Malcolm Jenkins: Renaissance Man

like that, but this brother looks older than me. I'm telling you, dogs, you look Isaac Hayes old so roma you can't get down with brother? Yeah, I don't know. First of all, here we go. Let me introduce you first, Let me give me a couple of your accolades. Let me let me give you your flowers, real red office resume,

Yeah yeah, yeah, Here we go. Here we go. So my boy, first round draft pick to the Northern Saints in two thousand and nine, first dB taken what was it fifteen overall, fourteenth overall from the Ohio State University. My boy, my dog Omega, sci Fire's Finest. Malcolm Jenkins, thirteen year NFL VET, two times Super Bowl champion. He won Super Bowl forty four with none better than myself and then a host of other great Saints players won Super Bowl fifty two with the Eagles in two eighteen.

He is the co founder of the Players Coalition with the NFL. He's a businessman, he's a deboneer. This guy does it all. He's a philanthropist, a Harvard Fellow, an activist, and so on and so forth. I can keep going to. All I do is learn from this guy every time I see each other. And now that he's retired, we're actually a lot cool. We got so much more in common now. Malcolm Jenkins walked through the podcast. Bro, I appreciate you guys having me big Jack. What's going on? Balls?

You look like you at your offices right now? Man? Where you at? No, I'm actually at Parkway Parkway Northwest High School in Philadelphia. I just got done um talking to him. We just launched this financial literacy program here through my foundation. So uh, y'all are catching me in transition. Man, I'm always always busy. See this the school bell right there? That was perfect? Are you having lunch up there? You know? Everybody know the cafeteria lady? All we got is mash

potatoes and comb sonna. I used to take some. My parents just getting me like uh, I was, I was balling to I think they gave me like four dollars for lunch and I would spend three three dollars, I'll get cookies and the other I guess some French fries. That was. That was all I ate in high school. Three cookies fries. And is it a private school or

public school? Because public school probably a little bit public school school early like from pre k to second grade, it was there's an all black was an all black private school called Chad School in Newark, New Jersey. Like imagine Wakanda University. Like that's what it was. That's what it was. And it was like it was awesome to talk to our we wouldn't say like miss or missus. It'd be brother Johnson or a sister, sister Penny. That's

what they was, being taught black national anthem every morning. Yeah, it was awesome. That was the only private school I've been to. Everything else is public. So you just now you just came from somewhere, right, you just I know, you just came from a vacation, right, and you were in Europe, travel a couple of plays. Yeah, yeah, whatevlication. I was just at the One of the things I've been trying to do to stay away from the game

is like find some other hobbies. And art is something I've always been around, but like trying to take it more serious about collecting. And so I was out in London at Freeze the art fests out there. That was my first time going to That was amazing. They call the train and went to paris Um to check out another artist that I really love. One of my favorite artists' name is Tabar Stratching out of the Bahamas. Phenomenal artists doing some great stuff. He had this this sculpture of

Malcolm X and Betty Shabaz. Obviously you know that that struggle chord with me. But it's just when I'm in the way of Michelangelo, it's awesome. You've I've been to your place in New Orleans, your new place, and so you have art all over the things, and I know, like, how has art become your passion? I want to kind of go into that. Me and you talk about these things all the time. You know, you're always trying to, you know, keep your mind going and things like that.

But how is art really just taken off in your own Um well, I think I like anything that has like to do with storytelling. Um. And and you know, like I said, I grew up around art, so my aunts and artists. So I've I saw paintings on the walls, like as I can remember my earliest memories, I saw, you know, these these paintings. I remember you ever saw the Sugar Shack Eddie Barnes. It's the it's the um

Marvin Gaye album cover. Uh oh yeah, I saw that picture, that painting on my wall from as early as I can remember. My aunt did a cover of it. I thought it was heard painting for the longest until I got older and learned about who Ernie Barnes was a former NFL player that turned artists and is now one of the like goats of you know, black artistry. But it's just the idea of being able to to think about something and articulate it and express it in a way,

um that might be nuanced, you know. So we sit here and we were exposed only to sports, uh kind of outlets where if we want to talk about these other things, we're at the mercy of like the writer or the journalist who's you know, has an agenda, but being able to express yourself in ways that always with words. So whether it's your fashion, whether it's film, music, art, like,

all of those things to me are just storytelling. And when I get to sit with an artist and they break down why they use this material, you know, like we'll say, oh, this is trash, and it's like exactly, they use trash specifically to tell this narrative, like and all of those things to me, once you understand it, like change how you value it, and all of a sudden you're attached to these pieces because they speak to

a narrative. It's like listening to a good song when a writer says something that like he articulates the feelings that you had, but you can never like put it like that. It's something with art once you learn how they're doing it, like I could never make that or do that in that way, and it's so interesting and they took that that narrative and perspective on whether it

be sculpture or abstract paintings, all of that. Now, do you do any artwork yourself though, being that you are a fan of it, can you can you draw, Can you sculp? Can you I know I can't paint, can't draw hands, stuff. But what I have started to figure out is like, yeah, like all right, well what are and this is what I think is important, Like for every black man, this is one thing that we don't do, is we need like some creative outlet, like in general. And so one of the things I started to do,

um was photography. Like I just picked up a camera, showed myself how to do it, and so you know, I'll go out, I'll take pictures, edit them. Taught myself how to do it, and I have like a photo all all of them like my own stuff. And I'm working on some things you know here there, but you got to learn kind of the basics. And I'm like, I'm not gonna put nothing out there or it might just be only for me to see. It's just my

own little private thing. But yeah, I think I am looking for ways to Like the more you get around it, you start to learn how they do it. Yeah, you play around with it. Dad were a little bit, but I'm not gonna I'm no artists, But what's what's one of the best pieces you've taken? M I gotta I can send it to you too. I got this picture. I was in Morocco and I went through the markets in Madrid and you go into it. This is guys

the snake charmers and stuff. This guy takes his snake and he's like like draping it like over his face and he's like kissing it. I took a picture of it, like real close, like edit up. It's like phenomenal, Like it's like my favorite picture that I'm taking. I was like, Okay. Everybody who comes and sees it, they're like like, oh, who took that? And I'm like, yeah, I did that. Yeah I'd like to. I like, I like to check that piece out and send it to Roma or whatever.

I got you dogs. So now that you're back in the States, you went on vacation, you're enjoying yourself. You're going all over. I know most of these places. But so what you've been up to? Doc? I mean, I know, I know the girls back in school, So what you up to? Half of my time, it's just being dad. Like I'm at home, I'm in the school drop off lines, I'm in the pickup lines. So tell them how you cooking it up? Too? Because I've been over there, use cooking dinner dog. Oh yeah, it's a full time job.

Like you know, I'm a single dad with no nanny, so I got two girls. I'm like, We're up at in the morning, breakfast, clothes, to school. I get my little work in, you know, work out, do whatever I gotta do between the then it's pick up and it's like clockwork, you know, you pick them up. Here's a snack change, l get to soccer practice, get home homework. While they doing homework, I'm cooking dinner, gig dinner. We got about thirty minutes to chill, watch something and then

they sleep and hold are your kids? They are eight in a four eight and four. Yeah. So that's that's the majority of my life, about half of the month and then the other half of the month, um um, either doing some of the things that I enjoyed. So it's like the arts uff or it's bouncing around and a couple of smaller gigs like just talking about the game of all little podcast stuff here there. Um but yeah, working on more creative stuff than anything else, to be honest.

So after eight months of retirement, bro, you're watching football? Do you miss it? Not? At all I had one. I went to my first game finally, Saints versus Raiders, and in pre game, I was like, okay, yeah, it's the pre game, that's really it. Though, I was like I could I could almost feel my pads on my body. I was like, yeah, yeah, like yeah, I could play, I can play right now. But after that, like now, I really I really have not had any like second

guesses or thoughts are like playing the game. I actually enjoyed this vantage point of being a fan and like and having no control over what's happening, yea make it like the anxiety of that, like the tension in the moments, I'm like, oh, this is amazing. You know what's real funny, mount was that I didn't know how hard it was being a fan, Like like you just mentioned about the anxiety, Like when you have no control, it's way worse, Like it's way horrible being just on the field, like you

only control, You're only just concerned with your job. You're like, bro, I'm just trying to I don't have time to be worried about none of that. I have so much. I'm such a fair weather person as a fan, Like I'm in the first quarter, like Yo, they down there down fourteen. It's with Yeah, this game is As a player, I was the guy that was always like man, we always come back like this is super super positive. As a fan, I'm like this is all right. So when did you

know it was time to retire? Because you we had talked about it, but I didn't know you was gonna pull the trigger. And when you did, it was just like no hesitation, almost like your tweet game. Yeah, I mean it got easy. Yo, I'm be honest, it just got easy. And it's like, um, it's taking up too much time. It's like a lot going on, like from family life, Like yo, you sacrifice a lot of it, Like I want to spend more time with my family,

want to spend more time doing all these things. But like in football has taught me so much, like when you learn, like literally to be a professional in the game, like the nuances of the game, Like it takes a certain skill level to get there, and then you start to realize that like if I applied this these same tools anything else in life, YEA to succeed, Like it's we know how to we know how to build teams, we know process, we know discipline, like we understand evaluation.

We know how to deal with failure, how to come back from failure, how to stay focused and success like these are all things that people in the real world struggle with. CEOs and people who build businesses don't have these tools. And we've been doing this since me personally, since I was seven, and so it almost started to feel like like football is what I love, but it's not what I'm built to do. Everything that I'm built to do is like pulling on me, like it's calling me.

And the game of football really just got easy. Bro. Remember you told me this when I was young and I was trying to learn how to play strong and safety. I'm like, man, how do you know how how do you read so fast if it's running past? And he was like, I'm like, what are you looking at? He was like, I mean it's a feel like it just it just sound different, and I'm like what. But we were talking about like man, you just feel the game

out a while and it's like okay. And then probably two three years later, like I've reached that point where like I would the game and it was like oh and I kind of knew it was never like the last two years I played. I was not nervous at all for any game, and it was like, Okay, it's probably time I've done everything I needed to do. I can still play. I love competing, but it's like I'm

I'm cheating people. You know me, Roman, I'm an all in type of person, thousand percent like all in if you got me here, and so if I can't be like that, it's like, then it's probably time for me to move to something else. I was probably smart. It's funny that you say the whole the nervous and I think one of the unique things though about the way you retired is you did it on your term like you did it. Most people don't retire when they're ready. It's either they didn't get picked up or they got

injured and that was it. I was kind of the the guy that got injured because I still wanted to play. But after I told my ACL in Carolina my last year, I was like, man, I'm going on like thirty four thirty five. I just told my ACL, I think I'm gonna have to call it a day because no one's trying to pick up an old guy. And you also

said something, um, how Rome when you were younger. Rome really took you under his wing and he told you and you know, gave you some some some great advice what his room taught you that you're kind of using today right now. Roman taught me a lot in leadership. That's crazy to say because Malcolm was the captain, Like I like, I was never that's crazy to me to hear that, But I was always like I don't need

all that stuff. Go ahead and I'm sorry, um, and not leadership in like like I'm stand in front of the entire room, but like man to man leadership, Yeah, you got that old man wisdom like I've seen, like, Okay, when Tracy Porter is, you know, our main corner, he's our guy, and then he's just late one too many times. So where like like at first it's like we don't care what the coaches, can't care what they want. But

now it's like, oh you do something. Now it's like a player on meet and then you you're you're too late. Like instead of being a thing where most of us know how to call people out in a big room, you do that because you got back up. You got other people to like to jump on as well. But like I'm just watching and he'll hang back and like, hey, Tracy, let me stay here, and then to have a man and man conversation about like oh no, like we need more out of you. And and Roman is not the captain.

He's not like the dude with the sea on his chest. He's not the and it's like, oh, the ability to meet people like what they are, understanding who's who? And then uh. And then when I got to Philadelphia, Um, like I was like that guy, and I started to realize a lot of the stuff that Roman used to say to me. Um, I had to say to Rodney McLeod. He was a young dude just like me, came through Greg Williams defense, so super cerebral, like we spoke the

same language, but he thought he knew everything. And we want to question the coach on everything, like you're not perfect, You're gonna ask the coach every single question. And I remember Roman used to tell me it's like, bro coach. And then Crime Dog was our dB coach my last year in New Orleans, and they said, Bro, you're clearly smarter than everybody. That's fine, but like for this meeting to go, like, you can't disrupt the meeting, like you

want to do this on your own time. Go upstairs with them early, like on Tuesday, and get all of that out before we get to the meeting on Wednesday, because the other people are not learning, Like the guys who don't know what you know aren't learning because you like it's causing confusion. And I'm like, okay, fine, like finally shut up, and it's like, okay, learn how to

do it in a different way. And when I got to Philly, I was able to talk to Rodney about those things because I had been through it, and I just bust out laughing. Nney said all the same things that I was saying, and it's like, Okay, I'm prepared for this. It's only how growth changes you though, you know what I'm saying. How would prepare? Rome was the same way in Philly or excuse him now Philly in Carolina, but Rome would do that with You did that with Banet,

Trey u Jo, Josh Norman like he was. I think Rome was. Again, were you a captain in Carolina? Yeah, wasn't the captain in Carolina, but he was the I guess because you had all that great They just kind of looked just like you gotta be gotta just like yo, he's he's he's like that old the old guy off

for the show Kung Fu. You know, like they just always would flock to Rome for some of that old school advice, and it was just like yeah, and they used to call him up too, hey uh uh o, lou let me yeah, let that have we gave him Roman some flowers, let me like, let me let me put some parameters back on this now. This is that was the one example that I had. I was like, Roman was also the reason why I didn't get along with a lot of coaches because he didn't walked into

the room. I'm like it was I'm a young guy, I'm a rookie. Probably I hope you gonna tell me this. I hope you told this story. This is like the best one ever. Yeah, play something like that. And he's like, uh, four year player, and you know, coaches and nitpicking on like little things. We're undefeated in my rookie year. We're like ten and oh and the coaches are still trying to like, you didn't set the edge right here like it's supposed to on the numbers. You set it out here.

It's like, bro, they're giving him they gave him a bad grade, like he had all he balled out and got like a bad grade. So now romans mad. And then uh, Dennis Allen, the head coach now the Saints, said he was a dB coach and he said something like slick and Roman was just like, man, y'all, just

I'm just saying, y'all, hear nitpicking. He's like nitpicking. He's like, he's like you said all the time, this is a this game is played by players, coaches, just coach, I said on at the back of the room, like what you're gonna say. Coach didn't say nothing else after that, but it was like he was also that guy. You gotta he played call of duty all day. I was like, God, this is this is Roman Harper. Great hair does not

mean wisdom. They just assumed that when he got the Carolina well he definitely he definitely had it though, because I'm not gonna like he used to put the old schools. You and Kurt I would meet y'all in the morning and that's how we watch film. You know what I'm saying, it's true professional and it sounds like I think one of the biggest jumps that rookies don't have is learning how to be a professional when they go from college

to the NFL. And it always takes, for the most part, an older guy, a veteran to give the younger guys some tips, some advice on how to watch film, how to practice, how to eat, how to take care of your body treatments, so on and so forth. Malcolm, what would what would your advice be to NFL players and

or athletes in general? Just about being a professional. I mean, you know, every time you come into this game, you want to play it as long as you can, right, And there's certain things that like will help you last in the game and have nothing to do with football. Professionalism is one of them. Like the ability, Like they tell you all the time, accountability and availability are like two the major things when it comes to teams evaluating players.

You can be as talented as you want, but if I can't hold you accountable or I don't think that you can just do your job and you're not healthy, then no matter what your talent is, you can't I can't use you. UM. And so it's really just about um. Coaches are always evaluating you. Like it's not just on the field, it's how you walk around the building. It's do you take notes? Do you make new mistakes? Are

you a repeat mistake offender? Like all these things have nothing to do with like how well you tackle, how well you catch the ball. It's how you how you hold yourself and carry yourself in and improve yourself. Coaches are not that good in the NFL. I'm like, I know this is a podcast with this, but I don't believe that coaches are that good. It's like, how much as how many coaches have actually taught you, like a new technique that took you to the next level as

a player. A lot of it is self governance, right, Like if I messed up, I got to stay after practice and improve myself. That like, real improvement comes on your own in the off season, it comes on your own and your own time. Your preparedness for the game comes on your own time. All of that stuff. You don't think the coaches help you learn the game though in a sense maybe not a technique, but just like

learning the game itself. Some do. But I would say out of the amount of coaches I played for, six coordinators under that you had like different you know, dB coaches, I didn't learn a game from the majority of them, I probably learned the game from like Greg Williams, m Jim Schwartz, Um, Rob Bryan, I'll learned the game from. And then Corey Underland was a dB coach that I had in Philadelphia who could have been a de coordinator.

And then Dennis Allen. I did learn some football from him, like some stuff, but like you're not learning how to that. None of the stuff I was learning was helping me cover Calvin Johnson. And the professionalism is like understanding that that's your responsibility, like that it's not it's not the

coach's responsibility. I mean technically it is, but nobody cares at the end of the day, like on Sundays, like you being prepared, being healthy and being ready to perform, They're gonna look at you for that responsibility, not looking at the coaches on that and those who can do it consistently tend to stay around longer. So I'm just gonna throw it out there out what's it like the only sports team bro. I mean, let's let's calm down here, guys.

It's stressful. So I was a minority owner in Burnley Football Club. Um, we're in the Premier League last year and got relegated. Yeah, so it was bro it was. It was a dramatic fashion too. Came down to like the last match of the year. It's going back and forth. Yeah, we got relegated. We're in the Champion League, but it was the Premier League soccer, not in the Champion League. UM Burnley. It's awesome though, I mean, you know, as athletes,

you don't we don't even imagine. It's like early thought I was going to play in the NFL, Like I didn't even have dreams to do that. So to be in a position where you're like my minority owner and a sports club and another country is just that's that's a big accomplishment for me and my team, and it's really just like you. But I look at my businesses. I'm in so many different things like on purpose um

and just being yeah. I mean so I'm in everything from real estate to franchise and we own half over at half a dozen I'm sorry, over a dozen quick service restaurants and getting ready to blow that to over thirty in the next two years. We've got a venture capital fund called Broadstreet Ventures doing investments into growth in late stage companies. UM that's been going well. Got my own production company. UM. We just acquired and just invested

into one of the largest distilleries in Pennsylvania. So we've got the spirits and all of that, who are all over the place real estate, sports groups in sports is one of the things I also wanted to invest in being an athlete, Like we know, we know how valuable we are like as as athletes in the sports, and so it's like, well, how do how do do we not invest into having some kind of equity into UM you know that sports space where we know athletes, we know how to build a brand, we know how to

add value to an organization because I've had thirteen years of professional experience and even more when we go back to how long we've been playing ball, So how do you I mean, I know you said you're retired, you were done and family time with the kids, and you give us a whole schedule, Like how do you have time to do all of this with all your businesses.

The best thing I've ever done in my life was build a team while I was playing UM and so I figured out ways to you know, most of us when we come into the league, we are on a conveyor belt. Right, it's like, get an agent, get advisor, get all these people who they tell you you're supposed to have. Great I did that as well, and then eventually, as I've gone along, I just started to realize, all right, who's making money off of me and who cannot replace?

Like how do they make money? It's like, well, oh, I've got a friend who can handle my finances. They do it for another company, you know, and get they're working a ninety five to do that same job for another company. I was like, well, as soon as we can build enough up together over here and we can afford to pay you full time, leave that and come do it for me, and it will build that who

we have the franchising, same thing with the investments. Then it's the real estate and so enable for like, I know, I can't do all these things alone, so I'd rather share in the equity and then have other people join

me and build it. And That's how I'm able to get into all these other things, is that I'm just taking people and evaluating who I think is in the best position to really like take off and run in that space, and I'm equipping them with the cap the leverage in in my social capital, like the doors that I can get into. I'm bringing them into that space to do that for me. And I was able to do that while I was playing. While I'm you know, while everybody cares about who you are, they want to

let you in the door. I'm just bringing my people with me and I retire, I'm sitting around a group of five people, and we've got stuff that we can do on our own, Like we're not knocking down doors looking, you know, to go work for somebody else. We've got all of that in place, and it's about just scaling it now. And that's that's the biggest thing. That's probably the best thing I've ever done. And you know, I

gotta give him out. I gotta give him out credit because I remember, like his rookie year, second year, he was telling about these apartments he home in Columbus. I'm like, what, you ain't here? Yeah, I ain't gonna take credit for that. But that was part of my team though, right, That's what I'm saying, Like he was already doing these things at an early age where when you first come and everybody's telling you, man, you gotta save you gotta be smart,

you gotta do this and just focus. And Malchael was already doing these things. That's why I just want to let him know that, man, this started forever ago that I've been blessed to have people around me that have made me challenge the way that things are done or made me think about these things in different ways early enough that now here I am, I can walk away from the game because the decision for me and my retirement is like, okay, is can I walk away from

the money? Yeah? And that really is what it like, that's the hardest thing. And I'm like, I don't never want to be in a position where I'm afraid to walk away from money, and I feel like I got to be there only for it, And so that was like, okay, let's move and luckily I've been in a position where I can um. But like to Roman's point, though, that didn't start like two years ago, that's been that's been doing that for a minute. Yeah, that's what's up. That's

what's up. So I know five years ago you started the Player's Coalition. Yeah, and I mean you've been very vocal about kneeling national anthem. How uh you know African Americans how we could be and be more included in a lot of things and specifically police, law enforcement, just stuff that's happened around the United States within the last i don't know, ten fifteen years, right, this has been this huge shift. Has the Player's coalitionment going the way

you felt it should? I think it's been since its creation. Yeah, since creation, I think I think the Coalition has um has honestly exceeded my expectations ten fom UM And so I think there's a misunderstanding about the Coalition as well. Is that there that it's a program that's like underneath the NFL, and it's not. These are two separate entities, the Player Coalition. What we did was do something that's

never been done before. We looked at a bunch of group of athletes that wanted to be socially engaged, wanted to use their platforms to have some real impact in UM in our way our society is structure, and they had the idea to do that together and then we would create an organization that was completely built by players

and completely run by players. All the decision making comes from players that separate from the union and separate from the league that will make these decisions on how we pushed the money that we got from the league, We decide where that money goes. We also build an organization that a vehicle for players who now want to be involved. They don't have to, you know, try to. Their only option is not to push against their their team clubs and do these things in the locker room, will on

the field. They can contact us, get all the education they need, get all the resources they need. We can organize the events that they want, whether it be in their city or their hometown, so that the work can continue. And since then we've expanded to not only just the NFL, and it started with twelve NFL players and expanded to hundreds that have been engaged in our work, but we also expanded to twelve other professional sports leagues, so that's

w NBA Soccer based. Like all of these groups have now created their own coalitions and their underneath sister like our we're the umbrella company to all of that. So our example and our resources have not have turned into not only work that we can do. That is, we've given away millions to grassroots organizations that do the work every day, but it's also catapulted and empowered other athletes across different you know, sports in sections. I'm still very

involved from the high level stuff. But what we recognize is that politics and our impact is more regional, which is perfect for the way that athletes are. Right. We focus a lot on kind of these national debates and national conversations, but really the powerlise state and local and so, and that's where we're most powerful, rights where our fan bases are. So I'm able to do so much work in Philly and get so much done in Philly that

I can't do in Oakland. Um. And so for me, it's been about the particular communities that you live in. How are you being engaged there? And so for me, yeah, all my work is focused on the Philadelphia area. That's kind of my my territory. And then and then recruiting, like how do we get the next generation of leaders to take this up? Because an krom building, you know, the co founder, he retired in order to help us build it, and he built it up while I was

still playing kind of the voice of it all. Um. But now I'm retired, right, and there's end times and circumstances are different, and so there is a need for this next voice these next leaders to carry this out into the forefront because there are a lot of important things that are happening um socially in our communities and multiple communities that will need voices of athletes that will need a collective um and nobody no better person to serve them than those next generation leaders to be in

the coalition. Do you have to be an active player or are there tired players? Oh no, no, no, so well yeah, we're focused with athletes, but but it's we have both retired and active and it's really a spectrum of how you want to get involved like some and this is why we built it. It's like, whatever you want to do. If it's just hey, I want to get information on what's happening in my city that I should be aware of, or I want to you know, sign on to a letter with some other people, well

all I gotta do is sign my name. I want to send a tweet, or if you want to full out, like I want to have a town hall and organize, you know, meetings with politicians. Whatever it is you want to do, we can set that up for you. And that's that's what the Coalition is for players to get active. However, it is they want and how do they reach out

to you to get those resources? Yeah, Players, Players Coalition dot org is the Website's got all of our information and all of our programs, the pillars and the things that we stand for. We're doing things in education and economic justice, criminal justice reform, policing, community relations, like the whole gambit. So it's not even just like one thing, it's multiple topics. You can get involved in. Its multiple levels. Um and even if it's just you just want information

to figure out, like we just had an election. If you want to know information about the local candidates, you know, and what's going on in your city, you just need that. We're a resource. Got you? Got you? So you've been extremely vocal your career. Were you always kind of like the the vocal guy or was that something that you kind of had to grow into? Where did that mount Ain't you got the name Malcolm? So I feel like

it's like where did that come from? That? Yeah? I mean obviously, like like I've been I've been raised obviously with a with a very detail kind of history of just like black people, what we are capable of and kind of what we've been through. And honestly not even enough. Like for me as an adult, I'm still on a journey of just learning kind of how we've arrived to where we are. I'm actually a person who's very introverted

and who does not like conflict. But so I'm somebody when it's time, I'll do what needs to be done. And so when you see me raising my hand and being so loud and vocal, you have to understand that that's because I believe that this needs to be done. It's not what I want to be doing. I don't want to invite these this energy, this this friction. But if it's but if it comes down to, like like on a football field, if I got to tackle this guy who's bigger than me, I gotta take on this

pulling guard, well I'm gonna find out. You'll see how much I love my teammates based on how I make that decision. And for me, I love my communities. I've been raised to love my family and the people that I come from. I have a lot of pride in it, and I have a lot of understanding that we as a people are not innately violent, upid, or inadequate. So when you look at those symptoms coming out of specific communities. You have to look at, well, what is causing that.

If I don't believe that these people are just like that, then there are reasons that explain all of it, And if we can get to those reasons, then we'll get to the core and stop trying to stop the symptoms of it all. And so for me, it just like any captain, sometimes you just got to stand out front, take the bullets, just to keep this thing focused, keep

everything going in the right direction. And at that point in time, that was what was needed from not only me, like Colin Kaepernick obviously took a knee, Eric Reid and Mike Thomas. So you had voices all over the league that we're really stepping up to the plate and all of that. And I get my name gets attached to the coalition a lot, but it's a coalition meaning there's

a group of guys decisions. There was a group of us that were in those negotiations, a group of us that made every decision that got us there right, you know, And and that to me is really like the most important part. Brother Jake, y'all stay too. We're gonna We're gonna pay a couple of bills we'll be right back. All right, we're back after a little bit of commercially, I had to pay some bills. My man Peter net Tilma here with our guests today, Malcolm Jenkins, Brother Jay.

Yeah we go, brother Jake or brother Malcolm, however you want to go for it. NFL Players Second Acts Podcast. Thank you again, Malcolm. We've got a couple of quick hitters for you. All right. First thing comes to mind. Be ready for some of these questions gonna be challenging. Some of them are just all for giggles, bro, just being honest with you, all right, you ready? All right? What was the first thing you splurged on after you got drafted? The first thing I bought was two thousand

and nine Mercedes five fifty. Oh yeah, that's classic. Yeah, all black everything. I love Scott Grams nothing, I ain't do nothing to it all and those to it all right. I got what was your what was your goal to outfit for a game? Uh So I always had like so you know, I got my own suit company, so I always try out have a yeah, DeMar, you know, based out of fifty so we uh so I always designed something nice seven weeks playing out or eight weeks

at home. Okay, hold, so you would you would already have them laid out like first day of school, like this is this week, this is this week before the season. I'm like, hey, all right, this week we got a primetime game week three. I need to have something fire for that. Got this road game. Yeah, you know you gotta you gotta have it all. You gotta have a plan because I'm not trying to think about that. You know, the day before the game, the morning of the game.

What outfit? I'm aware, let's get that done. Well, shout out to Demark because I just ordered mine just came in the other day, so it's about time. If you could do it all over again, would you get to que Brandon on your arm. I'm thinking about getting another one. I got the one of them, I got one of my chest and I got a double hit right here. Oh yeah, I would for sure, Rome step up. Well if not, if you get double headed bro again, I'll get one. Oh. I wouldn't gotta do with me. It's

still I need somebody hold my hand, all right? All I did I did this one with no help. I ain't even nobody hold me. Just put a book right there and just control, man. You got it, bro, it is mental though. You're right, it is mental. It's mental. You're right. You've been through how many NFL training camps We're trying to tell me you can't sit still? How many shots in MRIs and all kind of stuff in the head. You can't sit still? Get Brandy real quick,

hey man, going to that mail doctor. It's probably even worse, more mental than all of that. But all right, who is on your personal Mount Rushmore? Malcolm? My Mount Rushmore would be Malcolm, Max, jay Z, Dave Chappelle, and James Baldwin. Nice, you're the first person that hasn't mentioned their mom and their death. I get it. I get it. I'm just telling you the first one. Bro. It's okay, it's okay.

I actually really like yours more than everybody else's action because it was like real people that we can look up to and like, not touch. You know what I'm saying, I can help. I wish I would have liked that more. About James Baldwin growing up as a kid, I wish they would have taught what he stood for, what he said, his writing, like just everything he was about. I wish I would have learned more about him as a kid in my youth than learning about him later in life

as an adult. Now I'm learning about him and I know who he is now. But I wish to god they would have taught about this man in high school or in junior higher elementary school, because he has so much knowledge, so much knowledge, And the problem was that and he's you know, we talk about writers in general. He's one of the greatest American writers of all time, and and we are just getting to a place where we probably accept them on the broader basis simply because

he was homosexual. Yeah, right, so we took all of that that greatness kind of under the rug um. But I'm glad that, like you said, more people are getting exposed to his writing and just what he meant, even just for like the psyches of black folks. The brother was brilliant, all right, last U Right now, My life is right now, My life is an adventure. Football gives you so much structure. Every day they tell you where to go, what time the bus leaves, what time you eat,

what time you rest. And now every day I wake up, I don't know what's coming. And it's like and it's getting used to like being okay with that and then actually enjoying that part that like literally every day is something new to experience, is something new to learn um and having to like embrace that. So there's no such thing as good bad. It's just like this is just what today was, and I'll get through it and then tomorrow go at it again. And that that part to

me is like it is so uncomfortable. But if there's anything I learned while playing balls, you gotta get very comfortable being uncomfortable, no doubt. And Malcolm, you're a person that has always lived in the black and white and me have always in the gray. Song. I'm enjoying hearing those words, which is crazy now have like you're more black and white, and I'm probably the great one in both of us, Like right, there's really no no white. But I love that growth in you, my bro. You

know I love that. So So malt Man, tell me about this your foundation event on Tuesday, November twenty nine. Yeah, so that's given Tuesday. M Actually, like I said, I'm right here now at a part where Northwest High scho in Philadelphia. It's one of the schools that we've adopted to do a lot of our work in and we are building out these financial literacy programs that will roll out here but also in a few other partner schools

in North from New Jersey and North specifically. And this fundraiser that we're doing, the Fantasy Blitz, so our first fundraiser back in the city since I left as an Eagle. So excited to be back. But obviously we're gonna be doing things around fantasy football is kind of this game show host. The Eagles are flying high right now, so a lot of super high, super high, so you know, the biggest thing is just trying to get around and

join football having some fun. There'll be a bunch of former and current Eagles that are being the building and we're raising money to build out these financial literacy programs that again I'm literally actively doing today, just finished that one session, and we want to break this out to multiple schools and the only way we can do that is when we raise the funds and get the support community to actually build that infrastructure. That's what's up now, Magee.

You in trouble Eagles, Eagles or Saints pick one. I mean, you know, it depends on what you Gotta give me some context. I can't it's just pick one Eagles the Saints. I mean, I mean, if you're saying, like, okay, give me the political answer, Eagles the Saints Eagles, and Saints Eagles are Saints. But nah, Now I live in both cities. I lived there. I have to let my head there, so I can't just be saying crazy stuff. But no,

I think, I think for me. I tell people all the time like I cut my teeth in New Orleans, but like where I made myself as a player and man was in Philadelphia, So I'm a little bit more tied to Philly. I'm it's an hour away from home, like that is that is me, Like that that places me. But obviously, like I love New Orleans, got a lot of history, did two stints there. They gave me a second, second row go around when I needed it. I'm going

to go better myself. They were there for me so and I had the most fun probably the last two years, the two years in my seat in my career were so unique for me, and that I had so much fun just playing the game of football that like New Orleans. It's like I can't just make that to say just Philly and ignore New Orleans much of an impression on me. You know, I appreciate that. I knew I was hoping you would say Philly because I remember when you went up there. You were like, Bro, I was there. The

first thirty minutes. People were hunking horns at me. I felt like I was back, baby, I was back in Jersey. People angry. It was AWESO get out of that southern hospitality and everybody's being nice. I'm like, no, I need a chip on my shoulder at all times. Look, man, keep that chip on your shoulder. Bro. You could come from so many great things. You're a great dude and

an awesome person, amazing leader. Anybody that wants to learn more about life, entrepreneurship, any of these cities, go out there and follow the Scott macolm jen because all you do is all you do is win. My brother. So, I want to thank all the listeners for tuning in. I want to ask you guys to spread the word, give us the rating, a review, I mean, make sure you be nice with that, and to follow on Apple podcast,

the iHeartRadio app, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you for listening, Hey, brother, brother Jake, appreciate your boss Man, I appreciate both of y'all. I'm onto all the listeners to understand, like, Yo, y'all two one are just goats in the game. Like whether you even Gabe talk to me, didn't like. I just watched how y'all moved as individuals on the field off the field, and y'all have affected an entire generation of players who watched that. So hats

off to both of y'all. Appreciate y'all having me on for sure. Appreciate your boss,