S1 Episode 7: Grit & Grimy

Keyshawn Vaughan and Labiscus Chat. She was coming too fast? Did he not see me? Regards I will make a wild turn or not by seeing death? Don't even hit me? Lea Biscuits a player used to being hit on the field, but now he's involved in a very different kind of collision. Let's cray where you go? What you doing? Drink? I'm good? Yeah, we go. Oh that's crazy. But I was not my fault. Bro, I was really tripping as I thought was in the

middle age. But I'm like, no, it don't make sense because if he was in the third lane to the left, he was not on better No, no, yeah, I was not my fault. But all that's why you put some seabed on. I bet you bruise was not going right now. Oh, that's actually gonna be dating about that. That's like but that's like dropping the football in the game. Scientists compare some impacts in football to being in a car crash with multiple hits equivalent to a thirty mile per hour

wreck occurring every game. So when three d and sixty pounds McKay Beckton runs his five point one second forty yard dash speed directly into a defender, it's easy to see why the impact is like driving a vehicle into somewhere, and why injuries are inevitably a big part of the sport. What I experienced during college, you know, just all the injuries I went through, and just like growing up, just everything like at the end of the day, a lot of things negative happened, but I always looked at it

positive majority of the time. Just at the end of the day. It all starts with the mindset and and it was all mental, all mental. My sophomore years, the fifth game when I got hurt, like, I had six receiving touchdowns, five Russian touchdown, I had seven hundred receiving yards. Leviscusife catches ten touchdowns and over seven hundred receiving yards in those first five games looked more like video game

numbers than real life stats. He was nearly unstoppable, and so was his team, winning all five of their games going into the huge matchup with usc It was a big game. It was a very big game against usc UM at the house. So for me to get hurt in that game, it was all mental because I'm like, dangn Like I was really on this roller coaster and I was just going crazy and just being great. And then now that roller coaster stop. So when I got hurt, I tried to come back and fince the game, but

I couldn't. It was third quarter, and it hurt me for so because, like I said, like what I was doing, Like I was doing some crazy things. Leviska added a hundred and eighteen total yards and another touchdown against usc before the injury took him out of the game permanently. I had to sit out three games. Oh my god, those three games was miserable. I couldn't like because you know, you heard you really can't travel or you really can't do like team stuff. Of course you can't practice or

anything like that. So I was really taking out of football for like three weeks, and that was the first time ever. I hadn't been hurt in college. But it was missing no games like that. It was just keep playing. But those three games I would have to not travel to the team hotel. I had to stay at home. It was just terrible. And then we was like losing like it was five and though we lost that that sixth game, and then I it was just downhill from there.

We flipped the switch all and then flipped it off when I got hurt that fifth game. And like I said, it was all mental. I'm not gonna lie at that point like being positive, I wasn't at all. Um, it was terrible for me. The team lost to USC in that sixth game and then lost all three games le Visca missed. I came back after those three games, you know,

finner this season. But after coming back from that third game, the first game coming back, I told my labor and my my shoulder, and I didn't tell nobody, but I knew. I knew it was something. But if I was to tell somebody, I guarantee they would have definitely told me to stop playing, like for the rest of the season. We had like three more games though I knew I had to get surgery, So that was all pretty mental. But I'll fall through it, and you know, I just

had to tell myself it is what it is. Everything happens for a reason. Um, that's just just control what we can control. So I got both of my surgeries after the season. It's still mental because I just had big expectations for myself for all season and I couldn't, you know, live up to those expectations because I have these surgeries and I couldn't do nothing. The frequency of injuries and football means a player's toughness is as highly

valued as speeding strength or heightened weight. In today's NFL. Teams want to know is a player injury prone or more importantly, are they willing to play through pain? So I couldn't do nothing, no football until fall camp. I'm in fall camp. My shoulders still bothering me. It's it's not there yet. It's not there like if I falled, I'm out of practice for a little bit. So it's

still mental there. So now at the same time, it's mental and my confidence it's a little low for sure, because I'm like man, am I gonna be able to like do this, do that, do that. So fall camp go on, I get better and better and better. I'm a fast forward to the fourth game, but the season, fourth game of season, like I'm really like finally feeling myself. This fourth game is against Arizona State at sun Double Stadium and Temple. I didn't gain my confidence back. I'm

feeling myself everything, everything. I'm positive everything. I'm like, okay, let's go. As of the State first drive, I get the little reverse and I got hurt. This is the core, the core injury. I just got surgery on the march. I got hurt or whatever. I'm like, man, I felt as soon as it happened. The guy like turned me. He got in between my legs. My leg when we hit the ground, the right one went flying and the left one didn't go anywhere. So I hit the ground

and my legs just spread it out. So like I feel it right away, um in my core. They said I had a slightly torn core when I went to go do ultra CLL left the game, and I'm like, I gotta come back. I'm I got to like I got to I don't care. I tried to get in the next drive with on offense and I couldn't do it. So now really I go back into that that mode like it's just all bad, and it just went right back negative and it was just all bad for me.

It was bad because all season I had to deal with injuries all all season, I couldn't do what I wanted to do. Fall camp, I couldn't really do what I wanted to do. And now we in in the season and now like I'm hurt again. So they take me inside the tent and I'm just like, yeah, I can't do it. I can't do it. And then that's when they took me in to do the art sound and it was like it's slightly torn, and that was really it. I really like broke into tears right when

they told me. And I can't remember the last time I cried, Like I don't cry, Like like I said, when it comes to feelings, I don't feel anything, so like crying, I don't. I don't do that. So I was like, Okay, I'm gonna just you know, rehab and you know, just go week the week by it. And it just wasn't good. After being injured for more than half his sophomore season, Leavisca gets hurt again. It's a

terrible happenstance and a major blow to his psyche. It's very hard to get on the football field and play football. This is not an easy sport to play, and it's not just simple. So it's very hard to not go into the game confident. That's the number one thing you need, and that's the first thing you need before you step on the fields. Confidence. So it was, yeah, I'm not alive. It was just really hard for me to, you know,

have that confidence. And I was just really you know, just out there just trying to play and just trying to do what I could. So the whole year, I don't play that seventy s the whole season. It's crazy. Every week I would not practice. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, I'm out there, I'm like running around, but I'm doing nothing really Like I'm just doing like individuals. Thursday is gonna walk through Fridays. I speed. That Friday was really the only day I really get out there and run full speed.

Why because if if I tried to run full speed Monday Tuesday Wednesday, or like went hard Monday Tuesday Wednesday, I would be shut down. My core would get too sore and it'll just be too aggravated and flame and I wouldn't be able to move at all. So literally, I couldn't practice till Friday to be ready to for Saturday. And I understan, I don't know how I did it. Maybe it was just my dream and dream how do you said that word? But like it was really all mental,

all mental. If I wasn't positive about it and you know, just saw the right in what I was doing, then it wouldn't have worked out for me. And I mean this just just had it made positive about it, you know, just how did a whole mindset? He played the entire year hurt and still put up seven hundred and sixty four receiving yards, a hundred and sixty one rushing yards, and six touchdowns. A good season, but not the stellar

performance from that run. His sophomore year. Still, Levisca played through injuries and continued to produce a sign he can take the collisions to keep playing, that he has the toughness NFL teams love. I look at it as in, I know it's something brighter on the other side. Um, I know, once I get done climbing this tall wall, I'm gonna be happy, happy as ever once I get over that wall, because I did something that was so hard to do and it took everything out of me.

But now that I know I've done it, I can keep getting happy, and you know, I can just keep on getting stronger and stronger from one of those obstacles, and it just get to a point to where, like mentally, you're just so strong, like nothing can bend you. This grit is part of the reason why Lavisco will be selected early in the draft this weekend. It's how he plays through pain and how he keeps himself optimistic even in the face of a car accident or some demeaning

chores with his brother. Boy, she got like spots older Kevins over there. Thanks, I got one that's really good. It was this guy's talking to co Cosey had about this. Yeah, come come help me, you got it? Whoa rather think up three days of boot, dude? I just clicked. I just picked up three days, Bro, I just got so many, child, I'm feeding back. Serious, you don't even care. You probably eat it. I don't know if I eat it, I won't care, got Darrow. I think it's some water though, Bro,

because what are these spots. I guess she's just when it was wet and look, yeah, look right there. He's finally healthy again, and he knows there's a fresh start waiting for him. The moment his name is called, we'll be right back. So she is about four o'clock. I get a good little work out there. I'm my there one of these local parks, Rose Park, and then we're gonna turning to see we're gonna it's little youngest little high fogs that's running back. Keishaw Vaughan training in his

hometown of Nashville. Let's call I guess working where you gonna work, you gonna work. In episode three, we talked about how scouts and analysts described Keishan with words like tough, physical, and relentless. It's clear to anyone watching that he runs with purpose. The question NFL teams have is why where does that drive come from? What's his deeper motivation? Yeah, I first had the drain of benefit Polo NADOs five

six years old. Me having that dream is kind of something that kept me on a straight path as far as not hanging around the wrong crowd, not doing stupid stuff, me just knowing like my whole life. There's always been I got I'm going to the league. I'm going to league. I'm with football and two two it stops. And I didn't need a record. I couldn't have a record, would have made me look bad, kind of staying tunnel vision on what my goal was and that was the NFL.

So that's that's why my footage still on this football gas pedal. It's a good dream that I'm living out. Keyshawan played youth football in the Greater Nashville area and then went to Pearl Cone High School, a public school in the metro area known for its football program and for being the first and only entertainment magnet school in the country. My name is Brandon woods On, the co

offensive coordinator at pearl Comb High School. I'm gonna let Damon go in because he played on two state championship teams at Pearl Cons. My name is Damien Harris and I'm also a co offensive coordinator at Parcon High School Pearl Cone UM. It's one of the top schools in Nashville, not only Nashville, but it's one of the top schools in the state. Recently, we ranked number two teams in a decade in Tennessee. So that tells you a lot about Pearl Cone. It's real rich in tradition with football.

I was also the running back Forkey Sean, so you know he in my footsteps, but he was a lot better than I was. Pearl Cone's Friday Night success on the field hides some darker statistics inside the halls. The school consistently ranks near the bottom of all high schools in the state when it comes to academics, and It's North Nashville zip code places it at the top of another unwanted distinction. Here's Coach Woods. It's definitely um rare to um excel in their three seven two o eight

um zip code. Let's get the highest incarceration rate in the nation. And man, the numbers don't lie. It is really in one of the roughest parts of Nashville, if not the roughest. So I mean, you have a lot of kids to come through and play with a lot of passion and play with a lot of hard and you know, they tough, grimy, and you know, have a lot of grit kids like Keyshaw. I'm from Western Nasville, but I don't grew up kind of all over Nashville.

I don't grew up all over the inn inter Nashville, and also the out of Nashville moved around a lot, meant a lot of people. But for the most part, I kind of picked the choose. My friends wisely know and they have to have the same mindset as me, especially because, like I said, as a young game, when I first started playing football, watching people um in the NFL,

I'm like, I'm going there. I know, I gotta stay out of trouble to get though, So that's kind of what my mind sets as a Yeah, I kind of always been cautious, why move who I'm around, what I'm want to do, And that's kind of I always put myself in the best position to not being around bullshit, and football was really the best thing that kept me out of that. And kids like coach Harris, who also knows firsthand what is plagued that part of town, the

neighborhood that Keyshan and I both grew up in. You grew up fast. You see a lot of things that go on their kids shouldn't see. Drug populated neighborhoods, prostitution, and you see, I mean, you see everything that so as a teenager or high school student. It takes a lot to even make it to school because a lot of your friends maybe they don't even go to school.

So for Keyshan to even go through all this stuff and making to the school, go to one of the top schools in the nation, Vanderbilt for academics was it is very very important to the for everybody at Perl Kon. I mean, we've never seen somebody to do that. Keyshaw the standard for academics and for sports, and he did it and itself proclaimed grimy way running grimmer it means he's running with a purpose, running to achieve something. He's running real hard, He's not gonna show away from contact,

and you definitely don't want to hit him. He's not just running to get yards. He's fast, he's powerful, and he also very elusive. So it's a different package. A lot of running backs either they're fast or they are powerful, and he has a combination of both. We knew that Keyshaw was a special talent and he was, you know,

gonna be our lead back the next year. His sophomore year, the coaches knew they needed a new system to take advantage of Keshan's talents, so they took a four hour trip to the University of Mississippi to study the old miss offense learning how to implement it at Pearl Cone. We looked at some of the guys that they had playing running back at that time, and we knew that that was gonna be a great fit for him in that offense. But we struggled his sophomore year. We had

a new offense. Everything was new, the terminology and all that. To pick it back off that um when coach was not really saying is we struggled Keyshan sophomore year because Keishan was coming off of broken a broken leg his freshman year. So, um, Keishan play real hard his sophomore year, you know, trying to come back off a major injury. This is the same for the two Laviska showed in the face of a major injury and Keishan faced similar

hurdles getting back onto the field. The game that Keishan broke his ankle, it not only a bit him, but it affected our team. We had a great run, but they kind of collapsed and was like, Okay, what we're supposed to do. And going into a sophomore year, and he had a lot of doubt. You know, he was thinking, maybe I'm not that good, but he stuck it out. When we made that offense around his sophomore year, we knew as long as well be patient, some good things

were gonna come out of it. Because Keishan freshman year, he was like the best running back on the team at the time, but he was just so young. He wasn't ready yet. Keishan had all the tools, but the broken legs slowed his progress, and even when he came back from the injury, he still hadn't quite put it all together yet. Nack on Keishan like his freshman his sophomore year was he wasn't real fast. Well, he worked

his tail off. We made him run track and he worked on the speed and he got to speed up a whole lot. I know it was several days that he shouldn't wanted to just walk off and say forget this truck stuff, but he stuck with it because he knew he had a goal and fought through the pain and he knew that the truck was necessary in order to him to reach that goal. After his junior kis Sean, you know, he blew up because like I said, no one knew about him, a kid that really probably had

like five or six hundred yards the year before. Then he exploded his junior year with some crazy numbers. Offense was every probably like thirty eight points a game, and he made He had twenty eight of those points. Colleges wasn't even big on him yet as well, but he had got his confidence back, He had his swagger. You can see more bounce, and this when I think he really took over the team. All that hard work paid off. He Sean ran for over two thousand yards and twenty

nine touchdowns his junior season. So he caught everybody by surpris eyes his junior year because nobody really knew about him. But one thing about Keith Shan, he always played with like a chip on the shoulder. He's he kind of has that that like that Michael Jordan effect, Like if if the other team is stretching and they they allow, he's gonna go for three yards on them. Any little thing. Keishan is known to pick up something to get him going and he's ready. He likes to prove people wrong

a lot. He's been one of those guys that people tend to push to the side. So he's out to prove how great he is. Keishon does some incredible stuff even when things are going rough. On just touching on what coach has is saying about people doubting him and stuff like that. He was unknown when he was coming out of eighth grade and he just had a lot

to prove. I was talking to someone about another running back who was the talk of the town, and you know, the proof is in the pudding, like how their career high school careers ended up. Eighth grade year, me and another running back, we was our first time on the team and they already give him the spot just because he was from the area. So stuff like that. I've been kind of working my way up to the top,

I said something like that. Has I always continue to push me been underdog as I'm a big person who want to prove people wrong. So I mean been underdog somebody carried with much pride and like, like I said, nobus don't lie. It's gonna be like, yeah, we shouldn't have slept on that guy. The numbers definitely didn't lie.

As senior season, he rushed for an absurd two thousand, six hundred and forty six yards and forty five touchdowns, averaging over eleven yards a carry, but his progression during high school went beyond improved speed and ballooning statistics from a new offense. I was already a tough physically growing up, But I say what what made me even tough? It was from high school my freshman year. The seniors, like seniors, juniors, like they basically go crazy and practice like we're hitting

full speed. You can't cry practice to coach. Coach ain't gonna do nothing, and so stuff like that kind of build my toughness. I remember, um when I first got to high school and we were doing a little angle tackle jury. You know, you're both do that like sixty seventy. Now we're going a hundred. I'm on offense. We're going to angle with drill and the two safeties are seniors and they're going full speed, like smacking me. Coaching right

that he ain't doing nothing. So like stuff like I had to build up my toughness from that because like when nobody gonna come save me on that field, and that mindset it helps me to this day. And he gave me through a lot of things. We'll be right back. Here's Coach Woods again. I've coached a lot of great Becks in my seventeen years of coaching in Metro Nashville, and he's the best by far. I try to look at the differences and just like Coach Hare said, he's

a total package. His vision is underestimated a lot of times, but he has great vision. So you know, he's just he's a special count of talent. And then he's so smart. He played the game out in his head way before the ball is kicked off, so he's able to tell you about it everybody strengths and weaknesses and about fifteen minutes and so he's kind of able to dissect. Defense is real fast. And one game, I remember he had five carres and for a hundred and some yards in

the first quarter. Creek, Yeah, and it like five touches for like three touchdowns and we have to take him out like first quarter and he probably could have an out Bundy night. But get we couldn't do them like that. You know. The thing with Key, Yes, he always wanted other players to get seine like he would run for so many yards and then he would go off on me about not having his little brother in the game so his brother could score some touchdowns, and so he

was one of those guys. But Keishan overall, man, he's one of the friendliest dudes and real funny Keyshan and his buddies, they all think they are rapp us and sing us and procomb being an entertainment magnet school, we have like these big time recordings studios and stuff. They go in there and they make some of the funniest songs and they think they're great. But some of the songs they cant you, y'all almost say they I'm not

gonna say that great songs. The Keyshan and his friends I've known to make some catchy songs, as catchy as the album's might be. NFL teams are interested in his rap skills, it's the stories about his work, ethic, and character that reveal more about who Kishan Vaughan is underneath

the pads. He had a job at McDonald's when he was in high school and a lot of us didn't even know it until one of his friends was messing with him and saying they wanted like some chicken nuggets, and he was like, man, you gotta hook me upisode So he was like, Keishan, you work at McDonald's. So we thought he was playing because he jokes a lot. We blew it off until the friends came in and like,

na coach, he really working at McDonald's. And we was like, what, Like, you score all these touchdown and you're still going to work the next morning early and just to you know, get some extra money to hip out with the family. And it just says a lot about a kid that run four or five touch downs the game and didn't go work in McDonald's. You don't find it too often.

And Keys was that type of dude. Man. He was like the neighborhood hero is like if he was Spider Man or something, just turf through, we're gonna get it out of the blood. But oh yeah too, Spright, the North Nashville hero not just working out in the nearby field. He's out there setting an example, trying to help the next Coach Harris, the next Key, Shawn Vaughan, whichever a kid can harness football as a way to make it out of the neighborhood. Listen, white gloves don't terrible. What's up?

And that structure right now, I think that that's structure. Like that boy, that's struction. Yeah, I don't you were about the wrong ship. That's the problem, but not like now it's the struct They're gonna be the next one out. Well they get it bigger. That's how it is, right breath, break your feet up, dude, there sir, yes six when you have guys like keys Shan that comes through and show the other kids that it is a way out.

Keishan A knew it, but he said, like a major ground for all the other players too, have something to strive for. The last guy that that played in the NFL from pearl Combe was John Henderson that played with the Jacksonville jack Wars. So we was lucky enough to have Keyshan to come through and um, he got the boots and he's gonna make big strides in the NFL and hopefully some other guys will be able to follow

his footsteps. Coming up on the next episode of Drafted and don't really here like here I think is here though rather than Draft tomorrow. But I'm excited, man, only excited, a little nervous, anxious. Really, I didn't sleep that at all last night. So we believe the pick I'm better than he's not better than me. Ros I don't garen what they can see he's not better than me, She's not better than Definitely a surreal moment outside of the

house I about to play out. Drafted as a production of tree Fork Media, Clutched Sports Group, and I Heart Radio. The executive producers are Kelly Garner, Lisa Ammerman, Eric's a Lot, Sean to Tone l Key, and me Keegan Michael Key. The series is produced and written by Eric Winer. Jerry Bram is our court ating producer. Tom Monahan is our senior audio engineer. Mixed and edited by Steven Johnson, additional production help from Tim Shower, June Rosen, and Hailey Mandelberg.

For transcripts of the show and more information on Drafted, go to tree Fort dot fm, and for more podcasts for my Heart Radio, visit the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.