in your faith or you're gonna be an atheist, you know, because you when you're going through stuff like that, you know, whatever source of energy you could draw from from, that's gonna be uh real important.
41:26
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you know, now you know what I'm gonna start wrapping up, you know, as we kind of come forward to you know, you getting you get getting out the hospital, and I can remember uh, and I know a few times they kind of make summary of you know, about to get out, don't get out, go to rehab, then back to the emergency room, and yeah, some of those things.
41:48
SPEAKER_03: But I can remember seeing a video on the day when you was leaving the rehab, and and uh I can remember seeing it was Byron Williams, Ronnie Crawford, uh Fred Johnson, Fred Johnson, yeah, uh Millicent, uh Dana, Gina, Carol, Big Joe, Big Joe, Big Joe, uh-huh, and Karim was there.
42:17
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, her friend Paz, her best friend.
42:19
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, y'all came out the hospital.
42:22
SPEAKER_03: Y'all had to be at the hospital, but the rehab center, and you was hopping.
42:27
SPEAKER_03: You know, we did K.
42:29
SPEAKER_03: Hey, what you talking about the case?
42:36
SPEAKER_03: I can't really say what we need to do, but now this is my three right here, man.
42:42
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, but that was amazing, man, because that was so much energy, man.
42:48
SPEAKER_03: And you know what?
42:49
SPEAKER_03: That's beautiful.
42:50
SPEAKER_03: That when you was wrapping up your rehab, don't look for the video if you're friends with Rod or one of Rod or Tracy or Melison or Dana uh Ronnie Crawford.
43:00
SPEAKER_03: I don't think Fred is on Facebook, but uh what you said, Patty?
43:04
SPEAKER_03: Paz.
43:05
SPEAKER_03: If you're friends with any of them that's on Facebook, look for the video.
43:08
SPEAKER_03: And it was the day of his uh he was being released from rehab, and they come, and then I think one of the nurses get behind.
43:18
SPEAKER_01: Intake social workers, she got right behind us.
43:21
SPEAKER_01: And uh it was it was uh uh a feeling of total exuberance.
43:24
SPEAKER_01: We that was graduation day, I believe it was March 23rd of uh of 25.
43:31
SPEAKER_01: Um I did 13 weeks uh extra early run.
43:36
SPEAKER_01: I did three sessions a week, um, three hours a day.
43:41
SPEAKER_01: It was some of the most intense work that I had ever done in my life.
43:44
SPEAKER_01: Every day I left there, I was spent, but I was 10% or one probably 1% better every day over that 13 weeks.
43:53
SPEAKER_01: When we went in there, um Tanae and Fred rolled me in in the wheelchair.
43:58
SPEAKER_01: I could not walk.
44:00
SPEAKER_01: Told him I can I can't walk.
44:01
SPEAKER_01: And she asked me what my goal was.
44:03
SPEAKER_01: Uh, my um therapist uh Maureen, we call a big mo.
44:08
SPEAKER_01: Um and I told her I want to dance with my life, um, like we did, like we normally do at the parties that we have every year.
44:16
SPEAKER_01: We're getting back to those two.
44:18
SPEAKER_01: Look for one coming up in the early weather.
44:20
SPEAKER_01: So we're it's coming.
44:23
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's coming.
44:23
SPEAKER_01: We got it.
44:25
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
44:26
SPEAKER_01: So it's it's uh it's coming.
44:28
SPEAKER_01: Um, but um that's not what I want to do.
44:30
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna dance with my wife.
44:32
SPEAKER_01: So um that was pure exuberance.
44:36
SPEAKER_01: So graduation day, um, to walk out of there on the cane and to be able to walk to our car and get in our car and set out a mini hop with the brush um was really a culmination of me because it was my village again, showing up there.
44:55
SPEAKER_01: Um just like they took me in, they ushered me out, and it was um a culmination of the hard work that we had all put in with that time, affection, patience, and that love, uh, and um just setting the next standard for the next day, what's going to be new the next day.
45:16
SPEAKER_01: Now, what I did not know at the time is that this bum hip and the reason I'm on this cane is because this left hip needs to be replaced.
45:23
SPEAKER_01: Um, so I really got out of that outside of having a hernia from having a weakened uh abdominal wall from the surgery with no medical issues.
45:34
SPEAKER_01: Um, so once I got my kidney transplant, uh I started taking care of this hip.
45:40
SPEAKER_01: Um, I've been truly blessed.
45:41
SPEAKER_01: The most high um showed me so much grace and favor and um uh patience and uh mercy.
45:54
SPEAKER_01: Um and if he never does another thing for me, he's already done too much.
45:59
SPEAKER_01: He's already done enough.
46:00
SPEAKER_01: So um those things were a culmination of really uh a long journey that still continues.
46:10
SPEAKER_01: I'm ready to get this hip to get off this cane, I'm ready to go back.
46:13
SPEAKER_01: I got one more season of Q-Ball left in me.
46:17
SPEAKER_01: And me and my distant sans OJ and and uh 89 from Pieside to White, we all gonna retire together.
46:24
SPEAKER_01: We got one season to play next season.
46:27
SPEAKER_01: Um after I get this hip, then we're gonna retire.
46:30
SPEAKER_01: Then I'm gonna go back to running marathons again.
46:33
SPEAKER_01: So that's that's what's next.
46:35
SPEAKER_03: Hey, you always gotta have goals and comp.
46:37
SPEAKER_03: What's that today?
46:38
SPEAKER_00: And traveling.
46:39
SPEAKER_00: And traveling, yeah, yeah.
46:40
SPEAKER_03: Get that in.
46:42
SPEAKER_03: You know early.
46:43
SPEAKER_03: The first one of the first questions I asked you, because this is Chicago High School Football Legends podcast.
46:48
SPEAKER_03: You know, everybody behind that come on the show actually has some play football at some point.
46:55
SPEAKER_03: And I asked you about you know, lessons or things that you drew from.
47:00
SPEAKER_03: And from listening to you, I would say, you know, like making a football team, it takes a certain level of mental toughness.
47:08
SPEAKER_03: The physical toughness is it is what it is, right?
47:11
SPEAKER_03: But it's the mental toughness.
47:13
SPEAKER_03: So, like when we talked about not being able to get water, doing practice, and I'm sure you drew from a lot of that stuff, you know, as I listened to your story.
47:23
SPEAKER_03: Like, man, you know, and now shout out to uh like coaches like Al Scott, who actually produced a lot of uh men for a lot of guys, those high school coaches, especially my guys, it's like your standard fathers.
47:36
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and not only did it it create the those opportunities of toughness, but it created um opportunities of closeness.
47:46
SPEAKER_01: I um, you know, we come up on 40 years that I'll be graduating from high school next summer, which means that you know, I walked to Simeon 44 years ago.
47:57
SPEAKER_01: Um and some of the same lessons, some of the things that we learned and the relationships that we built while we were sweating on that field.
48:04
SPEAKER_01: We took pride in, you know, it was football season because the middle of West Chatham Park was a mud hole, was all the grass was gone because we ran and we ran and we ran up and down the middle of that field.
48:18
SPEAKER_01: So when you're going through a situation like you have to go through rehab, you have to be able to take your mind to a place that you've been before where you've experienced some type of challenge.
48:33
SPEAKER_01: And whether it's running sprints in the heat, or whether it's reciting a poem, or whether it's um uh playing with two broken fingers, um, it's something that you have to dig deep inside of you to be able to find.
48:50
SPEAKER_01: That's why I think every kid should at least play a sport once in their life.
48:55
SPEAKER_01: Um, they don't have to be the best at it, um, they don't have to make it their life's work, but it teaches so many different life lessons that you can grasp onto.
49:06
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I wanted to I know y'all won't be able to see this as well, but I'm gonna show you the cover of this book, God says otherwise by author Rod Gray.
49:16
SPEAKER_03: Make sure you pick it up.
49:18
SPEAKER_03: You can get it on Amazon.
49:19
SPEAKER_03: Let me put the put the information on the screen for Amazon, and you also could get it on you have a website too, right?
49:26
SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah, so yeah, I have a website, um, Roderick um roderick dash gray.com.
49:35
SPEAKER_01: Um, you can go there and leave me a message, or you can contact me on Facebook, inbox me.
49:40
SPEAKER_01: I have Articles copies.
49:42
SPEAKER_01: Uh, let me know how I can get it to you.
49:44
SPEAKER_01: I'll give you all the information for it.
49:45
SPEAKER_01: I'll sign your copy and get it to you.
49:48
SPEAKER_01: I'll be out here in these retired streets delivering books if you don't want to get it from Amazon.
49:54
SPEAKER_01: So uh yeah, so uh that is a way to definitely you do it.
49:59
SPEAKER_01: I'll be putting some clips from the interviews and also some more um videotapes or updates on to the website, but I'll also be including a section where I can be left messages.
50:12
SPEAKER_01: But if you want to find me on Facebook, just Roger Gray, my face will pop up.
50:17
SPEAKER_01: I got on the frat shirt, like I usually have on when I'm doing stuff like this, because it's my superpower.
50:22
SPEAKER_01: It's like putting on Superman's cape.
50:25
SPEAKER_01: Um, one of the workers at a rehab, one of the workers at rehab, she said, Why do you always have on a purple shirt?
50:31
SPEAKER_01: I said, This is my superpower.
50:33
SPEAKER_01: I said, I can draw, I draw from this.
50:35
SPEAKER_01: So I'm always, whenever I go to the doctor, if I go anywhere like that, I got a purple shirt on.
50:40
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna wear something purple.
50:42
SPEAKER_03: Okay, you know what?
50:42
SPEAKER_03: One of one of your big brothers from Simeon, uh, watchdog.
50:46
SPEAKER_03: What's up, watchdog?
50:47
SPEAKER_03: What up, Rich Willis?
50:49
SPEAKER_03: What'd he say?
50:49
SPEAKER_03: Good brothers.
50:50
SPEAKER_03: Also, uh, the days at Simeon playing football.
50:54
SPEAKER_03: You know that man, Richard, Richard, man.
50:57
SPEAKER_03: You know what?
50:58
SPEAKER_03: I still got beef with you, brother.
51:00
SPEAKER_03: Watch doll.
51:01
SPEAKER_03: In 1982, you were one of the players on Simeon that eliminated my school, and that was my last high school football game because you was playing for Simeon in the first round of the playoff that year.
51:14
SPEAKER_03: Man, that's wrong, man.
51:16
SPEAKER_03: You, Joe, Bass, and all y'all eliminated us, man.
51:19
SPEAKER_03: Don't y'all still feel bad about that?
51:22
SPEAKER_01: Along with my brother, Richard.
51:23
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Rich is one of the first cues from Simeon.
51:27
SPEAKER_01: Uh, so yeah, definitely uh big brothers like that.
51:31
SPEAKER_01: Indeed.
51:32
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
51:33
SPEAKER_03: So you know, I mean, it's such amazing.
51:35
SPEAKER_03: I like those book, you have a Omega symbol on it, and it doesn't matter what fraternity, sorority that you're in, it's a bond that is built.
51:47
SPEAKER_03: And I will I hope those who are into, and I'm gonna mention this who I the disnouncing organizations or talking bad about the Greek organizations or black uh predominantly black Greek organizations, and you never been part of it.
52:02
SPEAKER_03: Hopefully, interviews like this will help you be able to see the brotherhood and sisterhood that is extended to each other, and there's nothing demonic about none of it.
52:15
SPEAKER_03: And but anyway, I just wanted to share that point with you that you know that you know, because you've kind of been seeing it on social media, absolutely.
52:23
SPEAKER_03: You know, it's kind of like a lot of a lot of nonsense and stuff like that.
52:27
SPEAKER_03: Absolutely, but you know, I wanted to get ready to close this out.
52:30
SPEAKER_03: But man, if it's anything else you want to uh share, matter of fact, keep Rod is back driving again, and yeah.
52:39
SPEAKER_01: I you know, I uh I will say this before we go.
52:42
SPEAKER_01: Um, you may see me posting probably videos once a week where I'm just driving, listening to music.
52:50
SPEAKER_01: The five months that I was laying on my back, one of the first things that I wanted to do outside of be home was get in my car and drive and listen to music.
53:02
SPEAKER_01: That's when I usually do my best thinking when I'm driving.
53:05
SPEAKER_01: And I just wanted to listen to my music.
53:07
SPEAKER_01: So that is one of my greatest joys right now is getting up, uh, going to the Walmarts with the old people in the morning, as soon as the doors open, getting my provisions for the week and uh and driving around, uh, listening to music.
53:26
SPEAKER_01: So um that is that is one of my greatest joys.
53:30
SPEAKER_01: So in closing, I would really like to thank everyone um tremendously.
53:35
SPEAKER_01: Again, my village, if I had to name everybody, I would have I would have to be here 5,000 years and I would ultimately forget somebody.
53:45
SPEAKER_01: But those people who spent time with me, who held my hand, who brought me food, who rubbed lotion on my arms, who um said they spent time with me when Tanae had to go out of town, any of those things came to the house, bought me gifts, gave her gift cards, money, anything like that.
54:06
SPEAKER_01: Um, I want to sincerely say from the bottom of our heart, we thank you um very much.
54:13
SPEAKER_01: Um I always told my son that that uh God was not gonna take me away from him uh with this.
54:21
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna be okay.
54:22
SPEAKER_01: I may have some challenges with this, but he told me.
54:26
SPEAKER_01: He said, I'm not gonna take you away from this boy, you got a boy to raise.
54:29
SPEAKER_01: So um we got this boy to raise, and and God saw me.
54:34
SPEAKER_01: Uber rod.
54:37
SPEAKER_01: Right.
54:40
SPEAKER_01: Right.
54:40
SPEAKER_01: So he got I got this, you know, this thing.
54:43
SPEAKER_01: So hey, that's uh that's it.
54:45
SPEAKER_01: You know, we're gonna keep on going.
54:47
SPEAKER_01: We got some more work to do.
54:49
SPEAKER_01: But I really, again, just I'm so appreciative of everything and everybody uh that did that.
54:55
SPEAKER_01: Again, if you want to get the book, it's Amazon.com, it's available, or you can hit my inbox uh for um uh Roger Gray on Facebook and I'll message you.
55:08
SPEAKER_01: Uh so I would like to thank you.
55:11
SPEAKER_01: That's my law for my medication.
55:13
SPEAKER_03: Okay, so here we wrap up.
55:14
SPEAKER_03: Hey, if you get a book for him and you want him to sign it, don't be living like in it, you know, this brother Farsaw.
55:22
SPEAKER_03: Don't be living out in like Laos somewhere thinking you're gonna drive like an hour.
55:28
SPEAKER_03: The gas price is like 450 any minute schedule.
55:31
SPEAKER_03: You're gonna meet in the middle of someone.
55:36
SPEAKER_03: Both of y'all end up spending like$20 in gas.
55:40
SPEAKER_03: Or look, if you live far away from here, order the book on Amazon so they can just mail you the book.
55:46
SPEAKER_03: You know, don't have their brother driving all around the country and trying to give you a book.
55:50
SPEAKER_03: And then you like many autograph it too, man.
55:53
SPEAKER_03: You know, like, dude, come on, seriously.
55:55
SPEAKER_03: He could uh uh he he could uh autograph and email you an autograph, right?
56:00
SPEAKER_01: Just tape it in your book, right?
56:02
SPEAKER_01: And lastly, I could not have done any of this without um today.
56:06
SPEAKER_01: Yeah uh the wife is uh the one that is responsible for um being my advocate when I could not advocate for myself.
56:16
SPEAKER_01: Um she stood in the gap um that was necessary, that needed to be filled, and made great decisions for me and my care.
56:26
SPEAKER_01: Uh it wasn't easy every day, but there's not one day that went by that I felt like she did not want to be doing what she was doing.
56:35
SPEAKER_01: Uh and and to be in a situation where you're vulnerable, you never want to feel like you were making somebody do something they don't want to do.
56:43
SPEAKER_01: And I never, she never made me feel that way.
56:46
SPEAKER_01: Um so and she still doesn't.
56:48
SPEAKER_01: You know, even when I, you know, lazy or hip hurting, and I ask her, give me some water, you know, uh, you know, she know when I tell her, she knows when I'm telling somebody, she knows when my hip hurt because I come in and go right downstairs.
57:02
SPEAKER_01: Right, I'm gonna go downstairs and sit down because I'm disgusted because my hip hurt.
57:06
SPEAKER_01: Um, but I, you know, give it all to her and I thank her for uh doing the things that she did.
57:14
SPEAKER_01: So again, thank you, Bernard, for this opportunity.
57:16
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna tell you your example.
57:18
SPEAKER_01: We always say the three dolls are the are the glue.
57:21
SPEAKER_01: We aspire to be industrious.
57:24
SPEAKER_01: Um we are the glue.
57:27
SPEAKER_01: Um we had to push them other two in, first two in, and we pulled everybody else behind us in the fret.
57:33
SPEAKER_01: So so we are the glue, and I thank you for uh your friendship um being a bridge builder and not just being a bridge builder, but also just being my big brother and my friend.
57:44
SPEAKER_01: You know, I I appreciate your friendship.
57:46
SPEAKER_01: So thank you.
57:47
SPEAKER_01: Loan, stand up.
57:49
SPEAKER_01: My single will stand up.
57:51
SPEAKER_03: It's all out of love and appreciate that.
57:53
SPEAKER_03: And there's two things I want to say in closing.
57:56
SPEAKER_03: And one, I remember one day we went to the hospital, I went to the hospital, I think my wife was with me, and one of the nurses said that way.
58:08
SPEAKER_03: And when my wife said, How do you know we're gonna?
58:11
SPEAKER_03: She said, because he gets the most visitors on the floor.
58:14
SPEAKER_03: But then my wife said, Well, we know y'all gonna be the right, because now we're gonna be bummed, you know, we're gonna be bagging snails, right?
58:22
SPEAKER_03: The nurse started laughing, yeah.
58:24
SPEAKER_03: But anyway, the point on that is when you have visitors in those situations, yeah, you get better care too, right?
58:32
SPEAKER_03: For people who are there by themselves.
58:35
SPEAKER_03: One of the things that drops them around, other than people visiting, lack of care they get, right?
58:41
SPEAKER_03: Because the those hospitals or rehab places don't give that same care.
58:46
SPEAKER_03: And in closing, I want to say it reminds me of a poem that we learned when we were pledging.
58:52
SPEAKER_03: I just say a little bit of it in closing.
58:54
SPEAKER_03: Is somebody said it couldn't be done, him would have chuckled reply, but maybe it couldn't, but he wouldn't be one who wouldn't say so to the tried.
59:04
SPEAKER_03: So he buckled in with a bit of a grin with any doubt of a and I can't remember the rest of it.
59:09
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
59:09
SPEAKER_03: But y'all know what I'm saying.
59:11
SPEAKER_03: Peace.