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Henry Josey Is An Eagles Training Camp RB Legend – And Eagles Fans Still Reach Out To Him · Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast

0:09
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome into another episode of The check Odaily,
0:13
Speaker 1: a special edition of The Checkodaily because I'm joined by
0:17
Speaker 1: former Eagles running back Henry Josie, who signed as an
0:21
Speaker 1: undrafted free agent in twenty fourteen. Henry, how you.
0:25
Speaker 2: Doing, I'm doing good man, Welcome man. It's good to
0:28
Speaker 2: be welcome back in. Definitely missed the Eagle tribe always,
0:32
Speaker 2: but definitely good to get back in and just talk
0:34
Speaker 2: a little bit about my time there in Philly.
0:37
Speaker 1: Well, I'm really looking forward to diving in. But before
0:40
Speaker 1: we get to your training camp stories, going into your
0:44
Speaker 1: I guess after your junior season you decided to forego
0:47
Speaker 1: your senior year and going to the NFL draft. What
0:50
Speaker 1: gave you the confidence, What was the pre draft cycle
0:53
Speaker 1: like for you, and what were some of the teams
0:55
Speaker 1: that were interested?
0:58
Speaker 2: A lot of confidence, got a good aiding for sure,
1:01
Speaker 2: that definitely sparked my interest. Also started weighing in just
1:05
Speaker 2: my options for how long my knee actually was gonna
1:09
Speaker 2: last after the injury I suffered in college, and eventually
1:13
Speaker 2: that turned into a decision for me to forego that
1:15
Speaker 2: last year. Had my little one that was already here
1:19
Speaker 2: and running around the house, so definitely. It was a
1:23
Speaker 2: decision where I sat down, held his hand, said a
1:26
Speaker 2: little prayers like, hey, we're just we're gonna go for it,
1:28
Speaker 2: and that was my decision to go forward with that.
1:31
Speaker 2: I had a multitude of teams that were interested. Of course,
1:35
Speaker 2: I did a few visits. Off the top of my head.
1:39
Speaker 3: Where did I go?
1:39
Speaker 2: Chicago, Minnesota? It was one more place I went to
1:44
Speaker 2: as well. I just can't it's been a little while,
1:48
Speaker 2: but definitely had a lot of interest from a different
1:50
Speaker 2: a lot of different teams, and mostly one of the
1:53
Speaker 2: I think one of the biggest key things that a
1:54
Speaker 2: lot of teams wanted to see was if I can
1:56
Speaker 2: actually pass block, which that's probably one of the comedy denominators.
1:59
Speaker 2: But definitely figured that out in the end that that
2:02
Speaker 2: was not an issue at all.
2:04
Speaker 1: So you were part of the Eagles twenty fourteen undrafted
2:07
Speaker 1: rookie free agent class. What did you know about Philadelphia?
2:10
Speaker 1: I understand that you had some Missouri alums there and
2:13
Speaker 1: Jeremy Macklin and Brant Smith, But other than that, Henry,
2:16
Speaker 1: what did you know about the city when you got there?
2:20
Speaker 3: That is funny, absolutely nothing. I think.
2:22
Speaker 2: The only thing I probably can remember is the Rocky movies,
2:25
Speaker 2: and that's the only thing that kind of rung a
2:27
Speaker 2: bell when you thought about Philly, and then of course
2:29
Speaker 2: getting there and seeing the statue just kind of made
2:31
Speaker 2: all that stuff coming to play and just making some
2:34
Speaker 2: childhood memories come back to me pretty good.
2:37
Speaker 1: Chip Kelly was the head coach there. What were your
2:39
Speaker 1: early impressions of his offense?
2:42
Speaker 2: Very similar to what I've been in my whole college career.
2:46
Speaker 2: Very fast placed, up tempo type of offense. Very much
2:50
Speaker 2: enjoyed that part of it. A lot of just the
2:52
Speaker 2: simple ways to make things happen. So definitely enjoyed that
2:56
Speaker 2: part of it. And definitely it was definitely different. You
2:59
Speaker 2: talk about Tim, he has a master mind with any
3:03
Speaker 2: tip that probably doesn't make sense to most people out
3:06
Speaker 2: in the world.
3:07
Speaker 3: Definitely, you have to be on the go.
3:10
Speaker 2: You definitely have to take care of your body right
3:12
Speaker 2: after practice because you're going to be tired of you know,
3:14
Speaker 2: I can't even go back and think about how many
3:17
Speaker 2: steps or how many miles I ran just in practice.
3:20
Speaker 3: I'm like, this is bananas.
3:21
Speaker 1: You know.
3:22
Speaker 2: We used to read have our little readings on us
3:24
Speaker 2: from some of the equipment back in the day. And
3:26
Speaker 2: it's like I am in the red every day something
3:29
Speaker 2: that's not right, but you know, you recover from it.
3:32
Speaker 2: You go back and do it, do it again the
3:33
Speaker 2: next day, and you go back and just keep that
3:35
Speaker 2: recovery process going.
3:37
Speaker 1: From a recovery standpoint. Now that you mentioned that, what
3:40
Speaker 1: were some of the measures that you had to take
3:41
Speaker 1: to ensure that you were available and close to full
3:46
Speaker 1: strength every day in practice?
3:48
Speaker 3: Of course, eating right is going to be the key.
3:50
Speaker 2: Sleep is probably the hardest part for anybody, but you
3:53
Speaker 2: gotta at least try to get some rest. I know,
3:56
Speaker 2: I'm not one of those big guys on going to
3:58
Speaker 2: sleep and just crashing out, So long as I laid down,
4:01
Speaker 2: close my eyes and got some resk, got some good recovery.
4:05
Speaker 2: Do the cold tub, hot hot tub, you know, do
4:07
Speaker 2: that contrast any kind of extra things I could do
4:09
Speaker 2: at night before bed, stretching and rolling out and then
4:12
Speaker 2: trying to make sure I get another little shaking before
4:14
Speaker 2: I go to bed so I can get a little
4:16
Speaker 2: extra recovery and make sure my belly is full and
4:18
Speaker 2: my body's getting refuelled the way it needed to be.
4:21
Speaker 1: Duke Staley was the running backs coach at the time
4:23
Speaker 1: had a story career in Philadelphia. Did you have a
4:26
Speaker 1: message for you as a young player to help you
4:29
Speaker 1: navigate and maybe put you in in a certain mindset
4:32
Speaker 1: going through that first training camp.
4:35
Speaker 2: I mean he was very very open about, of course
4:39
Speaker 2: his his his career.
4:41
Speaker 3: More importantly, I'm just very honest about things that we
4:44
Speaker 3: need to work on. I think that was the key thing.
4:45
Speaker 2: He never ever just you know, beat it around the
4:48
Speaker 2: bush about anything, very straightforward, Hey you need to do
4:50
Speaker 2: this better, Hey you need to do it this way.
4:52
Speaker 2: And then if you did it that way, stuff started
4:54
Speaker 2: clicking and making sense. And that was probably one of
4:56
Speaker 2: the easiest things. Plus having those other guys that were
4:58
Speaker 2: older than me, with the experience being able to piggyback
5:02
Speaker 2: off of them, and then you're around so much confidence
5:04
Speaker 2: in one room, from the coach down to the player.
5:07
Speaker 2: It's like, it's just it's hard not to want to
5:09
Speaker 2: elevate your game. And that was one of the key
5:11
Speaker 2: things that helped me out throughout that preseason in my Stanton, Philly.
5:15
Speaker 1: Looking back, what do you consider to be your welcome
5:17
Speaker 1: to the NFL moment?
5:19
Speaker 3: Wow?
5:20
Speaker 2: Uh, I'll probably say my first past blocking practice.
5:25
Speaker 3: But the guy was probably. Uh.
5:28
Speaker 2: I don't even know how tall he was, He's six
5:30
Speaker 2: or something, and I was like, hey, we got to
5:32
Speaker 2: block him, and he's like huge. I'm like, holy moly,
5:34
Speaker 2: like this is this is eye opening? And then I
5:37
Speaker 2: remember one Uh it was I think we played the
5:40
Speaker 2: Steelers in a preseason game. Uh, Paul Mollo comes over
5:43
Speaker 2: and like barely misses me. I dovee up under him
5:46
Speaker 2: because I knew he was coming, and I was like, hey,
5:48
Speaker 2: this is this is fast paced, Like this is not
5:50
Speaker 2: a game to be playing around with. You know, you
5:52
Speaker 2: can easily be able to get down and protect your body,
5:55
Speaker 2: but seeing a guy at that magnitude of his level
5:58
Speaker 2: of play coming in that way and you know getting
6:00
Speaker 2: out of the way is like one of the probably
6:01
Speaker 2: scariest things ever.
6:03
Speaker 1: Now, if I remember correctly, that summer, Chris Polk, another
6:07
Speaker 1: running back, dealt with the hamstring injury, so he missed
6:10
Speaker 1: a lot of training camp, which gave you a lot
6:11
Speaker 1: of opportunities. How do you feel that you fair during practices?
6:16
Speaker 3: I think that gave a lot of balance for me.
6:19
Speaker 2: I think because mostly in practice practice is something where
6:22
Speaker 2: I actually go out and I practice things.
6:24
Speaker 3: My practice played the game.
6:25
Speaker 2: Player totally different, and I think that was probably one
6:27
Speaker 2: of the biggest eye opening things for everybody. Like one
6:30
Speaker 2: of the guys after one of my games where I
6:33
Speaker 2: had a big breakout games like, man, I always thought
6:35
Speaker 2: you was hurt. It's like, no, I'm just like I'm
6:37
Speaker 2: processing stuff. I'm thinking about stuff on the go.
6:40
Speaker 3: I ain't hurt.
6:41
Speaker 2: It's just you know, it's just how I practice. It's
6:43
Speaker 2: not no, it doesn't decide how I'm going to play
6:46
Speaker 2: in the game. Like my tempo speeds up, everything goes
6:48
Speaker 2: a lot faster than the game because you've done all
6:50
Speaker 2: the work at practice. But him going down definitely opened
6:53
Speaker 2: up a lot of opportunities for me, maybe the slide
6:56
Speaker 2: up in that spot. Hey, when Sprosen the need to break,
6:59
Speaker 2: I'll jump in and fill in for them. So it
7:00
Speaker 2: just got me more reps. I have my own reps
7:03
Speaker 2: in with the ones and twos, and also I have had
7:05
Speaker 2: my rest with the threes as well by myself, and
7:07
Speaker 2: then whoever wasn't there, I'd have to fill in for it.
7:10
Speaker 1: Now, you mentioned Darren Sproles, and I'm sure you've drawn
7:14
Speaker 1: a lot of comparisons to him during your football career.
7:17
Speaker 1: In stature but also in skill set. Did you and
7:19
Speaker 1: Darren ever have those conversations and how helpful was he
7:23
Speaker 1: during your early days there in Philadelphia?
7:25
Speaker 3: Oh? Yeah, that's that's my big bro right there.
7:28
Speaker 2: He definitely was helpful from not just a football standpoint,
7:32
Speaker 2: from the fatherhood side to hey, this is the way
7:35
Speaker 2: the game works, is the way the system works, is
7:37
Speaker 2: the way the world works in this bubble of what
7:39
Speaker 2: we're in. So he was very, very informational, definitely led
7:43
Speaker 2: by example, but it also voiced as well just how
7:46
Speaker 2: he can be helpful, and he was. He was, Like
7:48
Speaker 2: I said, he was a big brother man. He made
7:50
Speaker 2: life very simple for me. I gravitated towards him just
7:53
Speaker 2: because our style of playing.
7:54
Speaker 3: Just also how well he shut up the practice and
7:56
Speaker 3: worked every single day he was.
7:59
Speaker 2: His numbers were three times higher than mine on the
8:01
Speaker 2: average date for practice with running around. So if you
8:04
Speaker 2: think about a guy at this age, this magnitude, he's
8:06
Speaker 2: been doing this thing at this level for so long,
8:08
Speaker 2: and you get to not only sit here and watch
8:10
Speaker 2: him do it, but also get to ask him questions,
8:13
Speaker 2: get to have different feedback. You know, you're in your
8:15
Speaker 2: film room, you get to ask him certain questions.
8:17
Speaker 3: And he sees things that other people are not.
8:19
Speaker 2: Going to see because he's been in the game so long,
8:21
Speaker 2: and it was great to see all that understand how
8:23
Speaker 2: to read certain you know, certain defenses and understand certain alignments.
8:27
Speaker 3: So he was very helpful throughout my whole career in Philly.
8:31
Speaker 1: Now, were you aware that you were becoming sort of
8:35
Speaker 1: a phenomenon around the city of Philadelphia. There was a
8:37
Speaker 1: lot of interest about you. Your name was making some
8:40
Speaker 1: headlines and practice and of course at the preseason. Were
8:43
Speaker 1: you aware of that Henry or resort of just locked
8:46
Speaker 1: in on the task in half.
8:48
Speaker 2: I'm always locked in for sure. You definitely hear the noise.
8:52
Speaker 2: You have to ignore it, though. I think a lot
8:55
Speaker 2: of people can get wrapped up in the noise pretty
8:56
Speaker 2: quickly and that can ruin just how you're pert of
9:00
Speaker 2: what you need to do on a day to day
9:02
Speaker 2: and how that actually is going to play out for you.
9:04
Speaker 2: So I definitely heard the noise, but it was more
9:06
Speaker 2: of a I gotta stay focused on what I need
9:08
Speaker 2: to stay on because at any moment, hey I can
9:10
Speaker 2: get hurt and then his next man up. That is
9:12
Speaker 2: the way the NFL works, and once that next man
9:14
Speaker 2: up comes through his opportunity outshines you. Then you kind
9:18
Speaker 2: of just hey, I gotta I don't know if I'm
9:19
Speaker 2: gonna get a chance, but I got maybe one shot
9:22
Speaker 2: to go out here and make it happen again.
9:23
Speaker 3: And then sometimes it's just too late.
9:25
Speaker 1: Now, not including the preseason games. We're gonna get to
9:28
Speaker 1: that in the moment. But where is there ever a
9:30
Speaker 1: moment during practices where you sort of told yourself I
9:35
Speaker 1: can play in this league?
9:36
Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, definitely.
9:37
Speaker 2: Once I started getting more reps, once I started feeling
9:42
Speaker 2: like myself, that's when I started actually getting into it.
9:46
Speaker 2: I think that Patriots run we had that was my
9:49
Speaker 2: first time being able to get a lot more action,
9:52
Speaker 2: get a lot more confidence, because that's you know, we're
9:54
Speaker 2: going against ourselves all the time.
9:55
Speaker 3: And if once you finally go get somebody else.
9:57
Speaker 2: You and I say, lose the friendship aspect of all right,
9:59
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna, you know, go as hard as this player. Hey,
10:02
Speaker 2: that's you know, that's my buddy. I'm block him and
10:04
Speaker 2: I know he's gonna do this.
10:05
Speaker 3: Just you know, you have.
10:06
Speaker 2: Certain people you had a relationships, you know what they're
10:08
Speaker 2: gonna do. And y'all getting the work in. When you
10:11
Speaker 2: go out and actually face someone else, you know, things
10:13
Speaker 2: kind of change your perspectives, your mindsets on a different
10:15
Speaker 2: thing when you have a different opponent across from me.
10:18
Speaker 2: So I would say that Patriots run we did that
10:20
Speaker 2: joint practice was when I was like, all right, this
10:21
Speaker 2: is I'm.
10:23
Speaker 3: Ready to go. It's it's time to time to make
10:25
Speaker 3: some things happen.
10:26
Speaker 1: What are your last thing memories from your first game
10:29
Speaker 1: at Linked Financial Field?
10:31
Speaker 3: Oh that was awesome.
10:32
Speaker 2: Those are They're the best fans and they can also
10:34
Speaker 2: be the worst fans if you're.
10:36
Speaker 3: Not doing your job.
10:37
Speaker 2: So I think the key for me with them is
10:39
Speaker 2: like I had a great time in Philly. I got
10:42
Speaker 2: the love from the fans, and ultimately, like they when
10:44
Speaker 2: I say they love you, they love you. And as
10:46
Speaker 2: long as you're doing your job, showing up, making things happen,
10:50
Speaker 2: making plays, bringing excitement to that field, it was awesome.
10:54
Speaker 2: I mean to night I think we played, yeah, we
10:55
Speaker 2: did play some to at least two night games there.
10:57
Speaker 3: I want to say, yeah, one day in one night game.
10:59
Speaker 2: The night game atmosphere was absolutely awesome, seeing out seeing
11:02
Speaker 2: the open field, the lights shine it like it was
11:04
Speaker 2: just an amazing feeling definitely, and then of course the
11:07
Speaker 2: weather felt very great at night.
11:10
Speaker 1: Now, in the preseason finale, you rush for one hundred
11:12
Speaker 1: and twenty one yards on twenty two carries. You rush
11:15
Speaker 1: for in total that preseason and twenty five yards on
11:19
Speaker 1: thirty four carries. What do you remember from that finale?
11:22
Speaker 1: And I guess how did you process what was going
11:26
Speaker 1: on in the aftermath of that game?
11:31
Speaker 2: I think more of just enjoying it. I think that
11:34
Speaker 2: was probably the biggest part. Like you come into the
11:36
Speaker 2: league and you're so nervous about every single thing. I
11:39
Speaker 2: was able to be around Shady, I was able to
11:41
Speaker 2: be around spros.
11:42
Speaker 3: I was able to watch their game.
11:43
Speaker 2: I was able to watch how they took practice and
11:45
Speaker 2: then put it into play, and ultimately at the same time,
11:48
Speaker 2: they were just being themselves. Deuce never stopped us from
11:51
Speaker 2: being our sales now. I only think he would argue
11:53
Speaker 2: with us about it. Of course, how we carried the
11:55
Speaker 2: ball if we didn't have it high and tight. But
11:57
Speaker 2: that's that loosesness that just comes with the confident. It's
12:00
Speaker 2: like you know when the tucky, you know when someone's coming.
12:02
Speaker 2: And I think that was one of the main things
12:03
Speaker 2: that made life easy for me in Philly because we
12:07
Speaker 2: were able to be ourselves and enjoy running the ball
12:09
Speaker 2: the way we wanted to and that that was a
12:11
Speaker 2: very big key for me, especially being around those guys
12:14
Speaker 2: and just seeing how confident they were as soon as.
12:16
Speaker 3: They got on the field, Like that was a big
12:18
Speaker 3: boost for me. Like I said that.
12:20
Speaker 2: Patriots game, getting there, finally getting the end zone. Those
12:23
Speaker 2: are amazing feelings like that. Those are the things you
12:25
Speaker 2: need as a running back because it builds up some
12:26
Speaker 2: consisting like hey, I can't do this, and like that.
12:29
Speaker 3: That was one of those things that stood out for me.
12:30
Speaker 2: Hey I just got an the end zone, man, I
12:33
Speaker 2: it's go TI, And that was kind of it. And
12:35
Speaker 2: the history was like me, Hey, this in the pudding. Now,
12:37
Speaker 2: it's just time to go play ball now.
12:40
Speaker 1: There was a lot of outrage when you didn't make
12:43
Speaker 1: the team. I can recall that pretty vividly. But after
12:47
Speaker 1: that game, that's finally, I'm sure you felt good about yourself.
12:50
Speaker 1: Did you feel you had the team made at that point, Henry.
12:54
Speaker 3: I had a great feeling about it.
12:56
Speaker 2: I think at the end of the day, I wasn't
12:58
Speaker 2: wasn't I was not worried about it than that aspect
13:00
Speaker 2: of hey, if I get cut, I get cut. I
13:02
Speaker 2: knew I would get another opportunity somewhere. I definitely wanted
13:05
Speaker 2: to be in Philly, Like I was out to eat
13:07
Speaker 2: with my girl at the time, and of course my
13:10
Speaker 2: son and we were just joining the lunch down in
13:14
Speaker 2: the Philly And then of course I do get the
13:15
Speaker 2: call to come into the office and like, oh crap, hey,
13:18
Speaker 2: I gotta go. So that probably is probably the hardest part.
13:21
Speaker 2: But at the end of the day, I did enjoy it.
13:23
Speaker 2: My oldest now he's fifteen, he got to be in Philly,
13:27
Speaker 2: got to come to a game, he got to get
13:29
Speaker 2: a game ball. I think we still have a picture
13:31
Speaker 2: of him with the football in his hand. So I
13:33
Speaker 2: think as far as the moments I had there, I
13:35
Speaker 2: enjoyed that fully.
13:37
Speaker 3: So it really it didn't hurt me. At the end
13:38
Speaker 3: of the day.
13:39
Speaker 2: It was just like, wherever I go next, that's where
13:40
Speaker 2: I go, And that was the most thing I was
13:42
Speaker 2: most excited about, like I'm living out my dream. At
13:45
Speaker 2: the end of the day, I wasn't. I was not
13:46
Speaker 2: supposed to play football again after my twenty eleven injury
13:49
Speaker 2: in college, so to be able to get up and
13:52
Speaker 2: not only come back from that injury people tell me
13:55
Speaker 2: I'll never walk again, to be able to play and
13:57
Speaker 2: then also be able to live out my dream and
13:59
Speaker 2: be able.
13:59
Speaker 3: To play playing the NFL.
14:00
Speaker 2: Like, I have nothing to complain about, and I have
14:03
Speaker 2: nothing I regret about my career or time in Philly.
14:06
Speaker 1: Now you bring up something really important that I want
14:08
Speaker 1: to touch on. And for those who don't know, in
14:11
Speaker 1: twenty eleven, you dealt with a devastating knee injury that
14:14
Speaker 1: required three different surgeries. You just alluded to it, Henry,
14:17
Speaker 1: could you describe what that whole process entailed, How did
14:21
Speaker 1: the injury happen, and what was the recovery process?
14:24
Speaker 2: Like, Oh, well, it was another enjoyable game, I think
14:29
Speaker 2: that much.
14:30
Speaker 3: Playing against a great opponent Texas.
14:32
Speaker 2: It's crazy two of my guys from here in my
14:35
Speaker 2: hometown playing against them. One of my best friends had
14:38
Speaker 2: a long, extensive career, Quandrey dig So he had a
14:42
Speaker 2: great career. So being able to be on the field
14:44
Speaker 2: with them was a big thing for us, you know,
14:46
Speaker 2: especially coming from our small little town here in Angleton, Texas.
14:49
Speaker 3: But it was a surreal.
14:52
Speaker 2: Moment for me just running out of bounds normal players like, yeah,
14:55
Speaker 2: I may squeeze like another yard out. I have a
14:58
Speaker 2: guy who barely grasped the back of my I ended
15:00
Speaker 2: up folding up under my left leg and dislocating left knee.
15:06
Speaker 3: Kneecaps on the inside of my knee.
15:08
Speaker 2: So I got a nice little hole in my leg
15:10
Speaker 2: and I looked at it a few times.
15:11
Speaker 3: Tried to move it. This is real, just started screaming.
15:16
Speaker 2: So that was a crazy thing to go through. Straight
15:20
Speaker 2: to the hospital right from the game, and then of
15:23
Speaker 2: course the recovery time was.
15:27
Speaker 3: Over three hundred and seventy Some days I want to say,
15:30
Speaker 3: maybe I can't think of that.
15:31
Speaker 2: Number off the top of my headle there was a
15:32
Speaker 2: long process, some long days, some long mental days, very.
15:37
Speaker 3: Very bad days.
15:39
Speaker 2: But had a great crew behind me, even you know,
15:42
Speaker 2: through the tough times. I think we all probably shed
15:44
Speaker 2: some tears together because some of the things they have
15:46
Speaker 2: to do to me. It was just like it was
15:48
Speaker 2: excruciating for me to go through, and at the same time,
15:50
Speaker 2: it's like, hey, I have to go through it if
15:52
Speaker 2: I want to pursue this again. So I mean, it
15:55
Speaker 2: was something that's definitely in my mind. It did take
15:56
Speaker 2: me a while to get up and start believing everything
15:59
Speaker 2: was real.
16:00
Speaker 3: But eventually I caught.
16:02
Speaker 2: On to it through the pain pills in the trash
16:04
Speaker 2: and jumped on it and say let's go, let's go
16:07
Speaker 2: get after it. I gotta go get healthy. And once
16:10
Speaker 2: I had that mindset flip over, you could just feel
16:13
Speaker 2: everything around you, kind of changing the people around you,
16:15
Speaker 2: feeling your your confidence and like, I think one practice,
16:18
Speaker 2: I started running and my coach didn't even know who
16:21
Speaker 2: I was, and he's like, oh like and then of
16:23
Speaker 2: course finds out as me over there running up and
16:25
Speaker 2: down the field. I had to do one tens just
16:28
Speaker 2: to keep in shape. As I started running, and he's
16:30
Speaker 2: seen me moving and floating, He's like, Okay, this is
16:34
Speaker 2: time's coming. So I think that was probably the big
16:36
Speaker 2: key opener for everyone.
16:38
Speaker 1: I imagine an injury of that magnitude it sort of
16:41
Speaker 1: forces that mental barrier that you have to get past.
16:45
Speaker 1: How did you go about doing that? Because there was
16:47
Speaker 1: a long layoff there and you get back on the fields,
16:50
Speaker 1: I imagine things are a lot different.
16:52
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, there was a lot of help. I probably
16:58
Speaker 2: still have pictures of it. I used to have the
17:00
Speaker 2: bucket still, but I have so many letters coming in.
17:03
Speaker 3: I mean until this day.
17:04
Speaker 2: I'm about to sign three cards here today and send
17:06
Speaker 2: back to a guy that just sent me some stuff
17:08
Speaker 2: that's going through some stuff with his knee.
17:10
Speaker 3: So I think having so many people.
17:13
Speaker 2: Inside this whole entire world sending me over letters from
17:17
Speaker 2: literally every state you can name possible and just giving
17:20
Speaker 2: me motivation, you know. At the same time, I had
17:22
Speaker 2: my little boy at the time who was able to
17:24
Speaker 2: come up and spend spend some time with me. Mom
17:26
Speaker 2: let him come spend the summer with me as well.
17:29
Speaker 2: So having all those things tied in and understanding like, hey,
17:32
Speaker 2: like someone's watching me at the end of the day.
17:34
Speaker 2: Not just I have him that ultimately watched him every
17:36
Speaker 2: single day and he's gonna mold his life after me,
17:38
Speaker 2: but also have a lot of people out here in
17:40
Speaker 2: this world that are believing in me and believing that
17:42
Speaker 2: I can get back out.
17:43
Speaker 3: Here and play.
17:44
Speaker 2: And once all those things kind of tied in together
17:46
Speaker 2: along with the people I have around me. I remember
17:49
Speaker 2: the Abners who were very very very close with me,
17:52
Speaker 2: and then of course me and his mom today Miss Abner,
17:55
Speaker 2: She's still a part of my life and does an
17:57
Speaker 2: amazing job of staying staying in touch with this comes
18:00
Speaker 2: to the kids games, all of both stuff. She was
18:02
Speaker 2: there for me in my whole entire career as well,
18:04
Speaker 2: along with my family, just believing in me and just
18:07
Speaker 2: having a lot of support from a lot of different folks.
18:10
Speaker 3: Just it made life a lot easier from every aspect.
18:13
Speaker 2: Doctors girl at the time, my kid being able to
18:18
Speaker 2: come spend summers with like it.
18:20
Speaker 3: It made life easy.
18:21
Speaker 2: And then my teammates, man, they they ain't ever stopped
18:24
Speaker 2: believing that.
18:25
Speaker 3: I think at one point they were mad at me
18:27
Speaker 3: because I was.
18:28
Speaker 2: I looked like I was ready to play, and they
18:31
Speaker 2: could see me doing drills on the sideline. Hey, he's
18:33
Speaker 2: gonna be ready week one, And I even myself, I'm like, hey.
18:36
Speaker 3: I will, I am ready, Like I probably could.
18:39
Speaker 2: Play it in my of course my status like you're
18:41
Speaker 2: not playing this year, I think, okay, so I'll chill out.
18:46
Speaker 1: Well, I think that's very important to kind of go
18:48
Speaker 1: back and make sure that I made mention of that,
18:50
Speaker 1: because that's another chapter of your story and it adds
18:54
Speaker 1: to the adversity that you've dealt with in your career
18:56
Speaker 1: and the perseverance. But that didn't define you because you
18:59
Speaker 1: ended up going to the Jacksonville Jaguars a couple of
19:02
Speaker 1: days after the Eagles waved you. You go to their
19:05
Speaker 1: practice squad and then you eventually get signed off of
19:08
Speaker 1: that practice squad by the Minnesota Vikings. What was that like,
19:11
Speaker 1: that whole process for you?
19:12
Speaker 3: Oh that was crazy, man.
19:14
Speaker 2: I think I was just talking to somebody about that
19:16
Speaker 2: last week. Is they're you know, going through different things
19:19
Speaker 2: with their career and just how it was spurred the
19:21
Speaker 2: moment things can change. I literally have my kid and
19:25
Speaker 2: my girl there at that time, were getting ready for Christmas,
19:29
Speaker 2: I mean and her just went bought all Christmas gifts.
19:32
Speaker 2: My folks are coming up, probably like a couple of
19:35
Speaker 2: days later, and.
19:36
Speaker 3: I was just like, hey, I get a phone calls
19:38
Speaker 3: like hey, you got to pack up.
19:39
Speaker 2: It's like, what do you mean You're getting signed to
19:42
Speaker 2: the Vikings?
19:43
Speaker 3: Like all right, I mean it's one game left me.
19:46
Speaker 3: I got to go right now. So like that all happened.
19:49
Speaker 2: They end up still course having Christmas at Christmas bottomselves
19:53
Speaker 2: without me and then my family and they all drove
19:55
Speaker 2: back home. So you go from sitting on the couch
19:57
Speaker 2: getting ready to plan a Christmas day with your kid
20:00
Speaker 2: and your girl and then all of a sudden say, hey,
20:02
Speaker 2: you've got to pack a bag so you can go
20:04
Speaker 2: to Minnesota and his colde.
20:07
Speaker 3: That was a big change.
20:08
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21:08
Speaker 1: And then your career ends with you go to Toronto
21:10
Speaker 1: the CFL, you played for the Toronto team, you played
21:13
Speaker 1: for Ottawa as well. At what point did you sort
21:17
Speaker 1: of could, you know, tell yourself, I'm done, I'm done
21:20
Speaker 1: with football and I'm going to move on to the
21:21
Speaker 1: next space.
21:22
Speaker 3: It was easy, Definitely was easy.
21:24
Speaker 2: I definitely missed my miss my family for sure, very
21:29
Speaker 2: very big on my kids and ultimately if they can't
21:32
Speaker 2: be with me like I wanted to be, that's always
21:34
Speaker 2: a bother for me.
21:35
Speaker 3: The sacrifice of the sacrifice always.
21:37
Speaker 2: But I think towards my last year in Toronto, man,
21:41
Speaker 2: I was hurt at least three times coming off that
21:45
Speaker 2: last year, and I was actually about to sign an
21:47
Speaker 2: extension and I did.
21:48
Speaker 3: Not do it just because of that. I was like, Man,
21:50
Speaker 3: I don't know. You know, up there, you got some
21:53
Speaker 3: some short weeks.
21:55
Speaker 2: You have a lot of weeks where you can play
21:56
Speaker 2: two games in one weekend and also play another game
21:58
Speaker 2: the following few days later. So like you get used
22:02
Speaker 2: to doing all that and you love it at the
22:03
Speaker 2: same time, but the way you sometimes have to over
22:07
Speaker 2: manage your body and also have yourself mentally ready to
22:10
Speaker 2: go along with a lot of other things that's going on.
22:13
Speaker 2: It was kind of easy when I finally walked away
22:15
Speaker 2: because I was going to go back another year after
22:18
Speaker 2: that and go back to Ottawa. And I just initially
22:20
Speaker 2: called like, hey, like I'm done, it's time for me
22:23
Speaker 2: to walk away from the game.
22:25
Speaker 1: Now. Did you have any outside passions that you were
22:28
Speaker 1: looking to pursue after football, Like, were there any interest
22:32
Speaker 1: at that time? Yeah?
22:34
Speaker 2: I jumped into the teacher stuff a little bit. I
22:37
Speaker 2: was gonna do some coaching and teaching. I started subbing
22:39
Speaker 2: while I was always down there. I was off for
22:40
Speaker 2: six months. I did some athletic training for sure at
22:44
Speaker 2: a time, and then eventually I ended up getting into
22:47
Speaker 2: the refinery business here and I've been in that now
22:50
Speaker 2: going on be nine years coming this December.
22:53
Speaker 1: Wow. So so talk to me a little bit about that.
22:55
Speaker 1: How did you get involved with that and how has
22:58
Speaker 1: has your has your career here it's a total star
23:01
Speaker 1: contrast to previous career. So how have you grown in
23:05
Speaker 1: that area?
23:06
Speaker 3: It's been a journey for sure.
23:08
Speaker 2: It was eye opening there everywhere, especially down here in Texas.
23:13
Speaker 2: I started off just a simple entry level job. Eventually
23:18
Speaker 2: ended up getting promoted through that pretty fast. I was like, uh,
23:21
Speaker 2: and that was one of the decisions where while I
23:22
Speaker 2: was getting promoted, I actually had to either make a
23:25
Speaker 2: decision to stay here or take my butt back to Ottawa.
23:28
Speaker 2: And ultimately, I you know, I got used to being here,
23:31
Speaker 2: being at the kids functions, you know, having my family
23:34
Speaker 2: with me all the time, being able to come home
23:36
Speaker 2: and cook a meal with the family and enjoy that time.
23:38
Speaker 2: And I think those things as you get older, those
23:40
Speaker 2: things mean so much more to you, and that's one
23:43
Speaker 2: of the things that kept me here. And then ultuately
23:45
Speaker 2: I kept getting promoted, and uh, that worked out for
23:48
Speaker 2: me pretty good. I've went through a just entry level
23:53
Speaker 2: job into being a day forming a training supervisor, got
23:57
Speaker 2: into the safety and training, an operations supervisor. I've traveled around,
24:03
Speaker 2: did a little recovery in Texas, and then of course
24:05
Speaker 2: now recently I just got promoted to an operations manager.
24:08
Speaker 2: So I've been in that for I've been with this
24:10
Speaker 2: company now going on it will be nine years in
24:12
Speaker 2: this December, and they've.
24:14
Speaker 3: Been good to me.
24:15
Speaker 2: So I've been pretty blessed to have a career after
24:17
Speaker 2: that that I can be proud of. And I love
24:20
Speaker 2: what I do, very different from what I've done my
24:23
Speaker 2: whole entire life. But when I say I do love
24:26
Speaker 2: what I do, I love being strategic with my brain.
24:28
Speaker 2: I like thinking on the run, thinking on the fly,
24:31
Speaker 2: so that that's one of the things that helps me
24:32
Speaker 2: out a lot when it comes to this. And of
24:34
Speaker 2: course my passion and drives always want to better myself
24:37
Speaker 2: has been a big thing that's helped me out.
24:39
Speaker 1: Well, congratulations on the nine years, and I think that
24:42
Speaker 1: kind of speaks to everything that you've done in your career.
24:45
Speaker 1: You've been able to do it to the fullest. But
24:49
Speaker 1: I have to ask how often do Eagles fans reach
24:53
Speaker 1: out to you, whether it be on social media or
24:56
Speaker 1: what have you, Because you're still a player that they
24:59
Speaker 1: talk quite a bit of out in the city. Every
25:01
Speaker 1: time training camp rolls around. They're always wondering who's going
25:04
Speaker 1: to be the next Henry Josie.
25:06
Speaker 3: Yeah, actually it's quite a bit.
25:08
Speaker 2: Like I told you, I have three cars in here
25:10
Speaker 2: I'm about to sign. I don't know particularly who they're from,
25:12
Speaker 2: but I do get a bunch of cars, like some
25:14
Speaker 2: Philly cars that I will sign as well that I'll
25:18
Speaker 2: sign off and send back to a group of fans.
25:20
Speaker 2: So it's not very much thing whereas it's an odd thing,
25:23
Speaker 2: it's it's very often. I'm pretty bad at signing these.
25:27
Speaker 2: To try to get on that. This week I got
25:29
Speaker 2: some I got to send out. They usually send them
25:31
Speaker 2: to my grandma and she'll she'll be the one to
25:33
Speaker 2: ay come over and sign these and so I can
25:35
Speaker 2: send them back for you. But yet I definitely get
25:38
Speaker 2: still a lot of love from Philadelphia.
25:40
Speaker 3: I get up.
25:40
Speaker 2: Like I said, I get a lot of letters from
25:41
Speaker 2: individuals mainly around of course people that have been injured.
25:45
Speaker 2: But I do get a lot of just fan mail
25:47
Speaker 2: from individuals like that, and of course I need to
25:50
Speaker 2: send them back and hopefully write write a note this time.
25:54
Speaker 1: So we're gonna wrap things up. But I want to
25:56
Speaker 1: get to two items that are a little bit on
25:59
Speaker 1: the lighter side that we're in the twenty fourteen Eagles
26:02
Speaker 1: Media Guide, and I want to bring that up to speed.
26:05
Speaker 1: Because on your bucket list you had skydiving and traveling
26:09
Speaker 1: to Bora Bora listening man. Have you done either of
26:13
Speaker 1: those things?
26:15
Speaker 3: I have not done neither one of those things.
26:17
Speaker 2: I almost did one of them last year, sky diving
26:19
Speaker 2: the Boro Boar trip is definitely coming up.
26:21
Speaker 3: For sure.
26:23
Speaker 2: I'm actually planning a trip right now for my birthday month.
26:26
Speaker 3: I'm trying to do.
26:27
Speaker 2: A whole month where I'm not home and out of
26:30
Speaker 2: the country.
26:30
Speaker 3: We'll see if I can get it worked out.
26:31
Speaker 2: But Bori Boar is definitely on the top three for
26:34
Speaker 2: the next thing to go.
26:35
Speaker 3: I've been to been to Europe quite a bit.
26:38
Speaker 2: I went to Greece, I went to Athens, so I've
26:40
Speaker 2: seen a lot of different things. I love going to
26:42
Speaker 2: Mexico all the time. It's such an easy thing for
26:44
Speaker 2: us right here. But definitely the next trips are definitely well,
26:48
Speaker 2: the next trip probably is going to be that one
26:50
Speaker 2: for sure, all right.
26:51
Speaker 1: So you'll have to be able to check that one off.
26:53
Speaker 1: And then there was another item that you had there
26:56
Speaker 1: where you listed an actor who would play you in
26:59
Speaker 1: a movie and you listed Kevin Hart, who's a.
27:05
Speaker 4: Uh there.
27:08
Speaker 1: Did you get a chance to meet Kevin Hart?
27:10
Speaker 3: Because I've been around Kevin Hart, I have not.
27:15
Speaker 2: I'm weird when it comes to being around UH celebrities
27:18
Speaker 2: like that. I won't I won't go up and say
27:20
Speaker 2: nothing to him, like I'll see him and I'm kind
27:22
Speaker 2: of just in passionate, you know, speak But I'm not
27:25
Speaker 2: a person that's gonna go because I understand that the
27:27
Speaker 2: magnitude of how frustrating it can be at times when
27:30
Speaker 2: you just want to just walk and go be a
27:32
Speaker 2: regular person that day. So I get it from that
27:34
Speaker 2: that standpoint, and like, if I see him, I see him,
27:37
Speaker 2: and I probably will this next time for sure if
27:39
Speaker 2: I see him again.
27:41
Speaker 3: It's funny you say that, Like.
27:42
Speaker 2: I've been I've been to restaurants and uh, I had one,
27:46
Speaker 2: went to one recently in my hometown.
27:47
Speaker 3: This guy rand me. He's like he's smiling at me
27:49
Speaker 3: and said, hey, what's up? Man?
27:50
Speaker 2: That's going on? He say, hey, man, It's like why
27:52
Speaker 2: are you smiling? Even you I don't know you at all, Like, yeah, man,
27:56
Speaker 2: you look like Kevin Hart said, come on, what is
27:59
Speaker 2: going on here?
28:00
Speaker 3: So I try to keep.
28:02
Speaker 2: My beard trimmed up and try to always try to
28:04
Speaker 2: keep some kind of different haircut just so people don't
28:07
Speaker 2: throw that on me.
28:07
Speaker 3: But that does happen quite a bit.
28:10
Speaker 2: I even hurt, like my voice, Like if I get
28:12
Speaker 2: too excited, I'm I'm Kevin Hart voice, and so.
28:15
Speaker 3: I'm working on my deep voice.
28:18
Speaker 1: Oh man, that is too funny. Well, Henry, I really
28:22
Speaker 1: appreciate you carving out a few minutes to talk about
28:24
Speaker 1: your story, especially with the Eagles, but also revisiting the injury.
28:29
Speaker 1: I think that that's something that a lot of folks
28:30
Speaker 1: could take something from how you embraced it and approached
28:33
Speaker 1: it and were able to kind of persevere through it.
28:37
Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you, man.
28:38
Speaker 2: I appreciate you hopping on and allowed me to be
28:40
Speaker 2: on with you.
28:41
Speaker 1: Absolutely.
28:42
Speaker 3: Well.
28:43
Speaker 1: Hope everyone out there enjoyed this episode of The Checko
28:45
Speaker 1: Daily For Henry Josie, I'm Andrew Decheco and I'll catch
28:49
Speaker 1: you all on the next one.
28:51
Speaker 4: Be sure to check out our friends at phlsports Nation
28:54
Speaker 4: dot com. They're enhancing the fans experience with their coverage
28:57
Speaker 4: of all Philadelphia sports teams. For the fan, by the
29:01
Speaker 4: fan is their motto, so make sure you check them
29:03
Speaker 4: out at Phlsportsnation dot com and on Twitter at pH
29:08
Speaker 4: L sports Nation