Fuel The Front Lines

challenging time with us today. Is one of the people who actually helped inspire this podcast series, so I'm most grateful to him, the Great Receiver Brandon Marshall. Brandon and his wife Mishi recently created a program called Few the front Lines, which provides much needed recovery, space, tools, and nutrition to healthcare workers doing this COVID nineteen pandemic. Welcome Brandon. Thank you so much, and you're so nice. You're talking

about a legend. Oh my goodness. I mean you're the ultimate legend, not only on the field but off the field. Love what you're doing in the community and and with people around the world. So thanks for having us and and thank you for paving a way for men like myself, like Shawn, what we're supposed to be like. This is like you know, you you set the example. This is what the NFL player looks like. This is what the

NFL family looks like. You know. So coming in and just catching balls and and taking all the good from the NFL not giving back. Uh, it's not the way to do it. And uh, I really appreciate you. So what we're doing with few of the front lines, um, really is an extension of not only you, but all of our greats in the NFL. Don't the work that you guys have done. So you're trying to give me the cry before we even get to talk you here, right, because legs right, especially you, you know you're known to

get emotional. But thank you for those kind words. But really we're living, probably doing one of the most challenging times of the central let alone our generation. So before we start, this is the first time we've had you on and it was your idea to Tracy Pearlman about recreating the experience of guys talking openly about all topics in the hot tub cold tub that helped lead us to create this podcast. So thank you for doing that.

And Brandon, real quick speak, Why the I have a program I do with men I call the locker room and now the hot tub. Why don't you initially tell whoever's listening, why the that hot tub locker room experience is so important? Well, let's go back a couple of years. I was in York plan for the Jets and um calling calling Kaepernick hit right, and this was a big deal.

And you know, we go through media training, we have people coming out, come out every single year to talk to teach us how to present in front of the world, in front of our beat reporters and writers, and uh, you know, this calling Kaepernick hick thing hits And we're all in the locker room as players, like, Okay, what is our message? What how do we feel about it? You know? And in the New York Jets locker room, we were trying to collectively come together and be on

the same page because we didn't want a distraction. But we understood how big the topic was and how important the moment was. So I look up, you know, after a day or two of us, you know, trying to figure out like how we need to keep our team together and respect people's you know, point of view. I got myself, I got Nick main Goal, had Eric Decker. Uh, we had Ryan Fitzpatrick, we had Matt Forte. We may have had you. No, we didn't have British the brickishaw

Ferguson here retired. We had these legends sitting in a hot tub before practice talking about this major moment in sports and in history. Uh. And I'm like, Wow, you have Nick Mango from somewhere in the country. You have Eric Decker from Minnesota, myself from the city, inner City, who I've seen some of the things that Kaepernick was standing up for. You have Running Fitzpatrick, this kid from Harvard.

So we all have these different point of views. But we were able to have a respectful conversation where we heard each other out. And I remember back then that was the biggest thing was we weren't listening to each other. We were just yelling, screaming at each other, or we were trying to be right. And we felt like to get the get the men sitch out there and to actually be proactive and in this whole moment be beneficial for a country, for a world. We had to have

the right conversations and people had to listen. So that's the whole That was the whole thing about the hot tub. We're having a real conversation. You've got you know, guys from different parts of the country coming together and we were listening. So to me, that's the hot tub and that's the locker room. That's the amazing thing about the locker room. I whatever, wherever I come from in my belief like, that's one thing. But when we come in that locker room, we respect each other and we have

one mission. We have one mission that's to go win. We have one mission that's to be you know, that the the ultimate jet, that ultimate ram, that ultimate stiller. Uh So we put those things to the side and we collectively come together. And what happens, it's so magical in the locker room is when we actually come together, you know, we start understanding the other side, things that we've never seen before, things that we never even thought of, because we respect the man or the woman alongside of

us through sport. You know, Brandon, all of a sudden, you got me thinking. Man. Last week I was on the call with the White House where it was a conversation about the disproportional Oh, Yeah, just just just just throw that out there. Last week I was on with the White House, like, let me tell you what I'm saying that it was really about the disproportional impact that's happening in many of our African American munity that's relates

to the virus. But my point in making that so sling, like you're telling me all we gotta do is get the Democrats and the Republicans in the HOTA. That's that's right. Just get him on your podcasts and you're straight come out.

I promise you. You You know. Yes, it's amazing. One of the things that sports, particularly football, it brings back the bigger crowds as relates to attendance and the diversity of social economically ethnicities all come together and then as a team just as you said, from all these different backgrounds. But to be able to learn how to listen is extremely important, particularly needed now and what we're facing in our country. But let's talk about few the front lines.

Give me a description of what do you do what few the front lines? Two things, and these are things that you have done your entire Careerities are things that you coach other athletes. All these are things that Um, we do before and after practice, we recover on one end of the spectrum. Um, we're literally putting recovery rooms

in hospitals. Were in over eighty hospitals, majority in the United States, but globally, we're in the UK, we're deployed in Germany, we're deployed in Canada, and we're literally putting recovery rooms in hospitals. What does that look like? Massage guns with their a gun, super simple, but making sure that the muscles and the bodies, all those eggs from standing on their feet for sixteen sometimes eighteen hours in a day, that they're able to treat themselves or treat

each other. So we have these that's a mate. We have amazing content and and and and in pictures of doctors actually massaging each other with these massage guns. Still practicing social distance is amazing. Uh. And the other thing is the recovery pumps. So you guys didn't have this back in the day, but they came out with all these type of technology that helped us recover faster. And think about this, how many practices? Well you you did you have a toe injury? Yes, yeah, you had a

toe injury. So you understand the importance of making sure your feet are healthy and they feel good because that literally has hurt a lot of our athletes are retired, a lot of our athletes, so you understand it. So these recovery boots, it literally pumps out all of the lack acid, all of the fluid from the feet, all

the way up through the legs through the length. Note So now if you come into an NFL locker room or NBA locker room before practice, after practice, before games, after games, you'll see the entire team with these recovery boots on. It literally feels like you have new legs. Right when you do this, it literally pumps all of that gunk, all that junk out of your body through the lemp through the lymph nodes. Right. So that's the

recovery rooms on the second. On the other end of the spectrum, we have to fuel them, uh, from a nutritional standpoint, the right way. So how we supplement. We talk about protein, we talk about glutamine, we talk about vitamins all the time as athletes, but now more than ever, we need our nurses, we need our doctors fueling correctly. We need them fueling like us because we still have two three months minimum to fight this thing that they're

calling a beast. So if they're not, if they're not if they're not fit for the next patient, for the next month, for the next two months, what good is it to have all of these ventilators and all these resources and all these supplies when we don't have the

staff to be able to use them. And that's my biggest concern, and that's where where this whole fuel of the front lines thing came from is because you know, having all the supplies and all that stuff is great, but we were already understaffed from a medical standpoint going into COVID nineteen. So think about that we have we're

losing We're losing nurses and doctors daily. Uh. We have nurses and doctors rightfully, so a lot of validity, but are afraid to death because they may have, you know, an elder at home or a baby at home, so they're stopped. They're not even going to work anymore. So now we have the small population of caregivers that to in all of this pressure on their backs to to to to be the the solution to this major problem.

So we need to do everything we can, not only from a supply standpoint, but also from a nutritional standpoint and a coverage standpoint, because they're literally saving our lives right now. Do you have some corporate partners that have joined in? Um? No, So it's been my wife and I. UM, it's been out my wife and I. But the NFL is doing a phenomenal job. Um. We're you know, the NFL is backing us, and they're actually giving us fifteen minutes during the NFL Draft to kind of talk about this,

you know. So we're excited about the NFL getting behind us. So I would say, yes, we have one partner. Of course, it would be the NFL stepping up taking care of uh their family and and and and seeing what we're doing. Um. But what we're doing now is we're actually putting together that initiative. UM. I'm actually starting to talk about it.

Before we weren't talking about it the last couple of weeks. UM. So we're going to we're setting out to raise two point five million dollars and we're just going to go to a hundred UM athletes. You know, it could be made up of a couple of athletes, a couple entertainers, a couple you know, prominent businessmen and women or families or companies, and we want a hundred hospitals that we serve daily, all right. Uh and it's it costs us around twenty two thousand per hospital. So that's what we're

setting out to do. Now we're starting with, you know, the NFL Draft and bringing in others to tell this story. Do you have any players and a legends that are already connecting? Yes? So. Uh, we just made a hospital run yesterday. So we're at Memorial yesterday. Uh so Stefon

Diggs came out. Uh, Jerry Judy, which is amazing. You got a kid that's probably gonna go top ten in the NFL Draft, the biggest one of the biggest moments, biggest days of his life, and the only thing on his mind right now is football is not everything right now and this kid is on the front line actually serving taking Ossai bowls and salads and ginger shots and um and different juices to our our our our nurses and doctors. You had JPP out there yesterday, so Jason

Pierre Paul from Tampa Bay. Um, you have Bobby hard Man. There's so many guys. Those are just some of the guys. That came out recently, But there's so many guys down here in South Florida that is actually on the front line and helping us with this initiative. But again, you know, that's just once part of it. We're actually, you know, setting out to make an impact globally and we're in eight hospitals right now and we're excited about growing that

and doing more. We don't want to just we don't want to be one of those initiatives where it's just you know, hey, we're here, just want to say thank you and just keep it moving. We're going to serve them every single day until this fight is one. Is there anywhere now Brandon where NFL players are legends or any potential corporate sponsors can connect what what you're doing? Yes? Um, all the information right now is on our our page, you know, if you scroll down, so it's the House

of Athlete dot com. House of Athletes dot com And if you go down just a little bit on the website, you'll see a button where you can get involved. Also our nonprofit Project three seventy so Project three seven five dot org. You can go and you can donate. Now you can uh figure out ways where you can support and so all of the informations there, So thank you

so much for that my pleasure. I can see so many guys want to get involved because just as you said, this is now those from we're we or us being stars on the field to now our truth stars and taking care of them because they're shining the most doing this challenge. Let me dovetail now and ask you how all does this initiative? How does that dove tell what your efforts regard a mental health awareness because you're a big proponent of mental mental health, so how does that

connect with it? Yeah, that's a that's a great question. Um. So one of the things we actually last year we went through a bit of a transition, uh, because we we found that it's it feels and we know, through God nothing's impossible, but it feels at time it's almost impossible to make the impact or start the conversation that we need in the mental health community, uh, to actually move the needle when you're dealing with the clinical side of it, when you're dealing with the stigma side of it.

So we made a shift last year before all of this where we said, you know what, we're not gonna come on this end of the spectrum and talk about you know, bipolar or depression or exact anxiety and lead with that we're actually gonna come on the end of this side of performance. Let's just unlock our full potential

no matter where you're at in life. So we started this whole deal that if people if we can get people to come in and say, you know what, I want to lose weight, I want to get my cholester all down, I want to cut my body fat or my b and I in half. If we can get people in there and then start the conversation about wellness and then get them into our our yoga class, will put you know, quotation marks around that, and we started the conversation about hey, guys, um, sometimes you can be

on either end of the spectrum. There's a thin line between performance and and and and impairment. You know, there may be some people dealing with anxiety, mean, some people may want to learn more about meditation or how do I get in that zone as that professional athlete zone. And through that we've made a bigger impact faster than it the ten years we spent on the nonprofit side. So we feel that the wellness conversation shi um. It

needs to be a three sixty conversation. We can't just talk about mental health, Like if we want to unlock our full potential, we have to talk about five things, and these five things are the pillars, and these pillars should make up our lifes down. If you do this, you'll luck your five your your full potential. Number One, we all have to train. We were designed to move. We're not designed to be couch potatoes, were not designed to put their w own things in our body, So

we preach training. The second pillar for us is fuel. We all need to fuel correctly. What are we putting in our bodies from a macro nutrient standpoint, and if you can't get all of those macronutrients through food, you have to be able to supplement. The third thing is being mentally fit. So there's that mental health component starting that conversation about no matter what in the the spectrum you are, if you surround yourself with the right people,

get the right help, you can be your best self. Okay. The fourth thing is recovered. Recover is key whether you have a bad back, you have a bumpny, or if you just need to go on vacation. Recover is key, and the last thing is tried, like having a team of people you can do life with. We gotta do. We have to be in the community. We were we were, we were built to do things and do life with other people. So that mental health deal it lives in

all of that. You can't do one without the other. Brandon, I've always heard about your I guess your vision when it came down to mental health. Let's let's now go back to you. Where did you grow up? Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Oh wow, Yeah, we're poor, the poorest, the poorest county in all of Pennsylvania. Pitch Bird, you mean the home of the Steelers. That's right, still city. So when did you realize you needed to get help from a mental

wellness standpoint? Two thousand and eleven. Uh, just came off of signing a big deal in two thousand and ten. Four years in Denver, played there. There's some amazing things ship to my the Miami Dolphins. The first year, um was the first year. That was the first year where you know football, there was things on the field that I couldn't control. Like football. The football field was always my sanctuary. I could all no matter what was happening

in the neighborhood. No matter what was happening at home, I would be able to go to the football field and just absolutely be a beast and crush it. And then there was a couple of practices where you know, I had so much going on off the field. My story is not unique at all. Probably our girls and guys deal with the same thing, but all of us, not all of us have the same coping mechanisms or have the tools and skills to be able to self regulate. I didn't have that. So two thousand and ten football

something was going on there. Let's fast forward to two thousand and eleven. I go to Ricky Williams. I say, Ricky, do you think I'm bi polar? You know, because like I literally come into practice and or in the work sometimes and like I'm gonna keep my mouth so I'm not gonna say anything. And Ricky looked at me. You know, I'm sure you guys may have heard Ricky Williams before and it's like Michael Jackson voice, He's like brand. Then

he said, no, I don't think you're bi polar. I just think you say the things that we all want to say but won't say, right so I'm like, okay. And the reason why it was it was important for me to go to Ricky because remember Ricky was living

in a tent in Australia. He walked away from twenty something million dollars when left football, remember and that, and when he had this documentary came out and then part of the documentary he showed there was a part of it where he was on he was in Waltham, Massachusetts at this hospital working with Dr Dunderson. So I was asking about it cause I'm like, how's how does this guy go from that to now being this for nomen

ain football player, phenomenal teammate, this phenomenal man. He'd be sitting in the hot tub reading a book, which was kind of like like this isn't this this the locker room? What is this? So through that I said, Ricky, well I need to connect with that doctor that worked with you. So anyways, I end up going to uh McLean Hospital. Spent three months there in the outpatient program, diagnosed with the borderline personality disorder UM and I was in dialectical

behavior therapy, mentalization therapy, self assessment. I did neurological tests, I did a cognitive uh, test just to see if I was capable of change, and um, you know, I put in the work. I would literally be on campus from eight am to five pm every day. After that I'll go to re Box headquarters and work out and train because it's the year of the lockout, and um, it was. It was. It was the most phenomenal experience

for me. You know, I gave my life to Christ the year before, and I thought everything was gonna be great, and I thought, Man, all my problems gonna go away. Things got harder, things got order for me. And then I found myself praying, like, Man, help me break this cycle, and you know, answer this prayer, give me clarity. And it wasn't until I was halfway through that program at McClean Hospital. I'm all my knees praying, and I well, I started my morning's pray praying and I get on

my knees halfway through. Um that my time there, and I go to pray to start my day and I couldn't pray. It was just like like I was laughing. I literally was laughing. That was the first time I was able to really feel and see a prayer answer. And I was like, Wow, he's helping me. This is he's he's actually breaking the cycle right now. You know, this is this is the most clear vision I've ever had. So two thousand and eleven is when I knew, and

it happened on the football field. I dropped four passes and I said, wow, that's never happened before. What is going on in my mind? What's happening to my brain? And that's when I called Dr Gunderson at McClean hospital. So as we was out branding, here's the question, because we do a check in early morning eight thirty every morning with the whole family. We check in and part of my question this morning was how do you feel

no work? What are you guys feeling? What do you recommend two people who are obviously staying home and dealing with may not even know what they're dealing with in terms of emotions. What in I guess, uh succinct way would you share what legends or anyone that's listening how to manage this pandemic and to stay at home? Are there any tips that comes to mind? I would say this, you know you you said pandemic right, um. A lot of us are experiencing anxiety, depression of isolation for the

first time. And then there's some of us that are just actolutely used to this, right uh, like the probably the the patients like myself that's gone through this battle. It's like we're prepared for this. So I would say if you're either someone who's dealt with this before or if you've never dealt with this before, it's normal, right and you know, don't panic, seek help. Talk. Therapy is

the number one thing we can do right now. And as men and and some of our legends out there just tuning in, you know, we're too maucho at times. We don't talk. We need This is not the time to do that. We need to talk. We need to open up. That's all I got for you. Hopefully they'll have somebody out there. You're you. You will help more than some people out there. And a great thing is this podcast is not consumed just by legends, and just

as you spoke to the general public. Thank you so much, Brandon. This has been terrific. Thanks for joining us and thanks for listening in. The best is yet to come, Yes, sir, thank you, m M. This has been the NFL Legends podcast. To provide feedback or request a topic For discussion, email us at NFL Legends at nfl dot com. Yeah.