Trying to lose weight, It's time to try Hers. At for hers dot com slash for you, you can access affordable, doctor trusted weight loss treatments tailored just for you. These include oral medication kits or compounded GLP one injections through Hers. Pricing for oral medication kits started just sixty nine dollars a month for a ten month plan when paid in full up front. No hidden fees, no membership fees. You shouldn't have to go out of your way to feel
like yourself. Hers brings expert care straight to you with one hundred percent online access to personalized treatment plans that puts your goals first. Reach your weight loss goals with help through Hers. Get started at for hers dot com slash for you to access affordable doctor trusted weight loss plans. That's for hers dot com slash for you. F O r h ers dot com slash for you paid for by hymns and Hers Health. Weight Loss by Hers is
not available everywhere. Compounded products are not FDA approved or verified for safety, effectiveness, or quality. Prescription required restrictions at for hers dot com apply what's going on.
Traditional universities are outdated and don't teach you how to become an entrepreneur. They just teach you how to become an employee.
You go to school for four years and you leave with nothing but debt. But here are EYL University. Our curriculum is much different.
Our university teaches you real world skills that you can use to gain financial freedom right away. In traditional universities, you learn from professors that have never did what they teach, and they teach you how to become an employee. At our university, we use instructors that are currently successful in specific field that they teach, and they teach you how to become an entrepreneur.
For a limited time only, you can join eyl University for twenty five percent off of the annual membership. Learn about stocks, credit, real estate, crypto, and more. Go to eyluniversity dot com right now and sign up to become an earner.
Don't wait, don't hesitate it over there now.
My graduates from my school being false bad drop thanks, drop drop back drop drop.
All right, guys, welcome back still in LA. This is gonna be a legendary episode. This is something that came organically. So if you're a football fan, obviously you know who Bobby Wagner is. I just found out actually has a ninety one percent chance to be a I.
Think he just found out found out to.
Ninety one percent chance to be a first ballot Hall of Famer. Nine years in the league, Troy, you run down on the status.
Nine years in the league, seven time pro bowler, six time All Pro, five years consecutively all pro.
UH rating Matter ninety nine.
That's probably the most impressive thing of all time. Ninety nine rating every man. That's extremely rare.
And we got to talk to the people that he gave. They started doing to the change after So either Bobby's gonna have to do it again or they're gonna have to be in Burston for the time.
Yeah, we can do both.
So he's a ninety nine rating and Matter perfect player. But even more impressive is what he's doing off the court, off the field. So he's as a venture capital company, he's an angel investor, he interned at Microsoft Forbes thirty under thirty, and he represents himself big time. So this is a this is going to be a dope conversation. So first and foremost, thank you for joining us. Appreciate it.
YEA, I appreciate you.
Man.
I've been watching you'all for a minute, man, and it's cool to be on the show, be a part of this and excited to have a conversation with you guys. Let's do it. Let's do it.
So let's talk about this financial literacy situation. So you're playing for Seattle. You played for Seattle your whole career, right, Arguably, this is the greatest player that's ever played for Seattle, right.
Yeah, I told you it's you and Russ both y'all the statue.
I'm good with that.
So you're playing for Seattle, and anybody knows Seattle. You know, one of the biggest things that ever come out of Seattle, probably the biggest thing is Microsoft. So you in turn at Microsoft talk about that.
Seattle was kind of doing this thing where they were offering like different internships within the city and Microsoft just so happened to be one. And you know, out of all of the ones that I got to choose from, I chose Microsoft because you know, you know, for obvious reasons, and I just felt like I was gonna grow more, learn more there. So I went and I did an intern there, and crazy enough, we was all sitting in
the middle of the lobby. We were all in the lobby, chilling the lobby, and we're waiting for the CFO to come down to talk to us. And I'm not really familiar with everybody that works in and out of Microsoft at this time. I think it's like two thousand and fifteen. I don't forgot when it was. And you know, I'm talking to this lady and we having like a crazy conversation. We're talking about all types of stuff, and she's like,
man like, so what was everybody waiting for? And I'm like, yeah, we're waiting for the CFO to come and come and talk to us. She's like, Okay, well, I guess we should get this started. And she like backside of our conversation and says, hey, everybody, like, welcome to the internship. And I'm like, I've been talking to her for like thirty minutes. I had no idea she have an idea who you are? I mean, maybe I don't know. I'm assuming so she was the CFO. CFO, yeah, name is Amy Hood, and well.
I just little unpacked out a little bit. You never know who you're talking to. So you were talking to somebody and you told them waiting for the CFO to come, and she just played along with it. Yeah, she's just she's yeah, she knew who Yeah she was she was thing bad about the CFO.
Yeah. It was crazy because it was just like, you know, that's what you'll wait for. Okay, let's let's start it off. Thing.
I'm interested even further because how many people, especially rookies at the time, this is like your first first.
Year, second Oh no, this was like my third year, I think, so even that.
Like, how many people who are now full fledged because you were ready, I won the Super Bowl?
Yeah, in your third year are willing to.
Even take an internship? Right? How many you said that Seattle had some choices, but how many of your teammates took advantage of that?
I would say for most of the league, not many. But our team was different. We was all into different things. And if you look at like the things that we've accomplished, you had multiple guys from that team negotiate their own contract. Mike Bennett was a number one selling offer, Cliff Averril done amazing things. Cam you know, has his own clothing line.
So we were you could just tell like our group was different, like we thought different and so like from the league perspective, it was not many, but from our team, we was always interested in doing something like we wanted to be great athletes, great players. We wanted to be bigger than just you know, just good players. We wanted to be able to do something that was going to impact the city that we came from, in the city that we was in.
So what did you learn in Microsoft and how did that help you in your in your career business.
I think the biggest thing that I learned was just I learned the ins and outs. You know, I learned a lot. I did the financing part, so they offered, like you can learn about gaming financing certain things. So I went to the financial world. So I just sat there and watched them do numbers all day, and it was it was crazy because I was just like, you never know how much that they got going on, because they got to control every single entity within the whole thing,
like x from Xbox to Microsoft, Word to everything. So I got to to learn about that. And really the biggest thing that came from that was, you know, I developed an amazing relationship with Amy, and you know, we're now like close friends and she's helped me a lot, opened a lot of doors for me, you know, talk to me a lot about what she does on a
day to day basis. And you know, so the biggest thing, I think, outside of what I learned in the finances was the relationships that I've developed while I was there.
Steve Boma was the CEO at that time. Did you ever run into.
I actually did connect with him, but I connected with him. He wasn't there when I was there, but I connected with him later. Because you know, when I start telling people I wanted to do my contract, they started connecting me with different people because I wanted a different perspectives. I didn't just want agent perspective, players perspective. I wanted people who who had you know, ownership and teams and
things like that. I wanted to see, like what they thought about players or what they were looking for when a player came in and negotiate his own contract.
Yeah. So twenty twelve was your rookie year.
Yep.
But there was a trip to Silicon Valley that kind of changed it. Perspective. Always were interested in the business aspect. I believe your wealth manager took you to yeah, Silicon to see what this is all about.
Yeah, so experience. Yeah, so I didn't even know what Silicon Valley was until until that trip. Like I knew, I heard, I knew like San Francisco was the area, but I didn't know about Silicon Valley. So he took me down. He took me down on the trip probably like two thousand and thirteen or fourteen, and we just
toured like all different types of startups. A couple of startups we toured was an Instacart, we saw them pretty early, and we toured another company called, uh it was I forgot what the company name was, but I ended up investing in that company. But you know, we didn't win on that one. But you know, so I just started to get exposed into, like, you know, certain things. And that's when I realized the term, like what the term was angel investor was. I didn't even know what that
was either. And so I'm like, all right, now I'm getting exposed into two different things. Find out what you know. I sat with different vcs while I was out there, just you know, asking questions. I sat with different investors while I was down there, and then so it just kind of opened me up to this whole world that I hadn't nothing. I knew nothing about and so once I got exposed to that, then I just try to you know, see how much I give hands on.
So I want to talk about this VC situation, but let's talk about football for a little bit, as far as you represent yourself, if I'm not mistaken, right, Yeah, So like, let's let's talk about this. You came in the league, you had an agent. At some point, I'm assuming you fired your agent and you decided to be your own agent.
Yep. Why did you do that?
And what was the process of negotiating your You're the highest paid inside linebacker in NFL history yep. Fifty four million dollars yep. Three years, three years, three years, twenty four guarantee, not bad.
Forty guaranteed, forty guaranteed, Yeah, twenty four as signing.
You negotiated that contract?
I did.
Congratulations, Thank you, appreciate it. And you're almost done. You next year, you'll finish that. Yeah, I got after this year.
I have one year left and typically if the team was to keep you there, you know, extend you.
Now we're going for the message. Yeah, I don't play yourself. Don't play it.
So wrgeous and you so, and God willing everything works out this year you and get all your money, Yeah, all of it. So talk about negotiating your contract and why you decided to let your agent go and become your own agent.
I just think it was a process, you know what I mean. I think when I first came into when I was a rookie, I actually had a couple of agents, you know. I think, you know, I had let my my original agent go, like probably like either midway through my rookie year or right after my rookie year, and I just was looking for something. I look, I was looking for someone who's gonna keep their word. I was
trying to figure that out. But then in the process of figuring that out, I started to realize I was like, this is something that kind of mimicked or was kind of like in the same way where I was at, like wanted to be in business and I just wanted to have a seat at the table. And I knew I wasn't gonna be able to do that having an agent,
like they would let me in the room. But I knew, like once I walked away, I knew there was gonna be conra sestions that was going to be had that I wasn't going to be involved in, and so I wanted to make sure I eliminated all that. So I wanted them to talk to me directly. I wanted to do it for myself, and you know, really I felt like it was going to to spark my my way
through business. And you know, I felt like if I wasn't willing to take a chance on myself with my contract, then I wouldn't be able to take a chance in the real world. And so, you know, I just started learning. Literally right after I signed my my second deal, you know, I grabbed the CBA and I read it. Read the CBA.
Then I started reading different negotiation books. I started reading, looking at every linebacker contract, looking at all the contracts that to see I had done over the last ten years since Pete Carroll had been there, And you know, I just started learning. And so you know, I knew it was coming, and you know, once it was my time to negotiat my deal, I you know, I was ready. And you know, I think I'm surprised them when I walk into the room because I think they they didn't
think I had put this much thought into it. So I don't think they knew. I knew what I was supposed to know.
What was that feeling like when obviously most people say represent yourself, represent yourself, but now you're negotiating on your own behalf and the team might feel like you're worth a different value than what you were thinking. What are those conversations, like, what's your thought process when we're going through that.
I think the biggest thing is you got to put your emotions. You know, you got to put your emotions behind you, like business is not emotional, and so I think that was their biggest fear, was not being able to say how they truly felt and they because they was going to piss me off or something like that. So like one of the first means we had I was like, look like we all grow men, and so you know, I want you to treat this negotiation like
it was an agent. So you got something that you got something that you feel I can't do or you want to say, say it like, don't sugarcoat anything, like we all grown men. At the end of the day, I got respect for you. I felt like y'all got respect for me. So you know, if there's two lines of respect and we can get something done, in a respectful way, and I wasn't really into the whole negotiation through the media, so I was like, I'm not trying to y'all. Don't take no shot at me in the media.
I'm not gonna take no shot at you guys in the media, and we can get this thing done real quiet, and it could be big. It could be something that can, you know, hopefully spark interest of players. And you know, it was cool. I mean, they told me how they felt. I told them how I felt. I had numbers to back up why I felt I was deserving of what I was asking for, and they had stuff that they had,
and it was genuine conversations. And obviously it was some moments where I felt like I was winning, and then there was some moments where I felt like I got to go back to the drawing board. But ultimately we ended up where we was at and got it done.
Were you originally thinking based on your performance? Obviously, I don't know how many linebackers can match your stats. You're thinking I need to be the highest guy. Was that one of the things.
Well, I was, you know, a run in the league. You know, you consider the best, So I want to be paid top dollars. So you know, if around the league you consider the best, I think you your pay shit should mimic that or mirror that. So that was it. That's how I approached it. Shout out to Brandon Copeland.
We interviewed him a while ago and he kind of broke down NFL contracts for us. It's very complicated situations where it's like most of the money is not guaranteed, and you have signing bonus, and you have incentives built in if you make it to like the Pro Bowl. So can you kind of explain that because the average I feel like the average fan just watches it and they hey, okay, he got a fifty million dollar contract.
He had fifty million dollars, a lot of money. There's a lot of moving part and you being an agent, now, well, first, did you have to get licensed to be an agent or no, you're a player. You just represent yourself? YEA, represent yourself. So can you break that down as far as like some of the terms, like the signing bonus, what's guaranteed, what's not guaranteed, stuff like that.
So I definitely feel like the NFL contract is probably one of the most complicated contracts because you know, I feel like in every other league, I don't I'm not, I don't know for sure, but every other league, what you see is what you get. So if somebody signs for X amount of years for one hundred million dollars, they don't get that over whatever life of the deal. But with the league, you know, with the NFL, it's
all fluff. So you kind of like you see the contract the initial numbers, then you got to see what the actual numbers are. And so somebody can sign for fifty million dollars for forty guaranteed, but the at signing is really the real number. Like that's what you're walking away with if they decide to walk away from you. So if you get if it's like twenty four million dollars at signing bonus when you if they was to walk away from you, that's what you get, you know
what I mean. Everything else you have to hit certain things. So there's all different type of things in the contract. Like you said, signing bonus, your signing bonus is a part of it. You know, you have different per games, different incentives. So one of the things in my deal, you know, I had like roster bonuses that roster bonuses is basically like what they give you they like basically it's a way to kind of for the team to kind of stretch their money over the signing bonus or
stretch their money over the the cap. So a certain amount of money that you get for being on the team each year. So I was when I.
Was looking at your sports track, I know, because you said you use that when you were looking at everybody's contract, I saw amount of plays and so even part of that that game thing is there as certain amount of snaps you have to be in the game for it to count in the contract.
Yeah, there's there's certain there's certain guys where it's like you got to play ninety percent of your snaps or eighty percent of your snaps, or you know, you see towards the end of the season, these guys get these huge bonuses where you know, if you get nine ten sacks, then you get an extra two fifty. So you see the guys like you know, normally you see a guy like not play the last game when they don't need in the playoffs, but he'll play that game so he
can get that extra two fifty. So they can come up with all different types of ways to put the the bonuses in there. So it really just depends on the team how they structure the team, because no team structures deals the same, so you really got to study, you know, the team and the person who's the way they do the contracts because you could be asking for something that they haven't given in like twenty years or ten years or whatever. So you know, I knew it.
It was kind of like easier for me because I knew who I was going up against or I knew who I was negotiating with. But if I was a free agent, it'll have been different because you have to know each person on each team and how they structure each deal. How was it.
It's interesting because we spoke to Brandon. He was he got cut a few times.
Like he was.
I don't know if he got did he get drafted.
I think he got drafted his past that was different than your pinions. You know what I'm saying.
It's like he was probably the average player. It goes to as far as getting cut, trying to make a team on a team like kind of a journeyman situation. You are a superstar, So how is it in the lack.
Of room from.
Being a superstar and being a regular player financially, all of that stuff. Like we watch these movies and it's like, you know what I mean, superstars always.
Get cheated by the guys. Like, you know what I'm saying, how.
Is it so I was watching the game, How is that they rolled the red carpet out for you?
Nah? I mean it depends on where you at. I mean, I think Seattle, we always treated everybody equal. So outside of you know, outside of whatever you purchase, you know what I'm saying. The lifestyle obviously is different, you know, depending on but unless you're trying to keep up. You know, you could be a guy who was undrafted but want to come across as living that lifestyle. So you can blend in and see that. But for me personally, I was never really someone that was caught up in the lifestyle.
I was never about the lifestyle. I wasn't interested in. I was just interested in and you know, prove myself, like proving stuff to myself. So you know, I still drive the same car I bought in twenty twelve. Nice car, same car, this one. No, this was different, but I had I had, I got an OUTI in addition, yeah, okay, yeah, yeah, but they pull up. But again though it's different vibes. Though. I bought that in my ninth year, so I had already put my money away. I already earned your Leasha, Yeah,
I earned my leisure. I knew, I got my money saved the way, so now I can play. And I feel like that's what's like backwards. Like guys in the league do it backwards. They buy the whips to impress the people, they buy the houses to impress the people, and they either play five let's say a God place five years. Maybe maybe let's just hypothetically say an example God places five years. So he got the crazy car, he got the crazy house, he got the you know,
crazy lifestyle, but didn't save his money over time. So now when he retires, he got to downgrade everything. Now he got to turn the car back in. Now he got to down downgrade the house. Now you got to downgrade the lifestyle. So it's I just flipped it. So I just lived a really chill life and I didn't buy anything crazy. I don't think I bought my house until like two years ago. I was renting until that point. Uh, you know, I really just took care of everybody else
around me. Before I took care of myself and so I was doing that. But once I had got to three deal, it's my third deal. So I got my third deal. Then I bought the stuff for myself because now it's like I was disciplined early on. Now I get to enjoy my fruits of my labor now, and I don't have to downsize whenever I retired, I don't my life can. I've saved enough for my life to be the same as it is today for years to come. Now.
That's that's what you're saying really resonates with me because a lot of stuff, like even now to this day, like people ask me, even my mom as like are you going to do this?
When you're going to do this?
And I'm like, it's not any time yet, you know what I'm saying, Like I feel like I could do any a lot of stuff that I want to do financially right now, but I'm not because I feel like it like in a couple of.
Years, it'll just be way greater.
Yeah, and by that time, I have invested so much money that it won't even matter, Like it won't even hurt me at all. Like yeah, So The delayed gratification is something that especially for athletes, like you know, you're young and you're getting millions of dollars or even you know, a half a million dollars. That's like, you know, you want to just do every single thing that you ever
dreamed of in life in one year. Yeah, and then it's like you know you're not there anymore, and now you gotta you know, you're screwed.
Yeah, And that really came from, uh, you know, just show influences. I listened to Nipsey a lot, I listened to jay Z a lot, and I just watch how they moved, especially Nipsey. Nipsey was never following the crowd. He always did his own thing. So that was the same thing I never try to. That's what's hard being
an athlete. You come in and you see all the cars, and you go to somebody's house and you see how nice their house is, and you want that, so you go get that, even though, like you said, maybe that's not where you're at right now. Peer pressure, yeah, peer pressure. So it's like, okay, I'll go get a car. Maybe I can't afford, but I'm gonna do it so I can I can flex you know what I'm saying. So, yeah, but it's levels and it's all about patients and time.
And I invested way before I bought a car, Like I was investing before I thought about a car.
Would you would you invest in stocks?
I told you it was offline. My first investment was, you know, with a guy that I met at this event, and you know, he told me, basically, the only way I was gonna learn is I put some get some skin in the game. And so he challenged me to get some skin in the game. Gave me kind of like an offer. I couldn't couldn't.
Refuge in a company PC.
Yeah. Yeah, we went to this like we went to a Seahawks had partnered with a VC firm out in Seattle, and they had like a panel and we was all, there's a bunch of players. But again even like that, like they invited the whole team, so ninety of us at the time, but only maybe fifteen guys came. So, you know, I'm sitting there and I just go to the back to get some food, and you know, I'm sitting in the back and I had this guy come up to me and he's like, yo, like what are
you guys doing here. I'm like, well, were trying to learn like everybody else. You see the panel. It's a great panel. I feel like they got a lot to offer. Like I'm listening, I'm learning. What are you talking about? He's like yeah, but like, what are you actually going to learn from this? Yall? Y'all go to all these panels, y'all read all these books. Well what are you gonna do after you read the panels and read the books like you gotta do. You got to get your skin
in the game. I was like, all right, well, that's why we're trying to learn. We here, you know what I'm saying. I'm like, who is this guy? You know, we're trying to learn to get some skin in the game. I got to figure it out on the cover. CFO, yeah, you feel me. So I was like, all right, well, you know, tell me what you think we should do? Is that all right?
Well?
I got you know, offer for you basically, offer us a deal where you know, we invest then X amount of dollars and if we if the company turned out well, we keep the money. If the company turned out bad, then he would give us the money back. But we had to give it a charity. We couldn't keep it. So he was like, that's why. That way you you kind of get your first exposure into into investing. And so we did it and the company ended up five
accident really fifteen got showed up. How many investors, Well it was only us who was ever getting snacks that day. So I guess, you know, the opportunity, you know what I'm saying. I got up at the right time, but it's really just three of us. So we all got the opportunity. We all invested and ended up turning well. And I think, you know, obviously when it started going well, I was like, dang, I want to take that again, you know what I'm saying.
So yeah, So I mean, this is what I think is amazing about you. Is a humility number one. But being in the right place number two. But the internships, because you didn't just stop at Microsoft, right you went to another VC firm. That's where you met John Cottins, John Commerson. You told about his role and how he helped you.
Yeah, he was hugely influential. It's kind of funny. I was. I just remember again, like we were all different, and we was all came from a different you know, place in the league. But like we were all on the same mentality in the locker room. So I remember being in the locker room and I'm sitting and I'm listening to Sherman Doug talk and they talking about where they're going for the weekend because they both went to Stanford and they had this like Richard Sherman, that's my guy.
He's trying to connect you guys. But I was listening to them talk. They was going to this event where it's like basically like everybody that went to Stanford come in and connect. And I'm just like, dang, I know, uta they gotta have something like that. Like I know it's not enough of us to go to an event, but like they got to have somebody. So I remember when I was there, we were I forgot who we were before, but we switched to Nike because the president
of Nike came from Utah State. So I reached out to my coach. I got a contact and I just reached out to him. I just like, you know, just want to you know Picky Brain. I know he was working at Nike. I was like, you know, like you talk state of lum like he was a fan of myself. I was like, you know, I heard a lot about you as well. So we started just having conversations and he was actually lived in Portland. So I asked him, like, you know who in Seattle should I know? Or shot me?
And he introduced me to John Connors. And then after I got introduced to John Connors, we were you know, he started taking me out, you know, to lunches every like every off day. But every off day he was asking me like, what do you want to do life after football? And I'm sitting here like twenty one, twenty two, and know what I'm saying, like I just got here,
Like what do you mean? Like I'm not thinking about like after football, I want to be great, like I want to you know what I'm saying, I'm trying to get Super Bowls and all these other stuff. And he was like, man, you know I don't. I didn't play football, but life happens fast, so you know you got to think about it. I'm gonna challenge you on it. Every
time we come here. I'm gonna challenge you. And I remember one conversation I told him about the investment that I did and I had and you know how well I was doing. He was like, man, you should come see, you know what we have going. And I had no idea what he what he was talking about. I didn't know. I thought he you know Microsoft days, they made a lot of money. I thought he was retired, just chilling.
And you know, he brought me down to Ignition, and Ignition is a VC firm down in Seattle, and you know, he kind of opened up the portfolio. Let me see what they were doing, let me see the different type of companies they were doing. They were doing way different companies. I even saw, like I was looking at more consumer like things like that, they were doing more SaaS, like
you know, software as a service companies. And so I'm like, I have no idea that I'm not even realizing, like you know, I'm using docu sign but I'm not realizing they invested in docusing. So from from that, we just started doing that. And then I think that kind of sparked me into like wanting to do my own deal.
Then after I did my own dal I remember him reaching out to me like, yo, like, let's I didn't realize that's how much you was into this, Like let's take it to another level and how about you be a venture partner on this new fund that we're thinking about creating. And you know, I took it, took the opportunity, and here we are, all.
Of this about playing being the best line back in the league.
So let me ask you a question about negotiating contract. What are some things that you put in the contract or you took out of the contract that you know you when negotiating, like outside just the standard stuff like stuff that you actually put in or you saw something that was like naw, we're not doing that.
It was the it was the forty six and fifty three game, you know, roster bonus or per games what they call them. You know, it was basically like I had, I had like a lot of money tied up in having to be on the field. So I remember during that during that contract, I was always stressing about missing games. Got new like that was money missing.
And this is this is why guys play with broken her.
Yeah, because you know again like you said, like you got a guy saying I got to play ninety percent of my snaps to get X amount of dollars and you're like, all right, well, I know, my my my hip not feeling right on my shoulder, not feeling right, but I'm at eighty five percent. I need to get to ninety. And so they go out there and they play and it's you know, not they're not always thinking about the betterment of their life, and so I was
thinking like that. I was thinking like, dang, I don't like why, I don't want to think like this and so and so during the negotiations, I brought that up. I was like, look, we're not doing this, Like I'm like, I don't want to think about this no more. We got to turn these to forty six and it was like yeah, and they was like, no, we you know, we can't do that, and yeah, yeah, yeah. I was like, no,
y'all can. I was like yeah. I was like, you said running back is probably the most dangerous position positions, right, It's like yeah. I was like, well, you gave a running back exactly what I'm asking and you're saying his position is more dangerous than mine. So why did he get it? And I did it when it's more of a risk with him than it is with me. And
so what was the response? Did have a response? It was just you know, they understood, and again it is part of just you know, doing your homework and uh, you know again like that's all studying. Like I just I knew that. I knew that was the case, and so had I not known that, I wouldn't even been able to argue it. So I knew that was the case, and I knew what they had done years before, and it was just basically something for my mental I didn't want to have to worry about that.
That's the best feel in the world. Even with us. We've done that before, Like we negotiate deals with corporations and you can tell like they're not they're not expecting
us to know certain things. So then we bring up like you noticed, it's like there's no response because they want it's like, okay, you know, he got that, But it was the unfortunate part is, like you said, the vast majority of people just aren't aware of these certain Yeah, And it's like that's crazy for NFL because it's like NBA, you get a sprained ankle when gods is missing four weeks,
you know what I'm saying, Cause they're getting paid. It's like, you know, it's like they're not rushing back and it's like all right, but the NFL, it's only a couple. It's only sixteen weeks and they're like real serious injuries and they're playing. So how do you think do you
think this will ever be solved? As far as like the NFL contract situation, I personally feel like the owners have too much power where the NBA is like more even you can actually even argue that the players have more power than the owners on a certain But what's the because anytime like a lockout happens, it's never really beneficial because a billionaire has always been have more power than a millionaire and they can just starve guys out.
I want to get you your thoughts because you was the around for the last slockout, right, I was, yeah, so hey, well, my first question is how do we solve this problem and make these contracts better for NFL players. I'll let you ask, I'll let you answer that. Then I gotta have the follow up.
I think we gotta as a group want to make them better. And I think we do want to make them better, but I think we got to like really figure out what that looks like. And then you know, the toughest part about it too, is the difference between the NBA and the NFL is the amount of people that we have on the team and the differences in
pay and structures and everything. So you know, you might have your top twenty guys on the team that's making X amount of dollars or whatever and they're fighting for that, but the bottom half they're like, oh, we cool with that. So a lot it's a lot of this. It's like a lot of like you know, button heads within you know, within the players. So we would have to come together
at first to get that done. I feel like it's you know, it's it's changing from a standpoint, But I think the biggest thing that that will help is education. Like you said, a lot of things. There's a lot of times I feel like in talking to players, talking to guys like they don't even know what's in their contract. But they don't know what the structure of their contract is. They just they like they like the consumer, they like the fan. They watch the contract get reported on the screen,
and they believe with whatever that is. Like they don't take the time. And a lot of it too is on the agent. You know, the agent has to you know, take that time to explain. But if the agent tries to explain to you and you don't care about it, then there's really no point in doing that. I'm pretty sure there's a bunch of players it's just like, man, I just want to go out and play ball, and we got to change that. We got to change the whole I just want to play ball and do my
job and do whatever. Because at the end of the day, this is a business, and everybody treats it like a business. But majority of the players, you know what I'm saying, So we got to treat this like a big business. Treat yourself like a business. Understand you are an enterprise and entity like so you need to understand the ins and outs of everything that's going on. So I think
it starts with that. It starts with guys treating themselves as a business and kating themselves and putting the energy into wanting to learn the ins and outs of their business. Because we can change the contracts and we can change the way they structure the contracts. But if guys don't care about what's in them, and people can hide things
in the contract, then it really doesn't matter. Because there are certain things like when we talk about you know, when we talk about guys, you know, wanting guaranteed contracts or wanting to have guaranteed contracts. It's nothing that says we can't. It's just were not doing it. So there's you know, it's not like a thing that you have to you know, exciteful. Yeah, you don't have to accept it. Because Kirk Cousins was a guy who had all his
whole contract guarantee. Granted, he had tons of leverage. Yeah, yeah, tons of leverage. So they team I told you I was Washington, so we let them go to Minnesota. Okay.
But that's a good point though, because it's like, after a while, something just becomes normal and it's just lives that NFL contracts aren't guaranteed. But I remember when he got that, it was like he was guaranteed. That was weird to me. But it's like, it's not to say that you can't have a guaranteed contract. It's just most people just don't have guarantee contract.
Yeah, it don't. It don't end up working out that way.
Do you think he had. This episode is brought to you by P and C Bank. A lot of people think podcasts about work are boring, and sure, they definitely can be, but understanding of professionals routine shows us how they achieve their success, little by little, day after day. It's like banking with P and C Bank. It might seem boring the safe plan and make calculated decisions with your bank, but keeping your money boring is what helps you live or more happily fulfilled life. P and C
Bank Brilliantly Boring since eighteen sixty five. Brilliantly Boring since eighteen sixty five is a service mark of the PNC Financial Service Group, Inc. P and C Bank National Association Member FDIICS. What's Up? You ever walk into a small business and everything just works like The checkout is fast, the receipts are digital, tipping is a breeze, and you're out the door before the line even builds Odds are they're using Square? We love supporting businesses that run on
Square because it just feels seamless. Whether it's a local coffee shop, a vendor at a pop up market, or even one of our merch partners. Square makes it easy for them to take payments, manage inventory, and run their business with confidence, all from one simple system. If you're a business owner or even just thinking about launching something soon, Square is hands down one of the best tools out
there to help you start, run and grow. It's not just about payments, it's about giving you time back so you can focus on what matters most ready. To see how Square can transform your business, visit Square dot com backslash go backslash eyl to learn more that Square dot com backslash, go backslash eyl. Don't wait, don't hesitate. Let's Square handle the back end so you can keep pushing your vision forward.
An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child in Massachusetts. An MS thirteen gang member from Al Salvador accused of murdering a Texas. Man of Venezuelan charged with filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are just some of the heinous migrant criminals caught because of President Donald J. Trump's leadership. I'm Christy Noman, the United States
Secretary of Homeland Security. Under President Trump, attempted illegal border crossings are at the lowest levels ever recorded, and over one hundred thousand illegal aliens have been arrested. If you are here illegally, your next you will be fined nearly one thousand dollars a day. Imprisoned and deported, you will never return. But if you register using our CBP home app and leave now, you could be allowed to return legally.
Do what's right. Leave now. Under President Trump America's laws, border and families will be.
Protected sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security.
Leverage. Because he already had I think they franchise tag him twice, so they couldn't do it again.
So yeah, anything, yeah, one hundred. I had a lot to do with it. They franchised them twice. So that's the reason why the Washington Football team let him go, because his next franchise number or whatever was gonna be crazy or they couldn't do it again.
It's the average of the top five.
So what's what's the franchise tag? What is that all about?
Franchise tag is something that no player really wants, you know, every player hates, but it's a way to kind of keep any player that they want there. So if they franchise you, basically for that year, your contract is guaranteed, and for that year, you make the average of the top five guys in the league. So I think for myself it was like like sixteen million. I think when
I was up last time I was up. So it's basically like a you know, like a strategic wed that a team can can use if you can't if you can't get a deal done, you can't get extension done, and you don't want that player to leave, it's just franchise tag them. So now you have them for a year and then they have a period and where like you can still negotiate and you know, work on a deal or whatever. But if you don't get a deal, then you have to you basically you tied to that team.
You can't go nowhere for that year. You have to play. We don't necessarily have to play those guys that didn't want to play on franchise tag, but you know, you you're basically tied to that team for that year.
Each team gets one yeah that year, and so they did him twice and so now the third year he can't be franchise tacks.
Yeah, I don't think you can be franchised, which is why they let him go. And then like thirty six months he's gonna be crazy. And then that's what he used to negotiate the numbers. You know, you use that. So now it's like, you know, if you a quarterback and your your final year or whatever, you thirty six million, All right, well I want more than what I was going to make, and you just kind of go from there.
So this last lockout that we had, it was an unfortunate situation and a lot of stuff started to come out. Vince Young, this is documented, So he had some financial issues at the time, and they were saying that he went to his financial guy. One of these financial guys, they was giving out loans to players, but it was like twenty thirty percent interest. Story short, like the guys didn't have enough money to actually pay their bills, so they was getting loans from like pretty much like loan
shark loans. Like this whole thing came out. It was like a whole big thing, and it was crazy to me because I'm like, it's you know, it's interesting that guys have, you know, ten million dollars twenty million dollar contracts and they have to pretty much get paid ay loans. It's really what it is like, pay they loan to cover you over. So did you see that? Did you did anybody? Did you know anybody that had to go through that? And how did you like, how was that
time for you? And the other guys in the league when the lockout happened.
Well, I mean that's like a deeper question, you know what I mean, Like, as men, you know, it's very rare that you're gonna tell another person that you're struggling financially for sure. So were there guys that was probably struggling, maybe, but did they cover it up really well? Probably? So I don't know anybody nobody came and openly talked about struggling, but you know, you had an idea of you know,
some guys that was you know. But as far as that time with me, like I was, like I said, I was good because you know, I I had been saving, you know, for for a very long time. I've been you know, saving and investing and things of that nature, and just so happened around the time in the lockout. Some of my investments was coming back, so I was actually getting paid for some of my investments, and I really just focused on using that time of what life would
look like if I retired. So I was like constantly on zoom calls, meetings, investment meetings, things of that nature. So you know, I feel like I had a different experience just because of the way I positioned myself. But you know, I know a lot of guys were worried, you know, about the state of the league and what was going to do. And I think that's what played into the deal that we ultimate end up getting. You think it was a good deal. I wouldn't have done it.
I would have done it. I think we had a lot of power. I think we had a lot of leverage.
Has to be approved.
I think we have two thirds or something like that, so everybody in the league votes. Yeah, And even a voting situation like the way that they the way that they pushed the voting out, it was like, you know, you get this email or send this text message or whatever, and you basically got it in your email and said vote. And I know there was a lot of guys that voted that hadn't even looked at the terms of what the CBA was, And so, you know, I think that's you know, not only an NFL thing, it's an NFL
PA thing, Like we got to do better. You know, a lot of guys were just seeing whatever they saw in the media and voting off of that. Like so I don't know if I would have I would have done a deal but again, it's it's a hard thing that when you have so many guys to try to get them on the same page, you know, because you have the middle class, the upper class, you know what I'm saying, and everybody. But yeah, and you got a lot of who didn't vote, which could have changed what
could have changed, you know? So how did that? How did that work?
They tally up every single person's vote and majority route wins.
Yeah. I think they needed like either like sixty six percent or whatever two thirds and they needed you know, so they just sent out either email or the text or whatever, and you voted from your email and they just counted it up and if it was sixty six percent of the league or whatever it was, it got approved. Who's the president of the of the associations? The Morris Smith? Yeah, the Morris Smith. Yeah, he's still still Smith still is.
Yeah, but you're the captain of the team.
I'm captain the captain for a while.
So is that something that you can organize and say, guys, we're going to have this meeting his what's happening or is that like is that what you did? Is that happening in the league.
Yeah, it happens all across the league. I think everybody was doing it, but I think the thing was it was, again, we had sixty seventy you know whatever, players, and you had maybe twenty that fell one way, twenty that felt another way, and twenty that felt another way. And we had one vote, so we had to get all of us on the same page to put in our one vote. Seattle had one vote. Seattle had to vote, so every team had a vote.
So it's like it's like the presidential election, like the state represents, like everybody votes, and then the majority of the team whatever. Now Seattle castes his vote yesterday. Yeah, it's not like every single vote count.
Well yeah, it wasn't. You know, I don't believe it was every player, but like you know, as far as like Seattle or whatever, it was, you know kind of how we were doing it because we had reps. You know, you had your rep. So I was a player rep. And so we was meeting in Miami and we was going over it, and then we was like voting upon our We was voting on the teams whether or not who would like would we send this to the rest of the players, And once that passed, then it got
sent to the rest of the players. When it got sent to the rest of the players, then everybody has a vote and you vote and then it was over.
I didn't know that's how it worked. That's interesting. Like I said, it's like the presidential election where they just picked it. Like New York voted Democrats, Arizona College is voted. Yeah, let me ask you this as far as on the financial side for building your financial team, we have about agents a lot, but we don't hear about players when their financial management financial planners counting.
I believe you have a pretty a pretty.
Good talk about that. How does that work out for players or for you specifically? What does your financial management team do? And how do you choose a good financial manager? Wish some tips and advice for that.
Yeah, you know, my team is amazing. Shout out to humble. Uh. We kind of do everything in house, so they take care a lot of a lot of the stuff. And it took it was a progress, a process to get
to that. You know, I had a couple, I had a couple of financial advisors before I had him, and you know, when I first got out, you know, from a rookie, my thought processes was I went with a financial advisor who I knew had other guys that I knew, so I knew if he did me dirty, it was other people that everybody going, yeah, I'm all right, did you see that? Like you know what I mean? So, you know, so I feel like that's kind of how
my my two first financial guys was. And then I went to another one who had like a star studied you know, clientele and things of that nature, and I just realized that wasn't where I wanted to be either. And I think the thing that I was looking for was I was looking for someone who was willing to teach me, and that's what I was missing. And all of them, everybody wanted to tell you, to tell me what to do and tell me what I need to put my stuff in, but nobody wanted to teach me.
And you know, you know, the guy I have humble, He sat down you know, I remember I remember like sitting down him like you know, all right, like let's let's invest, let's let's do this, let's do that. It's like all right, well, what's a stock? And I was like, he's like, what's the bond? I was like, you know what I mean, I'm like you know, what do you mean? I don't know. I was like, come on, we could
just invest. He's like, nah, like I'm not You're not investing one dollar with me until you know the basics. And when he said that to me at the time, I was like, dang, like I gotta wait to invest. But then two hindsight, I'm like, like, end up being one of the best things for me. And I respect him for that because, you know, I remember sitting in my living room and it was like class and I had a notebook and he sat down and he just start throwing out terms at me and just constantly quizzing
me and put me in a different different things. And so my advice is to find somebody a you trust and someone that you can that that teaches you, you know, because at the end of the day, you want to be taught, not told. And so that's that was my biggest thing, is like, if the person's willing to teach you, that means he's not afraid of you figuring out everything that he's doing. If the person not fraid of you figuring out everything he's doing, that means you don't got
nothing to high. If he don't want to teach you. Then I feel like he got something high. And if he got something high, you can't have my money. Yeah you can't. You can't do that. And now it's his thing. He was like, man, I want to teach you to the point where you don't need me. You still have me, but you won't need me, and then we can actually
have conversations. So when I bring a deal to you and I'm saying, this is what's in it, this is what not in it, this is what we can make on it, I want to be able to have like you give me your opinion back versus just me tell
you what to do. And so that was the biggest thing for me, just just you know, positioning it myself with somebody who was willing to teach me, take the time to you know, because I think the NFL is cool from the standpoint of we play from August to February if you lucky, and from like February, mid February to July, you just work out. Now, you know, I
don't think any of us is the hope. Maybe maybe Aaron Donald, but you know, so, uh, you work out maybe four hours, that's still twenty more hours to do something else. And so you know, I use that time to learn something else and get understanding in a different field.
So no one the knowledge that you know. Now, if you could go back this two part question, you can go back, would you represent yourself?
No one?
The knowledge that you know? And do you see a change or maybe a revolution with more players or wanted to come into the draft and side you know what, I don't need an agent. I'm gonna represent myself. What would your advice be? Because I believe there's a defensive end from Michigan. There's a Gary might have been Gary.
I think so any Amazone agency.
Became yeah agency fresh fresh out of college. Oh that might spark some change. What are your things?
What I do it all over again? I probably would still have an agent the first the first time, but that fee would be close to nothing because they not negotiating anything. So you know, are the rookie contrast is slotted, so you know, you know, wherever you go, first round, second round, third round, whatever, you don't get a percentage more than what that guy got last year.
You know, even matter the position. So if a quarterback got took in forty second.
Don't matter. If you still get what don't matter? If you the second round pick, and if you know forty seven pick, overall, you're gonna make a certain amount more than what the last year got made, regardless of your position. And so knowing that you know they're not really negotiating too much, the numbers are already preset, so you know,
I would definitely negotiate that percentage down. And you know, I would see what they what they offer to me outside of the field, and really just see, you know, how much they are a man, they work and do I see like there's a shift. I don't know if there's a shift, because I don't think that you gotta want to do business. I don't think everybody's into business. So you know, I think more guys will do it.
I think it'll be more of a thing. It will, it'll become common, But I don't think it'll be like a point where the whole league will do it, because there's certain people who just don't do business and they don't you know, they're not good, they're not interested in they like maybe you like art, maybe like something else like this. And I don't think.
I don't think there's any wrong, anything wrong with having an agent, because like you said, I mean, you know, it's it's representation and somebody's doing a good job for you, but you have an option not to if you want to. There's a lot more work and everybody's not going to read the CBA. Everybody's not going to go through all
of that. So I personally feel like agents, representations, financial plans, all of that is good, but you should always be educated as well, just in case you never know, and you know, it's just good to just be able to ask questions and not to just you shouldn't trust anybody blindly.
Yeah, yeah, I agree. I think the same thing. Like everybody kind of felt like myself, Sharon, and I can't speak for sharm, but you know, they thought that we was like against agents. I'm not against agents. I just you know, felt like I wanted to be at the table and I feel like that was the only way that I could truly be at the table. And like you said, like there's guys that you know, they probably
do need some representations to help them out. But I think the biggest thing, the biggest shift that need to have to happen is like players not trust in buying, like players knowing what's in their contract and knowing what the negotiation process was and knowing, you know, what they got in they contract. Can they get that out? Like it should be a conversation with the player Like I always thought in my mind, I always thought like there
was like two processes when it came to negotiation. It was the negotiation between the agent and the team and the negotiation between the team and the player. Like basically the agent and the team would negotiate the deal. Then the agent would come back to the player and basically tell him why this is a good deal and to take it versus you know, hey, like this is what they said today, Like you know, we're gonna counter with this? What do you think? No, no, no, counter with this? Like this is what
No?
I really want, Like I need this in my contract. If we have more of that dialogue, then that's that's a bigger shift to me. Then then everybody want to represent themselves.
How much was your first contract?
For my first ever contract? Yeah, thing it was four million? So how how how did life hit you?
And how is it just coming out of you know, college and becoming a millionaire and you know, twenty one years old, twenty three years old, stuff like that, Like we always hear the stories of like most people, like even in our our world, like in business, it takes years to become a millionaire, you know, mid thirties, forties,
thirty years old, where you already worked for ten years. Yeah, the athletes and entertainers is a little different because you become a millionaire like instantly as soon as you become a professional where all the professions you have to work at that profession. So how is it, you know, as far as the temptations, the splurge, the lifestyle. I know, obviously you kept the level head, but how is that to become a millionaire that young?
It was? It was, It was definitely an experience for sure. It was different because you know when I got drafted, you know, like people were calling me a millionaire like the next day, and I was like, yo, I ain't got nothing in my account, so I'm not a millionaire yet. And so that was that was the thing. Then, Uh, I got my signing bonus and I saw the amount of taxes that was taken out of my signing bonus, and I immediately called the Seahawks and I was like, man, I know, y' y'all stealing from me.
You know what?
I mean, like, I know, I know what y'all love to. I'm not gonna be the eighty percent. You guys are not stealing from me. Like where is the other half?
Get mister Allen?
Yeah, I'm like, where's the other half? They're like, nah, bro, this is taxes? Like you never played tax before? Like no, I'm not paid tax before, Like and what like isn't there a level? I'm like, I go from from zero to the top. I can't like get I can't gradually
go up like y'all gonna take all my money. I'm like so, But as far as like the temptations that I never really was a person that was into like material things like you know my uh, I had a car that I was driving, you know, my in college and I was gonna use that car for the league. But the only reason why I got another car was because my dad had got this Audi and it was like a coop and it was like low to the ground and it was hurting his back every single day he was getting in and out of it, and so
he wanted another car. And I was like, all right, well, I'll just take over your I'll just take over your your payments and we'll get you a car. So that's how we worked that out, and that's how I got another car, just because he was I didn't want to see him, you know, hurting his back every day he was getting out of his car, and I was like, you know, so that was that was my purchase. I don't even remember having a big purchase like that. I
didn't run and go buy stuff or whatever. Like I was just like, man, you know what, I just want to play. I want to Like we had went through so much. I had went through so much at that point, like I you know, I was I got sick before the combine, you know, I got the draft day experience was was this old another thing, and so I was just like, man, like, now that all this is behind me, I just want to play. So like my first year, I just wanted to to play. So I wasn't really
worried about everything. And then too, like the majority of the defensive majority of the team was my age, so we didn't have like older guys that had all these cars and stuff like that. We was all just coming from you know, college really, so everybody was wasn't driving them crazy, So like it was easy to be humble in that situation because you know, you had a couple of older guys that had crazy cars. But we all was like, all right, we'll get there. You know what
I'm saying. Everybody was. Our whole team was pretty levelheaded from that standpoint. It was like, look like, we don't got to do that right now. Let's wait and then we'll get it when we when we when were good.
Twenty twelve Man.
Tras the franchise. I think that's probably the best draft class that they had, maybe in history. Who knows, easily. Yeah, twenty twelve.
Twenty twelve, Yeah, round you drafted in second, and Russell's first round for US was third.
Russe who was the first round draft? Bruce Serving.
Too.
Yeah, he was fast. Yeah, he's on Oakland. Well, no, he was with us last year. He came back to us last year and then he got hurt. Yeah, it was a good draft that we were solid.
That was Andrew.
Let me ask you this. You talked about taxes. We talked about this also with Brandon Copeland, but I was going to go there. Oh yeah, the taxes. There's a thing called the jock tax and people aren't familiar with, but like you get taxed in each state that you're playing, and I remember that's my man's name that played for the Broncos, Shannon Sharps. He was always a big support of us, Remember thinking, oh rod Smith, Rosmith shot to Rod Smith. So this was early on on Instagram. He
became a big supporter. And he was telling me how I spoke to him.
He was telling me.
How he played for the Broncos. But he was like, guys used to hate playing in California because whenever they played in California, then they paid California state tax that for that game. And he was like, you know, you train in Denver, so like like let's say it's a Sunday game, right, You're training Denver until like Thursday night. Go you might go to San Francisco Friday or sometimes even Saturday r so, and then you leave right after
the game. So you only spend in like forty eight hours, sometimes even less, but you get but that whole week's paycheck is in California, who has the highest state tax. And it's like for every state that you go to you're playing, you're paying different state tax. And it's like a lot of times this is why you know Florida and Texas has an advantage because even though you're not playing all of your games there, at least playing half the games there makes a big difference.
And don't forget the city tax.
Well yeah, Brandon Copman told us about that cities like Detroit. But then he was saying, like one of his guys argued that he's not paying Detroit tax because the training facility is in the sub burds. Yeah, so it's very complicated situation. But can you talk about that as far as the taxes.
Yeah, it was the same thing man when I uh, yeah, surprised, you know what I'm saying, Like the first two games, first three games or whatever the season was in uh in Seattle. So I'm looking at my check and I'm all right cool, and I played in California and I was like again, walking up, they probably hate me at this point, Yo, Seahawks, y'all had it again. Y'all trying to steal from here. Y'all not doing that, Like where's my money? Like it's like, nah, that's California taxa. It's like, okay,
that's cool. I don't play at California. Y'all noticed the Washington team, Like what's up? So It was one of those situations where you just had to you know, you had to be mindful of it, and you had to you had to figure out a way strategically to kind of combat that. So kind of what I did was I found out with the Seahawks, you know, we have our we pay our taxes, whatever the thirty three or
whatever thirty whatever percentage is. I found out the Seahawks were always under withholding on our on our checks, and so it was it was always being under with hell. So the money that we were having one we thought we were made weren't. It wasn't being taxed all the way. So, you know, I went up to our test guy and I said, Yo, like, can we over with hell? Like you know what I'm saying. She just kind of come back like either the money I made off the field
or some of the taxes or whatever. I just try to figure out a way to you know, the under withholding was just not going to cut through it because I was money. Yeah, I was owing money at the end. I didn't want to owe money after I was done or whenever. I you know, at the end of the thing, I either wanted to be flat or get money back. So instead of that was one way I thought about doing was I went to the the tax guy for the Seahawks and I told him to you know, up
the percentage. And that's not something that everybody knew about, you know everybody, and think, how did you realize that? Humble? I mean yeah, he was. He was saying like, yeah, they're not they're not withholding enough. What do you mean not worthholding enough? It's like, okay, bro, like you said it twice, like I don't, I don't know. And he was like, well, you know, he started breaking to me the tax and he's like, they're they're not withholding enough.
And so we kind of found that that's kind of how they did the you know, the taxes, and so I was like, okay, well I went to my guy and I told him like, yo, like can you over with hell? And you know, that was their thing. And so probably everybody on the team is under with healing unless you go up. You got to go up and tell them.
So they just did an individually for yours. It became a team right then.
It wasn't a team white thing. But I you know, as soon as I found out, I started telling guys like yo, like just let you know, like if you're trying to they under withhold us. So if you want to adjust that, you got to go and tell them. You got to go up like physically walk up there and tell them or send them an email saying like can you change this? But again, it's one of the things that you know, you don't think to know about it.
You don't think to know that how much is the team withholding in the check and is it the mouth that it needs to be.
And you got no choice. You got to You gotta play twice in California every year.
Every year twice. But there was a there was a stretch where there was a stretch. It was a very good stretch. It was around Christmas too. We played in Washington, Florida that I think Texas, and then we played in Washington and then we played one more state that didn't have any taxes. But it was like five states in a row with no taxes. Now they got now they got Nevada with the Vegas Yeah yeah.
Oh yeah, but that's like once every four years, y'all.
Yeah, I mean just in general, Yeah, but that that really plays a role. Like you know what I'm saying when I think about when I think about teams that I would play for, like knowing what I know now, like that comes into a fact like which division do I want to do? I want to play for a team that gets taxed now because like I've been my whole career has been no income tax something like do I want to do that? Californians? California's crazy.
And that's why I'm assuming a lot of NFL players living in Miami. Obviously, Miami has a lot of great advantages outside having those state tax helps too though, right, Yeah, So like I'm assuming, like most guys have two homes, usually like with a home that they play in and then like the Miami when the off season they going to.
Yeah, a lot of guys have a lot of guys have I think they have homes where they grew up at and some guys, like you said, go with Miami and things that nature. But I think from a task perspective, like you know, it's whatever you spend majority of time and so you know, have you got to do that to earth finesse that work? Do your think?
So what's the what's the future for you as far as envision? Obviously you're a very bright guy. Do you want to spread the financial literacy, Are you playing on teaching people? Yeah, agency and things of that nation.
No, agency, I'm good, I'm good. I'm good. But teaching, I definitely teach. I give knowledge for sure or even like whether it's from the game or what I know financially, because I think at the end of the day, like I want to help like NFL guys, especially see the money, see the future of that labor, especially because our sports so dangerous. So it's it's it's unfortunate you got guys walking away from a game that's so violent with with
nothing to show for it. So you know, I always feel like anybody that wants to come and ask me questions or tell me how I do it, I'm like, I'm an open but from that standpoint, so you know, if there's an option, you know, opportunity for me to teach or to me to give the dollars away, you know, I'm always open for it. There's nothing that I'm really like withholding information. I'm you know, if you want to know,
I'll tell you. And that's coming from football too. It's like, you know, I always feel like whatever you give you wanna get back, So you know, I wanted to give whatever I know. I think it's important information for guys to have. I want that number to change. I don't want to look and see, you know, I want to look and see guys walk away from the game a healthy and be with with the money. So, you know, if there's an opportunity for me to to to teach,
then I definitely will. But one goal of mine is always been, uh when I came to the league was I thought I made a pretty good transition from college to to the NFL, and I wanted my transition from the NFL to life after football to be better than that. And so that's what sparked me to start doing internships and doing different things because I wanted to know what
I was doing when I was done. So back you know, by the end of my career, I was playing because I loved the game versus because I needed the money.
And so that that was my mindset, and that's that's my main goal outside of the Pro Bowls, all Pros and all that stuff, was to to be on that that twenty percent side of guys walking away with with good health, walking away with you know, all their money and you know, being able to live the lifestyle that you know, that I created with playing for the rest of my life.
We spoke to Steve Stelee and uh, he spoke broke up the name of Adresan Horowitz and he was talking about how you know, he had sat down and brought knives and showed him some some deals and some investments, and that name came up when I was doing the research on you. Yeah, well, how how did you get introduced? What was the road then from mister.
Man? The connection was was Chris Lines. I met Chris Lines actually with my my business manager, my boy and my brother house right. Yeah. I met Chris Lines in San Francisco probably in twenty thirteen, and so you know, we were just, uh, you know, I thought it was crazy because he was in you know, the financial world and I hadn't seen that at the time outside of Humble, and so I'm like, man, like, we need to stay connected.
And throughout this time, he just was always sending me deals or sending me certain things, you know, invested in a couple of funds, and we just always had that that line of communication and been great with just sharing knowledge, helping me get a part of certain things down there and introduce me to those guys, and that's kind of been my connection with them.
Let me ask you this before we wrap CTE. How do you feel about that? Are you concerned?
Yeah?
Do you ever think about that? Like as far as your own personal career and your colleagues.
Obviously it's a thing. It's a thing you can ignore. Uh. For me, I'm a you know, I'm a big love attraction guy, and so I don't necessarily speak on it like that because I don't want to attract it. With that being said, you try to be mindful of it. But you know, I think there is something there. Obviously is something to it. We got to figure out what it is that causes that. But I also think that the style of play also results in that your lifestyle also that you know, it's it's you know, for me,
I don't think it's just football. I think it's more than just football. It's your diet, like what you're eating, what you're drinking, what you doing with your life, how much sleep you getting it. It's more than just to me football, And you know, I try to play the game, you know, as violence as I can, but I also try to use my shoulder like when I tackle people I don't try to use my head. I try to use my shoulder as much as I can to avoid
that for those specific reasons. But I definitely think like it's a thing. I think it's like thing that you got to be conscious for. But I also think there's ways that you can prepare yourself for. You can do some research for. There's a lot of things out there, like stem cells and different stuff like that that helps prevent or grow certain things. And so again like it's it's all about, you know, educating yourself and investing in certain things that's going to help you in the long
run and help your life. And so I feel like I do those things. I feel like I play the game in a way where I, you know, try to avoid those crazy hits like that. And you know, it's not necessarily something I think about because I don't don't attracted try not to. I feel you Bobby has been a pleasure of my brothers, you guys a little know. In fact, I was actually a Seattle fan a few years ago. I switched teams every year. I'm like a few years ago Twitch every year.
Yeah, but I think I'm gonna go back to Seattle.
City.
K City was two years ago. I think Seattle that was a good team. You should go ahead do that. Think I'm going back to your favorite player. Yeah, you should do that. You should do that. Man, Come on, man, you were telling the story.
Clint Porters is my favorite player.
Okay.
Taylor is on that listen, okay, and.
I'm Bobby he's up there. Come on, man, come on, Jersey, we got come on, man, raised.
We got to hang it up at the E y L headquarters.
Yeah, we gotta. We need to sign Jersey. We'll get that, and we gotta go to the game.
I have to experience with the twelve man is.
I wait for it to open, when its over, when it's open, it's open, full capacity, and then pull up. It's gonna be crazy. Hopefully it doesn't rain. Now, I can't guarantee that. I can't guarantee that we'll come early in the season.
Don't wait till later. We definitely got to table. We got paid this year. We got a lot of support in Seattle, and we haven't been up there, so we definitely have to come in Seattle.
Sure, sure, for sure.
Well, what would you like to tell people with some some things you'd like to leave them with?
Oh man. I think over this last period of time with with COVID and everything, I think it's uh broad a realization to I think the world that you know, if you wasn't present before this time, it's important to be present and chaish those relationships that you have and be mindful about those relationships that you have, make sure you you know, continue to grow yourself and the people
around you, because life is short. A lot of stuff that can be taken away at the instant, and I think this year has shown us how short life can be.
And so I think that's something that I've I've learned over this time is you know, self love is important, also loving the people around you because you never know what they're going to be taken from you, and you know, being more present, you know, I think a lot of times we have so much going on that you know, you might be playing with your kids or playing with your you know, with your girl or whoever, and you're on your phone or you're on your computer and you're
not really paying attention to them until you're in a situation when they're not there no more. So that's something I feel like throughout COVID is you know, I'm putting more of an emphasis on being more present, more self love, more love for the people around me, and being present and making sure I'm growing myself but also helping grow the people around me. Appreciate it.
Brother, pleasure as always Troy House.
Shout out support Black Houses, My God, just just so happy.
Support Black College. I gotta get Red one. I'm not saying y'all give me. I'm saying, look just what I need. Red Yeah, dark green, another black love, black and gray.
Josh, you heard it. We're gonna make that happen. Shout to everybody on picture on dot com that is up prop to paid program. Obviously Tier five members, you have access to E y L University. The number one place for everything in the business world is our baby. It's growing and over time we got over eight thousand members. So shout to all the earners that are in there, and shout out to everybody that supporting the merch and
this season is here. That's what urch is here. Shout to the merch team, Shout the band, Shout to Smitey, Shout to the whole e y O staff man. Love from everybody over there, and uh yeah man eu y.
O Sports soon comes. Thank you guys for rocking us. For see you next week.
I might invest, some might invest.
Fuse is involved.
My graduates from my school being force back drop bag drop Mike drotdrop droft.
An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child in Massachusetts. An MS thirteen gang member from Al Salvador accused of murdering a Texas man of Venezuelan charged with filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are just some of the heinous migrant criminals caught because of President Donald J. Trump's leadership. I'm Christy Noman, the United States
Secretary of Homeland Security. Under President Trump, attempted illegal border crossings are at the lowest levels ever recorded, and over one hundred thousand illegal aliens have been arrested. If you were here illegally, your next you will be fine nearly one thousand dollars a day, imprisoned and deported, you will never return. But if you register using our CBP home app and leave now, you could be allowed to return legally.
Do what's right. Leave now. Under President Trump, America's laws, border and families.
Will be protected. Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security,