Latest / Nightmare Success In and Out / The Golden Boy, Varsity Blues & Prison: Gordie Ernst’s Fall and Fight Back

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The Golden Boy, Varsity Blues & Prison: Gordie Ernst’s Fall and Fight Back · Nightmare Success In and Out

0:00
You not only were the Georgetown coach, but you also were the
0:03
Obama family coach. I can't even imagine, Like, what
0:09
is that like just to go to the White House?
0:12
First of all, is it hard to get in like if if you're the tennis
0:15
coach? Like.
0:17
If you're going to teach them every, you're going to coach
0:18
them every week. I mean, is it like, hey, hey,
0:21
Gordy, you could, yeah, just go right on in.
0:25
Like, how does that work? My God, it's really fun in the
0:27
beginning, in the beginning, it was in the beginning, there was
0:31
a really formal process, but then over time, I've been there
0:35
so many times that I wouldn't say you bypass certain things,
0:38
but they're more comfortable with you.
0:40
Michelle was, Michelle is a worker, right?
0:42
She's so into it and she just like for instance, her back end.
0:45
We, we, I probably, we probably hit 10,000 back ends to get it
0:49
right. What happens when your worst
0:52
fear becomes your reality? Hi, I'm Brent Cassidy.
0:55
Welcome to the Nightmare Success In and Out podcast where we
0:58
explore how to overcome your fears and nightmares to set
1:01
yourself free. We're going to be exploring this
1:04
topic with guys that was in Leavenworth with and others who
1:07
survived their own nightmare. These stories can be inspiring,
1:11
sometimes sad. There's some humor, but
1:14
hopefully you can come away with a nugget of something that'll
1:17
help you knock down some of the prisons you built up in your own
1:20
mind. Welcome back Nightmare
1:22
successive now listeners. This is where you come from.
1:23
What happens when your worst fear becomes your reality?
1:25
How do you adapt, survive, overcome?
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Set yourself free, forget to follow and subscribe, Share this
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thing out, like it up comment really helps the show and I very
1:35
much appreciate that. So who are we talking to today
1:39
on Nightmare Success? Talking to Gordy Ernst.
1:42
And man, I first want to give a shout out to Craig and Kim
1:46
Malloy for connecting us. And Gordy and I have been
1:50
talking, we've been talking about a year now, finally
1:55
getting this thing set up. But Gordy, he he's got, he's got
2:00
an incredibly interesting story. He if everybody remembers the
2:03
Varsity Blues scandal and there was a lot of people that got
2:07
caught up in this and I think it's the first time I've had
2:09
anybody on to be able to talk about it.
2:12
But a little bit about Gordy now, what happens when the
2:15
person everyone believes in loses their way and Rhode Island
2:18
Gordy Ernst wasn't just another kid.
2:21
He was the Golden Boy, Allstate and hockey, dominant on the
2:24
tennis court, nearly unbeatable, 97 and O the kind of athlete
2:30
coaches trusted, parents admired and a community he believed
2:33
would go on to do something special.
2:36
And he did. He became a respected college
2:39
tennis coach over a decade at Georgetown University, a
2:42
gatekeeper opportunity helping young athletes chase their
2:45
dreams until it unravelled the Varsity Blues national scandal.
2:51
Indicted, convicted, sentenced to prison.
2:54
But this story isn't just about the fall.
2:56
It's about what happens after. How do you step back into
3:00
society and still make it work? Well, Gordy's doing that.
3:04
I can't wake to jump into all this.
3:08
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4:46
All right, Gordy Ernst, how are you, Mom?
4:49
That's quite an intro by the way.
4:50
How is that car? I need a new car is.
4:52
It Hey, I'll tell you the thing about that is Gordy is I always
4:57
feel like the most stupid person in the world when I go in to go
5:01
get a car. You know, it's like it shouldn't
5:04
be like I feel that way, but it's like it's like starting
5:08
over every time you. Know who you are?
5:09
I mean, do you you walk in. First of all, let's talk about
5:11
your looks. Your your hair and your tan.
5:13
Like you went through a lot of trouble like I did.
5:16
Why do I look like this? And I don't look like that.
5:19
You know why? Because you didn't wear a hockey
5:21
helmet. Yeah.
5:22
Well, hockey's tough. Yeah, we need to.
5:25
You get punched. We need to talk about that,
5:27
Gordy, because I want to talk about you grew up in Rhode
5:33
Island, you know, as you had a mom and a dad that were very
5:38
well known. Your dad was kind of a legendary
5:41
guy. Tell us a little bit about
5:43
growing up in this world with your you, your brothers, your
5:47
family. What was that like?
5:50
Well, it wasn't traditional in any sense.
5:53
Not at. All you know, my dad, you
5:56
mentioned coaching like he was a high school coach.
5:59
That was what he did. That was his dream.
6:01
He knew it from right from the start that that's what he wanted
6:03
to do, teaching coach. So I kind of my brothers and I,
6:06
we just grew up in his atmosphere, right, of coaching
6:10
that age. So when I was five years old,
6:13
we're playing at his high school practices and on the ponds.
6:17
We were playing hockey with his high school team and in tennis
6:20
we were playing with his high school players and he coached
6:22
college too. So we just kind of grew up in a
6:24
locker room. That's all it was.
6:26
It wasn't like this, you know, Leave It to Beaver, My three
6:30
sons, Brady, but atmosphere. But like having a dad like that,
6:34
it was very well known. I mean, he, I guess you could
6:37
put a legend type figure in that realm of does.
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What is that like as a kid? Like is he encouraging you?
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Is he? Is he, is he?
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What is he doing to these little kids that are his sons?
6:54
Like how does it work? Wow, that's a loaded one for
6:58
sure. I don't think we have enough
6:59
time in the show, but really go into all of it.
7:01
I've been in therapy about it also.
7:03
But no, he we were grew like, and I say this, you know, my dad
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died in 16, my brother died in 14.
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So it was a tough couple of years there and then this all
7:14
happened in in 19. So it was definitely a tough
7:17
couple years. And and when you go to funerals,
7:20
especially as you know you're in that business, right?
7:23
That's when you see people you haven't seen in so long, right?
7:26
And there were 750 people who signed the guest book at the
7:29
Funeral Home, my dad. And just about everyone when
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you're standing there in line shaking hands after hours, just
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about everyone said how he touched their lives, right?
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Or their kids lives or you use legend, but he chose a
7:43
profession where you really could make an impact on
7:45
someone's life. So with us, we just, that's what
7:48
he wanted for us. He just wanted for us to be
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these, these athletes and, and, you know, use these sports to,
7:56
to get ahead and to, to, you know, just to be the best we
8:02
could, especially in the state of Rhode Island.
8:03
I mean, he loves, he loved Rhode Island as much as buddy CNC
8:06
loved Rhode Island was the famous Providence mayor.
8:10
So that's how we were raised. No, it wasn't.
8:12
It weren't choice. There wasn't like, hey.
8:14
No, I was going to ask you that. There wasn't a choice to it.
8:17
But the way that you excelled at it, Gordy, you had you kind of
8:23
had the best of all worlds because you were playing in
8:26
hockey, which is, I mean, there's no more of a sport
8:29
that's team oriented. You know, one stands, we all
8:33
stand, and you know one goes in and all go in, but they need
8:38
your incredible tennis player. I mean, high school years had to
8:45
be pretty great, right? Yes and no.
8:49
I mean, I, it's funny because there's a great story that
8:52
people tell a lot because he was the, the high school coach at
8:56
Cranston E, right? The is east and West and
9:00
Cranston E has a, has a legendary history of hockey and
9:04
he was the coach there. But back then, you couldn't play
9:06
in high school as a freshman. OK.
9:09
So the two best high schools in the country for hockey were
9:13
right in Rhode Island, but they were both sort of Catholic, all
9:17
boys type of schools, right? Bishop Hendricken and Mount
9:22
Saint Charles and Mount Saint Charles was #1 in the country
9:26
for 25 straight years, maybe more.
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They've had so many. And Bryant Brian Lawton in 1983
9:32
was the number one draft pick in the HL right out of Mount Saint
9:35
Charles. So those two schools, he calls
9:37
both coaches, says Gordie will come play for you.
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And they're like, no, we're not interested because we know after
9:45
a year, just like in college sports, now he's going to
9:48
transfer back to you. You're pulling back to play for
9:50
you. No, no, no.
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If he likes it, if he likes it, he's staying.
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Like what? You know, I went to Hendricken,
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we beat the Mount Saint Charles. We were #4 in the country, in
10:01
hockey, I was the number one player in, in New England as a
10:05
freshman. I was the number one player in
10:06
the state first, ever, right? So I had this and I got straight
10:09
A's. So I had this amazing
10:11
experience, right? But I feel.
10:13
Like a lot of pressure. Well, no, I just, I just loved
10:17
it because, you know, I wasn't under the roof of my coach and
10:21
my father, right? I had the boundary.
10:23
I had the separation during the day and whatever.
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And I was and I just loved it. But he just, you know, there
10:28
wasn't, it wasn't even up for discussion at the end of the
10:31
year. I had a year like that.
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He's like, all right, you're coming to play for me now with
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your brother Bobby. And so we laugh about it now.
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It was tough then, but again, back to choices, right?
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Parents now give their kids all these choices.
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Right now. There's no choices.
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This is what you had to do. And but at the same time, it, it
10:50
just, I can't not look back on it and laugh because we had just
10:55
so much fun, especially going to the tournaments, going to the
10:57
games. I mean, we grew up in the locker
11:00
room. We're on those buses.
11:01
We're all over the country playing hockey.
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And look at look at the guys from my neighborhood.
11:07
Jack Capuano's the assistant at Minnesota Wild right now.
11:10
David, quote, David Quinn was the coach of the Rangers and the
11:14
assistant of the Olympic team this year.
11:15
Like, these are these are the two guys since we were three
11:18
years old, that was my neighborhood.
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Yeah, it's wild, isn't it? And we all grew up together.
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We were playing the same teams. And.
11:25
And that's the thing about Rhode Island.
11:27
It's so small that you know, everyone.
11:29
It's. Funny how that happens.
11:30
So we're we're, you know, a group gets so tight and the and
11:34
like in a in A and then in a sport like that, it reminds me
11:38
of there's a place called the hill here in Saint Louis and Joe
11:42
Garagiola and and Yogi Berra live right across the street
11:45
from each other. And then, you know, how does
11:46
that happen? And then they become, you know,
11:48
these guys. But that's kind of what you're
11:50
talking about. What he is is that that that
11:52
somehow creates something that people feed on each other and
11:57
they and they all do well. And then that's it's really
11:59
cool. That's a good way to put it
12:01
right? And everyone feeds and it could
12:02
be different sports. Vinny Pasienza was lived 2
12:05
streets over for me and he became what lightweight was it?
12:08
Welterweight champion of the world.
12:10
He's a couple streets over and they made a movie about him.
12:12
Blood bleed for this 22 streets over.
12:15
So the neighborhood, those neighborhoods back then are
12:18
obviously very different now, right?
12:20
But that's all we did is is you play sports, you get into some
12:24
scraps, you have your buddies. And then I just happened to have
12:27
a dad who just was this iconic guy who was just, and just the
12:32
biggest character, right? And everyone loved to be around
12:35
him. Oh yeah, no, I read a lot about
12:37
him. I mean, I can't imagine having
12:39
him as a dad. That's why I wanted to talk a
12:44
little bit about your childhood because.
12:45
My mom's going to love that one, yeah.
12:47
But so when all this is going on in your high school life, yeah.
12:53
What what are you thinking about college?
12:55
I mean, like, I know you went to Brown, but were you, was that
12:58
also directed? Is that where you were going to?
13:01
That's that wasn't your choice. That's where you're going, or
13:03
how did that world come to you? That was just, once again, it
13:07
was like you're in that world of, of it was almost like I was
13:12
groomed to do that. And all of our, like a lot of my
13:15
dad's ex players had so much influence on my life too.
13:20
And there's one family, the Bennett family, right?
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The five, six brothers, 5 brother.
13:25
They lost a son at an early age, but they all played in the NHL
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and they all played for my dad at Cranston East.
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So, and, and three of them went to Brown and Jimmy Bennett, the
13:37
youngest, was a big influence on me.
13:39
He was like an older brother. And so, you know, you kind of
13:44
get, you just get always, you get kind of led into a path that
13:49
others want you to do and they want the best for you, too.
13:53
My dad wanted the best. But my dad, let's face it, Brown
13:56
University was 10 minutes from my house.
13:58
So what does that mean? He could go to all my games and
14:01
exactly he'd be right. He could and, and, and and and
14:05
all my guys, all of them, hey, go to Brown and go to
14:08
Providence. I was going to go to Providence.
14:10
I was close. I had the pen in my hand, but I
14:11
didn't go. So, but every night of the week
14:16
in that fall of 8084, I got a call from a coach, a college
14:21
coach, tennis or hockey, and I told every single one of them
14:25
I'm coming to their school. Well, I want to ask you, I just.
14:28
Couldn't tell him no. Well, I I'm curious about the
14:32
the tennis side of things because I know that you you
14:34
could have gone either way. What made you decide that that
14:37
hockey was was your your sport of choice because you ended up
14:42
being a tennis coach? Well, remember hockey was the
14:46
main sport. Tennis was something to play in
14:49
the summer, right to to cross train back then it wasn't about
14:52
like, you know, now look at. Choose one sport and that's all
14:55
you. Need is lacrosse kids, right?
14:56
They're led to believe that unless they go all in when
14:59
they're eight years old and don't play any of the sport,
15:01
then they're going to fall behind because it's about money,
15:04
right? All the coaches want the kids
15:06
playing year round. But no, back then it was it was
15:08
cool to be a two or three sport athlete and for with me, that's
15:14
just what we did since I was three years old.
15:16
I was the only three sport athlete at my school.
15:18
But it's like that even at that time period from, you know, I
15:21
graduate in 85, kids were starting to narrow.
15:24
High school. High school.
15:25
High school, yeah. Yeah, me too, right?
15:27
Yeah, it's, but I enjoyed it, you know, I, I, I enjoyed
15:31
playing three sports. Well, that's what right that was
15:35
like. That was such a thing.
15:36
Now, that's why so many people ask me, how'd you do both?
15:39
Well, that's all we did growing up.
15:41
So of course they did both. I also like I also thrived on
15:44
the challenge of it. You know, so many people said,
15:49
oh, you, you got to choose one and play.
15:51
In retrospect, that's what I should have done, right?
15:54
I should have just chosen one and gone for it, right?
15:57
But believe it or not, it was like a easier thing for me to
16:00
do, not to have to make that hard decision.
16:03
It was easier to just to say, I'll go play both sports at
16:05
Brown. And I don't mean to sound sound
16:08
arrogant about that. It's an Ivy leave school and
16:10
people are dying to get into the school.
16:11
But like, to me, it was just, I couldn't make a decision.
16:15
It was pretty cool to say because not a whole hell of a
16:17
lot of people can never say that they played two sports in
16:20
college. I mean.
16:22
Yeah, you know, I mean again. You just, you just don't really
16:25
run across people that were able to do that.
16:28
So you, you have, you know, you get to the college.
16:32
What do you, what's, what's your next step getting out of
16:35
college? What, what, what are you
16:36
thinking? What are you doing?
16:38
It was tough. I I had a lot of injuries in
16:40
college. I didn't have a great career.
16:43
I was just I felt like I was in this, this weird no man's land,
16:50
you know, purgatory area where you like, you just don't know
16:54
which way you want to go. I was just all I did was play
16:56
sports and you and then, but I senior at brown, I started to
16:59
say wet, Wow, there's so many great classes here.
17:02
This and a light went on like there's more going on in this
17:05
world than just you, let's face it, silly sports, right.
17:09
So I started to think about what I really wanted to do and
17:13
coaching was not in it to me. It was going into business,
17:17
going into sales, going into, I was, you know, law school.
17:21
I struggled with for a couple of years.
17:22
I really thought a lot of people were trying to push me towards
17:26
law school and becoming a sports agent, right, which probably
17:32
would have been a great fit for me.
17:34
I love it. Well, I just, I just meant like
17:37
that. That is me.
17:39
I love putting people together. I love connecting people.
17:45
Yeah, no, no, Right, right. But I just, I just always felt
17:48
like I was in between tennis and hockey.
17:50
I tried to play some pro tennis didn't do great.
17:54
It's very expensive too, to travel, but I got to travel the
17:56
world and saw some amazing things.
17:59
Hockey, I just, I lost a lot of confidence at Brown.
18:01
The injuries and we didn't do well and I still had
18:04
opportunities to play pro. But I said, jeez, am I going to
18:08
ride the bus and make, you know, for in minor league hockey?
18:12
I didn't believe I could play in the NHL at that point or travel
18:16
the world and plays tennis and really get a new experience.
18:19
So I chose to do the tennis. How long did you do that?
18:22
About two years. Yeah, about two years.
18:24
But I kept playing my hockey, played for a great.
18:27
I moved to New York. I started working here for four
18:29
or five years. I played for a great hockey
18:32
program called the Saint Nicks. We won the national title as the
18:37
best amateur team in the country.
18:38
That was that. That was such a great experience
18:41
too, because again and it, it just opened up some doors for
18:45
me. It led me to meet some great
18:47
people. And again, it's sport.
18:49
That's what my dad wanted for us.
18:50
He he did want sports to be this door opener.
18:54
Well, it does. You mean, obviously, yeah, you
18:56
play sports that teaches you a lot of things about life and
18:59
business and everything else, but it also connected to a lot
19:01
of people and and that's there's just no denying that.
19:06
When did you think, OK, I, I, I, I might do this coaching thing?
19:12
Because, because you grew up with a coach.
19:14
You grew up with a dad as a coach.
19:18
Yeah. How did?
19:18
How did it come to you? That's a really good question
19:21
because again, I grew up as a coach, but he was just, he was
19:24
so relentless and overbearing, right, that you're like, I don't
19:28
want to go into coaching, even though as time went on, like,
19:32
wait a minute. First of all, it makes sense.
19:34
And second of all, it's really who I am.
19:36
I mean it, you know, if you ask any of my players, they're like,
19:40
yeah, he, he was meant to coach, right?
19:42
And, and I realized that I did, I kind of coached in a very
19:45
similar way. I made the kids part of my
19:47
family. So at my house, we had three
19:50
brothers, right? And we had a tennis court in the
19:52
yard. It was a hockey, sort of ranked
19:53
street hockey in the winter. So at any given time, there
19:57
might have been 10 kids in my house, some of my dad's team,
20:02
some of my friends, my brother's friend.
20:03
So it was. Like it was a gathering place
20:05
for competition. Right.
20:07
And he always brought his players to my house and he made
20:10
him feel like family to them. That's how much he cared about
20:13
his players. He really did.
20:15
He really did. And I became that type of coach.
20:18
And to answer your question, I was working on Wall Street at
20:21
the time in the bond world, and I just wasn't happy there wasn't
20:26
me. And I went home one weekend and
20:30
my mom called me and said, you know, bring your hockey stuff.
20:32
They're having a great game this weekend and blah, blah, you
20:35
know, like my mom would always do, like you got to go play with
20:38
all your old buddies. So I bring my stuff.
20:40
I take the train, come out to the pond.
20:43
We're playing. We're having a great game.
20:44
It's a beautiful day. And one of our old friends, poor
20:47
guy, just passed away. Paulie McCabe, what a great guy.
20:50
He skated over to me, said look at your dad.
20:52
Happiest guy in the planet, happiest guy on the planet.
20:57
So I was like, you're right, Paulie.
21:00
He is. And it just hit me like, maybe I
21:03
should think about coaching. Wow.
21:05
I went back to work. I told my boss I was resigning
21:09
and I started looking at hockey jobs.
21:11
I was like, I'm going to be a hockey coach.
21:13
Well, it's really hard to break into being an assistant hockey
21:16
coach because it's very regional sport.
21:19
It's Northeast, Midwest, that's it.
21:21
So it was hard to get a job. I had one opportunity to be a
21:24
volunteer at Harvard, and I just was like, I can't take a job as
21:30
a volunteer, right? So I I said all right, maybe
21:35
I'll let's think about tennis. I had like 5 offers in the first
21:38
week, Northwestern and Miami and.
21:42
OK, so let's talk about that. Is it so 5 offers?
21:47
To be assistant coach within. Assistant coach.
21:49
So yeah, why? Why?
21:51
So why do you think that's that much different for the get into
21:55
the tennis world? Well, tennis is Tennis is all
21:57
over the. Country because it's universal.
21:58
OK, I got it. It's. 300 programs versus.
22:01
There's more. There's more of it.
22:03
Got it. Yeah.
22:04
Right. And I wasn't, I wasn't doing the
22:07
hockey. So I was kind of, you know, I've
22:09
been out of college then for six or seven years, right?
22:14
So other guys are getting their experience playing pro hockey,
22:17
which I did not do, and coaching.
22:21
So I was like, all right, so I took the Northwestern job and
22:25
went to Chicago and we got to 13 in the country.
22:28
We had a great, I mean, Chicago's great.
22:30
My brother Bobby lived there. Yeah, it was a great experience
22:34
from there. We were liking it.
22:36
And in one year, right, I became the head coach at Penn, so.
22:41
Wait, wait, wait. Let's back that up.
22:43
So you were at Northwestern, and then after a year you went to
22:48
Penn as the as the head. Coach and two other offers like
22:53
to be a head coach. So that's The thing is hockey.
22:56
You could be an assistant. Dave Quinn was an assistant at
22:58
BU for 15 years, I think, before he got the head job.
23:01
Yeah, so I was, I was just like I was.
23:04
So, so here's the thing I've always wondered about a tennis
23:08
coach. You're the head tennis coach.
23:11
And then you've got, we were just talking about this before
23:13
we got on. Then you got, you know, you got
23:14
the head basketball coach, you got the head football coach.
23:18
You know, like we were saying the SEC, they're they're big in
23:20
baseball. But so like, if you're the head
23:22
coach of tennis, do you hang out with the other head coaches?
23:28
I mean, yeah, yeah. So it's it is still a
23:33
colleagues. Oh my, my office was like the,
23:37
the hangout for everyone. They all would come to my
23:39
office, right? My players, the coaches.
23:41
It was like the locker room again.
23:42
That's how I grew up, right? I wasn't isolated and thinking
23:46
about just myself and my, I was like, I wanted everyone to come
23:50
around and tell stories and we'd tell jokes and you know, that's
23:53
just the way that's kind of the way it was, right?
23:57
My pen team, I was only there two years, but I would say six
24:02
or seven of the guys on my team were at my wedding.
24:05
Oh wow, that's cool. So like they, they just again,
24:08
like my dad, right? Yeah.
24:10
They became part of your family. Part of my family, yeah.
24:13
To only two years left. I wish I'd probably hadn't left.
24:18
I just, I loved it. It wasn't a great fit.
24:21
At the time, my wife was trying to move back to Boston, and it
24:28
just kind of worked out that way, you know, like we just
24:30
ended up leaving. And I always, you know, So, you
24:34
know, six years went by, and then I started again at
24:37
Georgetown. Yeah.
24:39
Which Georgetown was a great place to land?
24:42
I mean, obviously, you know, Georgetown is Georgetown and
24:46
it's in Washington, DC and it's where everything happens.
24:50
And then the thing of it was really cool that I've read about
24:53
your story. Is is it you not only were the
24:56
Georgetown coach, but you also were the Obama family coach?
25:01
I can't even imagine. Like, what is that like just to
25:05
go to the White House? First of all, is it hard to get
25:09
in like if if you're the tennis coach?
25:12
Like. If you're going to teach them
25:14
every, you're going to coach them every week.
25:15
I mean, is it like, hey, hey, Gordy, you could, yeah, just go
25:20
right on in. Like, how does that work?
25:24
Oh my God, It's really funny. In the beginning, In the
25:27
beginning, it was in the beginning, there was a really
25:30
formal process. But then over time, I've been
25:33
there so many times that I wouldn't say you bypass certain
25:37
things, but they're more comfortable with you.
25:40
You know my car, they know it, right?
25:42
OK, so let me ask you this. Were they thinking that their
25:45
girls might be like good at tennis and they were wanting,
25:50
you know, the the Gordy Ernst, you know, approach to how, you
25:54
know, get to the next level type thing?
25:56
Or they were just like where the Obamas would like to play tennis
25:59
and this is a cool sport. No, they, they weren't.
26:04
They didn't want me to groom them to become, you know,
26:07
tournament college players. No.
26:10
Just wanted to learn. This Michelle Michelle was
26:12
Michelle is a worker, right? She's she's so she's so into it
26:17
and she just like for instance, her back end.
26:18
We we, I probably, we probably hit 10,000 backhands to get it
26:22
right. And she wanted the kids to play
26:25
like me, a team sport, an individual.
26:27
Sport. And one sport they loved and one
26:30
sport they didn't really like. So they had to be comfortable
26:33
with being uncomfortable, which is great.
26:35
I thought I respected her so much for that because they she
26:39
was like, not one of these parents is just going to say,
26:41
oh, what do you want to do today?
26:44
You know, she was right. She's firm with them and Malia
26:48
in the beginning, she wasn't really crazy about.
26:51
By the end, I think she became captain of her high school team
26:54
and she got good enough to play and play on the team.
26:57
And I went to some of the matches to watch her and I was
26:59
so proud of her because she's like leading the team and
27:02
playing. And you know, it was, it was a
27:05
really good experience, great family and.
27:08
What about the president? He's a fellow lefty.
27:10
Was was he have any game at all? No, my God, the first time he
27:14
came out in the court, he had his flip flops on.
27:16
I was like, you going to break your ankle?
27:19
But he has a Hawaiian shirt on. Remember?
27:21
He grew up in Hawaii. Yeah.
27:22
He's a white guy. The right, so he's so just give
27:25
me the racket and he's a lefty. So he served out wide the first
27:30
serve to me, right? And I was like, and I looked at
27:32
him, he goes just gave me a little look like, yeah, I can do
27:36
this right. Like like no warm up, no
27:39
nothing. He served out what like when I
27:41
say out wide it was in, it was basically.
27:44
I'm a lefty, I know that's one of the things lefties can.
27:46
Do yeah I keep forgetting about your daughter's playing
27:49
everything. But yeah, it was just it was,
27:53
you know, they also came to the Georgetown, right?
27:55
So then the campus would had to be very tight security.
27:58
And we had. We had so much fun.
28:00
How did that connection happen? Like, you know, not everybody
28:04
just says hey, and I'm by the way, I, I, I coach the.
28:07
Obama family, someone else was connected to sort of the
28:10
criminal justice system and and reform of criminal justice.
28:13
Mark Howard, he's a, he's a professor at Georgetown and he's
28:17
also started the, the criminal justice initiative.
28:20
I I think which has become, you know, Kim Kardashian is involved
28:23
with that. I mean, yeah.
28:25
And he's doing, he's doing great work.
28:26
He's helped people get off death row.
28:28
And Mark and I use a tennis guy played at Yale, his daughter
28:33
played at Princeton. Mark was at a party and some of
28:38
Obama's people were there and said, hey, we're looking for
28:39
tennis for Michelle. And he said I got the guy.
28:41
And so it was a really good eight years.
28:45
We had so much fun. I went up at the White House, I
28:47
mean Camp David and on the Vineyard in the summer.
28:51
So it was just such a great experience.
28:53
And it was. It's all through tennis, not
28:55
hockey, right? Hockey's like you're going to go
28:57
to another rank and play like. But tennis has a way of opening
29:01
doors into a whole nother world that you know you would never
29:04
have access to. Wow, I just can't imagine that
29:07
it had to been one heck of an experience fun.
29:10
I mean, I can't imagine like what it was everybody thinking
29:12
around you. I mean, like Gordy's just kind
29:14
of going and doing he's. Over there.
29:17
The funniest thing is that one of the first times on the White
29:19
House court, I would get there early before Michelle would come
29:22
up so they could do some clearance.
29:24
Secret Service guy walks out and says, Gordy, how's it going?
29:26
And I just thought he knew my name.
29:28
And I looked at him and I said, Jesus, you look for me.
29:30
He grew up on the next street for me in Cranston.
29:32
Are you kidding me? And he played hockey.
29:35
Brown. How?
29:35
Crazy is that. I was like John.
29:40
Yeah, that's, that's small world stuff right there, Gordy.
29:43
And my dad, of course, you know, we had to keep it kind of quiet
29:47
that I was doing that. I said, Dad, don't talk about
29:49
it. Just right next, you know, next
29:51
thing you know that he tells everyone at every at every
29:54
breakfast place in Rhode Island. Next thing you know, the
29:56
Providence journals calling me for, you know, I was like, I
29:59
can't, you know I can't. So trying to have a dad like
30:02
that because I, I idea I also had a dad like that and my
30:06
brother and I were, were lucky enough when we first came out
30:10
with this filming thing that we were doing of life stories and
30:13
we had the cemeteries. We were, and so Time magazine
30:17
was going to do an article on on us.
30:19
So anyway, we were really excited.
30:21
Tyler and I were like so excited.
30:23
So we called dad and and we told Dad and dad he took that story
30:29
that we told him we were we were getting interviewed for Time
30:31
magazine. But he added, Hey, the boys are
30:34
going to be in Time magazine. Possible cover.
30:37
Well, we never said that possible cover was never a
30:41
discussion. But that's Dad needing to just
30:44
kind of top that little bit. You know, Time magazine was a
30:46
big deal, but possible cover? Well, you know, it was Dad
30:52
always just had the ability to just kind of take the strings.
30:55
Yeah, just a little bit more. And promote they're, they're
30:57
born promoters, right? That's right, a big promoter.
31:00
And they want to, they want to promote their kids more than
31:03
anything, right? That's right.
31:04
No different than parents now they want their kids to go to
31:07
these top schools so that they can brag about it or just, you
31:11
know, yeah. Well, let's talk about when this
31:15
nightmare lands on you. Oh boy.
31:18
I mean, you here you are, Gordy. You're the tennis coach of
31:22
Georgetown. You're kind of hobnobbing it
31:26
with people as famous as, you know, the Obamas.
31:29
And then this scandal breaks. And I mean, in your mind, what
31:38
are you thinking? Does it?
31:40
Does it? Is it slow or does it explode?
31:46
Well, I had left the year before because we had we parted ways.
31:51
They, they, they knew what I was doing and they let me go.
31:56
And you know that we. Went to Rhode Island, right?
31:59
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Became the Uri coach, so.
32:03
What are you thinking? What are you thinking at that
32:06
point? Like you're in between, you go,
32:09
you've been at Georgetown for what, 10 or 11 years?
32:11
And then you you take over to Rhode Island.
32:13
Right, right. Is it?
32:14
Starting like is are, how do you get the information that things
32:18
are coming out like is it nothing, nothing?
32:21
Nothing, no, no one, no one knew anything.
32:25
It was just, it literally just was like a bomb went off.
32:29
So. So what happened?
32:30
Like all at once. Oh, yeah, yeah.
32:32
I was at Rhode Island and I went home for the for the week.
32:37
I was supposed to be, you know, I was supposed to act to be in
32:41
Rhode Island. But all this stuff was going on
32:45
for probably a few months while they were while they were
32:47
building their case and right. And they arrested Singer, you
32:51
know, through the the Yale soccer coach, I guess, you know.
32:55
Did you know him? I met him once.
32:57
Yeah, Yeah, I met him once. Never knew what was going on.
33:00
Never knew. I played golf with them, with
33:02
the, with the soccer coach at Georgetown and they were friends
33:04
and yeah, it's. But yeah, I know.
33:08
So I was just, I literally no idea.
33:12
Like I was, you know, the IT was, it was a tough time for me
33:17
because I left Washington. My kids were still going to
33:21
school there. I was back in Rhode Island,
33:23
which was great, but I just two. Daughters. $2.00 yeah.
33:26
And they're both still in school there.
33:28
So everything so we're just, we changed our life, but we were
33:32
thinking about the transition back up to back to Rhode Island
33:36
out of Washington, right. And yeah, So you know, I guess
33:42
you know, they they. Are you familiar with the sort
33:47
of how this story happened or how this?
33:50
How everything came about because I don't know if it was
33:53
just a knock on the door or well.
33:55
First of all, it was a, it was a, there was a guy who was
33:59
arrested for, for some sort of stock manipulation type crime.
34:04
And he he said, Jesus, you know, Long story short, and from what
34:10
I understand, I don't know a lot about him.
34:12
All I know is he was a hockey player.
34:14
I believe he played at Yale before me.
34:16
But he said, all right, if I can let you know about something
34:20
else is going on, would you, you know, give me a better deal
34:23
here? It was one of those situations
34:25
and that I. Do remember that.
34:27
All right, so that's, that's how it get started.
34:29
Yeah. And then it led to Yale, the
34:31
Yale soccer coach and singer. So once they got Singer,
34:38
everything kind of snowballed from there because he just
34:42
started setting everyone up. And yeah, and that's when, like
34:46
your show says, that's when the nightmare started, when they
34:49
knocked on the door at 7:00 AM. What are you thinking?
34:54
I was taking my daughter to school.
34:56
My wife called me, said the FBI is here with a warrant for your
35:00
arrest. And I just was like, you know
35:02
it, You know, it's, it's. It's awful.
35:05
Yeah, You feel like you just got pounded.
35:07
Like you talk about some of the toughest guys in the NHL, like 3
35:10
or 4 of them beating on you, right?
35:13
Yeah, yeah. It's the weight of the world
35:16
too, because the you know that your life's never going to be
35:22
the same, because whatever is going to happen next is the
35:26
whole unknown of. Well, yeah, they take you and
35:29
they bring you to a, to a holding area cell, right?
35:33
And you still don't know what's going on.
35:35
And then the public defender shows up and slides the
35:38
indictment under the door. And I look down, I see my name.
35:42
And then he said it's all over the news.
35:45
Yeah, you. That was a tough time for sure.
35:49
How long from the time that that happened, according to the time
35:54
that you ended up with a plea and sentencing, how long did
35:58
that, how long did that last? That was a couple years because
36:01
remember COVID? So everything was getting pushed
36:04
back. Other people who had pled guilty
36:08
had to be sentenced. So that took time.
36:10
So everything just got pushed back.
36:12
And that's a tough time period because you're in limbo and you
36:16
don't know, right? It's just your head is just
36:19
constantly telling you it's going to be worse, or then
36:23
someone will say you're not going to do prison time or
36:26
everyone's telling you something.
36:29
I had some great friends at the time and my just that we're so
36:32
supportive. I was playing a lot of hockey
36:36
and that helped. That helped just burn my stress
36:38
and I was working three different jobs.
36:41
I just the whole thing is keeping busy.
36:44
It's. Such I think that's a really
36:46
good point. This this show goes into 1500
36:50
prisons and one of the things that I think for people that are
36:56
getting indicted, man, if you can keep yourself busy.
37:00
I mean, it's like for me, I had some friends that had bought a
37:04
Country Club and I was in charge of this Country Club building,
37:07
you know, memberships and we had maintenance projects and
37:10
different things. And I was just really busy doing
37:13
that. And I can't imagine not having
37:15
that. You have to in that time period.
37:18
And that was still, you know, we our our case went on forever.
37:20
But so Gordy, like around all that, the peripheral of your
37:27
life, your mom, your dad, your brothers.
37:31
What what's that like this kid? This is, you know, we we already
37:35
announced it at the beginning. This is the golden kid that's,
37:38
you know, walking through life. And then you're now tagged
37:42
what's, what is it like in the Ernst world?
37:48
Well my dad had passed away in 16, so a couple of.
37:50
Years he wasn't there. But the joke was that he will.
37:54
In some ways, he would like the publicity.
37:56
Right, that's a big story. I mean, he just like, you know,
38:00
just publicity was it was everyone knows that he just
38:03
loved to be in the Providence Journal.
38:05
He like to see our name like the family name he like right?
38:07
There was in a lot too. Yeah, he would have been.
38:10
He would have been very upset at the beginning because he always
38:14
told me, you know, he was a college coach, too.
38:15
He worked for Dave Gavin, who he loved.
38:17
Dave Gavin started the Big East, right, Started Big East
38:20
basketball. And he and Dave were good
38:22
friends. And he always talked about, you
38:24
know, my dad was an ultimate hustler.
38:27
He'd hustle, you know, everything, the way he ran his
38:30
terms, every. But he never, ever would cross a
38:33
line or do something that could, could be criminal.
38:36
Never. So you always just tell me, just
38:39
remind me, don't break any rules.
38:40
Don't bring any rules right? Well, the other thing that you
38:44
and I were talking about, Gordie and, and I know that a lot of
38:48
people that have had kids go to college and or they played
38:51
sports or anything around that university stuff, man, money is
38:54
such a big deal and it gives you access.
38:58
And we were talking about how, you know, Varsity Blues was
39:03
about a couple of different things, but it was mostly trying
39:05
to get their kids into the place that they wanted to go.
39:09
And that happens a lot with donations and, and the way that
39:13
money kind of moves around when the kids are young and how they
39:17
donate going forward and how they're perceived when, you
39:20
know, they're, you know, the admissions office, all those
39:22
different things that happened. You ended up in a, in a, you
39:28
know, a national scandal thing, singer and all that.
39:31
But this stuff with money and sports and admissions kind of a
39:37
thing that's gone out ever since they opened up the doors to
39:40
colleges. It's it's just who who gets the
39:43
money? Who gets the money.
39:47
So you you finally get this thing and you realize you're
39:54
going to go, you're going to go away.
39:59
How do you? You know, for me, it was like I
40:05
had such a hard time getting my mind around, you know, it's
40:07
something I never thought I was going to be in.
40:10
I was going to go live in. How did what was your mindset
40:14
like walking to? Did you voluntarily surrender?
40:18
Yeah. What was that like?
40:20
That was a tough day. My daughter Phoebe, I, I can
40:25
still just picture her crying right now.
40:27
She was going to school that day and.
40:30
How old would she have been at the?
40:31
Time she was what was she 17 at the 16 at the time?
40:37
Yeah. And it it was just that there's
40:41
a couple of moments that involve my kids, right, of how their
40:45
lives changed through all this. And that was one of the pivotal
40:49
moments in terms of just seeing them and you just.
40:51
So going back to what you're saying before, how to handle all
40:54
this, there were steps, of course, embarrassment, right?
40:58
Embarrassment's the big one. You're just so embarrassed.
41:01
You're embarrassed for yourself, for your family, right?
41:03
And for your players and shame and self hatred and all those
41:08
things. You go through those steps and
41:10
then you're like, wait a minute. A lot of people have done stuff
41:13
where they write. It's just all blown up publicly.
41:16
So if everybody can see it, yeah, a lot of.
41:18
Different don't A lot of people don't hit the papers and be on
41:21
national news exactly. But no one's no one is escapes
41:25
it, right? So you start to go through, then
41:28
you start to go through perspective in terms of the
41:31
people who are sick, there are people who are dying there.
41:33
So you start to change your mindset and like, wait a minute,
41:36
I'm going to get through this. Even though getting through this
41:40
was a tough thing, everyone kept saying you'll get through this,
41:44
you know, or you'll come out on the other side of this and
41:47
you're like, what is what does that even mean?
41:48
Right. It's.
41:49
Like what it means you're just going to survive.
41:52
You're going to survive it. You're going to survive, yeah.
41:55
So I want to take a breakthrough because I want to.
41:57
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42:01
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42:03
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It's prisonist.org. All right, Gordy.
43:52
So you know, yeah. The one thing about the thing
43:57
with the family is, is that your whole family goes to prison,
43:59
basically. I mean, it's not just you.
44:02
You know, they got to figure out how to live on the outside.
44:04
You go on the inside. And it's heart wrenching.
44:08
Heart wrenching. That's a great way to put it.
44:11
Your family goes too. They really do.
44:13
I mean, they got to figure out how to live their lives while
44:17
you're living your life on the inside.
44:18
And however life community society accepts that thing that
44:23
you're going through is kind of played on to them and it's just
44:26
feels bad And you know that you when you go in, you don't really
44:31
have you can't really do anything.
44:34
You know, you're, you're, you're emasculated from being the guy.
44:38
You know, this is the one that can always do and help.
44:42
So when you go in, how do you handle being in a place you
44:47
didn't plan on being in? You just, you read so much and
44:53
you listen. I was listening to Oprah
44:55
podcasts and stuff back then, getting some books with Eckhart
44:58
Tolle and Richard Rohr and all these people that she had on.
45:02
And you're trying to get perspective and you're trying to
45:04
learn about, you know, oh, Michael Singer, you know, just
45:09
you you you try to prepare yourself by preparing your mind.
45:12
Right. Right.
45:13
That's the key. Yeah.
45:14
So you're not, you're not making yourself crazy, right.
45:18
You know, so you're preparing yourself, but you still have to
45:21
go in and do it. So it's almost like it's just
45:25
almost like getting a fight in hockey.
45:26
You don't really want to fight, right.
45:27
And you matched up with some tough guy and, you know, you're
45:29
going to get your ass kicked, right.
45:31
But you just said, yeah, you just, you just grab and hold on,
45:35
take your punches and move on. That's kind of what it is.
45:38
Or going in the penalty box. So you go in the penalty box and
45:41
just say, so you change your perspective, you change your
45:44
mindset. But all that being said, that
45:47
first day is tough. You walk in and you're right and
45:51
you just feel like everyone's looking at you.
45:53
And I had national. And they are.
45:55
They all, yeah, they all knew I was, I was coming.
45:58
You know, it's like high school and steroids, right?
46:01
The gossip, the gossip chain throughout a small prison is, is
46:05
funny and you just like, but that's where my upbringing in
46:12
sports and how I grew up in Providence.
46:14
I was around guys, tough guys or wise guys, like all these types,
46:19
right? Even my brother with his his,
46:22
his entourage of characters helped me survive.
46:25
Because you just, you just figure out how to get along with
46:27
everyone. And I think I, I was hoping you
46:30
were going to bring that up, Gordy, because I think sports
46:32
does play into a big part of how you can go through prison
46:35
because with the locker. The locker room, because you're
46:39
locked in with these guys and you better know how to get You
46:41
better get along and you better piss off the wrong.
46:44
People, and I think there's something to that.
46:46
Gordy too, on prison, like somebody.
46:49
I get a lot of people ask me questions because of this show.
46:51
They're getting ready to go on it.
46:52
I said. However you get along with
46:55
people on the outside, yeah, it's how you will get along with
46:58
people on the inside. If you get along with people
47:00
pretty good on the outside, then you're going to get along with
47:02
pretty good with people on it. But if you, if you're a shit
47:05
disturber, that's not going to go over that well and get into a
47:09
lot of that there. 'Cause you're, 'cause you're on
47:12
edge, right? And you're going to be tested.
47:15
So how are you going to react to that?
47:17
You better be careful. So you're going to keep your
47:19
emotions in check, right? You got to make sure your
47:22
buddies with a lot of different types, which I, I was every
47:25
group in there I was friends with at some point, right?
47:29
You probably heard that pickleball story.
47:30
I helped start the pickleball. I wanted to bring that up
47:32
because Brad Ross called me. And told me.
47:34
About it? Can you tell us about it?
47:36
Yeah, the, the, it was great. You know, we played handball and
47:39
guys, we played basketball and basketball wasn't my thing.
47:42
And I'm so, you know, I'm doing workouts in the yard and I'm
47:45
just doing anything to burn off stress.
47:48
You didn't kill time. I mean, you know, in prison an
47:52
an hour feels like a day. That's right.
47:55
The weeks go fast, but the day is like Oh my.
47:58
Glasses. Molasses, right?
48:01
So we just, we had a group of us that were playing racquetball
48:04
and handball and all this stuff. It's like, wait a minute, and
48:07
someone sent me a book on pickleball.
48:09
I didn't even, I didn't even really know what pickleball was,
48:12
even though now it's exploding. That's huge.
48:15
It's crazy, right? Like and I said and they said,
48:18
Gordy, work your magic. Go go talk to the assistant
48:21
warden. So I did, and the head of Wreck
48:24
and they got us paddles, pickleballs, net.
48:28
Next thing you know, we're playing.
48:29
Next thing you know, I had people who had never swung A
48:31
racket before anything playing. I was running tournaments in
48:34
there. You're a coach, though.
48:35
Oh my God, and that just that kind of I got my element.
48:39
I, I brought my, my background into that and that for the last
48:44
couple months, Brent, that was just so fun, right?
48:48
It was so fun because you had guys coming by my cell saying
48:52
who they playing against and you know what's my draw look like
48:56
and I could have beaten that guy and it it was really fun.
48:59
I wish we could have videoed that.
49:00
It was That would have been a great.
49:02
You know, I, I would have loved to have seen that because we had
49:06
a tennis court and it had been given us to, to us by Fort
49:11
Leavenworth and it was a sport court.
49:13
So it came in little plastic squares.
49:16
I've never seen a tennis court with a that was a sport court
49:19
anyway. But the crazy thing about it was
49:22
Gordy is that those squares, because they were old, they
49:25
would come apart. So we had to get paper clips
49:29
and, and paper clip them. But when, if like if you really
49:32
stopped, the whole court would split.
49:34
It was just we had a lot of guys.
49:39
I mean, we, we kill a lot of time playing double S on that
49:43
crazy sport court. And, you know, some people got
49:45
really hurt 'cause, you know, doing splits and whatever else
49:49
that would happen with their. But I love that Brad who's been
49:52
on the show. He's, he's a great guy.
49:54
He. Helped me a lot.
49:55
He worked for for the White collar guys and Brad was
49:59
awesome. He wrote a great job.
50:01
Yeah, great guy. Anybody who's looking for help,
50:06
Brad can can help mitigate and write and get your story.
50:14
Yeah. And he's also kind of a
50:15
therapist. So he's he's just a good guy and
50:19
he's, I forget what episode he is on, but it was last last
50:22
season. But he's a good chance.
50:25
Awesome guy. Great guy.
50:27
So you you become the pickleball czar.
50:30
That gives you some St. crowd to get everybody into that.
50:35
So then. What do you find going back?
50:38
Remember I mentioned the wolf. I went the wolf who did.
50:41
Yeah, Wolf was classic right before I you know what you when
50:45
you get sentenced, he called me and he didn't say any like he's
50:49
like, whatever, you're going to go to minimum security.
50:51
I mean, wolf went to maximum security, right?
50:53
And or at least started there and worked his way down.
50:56
You got to go to Fort Evans IT, which is in Concord, MA, really
51:01
close to my house and whatnot, or where I'm from.
51:04
I'm like, why do I got to go to four times?
51:06
He had some guys that were still there, but he said because they
51:10
have street hockey. I was like what?
51:13
That's where I'm I'm choosing to go to a prison.
51:17
Street. Hockey because you'd be a stud
51:19
and everyone's going to love you and you.
51:21
But I'm like, I'm not going to prison to play street hockey.
51:24
You know, my hip was bad at the time, and I'm like, you had my
51:26
body. I had both of them done.
51:29
Yeah. Now I'm great.
51:30
I can skate and play tennis. Yeah, everything's good.
51:32
Perfect now. Yeah, right, That's right, Steve
51:35
Austin, but no. But so it was really funny that
51:38
the mindset of these guys, you know they, but at the same time
51:41
they look for the positives, right.
51:43
All right, You're going to go there.
51:44
They get street hockey, You're going to go there.
51:45
The food's better. You're going to go there like.
51:47
Which is all, you know, in the end, it's kind of important, you
51:51
know, the I can say Leavenworth had pretty good food, but I've
51:56
heard that Marion doesn't. So, you know, it's just a crazy
51:59
thing when you get into this weird club that you never
52:01
planned on being at. There's a lot of talk there's.
52:04
A lot of talk, you want to go there, you want to get
52:06
transferred there. All these guys who have done
52:08
multiple places, that's what they talk about.
52:11
And then there's the drug and rehab program.
52:13
Drug and alcohol. You gotta get.
52:14
You gotta actually be transferred there if your place
52:16
doesn't have it, which is a big deal.
52:18
I did that. Nine months.
52:20
Oh, you did as well. So you did that?
52:22
Did you do a total? You did 30.
52:24
You had a 30 month sentence. Is that correct?
52:26
Month sentence and I served a year right but you know the
52:29
first step back kicked in you know there and then you work off
52:32
your credits I took 15 classes when I was in there I mean I did
52:35
everything and. Really buckled down.
52:37
And you know what? And and made some good friends
52:39
too. I mean, some really, really just
52:41
great guys, you know? I think it's one of the things
52:44
about the perspective of things that, you know, you don't know
52:47
what you're going to meet when you go in and then you come out
52:49
where you you've you've met some people that you really like.
52:53
Yeah. It's just it's a crazy.
52:55
We all have a we all have we all have some most things in common.
52:59
One thing we all share in common, right?
53:02
Like there's you could find something that's true.
53:05
And yeah, there was some there. There was some really just some
53:09
great characters that I was 1. Of the nicknames, nicknames are
53:13
great and. Yeah, I was.
53:14
GI was G Rock for a while. I had a couple of different
53:17
nicknames. You know she just the best. 40
53:21
with Just Rock. There was a guy named Bobby,
53:24
Bobby Sprouse from South Carolina, the real strong South
53:27
Carolina accent. And what a great, great guy.
53:30
And, you know, everyone's struggling the first few weeks
53:33
and you're always thinking, why me?
53:35
Why am I doing this right? And then he said to me, we're
53:37
out in the yard. He was, he was in landscaping
53:39
and I was raking leaves that day and he came over to me and he
53:43
said, did you ever think about maybe you got God put you here
53:47
to help other people? And that just kind of changed my
53:52
mindset again, like, wait a minute.
53:54
He could be right. Yeah, maybe I'm supposed to be
53:57
here. Maybe not because I deserve to
54:00
be here, right? Whatever.
54:01
That's right. But maybe I'm here to help other
54:04
people get through their hard time.
54:07
Yeah, you're a natural coach. And I mean, right, That's right.
54:12
And we were cell mates for a couple of months and just some
54:15
of these people are just amazing people, you know.
54:17
Yeah, and it is crazy, though, and great when somebody can say
54:22
something to you to make you think and it helps you get
54:26
through whatever you're going through when because you're so
54:29
right, Gordy on the when you're first there, it's like, Oh my
54:34
God, yeah, Why, why? You know, I, I, I I've told this
54:39
story a lot, but the Sid that that first night on the top bunk
54:44
looking out the window after six years of a trial or not a trial,
54:48
but the case. And I'm thinking, I can't
54:50
believe this. It's I'm here.
54:52
Yeah, I'm not going to be here for a week.
54:53
I'm going to be here for years. And and it's it's like, and I'm
54:56
snoring. I'm eleven.
54:58
What about the snoring at night? Oh my gosh, Unreal takes it that
55:02
takes it to another, takes it to another level.
55:04
Well, you, you, Brent, you made a good point about top bunk,
55:07
lower bunk, which is a big thing.
55:09
I had a doctor's note because of my hip.
55:11
Perfect. So I had lower bunk immediately
55:13
I. Was like I want.
55:15
Immediate seniority, right? Right.
55:17
They were like how does the new guy get and?
55:19
Next you're going to tell me you had the clicker.
55:21
I mean, my gosh. No, I didn't, so that wasn't.
55:25
They told me. We don't.
55:26
We don't watch hockey in here, Gorge, so forget.
55:28
It right, No hockey. But yeah, no, it's, it's in the
55:32
past. Now is a time period and now
55:35
it's just about rebuilding and and.
55:36
Well, I, I, I want to talk about that.
55:38
I want to talk about the rebuilding part of things
55:40
because when you get close to knowing that you're getting out.
55:43
Yep. It's kind of a weird thing.
55:45
You kind of get like a little antsy about the fact of like,
55:48
OK, I've been in here, now I'm going to get out of here.
55:51
What were you thinking? Like what was in your mind?
55:54
Like how am I going to get out of here and what am I going to
55:57
do? You're always thinking #1 about
56:00
how you get out early. Yeah.
56:02
And the scuttlebutt and everyone's saying, oh, this guy
56:04
got early and that guy got in, like, how did he get out early
56:06
when he had 36 months? Like, it's all that stuff.
56:09
And the guys, the guys that work in prison don't make it eat
56:12
because they they they mess with guys all the time.
56:15
They make you believe you're going to be out next month.
56:17
And it could be two or three months or six months.
56:19
It's it's brutal. What what they can do this mean?
56:23
Yeah, they oh, yeah. They they can, they can mess
56:24
with guys. But so the last month you're
56:26
just saying I want to get out you.
56:28
So. But in that time period, you're
56:30
starting to think, all right, what's next?
56:32
Whatever. But you, you know, a part of
56:36
your sentence is halfway house. So I'm in a halfway house, not
56:40
living in one. It wasn't a dorm, but I had to
56:42
report to 1 three days a week, and I had to wear a bracelet.
56:45
I had an extra nine months, I think, of wearing a bracelet.
56:51
Those are embarrassing. Yeah, well, I put you know, I
56:54
know, but I had to do that. So I had halfway house.
56:58
Daughter's boyfriend for the first time with that on.
57:02
Yeah. I guess intimidating.
57:04
I don't know. Yeah, well, that's all right.
57:07
So I, you know, so you're, in other words, you're going
57:09
through, there's a whole nother piece because now you're in home
57:11
confinement. So now I'm on, I'm on.
57:14
You know, they had set up a box and you can only go out of
57:16
certain points of the day. And I have a dog and who who's a
57:20
big dog? Bailey and and I had to walk
57:23
her. And you're, you know, you're
57:24
trying to have start your life. You realize you're kind of still
57:26
in prison. And that's frustrating, isn't?
57:29
It it's frustrating. I feel like I've done my time,
57:32
I'm I'm ready to go, I'm ready to start and then just
57:35
everything keep pulling you back with these restrictions and the
57:38
supervisions and the. Everyone's got a job to do and
57:41
everyone has to get paid. So it's a, you know, it's no
57:44
different than college administrators and everyone's
57:47
got a job to do and they're going to keep it going, right?
57:50
So yes, it was that. And then it start to network and
57:54
start to call people and start to sort of say, all right,
57:57
what's next? And you know, it's tough because
57:59
there's a lot of people we're of a very judgmental society,
58:02
right? And people you thought would be
58:05
there for you or not. And that, that, that hits you
58:09
and that hits you pretty hard, especially people you've known
58:11
for a long time when you call them for not just a job, but can
58:15
you introduce me to someone, right?
58:17
Or you can. And people are so scared, right?
58:21
They're so scared of being attached to anyone who has done
58:25
time or who has been through the just the criminal justice
58:28
system. They just, they get paranoid.
58:30
They think, oh, maybe they'll come talk to me.
58:32
There's a lot of people have, a lot of people have skeletons in
58:35
their closet, right? So it, it really is amazing how
58:39
many people you know, you, you, who you think you've known and
58:44
think it would be there for you or not, you know, and that was a
58:48
disappointing part of it. So I just had to keep plugging
58:51
and and I ended up talking to some people and and LED to
58:55
working in in New York, so. Which I think is a testament to
59:00
the resilience and kind of the the grit that you've had.
59:04
Gord, Izzy, it's re entry is real tough.
59:08
Like you said, there's there's people who disappoint you.
59:10
There's people that won't give you opportunities.
59:12
And for a lot of people, that's enough to make somebody just
59:16
stop creates paralysis and and you just don't step forward.
59:21
What I really like about your story though, is is that you
59:24
didn't stop. You continued to work your way
59:28
into an opportunity and it's something that you know really
59:33
well. So it's they don't take your
59:35
brain. I mean, you're a coach through
59:38
and through. It's people are lucky if they
59:40
can have the opportunity to to get with you because now you
59:42
even have more experience of how you deal with stuff.
59:45
And it's so much of it's a head case when you get onto the
59:48
tennis court. Yeah, it's that.
59:52
So I think that's what you've been able to do in the short
59:55
amount of time that you've been able to do it and stay in your
59:58
lane and and get into. Back into the world of, of
1:00:04
coaching people and, and being that person, challenging people
1:00:08
and, and making them better. You have a lot to offer.
1:00:13
I I'm, I'm curious, what's your biggest take away is through all
1:00:17
of this? It's just gratitude, right?
1:00:22
Because everyone's got it worse. Let's face it, you meet so many
1:00:27
guys in in prison too. Not just prison guys who are in
1:00:30
prison, but you, I mean, I just realized what a life I've had,
1:00:34
right? I mean, you mentioned a few
1:00:36
things, but there's a lot more to it.
1:00:38
You know, we just touch on these things in an hour, right?
1:00:41
But, yeah, you just, you just you still have to stick to
1:00:43
gratitude and appreciation for what you have.
1:00:46
That's the key. It sounds like a cliche, but
1:00:49
it's true. No.
1:00:50
And I think and and and stick to what you have.
1:00:53
I think that you have a purpose, you know, and you always have
1:00:58
had a purpose, you know, whether you were playing sports or, or
1:01:01
you were coaching, you were helping people.
1:01:05
Yeah, challenging people, giving them opportunities, give them,
1:01:08
give them ways to handle 'cause when you're coaching somebody,
1:01:10
you're also giving them life skills.
1:01:12
So it's, there's a lot to that, you know, And, and I've got a
1:01:16
daughter who's been a tennis coach for a while and then and a
1:01:20
teacher. So I there there's.
1:01:22
I've got 3. Daughters, by the way, I'm not
1:01:24
just talk about the one daughter, they're.
1:01:27
All it's it's God's way of getting back at us.
1:01:30
That's right. That's right.
1:01:32
Your gratitude. That's a great, that's a great
1:01:34
point. Gratitude.
1:01:35
And I, I, I feel that too, Gordy, because my, my oldest
1:01:40
daughter just had her third. Yes, congratulations, Grandpa.
1:01:45
Yeah, I got to tell you, though, like, I so love the whole
1:01:48
grandpa thing. And I I think about like, what
1:01:53
would happen if I wouldn't have been here?
1:01:55
What if I went to trial and they gave me like 30 or 40 years and
1:01:58
I'm meeting these great kids in in a visiting room.
1:02:02
I mean, gratitude, you know? Yeah, That's that's so good,
1:02:08
Cordy. Yeah, no, I'm, I'm still lucky.
1:02:10
I'm still, you know, I, I've had, I've had a pretty good
1:02:16
life, right. And I.
1:02:17
You've had a very interesting life.
1:02:19
Yeah, I've been all over the world, right, China and
1:02:22
Australia and Brazil and have met some unbelievable people and
1:02:26
the White House for eight years. Like all this stuff, it's like,
1:02:28
it's all great, but at the end of the day, it comes down to
1:02:31
your relationships and, and, and just being thankful for what we
1:02:35
have. And you know that, and you have,
1:02:38
and you have to keep your sense of humor.
1:02:40
Right. If you don't, If you don't,
1:02:43
yeah, you're in trouble. Things get dark.
1:02:48
And these things get dark. Yeah.
1:02:50
So no. But Brent, this is this is this
1:02:52
has been fun. I.
1:02:54
Really appreciate you coming on. Appreciate your relentless at at
1:02:57
pursuit. Hey, you wouldn't you wouldn't
1:02:58
have been a good hockey player. You chased that puck in the
1:03:00
corner, you keep digging for it and you tried it, right?
1:03:03
My wife told me that maybe that's why I'm married to her.
1:03:06
She finally said yes. Blues could use you.
1:03:08
The Blues could use you, right? They could.
1:03:10
Yeah, I want to give a shout out to homie.
1:03:13
I want to give. A shout out to the retchings.
1:03:15
He's out. Of the Retchings, they're right
1:03:17
here in Saint Louis. Hockey guy, we went, we played
1:03:20
it Brown together and Mike especially and Mark, his
1:03:23
brother, just amazing guys. Mike's in Saint Louis and.
1:03:26
My kids, my school with them. Lori spent a lot of time with
1:03:29
him in those years leading up to my sentence.
1:03:33
And just guys like that are always just, you know.
1:03:36
We'll all have to get together if you come into town.
1:03:39
Oh, I love to do that. Yeah, I love to do that because
1:03:42
they, because let's look, those guys helped me through a lot.
1:03:44
Of those and you don't forget that, Gordy.
1:03:47
No, you never forget that. Just great guys.
1:03:50
And you know, again, the hockey world is a is a very tight
1:03:53
special. World, you know Yeah.
1:03:55
Yeah. Well talking about gratitude, I
1:03:58
want to give a shout out to Homestead financial home
1:04:00
mortgage. They let me use this podcast
1:04:02
room and all the fancy lights and stuff.
1:04:04
If you got home mortgage needs, Greg Aftiav is your guy.
1:04:08
Hey, if you're looking for a book out there, check out my
1:04:10
nightmare success, loyal to portrayal, life behind bars,
1:04:13
adapting, finally breaking free if you got time.
1:04:15
I know it's a hassle, but leave me a review on Apple.
1:04:18
I'd love to read those. It helps the show.
1:04:20
Want to see what I'm doing? brettcassidy.com.
1:04:23
I spell it wrong. I spell it with ATY, not ADY.
1:04:27
And as I used to say to my people when I was writing my
1:04:30
emails back and forth from Leavenworth, stay strong.
1:04:32
I'll do the same. Gordy Ernst.
1:04:34
Man, it's been fun. Thanks.
1:04:36
Awesome. Bron I.
1:04:37
I appreciate you having me. Seriously.
1:04:39
It's it's it's been a treat. Thank you.
1:04:40
I. Wish you the best of luck man on
1:04:42
everything. Thank you, Brett.
1:04:45
I'm your success in and out.