Jamin Davis and his Peach State Pride | Next Man Up Podcast | Washington Commanders

What's Good Commanders Family. I'm Bradford with Jujim. This is the Next Man Up Podcast. Our next man Up today is no other than Jamon Davis. Jamie talks about his game winning interception in his hometown. He talks about growing up in a military background with two military parents, and he tells us the wildest thing he ate in Okinawa, Japan. All that and much more, starting right now, What's good

And we have a great man here today.

We have online back of former first round pick out of Kentucky, Jamie David Jami.

How you doing brother, that I'm good.

I'm glad to be here today.

Hey man, I'm happy to have you here, man, because we got you fresh off of a game winning and it's just what we're gonna call it, right, a game winning interception.

Man. Take us through that moment and take us through that whole play.

Honestly, it was a surreal feeling to be honest with you, just knowing they thought they had a little bit of a mixed match when he motioned out there to one, I just I don't know. I let instincts take over, try to play whatever I expected to come. It was either going to be the double move go or the slant inside. So just like I said, I just try to let instincts take over and try to get a good play for the team.

I guess it turned out good.

Yeah, And I heard the competitor in you right there just say like they thought they had a mismatch. How does it feel as a player being on those eyes because you're on an island out there right like you know they're maybe coming to you.

Man, what does that feel like?

Is that like a sense of pride where you're like, oh, y'all think y'all got me, but y'all really know.

Definitely. I mean that's that's one of them things where you got to blow up and show everybody who you are.

Yeah.

I mean, in my eyes, I'm always trying to step up and make whatever plays I can for this team. So that just really really boiled down to for me.

Yeah.

Man, Well we're gonna talk a little more football later, But like I said, this is more about the man behind him and get to know who you are and you know where you're from and what makes you you. So first thing I'm gonna ask you peace state pride. We hear that in this building quite a lot, quite a lot. Peace state pride?

What does that mean?

That was?

I mean, just being proud for of where you're from. I mean, I'm a kid from South George. That was something that me and Chris Rodriguez actually started back in Kentucky and then a bunch of other guys that was on the team notes from Georgia as well. They kind of took key to it, and we just was like, Hey, wherever we go, we're gonna take that home state pride with us, you know what I mean?

Yeah? Where does that pride come from? Though? Like? Why are y'all so proud to be from where y'all from?

Cause it's just like you don't typically you don't really see a whole lot of guys when we got to Kentucky that was coming from Georgia and places like that, So we just, I don't know, we just took it and ran with it, and I guess to this day we still be going around seeing every now and in peace state pride.

Yeah, man, for your hometown and you and you carry that for you put on for your hometown, but your hometown puts on for you too. So you got your jersey retired back at your old high school. You got the key to the city by the man. They spoke about you, man, talk us about that and like what it means to have your hometown be behind.

You like that.

Yeah, definitely it It was a blessing, man, just getting a chance to go back home and see everybody once everything had took place, and you know, just trying to give them a good role model for somebody to look up to, because you know, coming up, I didn't really have a whole lot of different examples of people that

To it, you can do it at the end of the day.

So you know, like I said, just once I got a chance to go back and have everything take place.

So what it did, it was truly a blessing.

For me.

Man, that's so cool and definitely a blessing. And you know, you say you're from Georgia, but you weren't born in Georgia. You were actually born in Honolulu, Hawaii, right, Yeah, And the reason you were born in Hawaii is, oh, man, you know what I'm saying. That's what we do here. We want to get to know the person. You know what I'm saying. The reason you were born Hawaii is because both of your parents served in the military. First

Both of my parents served as well.

And we had Jeremy Reeves on a few episodes ago, and we talked about like the difference. What's just like growing up as a military kid, Like, you know, they cost military brats or whatever. And you know a lot of people know, you know, the service that our parents do, but don't really understand what that takes the toilet takes on the household.

Right, talk about that a little bit.

Talk about what it was like growing up in a military family, not just one military parent but two.

Yeah, I mean the no brainer is the deployments. That probably was the most stressful thing, Like knowing that my dad had to go and you know, serve overseas and stuff like that, and that it just requires you to be a lot more disciplined as far as trying to step up and be the man of the house, you

And you talk about deployments and a lot of people might not, like, I know what that is, but a lot of people might not know what really a deployment. It tells you mind explaining to the people what a deployment is and what that meant when your father had to go get deployed or go on a TDY.

Yeah, I mean it was. It depends on what was going on specifically at that time. I mean, you got of course, like things like nine to eleven that takes place and you got to step out right and do whatever it takes to keep this country safe at the end of the day, and you just it was always a stressful feeling sometimes because.

You never know what could end up happening.

You don't really you know, you're not really there to be around your dad or anything like that. So, like I said, it was real stressful and it was definitely some tear shit. I'm not even lied about that one at times. But at the end of the day, you know, he did what he needed to do.

I guess, yeah, yeah.

And I remember the moments where, like my mom, she'd leave for a whole year, be out on some desert somewhere, and I'm a kid, I don't know what she's doing. I don't really know what's going on, but I know my mom's not home. You mentioned your dad being gone sometimes. What did that do for you as a man? Like now that you're a man right now, right, you could sit back and look on those moments and say, like you said, you have to grow up, right, you have

It was one of those things for me where I just whatever I wanted to do, I tried to always put my mind to it so I could be better than.

Him, you know what I mean.

So that's that's probably the reason why even on the field, I try to be so precise with certain things, and I don't really like to make a lot of mistakes because I'm my own self critic and just I think that's one of the main discipline things that I got from that is just knowing that he over there makes whatever sacrifice, so the least that I can do is trying to be perfect. And most of the things that I do in life.

And growing up the way you did, like a lot of us going pro in sports, especially the way we move around and things like that isn't really a reality, right. We don't know a lot of people that grew up military that made it pro, that made it to a high level in college because a lot of times you

I mean, I definitely take all of that into the hard work that was behind the scenes, because yeah, it was definitely really hard just coming from a military background and not really having the same opportunities as most civilian kids.

And it was just, you know.

I had got a quote when I was younger, and I kind of just stuck with it throughout life is you can't have a million dollar dream with a minimum wage work ethic. And I also said it to my high school before I left, and it was just something that I took he to just realize, like if I wanted to even get this far and not just to get this far, like I'm gonna have to work at it, you know what I mean.

So yeah, for sure, And it's something that you've also taken pride in showing other kids what they can do, Like you just went to I think this past summer you went to a military base. You held camp for only military kids. Like sounds a little crazy, but like for a military kid like I would have loved to have an opportunity like that, and we didn't really like there's not a lot of people that go out of their way to do that just for military kids. How

I got a chance to get out there and learn how to use chopsticks the right way, expand my.

Food horijha a little bit, but yeah, it was.

It was pretty cool just going over there and kind of giving them a chance to see like it doesn't matter that you come from a military background or anything like that, like, yeah, you can still be, you know, the same person that you dreamed of growing up to be. So I just like went out there, of course, to try to show them, like whether it's a military installation here in the States or even across the world, like I'm gonna just always try to step up and show them something different.

And you say, out there, we're talking about Okinawa in Japan, right, So I actually went to middle school. My sister went to high school out in Japan, So like that's pretty far.

It's different.

You know, you you were born Hawaii but only stayed a year, so you're not really used to be overseas like that.

What surprised you out there? Being out in Ocnalla I.

Think first and foremost was that flight. Man, you caught me.

They caught me off guard, Like, yeah, it was definitely a long flight, but I think that the thing that was most surprised, and just seeing how like diverse the food was out there. That was like that was one of the main things for me, Like just seeing raw sushi cooked made it right in front of you and stuff like that, and just seeing like how they were just so accustomed to eating and I'm just it kind of threw me off.

With some of them. They was eating ill and stuff and I was like, I don't know, man, did you.

Part take it?

What did you have that was like the best? When you're like, yo, if I go back to Japan, we'll running at back.

They had something called skewers or something like that.

I can't remember exactly what it was, but it was like it was basically something fried on a stick and I bit it and I put like a little bit of some type of sauce they gave me on it, and it was just hooked. I was like, yeah, if I ever came back, I would definitely order that, like two or three more times.

Yeah, for sure.

And we know what the kids get from that right, seeing the NFL player, seeing what their future could possibly be. What do you get from that? What do you get from giving back and having these youth camps?

What does it do for you? Well?

I mean for me, I'm the kind of guy that I don't really try to do anything just for the cameras or anything like that. I just want to show them like it's really genuine coming from a guy that you know, I understand what it feels like to have a military parent and just you know, just like I said before, trying to give back as much as possible every chance I get. And before we get into the football. So I got a couple football questions.

We'd like to get to know you, right, we'd like to get to know the things about you that maybe a lot of people wouldn't know. And I just found out you're a NASCAR fan.

Now, I'll be honest. Man, not a lot of brothers is into Nascar. How did you get into that? Man? Talk about that a little bit.

Man, that's just that's another thing coming from South Georgia. Yeah, you get hooked to certain things around cars, and I don't know, it's just Formula one, Moto GP, NASCAR, you name it with race, and I just I got into it and I just got accustomed to seeing I'm a forty eight Jimmy Johnson back then up time winning almost every Sunday, and I just from there I got hooked and he was my diehard guy. So I don't know, I just ever since then, it just stuck with me.

And you met Jimmy Johnson, right, like you talk about him being one of your guys. You got to meet him, talk about Dan and like you're an NFL star, right, you're a bigger first round pick, but you have your own favorite athletes man talk about me to him.

Yeah, that was definitely just a real feeling because it was honestly, was kind of everything I expected to be. He was a real down to earth guy. He was also giving little pointers and stuff like that about going into my rookie season and knowing it was gonna be ups and downs, and it was just it was like I said before, it was all of it was just.

A blessing and just enjoyment. For me to take it all in.

And it's cool to know that, like even to this day, like I could pick up the phone and call him or just shoot him a text let him know like hey, how you doing, or you know, just it was a blessing.

That's fire.

And I don't think a lot of people realize like the parallels between a sport like Nascar and a sport like football.

He said, Jimmy gave you some point and some cues.

What are those parallels where you see, like, you know, I respect this in Nascar and I use.

This on the field on game day.

Well, I mean, like, for example, I'm a defensive guy. Yeah, and you gotta trust the man next to you. Got to have all eleven guys to the ball. Well, in Nascar, it takes the whole team. You got to make sure that you're precise on the pit stop because the quicker you get him out, the quicker he can get back.

Onto the track to do what he needs to do.

So it's simple things like that that you know, it has its different parallels where you know, everybody got to be on point or whatever they're supposed to do to get the job done.

Well, whatever it is that you're doing, man, keep doing it, because, man, you have looked very impressive this season, especially we talk about your interception. Let's talk about this defense a little bit. Now we're three and three, we got that win. Do you feel this defense is starting to come into their own?

Absolutely.

I mean it was one of those things for us where like I said before, backs against the wall, we never gonna fold at the end of the day. We're not gonna really worry about what the outside people got to say about what we got going on in our locker room, and we just gonna always play to our standing at the end of the day, continue to play fast, fly around, and make whatever plays we need to make.

This coaching staff particularly spoke very highly of you. They're behind you quite a lot. What is it like playing for this coaching staff and this defense, especially coach del Rio saw him out there after you got his meeting. What has it been like playing and learning from these guys?

Nothing short of a blessing.

I mean, it's really good having guys that played in your position where you can go back and ask them what do they see on this particular play or if it's something that I'm struggling on, Like you know what I'm saying, just asking them different things that I can try to get myself one step ahead of the game on. So it's really beneficial as well. So like just going forward, I'm just gonna always take heap to what they're saying.

And then last question for you, second to last question, got the interceptions. That's your hometown stadium, right, I mean, that's your hometown stadium. You make a play like that in front of your hometown.

What did it feel?

I mean, yeah, it wasn't for the foul because it was against them, but how did it feel to do that back home?

It was pretty great, man, just because back then it was a Georgia Dome at the time, and I always used to say, like when I did go to Atlanta that I wanted to play in there, but to grow up and actually play like that, And there was honestly a weight lifted off my shoulders because I wanted to get an interception, but I didn't expect it to actually happen in that particular state.

So yeah, it was pretty cool. That was dope. Man.

We're glad you're making those interceptions for us. Man, We're glad you're a commander not somewhere else. I need you to do one more thing from you.

Man.

That's your ISHO camera right there as you look into that camera right down, and I need you to tell Command of fans that aren't familiar with your game, who is Jamie Davis.

Jamie Davis is an absolute dog. I'm gonna fly around and make whatever plays I can while I'm here, and I'm gonna always take here to do everything that you guys want me to be.

Well, Jamie, Man, we appreciate you sitting here with us. Man, we think you would take your time. We know you're busy, we know you're working hard. Command's Fail. This is Brian Coople Junior with the Next Man Up Podcasts. I'm here with your starting linebacker, Jamie Davis. Jamie, thank you for your time, brothers Lam appreciate you love podcast. Well, we have a lot more for you on the Commander's Podcast network.

That's right.

We got a whole network.

It's the Command Center Podcast, the Players Club Podcast, the Get Loud podcasts, and of course the Next Man Up Podcast.

But this week we have something extra space for you. That's right.

I'll be on the road with b mich and Santana Mars behind enemy lines out in the Big Apple, we're giving you everything you need to know before our Week seven matchup against the New York Giants. That'll be a Saturday Special New York Edition. Stay tuned for that. We cannot wait to be out in New York with you all.