Controlling the Coward with Darren Woodson

Welcome to the Good Stuff.

I'm Jacob Schick and I'm joined by my co host and wife.

Ashley Shick.

Jake is a third generation combat Marine and I'm a gold Star granddaughter. And we work together to serve military veterans, first responders, frontline healthcare workers, and their families with mental and emotional wellness through traditional and non traditional therapy.

At One Tribe Foundation.

We believe everyone has a story to tell, not only about the peaks, but also about the valleys they've been through to get them to where they are today.

Each week, we invite a guests to tell us their story, to share with us the lessons they've learned that shaped who they are and what they're doing to pay it forward and give back.

Our mission with this show is to dig deep into our guest's journeys so that we can celebrate the hope and inspiration their story has to offer.

We're thrilled you're joining us again.

Welcome to the Good Stuff. I am so fired up about our guests today. Three time Super Bowl Champion, five time Pro Bowler.

Four time first Team All Pro, Dallas Cowboys, all time leading tackler, and Cowboys' Ring of Honor honoree. He's a father, a husband, a businessman, a mentor, and he's a leader.

Our guest today is Darren Woodson.

Our good friend is here to tell us the story of growing up in the projects in West side Phoenix, Arizona, and how he became a champion at life.

The great Darren Woodson.

Oh, welcome to the good stuff, Ashley.

I appreciate you having me. I don't know so much about this dude over here sitting to my left, that guy guy, and that guy got a little upset because I'll sit at the head of the table.

I know I can tell listen.

Set his bottles down, he sat his drinks down right here front. I knowingly sat here all the guest.

Yeah, games have already started and started.

That's right. Here we go. Let's go.

Ready.

Yes, I got more mind games than Milton Bradley compliments of states.

And I've dealt one of the So you finally got to win.

I finally get one win.

Exactly what I'm going to let you have it?

So relation Darren Woodson father, husband, Dallas cowboy, Alum, you played your entire career the boys.

Yeah, I was blessed to just to play with the Cowboys, and actually I was one of the time. I retired as one of four or players that had never experienced free agency.

Wow, never saw it, so no sign.

Yeah, and you were there during the Golden years ninety two to two thousand and four.

Yes, ninety two, yes, well, the beginning of those years ninety two through ninety five were really strong years, and then we fell off a cliff right at zero leadership from top to bottom, and we were five eleven five.

Were averages average could ever be. It's who we were for the longest time.

Until Parcels came in later and that one snapped back to life.

It's ironic you say that, because average is not at all what describes you and your work ethic and your story and where you came from. We'll talk about all your accolades in a little bit, but for now, why don't we dive into that.

Let's do it.

Tell us about Phoenix, Arizona.

Oh yeah, So I grew up in Phoenix. I was the youngest of four kids. My mom was a single mom. We were project kids, and we grew up in Hintson projects early on, and then eventually moved to what we call the West Side Maryvale area, which wasn't much of an upgrade. It was just the curtains are a little different.

Yeah, But I know who I am based on the work ethic of my mother.

She got up every day five twenty five am, every single day, went to her first job, which she worked for thirty eight years as a clerk at Akopa County, got done about four or five in the evening, went to her second job, and usually got home about ten thirty eleven o'clock. I think the one thing that I've always appreciated about my mom, which I didn't realize until later on, is that she set up a process for

But Monica ran lead.

Made sure we got up in the morning, made sure we got on the bus, made sure we got to school. After school, we had all had to get back on the bus. My sister, seven years senior, would be on one of the buses, and when she went to junior High and all that, she would meet us at the bus stop. We would get off the bus, we'd walk into the church and after school programmed, my mom said, you better not miss miss Sanders. After school program is

Yeah, king pong game. Things got a little sideway. Sometimes it didn't matter, it didn't matter, Like that's.

How I learned how to play football right and know how to play at a high level.

But I cut my teeth there.

But my mom had this process that she instilled in all of us just to make sure we stayed busy enough to not do Imagine that idle hands or the devils were and I've heard that a million times when I was a kid. Never knew what it meant. But idle hands of the devil's works, you do not if you if you're still, you're gonna get into some whatever it is, right, you're gonna step into it. So it kept us busy and it allowed us. I was the one that graduated. My brother Todd went to went into

Well absolutely.

How old was Monica when she was given all of this responsibility?

She was seven years old. She was that's crazy, man. I used to catch the bus. Oh yeah, I'm serious. My sister was catching the bus like no, not the school bus, the city bus, the city bus. I remember being seven eight years old catching the city bus from my house across town sometimes to get to school because the school bus didn't show up where I lived, so the city.

Bus was it.

At seven years old and a.

Transfer, getting the transfer to get on another bus, I couldn't even imagine. I got a six year old who's about to turn seven and a few days there was no way and heck that I could see my son. Nope, get in on a bus and getting a transfer at that.

So what was it like growing up in that house? I can't imagine your mom working a job or how many jobs?

Two jobs, two jobs to feed five miles.

Yeah, and keeping the lights on, keeping the lights on, and no father figure.

And again, look, I had no idea that I was poor, Like, I just thought that this was life.

And we lived in such a bubble.

And the fact of I didn't go to certain areas, Like I had no idea what Scottsdale.

Arizona was until I went to Arizona.

State and I was, yeah, it's right down the street, And why does everybody go and those oh, those are some big houses where and we're in the same city. I'm twenty five minute drive from Scottsdale.

Right.

We just lived in this bubble, and I just felt like everyone was kind of similar. Look, I come from a background where most of the houses that were down the street and all my buddies, they're all single family houses. Fathers weren't involved, or fathers were they weren't living in the same house. My father just didn't happen to be a part of my life.

I knew he was.

We saw him every once in a while, but he just wasn't making decisions and raising me as a man.

He definitely didn't play an active role. He didn't play an active role. No shame for I forgiven all moved on.

But you know, and he had his own issues he was trying to deal with and overcome at the same time. But my mother was he played that big of a role. So I just live life the way it was and the way it fell out. Man, And I'm telling you, I had the happiest childhood. We played basketball, played every sport you can name. On the street, you know, lights go down, then you go back in the house, and that's the way life was. Yeah, it was simple.

When the street lights come on, yeah you better be home to be home. So when did you realize, like, hey, I want to get out of this situation.

No, here's the one I this is the time I did realize that I was poor. So again, my sister Monica, so she's probably in her teens at this point, and I was seven years old. My mom used to play these She had these games where she used to flip a coin figure out which bill she needed to pay. Right, So sometimes electric bill. Sometimes well I can't make that electric bill, I'll pay the water bill.

Whatnot. Well, this time the electric bill won. She paid the electric bill.

Water bill was off, so we couldn't shower back then it was a bathtub. Later, so my sister, just me and her. She takes me across the street. It is a supermarket, and the supermarket had the holes on the backside, you know, the garbage cans, and then there's a supermarket, right, And she had this powder soap and took me across the street, sprayed me down with the hose, threw powdered soap on me, and I had all over my favorite

It's like, I said, this looks like soap is why are you powdered soap all over you? Man? You poll?

And I was a kid, and we all were kids and hold unch tickets seven seven yeah, yeah, but we all had lunch tickets. We're all the same, everybody, right, And that's when I was kind of like, man, this is that's different. That's different. And then when I was in high school, I really you know, you started get a little older, you started figuring. I was working when I was twelve years old, and I was working with my two uncles and again two MILLI two Marines that grew up Vietnam guys came.

Back whatever you want to do. Goodness.

They were laying carpet in these buildings and I would be the one at the bottom. So they would lay carpet and they would cut carpet sheets off and they would throw them out the building. It's like new buildings right, no windows, and then they throw it out and it's hot, dude, it's a phoenix, right.

Hot.

And I'd go up in the building and they would cut those sheets and I would have to grab a little leftover pieces and put them in a bag or whatnot. But the big sheets, they would just throw them out the window and I would have to go downstairs and throw those sheets, those big leftover pieces of carpet in the back of the truck.

Right. And they taught me how to drive a big I was a big old Chevy truck man. We still had to stick on.

Taught me how to drive when I was twelve years old. To back them up, I sat on carpet, like stacks of carpet set on so I can pull this thing back to the building and then throw the sheets as close as I could to the truck. We were so dysfunctional because my uncles were drunk ninety percent of the time or on something, right, and they would talk to me like a sailor wow, like every word that came out of their mouth was a cuss word. Right, I

But that was my life.

That was that was my reality, and I didn't know any better than that. But it was in those buildings when I would sit there and go, man, these are nice buildings.

Yeah, like these are really nice buildings. Like what do these people do?

Yeah? There was a time when I got into high school and then that light bulb started going off that I was like, I'm going to do something.

I know I'm going to do something. Was that a feeling you had in your gut, in your soul.

I knew I was going to do something, Jake. I knew that I was going to do something. And I can tell you this, everyone in my family and all my closest friends always knew, dude, you're going to do something.

Wow, You're going to do something because I burned.

Differently, and I know I was different. You woke up early in the morning that I was always inquisitive. People always say, man, shut stop asking me questions.

I'm oh, yeah, there isn't it. Yep, there isn't it. You know what you played in the league. You played around guys that had it right, and guys in the business world that have It has nothing to do with sports.

It's this spark right, And it's hard to describe it, really hard to put into words, but.

You have this unbelievable self conviction already that I think is God given that you were born with. And then because the way you were raised, it was just giving you tools and building blocks internally to say.

I don't know what limits are. Those are man made. That's right, man, that's so strong. That's strong. But that's the reality.

God's going to give you some of that skill set right whatever that skill is, right, but it's how you pursue it. There is something about how I want to attack life. And there's a lot of people that I know that are similar in thought that I have. But even as a young kid, I wanted to attack life like, if you want it, you gotta.

Go get it. Ye gotta go get it. So nothing's given.

God may have given me something, but I had so many people that were sharpening me throughout the years that allowed me to say, okay, here I am.

Yeah.

And if you didn't have that fire in your gut to go get.

It yea yeah, then what you gotta have the conviction to go take it. You have to supersede your fear of failure in order to be completely proactive in your own greatness?

How did you channel that on your path to life to greatness?

I gotta admit, like, I was really good at certain things, and I was very mediocre at other things. You know, you hear the saying play to your strengths, Play to your strengths, play your strength. All I did was play to my strengths, which wasn't a bad thing all the time, but it did catch up to me eventually once I got to a certain level.

So here is my strength.

My strength was you give me the football, or you tell me to tackle someone. I was really good at that, and I knew I was good, but you put me in geology class, or you put me in any math class, and I had zero work ethic. So I disguised everything by saying I'm such a good athlete, see me, yeah, see me like, and everybody loved me because of such and such. Right, you got away a lot, and I covered up the fact that I didn't really want to work that hard in school.

I really didn't.

I knew my sister was highly intelligent, my mom's very highly intelligent. I knew I had it in me because certain times I'd be like I put the work in, I get it done. But I just didn't. I was mediocre at best. I just didn't care. Right, So it caught up to me my junior year in high school. So everyone's recruiting me around the country and because of my athleticism, and then when they come and they look at my transcripts, they were like, dude, you're great, suck.

My we we're not. So I got recruited by a lot of schools.

I ended up going to Arizona State because all the other schools said, we're not going to accept you because your grades are so bad. Arizona State brought me in as what they call a prop forty eight. I went to Arizona State or I went to a Juco.

Wow.

If I would have went to a Juco, I would have been lost. Honestly, I would have been lost, right bro.

No on either way, I know, I don't I don't. I think I think the wheels would have fallen off.

Oh yeah, because I'm an extremist in a lot of ways. Right, So my mother had a conversation with me, and there was a young man. His name is Don Baki. He was recruiting coordinator for Arizona State. He changed my life. You're talking about people that pour into you. That is so special. And when you look, man, I get.

Dude, don't crying about You're good deeper hey.

But gradually for being human.

Yeah, man, Man Baki, don't run from that.

I'm not gonna let you get away with that right here. Man, I know, but look emotionally, he was so special. He'd show up every single day my senior year in school, going to class or going towards class because halftime I wasn't going, but he would be in the hallway. He's a recruiter at Arizona State, right he is the football head of football recruiting there. He would be in the hallway and he said, man, you need to get a class.

He's showing my grades. Look at you're crazy. And he was there every single day.

So my mom and coach Baki had a long conversation and my mom said, look, you're going to Arizona State.

You're going to go. And I couldn't play my first year. I couldn't even be around the team. Is that part of the.

Right. My entire focus was school. That was it fish out of water man. It was the first time that I missed the football season. So I was seven years old. I've been playing since I was seven, never missed the season. I was a fish out of water. I was at a big school, fifty five thousand students.

I was just.

Going there because I couldn't be around the football program.

It was against the rules for me to even go to a game to watch it.

So my first year, every Friday, I had to report back to Baki. We would sit down and said, how school going, blah blah blah. It's all he could give me. Right, we couldn't meet in the athletic facility. We had to meet on campus, right, So I met with him. It was the first time. I was so embarrassed because I wasn't playing. People thought I was stupid, and I felt like my back was against the wall. And I had

I'd see players, I see guys that I played with in high.

School on the team and they would see me, and I know the thought process was like, oh, ye're too stupid. Yeah you can't get right. Right, you get all that athleticism, but you're too dumb.

Right. And see, guys, they give me that little look. And they probably weren't even giving me the look, Jacob, have any of them been on the DOCKU for the Hall of Fame? I'm just cheers. I guarantee you they didn't mean.

I know I look it that way, right, Yeause, I was so defensive.

I was like, I know you're looking at me. I know judging right.

It just had this chip on my shoulder that I got to get better. I got my first year. I had a three point two right, No tutors. They couldn't give me anything. Right, Oh dude, I killed you and utilized it. But I had nothing. I had nothing. I had zero resources from them, right. I just figured it out.

Like I learned so much.

I learned my deficiencies of like I could hear a lecture and and if I recorded it, like I can hear a lecture, man, and I'm like, I'm missing ninety percent of it, because that's how I think. That's how I receive information, right, So I take notes. And then after that I listened to the recording on the tape recorder and I just handwrite my notes and see him once I wrote it down, boom, I got it. And that's how I learned. I didn't know that's how I learned.

Everybody stand by to the first day of practice field.

I was like, oh, I'm bringing it, everybody. It's you who called me those days. I'm just making up stuff in my.

Own Mind's your eyeboss, look at me. I saw you on campus. But I think I just grew so much in that one year.

I mean just because I got knocked down mentally, I was, you know, but at the same time I had to fight It's either I crawled up, I fought up out of that, or I just remained a victim and you just cried about it. Why blame someone else? The only person to blame was me. My mom told me, hey, this ain't on me. She told me, hey, I worked two jobs.

Good on her.

This is on you. Good right and accountability. Account That's right, son. Three.

Every day we have a choice, yes, every day. And I mean that was your tipping point. I just got chills when you said that, because as soon as you stepped on that field, well, I mean it was game on from there and you had so much to release. Yeah.

Yeah, when you're playing football, the school wants you to be focused on football, like they always tell you're.

A student athlete.

It should be athlete students because honestly, you make You are a commodity and you make a lot of money for the school, right, So what do they want your focus?

They want your focus on the field, right, and.

Just past the class that's it just passed. We have all these resources who would get you to all this. You get to see you're playing, right, And my mind really flipped when I didn't have football, because I started to think, okay, I'm gonna be competitive on the field, but I'm also going to be competitive in that classroom, right, super competitive. And it took me three and a half years to graduate because I was that competitive. Every summer I took the maximumount of summer at school classes.

I didn't go.

I mean I was from Phoenix, I didn't I'm going to go to West Side, stayed on campus, got my classes, many classes I could take in the summer, and I was just like, oh, man, I didn't do anything special. Lovey Smith was my position coach. He made us all everyone that was on that position, you didn't go home. You're from Jersey, New Jersey, or you're from California, you did not go home any off season. You stayed stayed there, and you maxed out summer school. He was so serious

It gives me chills to think of the beautiful life that you've built at this point.

But tell us about your football career.

I mean, there's not a lot my football career. I tell you what it was a dream coming true. First of all, I get drafted by the Cowboys, the team I hated when I was a kid, the Cowboys. Freaking hated the Cowboys. I was a.

Challenging to be a Cowboys.

We didn't have a We didn't have a team in Arizona at the time. With the Cardinals didn't come in until I.

Was a sophomore in college.

Well maybe it's a junior year in high school or something like, but by that time I didn't have I didn't I didn't have no affiliation to him, right, But my team growing up with the Steelers. Was my sister Monica. Loved Lynn Swan and Terry Bradshaw. I had a ton My best friends are all Cowboy fans. Everyone in Phoenix was a Cowboy fan. Still his day, Cowboys one of the two. Right. All my buddies were Cowboys fans, and the Steelers were the only team that was they getting

So I get drafted by the Cowboys and.

I was like, my god, the only team I hate freaking draft me, right, but okay whatever, But I walked.

Into a locker room.

Yeah, thake thanks to Dave Campo who came out and worked me out. He showed up to a linebacker, didn't Yeah you know, he showed up to watch my best friend Sparks, who was a cornerback. So that's how so Dave Campbell. So I'm we're getting it's our pro day. So I go to the combine. I have a really good combine. I ran really good, worked out well, and

Cover them right.

And I covered in college, and the Lovely Smith made me play multiple positions. Right If I played safety, linebacker, sometimes I cover running backs or tight ends or whatnot.

So I knew how to cover. They didn't know.

I knew how to cover, and I got out there and we're covering one on one and Jimmy was like, you're my nickel guy. Not like the nickel guy is not the safety or the linebacker. The nickel guy, it's your third corner. Wow. I became a corner. Basically, I'm covering tight ends and I'm covering running backs and every once in a while I cover a slot receiver or whatnot. I became that guy and I ran down the field

I just wanted to be the dude.

Man.

I wanted to play safety every game.

I wanted them to say my name at the beginning of the game, or when John Madden is calling the games, my face shows up as the starting safety or whatever it is, right, And it burned me.

Man. Now, whoever's listening to this, it's okay to be upset for not.

Whatever whatever your goal you have, you don't reach it, or if you got a little animosity about it, it's okay.

I should burning you.

Right. So I would be at practice and I'd be so upset that I wasn't the start of safety. There were multiple times that Jimmy would walk up and he tried to, hey, just waste your time, be patient, and I was like, damn patience, I'm on the start. And Jimmy loved that about me. I know he did, because yeah, he knew it meant something to me. Campbell to saying they knew it meant something to me. And every day I'd go out there, I just wanted it.

I wanted it. I wanted it, wanted it.

But I grew so much because now I'm playing, I'm covering all the time, I'm doing all those little things where you know, a lot of safeties weren't doing that, they weren't covering at all. Basically, I became the hybrid guy, now the nickel guy that they call today the nickel I was one of the first guys to ever do that, right, But I cut my teeth because I had to cover, had to cover at the cover. And then when I

Knew the value absolutely.

And it's crazy how it's like a vicious circle. Man, Sometimes you got to go through. You never put your fire out. Never put the fire out, That's right.

I kept burning hot, just kept burning hot, and it's paid dividends. Yeah, I mean it was all sudden. Actually, I just like, man, some players that are just fun to watch. You were one of those dudes. I appreciate it. Yeah, you appreciate it.

Yeah, because of that fire, because of that hood, because of everything.

It was like you knew, I don't know what's going to happen.

Somebody's gonna get teed off on right right now. You would probably be objected from the game.

Games fun and exciting, and dude, I'm telling you, I've seen you work out even now, and I'm like, I mean, I would like to see you just sit up this one time.

See that ain't happen.

You would cuss me out watching me play now, trying to backpedal, giving like, come on man, let that guy run by you.

Hey, I know where I stand now.

You know what, though, it was this conviction that you've had in you, and that was instilled in you rather that was from your mom and clearly is an angel, or your uncles who were just two salty devil dogs trying.

To figure it out.

It taught you how to make a point, yeah, exactly, colorful point yeah, and drive and drive I mean from your sister who I know you, But I learned.

From so many people like I'll give you an example.

So for the longest time, when COVID hit like, I'd work out like you just mentioned. I work out a lot before COVID happened, and we were like three months before there was a shutdown. I was ordering equipment. I was going to a gym to work out. The gym started getting packed and I couldn't get to the weights at six o'clock in the morning. I couldn't get to the squad rack.

I couldn't get to this. Yeah.

So I said, I'm gonna build a gym in my garage. Right, So I build this gym in my garage, and every day, like when COVID hit, man, I just had my garage and I would work out every day.

Right.

So I've been consistently that guy, because I'm a guy that if I don't work out, my body hurts.

And it doesn't have to be weights. I can just walk on a treadmill. Right.

I gotta get SOLDI I've had eleven surgeries. I gotta get moving, man.

Yeah, I know, trust trust don't you start with me.

I just I know I feel don't make me cussing anyway, so.

You don't feeling like I'm hurting. I gotta get these bad going. So every day I'm working out, working out. And then I would say about a year and a half ago, I was working out five days a week, and I traveled and I came back from New York City and I remember taking a day off. It was like a Tuesday, right. Actually was in New York on a Monday, got off the plane, worked out, came had meetings, came back and the next day, instead of me getting up and going to go work out, I was like,

Like clockwork.

She lives two blocks down right, and Carol, she used to see me working out all the time. And this is where I knew I really slipped up. I'm out there working out one day and I'm not consistent. I'm out there twice maybe a week or whatnot. Carol runs up. She says, hey, you've been traveling a lot, and I'm like, no, what are you talking about. I've been here. She's like, I haven't seen you, And I thought, okay, Cal there is I see how Yeah, there it goes to chip again.

What do you mean by the coward showed up?

The coward is that person like you work every day, you wake up, you look in the mirror, right, and the coward is the one who's always saying, hey, you know you worked out last week, or you let me worked out every day this week.

Take the day off, go get back in bed. That's that coward, right.

Coward also wants to be tumultuous, wants to fight people, wants to argue.

Hey, man, your wife.

She came in a little late yesterday, she said, so she snapped at you a little bit.

Man. You need to take it out like you. You need to give it back to her today like this revenge time.

Right.

The coward's always the one. He's dysfunctional.

It's that dysfunctional part of you that wants to speak to you and wants to have this that subgroup who wants to have their largest voice just wants to have this loud voice and scream from the mountains. You got to defend your mind. You gotta need your mind. He's the taker, he's the victim. He wants me to play the victim card. Oh man, did you see what happened to the black guy on TV yesterday?

Every white person should pay for it?

No, man, Like, let's reset, look in the mirror and tell the coward, no, bro, it ain't going down that way. It's not happening. This is how I'm gonna live my life. I'm gonna live it with grace. I'm gonna live it with structure. I'm gonna live it in Jesus' path. That's the way I'm gonna I'm gonna live my life.

Period.

I still need that chip because if I don't have that chip on my shoulder, the coward will show up.

That's your fuel, that's my fuel. What do you call the champion?

Dude? That dude like I got that dude, that that dude is a guy that's like, hey man, we ain't hearing all that. Let's go, let's go. We gotta go choose one.

I call that that's the good versus evil.

Yeah, everybody's got it every day every day wake up, you can decide which weren't fighting for.

Yeah, what would your daily affirmation be to yourself as you're looking in the mirror?

How many people I touched in that day? The one thing I do have. First of all, I have three four kids. Three of them are out of the house. One that I got a seven year old. Right, So I try to get that work out in the morning every day and my son goes to school. I take them to school about seven thirty. I'm gonna have breakfast with them. Wow, every single morning, right, it's just hands down, there are no meetings. If I'm in town, I'm having

Right. I get him dressed, feed them, take them to school. That's a win for me.

I got workout in, I took him to school, spent time before seven thirty in the morning, got that done. Those are two wins, and I count wins. I'm sorry, I just have to That's what I do.

Right.

But then on the way to work, daily affirmation is basically on the way to work. Again, I'm always in these modes, right, Like I can be.

Up and down or whatnot.

And I'm always trying to shake that mode of because I can be confrontational on certain things, right, shake the mode of, hey man, instead of being confrontational, what are you gonna bring?

Like, what positiveness are you gonna bring?

I love those guys Like he walks into a room and then he lights the room up. However you want to take it like he's gonna be a charge. He's super charged all energy, right, And when Jake walks in the room, You're like, Okay, herey comes. I don't know how he's gonna go, but here comes that energy, right. And I think special people have that, and I want

Yes, talk loud. Sometimes when I walk in the office and like good Marning Darren, that's a response. I'm like, you better hear yes, good, Yeah, here we go right good.

I want to bring that energy because I think there's something about it.

Right. Who wants to hear that guy? Yeah? Who wants to be that guy? They walk in the room and.

It's just like, don't be the one that drains it, just.

Suck the light. I don't want to be that guy. Yeah, be a soul feeder. Short you only get one shot, man, Yeah, exactly.

And I'm telling you who's watching all the time. Your kids are watching. Jackson's watching.

Absolutely, they're watching it.

Like, if you don't have that energy, if you don't have that pop when you walk in the room, they're probably.

Like, that's right everything you do.

Did those voices the coward and the dude? Did that start early in life?

Yeah?

I did. It started when I was a kid.

I went to junior high and I remember being on a bus and something it went down the day before. It was a little scrap right on the basketball courtiods playing basketball. One guy says something I said something. We went back and forth. Gang member. He's a Hispanic gang member. School was half black, half Hispanic, and sometimes there was went down sometimes playing basketball. If we got into it

And I'm getting off, about to get off the bus, and I remember the bus stopping.

I look down and old boys with his whole you got his whole posse right there.

Right, I'm by myself.

Right, my boys are already they've already been dropped off, right, my bus stop. So I remember here it goes right, you better not back down. You better not like you cannot they if your boys see you, coward back to dude, you couldn't do it right. So that coward was in my head, the hole. Don't get off that bus. Don't get off that bus. Don't get off that bus. I mean he's just talking to me, and dude, it's like, now, you don't give it to his ass today. You're gonna get to do that today.

Right, And I remember sitting there in the bus driver sitting there, what's it?

I can hear him waiting. He's waiting, and he says, hey, you ain't got to get off. You ain't got to get off.

Brother, dude, black dude, big heavy dude named Ernie, you ain't got to get off. New you knew you got that bag. We don't get.

But that's one where I'm like, that sucker was there right back.

And forth and the way back then. Look, we weren't.

Fighting with guns and all that stuff, right, he knew it was gonna be. He was going and I got off the bus. Did nothing happen. No, I got the bus, got my bag, started walking. He just looked at me, said a few things, kept on going. But that's one thing. That's one time I remember, like, you know how mad? Honestly I didn't know, but I was just having his battle of it was going back and I don't know how long.

Dude was holding the door, like, hey he had the door closed. He didn't. He was like, hey, that was a test. Yeah it was a test, dude.

But I know where that guy is cause it's the same thing that happens to me when I'm sitting there and I know I got a prep for an RFP or whatnot. Because the Cowury is gonna say, you got this. You just wing it, just wing this thing. You know you got Walmart tomorrow, just wing it. No. The dude's like, no, No, we're gonna get down. We're gonna get dirty today. We're gon we're gonna learn something. We're gonna learn something.

All right, talk to us about the triumph of winning not one, not two, but three Super Bowls.

You know, winning Super Bowls was first of all, it's people see us play these games and they think, oh, man, you know, you guys are so talented and blah blah blah. What people don't see is the time that goes into this. Right, So the season ends, let's say the Super Bowls played in I don't know, February ninth or tenth. Right by the end of March, you're back in the gym, right, So that's when it starts. It's a little different now, But when I was playing, it started like the end

You work out together.

Right, So it's defensive backs, linebackers that work out at a certain time on the line and they work out of side and it's usually our group was usually going.

At seven am. That's when the groundwork started.

It start right then you start to set the tone of Okay, March twentieth, and then you get into April, we get the you have the NFL Draft, and there's guys that are coming and going, they're chopping, they're firing, they're cutting.

Guys, they're bringing in new guys.

And then by the time you get into May, you kind of know who's going into training camp, right, but you're still building this team. And like for me as a captain of the defense, I'm always engaging with the young guys coming in or trying to engage with people to say, Okay, we gotta do this, and I'm trying to.

Keep my own job at the same time.

Right, But that's when it starts, so people don't see all the things that take place. And then you get into training camp. And then when you're in training camp, you get guys coming and going in. Then you have injuries throughout the season, Then you have big wins throughout the season, then you got these big losses throughout the seasons like a roller coaster ride, Right, emotions are just going up and down, and then you get into the

You get into the playoffs and you're like, man, we're in the tournament. Now.

We got three games, three games, and here we are. And that is what people don't see. They don't see the fact that every morning on Monday, I can't walk. I can't walk Monday morning, I gotta get nice up. I'm struggling to get to Wednesday's practice. Right Monday, I'm beat down. I'm just trying to stay a little lose. Tuesday, I'm like, I can't even get out of bed. I don't want to do anything.

Isn't it weird? It's always two days later?

Oh yeah, yeah, I don't know, especially if you play on turf, play on turf, bro, it is a beating. You know, you got turf burns that you don't want to get, staff infections and all. I mean, there's so much that goes on to this. So but hey, again I ain't whinting because paychecks are nice.

Hey, there's a give and take here. Now I'm not whining about it.

And then again, so now you're trying to get there. You're in the playoffs, and it's one game at a time. There is no seven game series, five games series. It is one game you gotta win. And when you do, when you finally get there to the pinnacle and you win that championship, it's unmatched. The feeling of victory, the feeling of walking into that locker room, because I could care less when we won the Super Bowl, I can care less what was going on outside that locker room.

It's special.

It's special, yeah, and you never lose that, right. There's a certain camaraderie that's a super Bowl winning team and you stay together all these We just had a reunion two months ago. Troy set it up and man, we had a great time.

Like that's we look different, we all looked different, but we still tell them lies. We teld all these lies.

But it's just you, just that fraternity you'd never forget. And it's just a special moment, it really is.

What would you say to that young man back in Phoenix if you could talk to him today?

Who if I could talk to him today, I would probably say, it's okay to cry, It's okay, yeah, because I didn't have I mean, there was so many times I just want to be hard.

I had to be hard.

I had to you know, I didn't have my father there, I didn't have all those little things. And it's okay to just let it go and just yeah, be human and just and move forward because I just I held on to so much negativity. There are times where I probably just wouldn't let it go. Yeah, it would have made for better me at a younger age.

But it's okay to have the chip, but don't let it.

Yeah, don't let it consume you.

Yeah, yeah, bro, thank you for sharing that.

Yeah.

I mean I was just gonna ask a questions, but I mean, yeah, you're done.

Actually be the tea like I want to know, and you can't say. We can say whatever you want, but what do you do to recharge? What do you do to put soul food in you to get back up and get back out there and to continue to pour in to make people and businesses and teams.

And man, dude, you hit. I'm glad see you brought some value today. You do. Absolutely, that was that was a great, great question. So every day I had talked about.

When I get up in the morning and go work out, all right, there's this minute like I usually have like these three minutes where I just go, man, and I go into my closet. I got my shoes on and stuff like that. But I'll usually go, I'm looking for a shirt, do it, and I get on my knees. Like every single day, it's like the recharge, right, and I'm laying down flat and I'm just telling God, I ain't worthy. I love you, Please pour into me because I know I'm not worthy. That's like my recharge time.

And be like, walk right back out.

She knows, that's my timetime, that hey, my time. Oh she knows, she knows. But I just every morning, I just need it. Every morning, I just need it.

I just continue to love you more every freaking time we're I'm around you, I'm.

Like, God, that's just that's good. That's good ship right there.

That's the good ship. Or we're changing the name of the podcast.

I mean, I think that's the first time I've cussed on the podcast people.

I mean, Darren Woodson, thank you so much.

Thank you for your.

Time, thank you for your vulnerability, for telling us your story and your truth and everything that you do to practice and rest assured.

You are the good energy in the room. When you walk in, everything elevates, and it does.

I love you, of course, I love y'all too, And we've known each other for a while. But y'all just good folks, sharp and good folks. And he this dude ain't gonnaver let me drop the ball. He's gonna make sure I got it right. But I also want to thank Nick. Right months ago, Nick Rock, I had a long conversation out and actually I was sitting in the gym when we had that conversation, but it was it was a deep like he asked me some questions that I was like, Man, that's very inquisitive. That really got

Brother.

He is the best.

Couldn't period, no Nick, no good stuff. Yeah, that's simple.

There's a reason he's he does what he does. He is a solid, solid human being. Well, thank you.

I tell you know how I feel about you anytime.

Anytime, anywhere, any day, no questions, time and place.

I'm there back at you, bro, I know I love it.

Thank you so much for listening today.

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The Good Stuff is executive for used by Ashley Shick, Jacob Schick, Leah Pictures and q Coode Media, Hosted by Ashley Shick and Jacob Schick. Produced by Nick Cassellini and Ryan Count's house post production supervisor Will Tindy. Music editing by Will Haywood Smith, edited by Mike Robinson,