Latest / WCHS Network Podcasts / A Conversation with Anthony Bass, Former Minnesota Viking, Pastor, and Community Activist

Transcript

A Conversation with Anthony Bass, Former Minnesota Viking, Pastor, and Community Activist · WCHS Network Podcasts

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you gotta work. You gotta work. Ry sign it's
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: mine gotta show. Everybody is mine. Sign you gotta work.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Cry sign Another mind whom sad to die to day line,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: don't tell.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: You gotta work.
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: Welcome to Let's Talk with Carl Lee. Let's Talk is
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: probably presented by Attorney Frank Walker, Real Talk, Real Experience,
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: Real results, Frank Walker Law dot Com. Let that conversation
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: begin on Let's Talk.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Hello, ladies and gentlemen.
• 0:38
  Speaker 4: This is Carl Lee and I've got the crew in
• 0:40
  Speaker 4: the house, Hollis Lewis and the Queen Lisa Hood.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: He is all show here.
• 0:47
  Speaker 4: We have a guest today that I'm like, I will
• 0:50
  Speaker 4: say that I feel like I am a great friend
• 0:53
  Speaker 4: with even though we haven't seen each other in a while,
• 0:57
  Speaker 4: and I'm gonna enjoy him. I think just hearing some
• 0:59
  Speaker 4: different things about him that I might not know and
• 1:02
  Speaker 4: that's like what he's doing currently now. And uh, we'll
• 1:06
  Speaker 4: go from there. So Anthony Bass, how are you, sir?
• 1:09
  Speaker 5: See league to see you. Hello, everybody, goodness.
• 1:14
  Speaker 4: And we have Hollis Lewis and Lis Sodi being here
• 1:17
  Speaker 4: and as my co host, Anthony. One of the things,
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: one of the first questions that I want to jump
• 1:24
  Speaker 4: right into is like I know that when you you
• 1:27
  Speaker 4: you went to the Vikings and you were there, what
• 1:29
  Speaker 4: you were there for a year?
• 1:30
  Speaker 5: Right, there are two seasons.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: Who were the who were the coaches that you that
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: you played under?
• 1:40
  Speaker 5: Uh So Denny Green? Okay, Mike Tye.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: Yep, yep, yep. Now Tys was a position he was
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: a position coach at.
• 1:53
  Speaker 5: That time, right, yeah, he was also the line of
• 1:54
  Speaker 5: coach at the time I was there.
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: Okay, let me ask this question. How how did you
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: feel about Denny Green?
• 2:03
  Speaker 5: Man?
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: Uh So?
• 2:04
  Speaker 5: It was personal? Right? I know, yes, there people have
• 2:07
  Speaker 5: different perspectives, but I'm.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: Probably gonna have one the way you're setting up.
• 2:12
  Speaker 5: So I was more on the positive side. I'll say that,
• 2:15
  Speaker 5: like like, for I know, I know something you had
• 2:17
  Speaker 5: a yours was negative. And I know you know I
• 2:20
  Speaker 5: had the same dB coach you did. I didn't have
• 2:23
  Speaker 5: a good experience with him. But when I was younger,
• 2:27
  Speaker 5: maybe maybe some things Denny did I didn't know because
• 2:30
  Speaker 5: he worked through the dB coach. I'm not trying to
• 2:32
  Speaker 5: throw names out there. I let you do that if
• 2:33
  Speaker 5: you want to do that. But but Denny Green himself
• 2:36
  Speaker 5: man was a leader. I saw him as an intellectual.
• 2:41
  Speaker 5: I think he taught me particularly how to you know,
• 2:46
  Speaker 5: they we say, now be yourself. Like during that day
• 2:48
  Speaker 5: and age, you know, African American men really had to
• 2:51
  Speaker 5: kind of cater I think, toward the environment, politically, socially,
• 2:57
  Speaker 5: and I didn't see that coming from him. You know.
• 2:59
  Speaker 5: I think he was brash and had a lot of bravado,
• 3:03
  Speaker 5: which I believe Alton ultimately did not do well for him,
• 3:07
  Speaker 5: like in the community in Minnesota. But for me, it
• 3:11
  Speaker 5: was like the first time I saw an African American
• 3:14
  Speaker 5: man who was just willing to accept who he was,
• 3:17
  Speaker 5: except he was brilliant and didn't care if he rub
• 3:21
  Speaker 5: people the wrong way. So it was a new paradigm
• 3:24
  Speaker 5: for me. I wasn't used to that specifically in the
• 3:28
  Speaker 5: context of you know, this greater society. And so in
• 3:31
  Speaker 5: that regard, I thought he was a good coach. Now,
• 3:33
  Speaker 5: the one thing about coaching I thought he was good.
• 3:35
  Speaker 5: I thought he Now you may not like this easy,
• 3:37
  Speaker 5: but he was a good talent evaluator. And so that
• 3:40
  Speaker 5: was the one thing I thought he was good at,
• 3:43
  Speaker 5: particularly when it came to drafting. So the fact that
• 3:45
  Speaker 5: he picked up Moss. And you know, whether you say
• 3:47
  Speaker 5: credit a hand with Robert Smith and you know Palmer
• 3:51
  Speaker 5: and those guys. He he did a lot of kind
• 3:53
  Speaker 5: of mining and historically black colleges which he struck gold
• 3:56
  Speaker 5: a couple of times. So that's my perspective. I let you,
• 3:59
  Speaker 5: I let you rebut that season.
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: Well, I'm not I'm not gonna really rebutt it. That
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: that's just how you feel. What I will say, though,
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: is I did I did think that the Moss thing
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: was really really a big deal, because I don't I
• 4:14
  Speaker 4: think they would have and when I say they, the
• 4:17
  Speaker 4: league would have let him drop as far as he
• 4:22
  Speaker 4: could possibly drop. But I and I do think that
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: that Denny took a he took a shot and a
• 4:29
  Speaker 4: and a chance at getting him even though everybody knew
• 4:34
  Speaker 4: that he was gonna be he was gonna be great.
• 4:37
  Speaker 4: There was no there was no question about how he
• 4:40
  Speaker 4: was gonna play. And I give him credit for that,
• 4:46
  Speaker 4: but I don't know how much more. I don't know
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: how much more I'm really given. So I'm gonna turn
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: it over to one or the other two. Hey, Anthony,
• 4:56
  Speaker 4: how you doing, man? So you know what I've noticed,
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: like far as in your career. Now, you went to
• 5:03
  Speaker 4: Bathune Cookman coming out of South Charleston, correct, Yeah, I did.
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: Okay, I went to Southern And so did you when
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: you went?
• 5:13
  Speaker 4: Did you did you go down there with varying and
• 5:17
  Speaker 4: and busted? Did y'all did y'all go together?
• 5:19
  Speaker 5: Yeah, that's a great question. So so I'll take a
• 5:22
  Speaker 5: step back to kind of go forward. So when when
• 5:26
  Speaker 5: my senior year high school, there wasn't a lot of
• 5:29
  Speaker 5: recruiting in the state. Yeah, And so I was primarily
• 5:33
  Speaker 5: a basketball guy honestly until my senior year, and football
• 5:37
  Speaker 5: kind of excelled because on our team we had Mark
• 5:40
  Speaker 5: Terry and and he kind of excelled as well. So
• 5:43
  Speaker 5: Mark was getting looked at by Clemson and I believe
• 5:45
  Speaker 5: the New Cookman as well, which he end up going
• 5:47
  Speaker 5: to Bethune. And so that was a year before me.
• 5:50
  Speaker 5: And so Mark went down there and had a bad
• 5:51
  Speaker 5: experience that came back. But but for me, I grew
• 5:54
  Speaker 5: up in a time when you know, Bill cost the
• 5:57
  Speaker 5: different world. Yeah, oh my gosh, maybe I might find
• 6:02
  Speaker 5: you know Lesable they or Jada Pinkett, Right, I mean,
• 6:05
  Speaker 5: just to be honest, to be truly honest. But but
• 6:09
  Speaker 5: but on the other hand, you know, I was getting
• 6:11
  Speaker 5: letters from a lot of D one schools. But but
• 6:13
  Speaker 5: as far as like me and my family, we didn't
• 6:15
  Speaker 5: even know what that process looked like. So I had
• 6:18
  Speaker 5: like a trash can, trash can literally full of letters
• 6:21
  Speaker 5: that I didn't even respond to any of them. And
• 6:24
  Speaker 5: so and so when it came time to like, you know, signs, well,
• 6:28
  Speaker 5: while my thought was okay, I went to a recruiting
• 6:31
  Speaker 5: trip to Virginia Chech, I went to Pathune Cookman. Now,
• 6:33
  Speaker 5: I just I just enjoyed being at the HBC on
• 6:36
  Speaker 5: the beach, and so that wasn't me over and so
• 6:40
  Speaker 5: at that point I went down my first year and
• 6:44
  Speaker 5: played well. Then the next year I think at that time,
• 6:47
  Speaker 5: I think Varian Cunningham and also Buster Bishop. Yeah, yeah,
• 6:51
  Speaker 5: they they actually got they recruited to Pathune as well.
• 6:54
  Speaker 5: Buster would have been playing. He hurt his knee. He
• 6:58
  Speaker 5: hears me the scrimmage and there and left. You know,
• 7:01
  Speaker 5: he just didn't he didn't like the environment. Very similar
• 7:03
  Speaker 5: to Mark. I think it was just a big cultural
• 7:05
  Speaker 5: shift and so and so those guys just went back.
• 7:09
  Speaker 5: But I just hung in there and wanted to see
• 7:11
  Speaker 5: what then looked like to be honest, Yeah.
• 7:13
  Speaker 4: Because and the reason I asked that, you know again
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: we uh, you know coach he coached veryan and Busted
• 7:18
  Speaker 4: and I played with Rion Busting my freshman year at State.
• 7:22
  Speaker 4: But also it's just a kind of like how everything
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: came full circle. You know, you played with you know,
• 7:26
  Speaker 4: West Virginia guys in college at least briefly, and then
• 7:29
  Speaker 4: you end up playing with Moss during that one season
• 7:32
  Speaker 4: at the Viking. So that's just interesting how all that
• 7:35
  Speaker 4: sort of all those guys from Kanall County came full circle.
• 7:38
  Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, no, I'll say again, got with Moss two seasons,
• 7:43
  Speaker 5: and Eric was there as well. You remember anybody remember that.
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: Eric Massaw his brother, right, that's right, that's right, wow, right, So.
• 7:50
  Speaker 5: Eric was there. So so the year I came out
• 7:54
  Speaker 5: from DuPont, they had mass Jason Williams, and then they had.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: All the Bobby had a Bobby.
• 8:04
  Speaker 5: So yeah, so he was going to baseball correct, r Okay,
• 8:08
  Speaker 5: So there was this I mean, like my my year
• 8:11
  Speaker 5: and moving forward, I think there was a lot more
• 8:14
  Speaker 5: eyes on the county than there were before that, right,
• 8:19
  Speaker 5: And so until Mars and I were there first of
• 8:21
  Speaker 5: the first year. My first year was Randy's rookie year,
• 8:24
  Speaker 5: and then our second year that's you actually started playing
• 8:26
  Speaker 5: until ot I know, you know, sim Ceeley or Orlando
• 8:30
  Speaker 5: Thomas he got hurt and so that's when I was
• 8:33
  Speaker 5: actually playing. I was actually starting for I think the
• 8:36
  Speaker 5: last six games in my last year and then into
• 8:38
  Speaker 5: the playoffs. Wow.
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: What Okay? You know there's a whole lot of conversation
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: about about Randy.
• 8:46
  Speaker 4: You know how good he was, and you actually got
• 8:49
  Speaker 4: a chance to actually be on the field with him
• 8:54
  Speaker 4: and as a defensive back.
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: Ok tell me what? Tell me?
• 8:59
  Speaker 4: Because you know I can think in my head like
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: you know, and you know, we have an ego. If
• 9:04
  Speaker 4: you play dB, you got you got an ego. You're
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: kind of thinking like, you know, I would love to
• 9:09
  Speaker 4: have had a shot at him just to see, you know,
• 9:11
  Speaker 4: what he could do. You actually had a shot at
• 9:14
  Speaker 4: him and you watched him beat the other guys?
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: What did what did he What was it that made him.
• 9:24
  Speaker 4: Actually so special other than just his speed? Like what
• 9:27
  Speaker 4: what challenges did you face? What did you think about
• 9:32
  Speaker 4: when you're lined up across from him?
• 9:34
  Speaker 5: Okay, So so my senior year, we're playing DuPont and
• 9:40
  Speaker 5: I didn't know. Randy wasn't really you know, a big
• 9:44
  Speaker 5: name at that point, at least for me anyway, it
• 9:46
  Speaker 5: was it was a brother, and so we went to
• 9:48
  Speaker 5: play at DuPont and we're like, Okay, Ris gone, this
• 9:51
  Speaker 5: is going to be a good game, right, Like I
• 9:54
  Speaker 5: think we have a chance. Then during that game, that game,
• 9:59
  Speaker 5: I play well, Like honestly, that game, I had like
• 10:01
  Speaker 5: two touchdowns and two interceptions, but he actually like matched it.
• 10:05
  Speaker 5: But my touchdowns are like from thirty twenty yards, but
• 10:08
  Speaker 5: he had like a ninety seven yard like he So
• 10:12
  Speaker 5: this is this one play, This is what I knew
• 10:14
  Speaker 5: he was different, right, Like one play they threw what
• 10:18
  Speaker 5: was it a It was a skinny post and I
• 10:21
  Speaker 5: was like maybe a foot away from him, And the
• 10:24
  Speaker 5: next thing I know, I was like twenty yards away
• 10:26
  Speaker 5: from him, and I'm not even And then the next thing,
• 10:30
  Speaker 5: I know, forty yards away from him. It was like
• 10:33
  Speaker 5: and I was running, and I mean at that time
• 10:35
  Speaker 5: I hadn't yet like achieved my full speed, to be honest,
• 10:38
  Speaker 5: I was a high school but he was running literally
• 10:42
  Speaker 5: probably like a four three four four. I mean, And
• 10:45
  Speaker 5: this is the thing I think that made him unique.
• 10:47
  Speaker 5: He ran all the way down the field.
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 10:49
  Speaker 5: So you see a lot of guys, you know, they
• 10:52
  Speaker 5: run the forty and then you see him slow down.
• 10:54
  Speaker 5: But that man, man, he would cut and he would
• 10:58
  Speaker 5: still be running the same speed. I mean, and then
• 11:02
  Speaker 5: your brain you're thinking, oh, he's gonna slow down'nna catch up.
• 11:04
  Speaker 5: I'm gona hit him at angle and no, he keeps
• 11:07
  Speaker 5: running through the cut. And at that point you're like,
• 11:10
  Speaker 5: there's this distance between you and him. I mean, you
• 11:12
  Speaker 5: seen like Catain NFL talk about, you know, when Randy
• 11:15
  Speaker 5: puts his hands up, he's like, what did he doing? Like,
• 11:17
  Speaker 5: and because he's still going to run that same speed
• 11:20
  Speaker 5: by you. And so that's one thing, like just a
• 11:23
  Speaker 5: sheer speed. But the other one was like he has
• 11:25
  Speaker 5: a high he has high IQ regarding body control, and
• 11:31
  Speaker 5: so I would see him do stuff with his body,
• 11:33
  Speaker 5: which I thought c C. Todd Chris Carter when he
• 11:36
  Speaker 5: got the NFL. But I remember thinking back when he
• 11:38
  Speaker 5: was in at DuPont, like he would know how to
• 11:41
  Speaker 5: contort his body in such a way that he would
• 11:45
  Speaker 5: position himself to catch the ball. And a lot of
• 11:46
  Speaker 5: athletes sometimes struggle with you know, where they put their
• 11:50
  Speaker 5: hands or you know, but he would just do that naturally, right,
• 11:54
  Speaker 5: And maybe Whitman, who was the hospital coach at DuPont
• 11:57
  Speaker 5: that time, maybe he would teach him that. But man,
• 12:00
  Speaker 5: he was doing stuff with his body while he was
• 12:02
  Speaker 5: getting to set down. He was doing stuff at an
• 12:05
  Speaker 5: advanced level, even in high school. So I remember going
• 12:08
  Speaker 5: to the Thud and telling everybody about Moss and about
• 12:13
  Speaker 5: Jayson William. Oh, like, man, these guys are mom and
• 12:15
  Speaker 5: no one would listen to because you know, you've got
• 12:16
  Speaker 5: to Florida. If people don't really care, I don't do
• 12:18
  Speaker 5: any other athletes in the world, and so and so.
• 12:23
  Speaker 5: Then but then two or three years later, I said, man,
• 12:26
  Speaker 5: that you were right.
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: You were right.
• 12:28
  Speaker 5: I was like, man, And so funny thing is, I thought,
• 12:30
  Speaker 5: I'm away from aus, I'm down in you know, Florida,
• 12:32
  Speaker 5: and this guy ended up going to Florida State and
• 12:34
  Speaker 5: I'm like, oh, shoot. And then that guy ends up
• 12:36
  Speaker 5: the Viking the same year with me. I'm like, oh, man, shoot.
• 12:38
  Speaker 5: So man, he was kind of like a fixture in
• 12:40
  Speaker 5: my life from the time I was in high school
• 12:42
  Speaker 5: to the time I left the NFL.
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: So so I love that story, Anthony. That was great.
• 12:48
  Speaker 6: You're right, Randy, He's just a different, different type of athlete.
• 12:52
  Speaker 6: It's unbelievable what he can do with his body and
• 12:55
  Speaker 6: his speed and everything. But I want to I want
• 12:57
  Speaker 6: to go back to your days at Beth Cookman University,
• 13:02
  Speaker 6: and if I'm wrong, please correct me. But when you
• 13:05
  Speaker 6: came out of school there, you were an undrafted player.
• 13:08
  Speaker 5: Correct exactly right?
• 13:10
  Speaker 6: Okay, So what were the biggest hurdles you had to
• 13:13
  Speaker 6: overcome to earn a spot on that Vikings roster?
• 13:16
  Speaker 5: Great question. So so what happened to me was I
• 13:20
  Speaker 5: came I was a big corner. I played corner and
• 13:22
  Speaker 5: receiver at college, and so going into my yeah, going
• 13:26
  Speaker 5: into my last year, it was me and Charles Woodson,
• 13:29
  Speaker 5: I mean to be frank, we were actually on the
• 13:31
  Speaker 5: draft board. I was mel Kiper's sleeper. But my last
• 13:34
  Speaker 5: year I was having a nazy year and I picked
• 13:38
  Speaker 5: off like the first five quarterbacks that played against And
• 13:41
  Speaker 5: so Pittsburgh Steelers were like, okay, we want to keep
• 13:45
  Speaker 5: in touch with you because like we have our own you.
• 13:48
  Speaker 5: And then come getting closer to the draft time and
• 13:51
  Speaker 5: I was supposedly going to the fourth round to the Steelers.
• 13:54
  Speaker 5: But what happened is I tore my groins. Yeah, and
• 13:59
  Speaker 5: then you know, I mean I'm at I'm at the
• 14:01
  Speaker 5: through Cookman. I'm just being honest, like the training facilities
• 14:08
  Speaker 5: were probably as good as they were. And see these days, right, and.
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: It's a lot of and it's a lot of system that.
• 14:22
  Speaker 5: I mean nothing, but I mean nothing. No no electric treatment,
• 14:25
  Speaker 5: you know, nothing. Ice that was it. That's it. I'm
• 14:32
  Speaker 5: putting ice on it. And so I'm having to go.
• 14:34
  Speaker 5: I'm have to play on one leg like you can
• 14:36
  Speaker 5: see the film the rest of you. I'm playing on
• 14:38
  Speaker 5: one leg because I'm like, this is my this is it,
• 14:40
  Speaker 5: this is about it's my only chance of footb. I
• 14:43
  Speaker 5: wouldn't think my NFLF. I'm singing like I'm trying to
• 14:45
  Speaker 5: just play and so and so my draft st status
• 14:50
  Speaker 5: completely tanged at that point. And draft they didn't get called. No,
• 14:55
  Speaker 5: Kiper did call me out like a potential, but I
• 14:57
  Speaker 5: didn't get picked up. And then after the draft, my
• 15:01
  Speaker 5: agent was talking to the Vikings, the Dolphins in Seattle,
• 15:04
  Speaker 5: and there was a scout who was from Batune Cookman
• 15:07
  Speaker 5: who was actually on the Vikings. So I said, let
• 15:09
  Speaker 5: me just go there because there's probably some leverage I
• 15:12
  Speaker 5: didn't know, but it just worked out. You know, I
• 15:14
  Speaker 5: actually got cuts. So so let me let me take
• 15:18
  Speaker 5: that step back. So when I got on the Vikings team,
• 15:22
  Speaker 5: I was a leg man, and I don't know see
• 15:24
  Speaker 5: we probably even know what that is because he came
• 15:25
  Speaker 5: in Superstar, right, that is.
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: My story.
• 15:34
  Speaker 5: So when you're a leg man, that you're really there
• 15:36
  Speaker 5: to preserve the legs of the starters. And so I
• 15:40
  Speaker 5: was there. Yeah, I was there to do the reps
• 15:43
  Speaker 5: when the starters were like tired, right and during camp.
• 15:47
  Speaker 5: And but fortunately I was athletic and I was tall,
• 15:50
  Speaker 5: and I was I was pretty fast and mobile for
• 15:52
  Speaker 5: my size. They knew me at safety, but I was
• 15:54
  Speaker 5: still like running on one leg, right, and so and
• 15:58
  Speaker 5: so it was tough because they were looking for or
• 16:00
  Speaker 5: dB that year, and because I made it to the
• 16:03
  Speaker 5: very end of that training camp and then coach Green
• 16:07
  Speaker 5: came to me said we're going to cut you and
• 16:08
  Speaker 5: then bring you back on the practice squad. But as
• 16:11
  Speaker 5: soon as I cut, the Packers hit me up, and
• 16:15
  Speaker 5: so I went over Green Bay and I was there
• 16:17
  Speaker 5: for like two days and then their starting middle linebacker
• 16:20
  Speaker 5: tour his a cl and they said we're gonna let
• 16:24
  Speaker 5: you go and bring you back. And so they let
• 16:27
  Speaker 5: me go. The Vikings picked me up, and so I finished,
• 16:30
  Speaker 5: you know, the next two years at the Vikings.
• 16:33
  Speaker 4: Now, during that time period, like I said, they had Jude,
• 16:36
  Speaker 4: they had Eric Mass, Randy Moss. I think, excuse me,
• 16:39
  Speaker 4: Doug Chapman came a little bit later. What was it
• 16:41
  Speaker 4: about the Vikings in West Virginia, guys, West Virginia, you
• 16:45
  Speaker 4: know collegian athletes. Was there any sort of connection there coaching?
• 16:50
  Speaker 5: I don't, I don't. I always tried to figure out myself.
• 16:52
  Speaker 5: I think I think what had happened in my opinion
• 16:55
  Speaker 5: that the valley. When I say that, I mean Canal Valley.
• 16:58
  Speaker 5: I hope it's still called Cano. Okay, So I think
• 17:03
  Speaker 5: people have been overlooking it for a long time. I mean, like, honestly,
• 17:07
  Speaker 5: I can go back in the past, and there were
• 17:09
  Speaker 5: guys before me who should have been on somebody to
• 17:12
  Speaker 5: d one a team, should have been in an NFL.
• 17:15
  Speaker 5: But I think, like, so, who is that There was
• 17:18
  Speaker 5: a guy named Christian Hill from South Charleston, Eric Moss,
• 17:22
  Speaker 5: which I think started bringing a lot of attention, and
• 17:25
  Speaker 5: then I think, Mark Terry, this is just the valley
• 17:28
  Speaker 5: I'm talking about the valley and then and then I came,
• 17:32
  Speaker 5: and so then I think once I came, it was
• 17:34
  Speaker 5: like after me, and then Moss came, And after Moss came,
• 17:37
  Speaker 5: it was like I think people started looking at the valley.
• 17:40
  Speaker 5: So Marshall is where you know, Chapman came from, so
• 17:44
  Speaker 5: I'm sure they had their eyes on him looking at malls.
• 17:47
  Speaker 5: And then I think they even saw me in the
• 17:50
  Speaker 5: area because of Eric, right, like Eric was bringing scouts there,
• 17:54
  Speaker 5: and I just I just think at that time, I
• 17:56
  Speaker 5: think the focus came to the state and I think
• 17:59
  Speaker 5: people said more town there in the movie thought, and
• 18:02
  Speaker 5: they started taking advantage of it. Yes, that's my I mean,
• 18:05
  Speaker 5: I have no other unless someone in the water leadbau.
• 18:09
  Speaker 4: And you know what's what's interesting about that, Like, well,
• 18:13
  Speaker 4: first Mark Mark Terry's my cousin and and so and
• 18:19
  Speaker 4: you know when I when when I look at my
• 18:23
  Speaker 4: when when I went, it was me and Kurt Warner
• 18:26
  Speaker 4: and uh maybe a couple of other folks. Walter Walter
• 18:30
  Speaker 4: had already gone before him and Robert were together, because
• 18:33
  Speaker 4: and Robert and and Walter Easley had were already there.
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: The interesting component to.
• 18:40
  Speaker 4: That, I don't think that we had to have ten
• 18:44
  Speaker 4: guys to go to the league to be in the league.
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: I think the fact that we had guys in the
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: league should have gotten the attention.
• 18:53
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I agree, you know, because I think when when.
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: When you which Again, my whole argument with the state
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: even today.
• 19:00
  Speaker 4: Remains, we don't recognize our former athletes so that the
• 19:06
  Speaker 4: youth can understand that the NFL is not impossible, the
• 19:10
  Speaker 4: NBA is not impossible.
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: You know, those kinds of things.
• 19:13
  Speaker 4: I just think we just don't do it well. We
• 19:16
  Speaker 4: just don't cover our and once you've done it and
• 19:19
  Speaker 4: you go home, it's over, like nobody's really gonna nobody's
• 19:24
  Speaker 4: really talking about it.
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: And I think that's wrong.
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 19:27
  Speaker 4: I think there ought to be you know something I
• 19:31
  Speaker 4: don't know, something, you know, like the awards dinner last night.
• 19:35
  Speaker 4: You know, we had the awards dinner and you know,
• 19:38
  Speaker 4: they're acknowledging athletes and they bring back guys to hand out.
• 19:42
  Speaker 4: You know, they got named they've named these awards after
• 19:46
  Speaker 4: after players and former players, and I think that's a
• 19:49
  Speaker 4: good thing.
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: But I just think we don't we don't do enough.
• 19:54
  Speaker 4: To motivate our young athletes to see that they can
• 19:58
  Speaker 4: be that good and they can play at the next level.
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: I just think that's that. I think that's the challenge
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: we faced.
• 20:06
  Speaker 5: I think you're right. See I think there's an insecurity
• 20:08
  Speaker 5: in West Virginia to curvade the state because I don't
• 20:14
  Speaker 5: think we we've accepted our identity. I mean, for instance,
• 20:18
  Speaker 5: you say Virginia, Now you think there's athletes down there
• 20:22
  Speaker 5: right like you think that you think Georgia. You mean
• 20:26
  Speaker 5: the mythsis that's what it is. But in reality, like
• 20:29
  Speaker 5: I mean, we've had plenty of a remarkable athletes in
• 20:33
  Speaker 5: West Virginia did not make it the d n A
• 20:36
  Speaker 5: to the NFL, the NBA to Major League Baseball. And
• 20:40
  Speaker 5: it's I think it's more so based upon reputation. So
• 20:43
  Speaker 5: we are not a state really good at marketing or
• 20:45
  Speaker 5: promote or self promotion.
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: That's a good point point.
• 20:50
  Speaker 6: So so Anthony, I'm going to go, uh this, I'm
• 20:52
  Speaker 6: going to stay down this path of identity. You just
• 20:55
  Speaker 6: mentioned about West Virginia having an issue with it. We
• 20:58
  Speaker 6: know that that many players in the NFL, you know
• 21:00
  Speaker 6: that they struggle with their identity after they leave. What
• 21:05
  Speaker 6: was your transition, Like it sounds like you know You're
• 21:07
  Speaker 6: active in various community and advocacy groups, You're an author,
• 21:11
  Speaker 6: You're all these things. Was it a natural progression for
• 21:14
  Speaker 6: you or was it a difficult shift.
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: To do that?
• 21:17
  Speaker 5: That's a great question. I think I think I learned
• 21:20
  Speaker 5: how to work hard from living in West Virginia. I mean,
• 21:23
  Speaker 5: I think that was my identity. And I think when
• 21:26
  Speaker 5: I got hurt my last year of college, I realized
• 21:30
  Speaker 5: that this could be taken away from at any time.
• 21:33
  Speaker 5: And I think that really changed my attitude about football
• 21:36
  Speaker 5: when I got hurt, because you know, I felt like
• 21:39
  Speaker 5: physically when I was healthy, I mean there were times
• 21:43
  Speaker 5: I was running four to four and got down the
• 21:45
  Speaker 5: four to three in college and I knew I was
• 21:48
  Speaker 5: going to be a big corner and to prove like
• 21:50
  Speaker 5: I was like, this is just going to happen now.
• 21:53
  Speaker 5: I think I think guys today are more athletic, in
• 21:55
  Speaker 5: my personal opinion, than we were then. But I just
• 21:58
  Speaker 5: think I had the tools to do it. But I
• 22:01
  Speaker 5: think once I realized like, okay, football's not I don't know.
• 22:04
  Speaker 5: There's a guy named John Bowles. He was an old
• 22:07
  Speaker 5: football coach of Saint Albans. I think once that I
• 22:09
  Speaker 5: got picked up by the Vikings. He was saying something like,
• 22:12
  Speaker 5: you know, I want to get up on your education,
• 22:14
  Speaker 5: you know, football on the last long he said, the NFL,
• 22:16
  Speaker 5: you know, not for long. And I was offended at first,
• 22:20
  Speaker 5: but then I realized, like, you know what, Like I
• 22:22
  Speaker 5: was hurt, like I know this could be taken away
• 22:24
  Speaker 5: eighty second, and I was like, what's the one thing
• 22:27
  Speaker 5: I learned? And so what I learned Still, I'm trying
• 22:30
  Speaker 5: to teach my son right now, who's seventeen, trying to
• 22:32
  Speaker 5: play college football is like, really, hard work is the pathway,
• 22:37
  Speaker 5: Like hard work is the pathway. And for some people
• 22:41
  Speaker 5: it might not be the case for them, but for
• 22:43
  Speaker 5: me it was. So I took you know, when I
• 22:45
  Speaker 5: was trying to make the league and I got picked
• 22:47
  Speaker 5: up by the Vikings. I used to run with see
• 22:49
  Speaker 5: Lee and I remember, no, even when I was in
• 22:52
  Speaker 5: high school, see Lee would have a group of people
• 22:55
  Speaker 5: come to the high schital and run the track in
• 22:57
  Speaker 5: the morning, and I was like, what in the heck
• 22:59
  Speaker 5: this is earlier And I was like, I was like, man,
• 23:02
  Speaker 5: those people, it was like a group of them. I
• 23:03
  Speaker 5: was like, he was like mc hammer was just a
• 23:05
  Speaker 5: whole He say that to him, so he won't the door.
• 23:13
  Speaker 5: We looked up to him, that he was the bad
• 23:17
  Speaker 5: but I saw him. I saw him working hard. My
• 23:19
  Speaker 5: dad he I saw him working hard. My grandfather's both
• 23:22
  Speaker 5: side coal miners, working hard. My one of my grandfather's
• 23:25
  Speaker 5: Negro he played the Negro League baseball like like working hard.
• 23:28
  Speaker 5: Was just like, okay, that's what I need to do.
• 23:30
  Speaker 5: And I took those same skill sets, those same habits,
• 23:35
  Speaker 5: and I've used them in other areas of my life.
• 23:38
  Speaker 5: And so as soon as the NFL was over, I said, okay,
• 23:41
  Speaker 5: now I got to dedicate myself to education. And so
• 23:44
  Speaker 5: I mean, to be honest, the NFL helped pay for it,
• 23:46
  Speaker 5: but I mean because of the NFL, in God's grace,
• 23:49
  Speaker 5: like I've gotten three masters and just finished my doctorate.
• 23:52
  Speaker 5: Like I just kept using the same thing that saw
• 23:55
  Speaker 5: the honestly c league and those guys do like, okay,
• 23:58
  Speaker 5: it's about working like it ain't just gon happened. And
• 24:01
  Speaker 5: so I think that made the transition easier for me
• 24:04
  Speaker 5: because I didn't just identify myself with as a football player,
• 24:08
  Speaker 5: but identify myself with the country boy who just worked hard.
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: That makes sense, Do you do you think, well, let
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: me rephrase it.
• 24:17
  Speaker 4: I think that we can produce like any like any
• 24:22
  Speaker 4: other state, we can we can produce great athletes only though,
• 24:28
  Speaker 4: if they understand the work that you actually have to
• 24:32
  Speaker 4: put in. You know, and again, I know how hard
• 24:35
  Speaker 4: I worked because I needed it. I wasn't just doing
• 24:38
  Speaker 4: it just for the sake of it. I knew that
• 24:41
  Speaker 4: I needed to do all of those things in order
• 24:44
  Speaker 4: to have a chance to play. And if I got
• 24:47
  Speaker 4: a chance to play, I didn't want to just play.
• 24:49
  Speaker 4: I wanted to be good as great as I could
• 24:52
  Speaker 4: possibly be, and that workout structure and mindset. I think,
• 25:00
  Speaker 4: I think if West Virginia athletes understood how hard you
• 25:04
  Speaker 4: do have to work outside of the sport that you play,
• 25:08
  Speaker 4: I think we could produce because I mean, I know
• 25:13
  Speaker 4: for a fact I wasn't the best player in the
• 25:15
  Speaker 4: state my senior year in high school.
• 25:18
  Speaker 5: Yep.
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: But I know and I know that I wasn't even
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: the best player at Marshall.
• 25:24
  Speaker 4: But it was still enough to get me to Minnesota
• 25:28
  Speaker 4: and to get me the accolades that that I received,
• 25:31
  Speaker 4: and that was.
• 25:32
  Speaker 5: All that was all work.
• 25:34
  Speaker 4: And I think, like I know, Hollis and Lisa, they're politicians,
• 25:38
  Speaker 4: there's things that you have to do that other folks
• 25:41
  Speaker 4: won't do that make that gives you the advantage.
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: And I think that's the same thing as you see
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: in sports.
• 25:47
  Speaker 4: But I think sometimes it's it's difficult to conceptualize that.
• 25:52
  Speaker 4: Like I think, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, Anthony,
• 25:56
  Speaker 4: I think it became easier to see that vision when
• 25:58
  Speaker 4: you are out there running it, you know, God knows
• 26:01
  Speaker 4: whatever time we'll call lee at the high school, because
• 26:04
  Speaker 4: now not only is it just like conceptual, but it's
• 26:07
  Speaker 4: like real life. You actually get to reach out and
• 26:09
  Speaker 4: touch it. And I think sometimes with our athletes here,
• 26:12
  Speaker 4: because we don't have that large base of professional athletes,
• 26:16
  Speaker 4: and the professional athletes we have, they don't necessarily and
• 26:19
  Speaker 4: again it's not their fault. You know, people got jobs
• 26:22
  Speaker 4: and obligations and family, but they don't necessarily come back
• 26:24
  Speaker 4: and do the things that you did for you know
• 26:27
  Speaker 4: what I'm saying, because it just made it easy. It's like, oh,
• 26:29
  Speaker 4: he's in the NFL, he's been there how long, and
• 26:31
  Speaker 4: he's doing this. Well, that's just what I got to do.
• 26:34
  Speaker 4: So it becomes easier to sort of sort of visualize.
• 26:38
  Speaker 7: Yeah, I think you hit so I agree with everything
• 26:42
  Speaker 7: you said. And the sad part is I really agree
• 26:44
  Speaker 7: with the conclusions because you know, our I think about
• 26:47
  Speaker 7: this all the time. I'm in Minnesota, right, I've been here.
• 26:51
  Speaker 7: I mean honestly about eighteen years.
• 26:53
  Speaker 5: I've been in I would live in Virginia as well,
• 26:55
  Speaker 5: so but been to Minnesota most but in currently in Minnesota.
• 26:59
  Speaker 5: As far as players, they're probably like one hundred and
• 27:03
  Speaker 5: thirty to fifty former Viking players still living in Minnesota.
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: I believe that.
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: Now.
• 27:10
  Speaker 5: Now that's not the weird part because you think, well,
• 27:13
  Speaker 5: of course the players want to live, you know, probably
• 27:15
  Speaker 5: where they play football. But see Lee will tell you
• 27:18
  Speaker 5: in Minnesota when it gets close to the December February January,
• 27:26
  Speaker 5: it is another planet, you hear me, Like it is
• 27:32
  Speaker 5: it is blue and and the thing. But I you
• 27:34
  Speaker 5: got to think, like, and it's not just football basketball
• 27:37
  Speaker 5: players still up here, like I mean baseball players, Like
• 27:40
  Speaker 5: there's people stay and what happened that you build this community?
• 27:44
  Speaker 5: You know, you build these relationships, you build these networks
• 27:47
  Speaker 5: and in this former and and they also support the
• 27:50
  Speaker 5: players like CV comes in town once a year for
• 27:54
  Speaker 5: the Viking stuff, like we see him. We can I
• 27:56
  Speaker 5: see him, we connect, like there's this like camaraderie that
• 27:59
  Speaker 5: exists that really brings vibrancy in life and resources to
• 28:04
  Speaker 5: the community. In West Virginia. It's like, I mean, almost
• 28:08
  Speaker 5: all of my high school class, almost all of them
• 28:11
  Speaker 5: had to leave the state. Now I'm just talking about
• 28:14
  Speaker 5: I'm just talking about the average person to get a job.
• 28:17
  Speaker 5: My cousins, most of them are live in other states.
• 28:19
  Speaker 5: I think that is something that hurts, you know, the
• 28:23
  Speaker 5: building of the culture and the states.
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I would really love and maybe this is something
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: we can workshop. Coach.
• 28:28
  Speaker 4: I would really love to see like, you know, athletes
• 28:31
  Speaker 4: from because I think nobody at least you know, within
• 28:34
  Speaker 4: probably the last twenty to thirty years has more professional
• 28:37
  Speaker 4: athletes at least at a high level in South Charleston
• 28:40
  Speaker 4: High School. And I would really love, you know, maybe
• 28:43
  Speaker 4: an opportunity to bring like you Anthony, Lexis Hornbuckle and
• 28:48
  Speaker 4: just you know, those guys back to maybe do like
• 28:50
  Speaker 4: some sort of symposium or something that we could actually
• 28:53
  Speaker 4: have sort of a networking and just like an event
• 28:56
  Speaker 4: where you guys can articulate those things for those kids
• 28:59
  Speaker 4: expiring to be professional D one athletes.
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: I think that I think that's a great idea.
• 29:05
  Speaker 4: And I think, you know, because I don't think that
• 29:08
  Speaker 4: the kids know like they don't even if they don't
• 29:12
  Speaker 4: know you, they don't know.
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: No one's really telling them the extra work.
• 29:17
  Speaker 5: Of what you have to do.
• 29:19
  Speaker 4: And the mindset too, Yeah, and the mindset, Yeah, you
• 29:22
  Speaker 4: gotta you gotta, you gotta have a mindset. If you're
• 29:24
  Speaker 4: gonna wake up at six in the morning and you're
• 29:27
  Speaker 4: going out on the track and it's twenty some degrees
• 29:30
  Speaker 4: and you you you running anyway, you know that is
• 29:33
  Speaker 4: not you know, that is not a mindset. But even
• 29:38
  Speaker 4: if it doesn't get you the pros, it might even
• 29:41
  Speaker 4: get you to college. It may get your college paid for.
• 29:45
  Speaker 4: And I think that's even more critical if you want
• 29:48
  Speaker 4: to play football. I don't care how how hard or
• 29:52
  Speaker 4: where you want to go. Get a free education or
• 29:56
  Speaker 4: get that education at least halfway paid for or somewhat
• 29:59
  Speaker 4: paid or just developed develop.
• 30:05
  Speaker 5: Let me let me say real quick, because this is
• 30:07
  Speaker 5: the great So this is the one thing that I
• 30:10
  Speaker 5: think is the biggest difference between my day, maybe Seelee's
• 30:13
  Speaker 5: day and today. So right now, even in Minnesota, and
• 30:17
  Speaker 5: I'm I don't know what's happening to West Virginia. But
• 30:18
  Speaker 5: I know in Minnesota and go outside, there are no
• 30:21
  Speaker 5: kids outside playing.
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: Oh my god.
• 30:25
  Speaker 5: So let me tell you this when I when I
• 30:27
  Speaker 5: grew up in the morning, literally I was gone almost
• 30:34
  Speaker 5: the entire day. I would go to my friend's house.
• 30:37
  Speaker 5: We played football down somewhere Saint Albans. We have a
• 30:40
  Speaker 5: baseball game somewhere on Saturday. I mean, we be playing
• 30:44
  Speaker 5: all day. Didn't go swimming pool like we were athletes
• 30:47
  Speaker 5: because we played all day all that's the phone.
• 30:53
  Speaker 4: But you know what, too, I think parents in in
• 30:55
  Speaker 4: in the culture of travel sports have taken the joy
• 31:00
  Speaker 4: out of sports, right because I think too many kids
• 31:02
  Speaker 4: they look at it now like almost as a job obligation.
• 31:06
  Speaker 4: To your point, Anthony, Like that's the way I grew up, like.
• 31:08
  Speaker 4: We was literally gone summertime, eight o'clock in the morning
• 31:11
  Speaker 4: to strip like you coming in, you coming in funky,
• 31:17
  Speaker 4: you know, I mean smelling like straight outside.
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: Order water holes. Yeah, that's I mean.
• 31:31
  Speaker 4: That structure has really diminished, and it seems like it's
• 31:35
  Speaker 4: been gone for gosh for a long time.
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: Because it's just too much structure.
• 31:39
  Speaker 4: Now.
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: I think you just the freedom of play, you know,
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: it's just different.
• 31:43
  Speaker 6: It's important for them to have that freedom.
• 31:45
  Speaker 4: Up and if you're doing it, if you're doing it
• 31:49
  Speaker 4: because I saw Hollis do it, so I want to
• 31:51
  Speaker 4: do it. Because he's he's at a certain level, so
• 31:54
  Speaker 4: I want to get to that level.
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: So I'm looking at him. I see him do it,
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: I'm going to do it.
• 31:59
  Speaker 4: We don't those people, those examples out there anymore because
• 32:04
  Speaker 4: the great player already thinks he's great, and he's assuming
• 32:09
  Speaker 4: or she's assuming that.
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: They're gonna get taken.
• 32:12
  Speaker 4: They're going to get them a D one scholarship because
• 32:14
  Speaker 4: they're the best player on the team, right yeah, and
• 32:17
  Speaker 4: that that that doesn't always happen.
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: And even if you get there, that doesn't mean you're
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: gonna stay right Yeah.
• 32:25
  Speaker 6: I mean, it's a whole different world. So so Anthony,
• 32:27
  Speaker 6: I wanted to, you know, kind of touch on what
• 32:30
  Speaker 6: you're doing these days. Not only were you this accomplished
• 32:34
  Speaker 6: NFL player, when you you know, with with the vikings,
• 32:38
  Speaker 6: you're you're you know, a pastor. I believe at your
• 32:41
  Speaker 6: church you're active with cancer different charities. Also, you wrote
• 32:46
  Speaker 6: a book titled The Blessing of Brokenness, finding resilience and
• 32:51
  Speaker 6: purpose in life's greatest challenges. Tell us a little bit
• 32:55
  Speaker 6: about all these things that you know, how did you
• 32:57
  Speaker 6: end up doing so many things? Do you feel like
• 33:00
  Speaker 6: that that NFL drop carried over in your personal life
• 33:03
  Speaker 6: when you retired.
• 33:04
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean I'm I'm adiv and about that, I can't.
• 33:07
  Speaker 5: I can't say enough. Like I mean, there was a guy,
• 33:10
  Speaker 5: I mean and coach let's say, see knows and his
• 33:12
  Speaker 5: name is Arnette Houston. We called him Snoody, and so
• 33:17
  Speaker 5: I remember somebody today I'll tell myself a little I
• 33:23
  Speaker 5: will do that. But I think, so this is a
• 33:25
  Speaker 5: conversation someone else heard between Snoody and Cunningham variant and
• 33:30
  Speaker 5: then I think I made it to pros and I
• 33:32
  Speaker 5: think very nass Snoodie, because you know Snoodie I played
• 33:35
  Speaker 5: with each other in South Charleston High and he was like,
• 33:37
  Speaker 5: you know it's bad, It's really good. I mean he
• 33:38
  Speaker 5: made it surprised, he really that good. And Snoody said,
• 33:41
  Speaker 5: you know what, he works hard, and so that that's
• 33:45
  Speaker 5: what my teammates said about me, and so and so
• 33:48
  Speaker 5: what I've done is throughout my life. I mean, I
• 33:51
  Speaker 5: cannot over interest that, like I just have to work
• 33:53
  Speaker 5: hard I just it's just it just worked for me,
• 33:56
  Speaker 5: and so and so for me. Once when I was
• 33:59
  Speaker 5: in college, I felt called in the ministry. And so
• 34:03
  Speaker 5: once I was felt called in the ministry, I didn't
• 34:05
  Speaker 5: automatically accept, to be honest, because I was like, I'm
• 34:07
  Speaker 5: going with the NFL. I'll do that later. But once
• 34:10
  Speaker 5: I got to the league, I realized like, no, this
• 34:13
  Speaker 5: is like this is my identity. Yeah, this is what
• 34:15
  Speaker 5: I need to do. And so that became my life.
• 34:18
  Speaker 5: And so I went. I just said, I'm going to
• 34:20
  Speaker 5: help the community. And so I've been in Minnesota or
• 34:22
  Speaker 5: and I went to Northern Virginia. I served in two
• 34:27
  Speaker 5: churches and now I'm been one that I've been leaving
• 34:29
  Speaker 5: my wife here for about fifteen years, just helping people
• 34:33
  Speaker 5: and trying to use gifts skills that I had to
• 34:35
  Speaker 5: actually be a blessing to the communities I've been a
• 34:38
  Speaker 5: part of. And so because I just have this mentality
• 34:41
  Speaker 5: and just growth, I rather instead of saying, like just work,
• 34:45
  Speaker 5: I'll just say we have a growth. My wife and
• 34:46
  Speaker 5: I have a growth mentality. That's probably pray vernacular for it.
• 34:50
  Speaker 5: And so what I've also done is I studied, like
• 34:53
  Speaker 5: even this day, Like I have books around my bedroom.
• 34:57
  Speaker 5: I'm going to get to that, I'm going to read,
• 34:58
  Speaker 5: I'm going to notes on that, like that's been my
• 35:01
  Speaker 5: life and so what that has led me just to
• 35:04
  Speaker 5: have a repository of information of experiences that have been
• 35:08
  Speaker 5: analyzed that I could actually help other people. And so
• 35:12
  Speaker 5: it's been good for my career. I mean, right now
• 35:14
  Speaker 5: i am vice president of Baron Cancer Society for Minnesota,
• 35:18
  Speaker 5: North and South Dakota, and so I'm able to use
• 35:22
  Speaker 5: my experience and my engagement community to help people who
• 35:27
  Speaker 5: are on their cancer journey. And that's actually like been
• 35:31
  Speaker 5: effective because you know, once you are executive, for an
• 35:36
  Speaker 5: effective executive, I mean, there's other opportunities that present themselves,
• 35:40
  Speaker 5: and so like now I feel like I'm in a
• 35:42
  Speaker 5: great position, by God's grace in my life where I
• 35:44
  Speaker 5: can actually have options, I'll say it like that. And
• 35:48
  Speaker 5: then what's helped me about that is just now finishing
• 35:51
  Speaker 5: my doctorate so as far as my professional career, like
• 35:56
  Speaker 5: i feel like I'm set up well for next steps,
• 36:00
  Speaker 5: which I've always through education, through through the growth mindset,
• 36:05
  Speaker 5: I've always had options and I even have options now
• 36:07
  Speaker 5: now I'm fifty one, Like I have options now, right,
• 36:11
  Speaker 5: And so I engage with executives all the time and
• 36:15
  Speaker 5: see their discipline, and I'm like, I'm trying to pull information,
• 36:19
  Speaker 5: just like when I was out there with C Lee.
• 36:20
  Speaker 5: I'm trying to learn, like, man, how do you read
• 36:22
  Speaker 5: a three step drop? Right? Like how do you come
• 36:24
  Speaker 5: out your break? I'm doing the same thing, asking questions
• 36:27
  Speaker 5: of executives like okay, you know, how do I nail
• 36:30
  Speaker 5: this interview? Like you know, how do I come up
• 36:32
  Speaker 5: with a strategy? And That's what I've been doing. And then,
• 36:36
  Speaker 5: like I said, I've been reading for years, like even
• 36:39
  Speaker 5: when I was in NFL like me, like I said,
• 36:42
  Speaker 5: I'm a country kid. I didn't go out to the
• 36:44
  Speaker 5: club and hang with Prince like see Lee, like.
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: What the show? Again? Please tell us more.
• 37:04
  Speaker 5: So what he see? They got tons of print stories, man,
• 37:08
  Speaker 5: I tell you, like how you like I remember that
• 37:12
  Speaker 5: one story? To see what he was catching the light
• 37:14
  Speaker 5: with his hand? I was like, so anyway, So I
• 37:21
  Speaker 5: I used that background. I use the experience and this
• 37:24
  Speaker 5: now this doctoral which I'm opening up now, it's opportunities
• 37:27
  Speaker 5: with higher education with presidential you know, college opportunities. It's
• 37:31
  Speaker 5: just it's just I've used that and now I'm writing
• 37:34
  Speaker 5: with all the summer read I'm writing right, So I
• 37:36
  Speaker 5: actually have three books done, and I finished my dissertation,
• 37:40
  Speaker 5: which will be a fourth book, and so I'm just
• 37:43
  Speaker 5: I'm just like I'm just growing and and the good
• 37:45
  Speaker 5: thing is those people who are who you know, I
• 37:47
  Speaker 5: consider out people I'm mentoring, they just they just get
• 37:51
  Speaker 5: the overflow. And so I'm fortunate that in my church,
• 37:54
  Speaker 5: I've had people leave my church and they're now executive
• 37:57
  Speaker 5: directors and directors of other organizations, you know, across the country,
• 38:02
  Speaker 5: and so it's like it's spilling out right, It's stilling
• 38:04
  Speaker 5: other people's lives, and so I feel like I'm actually
• 38:06
  Speaker 5: still making an impact, making a difference.
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: What's what's the name of your church.
• 38:10
  Speaker 5: It's called Endurance Church.
• 38:13
  Speaker 4: Endurance Church, you guys, I mean, I'm sure you guys
• 38:15
  Speaker 4: got like social media and stream and all that.
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: Correct.
• 38:17
  Speaker 5: Oh, yeah, absolutely, Yeah. We're small church. I'm what you
• 38:20
  Speaker 5: call a teaching pastor. We're a small church in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota.
• 38:26
  Speaker 5: Endurance Church dot tv. You look that up or on YouTube, Facebook,
• 38:31
  Speaker 5: send that to me when.
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: We get done though, Yeah, for sure.
• 38:33
  Speaker 4: Well, because I think and I like where you went
• 38:36
  Speaker 4: with that, because you know, one of the things that
• 38:38
  Speaker 4: we discussed on this show and length and also just
• 38:41
  Speaker 4: you personally. And I know that I experienced this, like
• 38:44
  Speaker 4: after I played college ball, and it took me about
• 38:47
  Speaker 4: three years, maybe two and a half years to kind
• 38:50
  Speaker 4: of get back on track.
• 38:52
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 38:52
  Speaker 4: I always had like pretty good grades in college, but
• 38:55
  Speaker 4: I just, you know, I guess I don't know if
• 38:57
  Speaker 4: it was just a routine or like ident to find
• 39:00
  Speaker 4: yourself within the context of a sport. And you know,
• 39:04
  Speaker 4: eventually I went to law school and did up you know,
• 39:06
  Speaker 4: things I'm doing now. Yeah, but I think a lot
• 39:09
  Speaker 4: of athletes suffer just from that maybe just identity issue
• 39:14
  Speaker 4: after they end up playing and they don't know where
• 39:16
  Speaker 4: to like where to go, you know physically after that.
• 39:20
  Speaker 5: Yeah, no, I think you're now hitting nail on the head.
• 39:22
  Speaker 5: There's a lot of guys, I mean, there's a lot
• 39:24
  Speaker 5: of guys they identify themselves as football. I remember there's
• 39:27
  Speaker 5: a guy his name was Antico Dalton and his he
• 39:31
  Speaker 5: went to uh Hampton University, and I remember his wife,
• 39:34
  Speaker 5: like when he got cut from the Vikings, his wife
• 39:37
  Speaker 5: was like, he didn't do anything else but play football. Right,
• 39:40
  Speaker 5: that's the only thing he could do. And and I
• 39:42
  Speaker 5: broke my heart, you know, hearing that, like and so
• 39:45
  Speaker 5: he but he's been football his whole life. He does
• 39:47
  Speaker 5: the linebacker school in North Carolina. And for me, when
• 39:52
  Speaker 5: I left NFL, I'm like, man, I see my dad coaching.
• 39:54
  Speaker 5: I mean, just just to honest seely another reason I
• 39:57
  Speaker 5: like Denny when I when I got cut from the
• 40:00
  Speaker 5: Ike's cut and I got cut, Denny Green said, man,
• 40:04
  Speaker 5: call Sally, I want to give you a job. And
• 40:06
  Speaker 5: so I could have went into coach right when I was,
• 40:09
  Speaker 5: but I was like, no, I'm done with football, like
• 40:11
  Speaker 5: I'm gonna do something else. And I just I didn't.
• 40:14
  Speaker 5: I didn't feel like my dity was football. But like
• 40:16
  Speaker 5: I said, I think that tragic injury in my mind
• 40:19
  Speaker 5: called it tragic my last year kind of freed me
• 40:22
  Speaker 5: from the mentality this is the only thing I could do.
• 40:26
  Speaker 4: I heard you say, Sally. So I have I have
• 40:36
  Speaker 4: alluded to this dude for in different conversations when because
• 40:43
  Speaker 4: him and him and him and Denny were like best
• 40:45
  Speaker 4: friends and and Sally was the DV coach. Okay, so
• 40:50
  Speaker 4: I go from Pete Carroll to solid oh Man and
• 40:54
  Speaker 4: so and he knew and and Bro, he knew and
• 40:56
  Speaker 4: you you you have to have known this. He knew
• 40:59
  Speaker 4: nothing thing about the secondary. He knew nothing about it.
• 41:04
  Speaker 4: And so he's just trying to work his way through
• 41:09
  Speaker 4: because there was a we had an experienced group, so
• 41:12
  Speaker 4: he just he just assumed that he could just put
• 41:16
  Speaker 4: put Sally there and my brother.
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: So we we're in uh, we're in like whether where
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: we eat lunch at? And I was sitting there talking
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: with him and.
• 41:27
  Speaker 4: I said, I said, I said, solid, when's the last
• 41:32
  Speaker 4: time you, like, when have you coached d d You know,
• 41:37
  Speaker 4: when when's the last time that you're at coach d
• 41:39
  Speaker 4: V's And I was, and I really wasn't. I wasn't
• 41:43
  Speaker 4: going like over I didn't try to. I wasn't purposely
• 41:45
  Speaker 4: going overboard. But I thought, he has you, you know,
• 41:50
  Speaker 4: hopefully this.
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: Is in the pros.
• 41:51
  Speaker 4: It's not the first time you teach deepensive box. That's
• 41:54
  Speaker 4: that ship never happened. And Bro, he he was a
• 41:58
  Speaker 4: scalp ye. So he went from a scout to a
• 42:02
  Speaker 4: position coach. Oh my goodness, secondary coach. Now we were
• 42:08
  Speaker 4: coming off of a top defense and he's he's trying
• 42:13
  Speaker 4: to talk to me about different stuff and bright and
• 42:16
  Speaker 4: and and I cook when I found that out, bro,
• 42:18
  Speaker 4: like I couldn't even but I couldn't even look at him,
• 42:23
  Speaker 4: you know.
• 42:23
  Speaker 2: And we we And the reason I got cut is
• 42:26
  Speaker 2: because of solid comes out because him and Denny were
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: like they were.
• 42:36
  Speaker 4: Like, you know, and I go from Pete Carroll to
• 42:40
  Speaker 4: him and I'm like, bro, how are you how are
• 42:45
  Speaker 4: you gonna how are you gonna help us?
• 42:46
  Speaker 6: Like?
• 42:46
  Speaker 7: How can you.
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: If you don't know what we're supposed to be doing, you.
• 42:51
  Speaker 4: Don't know the techniques and all that kind of stuff,
• 42:53
  Speaker 4: how are you just And I know what Denny looked at.
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: He looked at the experience in the secondary and said, oh,
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: I can coach.
• 43:06
  Speaker 5: Look everything about it. Everything he's saying is right.
• 43:09
  Speaker 2: And here's the thing.
• 43:13
  Speaker 4: Most people think that when you're watching the NFL, like
• 43:16
  Speaker 4: it's straight the best players, the coaches know everything.
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: It is not I need to for me, I need
• 43:25
  Speaker 2: a job, come on, I need right from podcast announcer
• 43:31
  Speaker 2: to why not?
• 43:34
  Speaker 5: Why not is speaking the truth? Because let me start sadly. Sadly,
• 43:41
  Speaker 5: that's exactly why I got cut because because like I said,
• 43:46
  Speaker 5: my last year, I was starting, I was starting safety
• 43:50
  Speaker 5: and then the next year they had a choice of
• 43:52
  Speaker 5: either having me start or paying allowing Ot to keep playing.
• 43:58
  Speaker 5: And he was hurt, but he and him and Sally
• 44:01
  Speaker 5: were real dogs, as they said back then, right. So,
• 44:05
  Speaker 5: so I didn't have the political clouds. I didn't have
• 44:08
  Speaker 5: the relationship. I didn't know anything about that at that point.
• 44:10
  Speaker 5: I just thought the best player gets on the field,
• 44:13
  Speaker 5: and so and I was to get in health. I
• 44:15
  Speaker 5: was finally getting healthy. I was finally running full speed.
• 44:18
  Speaker 5: And now now what makes it worse is I knew. See,
• 44:22
  Speaker 5: I knew that Slily was not a good coach. I
• 44:24
  Speaker 5: knew that, and I knew he couldn't help me.
• 44:28
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, And if you played dB, he was not
• 44:34
  Speaker 4: gonna he was not going to tolerate anybody who would
• 44:37
  Speaker 4: stand up to him or disrespecting him and all that.
• 44:41
  Speaker 4: And again for you all to understand the reality, players
• 44:46
  Speaker 4: don't It's not like in the league. Players are don't.
• 44:49
  Speaker 4: They don't back off of saying what they want to
• 44:51
  Speaker 4: say to a coach. You know, it's it's two grown
• 44:54
  Speaker 4: men having a conversation. And so when all of a sudden,
• 44:58
  Speaker 4: you you you at your dB coach. YEP, Typically the
• 45:04
  Speaker 4: d B coach is going just going and and you
• 45:06
  Speaker 4: just keep going going.
• 45:08
  Speaker 2: But Sally is not that dude. He's going to the
• 45:11
  Speaker 2: head coach and get you out. We gotta get Sally
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: on the show man, let me me take you.
• 45:21
  Speaker 5: When I knew I was done, I knew I was
• 45:23
  Speaker 5: done when uh Sally said, hey, you're from You're from
• 45:28
  Speaker 5: West virgin Huh. I was like yeah, my boy.
• 45:31
  Speaker 2: He was like, oh yeah, bro, you was done. Yeah
• 45:42
  Speaker 2: you he brought that up.
• 45:45
  Speaker 4: You were gone.
• 45:47
  Speaker 2: I'm sorry I got to cut add that to your resume. Well, bro,
• 45:53
  Speaker 2: we we're glad to have you.
• 45:54
  Speaker 4: Man.
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: And when you get back into him, come bye, holler
• 45:57
  Speaker 2: at us.
• 45:58
  Speaker 4: And like I said, like I said, Anthony, I would
• 46:01
  Speaker 4: really like I'm going to see how we can work
• 46:02
  Speaker 4: together to piss some even if it's just a zoom,
• 46:06
  Speaker 4: I think it's gonna be. It could be very, very valuable,
• 46:08
  Speaker 4: just for kids in the valley.
• 46:09
  Speaker 3: So just be.
• 46:10
  Speaker 2: I requested you on Facebook, so let's exchange information.
• 46:14
  Speaker 6: I'll be requesting you as well. Anthony said the look out.
• 46:18
  Speaker 6: You're you're an awesome human.
• 46:19
  Speaker 5: Okay, keep doing what you're doing. Appreciate you than.
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: That was awesome.
• 46:26
  Speaker 7: Man.
• 46:27
  Speaker 2: Hey, you're talking about a gentleman. Yeah, he is. I'm
• 46:32
  Speaker 2: telling you, he is just a great He is just
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: a great human being and.
• 46:40
  Speaker 4: And everything about him from the day I met him,
• 46:43
  Speaker 4: he's been exactly the same way the whole entire time.
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: He never like football never got to him.
• 46:52
  Speaker 4: And as you can hear him talk, failure or success,
• 46:55
  Speaker 4: none of those things bothered him. None of them changed
• 46:58
  Speaker 4: his course of who and what he wanted to be.
• 47:01
  Speaker 4: And that's that doesn't happen very often, you know. So
• 47:07
  Speaker 4: and like I said, it's just good to have guys
• 47:09
  Speaker 4: from the valley.
• 47:10
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 47:11
  Speaker 4: Again, that's a that's a guy that many people may
• 47:13
  Speaker 4: not know about, right, you know, but it's just good
• 47:16
  Speaker 4: to have him see what he's doing now. And like
• 47:18
  Speaker 4: I said, I think we just got to do a
• 47:19
  Speaker 4: better job of connecting, you know, particularly our former athletes
• 47:23
  Speaker 4: and just successful people in general back to you know,
• 47:26
  Speaker 4: West Virginia and get them directly connected to some kids.
• 47:28
  Speaker 5: Well.
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: And I think.
• 47:31
  Speaker 4: I think the media as a whole does not reach
• 47:36
  Speaker 4: out to tell stories of former athletes who have been
• 47:42
  Speaker 4: successful in college, whether it be d One or whether
• 47:45
  Speaker 4: it be at Marshall, whether it be w U or
• 47:47
  Speaker 4: it and approach. I just don't think that we we
• 47:51
  Speaker 4: we acknowledge them, we don't give we don't pay enough
• 47:54
  Speaker 4: attention to them. And I'm and I'm not, I don't
• 47:58
  Speaker 4: I'm not even talking about myself. But I just think
• 48:01
  Speaker 4: there's so many athletes that we have had come through,
• 48:04
  Speaker 4: whether they made it to D one, D two, whatever,
• 48:07
  Speaker 4: and they played college ball, they deserve some form of
• 48:10
  Speaker 4: attention because there's gonna be somebody just like them that's
• 48:14
  Speaker 4: gonna play on the same level that they played on
• 48:16
  Speaker 4: and thinking that they can make it and be somebody.
• 48:18
  Speaker 6: Yeah, And I think too sometimes what happens is when
• 48:22
  Speaker 6: when you choose to go out of state to a
• 48:24
  Speaker 6: smaller college that's lesser known. In this case, they just
• 48:28
  Speaker 6: don't get the notoriety that they do when they go
• 48:30
  Speaker 6: to Marshall or WU or even like a smaller school
• 48:32
  Speaker 6: in state.
• 48:33
  Speaker 2: I think two to that, though, I think in part
• 48:36
  Speaker 2: a lot of folks don't.
• 48:41
  Speaker 4: There is no being in touch with you, if you
• 48:43
  Speaker 4: you know that's what I mean, yeah, right, because there's
• 48:45
  Speaker 4: no way to be in touch with you kind of
• 48:47
  Speaker 4: follow you or whatever.
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: But I think.
• 48:51
  Speaker 4: I think Marshall and WU, I think those are two
• 48:54
  Speaker 4: schools that I think might be and might need to
• 48:57
  Speaker 4: be more conscious of looking in the valley, looking in
• 49:02
  Speaker 4: the state, and really getting guys that they I guess
• 49:08
  Speaker 4: it has to qualify, they have to qualify to football wise, academically,
• 49:14
  Speaker 4: they got to go after those kids. But I think
• 49:17
  Speaker 4: it's different now. We had this conversation the other day,
• 49:20
  Speaker 4: and the problem with that is that you know, with
• 49:23
  Speaker 4: the transfer portal, it's just like am I going to
• 49:25
  Speaker 4: get am I going to be a freshman or am
• 49:26
  Speaker 4: I going to get a gather two the three years
• 49:28
  Speaker 4: college experience. I think the biggest problem that I see
• 49:31
  Speaker 4: is that if we don't connect particularly like I said,
• 49:35
  Speaker 4: outside of you know, where you went to college, but
• 49:37
  Speaker 4: just actually getting back into your own your community where
• 49:40
  Speaker 4: you went to school at a lot of our kids
• 49:42
  Speaker 4: missed those networking opportunities, right because I mean how many
• 49:46
  Speaker 4: how many kids would have like benefited from, you know,
• 49:50
  Speaker 4: maybe going out there for a couple of weeks to
• 49:52
  Speaker 4: get to work out with you know, Anthony Batts and
• 49:55
  Speaker 4: all the NFL and people around him.
• 49:57
  Speaker 7: Right.
• 49:57
  Speaker 4: So I think that we got to get back to
• 49:59
  Speaker 4: that so we can at least have those networking opportunities
• 50:02
  Speaker 4: so that that way has you progressing on your journey.
• 50:05
  Speaker 4: You know this person that could you know, let you know,
• 50:09
  Speaker 4: a whole bunch of other people within the field that
• 50:10
  Speaker 4: you're inspiring.
• 50:12
  Speaker 6: Absolutely, I think it's I think that's a great idea.
• 50:14
  Speaker 6: I mean, I think, hey, have a summer camp. He
• 50:16
  Speaker 6: could have all like all the former you know players
• 50:18
  Speaker 6: and come in and you know, he may not be
• 50:20
  Speaker 6: that involved with football, but it sounds like he is
• 50:22
  Speaker 6: with youth.
• 50:23
  Speaker 4: Yeah, So I think that is something, you know, a
• 50:26
  Speaker 4: big I think a big camp, not just like a
• 50:28
  Speaker 4: solo player coach or camp. I think a mutual with
• 50:34
  Speaker 4: a ton of guys played college ball and whatever.
• 50:37
  Speaker 2: I think.
• 50:37
  Speaker 4: I think what we can do though, is just even
• 50:39
  Speaker 4: outside of that, we could just do a zoom. I
• 50:41
  Speaker 4: think we could start there. Have you know, we can
• 50:44
  Speaker 4: do you Anthony, we can do like I said Kirk Warner,
• 50:48
  Speaker 4: Darien Scott, Alexis Hornbuckle and just do a big zoom
• 50:53
  Speaker 4: and that way, you know, we can get the network
• 50:55
  Speaker 4: and then maybe go from there. Because that's yes, zero cost,
• 50:57
  Speaker 4: you know what I mean, It doesn't cost anybody anything
• 50:59
  Speaker 4: other than a little bit of time.
• 51:00
  Speaker 2: All right, Well, ladies and gentlemen, I hope you enjoyed
• 51:03
  Speaker 2: the show and we will be back again next week.