"The NFL Chris Paul" | Next Man Up Podcast | Washington Commanders

What's Good Commands Family.

Brian Copra Junior here, and this is the Next Man Up Podcast where we talk to your favorite Commanders players.

But it's not so much X and O's. We get to know the man behind the helmet.

And our next man up is no other than Chris Paul, our second year offensive lineman. Chris talks about his family being immigrants from Nigeria, playing at Tulsa, being a part of mental health advocacy, and wanting to meet the NBA.

Chris Paul.

This brother is definitely a renaissance man. You're gonna want to tune in. One of the best conversations I've ever had with an individual, and it all starts right now.

What's Good, Commanders Family?

I'm Brian Coper and this is the Next Man Up Podcast where we talk to your favorite Commandis players.

Not so much about X and O's.

We want to get to know the man behind the helmet, and our next man up is no other than Chris Paul, the real Chris Paul.

Chris, how you doing today? Brother? Ah Man, I'm blessed man. Thank you so much for being here.

I know you're busy, man, I know we're pass halfway through the season, So you got a lot going on. We're gonna talk a little bit about football, but I mostly want to talk about you, where you're from and what makes you? You cool with that? Let's do it all right, let's do it man. First thing is for you from Houston. Yes, what is being like? There's a lot of pride in Houston, right, there's a lot of Houston pride. What's being from Houston mean to you?

I mean it means everything. I mean I feel like we kind of have a one side of a wife when we were Dallas. Yeah, anybody from Houston is gonna make sure you know that. You know, like, I'm from Houston, no nowhere else, no confusion. So that's definitely where I'm from and definitely a lot of culture down there. So I really do love it.

Yeah, man, And you talk about Dallas real quick, So where you hype when you found out, like, Yo, I'm gonna get to play Dallas twice a year and beat up on them with your little height.

I was very high, very hard like. So that's definitely an honor for sure.

Yeah, man, being from Houston, Man, there's a lot of things that can you know, distract a young man trying to come up. How did you avoid, you know, those type of distractions, stay on the path that you've been on because you're very focused and driven individual.

Yeah, I would say it really all depends.

Like Houston, it has a lot of neighbor different pockets and stuff like that. So thankfully, my parents made it a priority to kind of like put myself and my brothers in a great area, like a great, great school system, all of those kind of things. So I really didn't run into that many distractions, and I was able to like kind of capitalize on every opportunity I was given.

Yeah, you talk about your brothers, man, you have two brothers, right, there's three of you guys. Right, you have a older you're the middle, and then it's younger Yes, all yaller athletes. Yes, younger brother is a very very good colleague of athlete as well. What is that like growing up in a house like that with three athletes, three very big, very athletes.

What was that like?

Very large humans? What was that like growing up with three brothers in environment like that?

It was?

It was so much fun, so much fun. I just I mean, I don't know how my parents did it. I don't know how my mom did it, like I mean three three big boys, I mean, summers was just crazy, Like we go grocery shopping, fill up the fridge, it's empty. The next day, I gotta do it again. So it was it was a lot of fun. And so it's kind of also been cool to watch kind of like watch all of us come into.

Our own Yeah. Yeah, is there any competitive spirit there? Right? Like where there were you.

Guys constantly baling like I gotta get the last turkey leg like things like that.

Always baling whether we're playing the video game or you know anything like always a competition.

So like it was, it was fun.

How has that healthy competition helped you be where you are today?

It's helped in a way because like it's kind of molded me into who I am today. It's added to that like competitive spirit that we naturally all have.

Yeah, so I would say it was it was more beneficial if anything.

That's fire man, that's really really cool. And then you know, like I said, we got your younger brothers still in college, you're here at the NFL levels, what conversations do you guys have? Like I know, he probably picked your brain and ask you with things like what conversations are those like, and like what kind of game do you give him to get him ready for the next level.

Yes, he's always asking me questions and shot he's given me pointing us.

He watches the games.

I watch his game, and it's been really cool, especially since he'll be pretty much coming out this year, and so I mean I'm walking him through every aspect of the process. So we'll probably be in the same area during the off season as well, so I'll get to kind of like be hands on and I just I look, I'm so proud of him, and I look forward to this journey.

Like, yeah, man, how would it be you know, he gets drafted to a place like that, so he goes somewhere that you got to play against him. Of course you guys are both lineman. What would that be like?

Man, that would be the world because if you think about it, I went to Tulsa.

Yep.

He is currently at.

Houston and now Houston is in the Big twelve, but they used to be in the American so we had we got to have two games where we played against each other. And it's the coolest thing on earth. And I mean, you should have seen pictures pictures.

Of my mom.

She kind of like had this, I think my senior year she had this like split dress for like blue or I mean it was it so much fun and just like a full circle moment.

That's really really cool man. And clearly, man, your parents mean a lot to you. Man, So talk about them a little bit. They both came here from Nigeria, they both met going to college in Houston. Yes, that's a very very interesting past man, And I'm sure you've talked a lot about them, and like that's not easy to do, right, It's not easy to come here into a new country's and really settle and let alone have three amazingly talented young men.

How inspiring are your parents to you?

I mean, they are the most inspiring people to me on this earth, you know, just.

Knowing their journey. My mom really came here the youngest.

She came here when she was seventeen to go to college, you know, all by herself.

And just to kind of see them take on that journey, what they made.

Of their lives, how they built their family and prioritize their children, and the sacrifices, many many sacrifices they made.

The most inspirational people yeah.

And you being a Nigerian man, what does Nigeria that being from there and having that pride Nagia. Yes, you're from Houston, put your roots in Nigeria. Exactly what kind of love do you have for Nigeria?

I have? I have so much love.

And really, when you talk about like my background and upbringing, my parents they really found it important to have us live in Nigeria for like a portion of our lives. So I lived in Nigeria for about three to four years, went to school and everything. I think that would have been right around like second to fifth grade.

Wow.

And so those are like, you know, pivotal moments of your upbringing. So being able to like take that experience and all the lessons I learned over there and then bring it back here like it made a world of difference. It made me like well rounded, multi dimensional, Like I just knew how to navigate life in a much better way.

Wow.

Man, I mean that's very young, right to being in another the country come back to this country.

What are the challenges you faced going through that?

Which is cool as it it's just really cool and it's amazing that your parents did that.

It was very very smart.

You gotta be attached to your roots. But what are the challenges today?

I mean there's challenges. Luckily, I'll say culturally there's challenges because like culturally between like Nigeria and here, a lot of things are different. I would say, like in terms of students versus authority figures, Nigeria definitely has like an emphasis on respect and like those type of values, and so it was it was a little bit difficult, like

How now, because you know, you're grown man, now you've been in America a really long time, how do you keep that attachment in those tides in Nigeria and stay connected to you know, basically, what's the mother man?

For you.

I would say, we got to go back for Christmas in twenty sixteen.

Wow, so that was that was pretty cool.

So it's still been a while since I've been back, but I mean majority of my extended family I would say currently lives in Nigeria, so I would say just keeping up with them. You know, older people use Facebook a lot, so I mean I'm all connected through there, so i'd say I'm pretty pretty stuck.

Man. That is so cool to hear. Man.

And if you haven't peeped already by talking to this brother, it's very versatile. Yes, we know you're versatile on the field, but life you're extremely versable.

Man.

You have a lot of passions, you have a lot of things you care about. So let's get into that a little bit. You end up going back to America after in Nigeria and you start playing football. You didn't start playing football right away right once you start playing.

I started playing sixth grade, so middle school.

Yeah, middle school.

And I think I was telling you off air that, you know, Kawan Martin was saying he played at five years old. So you know, you're clearly a big dude. You have stature. What sports war you playing? Leading up until sixth grade.

The first sport I ever played was soccer, So I think pee wee. That was probably what five years old, Yeah, pre k kindergarten. That was the first sport I ever played. Then when I got you know, I say, living in Nigeria for those years, like the main sport over there is soccer, yeah right right, they you know, dabbling basketball and stuff like that, but the main sport is soccer,

Yeah how long did it take?

Because I mean middle school that's you know a lot of people play the whole lives what we talked about. When did you start realizing like, oh nah, this.

This me right here, I'm gonna be good at this.

This was It was probably you know, high school, but especially junior year. That's around where like you know, offers for college starts to come in. And that's really when I knew like, yeah, this is this, this is what I'm wanna do.

Yeah, yeah, and then you chose to go to Tulsa.

And then during your time at Tulsa, Man, I should have just wrote a list of it, because there's so many different things you were involved in, so many different things you did. Like one thing you really big on is mental health advocacy. Why was that so important to be involved in that? Because I think you were representative of the whole ac If I'm not mistaken right, it's like seven thousand plus student athletes that you had to represent.

Push Because I think it's so so huge in sports, Like even if you and that's all sports, like that's male sports, women's sports, that's all of it. And because think about it, we're in very competitive environments where you have to be tough to be in thisment, you have to be mentally, physically all of it. You've got to be tough, and so a lot of times in those very serious, very competitive environments, you kind of like can lose sight of the holistic aspect of like being an athlete.

We've been told, you know, man up, you know, deal.

With it, shake it off, walking off, whatever.

But everybody goes through something like no matter how like tough you go about it, no matter how tough you try to act about it too. And so for me, it was just really important to let people know that there are others, even if it's somebody right next to you, others you might not know that could be going through similar things as you are speaking up about those things like change his lives.

I mean, how do you get to this point though, right, Because like you said, man, you're not only a man, you're a black man.

You're a big man. A lot of us don't get sympathy, right, A lot of black men aren't getting you know that.

We're the ones that are told the age, especially out the way raised like we gotta be tough because this world's hard on us.

How do you get to this point, you're still a very young man.

How did you get to that point into where you understood how important was to take care of your mental Yeah.

I would say one everybody's like upbringing is different.

For me.

I'm very grateful that I have parents that were like that really cared about me, or care about me holistically.

Like and how I'm doing.

But I think to your point, like being a very large man, being a black man, and we don't usually get sympathy for me because of that. That's why it's that much more like I wanted to come from me. I want I want my black brothers to like know that somebody goes through similar things, that somebody cares like you can talk to somebody doing that can change the trajectory of your life.

We talked to I believe it was Jeremie Reeves and he was mentioning he went through some things in life and he was saying how it was so hard as him to realize he needed to release, he needed to let things go. And then he had a moment where

Absolutely like what you just referenced, Like I call that the bottlenecking effect.

That's like that's well known.

If you just like keep it inside, you know, shake it off whatever, just ignore it, like will it's gonna come out in a healthy ways. Like and I've had experiences with that as well, And so for me, healthy outlets are really really important to me. And I know we'll get into it a little bit later, but like whether it's video games for.

Me, it's music, Like that's how I like channel.

That's kind of how I unplug and like channels my mind somewhere else into like creative things. So like any type of healthy outlet that you can get into out extremely extremely advised you to do so. And then just like taking advantage of resources, like talking to somebody is okay.

You mentioned music man.

Yeah, you know to the casual fan that might not know Chris Paul, you know, you might just say about say, oh, he likes listening to music all that where you actually make music man? I actually was, you know, because we do a lot of research on this man. So I found a music video, you know what I mean, Like and this isn't like it's ain't hip hop or like this is like R and B, Like you really like are into this music thing?

How did you get into it?

You know, as as crazy as it sounds, this really started like out the.

Worm I heard a start. I heard that you used to home as a babe.

That's your're talking like humming, humming, and like you know, as a baby you go to all like the pediatrician check up. Yeah, and so my mom and dad always asks, you know, he likes to hum like he was just like create his own tune. Who be in the car, he was just created some he was just humming, Like why is that? Why is he always humming? It's like

Wow. So music been in your life longer than football for real?

Yeah? Really?

Wow?

Man?

So what if you describe your style of music, your genre of music?

Would you call yourself a singer? What would you describe yourself when it comes to music.

I would say predominantly singer. And then when like you think of genres, like I want you to think of number one, I would say alternative, R and B. But like lately the past three years, like we've been kind of like changing what all of that means. So I would say you could get some popping there. Production wise, you could get something that sounds more hip hop, but that I would like end up, you know, creating something

Wow, that type of like.

Sound, the gibons, which is like the more of the R and B, the scissors and the solanges that give you that more like alternative.

Yeah, man, I like that. You gotta throw me some tracks. Man, I gotta hear what you work with. So you know, you're a football player now, you know, man, you Nike it to the NFL. You get to this point, you're clearly into a lot of things. Yeah, activism, music, athlete, family. How have you managed to juggle all the things now that you're at this point, I mean your career is taken off, right, How have you managed to juggle all of these interests that you have to keep your mental health right?

Yeah? Absolutely.

I would say time management is very very important to me. And like in college it was it was much easier, I would say, to be as multi dimensionalized right right when you get to this level and especially in season like this is this is the main thing, and so you kind of have to like almost not so much compartmentalized, but like just be very like intentional with your time.

And a lot of athletes, like they'll say it, you know, dealing with fans, dealing with people that are like sports enthusiasts, Oh, just play football, well, just play basketball? Like why are you into all these other things? Would you say to people that say.

That, I say, listen, like, there there really is. There's a holistic person behind the helmet. You like once in you I guess you may have to like be in it to really really really understand, but like once you just practice a little bit of like empathy.

There you go.

Yeah, practice, just just try a little bit and realize like, oh, like there's a whole.

Person with a life outside of this under that helmet.

Yeah, that's going to really help you understand and get away from that mindset of like just play football or just do whatever.

For sure, man.

And I mean I think even this conversation right here, if people are if people are listening, they're gonna understand who you are and understand who this man is.

And now we're in year two.

Yeah, seventh round pick right, I don't think people realize that just because you drafted doesn't guarantee anything, especially when you're in the sixth or seventh round, you very well could not make the team exactly, not only make the team, but now you are a key component of this offense. How much fun are you having right now being at this point in your CAREERCAU.

Working season is over, you know, the newness is over. How much fun are you having right now?

First, like, God is so good, amen all the time, He's so good, And I'm just I'm having the time of my life.

Like a lot of times, I feel like time almost like freezes when I'm out there and when I'm like in the zone, and i just kind of like reflect on like how far I've come to get to this point, and I'm just I'm so thankful for the opportunity.

That is so cool. Man, I'm so happy for you. Run out of time.

But I'd be remiss if I don't ask you about the name brother man.

Chris Paul. How old is it? Ask you?

Because I'm like, man, he probably gets this all the time. It's probably so annoyed because there is another famous Chris Paul, and the ambient has been playing a long time, dang near your whole life, chrisau NBA does that bother you? The parallels between the days, and people be like, oh, Chris Paul, what like that bother?

You know, I can't say that about me.

I can't really, if anything, It's really like, it's more cool, it's cool, if anything, because I mean, especially now that I'm in the NFL, so like there's an NFL Chris Paul as well, I want to meet the guy. Yeah, I don't know why why we haven't set set that up. You know, he almost came to the Wizards, right, Yeah, that would have been the perfect, the perfect opportunity.

Yeah.

So I mean, commanders, come.

On, Commanders, come on, and Chris Paul, if you're watching this, we got it.

That's so cool.

And Chris Paul seems like another guy that is into a lot of different things. So I'm sure you guys have a lot to talk about. We're gonna let you go. I need one last thing from you, my brother. I need you to look into that ISO camera right there, and I need you to tell the commander's family who is the NFL Chris.

Paul Man the NFL Chris Paul is you know if I do say so myself, a great young man, a very very multi dimensional young man. I'm a young man that is just grateful to the Commander's fan base and and grateful for this opportunity that I get to do what I love, and a young man that intends on using this platform that he's gracefully been given to make a change.

Hey man, Chris Paul.

Man, it's been such a pleasure talk tell we should talk to you for another thirty minutes. Man, I appreciate your time so much. Command this family. This is Chris Paul. This is the next Man Up Podcast. Chris Paul, thank you so much for the hand and we're gonna make sure we get you that meeting with the end of thea Let's do it, Fall do it?

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