¶ Intro / Opening
I'm Peanut Tooman and this is the NFL Player Second Acts podcast.
I got my high school principal with me.
Roman Harper was up nothing, man, I appreciate the creativity every time you announce me. Anyways, want to all of our listeners out there, make sure you give us a five star rating. Hit like, give us a subscription. Subscribe, tell a friend to tell a friend to tell a friend. Anywhere you can hear your podcasts, or you get your podcasts, whether it's Apple or iHeart, please listen.
Just check us out.
Yeah, apologies for the same outfits we've been, you know, wearing the same clothes for the same interview. We've done this worth the Kansas City Draft right now. So we're just gonna be rolling these out for the next couple of weeks. Had a great guest on today, Leroy Butler.
I got five of these shirts.
Okay, anyway, we check out Lori Butler, awesome interview, give it a listen.
I'm excited for our today's guest. I'm really really looking forward to a big fan of him watching. In my whole life growing up, I've actually played the same position as he did.
Safety.
Well, let me welcome in my partner in crime, Charles pen tellman, I don't even.
Care about him. I'm more about.
Our guest today, Lee Roy Butler. Let me read down his resume right now. He was the second round pick like myself. I will get to know what number he was exactly when it was in the nineteen ninety draft out of Florida State. He played his entire twelve year career with the Green Bay Pactors. Green team, just say green team.
That's exactly why I'm doing the introduction today, all right.
And then he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in twenty twenty two.
He's wearing his gear today.
He's also in the Packers Hall of Fame and the Ring of Excellence.
I didn't know it was a difference.
And he now is a businessman with his own vodka and a radio and TV podcast host. Our today's guest, Lee Roy Butler, Number.
Thirty, guys, this is honor having three dvs on the.
Show, right, we all have funny We always get geekd when we get dvs. We do always get geek because we all speak the same language. Yes, that's so, I guess we are one of the ones, one of the ways we kick this thing off, is we all have our welcome to the NFIL moment.
I know I got my bell wrong. You know, I got the whole rookie Hazen thing, and you know Ted Wahsington, you know that's a I'll say that for another day.
¶ LeRoy's welcome to the NFL moment
What was your welcome to the NFL moment on the field in nineteen nineteen ninety, nineteen ninety, like football was a little different back then.
I want I want the off the field too, Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, because I got a good field. I think that's where I was gonna go. But on the field, it was my rookie year. Was a three day holdout, but it wasn't my fault. But didn't want to you know, like I said, that was second round pick. So I get in there late and then I come in and you guys know, you come in the locker room and you got grown men in there. Yeah, it's not kids, like we're at college. So I go in there and I and then the equipment guy says, you know, they're
already on the field. I said, so what do I do? I just signed my contract. He said, get dressed. So I go to my locker. I got number thirty six, I put it on. I was I was six at Florida State, so put it on. I go down there and everything is fine, going through practice, and I think we were playing a preseason game against Cleveland, but that wasn't it. Later, Uh, somebody got hurt and I was to back up nickelback and they say you may have to couple Jerry Rice. I say, I ain't doing it. No,
I ain't doing it. Montana is the quarterback. And that's when I said, God, I'm glad I got on yellow pants. Correct now, I'm pissing my pants to go and God is so good and God has really protected me. I only had to cover him once and it was a run play, and I said, man, this is the NFL, because that's when San Francisco was rolling. Yeah, and we weren't that good. I'll be honest at the time. But so that's when I said, that's.
And that's nineteen ninety right, Yes, yes, it's like I never I never thought it would be like this because as a kid growing up in the inner city in the projects like I was, that was my dream to be on this field, right right, So I'm thinking you go cover anybody, you know, got to say that all the time.
I'm the man. I'll cover anybody, not Jared or Taylor. I didn't want nobody, nobody.
The first game I ever started was in two thousand and three. It was the fourth game of the season, and and I had to cover jer Rice. Oh boy, Tim Tim Brown.
That was my first game Raiders careers.
This is two thousand and three. You're talking about nineteen nineties. I'm talking about two thousand and three.
I still had to cover j Rice.
Now, I thought I did something good. I had like three p I s. Because he because he d Rice, because he's Jerry Rice.
He got all the calls.
And I'm just when my coach was my coach came back, was like, hey, you're doing a hell of a job, rook.
But that's j Rice.
He gonna get that call every time.
Just keep being aggressive, keeping he gonna he gonna get that Cally.
It's amazing. I don't think you.
I did not know that two Hall of Famers is the first game I started.
It's like, welcome a great player the league. I was like, oh my god, I gotta say something before I say
¶ LeRoy gives Peanut Tillman his flowers
that off the field about Peanut. This is I didn't waiting to tell you this a long time okay, because I waited sixteen out. I know I'm getting ahead of myself. But if I don't say, I'm gonna forget it. I waited sixteen years getting the Pro Football of Fame. And I remember a guy asking me when I was a semi finalist. I said, if I had the hands of Peanut, I'd already been in the Hall of Fame. He said, well, I said, cause I dropped twelve picks. Now, I ain't
talking about don't want to tip. I'm not hit in the chest. Yeah, because I can't catch. So I said, if I had his hands, I have more picks, maybe I would be in a long time ago. And it was a Chicago writer. He put it on one of the blobs or something, and one of the guys, uh said, man, I thought the Bears the Packers hated each other. They don't give each other's compliments. I said, man, that's fake wrestling stuff. You you know, you honor a guy that
could do something better than you. So I always wanted to tell you that I appreciate that. Thank you. Off
¶ Why LeRoy was fined $10,000 after his first team meeting as a rookie
the field, I'm gonna tell you guys, for me, this is emotional because I didn't have a. It wasn't a lot of money back around. But the first meeting starts at nine o'clock. Okay, so I'm thinking I can get in there eight fifty eight in Florida State. You can come in there at nine fifteen, and you all America, Okay, you're good. I came in there, like read at nine o'clock and everybody was looking out the last one.
Oh.
Everybody looked at me. I'm late. I'm looking okay. When I got down to my locker after the meeting, which is about an hour, I had a fine in there for ten thousand. Ooh. I said, this is my first fine. So I don't know how it works. I don't. I'm like reading it. I'm like, what was going? Oh, they say you was late and it's one thousand dollars a minute. I said, what why y'all didn't tell me that? He said, you didn't read the rookie handbook. I said, no, there
isn't one. The veterans tell you. So it was like a and I'm thinking it's just a joke, just a joke. Hey man, they took it right right out your check.
I said, never se So nineteen ninety, how much was it how much was a check in nineteen ninety What would you say if you.
Can back then, we had checks. You're right, peanut. We didn't have direct deposits, right like some of the millennials now. Now, it was a check and they put it in your So my my first one was two hundred and seventy thousand, and after Fiker and the Fairs and everybody, I got like maybe ninety eight because they they put some money up to save for you. But I've been pour all my life in poverty. And I told my mom, I said, Mom, I got the first check. It's like ninety something thousand.
She said, put it away, do things. But it really opened my eyes. Yeah. But and then somebody brought me down because I thought it was a lot. Uh. Brian Noble, I'm in the linebacker. He had a million dollars after taxes. He said, don't worry about it. Real you got plenty of time to make money. But that's when it put it. It was. It was real deal for me. Yeah.
Now we got to talk about something current and just get it out the way.
The people want to know.
You're a Green Bay guy. Aaron Rodgers finally being gone and traded.
Leg for them.
Yeah, yeah, I just I just just I'm just leave it at that.
What is your opinion on it?
¶ LeRoy strong opinion on Aaron Rodgers leaving Green Bay
Well, I'm gonna keep it one hundred.
There we go.
I hope you do, because now this is gonna be different from Uh. I played for one team my whole life, the passion of that, so I look at different the other guys, I really do. But with Aaron Rodgers, it seemed like he's not happy. Yeah, because if I was getting a three year, one hundred and fifty million dollar game for yes, and the Packers gave him everything, and we allow this with every quarterback, they can do whatever
they want to do, pay him the most money. Fine, But what really it got under my skin was he started to really pit himself against the team in which they gave you everything, even when they got Randall Cobb a couple of years ago. With the Cobs, love the guys family, They did everything for you, check every box. You still wasn't happy. And then you know, going into the darkness, which I never even heard of it. He
can stayed in my basement of fifty thousand. You had to go to Oregon, I mean he can stay down there and brought it and set the phone down there some food, but I had to get the money though, right, But he was never happy and that really bothered me. I'm like this fan base and Pina knows that their owners. We don't have an owner. You have to buy a stock certificate and you put it on your wall so you feel like you have a say in the team. And it just feels like when they drafted Jordan Love,
things got a little different. I think the narcissism probably came out. They drafted Antoine Edwards from Clemson, a safety, one of my best friends. He's supposed to replace me. Darren Sharper. The drafted him, and I said to myself self, I want this organization to succeed. When I'm going, I don't care who you draft. That's my brother. It's a competitive thing in there, especially if I was getting that kind of money. But it just seemed like to me
that he was never happy. So I wasn't surprised that, but I think let's go back. I think they gave him the money though, guys to say, don't waffle like Brett did for the next three years. Here's your money. Just play.
Yeah, you played for the same organization.
¶ Why LeRoy stayed with the Packers his entire career
Do you ever think about anywhere else, maybe like being tired after they draft.
That's a great question.
Do they taught draft Antoine Edwards like, man, I need to get up out of here.
Never I had to talk with my mom. She passed away in twenty sixteen, and I remember her saying, this fan base, you can lose four straight. They ain't calling for your job. You can go to the super Bowl after thirty one years. They ain't trying to replace you. They love you because they see it locally, because I live in Wisconsin. You can't leave that. So I took three pay cuts to do that because I said, this fan base is amazing. I mean, I just they understand
that the other guy gets paid too. So if one of you guys got to pick six against the Packers, they're upset. And there may be some people, oh this guy is a bum, but the majority of the people, aymen, a guy made a great play and we understand that. But for the most part, we're gonna win games. So I remember the closest I got the leaving was ron Wolf came to me. I was a transition player. Remember that. I don't even know if they used that anymore. The average, the top ten sound.
It was a transition tag, right, Yes, that.
Was they had the franchise. We always talk about that Lamar had but he got congratulations to Lamar, but it was like the top ten guys. That mean they'll match it and if you give them a first or second round whatever. And Ron Wolf came to me, he said, you know what, We're gonna franchise tag you, but we're gonna sign you to a deal, three year deal, and do you really love it in green? I say more
than anything. We worked it out and then when it came to me to restructure, see people get it sometimes twisted restruction and pay because you get to look at the language. Just gonna say a restructure. If you're a grown man and you're your thirties, they just gonna write your check four five million dollars. Let social media to say you got a Bay cut.
But you got that money right right now?
Yeah, I mean, and you're not nothing to worry about. If they release you, you can do whatever. So I did that three times, and I just never had never dawned on me playing in another uniform. I want to see all my football cards one team. Sometimes it's not your control. Yeah, they the team just release you or trade you. But if my control like Aaron had a chance to do that, there was nothing in me would have said, I want to do exactly like Brett Fahre did,
waffle and go to the Jets. I just wouldn't have done it.
I think it's rare that nowadays a player will play for the same team. I, like yourself, wanted to remain.
In Chicago my entire career in.
Years eleven and twelve were so terrible, like it made football not fun for those two years I was there, and I've been talking to other player who tried to.
Get me to go elsewhere. But I was to be honest with you and be vulnerable.
I was.
I was scared.
I was.
I was scared because I had been in Chicago for so long.
And other players are other teams.
Yeah, because because I had signed a year deal. So Thomas Davis, the linebacker for Carolina, we would talk and he was like, I would always save me Super Bowl. We'd be at this Man of the Year stuff and he's like, man going to come to Carolina, Man going to come to Charlotte's nice.
And I was always like.
No, I'm a Chicago guy, you know. And then I finally had to.
I had to get uncomfortable. And I preach this to my kids all the time, get comfortable being uncomfortable. I had to take my own advice and I was very uncomfortable going to Carolina making that choice.
Like I was scared. And it was like, man, because I know Chicago, they just like Green Bay. They take care of you. It's like living on scholarship as an adult. They love you, they love their teams.
And I didn't.
I didn't want to leave that.
¶ Why Leroy still calls Green Bay home
I really was scared.
So now that you are in the Hall of.
Fame and you play for one of the greatest, oldest, greatest teams in.
The NFL, how has life been in.
Wisconsin for you, even after making the making the Hall of Fame?
Well, I say this. I think it's confusing to people because they think when you're in the Hall of Fame, they won't see you, Like if you're in la if you're in New York, you know the big city. I live in Old Creek, Wisconsin. Which is I say South Milwaukee because you know you're google it And seriously, I have no idea where it is. Alexa don't know where it is. But they see me at the grocery store. They see me taking my son to school every day and they're like, with thof for sure you would move.
I say, I am who I am. That's why I was in order for me to see kids because I grew up in the inner city and Milwaukee is that type on the North Side. When I speak to schools about anti bullying, and I have a mental health summit that's coming up in October, and I'm trying to develop to where kids can get mental health on their phone, like a FaceTime. You can talk to a therapist and just say I have some issues. And here in Peanuts saying on this podcast, he was scared of something probably
saved somebody's life. Because as men, you think I ain't scared of nothing. No, it's not true. It's a lot I'm scared of. But are you men enough to admit it? That's their respect. That's why it gives me a huge platform. But it also gives me a bigger platform to get my message out because I'm working on a documentary about
my life story. Growing up in the projects, single family home, had braces on my legs like Forrest Gump, my mom getting a divorce from my dad, and Jacksonville, Florida, no air conditioning, no stove, had hot plates, and to get drafted by the packers. So when people see me, I always try to I want to be normal, could I'll be honest. I'm be honest because you' all my brothers.
¶ Leroy explains the Hall of Fame selection process, and the side of rejection fans don't see
I first made it. The guys who make it first ballot, they're not really excited like me to wait sixteen years. They expected it's ye just coming and they don't really come around and some of them, some of them don't really like to see me make it because it thinks that waters down what they did. But when you were
a gold jacket, you're all goats. Nobody's of anybody right, And I would wish they would say, you know what, this is my brother, because it's only like three hundred and seventy one guys in the Hall of Fame, super small, and it's like you sit there letting everybody in. It's almost like if you went to a family reunion and everybody names on the shirt and you see a family's name on the shirt and they didn't contribute, Like wait
a minute, the shirt's only five bucks. You didn't buy your shirt, your names all that, and you're complaining, right, so it just because people like Peanut. It shouldn't be an issue whether or not he is in or not. It shouldn't be an issue. So he's gonna feel like, man, this is great, but they're gonna be a dB who was in there. He said, Man, you know that's wrong. It ain't up to you. It ain't up to you. It's not up to you. It's up to people vote,
well do you like it or not? And I just think that somebody like Zach Thomas, this guy was.
Huge, huge.
I loved his reaction.
I mean it was it was emotional.
It's emotional.
Yeah, it's just like getting drafted again, Like it breaks you down.
It breaks you down, and it's such a like I made it to me.
It's it's the same things about getting drafted when they call out in the forty third pick or whatever the New Orleans stakes, Roman Harpring for that moment.
Hell, yeah, this is it.
And then you get to experience that again when you see the big guy, you know, the Hall of Fame dude, the big real good he come knocking on your door and yeah, I think it's I love how they do it now and I'm glad they don't make people wait in.
The hotel room. Well, Jim Porter is the new I'm glad you brought that up. It's a great transition. Jim Porter is the new president. Now he's doing it different than mister Baker. Like Peanut said, they would put you in a room. Now you think I have anxiety. I get a therapy once a week for the last twenty years, and some of its free. Though it's all good. It's a trade, but at least I go. But you sitting in the room and you wait for a knock or
a phone call. I had to do that twice. One time was in Miami, sitting in the hotel with my wife and two of my best friends. We're just waiting, anxiety. You just you never you got a phone call, and the phone call says you didn't make it.
So they put you in the hotel just to tell who you didn't.
Yes, that's the excitement, I guess. I don't know.
But do y'all say the night or is it just yeah?
They yeah, they yeah, you on scholarship. They yeah, they put you up. But it's each wherever the super Bowl is or whatever, and you're sitting in there. So the next year, with the pandemic. So that's worse because everybody gets a phone call. So you know the phone calls coming. And I remember uh in twenty one shout out to twenty one and one of my favorite rappers. By the way, love Twitter bringing down Twitter.
I loved it.
Love Twitter. What I'm trying to get free tickets. Him and Drake come to Milwalker, my brother. We go do our part. We do do something for me. Some think it. The guy says, hello, mister Butler. I said, yes, sir, he said, Unfortunately, I said, what I see you next year. You ain't got to get me out. I'm good because I A lot of guys may not even get this call, right. He said, you know what, that makes me feel so good to make these calls because I just got cussed
out by four players. And I'm a Christian man, and I do like, do not appreciate because I didn't. I don't have no say so over whether you get in or not. You bother you got, I'll say, let'sten call the next guy. So this year, Jim Porter, who I appreciate. He was at my house for two hours before I knew who he was. He wanted to be all of me. They got Charles Woodson to come to my house to
knock on the door. So now they had they'll go to the door, or they'll come to your house with like fifty camera men and women to get your reaction, and they'll get one of your teammates to you know, tell you and they'll call your wife and your family. And so every year they've been switching it up the
last two years. But that's so the way. So if you're at your home, your anxiety is coming down, and you said, okay, I didn't make it if I got a phone call, but at least some home, I didn't travel somewhere, so it was pretty cool, you know.
I mean, I I don't think I knew the whole complete process, especially emotionally. They take you somewhere, they put you up, so naturally you're feeling good. But now you're behind his closed door and you don't know, and it kind of like you're saying, they put you through this trauma almost if man, and you're doing this for however many years, you've already been waiting sixteen And I'd never heard anybody say I've been waiting sixteen years.
This was amazing.
Most people don't wait for sixteen years and feel amazing about the end result. Maybe who you share with us is that just you as a person, or they just man, you're just happy to be here. You understood that you played in Green Bay and that after all this time, I actually have the opportunity.
To do it.
Well a few things. Lee Ramo from the Green Bay Packers, he was an immediate guy, came by my locker one day. He say, man, you made a decade and I ain't know what that meant. And he put his little readers down. He looked over his glasses. You may be in a hall of fame one day. I don't know when. So I never thought a lot about it. And the more and more, you know, I retired. My mom two thousand and nine. She was like, we should prepare for your speech. I said, speech for what She said, you may make
the Hall of Fame. You got to be prepared. I said, Mom, that's too narcissist to to do that. She said, first of all, I don't know what that means. The second of all, come, my mom was a comedian. She said, just be prepared. And then it just seemed like to me that everything started to change when you're a finalist because now you know it may happen, you really don't know win. And then I was thinking, Okay, when it happens,
you know, try not to change. So I put it like this guy, and I'll be very honest with you, just the best way I could put it, because I want people to feel what it means to this kind of knocked. It's almost as if, because I told my wife this that you're a young lady. You've been dating this young man for fifteen years, sixteen years, and every day you think he's going to propose to me, but
he never does. Matter of fact, you go to five or six weddings and see your girlfriends up there getting married, and you're sitting in the audience and it looks like you're happening for it, but really you're saying, I hope she tripped. I hope her hair piece fall off. I hope something bad happened. But you said, oh, she's so beautiful. You take people to weddings to get that. Every year you get there and it don't happen. But the one time you give up on him, I'm done. We got
three kids, sixteen years and I'm done. You're never gonna ask he get all the family together and you come through and Charles Woodson is knocking at the door. That's what it feels like, something that you know was gonna happen.
¶ Leroy takes us back to Super Bowl XXXI, ending the city's 30-year drought
You think it should happen. But am I entitled to it?
No?
But I've been here for so long. I've done all these great things. I've gone to bar mitzvazz, I've gone to like step shows, everything was it. I've been there for him. He won't give me the ring. Then he finally does. It's amazing. It's amazing feeling when you get something that you personally think you deserve. But that don't mean.
That's a great I like how you I like how you put that representation.
I do and talking about rings here peanut, don't get jealous. You want to sit here, we go with this boat. Could you talk and.
Share with me? Play in New Orleans.
I didn't even forget that. Yeah, back and then they're like that.
Was I mean the super Bowl after, the party after is probably amazing. Oh my god, So share with me, like what it's like to bring a championship back to the great fans in Green Bay and how special it is.
I mean, you're one of their guys. You're in the Ring of one Hunter and all those other things.
There's nothing.
Well, he's in the Ring of Honor, but also is it the Ring of excellence?
Semantics.
Really he's also a part of that one as well. It says excellence though not I like this.
I like this.
Don't disrespect it.
Like this, you can't disrespect it. You're correct, both of y'all correct.
Okay, thank you, y'all correct. So for me, it was different because I was the only one there from nineteen ninety when we were four and twelve, but it wasn't my fault, though they need to get better players. The next year were six and ten. It was terrible and great.
We're gonna use that in Chicago that one year we were nine.
Nothing to do a great year. But it was getting dark at four o'clock to be realistic, So.
I've been there. It gets dark at four.
God and my best friend Emms Smith Deon said they're winning Super Bowls and I'm like, man, this single never happened. But then we got Brett Faire, we got Reggie White, and then I remember we beat Carolina nineteen ninety five ninety six, and I saw a sign and they said thirty years of misery has ended with going to the Super Bowl. I said, what, I didn't realize that the fan base just waited thirty years from the next Super Bowl.
So that was very impactful. We go to New Orleans and Super Dome is huge and it's amazing, and I saw Luther Vandrosky and he was there. I said, lu, I'd have made it God, And then the Blues Brothers were like the halftime entertainment. Dan aykro the Lucia and these guys. It was a big deal. And I was like, this is what I remember being a kid because I'm a Cowboy fan growing up. I mean I was a huge Cowboy fan. I used to crawl under the bed and cry when they lost games.
Like most Cowboy fans do today.
Still yah, yeah, that's true.
They still do it today.
Tell you, when I saw rocher Stalback, I almost fainted. I mean, so I'm saying now, I'm here as an African American from the South, from the projects, crime and everything to make it to where And I saw the the Lombardi on the trophy, and I know, Lombardi is
¶ Leroy gets emotional reminiscing his life changing FSU scholarship offer from Bobby Bowden
kind of our thing. Vince Lombardi Lombardi Trophy It was very emotional because I thought about that fan base, some of dead and some of living for those thirty years, thought they would never see it happen. So it was amazing. Now we went the following year, but you can google the results for that.
We're gonna take a short break and we'll be back in a minute.
So you you talk about, you know, growing up in poverty, being poor Florida, What was what was that like when obviously you're a heavily recruited kid coming out of high school. Oh yeah, yeah, and I'm pretty sure you could have went to any college.
I'm jealous. I'm envious.
I didn't.
I didn't have those skills like you.
But what was it like when when coach Bolden, uh, when he offered you that scholarship.
You're trying to make me cry, No, I do this, my brother don't.
What was that? What was that moment like y'all told him to ask me this, No, sir, no, sir, okay, professional makes up all of his own questions.
H If you realized where I was from and what I had to go through, I was a consensus all American in high school. As you said, everybody know who I was. But I got a letter from my teacher and she said, you can't go to college. I said why, She said, you didn't pass the essay T tests. I said, what the hell is the essay T test? Well, you got to take that to get into college. I said, well,
she said you didn't pass that either. So my life was over because the only way I thought to get out of the project is my mam out of poverty is to play in the NFL. So my life was over. But I'm gonna tell you God, it's good because my algebra teacher, mss Gordon, got a letter handwritten from coach Bobby Bowden Rest in peace, and he says, tell mister Buller, I need to do a home visit. I'm coming to see him. Now, think about this. I got letters from
every college because I was an All American. Every college you can come to our school. But when they found out I was a prop forty eight that I didn't pass SAT, they all never rolle back. It was nothing. I got no letters from Florida State, pressed on, and then I said to myself, wait a minute, why is he coming to see me. He had thirty kids he was recruiting, and I bet you twenty five of them were all Americans. He could have made a home visit
to any one of those kids, anyone of them. But he says, I'm coming to the projects to see mister Butler. And when he drove up and that maroon Buick, I'll never forget it was a convoy. Can I remember telling Brad Scott, the head recruiter, I said, man, where I live, and you can't just be driving down in there now. They don't think something up, you know, you can't rolling there like u FBI. He said, don't even worry about it. And they had police down there and everything. They drive
up to our apartment and we have a couch. It has like a big hole in it, and my sister got like a two by four to put under the Yeah, just sit there, and then she was trying to pull the plastic from the love seeking it's smaller over there, because she said, if he comes in, you know, it's hot. You know, we have nothing for him to drink but water, but it got stuff on top of the water and the one glass. Then we let my grandma drink out of you know, it's clean. Say that for coaching, and
he walks in. He said, miss Butler, I gotta have it. She got all emotional, and I'm thinking, waited, God, wait a minute, why you pick me to navigate these rough waters? To know that I must go to college. Nobody in my family has ever been to college. Nobody. I'd be the first. And every night I was sleeping, I wake up in a cold sweat, not from the air conditioning, by the way, but saying I'm not gonna make it cause I didn't pass the test. But when he told
my mom that changed my life. It made me think that this ain't no mistake. That I owe it to my family, and I owe it to myself and the people that believe in me. Not to get in no trouble, not to go break the law, not to be out smoking and drinking and doing no I used to get on the trailways in the Greyhound with my student I d with nine dollars just to go back home. And I said, I asked him, I said, Coach Bob, why you pick me? He said, it was something about you
that I didn't get from the other guys. You just want a chance. I didn't even want to play. I didn't have a position. I was a linebacker, you know, high school, you play everything. It was just athletes. And so my freshman year I didn't even play. And I remember they went to play Michigan. They were going to play Michigan, and the team's buses are leaving to go play Michigan. That is a big game. They got one
hundred thousand people stadium. It is huge. They're going to the airport and I'm waving to the team smiling like good luck, guys, and the guys on the bus like, what the hell wrong with this guy? Man, this guy, you should be upset you're not on the bus. I got plenty of times. You just go play. I see y'all next year. I need to go get my books right. I got my GP up to a three point ohero.
¶ Leroy talks about overcoming poverty and his documentary film project
I focused in on what it was about. So when you asked that question, it changed everything about me to say that this ain't no mistake, right, and it was. It was my sister. She's still crying because she couldn't believe it. This coach, you don't understand. Coach Bobby Ball was an eye country. He had his own show and it come on right after church, because you know, downside, we go to church two hun the day's a week Okay,
he missing church and there's a Bobby Ballen show. Now he's in the project to see my brother, and so it was like changing.
That's so you've had success in well, yeah, you've had success in high school, success in college, success.
In the league, super Bowl champion.
Now you're a Hall of Famer and you're working on this documentary just about your life and just kind of the struggles and the success and everything that you've done up until this point in your life. Like, what are you hoping to get out of that?
I just want a young lady, young man somewhere to say, you know what, it's bad for me, but it can't get no worse than mister Bucker and he made it. Yeah, he ain't no better than me, right it? And you don't need money. Because we were popping my first new shirt I ever had to I pop a tag. I always wanted to hear that sound you pop a tag, and it never came until I was twelve years old. We went to the Salvation Army and they had toys over here and they had all this stuff and I
told my mom, I don't want no toys. I want that shirt. It was just a regular white T shirt. Sort of like what Peanut has on. Just like I said, I want that shirt. It wasn't even my size, but in my head I wanted to pop that tag. And now young lady said, you know what, go get this shirt, Go get it, popped it, put it on and it didn't even fit me. My sister had to like tie it in like a nod and flip it. But to me, I say, I want people to say, if you don't
like a restaurant, start your own. If you don't like the way somebody's doing something, start your own business. My grandmother gave me the best compliment. She said, you have a unique ability because God gave everybody a talent, and your talent is you could ignore negative stuff if it ain't true, ignore it because once they know that it gets her in your skin, you're gonna see it every day. And that's what made me say, when people see me and they see this document, I ain't never known this
guy had it this bad? Yeah, and how's he so grounded? House He's a normal guy, And that's what it's gonna find out. I want to be a normal person, to be a leader, not a follower. But if you're going to follow, you to write leaders, and to me, it's my teachers, our grandparents. My mom is my hero, the people I see every day. It wasn't a guy dunek to the basketball or playing football. It was my mom every day to get on three buses, just a carpool
to bring food home. And then when food didn't come, you go to the food pantry and you stand in line and kids are on the bus and cars screaming and yelling, picking at you because I'm trying to eat. And my mom said, why that don't bother you? I said, could all those kids go on my autograph? Because I'm here to survive, to make it for you, and that's what they're gonna get out of it.
So when does this come out and how can we possibly get it?
It's gonna be by two years because I'm blessed because it's hard to find your teachers. I'm fifty four years old, and I found two of my teachers. Ms. Gordon, who's in my Hall of Fame speech, and mister Gracie, my ninth grade basketball coach who helped me shoot free throws. He said, they're gonna file you, so you got to shoot free throws when everybody was gone, I say, oh, I'm about to miss the bus. I'll take you. People don't know coaches do this. So to find the people,
I need to really put it together. And then the last thing, the apartments or projects where I was born and grew up, is gone toward now, so it's too much crime. They got rid of it. So I would think my if I had blessing, which is God is good, twenty twenty five, July twenty eighth, will be the premier. That's my mom birthday July twenty eighth, because it's about her, because she's passed on, but she's still orchestrating my life. And it seemed like one of the best compliments I
got from the filmmaker Patrick Creating. He said, when you meet Leroy Butler, it's like his mom standing right behind him. They think about that. Wherever you at, your mom standing out, you're gonna act a certain way, even if you're shooting dice. You had to canseay you know, you're okay, Mom, I can't do this, can't It don't matter. That was an ultimate compliment.
You know, Larroi, it seems like when I hear you talk, how much other people in your life have influenced you.
Yes, and it just you know, because.
You maybe talk about that and how you've passed that down to your own children, and like how you're trying to influence them, not only them, but everybody else in your life. Talked about teachers, you talked about parent you talked about coaches, everybody else has really helped influence the Roy Butler, how are you taking that and moving to forward in your life?
That's another great question because I don't think people realize I got my first book and you have. They had what you call a book mobile. It's like you're going to and buy books. I couldn't afford it, so officer friendly that the resource office.
At the school his n officer friendly.
We used to call them brown. Yeah, it was offsprinded, but then officer brown. So we used to call all the resource officer officer friendly. And he said, why ain't you getting any books? I said, I can't afford it because I wouldn't hand me down. My brother wore this. Uh. I used to tell them that the kids say, your brother wore that two weeks ago. I said, you're wrong. My brother had it on yesterday and I watched it out of us thinking and I put it on. I'm
not in school for a fashion show. I'm in school to learn from this artest people in the world. But he said, come see me tomorrow. I go by there. I didn't go on the bus. I just stood outside and looked at you get the books. Kids have got books? Who can afford it? I got buy his control car. He has seven books for me. Put them in the bag. He bought me a backpack and he gave it to me. I said, I can't afford this. He said, I paid for him. So my mom when she saw that, she said, you,
I know you didn't steal these books. I said, no, ma'am. Officer Friendly gave it to me Officer Brian. So my first book that I own that I didn't have to check out of the library and return it was from a police officer. And that changed my life. So I tell my kids. I have six daughters and a son. My son's my favorite. Don't tell my six daughters. Did they know? Trust me? You want to be my favorite? Work harder my kids. I teach them to be leaders
¶ Leroy talks business ventures, the creation of Leap Spirits vodka, and financial freedom
in the community, and I teach them whoever helps you just put that message out there. And that's what I'm a big message board for helping people. And that's what I always try to tell my kids, my cousins, my nephews, my nieces. You didn't do it alone. Your parents deserve this. Your parents help you and try to get them to be independent, but really helping people. I don't want to be the headline. I want to be the story. Some
people see the headline, they keep read on swiping. Why don't you go back and read, Oh, I got the facts of what happened. You just see the headline that just rolls people in.
So your leadership, I mean, you're you're you're real big in leadership, and I think that's kind of trans transferred into your business. And you previously just said, well, if you don't like it, just make one on your own. The fact is that that kind of how you came up with.
Great question, man, y'all good?
Because leaf spirits, is that how you came up with that?
You're good, y'all good. I don't have an Emmy for y'all, but I'm gonna have to write up something we'll take at I'm telling you, that's exactly what I had in my head when I got this phone call. Because what I'm about to tell you, probably gonna shock you, both you and your audience. But I get a call in the this right in the pandemic Chad Greenway that played for Minnesota. People say exactly, and we just got y yeah, yeah, shout out to Van Nest. We just got him from
Iowa for the UH at the Packers. So I get a phone call and Chad said, l Roy, what's up? Man? I said that man was going on? He said, Man, I got a business opportunity. I get a lot of those phone calls, but sometimes they don't never go nowhere. He was like, Man, we want to great dut Is the company want to start a vodka in Wisconsin. We want you to be a part of it. I said, well, now know, Chad, I don't drink. He said what I said, I don't drink. But every time I drive to the stadium,
I see thousands of people in the parking lot. I'm like, what the hell are they doing? Won't they just go home and just come win the games? They tailgate? So I said, you know what, this is what I'll do if you can let me name it and be an owner, not an ambassador. Because shout out to fifty got a lot of vodka. I don't drink none of it's for y'all.
I didn't even know he didn't drink, right, exactly, it's not your portfolio.
He got a big one.
It's portfolio. He kill it right now, preach.
So I said, well, you know what, let me so he's they made a presentation. We're in. I can call it lap vodka, and which was amazing, and then it was perfect too, could just rep I mean, everything was coming on the upswing of getting in the Hall of Fame. And then I said, and you know this, we also know for brons and the state of not sausages, bros cheese skirts. Yes, that's our thing. So I started my
own brock as well. And I because I'm a culinary guy, Uh, could I do all the cooking in the house seven days a week. I tell my wife, I'm gonna cook, I'm gonna clean, I'm gonna play the bills, I'm gonna do everything. You just keep them damn kids away from me. Okay, that's your job, except for my son. It's twelve years old. That's my dog. So the business side of that, you have to do that because when you're sleeping, you gotta
make money. And that's what my mom told me. She said, I don't need you don't need to be the richest guy in the world. You just want to be enough to where you could pay your bills and have enough for the phone calls. I know, both of y'all get can you cash out me two hundred? Can you zell me zay Ooh? What the hell is that? Can you vendoo me? These are your kids, your family members, and they don't expect you to say no, So you gotta
have money for that. And you also have to have money for the one thing I'll say about Andrew Brandt from the Packers, me and him had a conversation. This is my last big deal, I said, Andrew, I want to be rich when I'm old, not when i'm young.
He said, huh. I said, think about it. You get your Social Security in your sixty five or whatever, and you can live out your great days when you're young throwing money up, got bent Lee's and all that, and then when you're in your fifties and sixty you broke. I don't want that. I want to have a seven point fifty to eight hundred credit score. I want to have money in the bank when I start to hit sixty years old, so that's why I do business opportunities like that. So when I hit that ade man, we
¶ Leroy reveals his greatest sports accomplishment
try to get a little roy on the podcast. Man, this man golfing and Bermuda. Ain't that a triangle? No, he's golfing there by himself with these rich folks. He got a yacht. No that. I mean, that's what I want when I'm older. And I tell young men that now you want to be rich when you hit sixty. You can get your pension if you want to, you can get all that, but save that money. Save it. I mean, if you want to really floss on them, go to Claire's and get you some fake jury. They're not gonna know.
Do they expect?
Yeah them real Domino, they ain't. But you save your money when you're older, not when you're younger.
All right, yea, So we're gonna we're gonna pivot. We're gonna hit hit you with some quick hitters, real quick.
Okay.
I think I know the answer to this.
I better take a drink on them.
Oh yeah, yeah, okay, okay, because you answer to this.
I think I know what it is. But what do you think your greatest sports accomplishment.
Is Oh, my greatest sportsccomplishment.
Watch him say, like high school basketball.
I should say that throwman. Now I say that I.
Was great pe when I need dollars, I was All Conference at basketball.
Okay, Now I'm one of the greatest shooters of all time. Me, Regie Miller, Michael rid Steph Curry were all in the same thing. But I put that to the side. Now, Michael Ridd, I got Michael Red the Bucks. Yeah, it's had to get people name they can google. But I think the greatest accomplishment that I wake up as I'm in all the state of Florida picked thirty three players for one hundred years and I was on that team. Oh wow, that blew my mind. That's big. That blew my mind, especially the.
State of Florida.
They got some some balls.
To this day, I still don't even believe it. So that that that's probably my biggest accomplishment. I would say, if I could pick one play, if.
You don't mind, go Pleat the Super Bowl.
Playing the Super Bowl, I go over to the coach. I said, hey, I ain't blitched yet and we're in the third quarter. Was happ't it? I mean, what my family sitting up there too. He said, what are you talking about? I said, man. He said, okay, if they get split backs with Dave Maggott away from Reggie, you can go. I said, you sure, yes, but you know you got to tell your safety, which was Eugene Robinson. I said, Eugene, if they give me a split bag
or the back offset to my side, I'm gone. I'm gonna translate that means I'm blitzing.
Appreciate lady us don't know that.
I'm gone, because both of y'all know. When I say I'm gone, ain't no coming back. I don't care if he's motion, I'm gone. And I got the formation, so I gino. He'said, okay, Rod, he just got a little deeper because I got covered. Swim from a cover four til I'm gone, So weak side it's a hole there, yeah, and shout out that Drew Blad So that's my guy. I'm sorry, Drew, but going there and Maggot comes and he didn't cut me. I say, it's gonna cut me.
Didn't cut me, so I went through him. I had the leverage, and I saw Blodsoul's name, and this would be allegedly a horse callar now, but don't go look at it, not.
Inside the pocket.
Yeah, there you go, Thank you Roman, smart guy got you grab him. I sacked him and I did some
¶ Leroy shares who he believes are the top-5 defensive players of all time
weird dance. Forget about that part. When I got to the bench, one of the interns came to me and say, you know what, eighty million people probably saw that place, and that's the one I wake up, and I say, cause I got a picture of it on my wall, and every me and my son eating breakfast, it's like rapped behind we kind of look at it. What you can do when you study and when you you know, how did that that formation even run a slant? I'm gone ready for the moment. He's to do it all
the time. And you know how you when you squat and there it is only saftists can know that what it was that play, that that was the preparation.
My question is your top five defensive players all time?
Top five defensive players. Yes, it's some bias now, Reggie White love that. Reggie White to me changed the game because I never knew they can slide the line to a guy. I thought they just max protect, but they would slide the line to Reggie Lawrence Taylor to me, is a difference maker because he told you what he was going to do and he would do it.
And do you have an example where you heard him say something and he went out.
There and did it. Oh, whenever Lawrence Taylor. See to Lawrence Taylor playing Dallas Philly in his division, that's when I used to watch. I gotta see this playing Washington, I mean, and then they used to have them micd up back in the day. Yeah, and I forgot who he's sacked. He said, son, this is gonna happen all day.
That was against the Philadelphia Eagles.
I remember that player on the NFL films he sacked and was like, I looked at him.
Like, son, Yeah, I actually wanted two dollars from a golf bet. But that's my guy. He's fine. Reggae, White fifty six and Deon Sanders to me is he taught me about branding long before branding was a thing. When he was at Florida State. He has to say, I'm the best corner, and I think I was like a sophomore agin. If they kicked the ball to me, it's a touchdown. I mean. So he was just transcending. I don't think ever see another Dion Sanders Deion sand argue
that could be the best player of all time. So those three and then this next guy. I get emotional saying them because he can be arguably the best. Ronnie Lot, there's not another safety to me that made a difference to run a Lot and to boot. He's a nice guy, but he played so mean. He used to run through people. Yes, he never dropped the pick. I said, let me see your fingers. He said, wow, he said let me see because one of them I heard he cut his finger off and I'm like, let me see, come on, and
he so he was. That guy was amazing man. Ronnie Lot and this other guy the reason why I think he should be. He's in my top five. I mean, you're gonna forget a lot of people. But Darryl Green is so fast because people his size ain't supposed to do that.
Great point.
I tell people all the time it ain't about size and height, weight, it's if you can play. And twenty eight to me was amazing. So Dahn, that's my five. I love it.
I like it too.
Hey man, that's an amazing answer, dope answer.
I love it. You.
Thank you for coming on the show. We appreciate a pleasure. This is a pleasure. You blessed us. Truly, you have not disappointed. You brought us it first of all, and we just all got it.
Let's got to keep it one hundred.
This is the first time twenty one Savage has been referenced on this podcast. We also had a drake drop and I've never heard anybody compliment Michael Jordan's baldhead like you.
Have, so hey man, but Gold James is the greatest of all time. That's right.
Thank you guys for listening. You know, with every show we do, in every guest we have, we try to make it very authentic and just be vulnerable and open and secure and make this a safe place for these guys to talk. And you guys have been awesome for supporting us. We can't thank you enough. We are here to educate and entertain. So make sure, like always and I always ask you, make sure you hit the subscribe button, give us a five star rating, tell a friend to
tell a friend to do WEPU, tell a friend. Make sure anywhere you get your podcast whereas Apple or iHeart linkin appreciate y'all.