Shawne Merriman Talks With 6x NFL Pro Bowler Brandon Marshall About Life After Football And Is Brandon Stepping Into The Boxing Ring?

favorite guys, man Brandon Marshall. Uh. Just talking about our days when I was at the Charges and he was playing with the Denver Broncos and our epic battles man we used to have UM and the back and forth talking with Jay Color and Philip Rivers. We get into Uh. We talked about just mental health. We get back into that. He's always been a huge advocate of that. UM. Also, you know, just the transition from football or sports in general,

getting into your neck thing. I I tell a lot of guys when when you retired, it's it's the hardest thing is finding something to do right away, not having a downtime. Whatever you you love, whatever your passion is, getting into it right away, because that dead space is the worst space. That you can be in because we're used to competing, We're used to going at it every day working out. Brandon also has uh a outstanding jim and whole you know, supplement line and everything he's he's building.

His branding is immaculate. With house of athletes, I still gotta get out there to workout. It's gonna be in New York and opens up I think beginning of um. So, look, you know I'm bringing on Brandon, but man, he has a bunch of things sports to go over. Also, could he be competing in combat sports? You know? I also I said that it's gonna be a ton of former athletes, whether it's in NFL, NBA, a rugby hockey, that's going to be transitioning from their respective sport and took combat sports.

You know, these guys who are done in four or five years and play had a short career, maybe injury, maybe you know, just the way the games go, and they still want to get after, they still want to compete. So it's Brandon Marshall gonna be entering the world of combat sports. You know, I've been a big fan of been been training uh M m A and and boxing and MUI taie and just recently got into jiu jitsu over the last six months, and I think it's a discipline that we all can find a way and get into.

So bringing in my boy Brandon Marshall. Yeah, I mean this is freaking like, it's freaking I hope hopefully we're rolling right now there the interview. Should that this whole podcast had started already, Has it started? Yeah? We all, we all freaking freaking lights out. And he has a damn plastic backdrop. Damn lights out. The guy that has the probably the number one celebration and all of sports,

just a monster. I hated going against you. It was like we we knew we didn't have a chance in Denver, Like we knew, like going into the game, we had one second to throw the ball halfway in my route, five yards down the field. All you hear is the crowd going, I'm looking back seeing j Color just getting smashed and flipped and you gotta freaking plastic backdrop. Yeah, they killed me that I gotta I gotta two by

two back here. They smashed me when but you know, you know the funny part, the funny part about coming down the plane yard when you wear Denver Is when Jay colored that was down in Philip him and Philip Rivers used to get in it so much so like that was that was one of the craziest things I've seen because they were standing in the middle of the field and I'm like, somebody's gonna throw a punch. Yeah,

this is getting crazy. Yeah yeah. But the best part about it, though, lights is they would actually be on the sideline fifty something yards apart, arguing and fighting. I remember what we played, you got Sunday night football, Monday night football and uh and they did a great job of covering it. And all you see is you know, a camera, un Phillips face camera camera and Jay's face and those two just yelling at each other across the field. Unbelievable.

Yeah not those some great times, man, um. And I'll never forget to looking during the game, I was looking down the field and I saw this big gass dude saying that as six foot full plugs, and I'm like, hold on, you know, you look like Megan, like like some damn superhero on the field, and I think you just completed out or something like that out pattern and the stiffed on the hell out of one of all guys,

one of my one of my teammates, Quentin Jammer. I want to get Yeah, Quentin Jammer and you guys have some crazy ass battles, some epic battles back and forth. Uh, And I'm like, I'm getting into that too because he um we had. He was my first guest on um on for the Lights Out of podcast. And one of the things we were talking about, man, that that I didn't know what what Quentin and me and Quentin. Quentin

was tight. You know, we talked all the time. And even after I retired, Uh, you know, I would just and he retired, I was just calling you, you know, do the random check up. How you doing, bro? And we're being good and stuff like that. So to me, everything was always good. And one of the things I just found out doing the podcast with him, probably about a year ago, is he was going through his own

mental health stuff and dealing with a whole lot. He got done playing and a man I had, you know, because we all we all man, we got this thing like we were tough. We're not. We don't complain, we don't make excuses, we find a way and we get through everything. And I'm always that I talked to Jam all the time. I hit him up and he never said anything. He never brought anything up. And he talked about,

you know, contemplating at one point taking his life. Um, you know, a few years back, and I was like, man, you know what, I'm so glad I check up on guys and then I stay in contact with guys because you just you never know, man, bro I just got goose bumps thinking about that. And and I'm gonna be honest with you. It just and I feel guilty because I don't think I do a good enough job of checking up on my guys. Like I have my guys right, you know, to Helvis Doom, Reveals of the World, even

Jake Cutler. There's just a few guys that I reach out to and I stay connected Ryan clayde Um. So but when I think about outside of that circle, I don't do a good job of checking up on my ex teammates. And here I am. I'm this guy that you know, you know, I champion mental health. I talked about it every man, So you know that that's that's

inspiring to me. Man, And you know, just hearing you talk about that, and you know, and and tell Jam's story because there's so many people suffering and just a phone call can can help somebody, It can save somebody's life. And it sounds, you know, far fetched, but it is true. Man. Yeah, and you know I made up. I made a point um. And one of the things we talked about is Junior say I, you know, in his passing and him uh going through when he went through and taking his own life.

That after that, that was like the thing that where I started checking up on everybody I could. If I had your number, you know, maybe once every few months, I would just shooting your text, yo, dog, everything good. How's a fan? You know you do that? You do that to me? Yeah? You you you you you're the reason why I I mean why we still why we have a relationship. You know, like we competed against each other,

we saw each other at Super Bowls. We saw each other at the event, and I just thought it was amazing, Like dang, I checked my my my messages and it's like, man, lights just hit me up just to say what's up. You know. So I didn't know that was a real intentional thing. I just thought you was a good dude. Now you know, I am. Don't get you know it's not like I was just you know, it's a specific reason now, but you know, I always feel like there's

a need to to check up on guys. Man. And and you know, sometime somebody gonna tell you everything, all right, everything on goodness. Another time, you know, somebody might open up to you and say something so that one time somebody, you know, you might be looking out and could change the course and that actions. And um, it's it's so important, man, especially when you get done. Like I tell anybody. I was talking to Tonio Gates. This was right when he

was retiring and about to retire anyway. He was like, he wanted he wants to getta doing radio and doing broadcasts and stuff like that. I'll get into everything you got going on too. And I was like, man, you know, um, the best thing to do to do as soon as you've done is start rolling into something else, like that that blank space that you have, whether it's that year or two. I said, no, don't don't take no time off, man, don't sit around for a year and try to figure

it out. Get right into that next thing. Man, I think you jump You jumped right into something else. Yeah. So two thousand and nine December two thousand nineteen. Um, I had an opportunity to play for the Saints. I had a cup of team my last stop and I was there for a month. UM after practice one day, Coach Payton comes into and the receiver room. He asked for me, say, hey, brand let me talk to you.

Pulls me out in the hallway and literally got right to it and he's like, hey, we're gonna let you go. This kid came available on the waiver wire. We didn't think we were going to get them. We put in the claim, we gotta make space. We're gonna let you go. We're gonna try to get you back. Anyways, that that was the last. That was the last time I stepped foot in any NFL locker room in any NFL a building.

And that was it for me. And I was preparing for that moment, Like in two thousand and fifteen, I put together this plan to do exactly what you said, to roll into the next thing television. I had my facility already open. I was rolling and I said, Okay, I'm gonna be prepared for this moment because it won't be me. And literally for four four days, man, I was laid in bed. I didn't get out of bed.

My wife and kids were still in Seattle because I started the season there in in in Seattle planning for the Seahawks. Cut went to the Saints. So my wife and kids are there and they're on their way down. They're they're getting ready to come and spend the holidays in New Orleans. And for four days after Coach Payton told me that they were letting me go, I laid in bed. I didn't take a shower. I didn't even I think I may have gotten up to just get

some water. And it wasn't like I was depressed. I just had this out of body experience where I was like, this is what they're talking about when it's over. You know, we we hear about these stories all the time. How are guys are suffering? How are guys you know, even the horror stories like Junior say, how were they complete suicide? And I just remember thinking like, wow, I prepared for

this moment, and I'm still not prepared. And the only thing that got me out of bed was me having to go to the airport to pick up my my kids and my wife, um and then obviously having them there. You know, I was able to snap out of it. But I just thought it was out of body experience. And if it wasn't four House of the Athletes, bro, I'm telling you, I would be hurting right now, just like a lot of our guys. But this has been a huge distraction for me because I'm super in love

with what I'm doing. I'm passionate. To me. It is mental health, is what I tried to do on my non profit side. So you're so right, man. You gotta jump into something right away, something that's gonna you know, you know, distract, you take your mind off of things or something that you just love now and you hit it right on the head man. Um. And I'm gonna ask a couple of things about House and A because I still gotta get my ass out there, and I still I spent a lot of time on the East Coast. Um.

But you know, when the pandemic hit, I didn't. You know, we talked about depression all that stuff and talking about going through it. I never really and I've gone through a ton of I've been through it, man, but I never went through this where the gyms were shut down. Um, there was no outlet. I'm sitting around like waiting, waiting to find out what's gonna happen, because working out for me was and people asked all the day or were

you training for You're gonna fight? And I'm like, yeah, maybe, you know, it's it's a possibility that I might go take and fight in my league and lights out of you know, extreme fighting. Yeah I could. I can fight, you know, give me three or four months ago training, I can go take a fight. But more importantly, this is my therapy. This is what gets me through my

days and keeps me violence. And so when I see you over the building House of Athlete, man, I'm like, you know, it's all kinds of things run through my head. I'm like getting ideas watching you know, not only the workout part of in the facility, but the products right, the different supplements you building one House of Athlete and just talk about, man, how how that whole branding is for you and what you've done in you know, on

this last year or so with it. Bro. I mean, you literally just hit everything that we try to be and who we are. I realized that it's just almost impossible to in the stigma around mental health where we are today in the mental health world is where the cancer community was forty years ago. This this highly stigmatized taboo topic. Now we are having these discussions is at the forefront of our a lot of our discussions in the media and at home. So we've we've we've made

a lot of headway. But what I realized is it's easier to have that conversation around how are you mentally? How are you doing when you when you talk about wellness instead of impairment. So there's two sides of the spectrum, impairment and performance. So on the nonprofit side, with a lot of people work over here and they're like, we gotta do some work here because it's a serious uh issues that it's a it's a pandemic, it's an epidemic

here in our country, in the world. But when you come on this side and say, look, let's just get in shape, let's cut our body fat in half, let's get our b M I in check, you know, let's let's see if our collector or cholesterol is at and then you start the conversation of wellness of lifestyle. You know, how are you mentally? That's eighty percent of sport, that's eighty percent of of of of of life. Then it's easier for people to open up and talk. So that's

what house of athlete is. It's like, you know, the five things that we believe will help you unlock your full potential and be your best self. Is one. We all got a train. It's not a fat it's not a trend. But we were built to move. We need to train every single day because of what happens in our body when we do move and we sweat. Okay, the hormones that are released, it's just scientific. It's it's scientifically proven that when we move and when we work out,

we feel better. The second thing is fuel. Do we understand how to track our macro nutrients? Ideally we want to get all of our macro nutrients through food, but it's impossible. So that's where the products come in at and that's why supplementing is so crucial. The third is being mentally fit. As a pro athlete, we know how to approach a lot of us know how to approach

both ends of the spectrum. We know one day we could be hanging from the rafters because we win the next day we could lose the game by dropping the ball or missing that shot and having our head down and dealing with the media, so you gotta have a plan for both. The fourth is recovering, like if you're hurt and banged up, you know life could be held, so we gotta understand what that is. And the fifth thing is tried community. Like us, the thing that helped

us out is the people around us. We didn't get to where we were not having a team of people that we do life with. And what I realized, um and building this is you know when a pro athlete come in the guys like me and you to retire guys and like, why why did you go from working out every single day to now not doing anything and eating like crap? And you wonder why you feel the way you feel. I see you. You already have the things that we all need, like you've been doing it

for twenty plus years. Then that's why you made it, That's why you are who you are, that's why you were healthy. So just tap back into that, get back to training, get back to eating right. So those five pillars, man, is really derived from you know, what we've done to make it to the peak of of our industry and then trying to take that and scale it to the

general Parker. Yeah, you know, it's it's so crazy that you said one of these things about the thing that can drive us is being hurt or being taken away, and that's a part of the mental aspect of it. And I see the other day with Dak getting hurt right and be not being able to do something to see right now, you know, if I if I want to go out and compete, I'll go spar three days Monday, Wednesday, Friday. I'm sparring. I'm doing jiu jitsu. I'm doing I'm staying active.

Like you said that we staying active. You stay mentally shocked. And it's one thing to look good, it's another thing to feel good. Man. I'm like, yeah, having muscles and all that is great, but man, like every day I'm ready to go, I roll out of bed. Man, I'm gone, I'm out, and I feel good every day. But you know, talking the reason w I brought up doc is being being hurt man, um and having that taken away from God.

That was that was some of the you know when I hurt my when I got hurt in two thousand and eight, Um, that was the first time I really experienced I've been stressed out and we all go on through self but depression. Man, while I was like, yo, I couldn't do something anymore. And the first thing that everybody thinking like, oh, you know you're making such and

such money that year, you're getting guarantee money. But that's not if you're if you're a true warrior and a champion and competitor, like that doesn't really do a whole lot for you when you can't go and compete, you know. So when that when I looked at Doc man, he got hurt, and first of all, I saw that that his ankle on they showed his ankle do I I turned away. I can't still to this day, I can't. I think it was me seeing Willis mcgahey's injury long yeah,

dude that I speesed me. I said, oh no, and I turned my head because I think the long time ago, when I saw Willis mcgahey's knee when he got hurt in college, like that did something to me. And from that point on, I could never see guys get hurt like that. And I've seen Dax Dax ankle and the first thing I started to think about is mental health. This dude, like with you know with his mental mentality is going to be like going forward and first thing

everybody says that's the hardest part. It's the hardest part. That's the hardest. You know, there's so many layers to it. One one of one of the you know, the things that we overlook is like we're the center of the locker room, where there where the one of the faces of our organization. And then you go from the guy that's at the back of the line or nobody's even

talking to. So you go from talking every single Tuesday and having thirty different cameras and and people want to beat with their microphones in your face to now sitting in a training room with just a trainer, and your guys are out on the field, your guys are laughing in the lock from your guys are in the cafeteria, and so you you feel like you're isolated, You don't feel a part of it. So that that messes with

the athletes mind. But the hardest part about this, you know, us coming back from these injuries is the mental right like that last phase can I still do it? Or that last phase of you know, it's like, man, am I going to get back to where I was because a lot of us, our identity is wrapped up in what we do. But then there's some of us it's like super passionate and we want to be great, like when we get on the field, being average is not good enough. So for Dad, you know, I thought about

the same thing. You know, mental health, do this process. He needs to talk to someone every single week to make sure that you know, he's in tune with what's going on in his body and his mind. Yeah, and I and I tell people, I said, those tears that he had when he was getting off that field and he's being caught it off. He had nothing to do with his contract because you look on you look on social media, and the the first thing, oh he should have signed.

He should have signed money, money, money, I said, when those tears came down, those wasn't tears that he didn't sign a big contract. Those were tears he couldn't play anymore and he knew it. Yeah, that's right, that's right, hey man. So I had a couple of surgeries, just like all like anybody plead football, But I had three hip surgeries and after my third one is two thousand and fourteen, planning for the Chicago bears Um. For some reason,

this one was harder to recover from. And we were approaching camp, were a month out and I literally couldn't run a route. Um. I couldn't get out of bed without feeling the pinch or some type of pain or weakness in my head. And all I could think about is I'm not going to be able to play. And the only thing that I I in in that moment, what I thought I could do to ease the pain was go run. Now think about that. I can't run

a route now, I could draw. I can't move without pain, and the only thing I could think about doing was go run, and bro I never ran this far in my life. I ran ten miles lights and the whole time I was crying. I was volving and I couldn't understand why, you know. And and I remember finishing that running calling my agent just like man, it's over, it's over. I gotta retire. I don't feel good. And he was looking at me like I was crazy, Like Brandon, like

you'll be okay. You just take the time that you need. But in that moment, man, you just don't know. And I think that that is overlooked with a lot of athletes recovering from a major injury. Yeah, Hunter, And I think he'll be back, um, you know, back to herself. But like it is, it's a business. They're gonna you're gonna sit upt that contract table and they're gonna say, oh, you know, we gotta wait and see what your ankle is gonna do and have that talk or whatever. But um,

you know, he'll be fine. But so another thing I want to talk to you about, man, one of the uh, the things that talked about. And I gotta and I gotta ask you this serious straight up what what the hell? What the hell was going on about? Was it really possible to you gonna fight? Take a fight? At one point I saw you training for boxing and what was the whole thing behind it? Because I'm this is my thing, I'm interested. I think that's what's gonna happen over the

next couple of years. And this is why I came in. Now I have the light side of train fighting and then Fox Sports, the Fox Sports picked us up last May. What I think it's gonna happen is we're gonna have a lot of athletes transition it over the combat sports, whether it's boxing, whether it's m m A. Because, like we just talked about, there's a lot of athletes whose careers get cut short. You know, you have four or five years, something happened, maybe a coaching staff, the scheme

they didn't fit in, the coach didn't really give him enough. Look, you know, all kinds of things happening. These dudes get out the league and at four or five, six years in and they're still ready to go. You know, there's gonna be guys transition. What happened? Man with you? Because I'd like, I say, I'm going to this day and fight. I say, b marsh fighting, I'm gonna be at that fight. You're gonna you're you're gonna come all right? Cool. So

here's the deal, bro. I look at the heavyweight division, Um, Joshua goes down the way he went down against Ruise. And then I look at Wilder and I'm like, man, you know, if if I'm fundamentally sound, I can probably take him down easy. Um. I see the opportunity. So for me, I'm waiting for that opportunity. Um, you may see some things coming out soon where I mean, you know, you may see some things coming out soon. That's that's what I'm gonna say there's opportunity, like I have a chin.

That's the thing. That's what you gotta understand is you know I can. I've been boxing for years. I got the technique down. But what I what if you If you have the technique and you can't take a punch, then you ain't got a chance. So for me, I believe in my chin. I'm tough, i'mna being the best shape. I'm gonna outwork anybody. You know, I take the ring

against So I'm betting on me. So we'll see what happens. Um. You know a lot of people think that, you know, I'm just sitting back here, Uh, just just throwing words out there. But I'm working right now. And I say it all the time. I said, we are built different. We are built different. You have the mm A fighters out that you've got boxes, they've been doing it a lot longer than we have. But one thing that we walk into a ring or a cage or anything like that,

we're not walking in with two left feet were. We're disciplined as hell, and we know how to push through and we know how to learn. You know, I just started to do jiu jitsu. I was about right, maybe right before the pandemic started. And I hate being on the ground. Been boxing them more tie and all this stuff for twelve thirteen years, fourteen years, and I just started to get on the ground. Now the first couple

of sessions not going there. You know you're gonna get your ass kicked and look bad and all that other stuff. But you give me three four weeks in now now you know, man, Look, look, look man, Connor McGregor winning, He took, he took, he took the ring with Floyd and come on, man, like you know he was able to last And that was trash to me. What what you know? That performance? And for me, with the technique that I have and then the conditioning that I'm gonna bring, um,

I'll be able to last with anyone. Now obviously, you know I got a lot of guys with a lot of punching power. They you know, that's what they do for a living. Now you can't you can't go in there and thinking as right like I mean, like I mean, you can die in the ring. Um. I went to the Anthony Joshua Clinch co fight in London. A hundred and twenty thousand people live sitting ringside. I felt those punches. I understand that, but they got to be ready to

move for twelve rounds because I'm not gonna stop. I can't wait, man, I'm gonna be there. I know what's gonna happen. I can't wait for it to come out. And I'm watching from a distance. And people don't understand the difference in somebody talking. And because they don't, they don't see you working everything. It's not like you're putting out everything you're doing every day, so they think it's sweet. They think there's not going on. I said, look, his

dudes is working behind the scenes. You're not seeing it. But when it happens, don't be shocked. Are We're gonna get them? Maybe we do my Maybe my exhibition would be uh in your league. We may have a big announcement here in the next week or two with um, you know, maybe a legend that you know, I may get in a ring with first, just to get my feet wet, you know, get touched on the chain before I go out there. Yeah, man, yeah, man, that's awesome. Man. So look, man, I appreciate it. I know you gotta

get going. Um. One thing I wanted to talk about house out house the athlete before you got to get out of here, is is there some kind of franchising opportunities or something, Cause I know you've got the location out there, um, but I know you guys are some kind of franchising opportunities that people can get involved in, maybe other athletes or something like that that you guys are doing this you can at least talk about. Yeah,

I mean, we talked about this transition. And one of the things that you know, um, I'm looking at as a as a way to get back and help is our guys. A lot of us we get into this fitness world and this athletic performance space, but we don't have the team or the structure, so I won't be franchising. But I have connected with a bunch of our you know, our ex teammates and and and and and competitors on you know, how they could potentially come in and part

with me when I go to new territories. So we'll be opened up forty three locations and the biggest economies in the world. Uh. And when we go to new territories, I will you know, have conversations with a few of our guys that's already in the space that may need as little extra boost, you know. So we have the structure, we have the team, so you know, excited about what we're doing here brick and mortar and then the supplements. You know, Um, we have our work cut out for us.

But it's a forty two trillion dollar industry lights and it's owned by the top one percent and no one has ever scaled athletic performance. And what I tell people all the time is we are the healthiest people on the planet, athletes, So why don't you train like us? You know, when you were getting ready for for for the season you had the years that you had, you

weren't you know, running on the treadmill every day. You weren't on a bike every day, right, Like, there's a specific way that you trained, an approach the off season. And all we're doing is modifying that for the gym. Pop when we're you back on the first thing first. Yeah, So we're we're on every every every every morning for seven thirty nine thirty East Coast. So I was cracking

up the other day. He's talking about Levan Bell and and and that whole thing, and and just because you you look at it man and and Uh, I don't know if it was Chris or or whoever it was, and he was. You guys are talking about lean him not being a fit, right he wasn't. You know. It goes back to like I think it made what twenty million dollars or something like that in what eighteen months or how long he was there. But man, you you know you've been there, um, and you're talking to see

him back in Pittsburgh. Yeah, you think you want to see him back in Pittsburgh. You think that happened. You think they'll let you know, you think they'll smooth that over, so you go back to Pittsburgh. Well, I don't think it was ever a personality thing. You know. I think there was some you know, some distractions with his music, but it was never like he's a bad guy, he's disrupting what we're doing in the locker room. It was about the money they wanted to sign him. Um Connor

is running the ball really well right now. He's averaging four point nine yards to carry and and they're back to the Pittsburgh of old um. So there, you know he would have to go in and share uh you know, those those those opportunities, But that four point nine that Connor's gaming. That can easily be five point five six yards for lady on and then all you gotta also look at you know what he's capable of doing in the in the in the passing game as a wide receiver.

Remember what he was doing when he was with Pittsburgh. So he has a lot of gas left in the tank. It was a terrible fit in New York. I like him in Pittsburgh. That would be my number one choice. The number two choice for me would be um the Bears Naggy for the last two years has struggled to get the run game going. They are twenty seven in the league and in rushing yards all right, they have no running back. They're running back went down, perfect fit

for him. You know it might it might be number one, but I just like the you know the whole you know correct, Yeah, going back to Pittsburgh, that type of story. Yeah, no doubt. Hey, my dude, man, I appreciate you. I'm gonna get my ass out there. I promise to get me a good work out. My my son is in Jersey too, so because you got what you guys what Jersey isn't. So we'll be we'll be opening in um in the city next year, in the city next year. Okay, cool,

I'm in there, bro. I appreciate you. Man, thanks for coming on. All right, Like, hold on a quick question, bro before we leave. Yeah, bro, please tell me real quick man, how you this whole lights out name came like? I I didn't just say that just to say it to me. I hated seeing you doing that. When I played in Denver, playing against you twice a year, it was like, one, he's winning his game by himself, and two, this dude has the best damn celebration I have ever seen.

How did this thing come about? I know the story is out there, but I don't think i've heard it before. Yeah. No, So you know it's funny. Man. We we creative as hell, and we started the brand and you know everything about branding. And when I was sixteen years old, man, I knocked out four kids in one game, my school school game three three in the first half. Kids. It's the true. I knocked out four dudes, and I got on VHS in there somewhere. I gotta dig that thing up, but

I knocked out. I knocked these dudes out in the game. And then after the game my twenties. Students come run up to me like, oh, yeah, you knocked these guys lights Out, and so you know, I just played the part. I was like, yeah, you know, call me lights Out, and that name stuck with me. I didn't think it was gonna stick. And I got to school Monday in high school and everybody was like yeah lights out. Lights Out said to ship. You know, everybody liked his name,

and I had it. And I got in college. My my freshman year, we were playing national TV game. I went, I came off the bench, I knocked walkings out Georgia Tech coming across the uh, coming across this field. And I got up and I got a tattoo on my right forearm of a light switch right when my sophomore in high school with the end like kind of putting a finger. So I had this, Uh, I kind of I knew what I wanted to do, right, I knew, you know, kind of what the brand and stuff I

was builting for my sophomore year in high school. I got this light switch. I begged my mother to to to put this light switch to let me get a tattoo, and she was like, hell no, I'm not doing it. I said, Mom, it's gonna be a thing one day, like people were calling at night time. I want to get this lights out of tattoo and show enough. Man. I knocked. I hit the wide receiver coming across the field. I was dropping in the flats and I got up like I was switching the light switch up and down,

just like that, and the crowd got loud. And when they got loud, I got excited and I started to jump with it and they went crazy, and I got on the sideline coach freegan my head. The head coach at the time, ship, if you ever do that ship again here, you'll never play. And I said, I put my head down like a ten year old between my legs and walking on the sideline and my the defense according and my teammates are smacking me on the head, smacking, Yo,

what was that thing? I was like, Yeah, that's the lights out of dance. I just made it up there on the spot. So I kept that. I kept that ship the whole time. Man. So that's how the lights out thing came about. But it was cool, man. You know, it's part of Brandon and having you know, you know, kind of a persona a character almost like a w W W guy that was on the field. And I just I had this vision for it and and and it started back when I was sixteen, And you know, you

got this vision for where you're doing. Uh. So, Man, good luck, man. I definitely want to support come out there, and I'm getting I'm getting some working when I get to these coach man, I was doing alright, My dude, my dude. Man, appreciate you alright, bro, love wow. Uh. I appreciate Brandon Marshall for coming on, um Man. He has a lot of great things going on, as you

can tell. Man, he's articulate as hell. Was able to talk about things openly and free freely with his own personal battles for mental health and and and most of US athletes who go through it, who have been through something also. Uh. He's made a hell of a transition with House of Athletes and his supplements and everything he's building. Um And I can't wait to see what he's going through there. And he just broke the news to us man about him possibly getting into combat sports, maybe having

a fight coming up. So I can't wait for it. I'm gonna be there. I'll be ringing side hopefully we can get Brandon Marshall fighting and Lights Out Extreme fighting. Why not, we get it, We get after it over there. So I appreciate you guys listening to another great episode of Lights Out with me Sean Merriman, and keep listening, keep subscribing, uh leave us and reviews, downloads, and we'll keep getting After next week we heat up again, so stay tuned. Appreciate you guys to tuning in