Part 1 - Mark Pattison gears up for Mount Everest climb

each of the seven summits. Please welcome Mark Pattison. Mark, may you look like you're ready to play right now? You you're ripped up? Now do you have to use physical weights? Are you all of this mount climbing and keeps your physically the way you look? Well, look, you got to like anything, it's preparation meets opportunity right and on the football and the gridiron back in the day, Um, we didn't just show up right. We had a clear path on what we had to do to be able

to take on I was a wide receiver. I know you're a secondary guy and for me to take on a guy like you, I had to bulk up and for you to go up and you know, hit on running backs and take on um blockers and wide receivers. You know, you know, had had certain techniques and there's really no different from from what I need to do to prepare to put myself in the best possible position of climbing these mountains. And now you know, as you said, I've I've climbed six of the seven highest mountains around

the world. Have actually been on Denale, which is up in Alaska twice. I've some of the Kilman jero Um twice, one with Chris Long and his group, the water Boy group. UM. So I've been down there twice and now and finally on the grand finale, the super Bowl of all these things, Mount Average coming up in April April? Do you get any anxiety prior to well, Mount Average? I always get butterflies.

No different than when, yeah, from the game, when you and I used to be out there and they blow the whistle and you go through warm ups and go through all those different things. The same thing happens whenever I get up and I'm at the front door of that mountain and I'm looking up and it's big and intimidating, right and then the whistle blows. In this case, you say let's go, and we start getting up and going

to the mountain. And no mountain is an overnight. I mean these are weeks and weeks and weeks on the ice and making your way up. But again going back to just what do you have to do to get to the next play? What do you have to do to put that next step in front of you? And then as these hazards come up, whether it's a safety blitz or whether it's a big gigantic crevass or avalanche, you know, you take those on as you go. So you see a blitz. How would you describe a side

of just on a mountain? Well, yeah, I mean serious side it, right, I mean I haven't some crazy situations right, and a lot of avalanches and going up ice walls that are et degree angle, you know, steep where I've had people just roll over um and just say I'm not going anymore. And then what do you do? And it's like a fallen teammate and it's just like what do you do in that moment? And this is the stakes are a little higher in terms of life and

death than it is on a football field. But the principles are still there in terms of you've got to have that mindset and you've gotta keep going. When did climbing a mountain become a goal? Well, yeah, you know, that's a great question. And this and about eight years ago, I was going through a really difficult time. I was I was married to my high school sweetheart or college sweetheart for twenty four years, with her for thirty and Um,

it's just nobody's fault. She's a wonderful person, but it's just we we just kind of ran the test of time. And it was really heartbreaking for me. I've got my daughter here in the studio today, my beautiful daughter, Claudet, and um, Trojan, I can't believe that studios and and uh, you know, having to split the family is really difficult on me. And and after a couple of years, I just needed something to kind of really fuel and energize me.

And I wanted to do something athletically great. And obviously I couldn't go back and play in the NFL anymore. And so being from the Northwest, growing up in Seattle, um, it's pretty mountainous. I'm sure you played up there, and uh so I just started doing some research and I found that no NFL player to ever climb the seven Summits. I said, you know what, I'm going to be that guy.

And I didn't really have any grand plans, and I was in a pretty low spot in that time, you know, and it was just it was really more of a place for me to get healed mentally and physically, um, physically, more from the standpoint of just not feeling great about myself.

And um, it's been an amazing journey now eight years later, because I went from kind of the figuring out how I could accomplish things, and especially on Kilman Joe on that first one, which I really didn't know what I was doing, and we got down to summer day and it was about seventeen thousand feet. I just quit and I just couldn't go. And I sat down and this this porter Hue I was climbing with, comes up to me.

He's jamming some protein bars down my mouth and he was kind of give me that flipper, you know, one of those right, and and so I finally I kind of came around and he got me going. I made at the top, I take the sign that's up there at eight or nineteen thousand three and thirty three ft and as I was coming down, I just burst into all these tears and I hadn't cried in about twenty years, you know, and it was just a it was a moment. It was like happy happiness tears of like this is

something that I can do. If I can get through this metaphorically speaking, I can get through anything. And so from that moment at Tom I just like rev me up. I got down and then we went on the next one. You know, I found myself in a Russia of all places, and that's the highest mountain in Europe. And then the next year I found myself in Australia and I climbed that on and then I went down. You asked me earlier about what's the highest peak I've been on? Three

thousand feet in Argentina. It was amazing. We started with twelve people, you know, the twelve people only six mate and we're having flying all these people off the mountain and these rescue helicopters. Oh yeah, I was serious. Yeah, because there's this sickness that you get where your brain or your lung swell, and when that happens, it's you know, people can die and so you've gotta get people down

as quick as quickly as you can. And so for some reason, my genetics are just have been so far, you know, set up where I can go high and I have a large lung capacity kind of like a lands farmer Strong used to have, you know, and it doesn't affect me. Now we'll see how things play on Everest, But um, I can only tell you what I know today. And then after that I went to to Denally and you get back to the like the weights and up there there's no assistance to help you to get up

and down. So I'm carrying a hundred and thirty seven pounds up a mountain. If you can imagine that, it's a backpack in a sled, hundred and thirty seven pounds and you're going up the steepest hills, deep, no crampons, ice acs, all these things. You're all roped in, and you know, to pull that much weight and to be and sleeping on the ice for three weeks and minus

forty degree weather is challenging. It's tough. It's kind of going through those whole two days that we used to go through where it's really a test of attrition of trying to make it through six weeks two days and getting ground and beat up, right, and so it's hard. So ultimately I was able to climb that mountain in this last January of this year. Um, I was down in Antarctica, which is a whole another world. Um Antarctica,

it's only penguins and that's about it. You know, nothing actually breathing down there is around, and I was able to to to scale that mountain called Mount Vincent. So being an environment, you and I playing football teammates are important. Yeah, do you have teammates? Yeah? Yeah, and you should do. And that's kind of been one of my things that has been frustrating for me because in the NFL, you know,

we have old different counts. You know, you were a phenomenal player, um, and you were at the upper end, but even at the lower end, which is probably where I was in somewhere, you know, you either make it or you don't. Right, if you're part of that fifty three man you always have better players, and but there's nobody awful, right, And in mountain climbing, in a lot of cases, there's no there's no barrier of entry. So

a lot of times. You have people that watch a movie right about everyst mountain climbing and they want to be that guy, just like some of the fans want to be those guys that you or I, but they can't actually be out there. So you find yourself with those guys and you're tied together through with a rope and your life is depending on them. With some of

those guys, not all of them, some of them. Yeah, at least with the league, you gotta go through three years removed from high school, yeah, before yell is able to get drafted. Well, and even at that, you know, that's a wild car, right, That's what I'm saying. At

lea you have some playing the game, yeah, exactly. You're tied to some people, yeah, who you've seen no film, all no, no, and they they all think, they all think that, um, they can make it and they can do it, and then you get into these very hairy situations and you know, you just they're not prepared. They have and we talked about preparation meets opportunity, all these things,

they haven't done it. You know, on Everest, there's a there's a four percent there's a there's a four percent um uh risk of when you go up there, that you're not coming home otherwise, like this last year, Like you know, thirteen fourteen people died last year, right, But I was climbed with one of those guys who's still sitting up on the top of the the mautwain Are, and he did not do the work, he did not do

the preparation. So I look at a little bit differently, Like let's focus on the six percent of the things that you can do, Like moved to a town that's as six thousand feet, Like go open the mountains every every single day, Like make sure you're big and strong, you do cross fit, and you you put yourself in the best position possible to actually make that thing happen. So you come back. I see, you know, my goal is to see my daughters and and I want to

you know, I'm not going there to die. I want I want to go there, and I want to have a successful outcome. So I got to have that kind of mindset to start. Do you climb with pictures of your g They're on my phone all the time right here, everything, And I'll tell you another thing about that. You're right, because when you get in the mountains and you're that long and that isolated um where there's no cell coverage

and there's nothing else. You know, what I do have is I have memories and I do have my photos and and it becomes very important, especially when things get very stressful, that I focus on the things that matter the most, and the things that matter the most are my closest friends, my relationships, my daughters, and without them, then what's life? Right? It's all about that at the

end of the day. Well, you just describe, and as other legends are listening, when you say preparation meets opportunity, you you got committed to this, Yeah, big time. That's some of the challenges sometimes as legends that transition difficulties besides just leaving the game, maybe not when you wanted to, it's the ability to get committed to something else. And you did it with Mom Climb. Well, let me tell you about this too. And this is probably the biggest

lesson that I've learned. And if I could, if I can impart this to anybody, I would say, by stepping into the fear, it is created the greatest not just opportunities like not financial or anything, but just the greatest rewards. Um, coming back to me the relationships, how I've grown, how I've really had to get introspective about myself, my feelings where I want to go get really clear. Um, it's

helped me be really committed towards something. And and the best thing of all this is and this really was um brought to my attention when I was asked to be in the first class with Chris Long and water boys name Boyer and that is this whole thing about going down to um Africa, to Tanzania, raising money for the people in the Serengetti and the Messiah tribe and

building water wells. And so I actually a partnered Chimore and I partnered together and raised forty seven thousand dollars and built around well, which was really touching to both of us because we're the only ones in that group that did that. But UM, something that's near and dear

to my heart. And and as things have gone have all played out of now this platform and four in thousand people that followed my journey and my daughter, my younger daughter who's over in Arizona that we're just talking about, has a form of epilepsy and so she has daily seizures and so I last year I called the National Epilepsy Foundation and they want to partner with me on this climb. So my goal is to raise twenty nine,

which is the height of Mount Everest. And and because now I have this platform which I never thought of years and years ago, and it was really about initially about me just getting out of my punk and giving me some direction to go. Um, it is it's just you know, become this gift that I can give back to her in terms of no money goes directly to her or me and my climb or anything, but but it goes to National Epilepsy Foundation and just trying trying

to create more awareness and dollars. So hopefully one day she can drive, she can ride a bike, she can play monkey bars like all kids. Do you mentioned feelings introspection? Yeah, football players, well a lot of time to talk about

feelings more. Tell me about that. Well, um, I think it's a it's a place as as as we're going through from Little league too, tough high school, college, tough guys, right, and it's it's hit them, go crush on me, you know, take them out, you know, all this kind of stuff. And it is. It took me fifty years before I figured out the actual fifty the more vulnerable that I can become, the actual greater strength I can show because just like you you walk in a room, you know

you carry something right. I know. I now know that when I walk in the room, I carry something right. And what do you mean, Well, I mean, I don't. I guess back in the day, I would have thought maybe that guy is going to think I'm a candy

ask or something right. And and it's just like, the more that you share, the more other people have been able to open up to me, and the more I've been able to And I think my daughters have had a big component with that me with me too, because they're very sensitive and and they're very communicative, and it's really helped me bring out the things that I really need to share and I need to communicate and be

a better listener, you know, and things like that. And so again, it is made my life way more rich because of my ability to share experiences that have gone through which I've been honest and real. Your daughters have helped you, Yeah, what was it like becoming vulnerable to

your daughters as a man? Yeah, what was that like? Well, I think they you know, sometimes the student teaches the teacher right, and I think the way they've been super honest and the way especially with um, well both of them have brought something a little bit differently to the table. But with my younger daughter who has epilepsy and her sister m claudette, who's sitting here, has dealt with it.

When she's had a grand mall and she's laying there and she's in your arms and you don't know if she's going to die, and I get a call from her roommates and Tucson saying, you know, she just had a grandmall seizure. Her eyes rolled back and she's turning blue. You know what that does to somebody. And so like all this this the cool and the toughness and all that stuff kind of goes out the door. And what's really important is really what's real. And so that's in

one sense that that's made me open up more. On the other side, with I think Claudette, it's just opened my heart and in the way that we can come together as a family and make this thing, you know, help her in the best possible way. You retired from the NFL and received legend status over thirty years ago. Take us through your journey to business. What type of

business are you? Well, first of all, I'm executive for Sports Illustrated, so I'm in a pretty good spy now and UM but coming out and I think when I say this, and I think you would agree that through the Trust and some other programs they have, now it's a whole different animal today than it was back when we were concerning. Certainly when I was retiring, I had no idea what to do, and I was down in Los Angeles and I just didn't have a sense of I wanted to do something great. I just didn't know

what that was going to be. And I would love to say that I retired from the game, but really I got thrown out and then and that happens to a lot of guys, right, And so now you're in this position where you know what you want to do is like figure out how do you get to the next step. Ultimately I ended up where I started my

own businesses and marketing UM company. I was I would go to Microsoft, I'd go to Amazon, Expedia, companies that were really blossoming in the c l area, which we'd moved back to, and I was doing all kinds of different projects for them. I did a significant amount of work for Starbucks UM had a contract for fourteen years there. It was pretty lucrative UM And so that just kind of led One thing led to another, and it just really led me down the path of learning and curiosity

and and trying to figure things out. And so one thing led to another, which then led into the whole digital edge and really wanted to have a thirst of a knowledge of like work can that go? And how can I fit my skill set? And so anyways, I'm with a group that we just took over Sports Illustrated. It's a it's a media company and it's been going great. And before that, I was at scout dot com law to people know that for the recruiting college content in

high school recruiting. So you know, been involved in that and it's really exciting to uh, you know, be full of life and especially be associated with an iconic brand like s I early only your marketing business. Did you physically go to these corporations? Yeah? I mean did you use relationships? How did you make contact and in roads

into these corporations? Well, you know, like in Starbucks, I just found I ended up you've been to everybody's been to a Starbucks and they have those green outdoor market umbrellas that you go sit under. I did every single market green umbrella for Starbucks for fourteen years um in North America, South America and Asia. What do you mean you did them? I've manufactured him. So I didn't know how to do any of this. I called I've I've found out that they're maybe looking for a new vendor.

I called up Starbucks the front line and said, I'm looking for the person that the the person at Starbucks that is in charge of ordering all the outdoor market umbrellas, didn't even know what one was. I got on the phone and said, Hammon, him is Mark, and this is what I do, and I can give you and produce the best possible green outdoor market umbrella you've ever seen. And she goes okay, So she said it took me

two and a half years. Two and a half years to get that account by just keeping at it, figuring it out. I went overseas. I started a overseas, hired two people in Hong Kong that would then help me manufact extra things in in China, and then we brought them back and put them on big containers and wrought them to the East Coast and the West coast. And so I had no idea what I was doing. And at the time Mark, I don't know, but I did.

I did before years. Yeah, it's called from how do you go to Starbucks, look at umbrella and decide I'm going to I will call them not knowing anything. This has been the NFL Legends podcast. To provide feedback or requested topic for discussion, email us at NFL Legends at nfl dot com.