Latest / The Scene Projects / Balancing Semi-Pro Football and Life with Cornelius Wahlo

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Balancing Semi-Pro Football and Life with Cornelius Wahlo · The Scene Projects

• 0:02
  Welcome in to an exciting episode of the Scene Project Sports Network.
• 0:06
  I am your host Bubba Starts.
• 0:07
  With me today, Cornelius Wallo.
• 0:10
  What's happening, brother?
• 0:11
  Man, not much, man.
• 0:12
  How you doing?
• 0:13
  Man, let me be the first one to congratulate you on, on making the team Saint Paul bear.
• 0:20
  Man, we're we're excited to have you in the crew.
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  Thank you.
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  I'm excited to be here, man.
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  It's a pretty pretty big opportunity, so was gonna make the most of it.
• 0:29
  That's right.
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  Well and we want you to go ahead and and tell us a little bit about who you are and and what
• 0:34
  the journey's been like to to get to this point.
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  Well, Cornelius Wallow played played high school in Woodbury, Minnesota, actually.
• 0:46
  That's where I played my high school ball.
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  Graduated in 02/2011.
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  Went off to play junior college football at North Dakota College of Science in Waperson,
• 0:57
  North Dakota.
• 0:59
  And, academically, I didn't really wanna pursue anything past that.
• 1:07
  I did do a semester at, at NDSU.
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  I actually did try to walk on, in the fall, of 2013, and I ended up actually not making the
• 1:18
  team.
• 1:19
  They did want me to come back in the fall, or in the spring, but I ended up dropping out.
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  So that was pretty much that was pretty much that for college.
• 1:28
  Then I just started working.
• 1:29
  I've lived in Fargo.
• 1:30
  I've lived in Fargo since 2014.
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  Actually, started my started playing semi pro in in Fargo.
• 1:41
  Got looked at while I was actually working full time at the gym.
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  People up here will know Family Wellness.
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  That's where I was working.
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  My guy, his name is Ross Chanel.
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  He was one of the linebackers for Fargo invaders.
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  He just he was he was a regular at the gym, saw me working.
• 2:00
  He's like, dude, do used to play football?
• 2:01
  I was like, yeah.
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  A long time ago.
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  This is 2015.
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  And, he was just like, dude, we've we've got a team started up here, semi pro.
• 2:10
  We've been doing it for a few years.
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  And at that point, I didn't really know if I wanted to play anymore, but he's a consistent
• 2:17
  guy.
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  His name is Roshanel John Baptiste.
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  He's one of my one of my guys.
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  And so, yeah, I ended up saying, you know, just whatever, man.
• 2:26
  Let me let me see if I still got it.
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  You know, let me knock the the see if I can knock the dust off.
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  You know what I mean?
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  So started playing again in 2015 and did a did a full season the following year in 2016.
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  Got back to playing defensive tackle, my my main position, man, I fell back in love with
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  the sport.
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  There's nothing like falling back in love with the sport, man.
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  I'm telling you.
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  So, you know, just started getting serious with working out and trying to get my weight up.
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  One of the things that I was told in college was I was I was I wasn't I was never big
• 3:02
  enough.
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  You know what I mean?
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  Like, playing my position at six one, I was behind guys that were, like, six four, six
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  five, and, you know, I I didn't really get the the desired playing time in college, so that
• 3:14
  always bothered me.
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  So just had to get my weight up, my strength up, control what I could, you know, make sure I
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  wasn't gonna be outworked by anybody at the very least.
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  So, you know, just started doing that and, you know, starting to get bigger and stronger and
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  just doing what I could on the field in that sense.
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  So yeah.
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  And then, you know, couple years ended up making a all star.
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  Went did a did a few trips to Las Vegas for the all star team for the NEFL through the Fargo
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  invaders, yeah, here we are.
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  That's amazing, man.
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  Yeah.
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  At six one, but as wide as you are, you're too big to play linebacker.
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  Right.
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  Right.
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  Undersized to play d line.
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  Right.
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  Right.
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  But it's tough.
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  I'm sure you're a high motor guy, but even given it all the motor, when you're going up
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  against offensive linemen that are six seven.
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  Right?
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  You know what I mean?
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  As some of these guys just get big, and that's even playing, you know, playing any kind of
• 4:10
  ball.
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  That's why I dropped out, brother.
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  I played my freshman year.
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  Was like, this is ridiculous.
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  I was a guard.
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  I was like, this is not gonna work.
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  Right?
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  I'm I'm six foot even.
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  Back then, I probably wasn't even that big.
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  Buck 80 is like, yeah.
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  I'm over this, man.
• 4:25
  No.
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  You're all trying to put me out here on the line.
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  I went to a small school.
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  Right?
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  I graduated with a class of, like, 70 some kids.
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  Right?
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  But even, you know, playing and our high school team, they did okay, but then they'd go and
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  play, like, the Sioux Falls team.
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  So I grew up in Deadwood, South Dakota, which you're in the Dakota, so you're kind of
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  familiar with the area.
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  Yeah.
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  We would come and we would play West Central, which is like a private school almost right
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  outside of Sioux Falls.
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  Okay.
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  So they would be these kids were like realignment again.
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  Right?
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  I was like, no.
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  I was like, okay.
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  Cool.
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  We can beat all the teams out here, but then as soon as you get to state, you just get beat by
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  40.
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  And I watched my all my friends that were still on the team do the same thing.
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  Right?
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  Do the same thing.
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  And a few of them went on to play.
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  A couple guys went up to NSU and Aberdeen and played up there.
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  I just I I just never really had a passion.
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  I I said to coach, I was like, my high school coach's son was a year older than me, and that
• 5:20
  probably had an effect.
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  Right?
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  You knew who was gonna be getting the ball.
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  Yep.
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  You knew where it was going, and I was just like, I'm not here to just play to kowtow to
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  that.
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  Right?
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  So the pressure
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  for football, you know, kind of waned there.
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  I took up soccer, but, you know, I realized that and and I commend you for, like, leaving
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  the sport and coming back because you can lift weights and you can you can you know what I
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  mean?
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  Stay, like, in shape.
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  You can stay strong, but the cardio, brother.
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  Right.
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  I took a year off, but I was partying in college and came back and tried to play spring
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  soccer, and I made it, like, ten minutes, and I'm hands up for a sub.
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  Right?
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  I'm like, no.
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  No.
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  They say, I can't do what I was doing a year ago.
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  Right?
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  And and we were in a state championship game with our soccer team.
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  So I commend you, man.
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  It's not it's not easy to to, like, to go away from the sport.
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  And it sounds like academics is really the reason that you weren't really you know what I
• 6:14
  mean?
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  School's probably hard.
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  You probably didn't, you know, have a great, you know, GPA coming out of high school.
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  That's why you're going into a smaller school to begin with.
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  And then it just makes everything that much harder.
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  Right?
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  Everything you know, you're having to try really hard just to keep up in school, and
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  you're not getting, you know, a lot of these d one guys that go, they ain't even doing their
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  homework, man.
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  Right?
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  They doing nothing.
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  Especially now in the time of NIL.
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  We we come from a different time.
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  I mean, I graduated o four.
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  I'm from a different era than you are.
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  I don't mean to compare myself to you.
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  No, man.
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  It it it's it takes a lot of grit to to walk away.
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  And like you said, lose that passion.
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  Right?
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  When everything becomes harder and it not that much, then you start working.
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  I don't know if, you know, had a girlfriend by that time or, you know, you got you start life
• 7:01
  starts happening.
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  Right?
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  As soon as you step away from the game and then life starts happening, it makes it that much
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  harder to try and step back in.
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  And and like you were saying, you know, it was a different world, you know, going away for a
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  couple years.
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  But so have you been consistent with this other league for the last ten years then, or are you
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  have you just kept playing and kept playing and now finally get this opportunity with the Saint
• 7:26
  Paul bears?
• 7:27
  Yeah.
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  So the n the NFL actually, disbanded in, in 2022.
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  So 2023, I actually did a season for for the Saint Paul pioneers.
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  And I didn't I didn't play the full season.
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  As as you said, life life happens.
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  Like, I I had just had my second daughter working three jobs, and and and I'm three hour
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  three and a half hours away.
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  So it was kinda just like like, I I literally played, like, two games that season.
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  But 2024, last year, I actually did a season with the Minneapolis warriors.
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  So they're in the they're in the GDFL that I can't even the developmental football league or
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  something like that.
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  And So good a season with them.
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  It was it was tough.
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  Again, three and a half hours come coming driving three and a half hours.
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  It it was it was tough getting to practice.
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  I was able to make it to most of the games, but due to not being at practice, I didn't really
• 8:29
  get on the field as much as I would have liked to.
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  But the little time that I did get on the field, I felt like I did make a decent enough
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  in impression.
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  Cody was actually the the DB coach.
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  And the the little plays that I did have, you know, he you know, I was able to, you know,
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  display what I could do with the time that I had.
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  So, you know, he he kinda tapped me on the shoulder like, hey.
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  You wanna you wanna come try out for this team?
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  I'm like, what?
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  Hell, yeah.
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  Like, you know what I mean?
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  Back to the back to the school stuff.
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  So I mean, you're yeah, man.
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  You're absolutely right.
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  Like, that that that fall at NDSU, like, that was the first time I was not a student athlete.
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  I was just a student.
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  You know what I mean?
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  And just being so used to playing football and going to school, it was just it was weird not
• 9:25
  having the athletic side of it for for that time.
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  And so I I think I just, yeah, I just I just wasn't feeling it.
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  You know?
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  And, you know, that was one of the that was another main reason why I decided to to drop
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  out and just, you know, start life.
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  Well and and what some people may not realize is that when you are part of these teams that
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  you are getting resources that a regular student doesn't get.
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  You are getting you know, I mean, besides just, you know, a professor maybe looking the other
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  way when an assignment's a little late and and things like that.
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  But I'm sure there's tutors around the team.
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  You know what I mean?
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  You're having probably group study sessions and things like that.
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  Like, when that family's kinda taken away from you of that team and you've always had that,
• 10:11
  and then all of a sudden, you're just kinda like everybody else.
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  And no offense to all of the college students out there, but but once once you've you've
• 10:18
  built your whole career and not just college, but your high school career, I'm sure was very
• 10:23
  much the same too.
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  Right?
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  You're you're the big dog on campus, man.
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  It's hard to go and be an everyman.
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  And I as someone who I'm a songwriter.
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  I'm a I'm a rock star, baby.
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  Right?
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  Like Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  Hard for me to go, and I worked in a factory for the last five years.
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  And I was just like, yeah.
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  I can't I can't do this for the rest of my life.
• 10:40
  Like, I don't I will take a lot less money to go and and to pull on this thread and and
• 10:45
  podcasting kinda fell in my lap.
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  Last year, I I left my job of, you know, five years because I had a bunch of gigs booked.
• 10:53
  I was like, man, I can make as much money with inflation and everything being what it is.
• 10:56
  I'm driving 30 miles to work every single day and driving back.
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  Like, I'm burning up all my all my money in gas and and just living to to for what?
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  To to to give it away to somebody else and not chase my passion.
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  So, mean, I got so much respect for you guys that just keep on the grind because it's not
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  like you're it's not like you're cashing NFL checks, man.
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  Right.
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  Right.
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  Like
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  and and I hope that, you know, I hope with the Saint Paul bears team that it affords you a
• 11:26
  little bit better.
• 11:27
  Are you still living in Fargo then and and gonna stay there for the season, or are you
• 11:30
  gonna try to make the move and be closer to the team this year?
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  So I do still live in Fargo.
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  I grew up in the cities, though.
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  I got I my my actually, parents live in Woodbury, Minnesota still.
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  So for the season, I'll definitely be doing a little bit more traveling.
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  But, like, in terms of, like, lodging and food and all that stuff, that's all that's all taken
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  care of.
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  So Right.
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  There's not an extra expense when you're you're coming out and having to do all that, and that
• 11:54
  makes it all all possible.
• 11:57
  Right?
• 11:57
  Like, having that support network there, and I'm glad that, you know, I can I can tell why
• 12:03
  why coach Cody tapped you on the shoulder for this team because he saw the heart?
• 12:08
  He saw the dedication, man.
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  They know nobody else on the team driving seven hours round trip to show
• 12:14
  up for
• 12:14
  some practices and to make sure they're there for the game and, you know, to do the things
• 12:19
  necessary to continue chasing this dream, man.
• 12:22
  And, knowing a little bit of coach Cody's story, it makes a lot of sense why he would
• 12:27
  make sure that, you know, you came over and at least got a shot.
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  And and if you wanna pursue it that you have that opportunity, and if not and it's time to
• 12:36
  hang up the cleats for good, then then so be it.
• 12:38
  At least you got to go and and to to take this ride one last time.
• 12:42
  You know?
• 12:43
  Yep.
• 12:44
  Exactly.
• 12:45
  Yes, sir.
• 12:46
  So what's your expectations for this season, man?
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  Did you go to the tryout then, la the last tryout?
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  So, yeah.
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  It was it was it was very it it was very familiar.
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  Like, I haven't seen a 40 yard dash in so long.
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  So I was like, oh my gosh.
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  I'm like so I'm like I'm like three twenty right now.
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  I'm looking at that thing like, oh my goodness.
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  So Hopefully, I had
• 13:10
  to get under double digit.
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  Yeah.
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  I actually almost I almost I almost broke five.
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  I almost broke five.
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  There you go.
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  You still got it.
• 13:19
  I was happy I was happy with that.
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  I was
• 13:22
  Brother, that is a scary prospect.
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  The six one three hundred and twenty pound man running 40 yards in less than five seconds.
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  That scared the shit out of me.
• 13:30
  Oh, woah.
• 13:31
  It's five flat.
• 13:32
  They caught they clocked me at five flat.
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  So
• 13:34
  They're wrong.
• 13:34
  It was four nine nine.
• 13:35
  Yeah.
• 13:36
  Four nine sounds so much better, doesn't it?
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  So yeah.
• 13:42
  So no.
• 13:42
  It was it was it was very it was it was it was awesome just to get back out there, get moving
• 13:48
  again.
• 13:50
  And, yeah, it's it's inspiring, man, because I'm not I'm not the only one.
• 13:53
  There's there's guys there, 33, 30 four years old, still chasing this thing.
• 13:58
  So, you know, it's it's it's almost like if they're gonna do it, I I have to give it my
• 14:03
  all.
• 14:04
  Like, who am I who am I to not give it my all?
• 14:06
  You know what I mean?
• 14:06
  So expectations for the season.
• 14:10
  So, I mean, this will this will be my first full arena season.
• 14:13
  So I'm just excited.
• 14:15
  I really I really don't have any expectations.
• 14:19
  Obviously, I wanna hit some people, but in terms of, like, the season and everything, I
• 14:25
  just I just wanna have fun.
• 14:26
  And I'm gonna do everything I can, to help the team win wherever I'm needed.
• 14:32
  And wherever I wherever the the team needs me, I'm I'm gonna give it a %.
• 14:36
  Yeah.
• 14:37
  Can you carry the ball?
• 14:39
  So so 2022, I I made so I made first team, fullback in 2022 with a couple I I didn't I
• 14:49
  didn't break off any hundred yard hundred yard runs or anything like that, but fourth and
• 14:53
  short, fourth and goal, third and goal, fourth and goal, whatever.
• 14:57
  I I I can I can move some things around if they need?
• 15:00
  So
• 15:01
  Yeah.
• 15:01
  You got any tuddies on the career stat sheet?
• 15:04
  Oh, yeah.
• 15:04
  Oh, yeah.
• 15:05
  I got two two touchdowns in, in 2022.
• 15:08
  One against, actually, our neighbors up here, Grand Forks, bef before they, they had the
• 15:14
  folds for the season.
• 15:15
  And then I got one against the Saint Paul pioneers.
• 15:18
  So, yeah, so it was it's it's fun carrying that rock, man.
• 15:21
  There's not there's nothing like it.
• 15:23
  I'm telling you, there's nothing like it.
• 15:24
  I bet, man.
• 15:25
  Well, I grew up I grew up a bears fan.
• 15:28
  I have I have since, left them behind and, joined my wife as a Vikings fan.
• 15:33
  There you go.
• 15:34
  Gold, baby.
• 15:36
  Brother, I got tired of her talking shit.
• 15:38
  That's really what it came down to.
• 15:40
  I got that, which it kinda ruined football for her a little bit.
• 15:43
  I will say Monday night football, we went to the Whiteout game last year, man, and what an
• 15:48
  experience.
• 15:49
  And that's where I really I'm finding that love of football and finding all the correlations
• 15:54
  between, just life in general and the game.
• 15:58
  And, man, I just couldn't love the game as a bears fan, dog.
• 16:02
  It's the season's over in October.
• 16:04
  Like, I just and I've been watching these Vikings game with my wife, and really it was
• 16:08
  the coach.
• 16:08
  It was Kevin O'Connell and watching the way that he he inspired his men and watching the
• 16:13
  way that he got the most out of every single player and the way he treat them are just like,
• 16:19
  man, I love this dude.
• 16:21
  Like, I I got no skill I would run through a wall for him.
• 16:25
  Right?
• 16:25
  Because he talks to you like a human being, and he treats it like that.
• 16:29
  And that's I see a lot of that in coach Cody.
• 16:31
  Yep.
• 16:31
  Because he's been there.
• 16:32
  Right?
• 16:32
  And he's lived all the hardships, and and he's done so much with his life to be there and to
• 16:39
  step up to the plate.
• 16:40
  I mean, to go from defensive backs coach to, you know, head coach GM of a brand new team,
• 16:47
  like, that's a lot to bite off.
• 16:49
  So I I just feel so much admiration for every single person on this team, and I'll kinda
• 16:55
  spill some tea for you, but I think we're shooting a documentary over this whole thing
• 16:59
  where it's like, how do you not capture all of these stories and, like, people watch Hard
• 17:04
  Knocks and some of these spoiled NFL players.
• 17:08
  Yeah.
• 17:08
  And then why wouldn't they tune in to watch guys that could be their brothers or could be
• 17:14
  their, you know, their husbands, right, that are out there still grinding.
• 17:18
  So I just I I love what's going on here.
• 17:21
  I'm so thrilled to be a part of it in any way possible.
• 17:25
  Wherever coach needs me, I'm there.
• 17:27
  And much in the same way as you guys, man, I'm going to camp.
• 17:30
  I'm learning.
• 17:31
  I'm showing up ready every single day, and
• 17:34
  Hell yeah.
• 17:34
  We're gonna we're gonna get it this weekend, man.
• 17:36
  We're gonna get together.
• 17:37
  I wasn't planning on sticking around till tryouts originally, but I think I'm gonna hang
• 17:42
  out for ten days in Minnesota.
• 17:44
  I'm gonna soak it all in.
• 17:46
  We got a big battle of the bands.
• 17:47
  My my band is taking part in at the Grand Casino there in Hinkley, and, we invited coach
• 17:52
  and some players to come along and just help us bring the hype, man.
• 17:55
  I ain't driving from six hours away for a participation trophy.
• 18:00
  I'm coming up for that pile of money, man.
• 18:02
  They're $10 on the line.
• 18:03
  You bet I'm coming to win.
• 18:05
  Yes, sir.
• 18:06
  Yes, sir.
• 18:06
  I just wanna piggyback off that, with it's with, coach Cody, man.
• 18:11
  Like, just everything that him, the owner, every everyone that's involved in the whole
• 18:17
  thing, how much they how much work they had to put in, how much they've been grinding, just
• 18:23
  just getting the team together and then handling stuff in their personal life.
• 18:26
  And then, again, for for him to to reach out was just the biggest honor, honestly.
• 18:33
  Just just him thinking of me for, you know, the beginning of something new, something bigger
• 18:38
  than any one of us.
• 18:39
  You know what I mean?
• 18:40
  So it's just it's just a big it's just a huge honor and it's it's, you know, it's definitely
• 18:45
  a little fire under me in terms of, you know, this the the the passion and the dream.
• 18:49
  So it's just I'm excited.
• 18:51
  It's it's that extra juice when it's fourth and goal in the championship game, baby, and you
• 18:56
  know who's getting the rock.
• 18:57
  Right?
• 18:58
  Like, that's that's
• 18:59
  Who wants it who wants it more?
• 19:00
  Who wants it more?
• 19:02
  And and I think that's that's gonna be the most fun about watching this season.
• 19:06
  And win or lose, I know that every player on this team, because of who, you know, the owner
• 19:12
  and because of who coach is, that those are the type of players that you're gonna have.
• 19:17
  The head coach is a reflection of the team, or the team is a reflection of the head coach.
• 19:22
  Right?
• 19:22
  Like, you're gonna get those people.
• 19:24
  And, man, I I'm just excited to get a chance to cover it, to get a chance to talk with you,
• 19:29
  hopefully, on a weekly basis once the season gets going and to have that interaction with
• 19:34
  the team and to be in it, man.
• 19:35
  I never got to bleed on the field and and to bleed it out there, but I'll I'll be in the
• 19:40
  stands and behind the camera and in that broadcast booth with you guys every step of the
• 19:45
  way.
• 19:45
  So, Cornelius, brother, thank you for jumping on the show tonight and, making some time for
• 19:51
  us.
• 19:51
  I'm looking forward to to watching you grow over the course of the season and punching that
• 19:56
  baby in.
• 19:57
  That's what I wanna see.
• 19:58
  Thank you so much, man.
• 19:59
  I do appreciate the time.
• 20:00
  I appreciate you.