23. Thomas Davis on Leveling the Playing Field

they love it, they love it. So what you're doing right now and I'm just enjoying this retired life. I'm working with the Legends community, trying to have an impact on that field and that in that space, and just trying to do the best job I can in that area. All right. So you have a very unique story, and I don't think a lot of people know like the upbringing you're from Georgia. Y'all know, y'all just want to or excuse me the college championship, which I dispute, but anyway,

you have a great story. He's still hating. I'm still hating. I'm still hating, But you got you got a great story though. That was one of the things I when we were doing our NFL Man of the Year things and what I think two thousand eleven twelve, Yeah, and I really got to hear your story and like upbringing, how you grew up? Can you can you just lessen? I want to start right there. I want you to just tell me about how how that shaped you and

who you are today. You know, so I've talked about it a lot, man, But just growing up in Shelman, Georgia, UM, small small town. Everybody knows, everybody is. I think you hear this story from a lot of players that have gone on and make it to the NFL, But just growing up in a small town, man, and you see, as a young kid, you understand that there are not

a whole lot of opportunities. There are not a whole lot of things that are going to be presented to you to be able to be successful after you graduate from high school. So if you want to do something with your life and you want to be successful and you want to get out of that area, you have to try to get a scholarship. Because obviously my mom couldn't pay for me to go to school Um, so I knew that I had to do everything in my

power to earn a scholarship. So I played basketball, I played football, and I ran track year round, never left school after school was over. Um, just trying to do something to earn a scholarship so that I can get out of the situation that I grew up in. And it wasn't really until a coach came and watched me practice basketball. My senior year was when I got my

football scholarship offer. So all up to that point, no one had been looking at you, only only smaller schools, like I had an offer from Gramlin University, so I'm signing on signing day. Those were my two offers, University of Georgia and Gramlin University. You got Georgia to look at you, and that was the only they were the

only one. They were the only one. And the only reason that happened was because Georgia has just hired a new staff and Brian Van Gorder, who was the defensive coordinator, he was going to another time to see another kid, and they held one of the coaches over and they told him like, hey, go check out this kid from Randolph. Play talked to the coach about him. He didn't know that we were gonna be at basketball practice that day,

so he came in. He sat down with my coach and he watched me practice basketball, and like, we see this guy coming to gym. We don't know who he is, but we just My high school basketball team was one of the best in the state. So we just went hard all the time and super competitive every single day. And that's one of the things that I tell kids all the time. You never know who's watching you, right, so you always want to have good integrity. You always

want to do things the right way. For me, it showed up that day because what if I had skipped practice, What if I was being disrespectful to my coach, what if I wasn't doing the things that I'm normally accustomed to doing. So I went in after that practice was over, We go up. My high school um football coach called me over. We go up. He introduced me to the guy that was with him. He said, this is Brian

Van Gorder. He's a defensive coordinator for Georgia. He looks at me, he said, I don't know where we will play you at, but from what I just saw, the athleticism to speed, to change of direction. I'm offer you a scholarship right now to come play from me at Georgia. So you got a scholarship at the University of Georgia playing basketball, playing basketball. I played eight different positions in high school at at football, so I feel like, I mean,

you try to show your versatility eight positions. I played eight positions, and I'm not talking about I'm not talking about over the course of my high school career. I'm talking about in every game, you could find me at quarterback, at running back, at wide receiver, at tight end, or I would play cornerback. I play safety. Like in the crazy part about it, I never played linebacker. Did you drove the bus? I was a punt returner. I was a kick off return I was the punner, and I

was the kicker, so he was a whole team. I literally did everything in high school, and for me, you only had no athletes and we had some guys, but for me, they didn't play the football. My mindset was to show that I was capable of doing so many things, and in terms, I think that actually ended up hurting me as a player because nobody really knew what to play me yet or what to do with me. So, by the graces of God, I was able to take that scholarship from the University of Georgia and just run

with it. Man. I went in as one of the last guys given a scholarship, and as the story goes, man I was the first guy to be drafted out of like thirty guys. So similar story in it since my school new coach. My coach called a friend, Hey, I got this kid. But you know, they look at the film. But then just so happened. I had a basketball game. We go to the game, I play, you know, don't do this run around change with our right in and he was like, yeah, here's your trip. I mean

I didn't get the scholarship. I guess I was good. I don't know if I was that good. But they're like, yeah, I want him to come. He needs to come to uh come to our school. We we want I want them, I want them. So I ended up going to the school, and obviously I committed to Louisiana. But yeah, similar, a similar similar Sup. You never told me that, man, Yeah, they never never, never never saw me play an actual game in college football. Who game got me in college?

But but that just goes to shoulder. Like I try to tell parents and kids now play everything, don't just don't don't just stick with don't just stick with football. I was literally, so I have an AU team in basketball. And I was literally having this conversation with a parent the other day, like hell bent on having her kid played only basketball, but the kid is begging her to

let him play football. And I explained to her playing and simple, like, listen, he has a frame that he can He can do a lot of things in football. He can play tight end, he can be a defensive end, he can play linebacker, he can do whatever he wants to do. I said, when you look at a basketball draft, you got two rounds. That's it, two rounds of kids that are going to be drafted each year. I said, when you look at the football draft, you got seven rounds.

That increases your opportunity. Not saying that he's going to be drafting in either of those, but odds are if you're not extremely tall and extremely skilled as a guard, then your chances for getting drafted in the NBA are a lot slimmer then it would be in the NFL. So I mean, just having that conversation and kind of breaking that down to it though, Um, she came to the agreement with her son that she's gonna let him

play football this year. I don't. I don't think as a parent that we should make decisions to make our kids one dimensional based on how we feel. If these kids are begging, then they want to do these things, allow him to go out and do it. Right. So I won the Man of the Year award, and then that very next year, you win the Man of the Award.

That night, everything you've gone through, your foundation, it kind of was like, like, tell me, tell me how you felt in that moment when Goodell called your name and you walked up there and you accepted the award and your speech was amazing. Man, I was. I was so shocked because one of the things they had done, like in previous years, they would let the person know beforehand he was the first year. Yeah, you're the first year. They didn't tell anybody anybody, so I had no clue.

We didn't have a clue who Yeah. So and then I'm and just just to kind of bounce back to the year you wanted. I'm sitting in there listening to your speech and I'm emotional, like watching you, I'm like, man, I'm just crying. I couldn't imagine I'm sitting here thinking like I couldn't imagine being the winner right now, up here giving this speech because I'm sitting here like emotional crime right now. Then the next year I actually win the award and like and I'm like, I'm not gonna cry.

And this is what I actually did on my wedding day too. I told my boys had a bet that you know you're gonna get emotionally, you're gonna cry. So I literally cut my vioals, like straight to the point no tears. And I got heckled for that for years and years, you know, just sitting on that stage, man,

and then everything just coming to fruition on. Like you don't go out and do this work to try to gain the recognition, like none of us do that, but to see people taking note to the things that you're doing, the difference that you're trying to make in the community,

the spaces that we're trying to make better um for players. Man, that that's huge because we know the impact and the difference that it's gonna make for our foundation, for the kids that we worked with for the communities that we serve UM, and it did that for my foundation, like a lot of people made donations, a lot of people volunteer more so it was great. So I know, I know what you do, but explain to the people listening and watching, like what's your foundation? Explain what they actually do?

So we we what you actually So we worked with underprivileged youth and I'm passionate about that. Like I just told you guys, from the way I grew up as a young kid, I grew up in a single parent household. My mom raised me and my sister, and like literally we went through so many different struggles. For my foundation, I wanted to try to even the playing field. I know that there are a ton of parents out there that are dealing with the same things that we went

through UM, in particular single moms. So I know that there are kids that are going to school that don't have school supplies that UM, that are waking up on Christmas that don't have Christmas gifts, that are having Thanksgiving, that don't have meals or even beyond Thanksgiving, just everyday life. You know, they may end up having to miss the meal because their mom can't provide for them. So that's what we try to do foundation. We try to provide

those things for those kids. We try to make sure that um, when they go to school, everything that the other kids that are living in two parent households have, we try to make sure that we can provide for those kids. And in doing that, you know, we started in Charlotte, North Carolina. We moved to Georgia while I was from, and then now we're doing in South Carolina

what Kelly is from as well. For us to be able to grow like that and um just have the impact and all of those different spaces, man, I just think that really speaks to the the body of work that we've been able to do with this foundation and how we've been able to grow. And now we have a separate branch with My Leadership Academy, where we work with middle school kids and we're directly impacting their lives at the stage that they're in to try to teach

them how to be productive leaders. So it's been it's been great to watch this thing grow since two thousand and eight when we started, and since since two thousand and eight was with your Leadership Academy. I'm sure those middle schoolers there there are there are adults now, Is there a story can you tell me orry about one of the kids that truly got the message As a one of the kids, I got the story that went

through your Leadership Accademy. So I think one of the stories that I really looked back on, one of the parents came to us and our kids was struggling real bad with um just going down the wrong path, getting involved with gangs, doing all these other different things, running with people that absolutely had no good intentions for him in his life that would leading him down the path

to destruction. And he came and he became a part of the Leadership Academy and like literally man, he he literally dove in into everything that we would teach them.

And his mom still kind of credit us to this day to him changing his life around, and to me, if we don't have an opportunity to effect or make a difference in any other life, to know that we were able to help him out, to know that, you know, he was able to go onto the military, he was able to do a lot of other things that his mom told us flat out he would never have been able to accomplish had he not been a part of

the Leadership Academy. We've helped out first generation kids that have gone to college by providing them with scholarship opportunities and to see those kids go on and graduate and now they come back and they help us with the Leadership Academy. I mean, that's what it's all about for us. Yeah, that's um something similar. We we do this. We do certainly certain things our foundation. We try to provide resources to these families while they're while they're in the hospital.

And one of the one of the hardest things, I think, one of the hardest things for a man to do is ask for help. I think women they can do it, but for for a man, for us, it's hard because you are the protector your security, your comfort, your you're you're you're the guy who's supposed to take care of everything. We have this one of our programs, Tiana Fund, and you're really just right whatever you're the worst need or the most the basic need, whatever you need, we'll we'll

call and we try to secure it for you. And a lot of the time when you go from two incomes to one. Most of the time, you know, whoever the bread winner is, they keep their job and the lower person partner, a spouse, they quit to stay at home with the sick child. Well, mortgages, you know, and you if you were a really relied on those two incomes, you lose one and then the mortgage of the rent, the gas to heat electricity. Yeah, stuff starts to get behind.

And I just remember, um, I remember a dad, and we get these we get them all the time, but I never get to meet these people. I just I just I'm literally just reading these applications. And he pulled me aside. I don't know where we were somewhere, maybe just walking by, and he was just like, oh man, and he coming was like, hey, man, you don't you don't know me, but I used your Tiana Fund when

my my my my daughter, my child, they're in the hospital. Man, and I just want to let you know, like, and he said he, as a man, it was hard for me to ask for help because I felt I felt ashamed, I felt I was embarrassed like that I couldn't provide basic needs for my for my kids. But your your your foundation came through in a major way. And man, I'm just here to let you know, like as a man, I really appreciate you on that and I was just like like I was, I was. I was blown away,

really just blown away that. Like, man, I didn't even know how blessed this dude. And you were talking about like blessings like you you had an opportunity and you you seeze that opportunity, but yet you're giving back and you're blessing these kids and they go on and they bless others and it just continues to grow and grow and grow. And that's that's kind of like the beauty of the blessing. Like it's just it just kind of

keeps on, man. Yeah, and it just keeps going and going and going like that, like that inner drives are bunny like, it just doesn't stop. Like that's the that's the coolest thing. That's I don't know. I really do love your story and I like how I like how you tell it. I like what you represent. I don't really like the red and the black because you've got Georgia colors on. You got red and black on. Sir. This isn't no. This this is like and if that's

not read, this is certainly rare. This is certainly rad. But you can't see this. This is an undershure. This is what I this is what I'm in, This is what I sweating. This is the Jays for you speaking to jay'son you were jump man, right, Yes, sir, Tell me a story. Tell me a story about Mike. Tell me how cool Minke is. Man, he's one of the coolest guys you've ever meet. Honestly, Um, one of the most competitive guys still to this day. I think I might be able to beat him in basketball. Now I

don't think so. I got a scholarship based on basketball. I don't think you're gonna beat him though he's the other Go tell he I totally agree he'd go. But tell him, I said, I think I might be able to score a point or two on them. Um, can we could show him this you? We could put this clip together. I said it. I said I could score on him. I don't think so. I think I could score. I get still done too, By the way, so can you. So. I don't know if you noticed, but my I'm retired.

You still were playing. I was in Carolina, y'all play when I met him. Okay, so I'm gonna tell you all anyway, I'm in the locker room, I'm with them. We're very or whatever. I go back upstairs to the tour see was in and one of the guys in the elevator was like, hey, Peanut, take this elevator. I was like, okay, I get in the elevator. It's MJ

and like another person. So we're in this elevator and I'm freaking out, like dang, this is this is m J. So I'm sitting there thinking like, okay, should I say something now. I don't want to be that corny dude and say something now. I'm gonna say this MJ. How can I make it not so corny? Well, I happened to look down at my shoes and I was like, yes, I wore a pair of red of Levins. So I look over to him KNA and I said, hey, you like the shoes and he kind of chuckled and he

was like, yeah, yeah, I like the shoes. So I go in and I try to introduce myself and he's like, I know you're a peanut, and I was like, well, you know, So at that moment, I was like damn, I made it like MJ knew my name and I'm rocking your shoes and I look, I got the m J T shirt on you could have said it might have been the corners thing, but it's he smiled. He was thinking like that it was terrible, but he chuckled, he eat giggled right, and I gotta I got a

little chocolate. But what he knew my name? And I was just like, well, dang, everybody knows. Man. No, See, why do y'all do that? Though? I don't think you can really understand. I don't, as God is my witness, I don't. I think I'm just I'm just the most Yeah, I just I don't think that I'm really Yeah, like when we win and they no, Peanut, it ain't Charles Tillman like you're peeannut. I am peanut, and I appreciate it, though, I appreciate it. So you got some linebackers, right, Yes,

you got the linebackers. Y'all got some drills. What are the some of the advice you're gonna give some of these guys? Just throughout this comment just finished all the drills. I mean, that's one of the things that I've been talking to him about so far. Teams are going to be coming through looking for guys that are going to compete. They're gonna try to find guys with great leadership qualities. So show that in any way that you possibly can.

While you at this combine. You want to be able to get out there and show that, hey, I can lead a team because linebackers are required to be the quarterbacks of the defense. So when you go out there, make sure that you know what you're doing for first and foremost, that they're explaining the drill. Get into place where you can see where you to stand what's going on.

You can get out you can execute that drill to a t. But also when you go out you're going through these drills, don't don't try to go out and be cool. Go out and act like your your life is on the line, like your your your job is on the line when you go out here and you're doing these drills. And that's one of the things that you see with kids these days. They try to come through here and try to be kind of like a finesse kind of guy. You know, just ease up towards

the end of the drill. Man finished through these drills hard man. And that's one of the things that I want to impress upon them, to make sure that everything that you do here, you're giving Max effort. Do you think that you were the max effort kind of guy? Always, always, always um spice dub. Yes. He told me a story how he got a scholarship just by running to the

ball he went to. He went to a football camp just just by chance some senior, a senior asking and go with him to this football camp and I think he might have in a junior and he was like okay. So they go to this camp and from drill to drill to drill to drill, dub sprinted to every single drill top speed. After he got there the last day, one of the coaches was like, yo, who is this kid? Hey man, what's your name? They talked to him, He's like,

you want to meet uh Joe? You want to meet Joe Pat And he was like, oh yeah, okay, sure Like he didn't he didn't know, He didn't have a clue what he was doing. He was just being himself. And fast forward a year later, they I think no, no, no, he said. They offered him a scholarship right then and there. That was like you do you want to go to Penn State? You want to play football? And he was like, I got I gotta talk to my mama. First, let me let me ask my mama. He literally got a

football scholarship just from sprinting. He went to some football camp and to how big of a difference that that can make? Right? So imagine when you're trying to get a job in the NFL what teams are thinking when you have a guy that's out here that's giving maximum effort. They know that if you're doing this in this setting, once we draft you, this is kind of who you are. I mean, that's what and that's what you want to display, and that's what you want to show team While you're here,

what was your what was your best drill? While you're at the combine? What was your best drill? And then were you prepared to like, did someone actually prepare you for the combine? I mean you went to Georgia. Y'all got all types of top prospects that are yeah prospects, players that come out of there. Were you prepared when you came here? I was very prepared. Um. I will tell this story, and I've been telling this story at

nausea to anybody that would listen. When I came here with that forty time, I ended up running like a four four six forty yet to combine faster than you. Let me tell the story. You gotta stop talking to listen because I was never supposed to run the forty. Here, I'll go around to these different rooms and the coaches are like, hey, you're supposed to be the number one safety. Why aren't you running? Because we had a plan, Me and my trainer and my agent. We came up with

a plan. We're just gonna wait to run that prote By the fourth interview room, I go in and they're telling me like, listen, why aren't you running? And then Brian Van Gordon, who was my defensive corder, he had uh he was on the staff with the Jaguars at the time, and he was like, hey, poop, why why don't you running? Like you know, that's like your strong suit, Like I'm fast. I'm like, well, we had a plan.

I'm like, man, forget it, because they now that I feel like they're questioning whether or not I'm competitive or not, and you know, like I feel like I'm one of the most competitive guys ever. So I'm like, forget it, man, I'm just gonna go ahead and run. Never practiced the double line start, you know how you have to have both hands, and so I go out, I run a four six and I literally to combine, thinking like I

just cost myself a first round pick. So my agent was like, look, that is the reason why you have your pro day, because you have an opportunity to go back and make up and show what you're able to do. Just safe. He was like, say, for instance, if you go out and you don't run it to combine, and now you go to your pro day and then you run that time, and now you just stuck with people thinking that you're a four six guy. I'm like, Okay, that makes sense, and that's what I'm trying to tell

all these guys. Take advantage of doing all the drills. Here, see where you are right now, kind of gaze it, and now you go back, you know what you need to work on to be better at. If it's not a number that you feel like you're capable of producing, you can do it again. So for me, I went um to our pro day and it just so happened to be on my birthday March twenty two is my birthday. Pro day was on my birthday and I ran a

four for three both times, both forties. Was a four for three, So I'm like, all right, I'm good, but I just say that to say that because I practiced it. We went back and know we wanted to focus in on all of the other things first because I was coming in with like a risk injury, so I couldn't really do the bench at the combine. But I mean and then like teams were looking like his shuttle time and all of that stuff was like really really good. It didn't match up with the forty, so they were

trying to figure it out. And like my vertical was good, all of my other things were good, had to come by except for my forty. So I go back from my forty and I think it just proved and solidified um that I was explosive, I was fast, and I ended up being a first round pick. What what what number? I felt like sitting there waiting till they to the fourteen pick. It literally seemed like it took ten hours.

It seemed like it took imagine. I was to me it was quick because I was I was expected to go like third or fourth round, so I was just like I just happened to be watching, so uh to go thirty five was like, oh snap, I was almost the first round. I wasn't really supposed to go to the third round. That's why you can't. That's why you can't sit back and just listen to all these publications. I had people calling me. On draft day. Charles Grant played with the Saints. He was like, man, they just

talked to me. They told me that we're going to draft you. They drafted literally right before the Panthers. They were thirteen. So I'm sitting I have this big draft party at home without my people. So the Saints get on the clock. They're getting ready to draft. My phone has the rain yet, But I'm like, okay, Charles has told me that they told him they're gonna draft me. And with the thirteen pick, the Saints select tackle Jamal

Brown from Oklahoma. So I'm like, oh god, so I'm over here and started sweating now because I don't know where I'm going. And then right after that, literally it seemed like it took thirty minutes because back then the draft process was so long and slow. Yeah, but I mean, I'm glad they spent that up for these kids now. But it after that, Coach Fox called me here like, man, we have a ton of teams that are trying to trade to try to get you, but we ain't doing it.

We're gonna draft you. That's what's up. Yeah. I had a good, good draft to a good story. I was similar, didn't have a big part of though. Just at the crib, you know, phone rings, My stepmom gives me the phone. She's all like nervous, house got real quiet, and I'm just listening, like yes, yes, yes, And then Jerry Angelo was like, congratulations, we're taking you with our next pick.

You're Chicago Beart and I just remember, like damn, and I didn't say nothing, and then it flashed on the TV everybody and then everybody went crazy, and I was like, dang, all that work paid off. The opportunities, the listening, graduating school, hard work from running pushing sleds, gassers, listening to all the people, the advice I took in like it it really uh and it's and it's crazy how you go through that in your head and then once the reality sit in and then now it's like not a real word.

Now the real work begins. All that got you to shoot, Now you really gotta bust your butt to to really keep your job. And I think that we've had guys that have had those moments that are going in the first round and really felt like, hey, I've made it and just kind of forgot the things that they did to get them to that point. And you can see it they enjoyed the process too much. Yeah. Well, look, man, I appreciate you stopping body my favorite, my favorite people's Um.

I don't like your shirt, but you as my guy and I love you for you know what don't you like about my shirt? Man? Because you're down too far? Like look look at that right there. If you're a fashion gurule, now I am a fashion group. I don't want to talk right now. Hey, I'm Peanut Tillman. This is Thomas Davis. I'm I need a hat because my hair I need a hair and cut. But I'm Peanut Tillman.

This Thomas Davis. He's always messing with me. Uh. Two thousand thirteen Man in the year, two thousand and four team man in here. Two great guys, but I think he's better to me because he does way more and cooler things than I do. Thank you all for tuning in. I appreciate y'all, goodnight, appreciate thanks for joining us. On

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